A giant spider slowly crawled towards the antiheroes.

It was pitch black, about 5 meters long, and had extremely hairy legs and 8 blood red eyes that seemed to be feasting on Garett and the other party members who were trapped in the web.

Samantha seemed to be staring at this spider in shock,

"Why does this always happen to us!??! WHY DO WE KEEP GETTING IN THESE RIDICULOUS SITUATIONS!!!?!?!"

Trevor let out a slight chuckle as he heard Samantha complaining.

"Did you think for even a second that I was not prepared for something like this?"

"What!?", Samantha responded.

Garett stared at Trevor. The limbs of all four party members were stuck to the cobwebs, however he could almost see Trevor pushing up his glasses, and he felt an extreme confidence coming from him.

"What do you mean by that?", Garett asked.

"Tell me this, Red. From the day we stepped foot in this world, has there ever been a time where we have been able to let down our guard?"

Garett ran through his memories. Even in the slime village, if they had not been prepared and intimidated the lizardmen, they would likely have been killed. There had not yet been a place where they were allowed to relax.

"Not that I know of."

"Exactly."

"What does that mean?? Why are you so confident?", Samantha asked frantically.

"Sigh. This is the reason why you are so useless, woman. It's because you're a filthy optimist."

"What!?"

"In an unpredictable situation, who is better off? The optimist or the pessimist?", Trevor asked, this time directed towards Samantha.

"What do you mean!? Of course it would be the optimist! Isn't that obvious? The optimist would see the light of hope... or something like that... and be able to press onward without fear and accomplish their goals..."

"That could not be further from the truth."

Garett knew where Trevor was going with this.

"Optimism is a cancer to society. A danger to the hard working. A disease that sprouts and spreads fast, with no cure aside from suffering and death itself."

The spider had stopped moving. Perhaps it was interested in their conversation.

[You all certainly seem to be relaxed in this situation where I am about to consume you.... I can already smell the fresh blood.... which one shall I dissect first?]

"You be quiet. I'm trying to teach my party member a valuable lesson here.", Trevor snapped at the spider.

[WHAT!?]

The spider's mouth seemed to dip into a frown, and it seemed to be seething with rage, however it calmed itself quickly.

[No, no. I, the great Rlyth cannot allow myself to be angered by a mere piece of food... however what you are saying is intriguing. I will at least allow you to finish before consuming you...]

"Of course. If you didn't allow me to finish then I would have missed the opportunity to teach my comrade such a valuable lesson.  She is an idiot, but perhaps even someone as dumb as her will learn in an insane situation like this. This is why I have allowed such a situation to come about."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Trevor was speaking as if it was all his plan to be captured.

Did he really anticipate this, or was this another bluff to anger the spider?

[Grr!! You test my patience, elf! Finish your words quickly before I change my mind!]

"Sigh. Blue. As I was saying, optimism is a cancer. The optimist will always assume that the glass is half full, over half empty. What does this mean? It means that they will not take the time and effort to refill the glass, because there is still half remaining. 'Half full is enough to survive on. There is no need to refill it'. The pessimist, on the other hand, will see the glass half empty, and think 'what the hell is this. Who drank half of this? There's no way that I could possibly survive on only half a glass. I had better refill this before I no longer am able to"

"Oh! I think I see!"

"Similarly, in a life or death situation, the optimist tends to think 'everything will turn out fine. Everything will be alright. Optimism is equivalent to making an excuse for not doing anything to prevent the worst case scenario from happening, by denying that it will happen."

"Pessimism, on the other hand, is the preparation for exactly the worst possible scenario. Red, you should know as a gambler. What do you say on this?" Trevor addressed Garett to speak.

Garett smiled devilishly. His fangs flashed and his eyes became red with bloodlust as he thought about the excitement of the unknown- as he deciphered all the possible 'worst case scenarios' and analyzed them.

"There is of course, no such thing as bad luck. There is only an inevitable bad result.", Garett replied.

"Meaning?"

"If one is to continuously gamble money away, there is a 100% chance that they will eventually lose everything. This is one of the laws of probability. However, if one knows and expects this, this will allow them to prevent such a thing from happening."

"What do you mean by 100% chance? Isn't it supposed to be random? Are you sure you're not being too pessimistic here?", Samantha inquired.

"No, he is right.", Ashley responded monotone.

"If you keep betting everything even with a 99% chance of winning, you'll eventually hit that unlucky 1% and lose everything. That is why so many people end up losing money to gambling in the first place- because they don't realize this. They think they can win all the time, and continue to press their luck. You have to be prepared to lose some- if not most of the gambles you take"

"At least we seem to have one woman who is capable of thinking.", Trevor stated.

"Now then. I think we should revise our goals slightly... we told the determined that we would become warriors of justice, no? In my opinion, part of this justice will include removing all optimism from this world."

Trevor began to chuckle as he said this.

"A world without optimism.... heh heh heh.... now that would surely be a beautiful sight to behold..."

The lips of Garett and Ashley slowly curled up as they imagined such a world.

A world without the naive.

A world where nobody was deceived into some sort of just ideal that was impractical.

A world where everyone saw others as they were, and not as they appeared to be.

A world where doubt ruled the thoughts of all people.

Even if this world was not ideal, even if it may be filled with tension and hatred, there would be no suffering.

Because nobody would allow anyone to take advantage of them.

Everyone would be able to calmly and rationally consider all possibilities. However, in order for such a world to maintain balance, a leader would be needed.

An absolute dictator would be necessary.

To make the people live in fear of the worst. To ensure that the decisions of each person were made from a competent logical process, as opposed to an emotional appeal.

However, this fear of the worst is very different from the terror of rule.

As a matter of fact, it is quite the opposite.

The people would fear those who ruled them, certainly, however they would not fear the rule itself, but rather, going against the rule.

The world that the antiheroes wished to create, was one where they stood at the top- one where nobody was willing to overthrow them due to fear of them, however also that nobody wished to overthrow them due to the peace and happiness they provided to the everyday lives of people.

One where they were looked upon by those who craved power and wealth with dissent, due to the inability to raise ones status in such a world,  and one where those same people would not have the ability to fight back due to their powerlessness against the absolute rule. One where those who were naive and idealistic would view them as evil, however have no grounds to speak badly of them upon, as the people lived in peace. And most importantly, a world where the average person- the hard worker- who understood the difficulties of life and the impracticality of perfection- would view them as 'the best alternative to perfection'.

Their ideals were exactly non idealism.

The antiheroes wished to create a world where idealists were unable to say anything due to the impracticality of their views, and at the same time, things would be as close to ideal as possible.

[Have you finished speaking yet]

"Oh, I'm sorry. I seem to have kept you waiting. How inelegant of me as a professional. Perhaps I should offer you a formal apology?", Trevor said sarcastically

[Hm. You seem to have some interesting views, however they will die with you. I will not allow you're death to be quick, elf.]

And with this, the spider began to creep over to the group of tied up antiheroes.

----