My Scumbag System-Chapter 373: Two Fucked-Up Kids on Watch Dut

I stared across the camp at the others while they slept. Everyone looked so damn peaceful despite being trapped in a death garden by some plant-collecting psychopath. Their faces relaxed in sleep, bodies curled toward the spring like sunflowers following light. The water itself glowed faintly under the twin moons, casting everyone in a weird blue-silver sheen.

Even in this hellscape, they managed to look like they belonged in some fantasy painting. Meanwhile, I sat with my back against a tree that might try to eat me, wondering if this was all some cosmic joke played by an asshole god.

Raphael sat nearby, his amber eyes scanning the perimeter. Neither of us had spoken since taking first watch together. He kept flexing his hands, opening and closing his fists like he was itching to punch something.

I closed my eyes and tried again to reach Nel.

Hey, Nel. You there?

Nothing. Just static and a faint headache for my trouble. I mentally poked around for the status screen, and unlike before, I got something—a flickering, half-formed interface that looked like a TV with bad reception. Most of it was garbled, but I could make out a few things:

SATORI NAK---Level: 2 | Title: KO---, TS---Schema Points: 15--ATTRIBUTES:Strength: F-0 [BASE:--50]End--ance: F-0 [BASE:--00]Dex--rity: F-0 [BAS--:--50]Agi---ty: F-0 [BASE--:--00]Ma--c: F-0 [BASE:--00]ACTIVE A---TIES (--/3):Em---, Se---PASSIVE ---ITIES (--/--):Mys--cism, Pro---tion Fr-- Ar--ws

Great. Basically useless. I could still feel my abilities working—the Protection from Arrows had saved my ass during the Harvester fight—but without the System’s interface, I couldn’t check my Schema Points or do anything with the Gacha.

I was stuck with what I had. No new toys, no status updates, no smartass commentary from Nel. Just me, my bat, and whatever abilities I could remember how to use.

"You planning to stare at nothing all night?" Raphael’s voice broke through my thoughts.

I opened my eyes to find him watching me with that perpetual scowl of his. "Just checking something."

"You look constipated."

"And you look like someone pissed in your protein shake. What’s your point?"

He snorted, almost like a laugh but meaner. "Never thought I’d die in a place like this."

"You’re not going to die."

"Bullshit. Those Harvester things nearly took us out, and that’s just the gardening equipment." He picked up a small rock and crushed it between his fingers. "Whatever this Arborist thing is, it’s been eating S-Ranks for breakfast. We’re fucked."

"Wow, such a sunny outlook. Tell me more about your positive visualization techniques."

"I’m being realistic."

"You’re being a dick."

He glared at me. "Some of us have people depending on us, you know. Not all of us can afford to die in this shithole."

That caught my attention. Raphael rarely talked about himself beyond threatening to kick someone’s ass. "Like who?"

He went quiet for so long I thought he wouldn’t answer. Then: "My sister. She’s twelve."

Well, shit. That wasn’t what I expected. "Parents?"

"Dead." He tossed the crushed rock pieces away. "Dad was a low-rank Hunter who got himself killed in a Gate when I was fourteen. Mom followed him two years later—heart attack, they said. Stress, more likely."

"So it’s just you and your sister?"

He nodded. "Mira. She’s staying with our grandmother while I’m at the academy. Old bat can barely take care of herself, let alone a kid. I send most of my allowance home."

The pieces clicked together. Raphael’s perpetual anger, his obsession with proving himself, the chip on his shoulder about the guild rankings—it wasn’t just ego. He needed to succeed to support his family.

"That’s why you were so pissed about being put in Onyx House."

"Yeah, no shit." He scowled. "Top-ranked guilds get better missions, better pay. I was supposed to be in the Phantoms, but..." He trailed off, his face darkening.

"But you lost control during the tryouts," I finished for him. I’d heard rumors about it—how Raphael had unleashed so much power that he’d injured other prospects and destroyed part of the training arena.

"I didn’t lose control." His voice was tight. "I showed them exactly what I can do, and they got scared. Called me a liability. Said I was too unstable."

"So instead of the elite guild with the big paychecks—"

"I got stuck in the fucking doghouse with a bunch of rejects." He glanced around at our sleeping teammates. "No offense."

"Oh, full offense taken. We’re all deeply wounded."

The corner of his mouth twitched. Not quite a smile, but close enough.

"Look," I said, "I get it. You need to make it out of here. We all do. But we have a better chance working together than if you keep trying to be the lone alpha wolf."

"Rich coming from you. You think I don’t see how you operate? Always watching, always calculating. You don’t give a shit about any of us except what we can do for you."

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. "Wow, project much? But you’re not entirely wrong." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

That seemed to surprise him.

"I’m not here to make friends," I continued. "I’m here to survive and accomplish my goals. But right now, those goals include getting everyone out of this Gate alive, because we need each other."

Raphael studied me for a long moment. "You know what I can’t figure out about you? Sometimes you talk like you’re fifty years old with all this cynical, seen-it-all bullshit. But you’re the same age as the rest of us."

If he only knew. "I grew up fast."

"Yeah? How?"

"Not everyone had the luxury of parents who stuck around until they died." The words came out harsher than I intended. "Some of us were abandoned from the start."

It wasn’t entirely true for Satori’s backstory, but it was true enough for Kaelen that it felt real when I said it.

Raphael nodded slowly. "Fair enough."

We fell into silence again, but it was different now. Less hostile, more... companionable, I guess. Two fucked-up kids with responsibilities bigger than they should be.

"What are you thinking about?" Raphael asked.

"How to kill the Arborist."

"Got any brilliant ideas?"

"Working on it." I glanced at his hands. "Your Aspect—can you store energy for longer periods? Or does it have to be used right away?"

He frowned. "I can hold it for maybe an hour, tops. After that, it starts to leak out, gets unstable. Why?"

"Just thinking about combinations. Your stored energy plus Juan’s charged cards plus Celeste’s ice—we could create something with enough punch to take down something big."

"Maybe." He didn’t sound convinced. "Assuming we can even find the Arborist. This place is massive."

"We’ll find it." I nodded toward Monica’s sleeping form. "We’ve got the plant network on our side now. They want this thing dead as much as we do."

"And you trust them? For all we know, this could be another trap."

"Of course I don’t trust them completely. I don’t trust anything in a Gate. But their interests align with ours for now."

Raphael shook his head. "You really do think like someone who’s been doing this for decades."

I smirked. "Maybe I’m just smarter than I look."

"That wouldn’t be hard."

"Says the guy who punches things for a living."

He almost smiled again. Almost.

A soft rustling sound came from the edge of the clearing. Both of us were on our feet instantly, Raphael’s fists glowing with stored energy and my bat in hand.

A small, furry creature poked its head out from between two bushes. It looked like a cross between a rabbit and a squirrel, with oversized ears and a fluffy tail, but its fur glowed with the same bioluminescence as the fruit.

"The fuck is that?" Raphael whispered.

"No idea. But don’t kill it yet."