Patty's entire body was still hurting like heck, but at least the system removed all of the fatal injuries that would have killed him. He finally found the reason why the system was so sure that he wouldn't die from the Fiendish Armament. It turned out it had this kind of last resort.
If he could buy Yi Power using energy, if he could buy Summon Scrolls using energy, then it wasn't that impossible to think that he could use energy to heal his wounds. It seemed that the only reason why he didn't see this from the system store was because he wasn't injured back then, so the option of healing himself was hidden.
The system knew that and was able to win the bet with Patty. He didn't die, so the system didn't have to give him the super power that he wanted.
Now, Patty was suffering pain on his neck, his chest, his lower back, and his butt from the direct contact with the Fiendish Armament. Not only that, the majority of the skin on his back was still burnt from all the electricity discharged by the weapon. This was the worst kind of pain because the nerve endings on his skin were healed by the system, which only intensified the pain he was already experiencing.
If a nurse were to ask him to rate his pain, he would say 100, to which the nurse would reply: 'sir, the scale only goes up to ten.'
But that was how much pain he was feeling. The smugness he can feel from the system was not helping. He just knew that the system was smiling at him right now, while he was writhing in pain. He even guessed that the system only healed him up to a point where the injuries still hurt, but it couldn't kill him anymore. It was retaliating at Patty's attempt to blackmail it and get a free power without doing anything.
His spine might have been repaired after being broken into two, but he still couldn't move. Each time he tried to flex his legs and move his little toes, a sharp pain from the bottom of his spine would make him scream out in pain and make him lose the urge to move.
"...Wh…why did…why did you have…to do this…"
Out from beyond the wall, Patty heard Grammo's strained voice.
"Let me ask you this. Why do you want to sing?"
Griff answered back.
Patty could hear everything they were talking about. Even when he couldn't see Griff, he could still feel the anger in his voice. He was berating Grammo's decision to stubbornly pursue his dream even if he wasn't fated to be a singer.
"Is it because you feel guilty? Is it because you know that your sister was the one who should have lived instead of you?"
And then Patty listened as Griff spilled out one of Grammo's most hidden secrets, the most vulnerable part of himself. He didn't want to listen at first because Grammo didn't want anyone to hear it. But he couldn't help but listen. He couldn't help but feel sorry about what happened to Grammo and his sister.
"How does it feel, Grammo? How does it feel to be the one who got your sister killed?" Griff shouted at him.
And even when it was all silent, Patty could feel the tears flowing from Grammo.
Patty could feel the tremendous guilt just burrowing inside of Grammo's psyche. Grammo was feeling all of the sin of having killed his own beloved sister. Patty could feel the regret in his voice. Patty could feel how much Grammo wanted to rewrite history and just push her to the escape pod instead of him; let her live instead of him. He knew that Grammo would give up his life, his very being, and his soul just to see her one last time.
"Why do you persist in trying to sing, Grammo? Is it your twisted way to replace your sister? Do you feel guilty for her death, that now you feel as if you deprived the world of its heavenly gift?"
"But no matter how hard you try to become a singer, you will never be as good of a singer as your sister!"
"...N…No…I…want..to…reach…my..sister..from…the..after…life.."
And now Patty finally knew the reason why Grammo wanted to sing. It was a noble dream that any person who had ever lost someone would want to dream. And even though Grammo never showed it, Patty could see that beneath everything around him, he was still essentially a little brother who only wanted to be with his big sister. And Grammo would do anything, prove the impossible to be possible, go against all odds, just for a chance for her to hear him sing.
Patty felt the blood rush to his head when he heard Griff's lackeys making fun of Grammo's dream. Patty was never a big believer of Grammo, he didn't hide his feelings whenever he thought that Grammo was bad at singing. But he would never ever make fun of his dream. He was too lazy to care about what someone wanted to do. Hearing someone else make fun of the reason for someone's dream was something only an eager beaver would do. It was an affront to Patty's lazy self.
"I will destroy this last remnant of your dreams and wake you up to reality."
Then Griff destroyed Grammo's guitar, effectively removing all of his paths to his dream.
"Because of you, the greatest and most talented singer that would have reached heights no one had ever reached before, died as the moon exploded into bits. She used her own escape pod to let you live."
Even when he didn't know who she was or what her story was, he couldn't help but commend her for her bravery and her sacrifice to protect the ones she loved. She must have also been lazy too, Patty thought. After all, she was lazy enough to just willingly stay on the moon knowing fully well that it was going to be destroyed. If the Earth was getting destroyed too, then Patty would also just stay in his house.
But he couldn't accept what Griff had done. He had crossed the line.
"...help…" Grammo muttered.
As soon as he heard that, Patty sighed to himself. He knew what he had to do. "I didn't want to do this, but…"
Patty summoned the rest of his strength and slowly pulled himself up from the rock. As for the pain that was shooting through his brain and signaling his body to stop pushing his limits, he simply just got too lazy to feel it.
Like an old man, Patty used the rock to prop himself up and stand on his own two feet. His legs were shaking and his balance was just a small breeze away from being toppled over, but he still summoned up all of his will power and stayed his ground. Even when his entire body was giving up on him, he still took another step forward.
When Grammo asked for help, the bro code stated that the friend shall always come to the rescue.
Failure to do so would result in a loss of dignity by the friend. Patty was simply too lazy to lose dignity and have to gather all of that back up, so he had no choice but to help Grammo right now. He was just being lazy, of course.
Even if the system didn't help him, then he would defeat Grammo and his lackeys all by himself.
"No one will help you with your dream, no matter how much you want it." And as soon as Griff said those words, Patty felt the system heat up inside his body. It was like Griff said a trigger word that had the system angry and furious.
{Mission}
{Requirement}
• Take a step forward
{Reward}
• SSS+ class skill
Patty didn't even have to do anything as the system notified him of his success
{Mission Completed}
{Reward}
• SSS+ class Gluttonous Adephagia skill
It looked like Griff really pissed off the system. Because after that, it gave him a really sassy mission requirement.
{[Mission]}
{[Requirement]}
• Beat those annoying, chatty, and ANNOYING bullies till they learn their lessons
{[Reward]}
• Your dignity
• 10 Yi Power
Patty smiled when he saw the mission. He didn't know that the system had this kind of personality before. It looked like the system now had nothing to hide after Patty figured out that it had a mind of its own. Now, it was even giving him missions because it was really annoyed at Griff and what he did.
"You know, system. You ain't so bad after all. I think this is the first time the two of us have ever agreed with each other. If you keep this up, then maybe I do you a favor or two next time."
The system kept silent, but he could feel that it was raring to go against Griff.
"Well, let's go beat those bullies up."