Seized by the System

“Everybody listen up! I’ll be explaining the current situation and the problems we will be facing. Ever since the “Qixi Flame Meteor Incident”, two months have passed and various individuals with supernatural abilities have awakened in Qi City. There have been numerous types, and the methods of awakening were all different too. After two months of hard work, we have a basic understanding of the situations these individuals had awakened under. We can now finally pull in the net.”

In a basement somewhere in Qi City was Qi City’s Special Affairs Liaison Office, and in the office, a top-secret meeting was in session.

Director Mo, despite his thin stature, had taken advantage of the disadvantageous situation and was currently leading the meeting, analyzing the situation and conveying the higher-up’s orders to his underlings.

“Moving on to the situation with these superpowered individuals. Although categorizing them is still a difficulty, for now we can do this according to their rule of thought. Doing so will also benefit the following steps in our job; which would be the launching of Educational Engineering. We’ve roughly categorized their actions to the following four types: 1, types using their abilities to legally earn money; 2, types using their abilities to serve justice; 3, types not using their abilities at all, and 4, types using their abilities to bully/murder the innocent. Our higher-ups have given us a simple way to deal with all four types, which is to support the first type, to limit the second type, to rally the third type and to strike out at the fourth type!”

After his explanation, he flicked the electronic pen in his hand and a PowerPoint slide appeared on the projector screen, hanging by the side of the wall.

On the slide was what Director Mo wanted to continue with.

Skipping the first slide of the PowerPoint, a slide titled “One: Types Using Their Abilities to Legally Earn Money.”

Under the title was a full body shot of a man of average height and chubby stature. His slightly good looks didn’t hide the dullness in his gaze, however.

Next to the photo was the man’s biography that read, “File No.Q432, Confidentiality Level: Top-Secret. Full Name: Fang Ning, Birth Date: December 11th, 1989, Gender: Male, Hobbies: Video games, novels and various electronic devices. Personality: Lazy, easy-going. Supernatural Ability: Enhancement of the taste of food. Life Records Link: XXXX, Fingerprint Code Link: XXXX, DNA Code Link: XXXXXXX, Facial Recognition Link XXXXX, Iris Recognition Link…”

While pointing at Fang Ning’s portrait, Director Mo opened his resume.

His resume showed the explosively popular restaurant chains under his name as well as his accounts, which were enough to leave anybody speechless. And it was only what Fang Ning had achieved in two months after obtaining his supernatural abilities.

“This person is the perfect example of the first type of superpowered individuals. By depending on his ability to enhance the taste of food, he has concocted unique seasonings. Through undercover investigations, we have determined the seasonings as harmless and non-poisonous. Because of the extreme flavor in the seasonings, it has made quite a sweep in the market, beating out a lot of its competitors.

“What is even more surprising is that despite earning so much through using his ability, this Fang Ning has not forgotten himself and where he came from, as he spends most of his time cooped up at home to browse the Internet, play video games or reading novels. He has not squandered his massive earnings through gambling or prostitution, which makes things very easy for our people observing him.

“From his actions, we can tell that he is actively maintaining the peace of current society and is willing to continue doing so.”

Mo Xing’s praises for Fang Ning were of course due to the fact that Mo Xing had no idea about the System’s existence, and that it wasn’t because Fang Ning didn’t like spending money; he just wasn’t allowed to. He may love reading novels and playing video games, but he wasn’t immune to beauty. With a Relief Time of only 30 minutes, which was honestly only enough for Fang Ning to get his mail from his mailbox at the lobby of his apartment, Fang Ning really couldn’t do much without suffering the repercussions of the System.

Of course, Mo Xing at least said something right, Fang Ning was definitely a lazy homebody that didn’t want a war on his doorstep. If society were to crumble, who would continue developing video games or updating his novels for his pleasure?

As Mo Xing continued, he couldn’t help but think of the recent difficulties they had faced and sighed, “My comrades, if all the abilities had awakened in people like Fang Ning, can you imagine how much less we would have to worry about? Not only would we be able to increase Qi City’s GDP, we could also increase the overall happiness of the citizens. With these type of superpowered individuals, our higher-ups have clearly stated that we are to protect them especially. We are to also promote this behavior among other superpowered individuals.”

