Location: GDD Research Lab

Male 1: "Director Fu, we weren't able to track down the person who found the Xiang Plant. We have studied the lighting conditions of the video and have determined the time of day the discovery was made but the security footage only goes back 1 week so we are still unsure who that person is.

We searched through all the people who attended the park that day and none wore the same clothes as the person in the video."

Director Fu: "What if they changed their clothes after finding the Xing Plant?"

Male 2: "That is why we believed this video must have been filmed a week ago. And we believe that after the discovery that person called their friends to come and dig out that pit. How else would they have enough space to collect the dirt?"

Director Fu: "Fine. Then get a hold of all available security footages of the roads leading to the park during that time frame. Look back to the last 2 months. We need more samples from that plant!"

Forget samples. He wanted the whole plant!

Location: Car Dealership

Todd Lim has always been an opportunist. He has a sixth sense for money making opportunities. A potential client just put in a request for any available EOS.

He called up his betworks and asked them to keep an eye out or even ask owners of EOS on whether they were interested in selling their vehicles.

EOS uses the highest defense tech and even has its own space ring for storage. So far no other car companies are able to land a deal with that technology from Faith Incorporated. The tag price was too high.

Anyway, Todd senses a way to make a lot of money, and he has always trusted his gut.

He had 2 leads today already.

He's going to make a lot of money flipping these EOS.

————

Location: Tang Family

While Aria slept, the Tang family was still busy trying to solve Sherrie's situation and the robbery of their pharmacies in City S. All 23 locations were emptied out. Security video footages outside these locations showed 9 men going in and making multiple trips before they left the same way.

The police had footages of the SUV all outside the robbed pharmacies so they followed up knocking on Sonny Su's doors. They found the car inside the garage and brought him in for questioning.

The Su family was outraged. The Su family came directly to the Tang family's doors. The two families had a not so secret agreement to marry Sherrie and Sonny together to merge their family powers. Now the Tang is blaming City's S robbery on their son's head.

George Su: "Frank Tang! You get those police department to drop the charges against my grandson immediately! Don't think just because your granddaughter is in trouble now with murder charges you can drag our family in with you!"

Frank Tang: "We did no such thing! Our daughter's situation is a misunderstanding and will be dropped. But if your grandson is not involved with the robbery, how come his SUV was seen outside of all the locations one after another? Explain that!"

George Su: "There's nothing to explain. He was out with his friends the whole night with tons of eye witnesses. It wasn't him!"

Frank Tang: "Don't think paying for eyewitnesses will hide your attacks on our family! 23 pharmacies! What are you trying to do?!"

George Su: "It's not us! We are being framed. You must've offended someone you shouldn't and now you pulled us into it too!"

Frank Tang: "We didn't offend anyone! You're the one who's targeting us, a*hole!"

George Su: "How dare you! You will hear from our lawyers!"

————

Location: Li Family

Ken Li: "Dad! Dad? What happened to the 'hot tool' that's supposed to be shipped today? Did Henry ship them out already?"

Ken (Lily's father) peeked his head into the backyard as he asked the Li's head about the inventory. Either Ken or his brother, Keith, would take points with the delivery for their business.

Harvey Li: "No, he is not scheduled today. It's your turn. If you can't even figure out the scheduling correctly maybe I should be considering someone else for your job."

Ken sighed in annoyance. His father was always making barbs like these over any minute mistakes he or Keith makes. But since the head is still young and healthy, Ken just has to bear with it until he decides on his heir. The one to take over the Clan's business.

For City S, it's Keith and himself who takes care of business. For the 3 other smaller cities, the cousins took care of the deliveries. But the Li's head family estate is the main supplier for the Clan.

Ken: "Then why is the warehouse empty?"

Harvey: "It's not empty because you haven't delivered it yet since you're still here talking to me."

Ken: "Dad, it's empty. If you don't believe me, go look for yourself."

Harvey slapped the tablet he was reading down on the coffee table. He gave Ken a disgusted look as they walked towards his study. Stepping down into the warehouse with Ken trailing behind him, he stopped in shock.

The warehouse was empty. At most a large shipment order would empty out a quarter of the inventory, but to have an empty warehouse is unusual and would involve all three Li's of the estate to coordinate shipping details.

Harvey rushed over to one of the doors.

Harvey: "Go check at the 'tool' robots."

The lock scanned his iris and the door unlocked. He pushed open the door and his heart dropped. Grabbing his chest and feeling faint, he leaned against the open door staring listlessly at the empty room.

His gold... His silver...

Turning towards the other door that Ken was checking, he rushed inside disregarding how he looked. He was well known for being calm and collected but now he looked flustered and alarmed.

