By the time I awake, it's relatively late, and training is over for the day. I look around and notice a few others still unconscious from the sparring.

Strange, I see a high proportion of tall people here. I wonder why?

I talk to some staff who are still on duty, then leave, grabbing my bag. There isn't much point in swimming off the island, and I don't have anyone to carry my bag anyway. So today, I'll take the train back.

Trains have become the most common mode of transportation. Before the system came around, cars were the main method, but they were awful with tons of problems. Firstly, accidents. All it took was one lousy driver and your life became endangered. Even if the accident wasn't severe, suddenly your main means of transport is gone for a week.

Not to mention, as technology progressed, cars became really slow compared to other means. Since a car's limiting speed was based on reaction time, speed limits on roads were incredibly low. Still much faster than walking, but slower than the newer trains. Furthermore, when the systems arrived, all arguments against trains ceased. easy energy and new materials with strange properties let trains move faster than ever. railroads became easy to build and maintain with construction based abilities.

See how very awful these things called "cars" are?

With the arrival of super fast, high frequency trains, cars became more for hobbies, or those with mobility problems. The only real vehicles on roads now are Trucks and lorries, which are still widely used for door-to-door transportation.

Despite the fact I live so close to SIT, since SIT is connected directly to a railway station, people much further away can arrive in less time than I can. I like my apartment though, and the walking, so I wouldn't want to move to a more urban area nearer a railway.

I still haven't seen that system.

While I don't want to immediately raise my hopes up, perhaps it left? I think that as I leave the train and start walking back.

As I cross near the park to reach my apartment, I spot the brat gang, playing something on the grass. All members included.

"Its Argus!"

"Hey! Argus!"

"Argus"

"Hello!"

"..."

Yup, its good to see the brat gang acting normally. I wasn't too concerned with what happened the other day, but its good to verify everyone is together again.

I cross the street to talk to them.

As I approach them, an ominous feeling crawls up my leg. I talk to them a bit, and I listen to Colin and the other's recent adventures, which included them finding traces of aliens, evidence of a mysterious agent from the underworld called Scythe, who just took on their next bounty hunting mission, a crow that dropped Colin a threatening letter warning him not to bully girls, and the dissappearence of half a bag of sweets.

As usual, I can't make heads or tails out of any of these, except perhaps the mysterious letter. Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure all of the kids except Colin were in on that one, otherwise someone would of told him that Marie was the obvious culprit.

I bid them farewell and return on my journey home. Then a ringing sounds in my ear.

Something feels wrong with the system's user interface. I immediately check up on the symbolic constellations that orbited appeared to orbit it to find some clue. Specifically, I wanted to find one that looked like a tiny red beach ball.

-THE SUPER VILLAINY SYSTEM-

[Task: Commit a crime.]

[Progress: Completed.]

[Rewards: Small increase in strength, small increase in tenacity, small increase in speed.]

[Rewards Issued]

Wait, what? No, when?

Wait no, actually, how?

Fortunately, tasks come with something like a "more details" option. Nobody really likes to read them, because they read like some legal statement that could be stated in two paragraphs but takes two pages instead. The whole point of them is to be detailed, though, so I guess there's no choice in that regard.

I skim the contents and find what I'm looking for towards the bottom.

[Crime committed: Jaywalking]

[Time: 4 minutes 57 seconds ago]

I re-read.

[Crime committed: Jaywalking]

[Time: 4 minutes 59 seconds ago]

Jaywalking?

I think for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

I don't even know what jaywalking is!

---

I reach the apartment where Kyte and I live, but stop outside the door.

I don't feel like walking in there.

Part of me would like a bit more time alone, just to process what happened. I'm late enough back as it is, however, and it feels more awkward to stand here. So I enter.

Kyte is still playing his MMO. He was up really early playing today, so I can't say I'm surprised.

"I'm back! Whats the number at now?"

"Welcome back. Almost 600"

600 out of 5000. Not actually bad progress for three days.

"You wanna eat soon?"

"Sure. Whats the time?" Kyte looks at the corner of one of his monitors, before answering his own question. "Wow, that's later than I thought. You got back pretty late. Something happen?"

Yes, but the big "something" wasn't what made me late.

"Hang on, let me change first."

"Okay."

I enter my room and start changing out of the S.T.I uniform I'm in.

I can ignore talking about the system, I can just talk about S.T.I and what happened.

Then I stop and think.

Is there a reason not to tell Kyte?

I think deeply about this question.

I mean, wouldn't the whole issue be solved if I just get professional help? bar this "jaywalking" business I haven't done anything wrong. I could meet an expert, as for his guidance, and my life would return to normal instantly. It's not like anyone is going to think I actually am a villian just because I met a villian subsystem, after all.

We are frequently warned about villianous subsystems, so one trying to contact someone can't be too uncommon.

But then, all we are told is to ignore it, and that if we did, it would go away soon.

Here, I start doubting that I should talk about it. I've done everything I've learned about how to get it away, but it hasn't worked.