Hearing this, the others in the room nodded their head fervently. Director Mo’s explanation was easy to understand; the higher-ups weren’t exactly viewing all superpowered individuals as unstable liabilities. As long as the superpowered individuals were not actively destroying societal order and were obtaining benefits legally, the higher-ups would be supportive.

People like Fang Ning, who were harmless contributors were, of course, people who would not be on the news for destruction or the like, it was no secret that the higher-ups would of course favor these type of superpowered individuals the most. With the favor of the higher-ups, these individuals would be allowed to continue living freely in society as role models

As for the individuals with abilities that were akin to the Hulk, even if they were inherently harmless, the organization would of course only favor those that didn’t go crazy in broad daylight.

As the meeting went on, nobody would have known that Director Mo’s words would cause a wave in a corner of Qi City in the near future…

…

As usual, Zhao Ying was suffering from another worry of happiness. She had just seen the guy that saved her last time, right in her restaurant, he had even ordered some food, meaning that he would be here a while.

She had originally thought that she would never be able to meet him again, what with Qi City’s massive population. It just wasn’t possible for two strangers to bump into each other within a short timeframe.

Right now however, Zhao Ying was so glad that she had accepted Fang Ning’s invitation to join his breakfast business. She was sure that her savior had visited the restaurant due to its popularity.

“Fang’s Delicious Catering Chain” was famous in Qi City, and almost all the verified foodies in the city had visited the restaurant at least once. As for the first restaurant that Fang Ning had opened, it had developed into a full-day restaurant, which only increased its allure.

Walking with exaggerated flair, Zhao Ying had personally picked a good spot for her savior and had even ordered the chefs to give him extra food and extra seasoning, just to guarantee her savior’s satisfaction.

She knew that she wasn’t an ungrateful person. He had saved her, how could she look past that? She would of course have to give him the best welcome to show just how grateful of a person she was.

The fact that her savior had appeared in broad daylight once again was obviously due to the fact that he must have dealt with the excessive defense incident. From where she was standing, even her savior’s back looked extremely attractive.

He was responsible, handsome, and was definitely of a good background, so how could she not properly welcome him? Just thinking about him made her heart go wild.

“Hey, handsome, remember me?” asked Zhao Ying softly as she leaned against her savior’s table.

Zhao Ying was currently experiencing a dilemma in her heart, however. After putting in hard work for almost two months, her boss had seemed to settle with a steady income. Although she did work towards influencing her boss in expanding, Fang Ning was just a bit too dense. He was already happy with the small fortune he had amassed, even when he was faced with the opportunity to expand his business, he had stopped in his tracks, which Zhao Ying was quite angry about.

She wants to be the president of a successful restaurant chain, not the manager of a big restaurant.

Her savior’s appearance however, had made her waver. He was only sitting there, not even uttering a word, but her heart was already half his.

They really were living in a shallow world. Men and women were the same. No matter how long an average-looking man has spent courting the woman of his dreams, he would still not be able to defeat the woman’s ideal man.

At the same time, spending his time playing a co-op shooter video game in the System Space’s Internet café was Fang Ning, who was interrupted by the sudden appearance of dialogue options.

‘Shit, I’ll have to give up this match!’ Fang Ning quickly gave his orders to the rest of his team members and left the game, paying no heed to the complaints of his team members. He then looked at the options he was presented with.

[A weak female whom you previously saved has met you at a restaurant and is now speaking to you. You can now confirm that she had been questioned by the relevant authorities and had leaked some information about you. Your choices are:

1. Who are you? Do I look like I’ll know you?

2. Oh, I saved you but you sold me out. Get out of my face!

3. You can continue staring coldly at her while waiting for your food to arrive, as if she didn’t exist.)

Fang Ning realized that after offering multiple suggestions to the System, the System had changed its thoughts about him. However, the choices offered to him now all possessed a certain degree of similarity.

Ignoring the options shown to him, Fang Ning instead chose to speak openly to the System.

“Oh System, I’ve realized that you have such a bad mouth, all the choices would just cause me to be disliked. Why can’t we speak to people properly?”

Fang Ning knew that the System wasn’t exactly human, and therefore didn’t have a sense of right and wrong. It never did things that were useless and always did things with meaning. This was why Fang Ning was confused; why is the System always speaking as if it wanted to pick a fight with the other person? Was it necessary for catching criminals?