Waking up to a ceiling she couldn't recognize, Kary instantly sharpened her senses. She tried reaching for her sword she had left on the nightstand, only to see, there was no more nightstand next to the bed. Instead were hospital monitors, giving her vitals. Sitting up on the bed, Kary looked around. She mapped the room up with her eyes, in case she needed to run or fight her way out.
By the time she finished mapping it, a nurse came in. When the nurse saw Kary sitting up, she turned back into the corridor and called for a doctor. A doctor came rushing in, a bagel in his mouth. Clearly, he was eating breakfast. He started checking her vital signs on the hospital monitors then he looked at Kary and asked " How do you feel Miss Laflamme? "
" I feel fine doctor. Where are we? " answered Kary.
" Any pain, discomfort, dizziness, confusion? " The doctor continued.
" No, I'm fine. Answer my question, please. Where is this place? " Kary insisted.
" We will have to run some tests on you to fully verify your condition, I hope you don't mind " The doctor added, without answering her question.
Kary was getting angrier and angrier by the second. On the wall behind her, the screen monitoring her body temperature was quickly rising. She finally lashed out at the doctor and nurse.
" ANSWER MY QUESTION!! " She yelled at them, hitting the bed. The doctor's note pad suddenly caught fire, which caused the man to drop it. He then stepped on it to extinguish the flame. Kary was surprised by this and her anger faded away. Her temperature dropped back to normal and it was as nothing happened.
The doctor looked at her with weird eyes and decided it was time to leave. On his way out, he commanded two guards to stay in the room with her. She was not to leave under any circumstances. The guards nodded and stood by the door.
Once Kary was left alone with her new nannies, she started questioning what happened. How did she get there, where was she, who were these doctors and who did they work for? She then grabbed her head in her hands in despair. She had no answers to any of those questions and it was causing her a headache. It had been years since anyone used her family name. She had barely reacted to it. Then she noticed burn marks on the bed, next to her. She lowered her hand to verify and they still felt warm. She then realized something. That was where her hands had hit the bed.
Kary had an idea. She decided to check something out. She crossed her legs on the bed and closed her eyes. She went into meditation and started focusing on her body. Soon enough, she managed to find her way back to inside herself, where by chance or karma or anyway people would call it, she found that little red thread. It was so much smaller than her game avatar she almost couldn't see it.
Surprised, she opened her eyes wide. This theoretically meant she could cultivate her in-game talent. She didn't want to believe it. It didn't make any sense to her. She tried another thing she had doubts. She tried communicating with her spirit pet, Nala. After the first try, nothing happened. So she tried again. This time it worked. She clearly heard Nala softly roaring back at her.
" OMG! " she exclaimed in her head. That meant that both her bodies were possibly connected. " But how? " she thought. It should be impossible for that to happen. One was in the real world, tho the was data in a server. How could they even be linked together? She then thought about how she linked to the server through neuro-link. There was also the injectors for long-hour gaming sessions. So, theoretically, she was linked both mind and matter to the game. But it still didn't explain why this would happen. It was supposed to be a game, why would it have such a function.
She stopped trying to figure it out for now. Her head was swelling from all these questions without answers. She decided to try and cultivate. Since she could actually find the fire thread, she might as well train with it. She went back into deep focus. When she got back to her inner body, she went back to moving the fire stream faster. But this time, it was really hard. As though her body was refusing the cultivation.
She opened her eyes back up and thought about something. Her body had an automatic reaction when she got mad. So she thought, maybe with emotional stimuli, she could force the stream to move. She closed her eyes again, focused on the stream, and thought about things that made her mad. The loss of her father, boys that kept roaming around her, her mother's disappearance. All that did was send the stream into total chaos, causing it to grow and move around hectically. She could feel her whole body was burning up. She stopped thinking about those things. As she calmed down, the stream slowly regained its original path and it returned to its small size.
As Kary's body cooled down, she kept thinking of how to stimulate the stream. She wanted to try happy memories next. She started thinking about her first time gaming as a kid, the hours she passed on games with her mother, her first friend she met online. As she slowly smiled, soothed by her memories, the stream accelerated a little bit. Her memories then unwillingly drifted to a more somber place. She thought about her being alone, her family probably being all gone, her mother maybe being dead. Her happiness slowly turned into sadness. She started crying a little bit. As she cried the stream slowly got bigger. Thinking about how everything in her life had always been out of her control, Kary started feeling bitter against herself. She decided it was finally time for her to take control over her life. Never would she let anyone control her future. Never would she feel so desperate again. Never would she lose control on how she felt, and never again, would she let anything happen to the people she cared about. Enough was enough, and that was now. As she reached this resolute state of mind, her inner energy, as she decided to call this stream of fire, finally reacted to her control. She managed to cycle it as she wished and finally it accelerated and expanded. Although it stopped in less than 30 minutes, she still managed to strengthen it to how it had originally been in the game. She understood that her body was refusing at first because she lacked will and resolution. Her will was now really firm.
