One Last System

For the first time, the protobear was shaken. I could tell from how its voice was deprived of the usual underlying might it had up to this point.

'Did it change the topic intentionally, or was it just trying to lead me back on what it was actually interested in?'

Just like it would happen every other day for me in this world, an important question appeared in my mind. A question that I had no means of answering.

"Does it matter how I know this?" I asked, a small smirk appearing on my lips.

It wasn't the advantage I expected to fall into my hands, but it was an advantage I wasn't going to waste.

"How about making a deal, then?" I suddenly asked, putting my hands on my hips and putting on a cheeky expression on my face. "If I answer, you will owe me a single explanation as well," I suggested.

For a moment, I had to live with the tense feeling of waiting to see how would my bet turn out. Because it was pretty possible that, enraged by my arrogance to demand a deal instead of answering right away, the beast would simply swat me away.

"Deal," the protobear ended agreeing. Yet, just as he did so, it suddenly pushed its upper body forward, finally falling down on all fours and then moving around a little to bring its massive head closer to me.

'Took you a while,' I thought, still satisfied that my earlier request got through.

"Ekhem," I cleared my throat before looking directly into the protobear's eyes.

"It's like a fifth invader I see descending," I replied, shrugging my shoulders as I decided to push my question aside for a moment. "Now that I know the patterns of their descend, predicting when they will end up is surprisingly easy," I added before extending my arm to the west, right in the direction we were heading. "Right now, we don't need to worry about it too much, but we will surely encounter it once we get closer to the borderlands," I explained.

'But is this really all there is to it?' I asked myself.

So far, on a global scale, all of the meteors that I saw falling down were all concentrated in a pretty small area.

Sure, it could take weeks, if not months, to travel through all the places that were struck by the meteors, but on a global scale, the meteor shower was still pretty concentrated.

'Are they attracted to the borderlands?' I attempted to figure out the reason, only to shake my head a second later.

"What's your question, human?" the protobear forced me out of my train of thoughts, forcefully reminding me of the one question I now earned.

"Sure, give me a moment," I requested, lowering my head and rubbing my chin as I thought over what question I should ask.

I wasn't going to just ask what the weather would be tomorrow or what was the cultivation level of that thing. Given the small hints the protobear dropped before, I could tell that its knowledge could turn into a pretty massive asset for me.

"How about this, then," I muttered, raising my face at the protobear as a small smile appeared on my lips.

"From what I heard you mutter earlier, I can infer that there is or was some greater will at play when it came to how you came to be," I created the foundation of my question. "If I'm wrong on that point, forget about what I just said. But in case I'm actually right…." I took a little pause after uttering those words.

The smile on my lips grew wider. To my side, Mia snuggled up to my hand, pushing her breasts against my arm.

"I want to know everything about it. Its intentions, reasons, a mission it bestowed upon you that I have a feeling you wish to follow to the letter…." I explained my wish.

The problematic part of it was obvious. It wasn't really a single question that I just asked. More like, I just requested an answer to a whole book's worth of questions!

But I couldn't help it. With how little I still knew about this world despite living here for quite some time already, my greed for this kind of knowledge was just enormous.

"Quite greedy, aren't you?" the protobear commented, clearly noticing the insane greed that fueled this question of mine.

Yet, rather than looking down in shame, I smiled cheekily.

"This is the trait that kept me alive. Greed for resources, greed for techniques, greed for knowledge…." I muttered, only to shake my head. "Without greed, one wouldn't strive to achieve more. You could say that greed…." I stopped for a moment only to shake my head. "No, not greed. It's the ambition that fuels every last one of humans," I explained my philosophy.

"This is going to be a long story," the protobear replied with a heavy sigh after letting me boil in uncertainty for a prolonged while.

I couldn't tell what got into me. But in this moment, where things were already going far better than I ever expected to, I decided to strike the iron while it was hot.

"If you claim it's a long story…." I pretended to hesitate, only for a smile to appear on my lips a second later. "Then how about giving us a ride on your back while you explain it all to us?" I suggested, shocked by my own audacity.

"You really do not fear death, human," the protobear replied, its voice clearly hinting at how amused it was with my words.

I couldn't help but release a massive sigh of relief. Only then did I also realize just how tightly Mia's fingers were cutting into my flesh.

I truly didn't know what got into me. But now, it didn't matter. Because the protobear clearly didn't mind it all that much.

"Fine, then. Hop in," it ordered, lowering itself on its limbs to make the entry easier for us. "And to start with the explanation, we need to go back to the time when I was but a small cub," it added, its reminiscing voice somehow soothing my soul.