Chapter 38: Scolding from Martha
"You two are unbelievably reckless."
Martha was the first to break the suffocating silence inside the room. Her voice trembled with anger and fear at the same time.
"I don’t even know where to start."
She pointed toward them. "First, the two of you lied to us and then secretly ran away from Maroon City just to come here while a monster tide was happening."
Her finger then shifted toward Zac with an angrier expression. "And you...you are the very definition of recklessness."
"Who the hell do you think you are? Some kind of hero? Or some immortal being sent to save the world?"
Nobody dared interrupt her because of the aura she was unknowingly releasing.
"Do you even understand how precious life is?" Martha continued, her eyes already turning red. "How could you throw your life away so easily like it meant nothing?"
"Aunty, that’s not what happened; we just..."
Marty tried to defend himself, but the moment Martha turned toward him with a fierce glare, his voice immediately died in his throat.
She once again looked at Zac. "You think you’re all grown up now just because you awakened? I can still beat your ass, you better know that."
"The same goes for you too, Marty." Deborah suddenly joined in from behind, crossing her arms while glaring at her son.
"Yeah, how could you support him in something like this? I honestly didn’t expect this from you, Marty."
What followed afterward was nothing short of a complete verbal massacre. Both Martha and Deborah took turns absolutely tearing into Zac and Marty without mercy.
Carrie wasn’t spared either. From the scolding she received, Zac pieced together what must have happened. Apparently, Martha had threatened Carrie to get the answers from her.
Eventually, after hours of nonstop scolding, Marty and his parents finally left the house, and the room slowly became quiet again.
A few moments later, Martha walked back into Zac’s room and gently sat beside his bed. The anger that had filled her face earlier was completely gone and replaced by exhaustion and fear.
Tears quietly rolled down her cheeks.
"Mom... I’m really sorry," Zac said softly. "I won’t do something like this again."
Martha lowered her head before speaking. "Zac... I know you’re already grown up now and I shouldn’t treat you like a child all the time, but..."
"Did you even think about me for a second?"
Zac fell silent.
"I already lost my husband; you and Carrie are the only reasons I’m still alive. If anything had happened to either of you, I honestly don’t know what I would’ve done."
By the end, her voice had completely broken into sobs.
Zac wanted to comfort her. He wanted to hold her hand, hug her, or at least tell her everything would be okay.
But his body remained completely paralyzed.
In the end, all he could do was lie there silently, staring helplessly at his crying mother while guilt slowly crushed his chest from the inside.
After Martha left the room, the door slowly creaked open again, and Carrie cautiously peeked her head inside before sneaking into the room like a mouse coming for the cheese.
She quietly walked toward Zac’s bed and stopped beside him.
"What do you want, Carrie?"
Carrie immediately put on the most pitiful expression she could possibly make with her lips trembling dramatically.
"I’m really sorry, brother..." she whispered weakly.
Zac rolled his eyes, thinking, "And now she’s acting."
"Carrie, I honestly don’t know what you’re apologizing for."
"Brother, you told me to stop Mom from coming here, and I really did my best! But Mom... she... she..."
Zac sighed. "Fine. Start from the beginning."
Carrie quickly nodded.
"When Mom first asked where you went, I told her you and Marty went shopping, but after some time passed, she started asking more and more questions. Then she said she wanted to go outside and find you herself."
Carrie lowered her head.
"But since you told me to keep her inside the hotel, I tried everything I could to stop her."
She puffed her cheeks slightly as if proud of her efforts. "I distracted her, changed the topic, asked for snacks, pretended to be sleepy... I did everything."
Zac almost laughed imagining the scene. "But somehow, Mom realized I was stalling her on purpose, and then... she threatened me with the worst thing imaginable."
"And what would that be?" he asked with a smile on his face.
"She said no sweets and ice cream for a whole year?" Tears started falling from her eyes.
"Continue," Zac said while trying not to laugh at her.
"Well, what can a small innocent girl like me possibly do when faced with such terrifying threats?"
"So you spilled everything."
Carrie immediately looked away. "Yes."
Then Zac sighed again. "Fine. I won’t hold it against you. You can go now." But even after he said that, she remained standing there awkwardly, scratching the side of her head.
"What do you want now?"
Carrie hesitated for a moment before speaking carefully. "Brother... about the thing you promised me..." A faint smile appeared on his face. "So that’s what you worried about, ah. Fine. Go now."
Instantly, Carrie’s entire face lit up like fireworks. "All right! You are the best brother." With a huge grin, she happily skipped out of the room, completely forgetting her guilty act from earlier.
Watching her leave, Zac could only shake his head helplessly.
’This little gremlin...’
"So... System," Zac muttered internally while staring at the ceiling. "I think we seriously need to have a one-on-one talk right now."
For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then suddenly, the system’s lazy voice echoed inside his head.
[Haaahhh...] It let out an exaggerated yawn.
[Well, that was a fantastic nap.]
Zac’s eyebrow twitched. "Were you sleeping?"
[Of course I was sleeping], the system replied shamelessly. [Do you know how exhausting it is babysitting your ignorant ass twenty-four seven?]
Zac ignored the insult and asked, "I want to know what happened yesterday."
[Do you want a shorter version or a longer version?]
"Whichever explains things properly."
[Got it. Let’s go with the shorter one.]
[Hem-hem] The system cleared its throat dramatically before speaking.
[You were dominated, possessed, ravished, denied, carried and Ass-whooped.]
"What the hell are you saying?"
[That’s the shorter version of what happened.]
Zac’s face immediately darkened. "That wasn’t an explanation! That sounded like a list of tags from some cursed website!"
The system snorted. [Fine, fine. Since your fragile human brain needs details, I’ll give you the brief version.]
[So basically, after fighting the cultist, the emotion-orb particles left inside Lima reacted with your fallen bloodline. And because your bloodline is apparently ninety percent bad decisions and ten percent hormonal disaster.]
"Hey!"
[You basically turned into a man possessed by a lust demon.]
"...I what?"
[Oh, don’t act innocent now; you ravished that poor woman for HOURS.]
Zac’s soul nearly left his body. "HOURS?!"
[Yes. if it was a normal woman, you could have killer her.]
"Please stop saying it like that."
[You were moving like your ancestors were cheering from the afterlife. I can’t even sleep, you know; all that moaning and screaming were such a buzz to my ears.]
"STOP TALKING."
The system completely ignored him and continued its mocking.
[Honestly, you should try doing porn. You really have a talent for that."
"I’m going to delete you."
[Best of luck.]
("...")
[So after you finally collapsed from exhaustion, Lima woke up before the reinforcements arrived. And when they asked what happened, she told them she killed the cultist, saved your dumb ass from a B-Rank monster, and carried your paralyzed body back here.]
"So... that’s what happened?"
[That is exactly what happened.]
