It's a Wonderful Life

Watching his newest Host stumble through her acting as a cannon fodder was physically painful. Her facial expression was constantly stiff, her smile didn't reach her eyes and her accent was utterly fake. For some reason, whenever she used her magic, she yelled out a needlessly long and complicated name while uselessly flailing her hands as if it meant something. Honestly, he was starting to think she had gotten the wrong idea.

He had already filed for a new charge but, unfortunately, he would need to stick with this one until the mission was finished.

System 3298, more commonly referred to as Ira by his fellow Systems, sighed gracelessly where he was sitting on a patch of dead grass next to a pitched tent. Because this was his Host's first world, the Tutorial Mode had been been activated upon her request. Unfortunately, this made him possess another of the mob characters in order to guide and teach his Host more efficiently how it was done.

Because he was only here to guide his Host along, the character that he was possessing was a mob character, so insignificant that he had absolutely no effect on the plot of the world whatsoever. The character was neither wealthy nor poor, didn't have a tragic backstory to garner sympathy nor did he have a promising career in anything at all. The looks were average, neither especially ugly or pretty or handsome. Average height and weight, average brown hair and eyes and an average fate. There was not a single thing to make the character stand out, he was, literally, just one among the crowd. As such, he was the ideal person to possess in the Tutorial Mode.

Ira watched dispassionately as his Host trained in her magic skills in order to accomplish her mission.

His Host was possessing a woman named Lynne, a cannon fodder in a world of magic where the war against the demons was at its height. The mission was for his Host to keep Lynne from dying, which would lead to the woman's father to commit suicide, which would then lead to the end of this world as he was a frontier researcher on magic and would be the one to the discover how to cut them off from the human realm.

Lynne was a beautiful woman with rich red hair and sparkling blue eyes and, more importantly, powerful magic with an affinity for fire. Unfortunately, she fell in love with the Hero of the story, an apprentice blacksmith that learned he had powerful magic, left his home to learn and after many twists and turns, managed to become a knight for his king. There, the Hero fell in love with the princess. Lynne, on the other hand, first met the Hero as he was traveling to the frontline to fight the demons. For her, it was love at first sight and she thoughtlessly followed him there where she was accepted due to her magic.

This was where the story started going downhill.

The princess became wildly jealous of Lynne because the woman had exotic looks and more impressive magic. She demanded the Hero stay far away from her and the Hero, besotted as he was, listened. This lead Lynne to becoming depressed and suicidal.

In the end, she sacrificed her life to save the Hero's, which made the Hero realize he had been in love with her all along and what he felt towards the princess was just duty. Brokenhearted, he left the frontline and returned to his home to become a blacksmith. Lynne's father killed himself when he learned of his daughter's fate and no-one could crack the codes on his notes. As such, the demons eventually won the war with no hero to defeat them and the world soon ended.

His Host's mission was to prevent this.

Ira laid down on the dead ground and yawned. It was always such a drag to accompany the first timers on their missions. They were full of stupid questions, unrealistic expectations and annoying optimism. His newest Host was just like all the rest, full of reckless ambition and eager to save the world.

By now, they were about a month into the mission and the first few hurdles had been handled. His Host had met the Hero and had started her journey to the frontline of the war, had met some helpful people that wanted to join the army as well for various dull reasons and had started her training in magic. Things were underway. It was just such a shame that his host possessed virtually no acting skills. It was embarrassing just watching her. Ira was honestly worried for the progression of the mission.

He couldn't wait for it to be over so he could hand her over to another System of lesser rank. Ah, the advantage of being a senior. Sometimes it was all that kept him going. The torment he could inflict on others.

Just as he was about to fall asleep out of boredom, a shout came from the perimeter guard, warning of an approaching attack. Ira didn't even bother to move. It would be an excellent opportunity to test his Host's progress. His eyes stayed closed from his sleepiness, an activity that was essentially all that made it worth it, having an actual physical body. The action of sleeping was wonderful.

He could hear the sound of fighting and the cries of pain from both humans and monsters alike. Nonetheless, he didn't react.

His Host let out a ridiculously loud battle roar and screamed the name of a powerful technique that she had just learned. Ira cringed in shame at her high voice that almost made his new body go deaf. The standards for Hosts had really lowered lately, he should mention that to the Boss the next time he met them. Something clearly needed to be done.

