One Last System

'This has to be a coincidence,' I thought, gritting my teeth as I looked down on the mark I was extremely familiar with.

Because the company that, with a single letter of theirs, made me a happy man bore the same sigil as their brand's logo.

"Let's go," Mia announced as if it was an obvious thing to do.

She jogged ahead and grabbed my arm, forcing me to look down.

Right into the ensnaring trap of her eyes.

I gulped down the saliva that gathered in my mouth.

Even after everything we did, having Mia bring her face so close, I could nearly taste her lips... yet, she kept her mouth right outside of my reach.

"Sure," I replied, accepting her assistance with gratitude.

Right now, I wasn't in the right state of mind. I could now easily connect the dots.

The protobear's prophecy. The sigma mark spreading across an entire plateau before my eyes....

'It appears I didn't react to this mark, not because I didn't recognize it,' I thought, gulping down my saliva and tightening my hold over Mia's fingers. 'But because I simply didn't notice it.'

The severity of this information couldn't be underestimated.

The only reason why the protobear, who I already established to be far above my league, didn't kill me was because of my lack of focus.

And by an extension, I was supposed to be the reason for this world burning to all hell come.

'Isn't this a little bit too much to digest?' I thought, lamenting over my fate.

Why couldn't I have just a smooth-sailing type of reincarnation where my greatest worry would be running out of different types of girls to add to my harem?

Where was the justice in this world? Why couldn't I just have a peaceful romance with Mia?

'God damn it!' I screamed out in my soul, letting out a tiny bit of my pent-up frustration.

I then shook my head, trying to calm my thoughts down.

'At least now I know for sure the meaning of that curse.'

A sudden memory appeared in my thoughts.

"May your life be interesting and full of adventures, huh?" I muttered under my breath.

And through all this time, Mia locked her eyes on my face, observing every last detail, every last change that happened to my mimicry.

"Arty..." Mia whispered, raising her hand and pushing out just one finger. She then used said finger to gently rub my cheek. "If it's inconvenient, you don't need to tell me yet."

I nearly froze in place.

I could hardly focus on what was in front of me already, and now this?

'I guess I made it pretty obvious, didn't I?' I internally scolded myself.

But I have no mental capacity to deal with this issue for now. Not now, not yet. Yet, on the other hand...

'If she brought that up, that proves she is already aware of it,' I thought, closing my eyes and releasing all the air from my lungs in a long, exhausted sigh.

Overwhelmed with all the issues raining down on me, I simply didn't know what to do next.

Tell the truth and risk both Hera and that other guy hearing it?

Hide the truth and act towards Mia in a way that I would never forgive myself for doing?

Or maybe just stall for time, overusing Mia's kindness and willingness to wait...

I didn't know what to do at all...

So I decided to just be honest.

"Mia, sorry," I spoke out, turning around only to place my hands on Mia's shoulders. "It's not that I don't want to tell, but right now, I simply cannot afford to think about it," I explained as best as I could without involving any of the topics I didn't want to tackle.

There would be a better time to think about them. Once I would find the time to sit down and have a calm, long discussion with Mia, I would gladly reveal the truth about myself to her...

But right now, figuring out this one connection, finding out just what the hell the popular company from my life on earth had to do with the landscape of the entire damned plateau!

"I understand," Mia nodded her head with a gentle smile adorning her lips.

Yet, for how easy it was, I couldn't accept it. I couldn't accept just how willing Mia was to concede on everything in our relationship.

I could tell that she was curious, all the more if she likely started to piece the truth out herself. And the fact that she was willing to ignore that innate curiosity of hers just for the sake of my comfort, just to make it easier on me...

I didn't want Mia to sacrifice herself for me like that. And by dismissing the childish look at the heroics and the legends, I didn't want to sacrifice myself for her either.

I just wanted for the two of us to have a peaceful life where we could enjoy our days together!

"Huh?" Mia suddenly stopped in her tracks. Even though I was too deep in my thoughts to notice it, she quickly pulled on my arm to alert me. "Look," she called out, pointing ahead with her chin.

"Excuse me?" I muttered, still half aware of my surroundings with how immersed I was in my own internal troubles.

"Oh shit," I then cursed, unable to stop myself when I finally raised my eyes.

My internal outburst didn't feel like it lasted for long... But we already managed to make out way to the bottom of the hill and towards what would make the bottom part of the sigma mark.

And there it was, a concrete-looking wall with some signs of vegetation slowly eroding into the structure.

"It's not concrete proof," I muttered under my nose, smirking at the small pun I made just for my own amusement. "But this proves me right," the truth slipped out of my mouth, clearly reaching Mia's ears.

Yet, just like she claimed before, Mia pretended for my words to go over her head, discarded by its unintended recipient.

'There is something wrong,' I thought, moving my eyes back on the wall after taking a quick glance at Mia's cute expression.

It was a small, annoying feeling somewhere deep in my soul. An itch that I couldn't scratch, no matter how much I strained my hands to that end.

"Take as much time as you need," Mia encouraged me while rubbing the side of her face against my arm. "I will be there whenever you need me," she added, wrapping her arms as she glued herself to my side.

"Thanks," I raised my hand and patted Mia's head, only to move my eyes back to the wall.

It was the perfectly normal concrete wall, one that could be found in any type of modern town. But at the same time, it was a piece of architecture one wouldn't expect to see in this world of swords and cultivation.

Yet, here it was, proving my earlier rationality wrong and edging me with some kind of small, unnoticeable detail that was weird about it.

And then, I finally figured it out.

It was so obvious, forced right into my eyes that I failed to see.

Because one part of the wall was distinctively different from the rest.

It all consisted of a smooth-bore stone, but there was a part of it that was visibly rougher. What's more, even the vegetation beside that wall is appeared to be slightly different than the undergrowth all around!

'There has to be a hidden passage there,' I thought to myself, unable to understand how such an obvious thing went unnoticed for ages required to change how this place looked by such a degree.

"What are you doing?" Mia asked, a slight hue of worry in her voice when I moved towards that distinctive part of the wall.

"Just give me a second," I dismissed her, too focused on my current task to allow any distractions.

My hands molested the wall, looking for some kind of trigger that would open the hidden passage. Yet, as my amounts continued to amount to absolutely nothing, a wild idea appeared in my mind.

"How about I just..." I muttered, clenching and then opening my fingers up in my fist a few times.

And then I took a step forward and smashed right against the rugged wall.

'Poof.'

My hand met no resistance. My knuckles didn't break on the hard stone of the wall. Instead, the entire chunk that caught my attention just a moment ago has vanished by now.

"So I was right," I muttered, securing my hold over Mia's hand before stepping inside a small chamber revealed behind the secret passage.

It was a tiny room with just enough space for two or maybe three people to stand arm in arm. And with the exception of a strange construct of four cubes and a perfectly round ball lying on top of them, there was absolutely nothing inside.

My gaming senses turned out to predict the existence of a secret room... but it turned out to be empty?

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