When she opened her eyes, she felt calmer, more in control. She was willing to wait to get her answers, but she wouldn't wait idly. This time was over. She didn't know how long she would be here, so she would use every minute she had to train her inner energy, and if the guards didn't react she would train her martial art forms. She could still use all her martial arts from in the game. All she had to do was focus on thinking she had a sword and the rest would come naturally.
As days went by, her routine established. She would sleep a full 8 hours to stay in top shape. Then she would rotate her inner energy for 30 minutes before practicing her martial skills for an hour. Her breakfast would then be brought to her. She would eat and then go into meditation to be sure she didn't lose track of what she had to do.
***
Some room, in the same complex, 2 men were watching Kary through cameras.
" Are you sure she's the only survivor? " The first man said. He was seated on a big sofa, a glass of scotch in his hand.
" Yes, sir. No one else was found in a radius of 50 km around the blast. Every other person was found cooked inside their pods. It's a miracle even she survived " The other man answered. He was a tall and slim butler.
" How did she survive and no one else " The seated man questioned.
" We don't know sir. We found her in her pod, badly burnt. But, 4 hours of treatment later, she was healthy as if nothing happened. It's a total miracle " The butler said.
" Could she be the first to be chosen by Maka? "
" Sir, with all due respect. Why would a highly intelligent AI like Maka pick someone as unimportant as this little girl? " The butler frowned.
" We don't know what criteria Maka uses to determine her chosen people. We can only wait and hope it's someone we have control over. As for now, We can't try to control this one. She's a pain in our ass, but we can't get her suspicious. Otherwise, she might turn to our enemies for help "
" Sir, I highly doubt this girl has any connection to the rebels "
" It's exactly because she is common-born that she's an even bigger threat. You know the alliance likes to garner people from the lows of society. It makes them look like saviors. They have been messing up the Federation's plans for years now. In any case, keep her here for a few more days and then tell the doctors to clear her out. Then have her kept under surveillance. I don't want any surprises " The man said, twirling his glass.
" I shall do as you ask sir " The butler then backed out of the room and left.
" Let's hope she isn't a chosen one, I really don't need a random girl to mess up everything for us. No one can ever know the plan " The man muttered to himself.
***
Kary kept up her small routine day in day out, and after almost a week, the doctor finally came back to see her.
" You are cleared to go home, young lady. Your vitals are all normal and all our scans show nothing wrong. We wish you won't ever need to come back here " The doctor said, a wide smile on his face.
The 2 guards then escorted her to the rooftop and boarded an aircraft with Kary. She was then brought to an old looking building in the middle of the neighboring city. She had to swear to not speak about this to anyone as that was a secret facility. They still refused to tell her where the place was though. They even strongly warned her that they would know if she ever talked. It was more of a threat than a warning to Kary, and she swore to herself to get back at them.
She went inside the building and walked to the lobby desk.
" Hello, my name is Kary Laflamme. I was told my new residence was here "
" Take a seat miss Laflamme, I will advise my superior and someone will come to get you " The old lady at the counter plainly said.
" Okay, thank you " Kary politely said, before taking a seat on the lobby sofas.
After a few minutes, a tall well-dressed man came to get her.
" Miss Laflamme? " He asked.
" Yes that's me," Kary said, lifting her head.
" Follow me, please. " He said, taking the lead.
They walked to the elevator and boarded. The man then pressed the 23rd floor and they went up. On the way up, both were totally silent. Kary didn't know if she could ask him anything, and the man didn't care to talk to her. His job was done the moment he showed her her new apartment. Once on the 23rd floor, the doors opened up to a straight hall in front, which then split into a 4-way a few meters in. There were doors all the way, every few steps. They walked into the corridor and turned left at the intersection. They then proceeded all the way down the hall and stopped in front of the last door on the left. The man swiped a key card in the door lock and opened it. He then pulled another similar card and handed it to Kary.
" This is your key. Don't lose it or you will be charged a fee for replacement. The bills are paid by the federation here, all you need to do it live quietly. I'm sorry for your loss " The man said plainly, before spinning around and leaving.
It had all sounded like a script read by a bad actor. The man had no emotion whatsoever saying it. Kary felt disgusted a little at his lack of compassion. She walked into her new home and closed the door. It clicked and locked, which made her feel better. It had been days since she felt safe. She was confident in defending herself, but she never knew if she would wake up every morning.
Kary turned around and entered her new abode. It was a simple 1-floor apartment with no decorations and no windows. Every wall was white and every piece of furniture was grey. It looked like a bigger version of her hospital room. She noticed a game pod in the corner.
" Huh, who would have thought they'd replace mine "
She had known right away it wasn't hers. She had drawn a flower next to the control panel on her own. This one was brand new. She linked to it and sat down in it. The game was already installed. She decided to eat first and then she would connect back into her avatar to relax.