For a group of detectives with other cases to do, the team sure loved to hang out to break room. This was what Chief Abby thought, as she passed Xuanji, who had his boots up on the table. The detective was also wearing a very tight, black shirt with ’SOB’ marked across the chest. "I can see your belly Xuanji." He pulled the shirt down.

"It’s hot." Xuanji replied, licking cream off his fingers from the third cold cream sandwich he had just devoured. "What is administration waiting for to fix the A/C?"

A marker cover flew from the across the room, hitting Xuanji on the head. It was thrown by Liwu, who was standing in front of a white board. On the board were all the criteria ideas they had come up with for how systems chose their hosts. The rest of the team members were gathered around another table, sipping cold drinks to cool off.

"Chief," Liwu called out, "We are breaking down the criteria for how systems choose their hosts."

Chief Abby perched on the table, besides Xuanji’s boots. He folded his arms across the chest. "Isn’t this part of a psychology course which all of you are required to take at the Police university?"

"We took the course, but even the lecturer couldn’t explain it. We have theories." Liwu tapped the marker on the white board. "We have chased bad system hosts for years, but we still don’t know the rules. Systems are intelligent programs, they choose according to something. Lin Wan’er had a degree in...." She stopped because a loud fizzy sound filled the room.

Chhhhhhh

As it turned out, Xuanji was opening a soda.

"I hope that is not part of Lin Wan’er’s stock." Chief Abby said brows raised.

Su Jin groaned. "Come one Xuanji...."

"It’s not." Xuanji laughed, shaking the orange can. "This is ordinary soda from the precinct vending machine. You people have no faith in me, and it hurts." He raised the can to Liwu. "Also, you need to stop with this criteria business. You make it sound like a scholarship program. Systems don’t care about morality. They care about fitting. If someone’s ambitions fit with the system’s goals, they are chosen. That’s why a serial killer will wake up with a system that can help them evade law enforcement while someone with an incurable disease lays on a hospital bed, waiting for death."

He Xiao Yi folded his hands. "But fitting alone isn’t enough. Look at the teleportation case. Huo Lingtian wanted revenge so he got a teleportation system that enabled him kidnap the children of his enemies. But, his psyche was fractured. After getting his revenge, he killed himself. How did his system meet its goals in the end? I think more than fitting, we should consider intent. Systems magnify what’s already inside. Good hosts use their systems for good while twisted ones use them for bad."

Liwu scribbled on the board Good vs Bad. "So we are assuming criteria falls into two categories: compatibility and intent. Compatibility is the technical side and intent is the emotional, moral side. So systems don’t distinguish between humans, they just.....attach."

Chief Abby shook his head, stretching his arm out for a piece of powdered donut cake in the open box on the table where Linlin, Xiao Yi and Su Jin were sitting. "You are all dancing around the same fire. Systems are a reflection of human desire. You want to get rich, so you get a system that give you money whether the means are good or bad. You want to spread violence, so you get a weapon creation or summoning system. You are orphan that wants a family, so you get a many children, many blessings system. A healing system finds someone who is desperate to save. Just look at most with those healing systems and you will notice that they are doctors. Good and bad aren’t labels most systems apply. They are the consequences of the host’s choices."

The room grew heavy with silence, with the exception of a chief munching on donut cake and Xuanji sipping his soda.

Liwu scoffed. "That is not true...not entirely. I was born unlucky, so a bad luck system attached itself to me. It was not my desire."

The others nodded, and some even smiled.

"Aha!" He Xiao Yi screamed.

The chief raised his brows. "It was not your desire to have a bad luck system but it was your desire to control your bad luck, if you couldn’t get rid of it. Isn’t that what is happening to you now?"

She bit her lower lip, while Linlin groaned. They couldn’t argue with that. But they still didn’t buy it, not fully.

Liwu broke the quiet again. "We are assuming there is only one reason, but it could be more than one. First: Fitting. Without it, no bond forms. Second: Need. Systems are drawn to desperation. To people at breaking points. Third: Potential. We all know hosts with strong willpower and ambition attract certain types of systems. Four: Environment. Some systems awaken in places saturated with energy, trauma or history."

Linlin raised her hand. "Conflict. At the height of the system wars, we saw more awakenings than we see now."

"That makes it sound like systems are parasites." He Xiao Yi said.

Su Jin countered, "Or catalysts. Parasites drain. Catalysts transform. A bad host becomes a villain, yes. But, a good host becomes a legend. It is the wielder who decides."

"And that brings me to the question: who is in control? Are we in control of systems, or they control us?" Liwu looked around.

This was not a question they had been asked when they were studying at the academy. But of course, reminders were often made, that they were all in charge of their fate.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Linlin shook her head and sucked her teeth. "Of course we control the systems. We are the hosts and they are the parasites. He Xiao Yi was right to call them that."

"I didn’t call them that." Xiao Yi denied. "I said it was what it sounded like. Anyway, why are we discussing this? It is not as if we are going to find the answers. Our relationships with our systems are complicated. We think we are in control but when they give us missions, we jump, say how high, and find ways to succeed in those missions. For some people, if they fail, they are punished. So, are we really control or are we simply surviving?" 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

It was a heavy question, and they all remained silent, thinking about their relationships with their different systems.