My Scumbag System-Chapter 371: This’ll Be Easy

We resumed our trek across the glittering desert, each of us carrying several of the luminescent fruits. The sand beneath our feet no longer felt like it was trying to drain the life from us. Every few minutes, we’d take small bites from the fruit, savoring the rush of hydration that followed. Even Raphael had stopped complaining, which might have been the most miraculous thing about our situation.

"These trees," I said to Monica as we walked. "If they’re prisoners, how are they helping us from so far away?"

She stroked Copernicus’s copper leaves thoughtfully. "They say they’re connected. Not just to each other, but to all plant life in the Arborist’s collection. They call it the ’Great Root’ – like they’re all parts of one organism spread across this entire world."

"And they all want the Arborist dead?"

"Yes," Monica said simply. "They’ve been here for thousands of years, some of them. Taken from their home worlds and forced to grow in patterns he finds pleasing."

"Plants can feel that level of resentment?" I asked, genuinely curious.

Monica gave me a look that made me feel stupid. "Wouldn’t you, if someone ripped you from your home and kept you as a decoration for millennia?"

Fair point.

Ahead of us, Juan suddenly stopped, holding up his hand in warning. We froze in place.

"Movement," he whispered, pointing to a spot about fifty yards ahead.

The sand there was shifting, bulging upward in a pattern too deliberate to be natural. A Harvester preparing to emerge, maybe. Or something worse.

"Celeste," I whispered, "can you freeze that spot?"

She nodded, extending her hand. A blast of frigid air shot forward, instantly crystallizing the sand into a solid sheet of ice. Whatever was beneath gave a muffled shriek that set my teeth on edge.

"Keep moving," I ordered. "Quickly, but quietly."

We skirted around the frozen patch of sand, maintaining our formation. I kept my eyes fixed on the ice, watching for cracks. None appeared. Either we’d killed whatever was coming up, or it had decided we weren’t worth the trouble.

After another hour of careful progress, the terrain began to change. The sand gave way to dark, loamy soil, and sparse vegetation appeared – twisted, thorny bushes with leaves that seemed to follow our movements like curious eyes.

"We’re getting closer to the water source," Monica said, her voice hushed with excitement. "The plants here are... different. Younger. More recently acquired."

"Acquired from where?" I asked.

"They don’t know. They were sleeping when they were taken. Many of them don’t remember their home worlds at all."

I didn’t want to think too hard about what that implied – plants being abducted across dimensions while "sleeping." This whole place felt wrong in ways I couldn’t quite articulate. Like we were walking through someone’s private collection, and each exhibit was silently screaming.

The vegetation grew thicker as we continued, forcing us to move in single file. The twisted bushes gave way to taller plants with bulbous pods that leaked a sweet-smelling nectar. Colorful flowers that snapped shut when we passed too closely. Vines that seemed to reach for us before recoiling, as if remembering some painful lesson.

"Keep your hands to yourselves," I warned the group. "Don’t touch anything unless Monica says it’s safe."

"These ones won’t hurt us," Monica assured me, trailing her fingers along a vine that curled affectionately around her wrist. "They’re afraid of the Arborist, but they’re not dangerous themselves." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"What about those?" Noah asked, pointing ahead.

The path widened into a small clearing, at the center of which stood three plants unlike anything I’d seen before. They resembled enormous venus flytraps, easily fifteen feet tall, with massive jaw-like leaves edged with serrated teeth. Each "mouth" was large enough to swallow a person whole. They swayed gently despite the absence of wind.

"Guardians," Monica whispered after a moment of communion with her copper-leafed plant. "The Arborist placed them here to protect the spring. They... they eat intruders."

"Can you talk to them?" I asked. "Tell them we’re here to help?"

Monica shook her head. "They’re not like the others. The Arborist did something to them. Modified them. They don’t think anymore – they just hunt and consume."

Wonderful. Giant carnivorous plants blocking our only water source. I surveyed our group, assessing our options.

"We need a plan," I said, keeping my voice low. "Ideas?"

"I say we burn them," Raphael suggested immediately. "You’ve got that heat thing. Just torch the whole clearing."

I shook my head. "We need the water source intact. And fire might attract attention we don’t want."

"What if we freeze them?" Celeste offered. "I could try to immobilize them long enough for us to slip past."

"Those things look too big," Juan countered. "You’d exhaust yourself before getting halfway through one of them."

"I could charge through," Jaime flexed his massive arms. "My Star Chain could take them out one by one."

"And if they’re poisonous?" I asked. "Or if there are more than three? We can’t risk it."

We fell silent, each of us trying to come up with a solution that wouldn’t get us killed.

"What about the fruit?" Monica said suddenly. "The Harvesters melted when the fruit touched them."

I considered this. "You think it would work on these guardians too?"

"They’re still plants," she reasoned. "If the fruit is poisonous to the Harvesters because they’re parasites in the Arborist’s garden, maybe it would affect anything else he’s corrupted."

It was worth a shot. I pulled one of the luminescent fruits from my pack, weighing it in my hand. "How’s your aim, Juan?"

He grinned, taking the fruit from me. "I can hit the back wall of a bar from twenty paces after six shots of tequila. This’ll be easy."

I wasn’t sure that was the endorsement he thought it was, but I nodded anyway. "Charge it up. Just enough to make it burst on impact, not enough to vaporize it."

Juan focused on the fruit, his Aspect sending ripples of energy into the glowing sphere. After a moment, he looked up. "Ready."

"Aim for the center one," I instructed. "Right in the mouth."