Stoobid

Night had taken over the sky by the time they arrived at home. During the remaining journey, he refused to utter a word after explaining his magic and other things, afraid to say something sabotaging.

'I need to work on my habit of speaking too much in excitement.' He thought lying on his bed.

His mind automatically wandered off to the events occurred in the forest, making him inquire to the system, "System, was there another way for me to save them without sabotaging my future?"

[There was but you did not think about your options carefully. You, like a brain-dead, asked me to give you rewards of an unfinished quest.]

"Hey, I thought of everything that I could do in that situation. And what kind of system are you, instead of helping me think of a way to save them you instead told me to do it myself!" Darius became agitated at the insult. He was proud of his mind and genius. In his previous life, his intellect was the only thing that allowed him to survive in the world alone for a long time.

[Apparently, you did not. I had imparted you with the advice of thinking of your options calmly. Which you did not. I have also put forward the condition that I am only here to help you grow strong, not to think in your stead.]

The System held no animosity or mocking in its tone, it was blank like that of a robot. However, to Darius, the words were filled with mockery.

"For your knowledge, I was calm after said you that. I searched the whole system and that was the only way." Darius told with his jaw clenching, "Tell me, what else could I have done?!"

[You were not calm, Host.]

"What?"

[It was but a mere illusion of what calmness entails. You are not wrong in saying that your mind is your greatest ally, but you forget that it is also your greatest enemy. Once it is taken over by emotions, it goes out of control causing one to be prone to bad decisions. And that is exactly what had happened to you, letting your mind take over was your greatest mistake. I had great expectations from you because of your performance from your previous life however, you disappoint me.]

Darius was beginning to fume in fury. Deep in his heart, he knew what system said was true, however, he refused to put himself in wrong. He was never wrong before, he will not be now.

"Then what was the other option that I had not considered, according to you?" He asked with a toneful of scorn.

[System Shop.]

"Eh?"

[You could have bought something from the System Shop to aid you.]

Darius laughed in derision hearing the suggestion, "You call me brain-dead but you are the one who is brain-dead."

"You knew it as well as I knew that I did not have any Shop Tokens to purchase anything."

[I could have loaned you some Shop Tokens.]

Darius became brain-dead hearing that. He could not think of anything as soon as its words were comprehended.

"I… I…" Darius inhaled then exhaled, "I-I could h-have done that?"

[Yes.]

Darius' mind began to run like a McLaren, remembering every item available for purchase in the Shop and how he could have used them to his advantage.

"H-How could I have thought of such a thing if you had not told me beforehand?" He tried pathetically to shift blame back to the System.

[The same way you thought of acquiring rewards before the completion of quest.]

"Damn it." He really wanted to kill himself. He truly felt like beating himself.

[Stoobid.]

System sprinkled a pinch of salt on his wounds.

As he was wallowing in self-hate, a knock on the door pulled his attention. A voice that he could recognise even in a throng of noisy people entered his room, "Are you alright, Darius? I heard some noises come from here."

He quickly left his bed almost tripping on the way, and swiftly opened the door, "Hi Fiona, I'm more than fine. I was just exercising."

Fiona's lips pursed and looked inside before asking, "Were you talking to someone?"

"No. Not at all. Who would I be talking to?" He laughed nervously. He acted suspicious and she knew it.

Her brows knitted in a frown, she again searched for something or someone inside before staring at him in suspicion.

He gulped and asked, "What?"

She stared a moment longer before saying, "Nothing."

"I wanted to ask you something. Would you follow me outside?" She further asked. He realised the seriousness in her voice, so he agreed, "Okay."