My Scumbag System-Chapter 364: The Arborist’s Lonely Garden

Jaime stepped forward, his usual bombast somewhat muted. "The young analyst speaks of despair, but I say we face this challenge with the fury of a thousand suns! Sakura Hoshino herself once declared that true warriors find their strength not in victory, but in the DEFIANCE OF DEFEAT!"

"Please stop," Raphael growled.

"What? It’s relevant!"

"Nothing you say is ever relevant."

Monica’s voice cut through their bickering, small but steady. "The plants here... they’re not hostile."

Everyone turned to look at her.

"What?" I asked.

She lifted Copernicus slightly, and I noticed the copper leaves had stopped their erratic pulsing. They now swayed in rhythm with the silver-barked trees around us.

"They’re curious," Monica continued. "They’ve never seen anything like Copernicus before. The fusion of botanical and mechanical... it fascinates them." She closed her eyes, and a faint glow spread from her fingertips into the pot. "They’re willing to talk. To share what they know about this place."

"Can they tell us where the boss is?" I asked.

"I... I can try to ask."

Noah moved closer to Celeste, her hand resting on the hidden blade in her sleeve. "We should establish a defensive position first. This location is too exposed."

"Agreed." I looked around, scanning the treeline. The luminescent fruit on those silver trees pulsed in that synchronized rhythm, almost like a heartbeat. Or a warning signal. "Those trees. Can we use them for cover?"

Monica nodded slowly. "They’re... friendly isn’t the right word. But they’re not afraid of us. They might let us shelter among them while I try to communicate with the larger network."

"Then that’s our first objective." I turned to face the group fully. "Juan, I need you to map everything you can about this environment. Use your Aspect if you have to. Every rock, every tree, every shadow that moves wrong."

"My Aspect gives me perception, not omniscience," he muttered, but some of the panic had left his voice. Having a task helped.

"Raphael, Jaime. You’re on perimeter security. Anything comes at us, you put it down hard."

"Finally," Raphael snarled, cracking his knuckles.

"WITH HONOR!" Jaime added, because of course he did.

"Celeste, Noah. Stay with Monica. She’s our only way to understand this place, which makes her our most valuable asset right now."

Celeste nodded, and I saw something like respect flicker in her eyes. "What about you?"

"I’m going to figure out why half my brain isn’t working."

That got confused looks from everyone, but I didn’t elaborate. They didn’t need to know about Nel or Apollo or the System that was currently giving me the silent treatment. They just needed to know that I was on it.

We moved toward the treeline in a loose formation. The silver bark of the nearest tree was warm to the touch when I brushed my fingers against it, and up close, I could see the luminescent fruit more clearly. They looked almost like apples, if apples were made of pure light and pulsed with what might have been a heartbeat.

"Don’t eat those," I said to no one in particular.

"Wasn’t planning on it," Juan replied.

Once we were among the trees, the atmosphere changed. The open vulnerability of the lakeshore gave way to something almost protective. The silver branches overhead filtered the twin moons’ light into dappled patterns across the ground, and the synchronized pulsing of the fruit created a rhythm that was almost soothing.

Almost.

Monica knelt on the ground, pressing her palm flat against the earth. Copernicus sat beside her, its leaves now fully synchronized with the trees around us. Her eyes closed, and that familiar glow spread from her skin into the soil.

The rest of us formed a loose circle around her, weapons ready, nerves frayed.

I tried reaching for Nel again. Apollo. Anything.

Just static. Just the interference pattern that blocked everything beyond my basic status.

But wait. My basic status was still visible. That meant the System itself hadn’t been completely shut down. Something was jamming the signal, preventing the more complex functions from operating. Like a radio tuned to the wrong frequency.

I focused harder, pushing past the static. Somewhere beneath all that interference, I could almost hear...

...zzzt... danger... zzzt... old... zzzt... watching...

The fragments hit my consciousness like broken glass. Nel’s voice, maybe. Or something pretending to be Nel’s voice. I couldn’t tell, and that uncertainty made my blood run cold.

"I’ve made contact," Monica whispered.

I snapped my attention back to her. Her eyes were still closed, but tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"Monica? What is it?"

"They’re so lonely," she breathed. "They’ve been here for so long. Centuries. Millennia. They remember a time before the Gate, before the dimensional walls hardened. They were part of a garden once. Someone’s garden."

"Whose garden?"

Her eyes opened, and for a moment, I saw something ancient looking out through them. Something vast and impossibly old that regarded me with an emotion I couldn’t name.

Then it was just Monica again, blinking away tears.

"They call it the Arborist," she said. "The one who planted them. The one who tends this place." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "The one who’s been waiting for new seeds."

A chill ran down my spine.

"The boss?"

"I... I think so. But Satori..." She looked up at me, and the fear in her eyes was raw and honest. "They’re scared of it. The plants. The trees. The entire ecosystem of this place. They’re all terrified of the Arborist."

"Then we find it," I said, pushing down my own fear. "And we kill it."

"You don’t understand." Monica shook her head slowly. "They’ve seen others try. Hunters from different worlds, trapped just like we are. Teams with S-Rank members. Legendary fighters with decades of experience."

"What happened to them?"

She didn’t answer. She didn’t have to.

The synchronized pulsing of the fruit around us seemed to slow, each beat heavier than the last. Like a countdown. Like a funeral march.

Twenty-nine days.

Twenty-nine days to kill something that had been eating S-Rank Hunters for centuries.

Somewhere in the distance, across the mirror-smooth lake, something howled.