One Last System

"Scavenge run?" Mia repeated my words. "Scavenge I can understand… but why call it a run?" she asked while leaning her head over her shoulder to the side.

"Ah," I smiled, "don't mind it. It just means a scavenging mission," I explained.

After all, if I were to explain the true meaning of scavenging run, I would have to start with basic physics, and go all the way through the middle and high-school curriculum before starting on electrics, programming, gaming culture…

All the way to the point where I would explain just a single game, all for the sake of properly explaining a single reference.

Yeah, there was no way I was doing all of that.

"Well, I can understand the idea…" Mia muttered with a look on her face that told me she lacked coincidence in such a plan.

Mia then took a step closer before leaning over my ear and whispering, "what if they try to keep stuff to themselves?"

I took a moment to properly think about the answer. After all, it was something I didn't think about.

"I think I have…"

"The city!" someone shouted from all the way at front part of the entire group. "I can see it!"

I turned my eyes in the direction where the shout came from. And as my eyes moved, I couldn't miss the sudden change that happened to all the cultivators around me.

They were all down the rabbit hole of extreme boredom. Even though we didn't travel for all that long, they still managed to get mentally tired of it.

On one hand, it was puzzling me to no end. How people who had to often spend years cultivating in seclusion just to break through to the next rank of their cultivation would end up being bored after less than two days worth of travel?

Yet, once I looked at the picture from a wider perspective, I could somehow figure out where all their moodiness was coming from.

It wasn't all about the boredom of travel. The boredom was simply the drop that caused the water to spill over the cup.

Those people were all in a foreign world, with the knowledge that the spell they used to survive the disaster ended up bringing disaster and ruin to the people of the world they ended up with.

Some of the cultivators could just gloss over mental responsibility like this and I was quite sure people like that were a part of my group. Yet, even if they couldn't care less for all the lives they took while in their monstrous form of mana-beast, they had to be aware of how everyone else in this world would think about them.

Or, in simpler terms, how they would likely never be able to move past the notion of them being monstrous invaders in a world where quite a lot of people were far, far stronger than they could ever become.

"We are finally here," one of the cultivators muttered to my side.

"I can't wait to look for a place to settle!" Someone else whispered.

"Will they even allow us in the city?" Yet another person put the very meaning of reaching the city into doubt.

Yet…

"I'm sorry," Mia muttered, slumping down a little.

She brought her hands together and wrapped her arms around her own chest as if she was trying to warm herself up. She had her face lowered and eyes stuck to the ground, unable to raise them up to see the city ahead.

"Are you…" I attempted to ask Mia… but I ultimately decided not to, cutting my words short.

Instead, I simply took a step closed before wrapping my hands around her shoulders and bringing her closer into a hug.

In the end, I didn't waste my words trying to cheer her up.

No matter what kind of problem she had with this city, I could tell it didn't bring her good memories.

Still, Mia wasn't a man. She wasn't someone who wished to either grit through the problem or find its logical solution. For all I knew, she simply needed someone to support her while she was in her current, vulnerable state before she could handle her stress on her own.

"I'm okay," Mia whispered a moment later, sliding her hand up my chest only to reach for her face and wipe the tears that squeezed out of her eyes. "Thanks…" she added in a shaky voice, clearly not fully over whatever brought her down.

But it wasn't my place to pry. Not now, not out in the open, and not with all the ears curious about the situation and eager to potentially make use of it.

"Can you keep going?" I asked, not moving a single inch from where I grabbed Mia into a hug. "We can wait if you need some more time," I quickly added just in case she misunderstood my words in an attempt at hurrying her up.

"No," Mia said before sniffling up. "I'm okay," she added, this time in a stronger voice.

Mia took a step back, freeing herself from my embrace. She then quickly wiped the tears from her eyes before shaking her head and forcing a smile on her lips.

"Whatever happened there is all in the past now," she stated, raising her eyes and taking a first, proper look at the ruined city.

It was nowhere close to how it was when I first reached it. Even when standing on a hill and looking at it from a relatively huge distance, I could still see the marks of devastation all over the place.

Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that I could see some spots where the city still existed on the greater plain of nearly total destruction.

"Everything seems to be gone," Mia muttered as she stepped forward and joined me by my side. "The arena, the auction house, even the sect grounds…" she muttered as he eyes jumped from location to location.

"We will rebuild them all," I said, trying to encourage the girl in the only way I could think of.

"Right, about what we were talking about before," Mia shook her head again before turning her face towards me and speaking. "Could you repeat your answer?" she then asked.

The intensity behind her eyes… It was more than enough for me to realize it was Mia's attempt at changing the topic and moving on.

"I think I know of a simple way to prevent it," I replied after taking a moment to stare at the girl.

Seeing her in her current, teary state that wasn't caused by a solid dicking of mine was making me feel as if a thousand needles stabbed both my heart and my soul alike.

"And what is that?" Mia inquired, clearly pushing herself to stay on the topic.

"A formation capable of absorbing all the energy from the items placed within," I revealed. "I should be able to come up with one relatively quickly," I said, unable to stop myself from gloating a little. In the end, though, I was just a simple man.

And if I could flex before the love of my life, then everyone in the world could be damn sure I would!

"A formation," Mia muttered, turning her eyes away from my face and back towards the city. Then, a small smile emerged on her lips. "That could work."