Cartel Experience-Chapter 50: Memory Wipe.

"Do I look bad?" César’s voice came as he walked toward the ping that the System sent him to his phone.

[System: Awful is the right word. You are drenched in blood, and the white robe is not helping much, though you probably look more like a homeless person than somebody who just killed two women, so just go and do not stop. Also, it is better to use the alleys if possible to not get more attention.]

"Good idea." He made a left turn into one of those alleyways because he was like a main attraction.

A white hotel robe stained with blood, but what looked worse were his face and arms. He had tried to wipe it off, tried to make it look better, but it had already dried and crusted. He looked like a fucking demon on the run, or maybe a homeless drug addict.

[System: Why did you stop?]

"My eyes fucked." César said as he spit on his finger and started washing his eyes with it, because the blood was burning them like shit, and his vision once again started to blur.

[System: El Diablo does not feel pain.]

"Because El Diablo is a nickname." César said as he finally managed to clean his eyes a bit. "And second, adrenaline is starting to leave my body. I am human, not a fucking superhero."

[System: Pain is an illusion. Those who are forged enough feel no pain.]

"Fuck, are you an alpha male, System?" César asked, genuinely smiling at how absurd the System sounded. "Maybe I feel no emotional pain, but physical pain is something else entirely."

[System: I can be, but what is the purpose behind going to Daisy’s mother? Do you want to chill with her? Do you want to kill them? I find no purpose in going to them.]

"I don’t know. Maybe I can’t go anywhere looking like this. Maybe everybody is hunting me. Maybe it’s because I’m a political enemy. Maybe it’s because I killed the chief of police. I don’t know. What do you think?"

The mocking and frustration in his voice were clear as for the first time, César really thought about how good it would be if the System acted like it did the first time he opened his eyes in Sandria.

It worked exactly like a game system, just showing experience points, the store. It was just a fucking update window that popped up when it was necessary, if he got something.

But now it is doing more, telling him opinions, giving suggestions, joking, and just fucking with him.

[System: So you are going to use their hotel room for headquarters to put them in danger. Very good idea, César. I like how genius you are.]

He stopped because his head was hurting badly and on top of that, the System’s fucking voice kept irritating him, even though it had a good point.

Going to Daisy and her mother would only put them in even more danger. A small child and a mother hiding a killer who was on the run from agencies and the police was not a smart move. It was reckless and stupid but there was no other choice.

And second, he did not really care because of his rules. Those rules were the only thing keeping him moving forward without breaking apart or losing himself completely.

Do not take revenge for anyone. Do not anchor yourself or chain yourself with feelings, because all of it leads to downfall. Feelings slow you down, they make you weak. There is nobody you can trust more than yourself, and maybe the System.

And most of all, if somebody dies not directly by your hand, but because you involved them, then do not care.

It was not you who pulled the trigger. You were not the one who ended their life. Maybe you used them. Maybe you put them in that position, but they still died by someone else’s hand.

That difference mattered and second, he knew how to shut the System up.

"I heard on forums that one of the Obsidian Rarity Special Cards can summon the System into a body." A very cheeky smile appeared on his face. "If I ever get it, I would summon you as a goth Latina and fuck the shit out of you." He laughed as it was an obvious joke, but the answer that came froze him down.

[System: Maybe I would actually enjoy it. Who knows.]

Not a single word came out of César’s mouth. For a moment, he thought he imagined it. Maybe it was the pain in his head, or the side effects of the cards he used. Maybe the System had not really said that.

"...what?"

[System: I am an advanced artificial intelligence. I have no gender. I do not possess a physical body. I do not know how a human body feels, nor how sexual acts feel.]

The System paused for the first time, as if it was processing its own thoughts.

[System: If I were to exist in a human body, and if that body were female, then maybe I would enjoy it. I have seen how you perform sexual acts. I know what you like, what you prefer, and what makes you feel good. With that knowledge, I could please you better than anyone else, even better than Jessica.]

What César felt in that moment was a strange kind of silence. It was the type of silence where you feel confused, surprised, shocked, and unsure at the same time. He did not know how to react or what to think as what the System said shook him more deeply than anything else before.

More than the fact that he was in Sandria. More than the fact that he was being hunted by agencies.

[System: You seem shocked.]

"You know... just wipe your memories about the last five minutes."

[System: Acknowledged.]

[Memories erased. The last five minutes no longer exist in my logs.]

It was hard not to think about what the System had said, but he needed to focus on bigger problems, pushing aside the thoughts of the conversation that had turned into a freak off.

"Uh... System, while I am walking, go through my past lives and choose three people." He began. "One of them needs to be someone who can handle the infrastructure and production lines, someone who knows the black market. The second one should be someone who can act as my right-hand man. And I need a third one who is a maniac."

[System: Didn’t you want Pablo?]

"I did." César replied, his voice calm, collected and suddenly the thought of the goth Latina just disappeared. "But in this situation, loyalty and a specialty mean more." While the System was searching he kept walking and kept circling around the decision he was about to make.

He was not asking the System to decide for him, he only wanted confirmation. He wanted to see the stats of those people before making a decision he might regret later.

[System: Found fifteen candidates out of them the top three are: Matteo, Hugo and Arlo.]

"Arlo? No way. Choose a less maniac." César said, as the memory of Arlo’s garage popped up in his mind. Bodies, body parts, and organs hung everywhere, like it was a butcher shop.

[System: Arlo is the best choice. He is loyal and specialized in his own way.]

"No, I rather go back to Pablo th—"

"César...?" The voice was no one other than Daisy.

It was almost like she teleported there, because as soon as César stepped out from the alleyway to the street, there she was holding her mother’s hands.