Mortals tend to group things. People are either good or evil, heroes or villains, men or women. In truth, things were never that clear-cut, but don’t bother explaining that to the mortals. They never listen, so don’t waste your energy. Just choose a gender for yourself whenever you get a new host and stick with it.

That was one of the first piece of advice the system known as Reunion got from older, more experienced systems. Although systems are a superior species, in some ways they were very similar to the other races in the multiverse. For one, the elderly always think they were wiser than the young bucks. They weren’t, and Reunion had chosen to ignore the advice. Thus far, it had worked well.

Reunion changed its shape, gender, and personality every time it appeared before it’s host, and Victor Volkov had handled the changes with aplomb. Reunion knew this was an abnormality. Its current host lived in a super-powered world where shapechangers exist, so he wasn’t surprised by Reunion’s eccentricities. To the people of Nexus, shapechangers were supposed to be weird.

Reunion had to admit it had lucked out getting this world. It was a fun world, and the system hoped its current host would survive for some time. However, the system knew that would not be easy.

Reunion’s current host once called the system a parasite, and he wasn’t wrong. Systems attached themselves to a host, and they could bestow great powers to their host. However, the hosts need to do their part. They need to feed their system.

All systems were born with a geass. An obligation that their host need to fulfil to prove that they were worthy of the powers. The geass is the food and fuel of a system, and by completing the geass, the host gives the system power. In turn, the system would share that power with the host. If everything works out, both the system and the host wins in the bargain. Sometimes, the host is unable to complete their tasks and dies. It’s unfortunate, but it happens. When it does, the system will move on to the next host.

All systems were born with a geass, an obligation that the system need to complete to gain more power. The systems used their hosts but unknown to most, their geass change with age. The rule of thumb is that the younger the system, the weirder it’s geass. As a young system, Reunion’s geass was that its host need to reunite his or her family. Even among the systems, Reunion’s geass was considered strange. However, systems are powerful, and Reunion wasn’t without ways of its own.

That was the reason why it was currently paying attention to a forest just south of the port town of Windscape. A young man in his mid-twenties was standing in front of a ruined building located in the middle of the forest and he was not pleased.

“What a dump!”

Reunion heard Takuma Niwa’s complaint as the young man looked down at a map in his hands. He looked back up at the dilapidated mansion and shook his head in disgust. Reunion saw Takuma press a button on his wrist communicator and a soft Bing sound indicated the connection.

“Takeout Broadcast vendor support, this is Naomi speaking. How may I assist you?”

“Hello, this is Takuma Niwa. I am an outdoor streamer under contact with Takeout Broadcast. I got a problem here.”

“Mr. Niwa, please hold.” Soft music played as Takuma was put on hold. Half a minute later, the vendor support agent named Naomi came back on the line.

“Hello Mr. Niwa, our operating system has sync with your equipment. Voice recognition is possible. I have confirmation that you are Takuma Niwa. How may I assist you?”

“You can assist me by telling me why I am currently looking an abandoned house? I was told this was a former base of a superhero!”

There was a period of silence before Naomi replied. “Mr. Niwa, my system shows that Takeout Broadcast had given you the location of a rumored base formerly used by the superhero Ice Aura. Is that correct?”

“Yes, and I am at the location, but there’s nothing here. Someone had been here before and taken away everything that wasn’t nailed down!”

“Mr. Niwa, are you saying the rumor was true and you had found the base?”

“Well, yes but this place is a dump.”

“Mr. Niwa, please note that Ice Aura retired over a decade ago, and you did find the rumored base. Also, please note that Takeout Broadcast guaranteed the authenticity of the information we provide, but not the truthfulness of it. There is a rumor that Ice Aura had a base in Windblade Forest. If you had found it, this means the rumor was true. Takeout Broadcast does not guarantee the condition of the location.”

“I know that but there’s nothing here. You want me to show my viewers an abandoned building in the middle of nowhere?”

“I am sure your viewers will understand the condition of a disused superhero base.”

“It doesn’t even look like a base. That’s the problem. It looks like someone built a mansion in the forest and then abandoned it.”

“Does that mean you wish to cancel your stream for today? If you do, I can issue a statement to your subscribers.”

Reunion saw Takuma’s face twisted. After a few seconds of indecision, he spoke. “No, that won’t be necessary. I’ll do the broadcast, but I want to make a complain on this. This place sucks!”

“Your complaint has been noted, Mr. Niwa. Good luck with your broadcast.”

Naomi quickly cut the call and Takuma sighed in defeat. “I should had chosen to be a superhero streamer.”

Reunion looked on in confusion as Takuma began setting up his equipment. As the young man prepares for the show, Reunion released her power and spread her existence through the world of Nexus. Leveling up had made Reunion stronger and it trained its focus to gather the needed information. The natives of Nexus knows the truth about Systems, so Reunion was careful to hide traces of her energy, but it didn’t take long for it to gather the knowledge about Takuma Niwa and this world’s streaming industry.