It took Pops a good half an hour for him to get in a state where we could have a proper conversation. He was still piss drunk, and there was a part of him thinking I was just a hallucination.
‘Sys, any chance I can use {Body Regeneration} to make him sober up?’
[{Body Regeneration} can only be used by user. The skill can only be used to recover a user herself, not a different person.]
‘Ok… The hard way it is,’ I sighed internally, and stood up.
[How is user going to help this man get sober?]
‘Just watch. And this is my grandpa. You can call him grandpa, or Pops.’
[Acknowledged.]
“Where are you going?” Pops asked.
“I’m just looking for sothing to sober you up. It’s a long shot, but do you have any coffee here?”
My grandpa groaned, “There is none. You know how hard it is to get that kind of thing here.”
“Sorry, I guess getting impaled in the stomach by an Eater made forget about that,” I opened the cloak to show the massive scar on my stomach.
“What? What happened?” Rakeen jumped up.
‘And that’s how you sober soone up. Give them a shock,’ I told the System.
[Acknowledged.]
“Can we talk in a more private place? There is a basent here, right?” I gestured to the stairs. This was a house made during the old world, but one that only had a single floor. Between the kitchen and the living room was a half-open door leading downstairs.
“Yeah, but it’s cold and wet down there,” Rakeen rubbed his eyes, his speech much more stable even if it still showed so signs of a buzz.
“Is it flooded or just damp?”
“Damp.”
“Ok, then. Co with .”
I walked to the door in the hallway, taking the single candle that Pops was using with . It took him a mont to get up and follow , but we eventually reached the basent. It was dark, cold, and it had a damp feeling to it, which made a lot of sense being this close to the river. At least I think so.
Downstairs, there wasn’t even a chair. Just so boxes of old materials that might even be moldy. Still, there was a lamp near the ceiling where I placed the candle to illuminate the place a bit better.
“Why did you drag down here, Cass?” Pops grumbled.
“Because I have to show you sothing and you might freak out. It’s better if we don’t have to explain any screaming.”
Pops just frowned at my words, “What? Are you going to pull an Eater from your pocket?”
I smiled, “Sothing like that.”
Pulling the staff from my bag, I used {Compression} to make it grow to my size.
Pops just blinked at , his face a mixture of confusion and worry. He rubbed his face with both hands, “Cass. I’m sorry, but can you show whatever you want to show in the morning? I don’t think I’m seeing things right.”
“What did you see?”
“A pipe appearing out of nowhere in your hands.”
“Yeah, you saw that right,” I used the {Compression} two more tis, making the pipe smaller and showing it to him, before making it big again.
“Cass… stop playing with . What is happening?”
“After I hit that Eater that was chasing you, I ran. Eventually, it tried to hit and I dodged its attack. That made a tree fall on top of it, making it really hurt. But at that point, so was I. It jumped at and this tal pipe was on the ground. I impaled the Eater with it, and it impaled back with its tentacles. While we were both agonizing, a lightning struck the pipe and,” I pulled the necklace he gave from my birthday, the one showing the solar system. The big difference was the rock that was supposed to represent the sun, the piece of the teorite that Grandma put there was now dull and colorless, “There was sothing in here, Pops. Sothing that called itself the System. And it saved . It helped recover from the wounds and survive. Then, that System gave power, Pops, power to fight against any kind of animal or monster. Including the Eaters.”
“Cass, even if what you are saying is true, there is a big difference between killing a large animal and an Eater. You can’t just assu-“
I cut him off, “That’s not an assumption, Pops. I have killed one. That’s the second ti I killed one myself.”
Pops frowned, “Still. One ti is an accident, two is a coincidence. If you want it to be a pattern, it has to be at least three.”
While crossing my arms, I rolled my eyes, “Only you can make feel small for having killed an Eater.”
“Cass… I’m sorry. It’s just… A lot,” Pops took a deep breath, “Tell again. From the start and spare no detail. What actually happened?”
For the next hour, I regaled Pops with the tales of my adventure. In all honesty, so parts were a tiny bit exaggerated. The mountain lion I hunted was my size instead of just a bit smaller than . The first boart I hunted reached my chest, not my waist. And the deer was a moose instead. But c’mon. Those details barely made any difference. The important details were given without any changes. Information about the System, about the Eater I killed, and my skills. There wasn’t a single exaggeration in any of that.
Rakeen listened without speaking much. Every now and then, he would ask for so clarification here and there, but that was about it. When it ca to talking about the System, he beca much more curious, at first asking questions about its functions and how the SP actually worked. Not just what they did, but how they did their function. Much of that was answered thanks to Sys, who didn’t sound as eager as I would’ve imagined. Still, once that was done, he started with the sa line of questioning I had a while back.
“So. Aside from the fat with don’t have moose this far south, and that even the biggest boar we ever found wasn’t half that size, how do you know this is not just a new trick made by the Eaters? How can you tell that this System is controlling your every move?”
