Baby System: I'm the Beast World's Only Hope!-Chapter 174: Episode : Get me Home!

Roxy, on the other hand, sat on the edge of the giant shell bed, just sitting there as if life had been drained out of her again.

The last time she was like this was when her mother locked her in a room just because she disobeyed her.

For the first time since falling into this world, the fire in Roxy’s belly had gone out. All her sass, her boldness, her grit, and the determination to build a kingdom, it all felt like one stupid ass dream she once had.

She felt stranded.

She looked down at her hands. They were pale and wrinkling from the humidity. There was dirt under her fingernails, dirt from the cave floor. Her hair, usually silky and smelling of lavender soap, was a tangled, salty mat that clung to her neck. She felt gross and small.

The sea wasn’t built for her body.

Wasn’t there like a place where she could wash, even inside the ocean?

But the physical grime was nothing compared to the pain in her chest.

Her breasts were hard as stones, hot and throbbing. Her body was producing milk for a baby that wasn’t there. Every throb was a physical reminder of her failure.

Tanith, Roxy thought, and the name tore a sob from her throat. My little glitter bomb.

She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her shins, rocking back and forth.

"I’m so stupid," she whispered to the empty cave. "I’m so, so stupid."

Why had she walked into those bushes? Why hadn’t she taken Ren with her? Why had she been so arrogant to think that just because she was the supposed ’Queen’ and had a System, she was invincible?

You are such a fucking dumbo, Roxy.

Very dumb.

She cursed herself.

She replayed the moment on the cliff over and over. Alice’s face. The push. The fall. It wasn’t an adventure anymore. It wasn’t a romance novel. It was her tragedy.

The NPC that got kicked out by the main character.

I would have liked it if I had seen her end with my own eyes.

For the first time since meeting Caspian, the thought of intimacy didn’t spark a flicker of heat in her, even though, knowing herself, she would have been drooling for the merman, her curiosity about wanting to know what sex would feel like with him.

But her libido was dead. The idea of sex felt alien, trivial, almost insulting. All she wanted was to hold her daughter.

"She’s going to forget me," Roxy whimpered, pressing her face into her knees.

The thought was a poisonous dart. Tanith was a baby. Her memory was forming now. If Roxy was stuck down here for months... years... Tanith would grow up. She would take her first steps. She would say her first word. And she would look at Kaelen or Syris and call them Mama.

Wait, that was fucking weird. A laugh, the same as a cry, bubbled in her throat.

Roxy would just be a ghost story. The mother who left.

"They were all sensitive, and it would just be like when I left Drax, but the difference was, I didn’t have anything to communicate with them," Roxy cried softly, the tears soaking her seaweed bandages. "They will think I abandoned them."

And this time, it’s not the system fucking fault, but mine...

She squeezed her eyes shut, picturing the nursery.

Thank God for Kaelen. She knew there were crates of high-grade formula and preserved milk in the storage.

She knew Syris could handle the nutrients. Her babies wouldn’t starve. But they would hunger for her. And she was starving for them.

The depression settled over her like the crushing water pressure outside. It was a physical weight, pinning her to the bed. She didn’t want to move. She didn’t want to eat. She just wanted to dissolve into sea foam and drift away.

The light of the system flashed in front of her.

Roxy didn’t look up. She ignored it. She didn’t want to talk to the System.

The blue window forced itself into her vision, glowing softly against her closed eyelids.

[GodofRomance: Oh, sweetie... please don’t cry like that. It’s breaking my heart. Your affection stats are plummeting.]

Roxy sniffled, wiping her nose on her arm. "Go away," she croaked mentally. "I don’t want to hear it."

[GodofWar: You have not failed, Warrior. You survived a fall that would have killed a Titan. You are enduring the crushing dark. This is endurance.]

[GodofRomance: They love you, Roxy. I can see their threads from up here. Zarek is tearing the world apart. Torian is guarding your cubs like a demon. They won’t forget you. Love like that doesn’t just fade because of a little distance.]

Roxy scoffed.

"A little distance?" Roxy laughed bitterly, a jagged sound. "I’m seven miles down, you celestial idiots. I’m in a fishbowl, and love is just a waste of anyone’s time, and can easily die down."

It had happened to her not once, not twice, but almost all her life on earth.

[TheWorldbuildingGod: The bond between a Magical Beast offspring and the Mother is not merely psychological. Tanith shares your intelligence, your beauty, and your hair. Drax is ten times stronger than any normal dragon thanks to your bond.]

Roxy sniffled as she quietly read.

The text scrolled slowly, calm and precise.

[TheWorldbuildingGod: They cannot forget you. Even if you are gone for a decade, the moment you step back into their range, they will recognize you. It’s like a Soul-Print.]

Roxy stared at the words.

The Soul-Print.

It wasn’t a warm hug. It was a cold, hard fact. And somehow, that was exactly what she needed. It was a hope that she was going to desperately cling to.

"They won’t forget?" Roxy whispered, her voice trembling.

[TheWorldbuildingGod: Impossible. It is hard-coded.]

[GodofRomance: See? Even the nerd agrees! You’re the Mama, Roxy. The Alpha Female. Now, dry those eyes. You look like a pufferfish.]

Roxy pouted.

A fresh wave of tears hit her, but these weren’t from despair. They were from relief. A tiny, fragile thread of hope.

"Thank you," she sobbed, burying her face in her hands again. "Thank you."

She sat there for a long time, letting the reassurance wash over her. She allowed herself to grieve, but the panic of being forgotten began to recede.

She wiped her face. She took a deep, shuddering breath. She was still trapped. She was still aching. But she was still their mother.

A new window popped up, overriding the chat log.

[New Main Quest Triggered!]

Roxy blinked, staring at the text.

[Quest Title: The Voice of the Deep.]

[Context: You are trapped in the Abyssal Zone. The King of the Merpeople has kept you as his pet. You cannot swim out, or you might die from the pressure.]

[Objective 1: Gain the Absolute Trust of Caspian.]

[Objective 2: Find a way to send a message to the Surface to give rest to your mates.]

[Rewards: 1. Survival. 2. 1,000,000 LP. 3. Unlock: Aquatic Breathing (Passive Trait).]

Roxy read the mission.

She read it again. The sadness that had paralyzed her a moment ago shifted. It curdled. It heated up.

The System was treating this like a fucking level. Like a puzzle.

She wasn’t in the mood for games. She wasn’t in the mood for ’Quests.’ Rage, hot and sudden, exploded in her chest.

"Don’t fuck with me, System!"

She grabbed a golden goblet from the pile of treasure Caspian had left and hurled it at the wall. It clanged loudly, denting the metal.

"Gain his trust?!" she yelled at the blue window floating in the air. "Why do I have to fucking do that!"

[... Wasn’t that what you wanted to do before?]

The system was kind of confused now.

She breathed heavily, her hair wild, her eyes burning with a mixture of fury and desperation.

"Why don’t you fucking give me a way to get out of this ocean!" Roxy screamed, her voice cracking. "Give me a submarine! Give me a teleporter! Stop giving me side quests and get me home!"