(“Whose fault is it that I had to hide away and shut down the system for a week?”) It responded in his head.
“Whose fault is it?” Gustav asked while feigning a clueless look.
(“Don’t play dumb with me,”) For a computerized being with a sentience, the system almost sounded annoyed when it was supposed to be emotionless.
(“*Sigh* even the automatically induced calming toxin didn’t work,”) The system said once again.
“I have toxin Immunity,” Gustav reminded the system.
(“Which I can easily override since I live inside of you… But your emotions were just too strong,”) The system stated.
(“It is understandable since you lost someone important to you… Human emotions… A strong vulnerability, but also a powerful tool,”) The system analyzed with a fascinated tone.
Gustav; “…”
(“Sorry for your loss… I could really feel every speck of emotion, and even now, I can feel the anguish within you. You blame yourself for what happened,”) The system said with a sympathetic tone.
“How could I not? I push myself day in day out to get stronger, and even with everything, I was unable to protect the one person who cared for me like a father even though we’re not biologically related…” Gustav voiced out with a darkened face.
(“There was nothing you could do about it… The enemies were out of your league. If he had not intervened, you would have died,”) The system voiced in response.
(‘Although you wouldn’t because I would have teleported you away in the last minute that would mean everyone else would’ve died,’) Gustav couldn’t hear this because this was the system’s inner thoughts.
(“You could say Boss Danzo saved the day since his death triggered the activation of DECIMATION which resulted in you defeating the enemies, preventing the death of the survivors and Charisas whom Boss Danzo saved,”) The system stated once again.
(“You earthlings believe in heaven, so, he’s probably up there smiling at you in satisfaction,”) It added.
“Even though I killed closed to three thousand people?” Gustav asked bluntly.
(“*Cough cough* Of course,”) The system chuckled nervously while responding.
If Gustav could see the face she was making within him right now, he would probably cough out blood.
(“Look on the bright side. You destroyed the three kingpins of the city, resulting in the end of their illegal activities. This has made other big shots in the city go into hiding, feeling they might be next, so illegal activities might as well be inexistent in this city for a long time,”) The system analyzed.
“I don’t know about that… Evil can never be truly rooted out,” Gustav voiced out in response.
(“But at least you’ve prevented a lot of future deaths. The illegal underground battles will no longer be able to hold, which means people in similar situations like Boss Danzo won’t be exploited anymore, and there won’t be unnecessary deaths… There’s still a lot of good that came out of this,”) The system tried assuring Gustav.
“Hmm…” Gustav’s heart remained on the fence with this one.
He knew the system was trying to make him feel better, but he wasn’t so much of a hypocrite that he would pretend like his actions were noble.
He wasn’t truly concerned about all those deaths because he could sense that he gave a warning before destroying those structures. He was feeling pathetic because he couldn’t prevent Boss Danzo’s death.
“Why was the system on lockdown for a week?” Gustav decided to ask.
(“The Decimation ability is not one that gets activated without consequences… It gives you the strength to climb several levels higher in power than normal, but then it saps your lifeforce while activated,”) The system explained.
“It saps lifeforce? In what way? Does that mean the number of my years decrease or my potential?” Gustav questioned.
(“Well, since the hidden ability is no longer so hidden, I might as well reveal this… Every second it remains active withdraws a month’s worth of lifeforce from you,”) The System Revealed.
“A month? That’s too much,” Gustav didn’t realize the side effects of the hidden rage skill would be this high.
(“The skill was activated for about twenty minutes before you passed out, so your life force has decreased by a hundred years,”) The system made the calculation and voiced out.
Gustav instantly realized the calculations were accurate the moment it was voiced out.
“Based on the increase in bloodline rank, a mixedblood could live for as long as 300 to thousands of years… My current level, Falcon rank, mixedbloods at this stage tend to live for as long as six hundred to seven hundred years which means I should have five hundred or six hundred years worth of lifeforce left,” Gustav analysed.
(“You probably don’t know, but the Vitality from having me within you actually increases your lifeforce,”) The system revealed.
“Huh? Really?” Gustav questioned.
(“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it should be wasted. Anyways it doesn’t really matter. It is close to impossible to activate DECIMATION without immense rage, which isn’t something that comes about so easily, so I’m sure we won’t be seeing this ability in a long time if not forever,”) The system stated which caused Gustav’s face to lit up with curiosity.
“Close to impossible to activate without immense rage? Which means it’s possible to activate it without rage, but the chances as slim?” Gustav couldn’t let go of the loophole in the system words and tried to clarify.
(“Moving on… The reason I deactivated for a week is that your body was extremely weak after Decimation was deactivated due to a large amount of life force that was sapped from you. Your body would explode if I normally operated at the time since I’m whole now compared to the first time I found you,”) The system explained.
‘Looks like it doesn’t want to talk about that, eh? Always withholding information from me tch,’ Gustav said in his inner thoughts away from the system’s perception.
“Oh, I see… I guess that was a necessary step,” Gustav noted.
“One more thing… My class…”