"And that's when things started to get weird?" the sword-saintess shook her head with an exasperated look on her face. "If anything, you really have some warped standards."
I locked my eyes on her face for a bit before lowering my eyelids and then my entire head.
"It's not so much my standards, but the situation as a whole," I countered. "If my story concluded where I paused, then all that happened prior would be, at most, weird. Sadly," I shook my head, "the story doesn't end there."
Taking the nod of the woman's head as an approval for me to continue, I coughed into my fist to clear my throat before stretching my hands and then locking them behind my back.
"After our teacher nearly got killed for stepping up, the guys that summoned us did some sort of a prayer. Was it to Johel?" I tried to recall the name, but couldn't. It wasn't as if there was something blocking me from doing so, I just…
That moment in particular, while special in hindsight, didn't really feel like all that much as it happened. And with everything that happened after the prayer, it soon grew obsolete in my head, turning into a memory that didn't quite reach the bar for what would be saved in my long-term mental archive.
"After the prayer, everyone got their systems. And boy, oh boy…"
I shook my head while taking a moment to fight off the emotions this memory brought.
The sight of everyone around me getting fancy and cool systems. Their ranks, reaching no lower than high C-tiers. The excitement of finding out what my system would be.
And then?
The stares. Those empty stares that made me look up and verify my reality.
'I guess there always has to be an odd one out,' I thought, closing my eyes for a second… Only to then quickly pull them open.
In this place, in this moment, I couldn't really afford to just shut myself off from the world.
"The ranks of their systems went from high C-ranks all the way to double S-ranks, ranging from crafting-based, through support all the way to some kind of heroic ones."
I could still see the sight of that moment. Now, however?
What were their SS-ranks worth in the face of a plot-anointed SSS-Rank Sword Saintess?!
'Now that I think about it, why doesn't her title have system in it?' I caught the detail in the most random of moments. Yet, while it offered quite the interesting angle, a whole new perspective on the topic of systems…
This wasn't really the right time for me to pay it much mind.
"I, however," my story reached its climax, "was bestowed with FFF-rank Failure system."
I kept true to my decision to just be honest.
Right now, my one, chief, main and ultimate goal was to get this woman to bring me back somewhere safer. Somewhere where I wouldn't be as much out of my depth as I was in the middle of this damned jungle!
And for that to happen, I couldn't afford the risks of trying to hide something from her. My best bet was to generate enough sympathy so that she would give up on whatever she was here for to help the innocent me out!
"Still, even that FFF-rank system of mine?" I raised my voice while filling it with irony, still quite salty over what happened. "My system bugged out. There was some sort of a mistake as it launched, some kind of problem…"
I turned silent.
Then, with a fresh breath of air, I raised my face and looked the sword-saintess right in the face.
"Because of this failed launch, some force took hold of me and…" I shook my head before spreading my arms open. "The next thing I knew was the feeling of that monster trying to sniff me out. And when it attacked?" I shook my head again, this time with exasperation. "My system launched again. Yet, when the monster attacked, it shattered into pieces and didn't return ever since."
I allowed the news to fester for a moment.
"In other words, I'm in a foreign world I know not the rules of, stranded in some sort of a high-risk hunting zone, off in the most random place of said world, all without even the hint of power that apparently everyone else in this world has."
I finally allowed myself to spit this rant against reality.
Because how the fuck was that fair?
How could this be my scenario for this isekai transmigration story?! Where is my harem, golden finger and cheat-like system?!
Heck, I couldn't even afford to whine about it, not when I already knew the answer of what happened to my system.
"You say a lot," the sword-saintess finally spoke out, her face changing a little.
It was no longer taken with suspicion and doubt, but there were obvious hints of them left. Beyond that, however, sky-like eyes brimmed with something primordial to the very nature of humans. Something that started with bashing two rocks against each other and only started to speed up when a man crossed the death of the bare universe and walked the surface of its damn moon!
And right now, the saintess' eyes lit up with those sparks of nothing else but simple curiosity.
Still, a short moment after her challenge, the saintess locked her arms over her chest and raised her head a bit, looking down on me along the bridge of her nose.
"But do you have a way to prove anything?"
I looked on at the woman, only to then slowly half-close my eyes and turn my head down.
"You know, I didn't exactly plan for an interdimensional kidnapping followed by a magical displacement of some sorts…" I muttered as I tapped around my clothes—now so covered with filth and grime they no longer had any worth as a material example of otherworldly creation.
Sadly, my pockets were empty. But not all was bad, for tapping around allowed me to realise I still had the straps of my backpack wrapping around my shoulders!
'That's huge!'
I could understand how I came to even forget about the backpack's presence.
I never exactly had the time to bother with it, when jumping to another world, then being teleported around and hunted by a hill-sized predator!
And now that I scoured my memories, a soft sigh escaped my mouth as the relief took over my face.
"I think I might have a way…" I spoke with a fair dose of reluctance, trying not to build up any expectations.
Sure, I couldn't recall me preparing any of the pre-made or processed foods I'd brought for the long day of full-time college followed by another full-time at work. But after trashing around during my attempts to escape that monster, its paw squashed me into the ground!
And with the backpack still firmly locked on my back at that time, I had no confidence a single item would remain intact.
Strangely, though, as I brought the bag down to my feet and opened it up, the damage was relatively minimal.
Sure, a pre-made salad-lunch burst open out of the plastic wrapper, turning the bottom of my backpack into a leaf-bed with bits of chicken and croutons scrambled all over, but most of the other meals?
'Heck,'
My eyebrows twitched.
I could even see a pure gold, the one hope of this world's humanity.
My coffee-research set!
"Oh my…"
My eyes flared up… But despite my best wishes, all I could do was ignore it for now.
This small, plastic chest filled with all sorts of materials could be the seed for the one solace this world could offer to relieve me of my nostalgia. But for now, all I could do was hope for it to survive the rest of the day with me. And right next to it, I found the item I was actually looking for.
"This is the easiest way to prove my words. The problem is," I spoke out as I pulled a roughly intact cup of instant-type mashed potatoes with the bacon, cheese and onion toppings in it. "I can't exactly ask you to boil me a cup of water, can I?"
I reached up to the side of my head and scratched my ear.
"Because with a bit of hot water," I smiled, "I could offer you a food I'm willing to bet no one in this world has ever tasted before!"