System War: Here Comes the Heroes!

[Scanning for suitable host candidates...three individuals found.]

[Determining compatibility...ERROR. Two of three candidates are determined to be hosts for Systems Arcana and System Machina, removing from list.]

[Determining compatibility of third candidate...unsuitable.]

[Returning hiber-Fourth candidate detected.]

[Determining suitability...]

...

'Oh what the hell am I doing, what the hell am I doing??,' SK asked himself as he walked deeper into the shipyard.

He had actually wanted to run, but he figured that running would end up alerting whomever, or possibly whatever, caused that explosion.

SK was already taking a chance running this far in, he didn't want to make things worse.

Eventually though, trouble found him first.

'Where the hell is that-'

FWOOM!

"Whoa!"

"Haha! You missed!"

Moments before he could take another step, a giant jet of fire had blasted right pass him and almost burned his eyebrows right off. When he turned to see where the flames came from, he saw that the fires had burned right through a large shipping container to his left.

"Holy-"

SK was all set to curse his heart out, but stopped once he realized that would probably draw attention to himself in a situation that definitely didn't need it. Thankfully, he stopped himself before he got caught.

That stated, he decided to push the envelope a bit by deciding to poke his head out so that he could stare through the newly melted hole.

Only to be left absolutely speechless, as he found himself staring at what appeared to be a huge robotic being that had bunsen burner shaped limbs and a rock troll.

Making the whole thing even more surreal, was the fact that both gigantic beings were clearly being directed by people. At least, SK assumed that was the case due to the literal glowing marks on the foreheads of both people matching the glowing symbols on both monsters, the fact that they aesthetically matched their respective monster and the fact that these grade A a-holes started bragging like they were in a Saturday morning cartoon.

Seriously.

"Give it up, magic man!," the man dressed like a knock-off scientist shouted in a sarcastic tone of voice. "My BB-09 is going to turn your puny little 'rock troll' into ashes! The meteor belongs to the Chemist's Guild."

"Chemist's Guild?"

"Go suck a lemon, you two-bit hack fraud!," the man dressed like a mix between hobo and a druid roared back. "The meteor belongs to the Titan's Heel. Trobol, crush his wind-up toy! [Boulder Blitz]!"

ROAR!

"What the fuck did he just say?"

As soon as the hobo druid said whatever he just said, the rock troll suddenly began to glow with a weird light before summoning a whole bunch of boulders. With a roar and a swing, the rock troll launched the boulders towards the bunsen burner robot.

"Still not giving up? Fine! BB-09! [High Fire Saber]!"

FWOOM!

In response to this barrage of boulders, the bunsen burner robot began to emit jets of flame from its arms like sabers and slashed through the boulders like a hot knife through butter.

Well, a jet of flame melting through a boulder.

However, this wasn't the end of the conflict.

"Please! You think a bunch of rocks is going to be enough to take down my BB-09?!," the scientist knock-off howled with maniacal laughter...up until he noticed the rock troll was now in punching distance of his giant robot.

"Eh?"

"[Heavy Hammer]!"

POW!

"GAH!"

The rock troll rushed forward during the boulder barrage and slammed a heavy, glowing fist directly into the bunsen burner robot's torso, sending the mechanical monstrosity flying into a stack of shipping containers.

"BB-09!"

"Told you, you hack! Nobody can beat my Trobol!"

"You stupid-!"

'Okay, so I definitely need to avoid the crazy people controlling literal monsters,' SK determined while mentally digesting everything he had just witnessed and sitting back down into his hiding spot. 'Granted, with my luck that means-'

"H-help. Somebody...help!"

"Of course..."

While the hobo druid and fake scientist were proxy pounding the snot out of each other, their collateral damage had led to unintended casualties.

That unintended casualty came in the form of a middle aged man, dressed in a worker uniform, being trapped underneath a pile of debris.

It took SK all of two seconds to put together that a stray attack from these knuckleheads must've gone wide, knock open a shipping container and dump it's contents on top of the guy.

Needless to say, these two were so wrapped up in their stupid feud to notice that the guy was injured. Or worse, they were probably going to kill the guy after they were done trying to kill each other.

Those with power had a tendency to ignore those without, after all.

'Okay, crap, this is way more out of my depth than I thought,' SK realized as he flicked his gaze between the trapped man and the brawling monsters. 'I definitely need to call somebody, because I can't...I can't...'

"Somebody...help..."

At this exact moment, SK remembered something that he repressed a long time ago.

Back when he was a teenager back in highschool, a horribly common tragedy occurred.

Someone, a kid who he had never met before, had decided to turn their shared house of learning into a firing range.

That say, SK was fairly certain he was going to die.

A lot of people thought they were going to die that day, actually.

But surprisingly, no one did.

That madman, the shooter, was about to open fire on a group of kids and a teacher who had failed to evacuate in time, got cornered in the cafeteria. But before he could create yet another tragedy in a long string of them, someone actually did something.

Before anyone could even comprehend what had just occurred, an upperclassmen of SK's and the shooter had straight up tackled the latter before he could fire off a shot, knocking the shooter onto his ass and kicking the gun away.

"He's down! Someone call the cops!"

After that, the rest unfolded rather peacefully.

The shooter was arrested by the cops, that upper classman was simultaneously praised and reprimanded and life went on.

But something about that day stuck with SK.

It is as the fact that the upper classman he remembered was, arguably, the least likely to do something that heroic.

The man was huge in a unhealthy way, unsociable and straight up weird. And yet, he did something that everyone else was too afraid to do.

He got up and saved the day.

That was the moment SK learned something important about the world.

That sometimes, you won't be the right person for the job, but you might be the only who can do something...and that can make a massive difference.

'Screw it...screw it!'

Which was why SK threw caution to the wind and made a run for the injured worker.

Thankfully, the scientist and the hobo druid were still in the middle of directing their monsters into trying to kill each other, so they weren't paying attention SK's movements.

"H-help me, pl-"

"I know, I know! I heard you the first time," SK interrupted.

As such, SK managed to get the worker's side and began to remove the debris off him armfuls at a time.

'One, two! One, two!'

Eventually, he managed to clear enough debris to see that the worker's leg got caught under a particularly heavy looking treasure box looking thing.

'Okay, this is probably a lot lighter than it-HOLY SHIT!'

Evidently, the treasure box was the heaviest thing in the entire pile of debris he had to clear.

'What the hell is in this thing?!'

If SK had to give a comparison to what he was attempting to lift with anything he lifted before, he felt as if he trying to lift a bowling made of lead and mercury.

'How the hell do I-wait, duh!'

Eventually though, he figured out that he could probably make the whole box significantly lighter if he just dumped the contents out before attempting to move the box.

Unfortunately, this realization came with a bout of good luck that was immediately followed by a bout of bad luck.

In terms of good luck, the box turned out to be unlocked this entire time.

"Yes!," SK shouted with glee as he flipped open the box's lid.

In terms of bad luck though, the battling between the rock troll and the bunsen burner robot had gotten intense to the point that latter had launched a fireball that had gone wide.

And was aimed in SK's direction.

By the time it mentally registered he was in the line of fire, he had already opened the box lid, and his facial expression from being joyous to being fearful for his life.

"Oh shit!"

As the fireball got closer, SK's life began to flash before his eyes...or at least, that's what he thought.

In reality, the inside of the box started glowing like a lantern!

"What the-?!"

...

[Suitability...approved. Activating contract space.]