The crying bout didn’t last long. Scott was able to mentally steady himself pretty fast. Perhaps because this time, he felt the hint of a sublime contentment mixed with all the melancholy.

Scott did wonder about something after he dried his tears, and he promptly asked the System.

“Sys….Brianna? How come you have my…sister’s voice?”

He cringed a little noticing how loud his voice suddenly sounded in the midst of the silent forest. He’d forgotten to ask ‘mentally’.

>

The reply from the System came in the original, austere voice. Scott’s decision was made instantly.

‘No…that’s alright. Please, keep using Brianna’s voice.’

>

Once again, Scott didn’t hesitate.

‘Please keep referring to me as Scott, and use the first person narrative.’

>

The abrupt change in the way of addressing and the tone was a little eerie but Scott was nonetheless elated to have his sister’s voice back in his head, so he didn’t much care.

‘Brianna. I would like a detailed explanation of the System and how I, as the User, can utilize its functionalities.’

He briefly wondered whether ‘Brianna’ would be offended since he’d just referred to ‘her’ as an ‘it’. Scott didn’t want to, but he felt weird to ask about ‘your functionalities’.

>

Scott had some questions but upon hearing Brianna politely telling him that he was not smart enough to understand the intricacies, Scott left them alone. Unlike many people he’d met in his life, Scott knew his limits and would only push them if it was practical. He certainly had no authority to question Brianna’s decision about whether he could understand those details. If Scott wasn’t mistaken, Brianna knew him ‘inside out’.

>

The moment Scott heard the term magic, he was once again full of questions. But he didn’t ‘feel right’ to interrupt Brianna, so he just let her continue with her explanation. Plus, he was a little worried that he’d be again ‘gently scoffed at’ if he asked for details.

>

Scott was wondering when the ‘quest’ part would be coming. Now he had his answer. He did want to ask questions related to everything he’d been told, but for now he thought it’d be prudent to still keep his mouth…or rather mind…shut. It could also be that he was hearing his sister’s voice after so long, he didn’t want to break the flow of the gentle, slightly high-pitched, mellifluous serenade in his mind. After focusing on the voice for a while, Scott had found out that certain qualities of her sister, like her quirky tonal changes, the occasional ‘giggle-snorts’ and many other small things were absent from this ‘Brianna’. But Scott had expected that, and he was actually glad that those qualities did not surface in the System. Some things were too sacred to be copied.

>

Scott held back the temptation to snort. He couldn’t help find it extremely amusing that his sister’s voice was mentioning video games in such a matter-of-fact manner.

>

Scott could already guess what attributes were going to come next.

‘Is she going with the standard six-attribute layout?’

>

‘O…kay. She slightly went off-track there didn’t she? I guess using Intelligence or Mana was too main-stream for the System. But the gist is definitely stolen from video-games that she…’

Scott suddenly realized something. He’d mentally referred to the System as ‘her’ twice already. Before he could ponder over his actions however, Brianna had more to contribute.

>

‘Awesome. I guess those classes weren’t wasted on me at all. If I knew I would be reincarnating like an Isekai otaku, I’d have mastered them…’

Even though Scott was a little sarcastic, he did feel elated that his choice of his ‘past life’ was rewarded in a way he never would have guessed. Scott had trained in various martial arts over the past few years when he was preparing for his retribution, to the point where he was confident enough to take down several unarmed fighters using a variety of moves, if the need arose. Scott was a pretty decent Krav maga fighter and had also earned some accolades in Kickboxing and Judo. While those took care of his physical training, he needed a spiritual anchor to ensure his mental health. Yoga and Tai Chi had both been immensely helpful to him to achieve that.

>

Scott raised his eyebrow and grinned. ‘This is getting interesting’.

>

‘Is she telling me not to rush into a fight blind? Why do I feel like she’s judging me…?’

>

‘Did she sound just the tiniest bit bossy…? Like a lecturer? Nah, probably just my imagination.’

Scott cleared his throat, and then scratched his head embarrassed, as he recalled that he didn’t need to use his voice.

‘Brianna. Who created the…System?’

>

‘Welp. I expected as much, but had to try.’ Scott thought. ‘Hmm, she did say ‘at this point’. Does that mean she might…at some point?’

Scott discarded the matter mentally and proceeded onto the next question.

‘Brianna…why cannot you provide me with a large amount of attributes and make me the strongest person of this realm from the start?’

>

Scott realized the System had some severe information lock-down done on it…probably by Hraxanthus.

He found himself reluctant to ask the rest of the questions since he assumed most of them will be met by the ‘This is need to know, and you don’t need to know’ speech. In the end, he ended up asking something else.

‘Brianna, is there a time limit to your presence in my…being?’

>

Scott, who was leisurely laying down near the tree, shot up like an arrow leaving the quiver. He forgot that he did not have to shout out loud.

“What?! You mean I still have a chance to complete my …retribution? I have a chance to undo what occurred? How? Tell me now! NOW?!”

Brianna was completely unperturbed by this sudden outburst.

>

Scott was going to ask the next obvious question but he was a smart guy, and held himself back.

‘Let me guess, if I ask you about that, I guess you won’t be able to tell me, because at this point of time you can’t divulge that information?’

Scott could almost, almost ‘hear’ amusement in Brianna’s voice.

>

‘Yeah…definitely sarcasm, no matter how ‘neutral’ you may sound, Brianna’. Scott thought to himself but decided to let the matter rest. At least now he had the confirmation that all his effort wasn’t just a big pile of waste. He decided to conclude the questioning, so that he could leave this weird place. He still hadn’t heard a single sound except for his own voice, in this forsaken glade.

‘Very well Brianna. I have no more questions about the System.Can I know how you…us…uh, we…are supposed to leave this place? I am not even sure where we are.’

Brianna was quite prompt in her reply.

>

Duh, Scott thought.

‘I do, Brianna. What is the first quest?’

>