Wait, System! Stop Helping The Protagonist!

"Argh... my body..." Opening his eyes, Ashton moaned. His immobile body began to function.

Cough! Cough!

Ashton coughed, spraying out the remaining blood inside his mouth.

"Oh, the hero is awake." Lovia’s snicker flowed into Ashton’s eyes. He raised his head and saw Lovia and Anastasia looking down upon him.

While Lovia was snickering, Anastasia’s face was gloomy.

Anastasia growled at Ashton, seeing his eyes finally open. "Is this what you call ’you have a way’? No one would do a stunt as stupid as yours!"

"Hehehe." Ashton laughed to himself. "It’s nothing. I am doing it for everyone’s safety. I mean it is my job."

Inwardly, Ashton thought. ’Don’t mind me, I have to rush the Filth Drop.’

The reason he felt this way was because the system doesn’t issue him anything unless something affects its agenda, and its agenda is maintaining the core plotlines. Therefore, if the system issued him a task, he was mostly aware that an external influence was likely trying to hinder the plotline.

So if he followed the original plotline, it would take very long to complete this Filth Drop. An example being this clearance of the Sharp Bumpers field. It would take two days of trial and error before Rias and Anastasia wipe this place out.

"Fine, fine. Don’t ever do anything like that ever." Gritting her teeth, Anastasia reprimanded Ashton.

"I promise I won’t, Miss Anastasia." Ashton stood up and bowed.

At that moment, Rias arrived. "Hey, you are awake. Come fast and kill your spoils of war."

Ashton followed the direction Rias pointed and saw a small pile of Sharp Bumpers with their legs cut off.

With just one glance, Ashton found the number of Sharp Bumpers they left for him, and it made him confused. He counted forty-one before he lost consciousness, and they are now offering him fifteen.

"Ummm, why give me so many? If we split evenly, I shouldn’t get that much." Ashton expressed his confusion.

Lovia covered his cover to hide her laugh. She chuckled and said. "Because without you we wouldn’t be able to clear these guys so easily. So we each gave a proportion of our share."

"Yes, you earned it. That was pretty amazing." Rias gave genuine praise.

Ashton became embarrassed. He rubbed the back of his head and said. "Thank you, guys, but it is my duty to protect you guys, especially Miss Anastasia, or I might not be alive to see the sunrise of tomorrow."

"Stop it, guys, or his ego will inflate." Anastasia scoffed, ordering Ashton. "You go quickly kill those things; we have more things to do."

Ashton didn’t react to her in retaliation, as he was also looking forward to killing Filths for the first time. Taking out his sword, he poked his sword through every Sharp Bumpers head, returning them to their mother’s embrace.

Green specks of light continuously flowed inside his Life Ring, almost filling half of the inner ring.

Ashton closed his eyes as the increase in strength coursed through his body, healing the wounds he just inflicted on his body.

"Truly game-like." Ashton muttered softly under his breath before looking back.

"Did anyone get anything other than Life Essence?" Ashton asked, mainly towards Lovia.

"Nothing." Lovia shook her head and so did others.

"Oh, I also got nothing. Maybe these were too low-level, so they didn’t drop anything." Ashton rubbed his chin, pondering aloud. Secretly, he took a glance at Rias. ’Brother, why are you hiding? I thought we were getting along very well. Is there any reason to hide the 10% penetration increase you got? I was right. Looks like this guy will only tell his deep secrets to his female leads unless you have deep trust and a bond as close as a family’s.’

"Okay now that everything is sorted out. Do the same formation; we will be entering the tower." Ashton looked at the tower, his eyes gleaming with mysterious light. "There might be more annoying and stronger Filths inside."

Everyone nodded their heads and went into the formation.

They entered through the tower entrance that could fit more than ten people at once and whose height was double that of a normal human’s.

Simultaneously, they looked up and saw the tower was hollow. No floor or staircase to reach the top. A thick chain that would take two people to hug entirely was connected to the top of the dome and penetrated deep underground. They looked to their left and saw a moldy staircase leading to the basement was visible.

"Who makes a tower like this? Using a chain as a pillar." Anastasia grumbled.

Ashton paid no heed to her as he cautiously led the team into the basement.

They carefully took every step as the floor was slippery, making it easy to lose balance.

"Who lit these marshals?" Rias was surprised to see marshals burning, lighting up this narrow staircase. However, in this Filth Drop, where there are no humans, who could maintain the well-being of a tower, and if they could, then why did they leave the staircase filled with moss?

Anastasia marveled as she answered his question. "My father said this is the rule of the Discarded Realm. You have to understand, the Discarded Realm holds not only death but also the death of a place too. Every time a significant part of the world is destroyed by man-made disaster or natural disaster, the Discarded Realm would steal that place and its people."

Rias’s eyes widened in shock. "It also takes the death of a place? So you are telling me we are exploring a piece of land lost in history?"

"Yes."

"So you can also find your dead grandparents and parents?" Rias spoke with his voice quivering.

"Rias." Lovia held Rias’s hand tightly, looking at him with concern.

"...Yes." Anastasia paused before nodding her head.

Rias’s face returned to its cold state with anger visible in his eyes. Just the thought of someone killing his parents and his clansman made his blood boil. Right now someone could be looting the village he held dear to his heart!