The Ripple Effect is a B-

SK's decision to go and find someplace private to look over his new System related windows was a prudent, yet ultimately useless decision.

While waiting until he was somewhere safe would help with making him not appear crazy in public, as well as maintain some veil of secrecy to regular mortals, his prior actions had already been reported to the relevant parties.

Their reaction to the news in regards to SK, the fact that he had a System and his familiar, Platiknight, was...less than pleasant, to say the least.

...Somewhere where the mountain's scrapped the skies...

Nestled in a little valley of pine trees, sat a biker bar known as Bigfoot's Rest.

This bar was fairly typical in the eyes of the world.

It was a small, wooden building that was host to a tiny stage, a sizable bar that was lined with liquor but mostly sold beer from the tap, a couple of pool tables and a jukebox that looked both timeless and out of place. 

However, there were two interconnected reasons why this place was fairly atypical to the rest of the world.

Living up to its namesake, the bar was decorated in a variety of items and photographs that were related to the famous American cryptid known as Bigfoot.

The photographs in question were actually the biggest draw for the biker bar, due to the fact that these were the highest quality photos of Bigfoot that anyone had ever seen.

Of course, many people couldn't help but to doubt such photos due to how infamously elusive Bigfoot was.

At least, that was the case for anyone who didn't have access to the Arcanis System.

The second facet that made Bigfoot's Rest stand out, was the fact that it was actually the home base of operations for a group known as Titan's Heel.

"Alright, Heelers! Who is ready for round sixteen?!"

"Wooo!"

Titan's Heel was, in the eyes of the world, a biker gang that had been operating for a little over three years.

Their members varied in terms of background and builds, but they all shared the same trait of driving bikes that were modified to have massive tires. Hence the name, Titan's Heel.

However, this wasn't the only reason why they called themselves by this name.

In reality, Titan's Heel was one of the organizations, known as a guild, that made use of the Arcanis System in order to car e their own niche in the world.

The Titan's Heel guild specialized in users who made use of giant type familiar such as trolls, ogres, cyclopes....and sasquatches.

In fact, the reason why the bar was decorated the way it was, was because of the leader of Titan's Heel, Alexander.

"Barkeep! Another round for me and my brothers!," Alexander shouted while still nursing a keg of ale like it was a mug.

"You got it, boss!"

Alexander was, for a lack of a better word here, a big motherfucker.

Standing a little over six feet tall, even when sitting, the leader of Titan's Heel was as giant as the familiars that he and his guildmates were the masters of.

Live big, laugh big, rage big, that was Titan's Heel way.

Bing-Bong!

"Eh?"

However, when he received a certain notification from the Arcanis System, his reaction to this news was going to be... unusually muted.

"What's up boss? Did something happen?"

"Just a System notification, boys. It said Bjorn was defeated and that a video has been sent to me to evaluate his performance."

"Bjorn? Is he the guy who insists on dressing like hobo despite it covering up his jacket?"

"That's the one," Alexander confirmed. "Now, let's see why the System deemed it necessary to view this...eh?"

It only took Alexander a couple of seconds to get through the notification windows and reach the video/report that the System wanted him to see, but what he saw was enough to render him confused and a little speechless.

"Boss? What's wrong?"

"No way..."

As a guild leader, Alexander had seen many reports of both victory and defeat, to the point that a lot of these reports became pretty routine and could be easily categorized just by watching the first few seconds of footage.

However this latest defeat report was anything but standard to Alexander.

After all, he hadn't heard of this Superhero System before, and he had never seen someone as to be so brazen and bold as to fight both an Arcanis User and Machina User at the same time and win.

The sight of this strange familiar named Platiknight alone was enough to push Alexander into shock, so the playback of this warrior pounding Bjorn black and blue made that feeling even worse.

Needless to say, this reaction of silence didn't go unnoticed by his men.

"B-boss? Are you okay?"

An uncharacteristic silence befell the normally rowdy group as they waited for their leader to speak. Thankfully, it didn't take long.

"Send someone to San Francisco as soon as possible. Something weird by even our standards has occurred."

"Something weird by our standards, boss? How?"

"A new System has appeared."

"What?!"

...Somewhere where the chemicals of life boiled together in primordial waters...

"Interesting...very interesting..."

Deep in a swamp somewhere, where the mosquitos bred like crazy and the humidity was enough to cause one's skin to break out into hives, sat a strange looking laboratory with an emblem on it that read, "Properly of the Chemist's Union".

This laboratory was one of the ones used by scientists whenever the my needed to do field research in places that were less than pleasant, to say the least.

However, unlike those normal labs, this was one was filled with scientists manipulating strange looking robots, and the interior resembled a laboratory that was more akin to one found in a secret military bunker.

The design of these robots varied from looking like wind-up toys to being hyper futuristic floating companions, but that was fine.

After all, the Machina System encouraged it's users to be as creative, yet scientifically accurate with their familiars.

And the one leading this particular lab or weirdos, was a man named Professor Bovorich.

Now Bovorich was once an acclaimed chemist from Eastern Europe, but had come to the Americas in order to work for a university that had a sketchy background to say the least.

His reasons for doing so was unclear to the wider world,but it allowed him to basically go anywhere and do anything as long as he was paying for it out of his own pocket.

And when one happens to reap the benefits of being a guild leader for a System, such a thing was trivial to say the least.

That said, his guildmaster duties required him to look over everything and determine whether he needed to reward or punish his subordinates for their decisions.

This was a boring, but necessary procedure.

However, this boredom was soon broken when he came across report about one of his lower ranking members, an eccentric named Farran, being defeated.

Reports of victory and defeat was normal, especially when the Arcanis System Users were involved, but this defeat report was...an anomaly.

Because the report and accompanying video detailed that not only was the Arcanis User was defeated alongside Bovorich's subordinate, but that the winner of this bout was a User of neither the Arcanis or Machina System.

Instead, the User in question had a brand new System he had never heard of before.

The Superhero System.

"Most intriguing...," Bovorich commented one last time as he rewatched the video. Once he had done so though, he immediately activated a voice call feature in his System's interface.

Click.

Ring-ring!

Ring-ring!

Click

"Shadow Investigators Incorporated, how can we assist in your spying endeavors on this fine evening?"

"I would like to order an investigation package on a person of interest that has appeared in one of my guild reports."

"Acknowledged. Please send an attachment message to the address alongside a verbal confirmation of the target's location."

"San Francisco."

"Confirmed. Your investigation package will be delivered by the end of the week."

"Good."

With his business completed, Bovorich dismissed all of the System windows except for the video showcasing Farran's defeat.

"A Superhero System...so childish, even more so than those magi, and yet...so very, very interesting," Bovorich commented as he got to the part where Platiknight destroyed Farran's mech alongside the rock troll.

"I wonder, what kind of person is able to make use of a System like this?"

...Now back to a certain city that was home to a golden bridge made of red painted steel...

"Phew...what a crazy ass night," SK sighed as soon as he managed to get back to his apartment and finally unwind for a bit.

"Now then...do I put in the effort to get ready for bed or do I just collapse on the couch?"

As soon as he asked himself this question, he received an alert window from his new System.

[Daily Quest: Proper Hygiene has been activated.]

"What the fuck?"

Evidently, the System had ideas on what he should do.