Eventually, the battle died down and the monsters were defeated. Ira continued to wait as he listened to them assess the damage and start the healing process. This was his Host's seventh battle in this world and she was finally starting to get a little used to it. She might even be able to get accepted by the army if she kept it up. Ira just hoped she didn't drag him into it. Sometimes the Hosts did that, pulled their Systems into the story and complained to them to fix their messes and help them when they failed. Ira himself had had that happen to him a lot when he had first started working.

It had really ruined his view and opinion of Hosts.

Satisfied that his Host had learned something from her recent experience, Ira pretended to wake up from his sleep and yawned needlessly loudly. The humans around him gave him evil eyes and glared at him when they saw him "wake up", apparently angry with him for not helping out. But really, they should be used to it by now. He always managed to be conveniently missing or asleep during attacks.

After all, if he was around to interfere, his Host wouldn't learn anything and that was the whole point of the Tutorial Mode. He wasn't there to hold her hand through it, but rather to just supervise more directly and make it easier on her mind when she could actually see him. Some people just weren't mentally strong enough to handle it without some preparation.

There was also no punishment if you failed the mission in the Tutorial Mode, making it perfect for a beginner. Strangely, there were people that refused it and just dived straight in. Most of the time, this lead to horrific failures of the apocalyptic variety.

As in world ending.

Still, there were times when the hosts were smart and adaptable enough to make it and succeed. If they did, they usually had a glorious future awaiting them, where they raised their rank until they could essentially do whatever they wanted.

Somehow, Ira didn't think his current Host had that awaiting her.

The mission was to keep Lynne alive, but for some reason his Host had insisted on going to the frontline anyway and joining the army. The smart and easy thing to do would be to just stay away from the Hero and the war and things would work themselves out, but his Host was under the delusion that she and the Hero were meant to be and had decided to follow him anyway. The mission could have literally been accomplished staying in the small village Lynne came from and just lazying about, which was generally how the Tutorial Mode worked. You didn't need to actively do anything to succeed. It was a soft start.

But his current Host was somehow under the impression that her mission was not just to keep the woman alive, but to get her her happy ending with her love.

Ira was already anticipating a failure.

His Host made her way from the collection of other people they were traveling with until she reached him and frowned down at him. "You should help out." she said in a judgmental tone.

Ira just yawned at her. "This is your mission. I'm to interfere as little as possible."

"What, is that like, a law or something?"

Ira rose an eyebrow, something that he always enjoyed doing in human form. It conveyed his message perfectly. "Yes."

Her eyes narrowed and she glared at him. "That doesn't mean you can't offer assistance once in a while. You never do anything when we're in a battle. Do you want me to die? Wouldn't you be punished then?"

"No." Ira answered and continued flatly with, "Your failure or success is your own. It is only if your soul were to be lost, shredded or destroyed that I would be punished. Otherwise you're the only one with something to lose."

She appeared stunned for a moment before she swallowed deeply and said, harshly, "Well, I don't need your help anyway. You can rot in a hole for all I care!"

Once she was gone, Ira smiled gently in success and closed his eyes again. It was probably mean of him, to pick on his Hosts, but really, as a System there wasn't really a lot of other things to do when on a mission. He couldn't contact other Systems while working so all he could really do was mock his Hosts and watch them like they were performing a live show. It was endlessly amusing. He'd seen some weird and embarrassing things during the years.

Breathing deeply, he let his mind wander in an attempt to get more sleep. Soon, they would resume traveling and making their way to the frontline of the war against the demons. Personally, Ira thought it was a horrible idea, going straight to where Lynne was originally set to die, but he wasn't paid to flaunt his opinions. And there was a kind of morbid joy to be found in his Host doing something so wildly reckless.

He probably shouldn't draw so much entertainment from his Hosts' failures, but to be fair, he had been a System for a very long time. He was allowed his eccentricities.

From the other side of the temporary camp, he heard his Host's voice yelling out instructions and encouragements as though she was the protagonist of the story. Certainly, some Hosts managed to revert their characters roles and change the plot and story of the world, but that was usually because that was actually the mission. And you didn't get those missions until you ranked up.

His Host was just getting ahead of herself.

Well, if nothing else, it was bound to be amusing, this new mission of his.

Ira just hoped his Host didn't screw things up too bad. It would be embarrassing in front of the others.