I smiled. We really were similar, “Pops, think about it. Why would the Eaters do this? And don’t just give the reasons, but why would they want to make a human strong like this?”
Rakeen paused, thinking for around a minute. The only thing moving was the flickering fla of the candle. But eventually, he shook his head, “You’re right. There is no reason to do that. If they have that kind of power, giving it to us in any way, shape, or form does not benefit them,” he glanced towards , “But what about the second question? Are you controlling it, or is it controlling you?”
“That one is harder to answer. All I can say is, I don’t feel like it is controlling . Influencing? Sure, maybe a bit, but nothing I’ve done goes against what I would’ve done normally. Which can only an one thing. Either it really is not controlling , or is controlling in such a subtle way that it can make believe I’m the one in charge. In both cases, what’s the point of distrusting it? If it’s not in control, then everything is good. And if it is in control, but can hide its power over so well that I think I’m the one calling the shots, how can I ever hope to go against it?”
I opened my cloak again, showing the large scar in my stomach covering pretty much all the skin that had no bones protecting it. I think the Eater targeted that area intentionally. Maybe it was a way to use less strength, not having to worry about breaking the skeleton. Or it was just aid at the center of mass.
“Look at this, Pops. The size of this scar. That’s where the Eater impaled . It got so organs too. The System saved by… doing a lot of things. There were like five different effects responsible for my survival. If the System was in control, and it’s only pretending that it’s not. It could’ve made a fail-safe. A way to just burst my stomach open and kill if I go against it.”
[System would never do anything to harm user.]
“I know, Sys. I’m just saying this to make a point,” I turned back to Pops, “The System is not controlling . Or influencing in any way. It is just helping, and making stronger. I wanted to run from the Eater that chased today, but it caught and I had to fight. I wanted to hunt the boars and the deer, and I wanted to fight against the mountain lion. Well, I say wanted, but that was like the Eater. I didn’t really have a choice. And what happened with those assholes today. That was all . I wanted to do that, and the System gave the power to do that. It even asked if I was doing ok later.”
Pops frowned, “What happened with those assholes? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. So dipshits from the city tried to take advantage of . I made sure they could never do that with anyone else ever again,” I waved Pops off.
“Cass, what did you do?”
I answered, lowering my voice, just in case soone was listening in, “I killed them.”
“What?!” Pops gasped, “Why?”
“They said that since they gave a ride, I should fuck them. And if I didn’t, they would make sure I wouldn’t be able to get to the city.”
“So? You said it yourself, you can kill an Eater. You could’ve just stopped them!”
“And leave them to do that sa thing with another poor girl who was just trying to get to safety? No thanks.”
“You don’t know they would do that. Besides, they didn’t force you to do anything. It was just coercion. “
“They told they did that. They even went after Cindy! And are you really going to argue that using the situation to get soone to fuck you is not rape?”
Rakeen shook his head, “I’m not saying that. It is, but it’s not as bad as just pushing soone down.”
I rolled my eyes, “Oh. My bad. They were not doing the worst thing possible, just the one after that. That absolves them from all their cris.”
“Dammit Cassandra. I’m not talking about that. What gives you the right to be judge, jury, and executioner like that? To decide who would live and die?”
“I have power, Pops. That’s what gives the right. If I see soone who is doing sothing wrong, and I can stop them. I will. And if it’s soone who I don’t trust not to do that again, I rather just get rid of the problem.”
“So that’s what you are going to do? Kill anyone who does sothing you think it’s wrong?”
Why are you distorting everything I’m saying? I’m not saying I’m killing everyone. The punishnt will fit the cri. I’m not going to kill a thief just because they stole an apple. But if it’s a murderer who got a taste for it, I’m not leaving them alone to get another victim."
“If you kill a murderer, the number of criminals in the world doesn’t change,” Pops shook his head.
“What kind of stupid argunt is that? I already killed three. Even if you say I’m adding to the criminals, it’s already a net positive,” I huffed.
“Cass…” Pops looked at , full of disappointnt in his eyes. It was just like what happened when we saved Cindy from those bandits. And honestly, that didn’t make a lick of sense to . The world was a ss. Having random people who were capable of atrocities just for shits and giggles didn’t add anything to our world. It would be better to get rid of them.
‘Sys, what do I have to do to share you with soone else?’
[User has the necessary particles available. In order to send them to soone else, user has to simply touch another human and ask System to Ingrain.]
I nodded, “Ok, so are you going to be angry at and complain, or are you going to take the System too?” I put out my hand for him to shake.
“What? What do you an, take the System too? You can give it to others?”
“Yes. There are so rules, but yes. If you take the System, you can even stop from going full evil, if you want. You’ll get better, stronger, healthier, and I’ll teach you the ropes. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. But you were always the first person that ca to mind when thinking about sharing this.”
“Can… Can you share it with more people later?” Pop’s eyes sparkled. I knew he would understand what that ant.
I smiled, “We can, Pops. We can give this to everyone.”
Almost as if he forgot he was mad at , he grabbed my hand while I gave a command to the System, ‘Ingrain.'
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