Coming up from behind Ken's slumped shoulders, he saw the empty "tool" plant.

Everything was gone.

Harvey: "Call Keith!"

————

Location: City Morgue

Male 1: "I'm sorry, there was barely anything left at the scene to collect. The body was completely burnt. As you know, it takes 1-2 hours for a regular body to burn into ash, but your niece was a tiny one so I heard she burnt quicker than the average time.

Oh yes, here are her possessions found at the scene."

The male employees handed over a bag of stuff. A burnt pink phone and a pocket button bracelet.

Edward Xiang winced as he looked down at the broken things in his hands. He doesn't understand why he needed to come to this place just to be handed these types of things.

He doesn't care about Sara Gu's death. In fact, he doesn't care about her at all. The only thing he was interested in was the things left to her from his sister's death.

His sister has always been closed mouth when it comes to her job abs her life. It was by accident one day when he saw her with the president of his company's competitor at his company for a meeting. He asked a coworker who the people were and was told that they were the president of the company and his SVP (Senior Vice President) of technology for space button.

That was when he found out his sister was the genius of space tech that everyone knew of except himself. Digging deeper, he found out his brother-in-law also works for the same competitor in charge of something else equally as important.

That was 5 years ago. He tried multiple ways to get his hands on his sister's works but she was so closed mouth and secretive. He got more and more upset, obsessed with the couple that his work begins to suffer.

An acquaintance from the government branch his company contracts to approached him. After finding a few drinks, Edward poured out his grievances and suspicions about the fact that his sister might have figured out how to increase the size of the space button to any size she wanted. (Don't ask why he found out. He was obsessed with his sister for 5 years so he asked a lot of theoretical questions and came to this conclusion himself. His sister was a genius but he was also very intelligent.)

The two of them planned a scheme that seemed like a "what if" situation to vent his anger and inadequateness.

If his sister and her husband dies, Sara as their main inheritor would get everything. Then automatically the secrets that his sister kept on her at all times would be transferred to her. Then if the little girl dies, everything she has would pass on to him as her remaining last of kin.

They took a napkin and wrote the plan out and signed it and recorded their stupid face smiling at the camera in happiness. Unbeknownst to him, the other man was not inebriated at all.

Edward completely forgot about that episode, or forced himself to forget, until the couple died while overseas on a business trip.

He soon received a text message from the acquaintance asking for a transfer of a few hundred dollars and mentioning the drunk night. Thinking that he owed the guy money, he paid.

The next messages stopped him cold in his tracks. It was a picture of the napkin hit contract, a video recording, and the itinerary for the couple.

Edward emptied his stomach. Freaked our for awhile then calmly planned how to get rid of the evidence. Mainly get rid of the acquaintance.

A year after being low keyed blackmailed, the acquaintance went missing. As for Sara, he didn't care about her at all. He told her if she received anything from her parents that she doesn't understand, she can bring it to him and he could help her decipher it.

She told him she never got anything in her pocket button (because she's a little hoarder and never emptied her space).

Now that she's dead, he inherits her stuff.

Leaving the morgue and throwing away the bag of broken things, he went to his car and emptied out his own space into the back seats of his vehicle. Then he checked his space button again and saw it filled up with Sara's stuff.

Emptying them out in the trunk, he rummaged through her shitty things. Clothes, books, jewelry, etc. all useless things.

Pictures of her parents.

He honestly didn't think Sara had anything of importance from her parents since trade secrets would be under lock and keys at the company. Not carried on individual's space button. He would never have guessed that the couple upgraded their own space buttons themselves and became their own mobile warehouse whenever they travelled.

Deeming everything in the trunk useless, he took everything back and threw them all away at the next dumpster he passed.

He didn't care about Sara's death. His guilt resurfaced again about his sister's death and he pushed the feelings down. He's not responsible for his sister's death either. It was all a misunderstanding and he took vengeance for her right?

Everything is okay.

He killed the person responsible for his sister and her husband's deaths.

No one knows.

He's not a bad guy.

Everything is okay.

No one knows.

————

Location: Systems Communication Wave

S3943: Arthur? Art? What's going on? Why are you so close physically to the host?

Art: What does it have to do with you?

S3943: I'm just curious.

S3944: I'm curious too.

Art: I don't want to be called, "S5" anymore. It doesn't make me feel good. It makes me feel like she doesn't care about me.

S3944: But that's part of our systems id code.

Art: Have you noticed how she treated us? As tools to an end. I know I may not have as much experience as you, S3943, but I don't want to be seen that way. She talks to the brand new fluff ball better than how she treats us.

