Homegrown System

"If that stupid meathead block of muscles had just done his job, everything would be fine," Alice told herself as she wiped her eyes again. If he had just rushed her to the place, he could have even run in front of her while she drove the cart.

Just because she had a concussion didn't mean she couldn't drive a golf cart. They only went fifteen miles an hour. It wasn't like she was driving a tank or flying a plane. It wasn't that complicated. He should have listened to her.

"God damn it," she cursed aloud, wishing for a tissue to blow her nose.

If they had been faster getting here, or if they had been better in the fight, like the fighting genius he claimed to be. If they had fought those thunder sparrows better. If there hadn't been so many monsters blocking their way. If it hadn't been firebirds… It couldn't have been ice birds or something else that moved in after the electric ones?

If, if, if— Thoughts raced through Alice's head. Blame and excuses turned as she desperately tried to rationalize what was happening to her. If I had just tried to do it with the server at a lower capacity, I didn't even check to see how well it was functioning.

Alice started to sob, a realization making her pause. It could have been only damaged, like a five to ten percent efficiency loss, and still been just fine. Maybe it didn't even need repair. I could have cannibalized stuff there, and we would never have had to leave the room. But no, I had to make sure everything was perfect. If it wasn't going to be the best attempt, it wasn't worth trying at all. And now we don't even get to try. I hadn't even used the Super Center the first time. Why had I listened to Lucas? Why did I let him get in my head, saying that I couldn't design a good game? Why did I have to go all the way? It wasn't even reasonable to steal supercomputer time. That was a literal felony. I did it for a game.

Alice cursed herself repeatedly. Why am I so stupid?

She shook her head and winced at the throbbing pain that never quite went away from this morning. Everything hurt. But hey, she got magic. All it took was for her to fucking end the world. And had she really just said all that to Titus?

It made her want to start crying all over again. So far, Titus had done nothing but help her. He even offered to help after their hopes were dashed. The possibility of ever returning to an ordinary civilization that wasn't based on hunting beasts and survival of the strongest was gone, and he'd offered to cut her hair.

She choked up as she thought about it and ran her hands through her hair, finding the burnt ends. She gathered it up and pulled it in front of her, looking at the singed parts. She was going to cut it off. She'd have to cut it just above shoulder length.

He said he could make it look good.

Titus's offer rang in her mind, but Alice just gathered it all up in her hands, pulled her knife, and started sawing right above where her hand held it all in a bundle. It was not like what she expected from movies or anime, where the girl boss lady slashed off her hair right before she was about to get serious in one smooth, easy stroke. No, it took nearly a minute of sawing, with the knife getting progressively duller. In the end, she slipped and cut her hand open, even. But eventually, she tossed aside the handful of burnt hair and felt the hair fall back into place, uneven as one side was longer than the other.

She wanted to scream in frustration. How could I have done this? How could I have fucked up this badly? I'm fucking 19. People say, oh, shit happens, you know? Well, God damn. This was not the sort of shit that was supposed to happen. I'm supposed to, you know, forget to turn in my homework or have my boyfriend cheat on me or something like that. Something normal. This is not normal. Only I could make things this fucking wrong.

She was gonna figure this all out now, after it finally got dark. Titus had probably walked away. Why should he even be there anymore? He should have probably already left.

I'm left to fend for myself, you know. Who knows where I'll sleep tonight? Some monster will probably eat me, and I'll definitely deserve it, Alice said to herself. But what could she do? She couldn't believe she had said all that to him. It was his fault. Ah, how could it have been his fault? He'd only ever helped her.

"Stupid," she cursed as she pushed herself to her feet and wiped her nose on the shoulder of her borrowed shirt, which was quickly becoming tattered again. Maybe she could find her way back to her dorm and get a change of clothes. Maybe.I If she could fight her way there.

Alice walked around the corner, wiping her eyes, and stopped in surprise. Titus hadn't left, hadn't stormed off like she had. No, he was sitting under a nearby tree. Benches were built around the planter in which it was growing. It was a place where she had often sat with her laptop on a nice day to get a little bit of work done. But instead of sitting on the bench, he sat in the dirt under the tree, his legs crossed, his eyes closed peacefully.

"Titus," Alice half-whispered in a small voice. The sound of his name made his lips curl up slightly, and he opened one eye.

"Alice," he said in a calm, neutral voice. He didn't seem mad, but...

"Titus," Alice repeated. "I'm... I'm so sorry. It wasn't your fault. It was my fault. I've just... It's no excuse, but I've had a shitty day, and I just snapped at you. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean those things. It's... it's all my fault."

"Alice," Titus said, his voice more normal than neutral now, "I don't think it's your fault."

"No, no, it's my fault. I... I caused this all," she said, waving her hand around the campus. "Not only did I cause it all, I haven't fixed it yet."

"No, I said. Maybe that's all your fault. I would be surprised if we can actually blame you, but maybe. But you were right about one thing. We probably should have rushed to the supercomputer site."

Alice shook her head. "No. Even that's my fault. I don't know, I don't actually... I should have checked to see how well the supercomputer was working. I thought, oh, we probably only get one shot at this because the System will notice, and surely it'll shut it down if we fail. So we better have the computer running at the highest capabilities. But I could have at least seen how good it was. Perhaps it was only like 95 percent capable instead of 100 percent and wouldn't have made much of a difference if we'd repaired it or not."

Titus opened his eyes. "That might have been good, but I think your other assumption of needing it to be done at all is equally likely in my mind. I really don't think we can blame either of us for that issue. I think that was simply bad luck. Really, really shitty luck."

Alice didn't believe him, but she couldn't exactly argue either. "Sure," she said. "Sure. Whatever. Are you okay?" she asked, looking at him and realizing something was different. "You're sitting strangely."

He smiled. "I was meditating, and I made an interesting discovery about the System."

Alice cocked her eyebrow. "Oh," she said, trying to put a little bit of the sass that she had been utilizing when she was talking with Titus back into her tone. She mostly failed and just grimaced out a smile. It must have come through a little bit as Titus gave her a comforting smile.

"Yes. It appears that at level 11, we lose the F in our ranking, and we move up to E. But it seems that just levels aren't enough for that. We also need to do something," he said.

"Um, that's kind of vague," Alice responded. "Any idea what that something is?"

He swiped at the invisible screen in front of him. "Through battle insights, you have achieved something deep within yourself. Congratulations on reaching E grade," he quoted. "Class one unlocked. Choose one of the following as your first class. That was a message I received. Also, I got a title for being the first to reach E grade in the world, so yeah."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Sure, sure. You're so great," she said. "But interesting that it happened at 11."

"Maybe you're right about the odd primes. I think it was your idea."

"Maybe," she said, shrugging. "But still. Congrats. So you got a class?"

Titus nodded. "Yes. I've got it. Not only have I gotten a class, I've gotten three skills right off the bat. At last."

"Yes, yes. What are they?"

Titus wiggled his eyebrows at her as he explained. "[Eagle's Vision], [Nature's Cloak], and [Primal Marksmanship]. Also, the stat allocations have changed. No longer will I only get two measly points per level. Now, I get eight!"