My Scumbag System-Chapter 292: Charity is the Sharpest Blade

The emergency beacon’s light pulsed through the darkness like a dying heartbeat.

My team formed up behind me, weapons ready, faces grim. We’d just carved through an entire wing of this nightmare dungeon in record time. Victory was within our grasp. The Boss Chamber waited somewhere ahead, unguarded, uncontested.

And now this.

"Well," Raphael said, cracking his knuckles with a sound like snapping twigs. "Looks like the silver-spoon brigade ran into something they couldn’t buy their way out of."

Nobody laughed.

Through the translucent resin wall that separated our wings, I could see shapes moving in the Sentinels’ corridor. Not the ordered formation they’d marched in with. This was chaos. Bodies scattering like roaches when you turn on the lights.

"Juan." My voice came out flat. "What exactly triggers those beacons?"

He was already checking his datapad, fingers moving with an urgency I’d never seen from him before. "Catastrophic team damage. Multiple casualties. Or..." He swallowed. "Imminent total party wipe."

Emi made a small sound beside me. Not quite a gasp, not quite a whimper. Something in between that spoke of hope dying.

"So they’re getting slaughtered," Skylar observed, her tone clinical. "Tragic. Anyway, boss chamber’s this way."

She jerked her thumb toward the eastern passage. The path we were supposed to take. The path that led to victory, glory, and those sweet, sweet Schema Points.

Nobody moved.

They were all looking at me.

Oh.

Right.

I’m the commander now.

Seven people had followed me into this hellhole because I’d told them we would win. They’d killed and bled and fought through horrors because I’d promised them victory.

Now they were waiting for me to tell them what to do next.

"Let them die," Raphael said, stepping forward. His amber eyes burned with a vindictive fire that I recognized all too well. "Those stuck-up bastards called us trash. They said we didn’t deserve to be Hunters. If they can’t handle a C-Rank gate, they deserve to wash out."

"That’s..." Emi trailed off, her blue hair plastered to her face with sweat and dungeon moisture. "That’s not... we can’t just..."

She looked at me. Searched my face for something. Mercy, maybe. Heroism. The kind of nobility that fairy tales promised and reality never delivered.

I kept my expression blank.

"But they’re dying, Satori." Her voice cracked on my name. "We can hear them screaming. We can’t just stand here and..."

She didn’t finish. Because deep down, she already knew the answer, didn’t she?

Heroes saved people because it was the right thing to do.

I wasn’t a hero.

Isabelle stepped forward, her wine-red hair catching the bioluminescent glow. Her spear rested against her shoulder with casual menace, and her voice held all the warmth of a corporate merger.

"This isn’t a debate club," she said. "You’re the commander. We have the lead. The Boss Core is uncontested right now. Every second we waste here is a second the Sentinels could use to recover and steal our victory."

She paused, letting that sink in.

"Helping them means risking our objective. Risking our lives. Risking everything we’ve fought for." Her red eyes met mine, steady and unwavering. "Whatever you decide, my spear follows."

One by one, they nodded.

Natalia. Her purple eyes promised violence regardless of my choice, as long as she got to stand beside me when the blood started flowing.

Skylar. That lazy smirk on her face, like she already knew what I was going to do and found it entertaining either way.

Hikari. Still smiling that unsettling smile, her flail dripping with ghoul ichor, eager for more regardless of the target.

Soomin. Trembling slightly, clutching her gauntlets, but nodding anyway.

Juan. Looking like he’d rather be literally anywhere else, but too lazy to voice an objection.

The screaming from the other side of the resin wall grew louder.

My mind started running calculations. Cold. Logical. The kind of thinking that had kept me alive in my previous life.

Option One: Walk away.

The Quest was clear. Trial by Slaughter. Secure the Hydra-Lich’s Core before the Argent Sentinels. If I left them to die, I won by default. Three hundred SP, guaranteed. No risk. No complications.

The Sentinels had the same training we did. Better gear. Better resources. Better everything, if you listened to them talk. Why should I risk my people for their incompetence? They wouldn’t do the same for me. Julian would step over my cooling corpse without a second thought if it meant protecting his precious reputation.

Not my circus. Not my monkeys. Not my problem.

Option Two: Play the hero.

I could almost hear Apollo laughing in my head. The sadistic sun god would love this, wouldn’t he? The drama. The tension. The narrative potential.

But that wasn’t what made me hesitate.

Think bigger, Satori. Think like the scumbag you are.

If the Sentinels died here, I won the competition. Sure. Great. But then what? The VHC would investigate. Questions would be asked. Why didn’t the other team help? Why was there a catastrophic failure? The political fallout would be messy, unpredictable.

But if I saved them...

I didn’t just win the dungeon. I won the story. I owned them. Every single survivor would know, for the rest of their lives, that they were breathing because I allowed it. Julian Valerius, the golden prince who’d threatened to crush me, would owe me his pathetic existence.

Imagine the look on his face. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The thought was intoxicating.

And then there was the Quest bonus. The one I’d almost forgotten about in the chaos.

[The Alpha’s Charity]: During the final Boss encounter, you or a member of your designated Onyx Hounds squad must intervene to save an Argent Sentinel from a life-threatening blow.

The System wanted this. It wanted the drama. The gods of war had sponsored this little adventure, and what better show of dominance than mercy from a position of absolute strength?

The reward flashed through my memory. [Apex Predator’s Presence]. A trait that would make weaker wills submit and stronger wills recognize me as a genuine threat.

Too good to pass up.

Besides, I thought, a smile tugging at my lips, the strong have a duty to protect the weak. Even when the weak are arrogant, silver-spoon idiots who deserve everything that’s happening to them.

The smile widened.

Especially then.

"We’re moving forward," I announced.

Raphael’s grin split his face. "Hell yeah. Boss chamber, here we—"

"Into their wing."