This subsystem hasn't left.

But regardless, an expert would be different. An expert would of seen a case like this before, right?

My mind ponders.

Well, theres no need to say anything right now.

After much pondering, I decide to postpone the question for a while and do something to get my mind away from these thoughts.

Today is Monday, and Monday is our eat-out day.

Since the system came, food produce was at a high. As long as you didn't go to an actual fancy restaurant, eating out wasn't too expensive.

I put on a brown jumper and some grey trousers, and leave the room to talk to Kyte.

"If you'd prefer, we can eat in today.", I start to say, but Kyte stands up and starts to walk around.

"Nah, nobody's online at this time of day anyway, and I could use some movement."

Kyte yawns and stretches, then continues talking. "Q-burger?"

Q-Burger is the name of a fast food restaurant. It's named after their signature dish, the Q-burger. It's a burger, but it's shaped like a cube. Every ingredient is cut into a perfect square, and when all those ingredients are stacked together, the height matches it's length.

As well as being a novel idea, it gained part of its popularity because of how difficult it is to eat a burger that tall.

I nod.

"Sure."

After a ten or fifteen minute jog, we arrive at  Q-Burgers.

We head into the restauraunt and "Q" up.

Hahahahaha. Oh. Was that not funny? Ok then.

The staff all wear blue caps with a purple "Q" on them. The Queue proceeds extremely fast, and we place our orders.

"Two Q-burgers, two potat0-Q-blocks, one mint flavour ice-Q and once toffee flavour ice-Q"

Potato-Qs were like french fries, except  they were cubes. Also, when served they were arranged in a 5x5x5 grid so each "potato-Q-block" was made of 125 potato-Qs.

Ice-Qs were, well, an icecream in a cube shaped container.

We sit down on one of the square tables in the restaurant and I continue to talk about what happened at SIT while we wait.

"... and then I woke up in the infirmary. I guess I got on his nerves somehow."

I Just finish telling Kyte about Mido, then a waiter sets the food down.

Clink

We each take one of the Q-burgers, and one of the Potato-Q-blocks.

"Oh! By the way, what's jaywalking?"

I ask Kyte, hoping he knows more than I on the matter.

Kyte thinks for a moment, before responding.

"I don't know. What's jaywalking?"

"Ah. Nevermind then. What happened with you while I was gone?"

I choose not to tell Kyte about it, making excuses in my mind.

Its not really the place to have a discussion about it. I'm sure this system thing isn't anything serious, anyway. I'll tell him once its over and we can have a laugh about it then.

So I listen to Kyte talk about the progress he made on his task, and soon it devolves into random talk whist we eat our ice-Qs.

We jog around and do some light exercise outside, but it starts to get dark so we head back.

Its about 7 pm when we return, so Kyte returns to his five monitor array, whilst I go to my room to meditate.

But before I start to meditate, a red spark flies out from my chest.

My nemesis, the red beach ball, appears.

I immediately take half a step back and analyse it.

This should not be happening

I already know faintly what this is, due to the research in system removal I did over the past week.

The more tasks you do for a subsystem, the stronger the link between you and that subsystem becomes. If you are unable to do a task for it, the link remains weak, and the subsystem easily leaves you for a different host. Thats the theory. When the link between you and the subsystem grows, it becomes more easy to recieve tasks from it, and further, it can give you more powerful rewards. Most importantly for me, it becomes easier for the system to find you, and easier for you to find it.

But this is far too soon!

In that book I read, the biography, the architect subsystem physically appears to its host, But it only has the power to do so right before architect Joe started working on his magnum opus-  which happens to be the hero guild headquarters.

But it took years before his subsystem could do that!

-THE SUPER VILLIANY SYSTEM-

[System Update: completed]

[Tasks completed : 1]

[Link strength: 0.2% -> 94.7%]

My eyes widen at the link growth. I am very confident something is wrong with that number. However, if that number is accurate...

I direct my thoughts towards the subsystem; trying to speak to it mentally, one might say.

"Hello?"

[The Super Villiany System greets host Argus Stewart]

It can.

I try again, asking the first question that comes to mind.

"What is jaywalking?"

[Jaywalk: verb; the act of crossing a road outside a designated crossing point. Alternatively, to cross a road in an unsafe manner.]

"Is that illegal?"

[Law on jaywalking has not yet been repealed in this region.]

Not yet Repealed? In other words; it's a law that reasonably would have been abolished by now, but was overlooked?

"Anyway, I'm not going to commit any crimes, so you'd better find someone else to bother."

[But the host just did commit a crime.]

"That one doesn't count! It was a tiny street! I doubt any police officer would even blink at that!"

[The law still applies, regardless of whether it is enforced or not.]

"Well I'm not going to do any more, and I'm certainly not going to do anything dangerous."

[You must!]

"Why must I?"

[Because...]

The subsystem dims for around five seconds, Then it brightens considerably, bobbing up and down.

It gives a reply which I stupidly don't stop to think and consider the veracity of.

[The world will be destroyed if you don't.]