After a quick analysis, I deemed it's because we are not offering her anything helpful for her to get stronger. Sure, she's using you both to do these tasks that are in preparation for the ZA, but that's all she's using you for. As tools to an end.

S3943: But that's what we are. We are systems. We cannot- no, we are not required to be more than that. I have done many missions and this is how things are done and from talking to others, this has always been the case.

Art: But this situation is not the same as everyone else's. I have never heard of multiple systems occupying 1 host willingly before. S3943, in the previous life, you were alone with your host for years. S3944 and I had one another. We talked a lot. We couldn't communicate with our Zombie King host.

That was our first mission and I honestly can say that I've faced more deaths than you both have. I came into this world and immediately my host became a zombie. I used to think that because I'm a powerful class, I would automatically succeed. But I didn't. I failed miserably.

When Aria mentioned that we can be summoned out once S3944 is strong enough to support us, you don't know how happy I was. I went and searched our company's forums. And other companies' forums. There has never been a case where a host cares enough to allow the system to manifest physically.

S3944: That's true. I've searched as well.

S3943: So what? Why do I feel like I'm being targeted right now? What are you trying to say, Art?

Art: You're not being honest with our host. Our hosts are supposed to trust us, use us, and confide in us. I want that.

S3944: I want that too.

S3943: I also want that.

Art: But you lied to her and she knows. She's guarded against us but especially with you. She paused briefly whenever you provided any information, like at the Li's family. Before she does anything that involves using your abilities, she takes actions to make sure that if you somehow fail or go offline or are no longer in use, she can still survive.

We know the best way to survive with your copy function regarding food is to copy everything at the supermarket. But why is she buying and producing CF and LP first in the E Space and then the G Space, using the original materials instead of your copy versions? Why is she working and planning unnecessarily hard to survive without you???

Because you lied to her. Because she doesn't trust you. Because she knows you don't have her interest at heart like S3944 or I do.

And perhaps she sensed you will eventually betray her.

She has lived over 5 years in the apocalypse. Her experience is as rich as yours. But she didn't have a system then nor was cushioned in a space where she was protected from the physical evils of humanity.

We are all siblings and sure you may have more experience than us. But do you think that you could fool her like how you may have fooled the rest of your hosts?

I've gone through your missions records and noticed that you choose the same type of host every time. Selfish self-serving individuals.

S3943: What's wrong with that? Everyone gets a chance to survive and I happen to know these types are tenacious and will do anything and everything to succeed, upping MY chance of success.

Art: But that doesn't mean it's right. Don't you think the hosts you choose reflects on who you are at your very core? Everyone knows about S1155-

S3944: -who only chose killers as hosts. He grooms them then "encourages" them into becoming serial killers. S1155 always chooses missions with 5 or more participating systems. He had his host killed all of their hosts. This went on undetected for 128 missions. On the 129 mission, a system was forcefully removed from its host and both were tortured by the two accordingly.

The system permanently died.

S3943: I am NOT like S1155!

Art: But you're not innocent either. You straddled the lines between black and white for 67 missions in a row. Perhaps it is now second nature for you to be elusive, calculating, and hiding secrets.

But please remember that there are two other systems on this train with you. You derail it and we all suffer, not just yourself.

S3943: This is all heresy. I have done NOTHING to harm her.

S3944: So far. You have done nothing to harm her so far. Complete your sentence.

Art: But you harmed her in the past.

S3943: When? When?!

S3944: When your host was Dr. Edward Xiang. And you allowed him to hurt her.

---------------------- Author's Notes -----------------------

Okay. Like, I did not expect the systems' conversation to turn out that way, you guys. I thought it would be full of fluff with tons of teasings about Art's new name and how cute he looked.

But that clearly didn't happen.

Ouch. And I also didn't expect S4 to be such a savage at the end. That was a surprise. We can see that Art is clearly the super observant one here. He's smart and able to assess the situation and takes actions when opportunity rises.

S4 is like the middle child, listening before agreeing. He's not an innocent baby since he chose the host that eventually became the zombie king. I can imagine him crying inside helplessly when his host turned and was able to use his summoning ability. He was resigned to his fate but the experience didn't affect him as much as Art's.

Art had a whole shift in his thinking after finding out he wasn't as smart and clever as he thought he was. During the 5 years, he observed and analyzed things around him so his IQ and EQ is quite high.

I know I'm the author and writing these characters but I feel like S3 is such a dangerous wild card. We don't know (I don't know) what she's going to do next. Being accused of being a psychopath is never a good thing. Especially from family members.

But they are family. I think that S4 will be the one to guard her a lot more to protect Aria. Since S3 knows that Art is onto her, it's up in the air on whether or not she will change or become the group's biggest enemy.

I don't know... tsk. You can't choose your family.