One Last System

"Finding my teammates..." Mia muttered, averting her eyes as she immersed herself in her thoughts. She then raised her face and looked at me with hope brimming in her eyes. "Do you know how to do it?"

Staring into her expectation-filled face... was nearly painful. Because contrary to the omnipotent me that Mia had the picture of in her mind, I didn't really have any quirky or genius way of completing that task.

"To be frank, I don't have that much of an idea," I replied, shaking my head sideways. "Before the apocalypse, I could ask around at some places..." I muttered, only to run down the list of all the people that I helped in the past and the people that helped me.

Then, my face darkened.

"But it likely won't work in this world anymore," Mia sighed before saying her piece. "Right?"

Her guess, logically speaking, was correct. And yet, something at the very bottom of my soul refused to agree with the girl.

"That's what logical thinking tells me to believe," I replied, raising my hand to caress her face only to then grace my girl with a cheeky smile. "But knowing the people I just thought about, this might not be the case at all!"

The fact that I struggled with those anti-mana monsters likely meant they were too damn powerful for anyone below my level of strength to defeat.

Yet, people on earth managed to survive ordeals several times worse than a monster they had no means of defeating. The fact that some folk managed to survive through a fucking nuke was the greatest proof of that, even if they only did so due to luck or great fortune.

And thinking about how I saw those monsters acting, as long as one didn't openly try to fight them back, there was a chance weaker humans could simply ignore them!

"Do you want to ask around, then?" Mia asked, taking a step forward and wrapping her hands around my hand as she rested her cheek on my shoulder.

"First, we will need to get out of this damn forest," I replied.

All the monsters, no matter where they fell down, would be attracted to the borderlands due to the presence of the anti-mana there. And while it was way too early for me to make any judgments, it only made sense if they were to weaken with every second they were surrounded by the positive mana of this world.

In short, there was a chance that the descent of all those people-turned-monsters was an apocalyptic-level disaster, but not an apocalypse itself.

"So you are going to abandon that city?" Mia then asked, leaning forward as she glanced over at my face.

"I'm going to leave it for later," I replied. "Especially with how that dragon appeared to wish to turn it into its nest," I added.

Me leaving to protect that damned ancient city from the dragon was the very reason why Mia was put in danger yet again. But now that I thought properly about it, I actually got my priorities in reverse.

"You see, while curious about the meaning behind my... special situation, I saw that city as the greatest chance at living a peaceful life with you," I said, reaching out and pinching Mia's cheek. "But I believe that I overestimated my ability. And I definitely thought too little about what was happening around us."

"Don't say that!" Mia protested, using her forehead to strike me squarely in the chest. "You were doing your best with the information and power you had at the time!"

'Can you get any more precious?' I then thought, swallowing down a gulp of saliva.

Just how was a simple man like me supposed to take responsibility for my own mistakes if such a lovely girl like Mia would get angry at me accepting I wasn't perfect?

"Stop being so lovely," I pleaded while caressing Mia's cheek. "I can't handle that much preciousness!"

Mia blushed and averted her head, but she failed to hide a happy smile that appeared on her lips in response to my words.

"Whatever was in the past doesn't matter now," I then said, going back to the topic at hand. "And looking at what we know now, I believe most of the monsters won't try to go around and rampage but will try to get into the borderlands instead," I pointed out.

Just like water would flow towards the bottommost point, just like air would always fly from the high-pressure to a low-pressure zone, mindless monsters would also strive to move to areas that they were more comfortable with.

'Taking the size of this enormous continent and how relatively sparsely populated it is, the world might not even change all that much,' I thought, recalling my experiences from when I rushed from the lower headquarters to the outerpost to reunite with the girl.

There were some inns and cities along the way... But just by stepping by a single kilometer away from the main highway, I would enter lands of complete wilderness that no human hand touched for years if not ages!

"What do you want us to do, then?" Mia asked, pulling on my hand as she not only pressed me to figure out the course of action we would take but also made me hasten my steps...

Even if we had no idea whether the direction we were moving would end up correct.

"As I said before, we need to get out of this damn forest first," I said. "Then, it would be for the best if we could find the nearest post of the Tuxi sect," I added.

"Didn't you leave it?" Mia then asked, opening her eyes wide as she noticed the disparity between reality and my words.

"Yes, I did," I admitted with a nod of my head. "But in the current situation, no one will give a fuck as long as we will be able to help them," I pointed out.

The matters of one's social standing were now a thing of the past. And while the problem of our affiliation might return once the disaster would pass, it was still a song of a distant future.

And for now, with our strength, there was no force in the world that would refuse our presence!