Sylzone looked at Rueos' muscles. He was intrigued. Lean, ripped muscles were possible, but you needed a very specific diet and training regime. Rueo was just a student. Where did he have time to fit any of that in his schedule? Maybe it's related to bio-chip?
Rueo looked at Sylzone and saw through his thoughts.
"I have a chip that regulates muscle growth, the human body normally manages resources automatically, with an even spread. However, the chip is optimized to use just enough resources for day-to-day functions. The rest is refined for muscle growth by managing the balance between strength and size. My chip is designed for ripped muscles proportionate to my body size. Thus, no matter how much I eat, work out, or train in a specific area, I'm always making optimal gain. Of course, if I don't train the right area, the gains are converted more slowly "Rueo explained.
He made an expression of disgust using his mouth and hands to indicate that getting jacked wasn't him.
Sylzone nodded.
"How do I get one?" he asked.
"There are three primary ways. You can either buy one, make one, or get a free one once you become a second year student!" Rueo explained.
"Free one? Is it because that's when you take on special projects?" Sylzone asked after thinking.
"Yep! The ones you can buy right now are all made from common materials. They are useful but they aren't up to the standard required when you start doing 2nd year projects! The ones you can make depend on your ability and resources. The chips you get from the school in your second year use more expensive materials. This is because the school is trying to groom students for high paying positions," Rueo continued explaining.
Sylzone nodded.
"Did you want one sooner?" Rueo asked.
Sylzone shifted around in his seat, unsure what to say next.
After a moment of silence, Rueo leaned closer to Sylzone and whispered in his year.
"Hey man, I totally understand. When I started here, I was also very excited, but the specific functions I wanted were only found on the high-end chips. They were too expensive. However, someone took pity on me and helped me obtain one. Later on, I tried paying him back. He refused, saying he was once in my position and that he's returning the favor. I want to return the kindness I received so I will pay for your first chip! How about it? I just.. can't pay for something overboard.. hopefully you understand" Rueo smiled.
Sylzones' eyes almost shed a tear. His lips started twitching, transitioning between a look of sadness and his normal neutral state. Rueo noticed this.
"No need to feel so guilty man! I already feel guilty not being able to return his kindness!" Rueo chuckled.
After settling his emotions, Sylzone nodded.
After another moment of silence, Rueo became livelier. After more discussions, they would buy one at the end of the week, when Sylzone took his bio-mechanical engineering class, so he would have a better idea of what he wanted.
After the matter was settled, Rueo turned to Sylzone again.
"You should definitely try the premium services here, they are a blast!" Rueo said with great enthusiasm.
Sylzone was intrigued again by the mention of the premium services. He had planned on trying one anyways so he nodded his head.
'Which one to try though?'
"I think we should go with the massage! You must be stressed from studying so much and shocked from seeing so many fascinating things. Relaxing your muscles is a great remedy to both those problems!" Rueo suggested.
"Hmm, alright" Syzlone nodded.
He had indeed been hit by shock after shock ever since waking up. A stress reliever definitely sounded nice.
Sylzone and Rueo walked up to the massage area where they saw people getting massages by mechanical arms, a human, or even both.
"The mechanical arms undoubtedly give the best massages. They know just the right amount of pressure to use and exactly the right spots to hit. The only issue with them is that sometimes people still prefer a personal touch. However, humans are not that accurate all the time and also lack the sensors required to gauge how much strength to use.
Some people thus use the mechanical arms from start to finish, otherwise go with a human touch, and others do a combination of both. Usually, they will get a massage using the mechanical arms to get rid of the worst problems and finish it off with a human touch" Rueo explained.
Sylzone nodded.
Indeed, the last option was the best of both worlds. In his previous world, it would sometimes take multiple sessions to fix one problem because the masseuse couldn't see inside the body and thus had to approximate the location of the cramp. However, if a machine knew exactly where the problem appeared and how much pressure to use, the problem would be solved in one session.
Just as his eyes were mulling over a female masseuse, he suddenly felt a chilling stare on his back, almost like daggers puncturing him.
He turned around and saw Carmen standing not too far off, away from everyone else. She had a smile on her face but there was a slightly upset look in her eyes.
Sylzone had asked her not to do anything that would make him look crazy so she had stood off to the side absorbing everything. She didn't look particularly surprised, since she probably already knew about all this. However, she didn't comment on anything and Sylzone felt like it had to do with the fact that she knew it was his first time so she wanted him to experience everything without interruption.
Knowing that, he indeed understood her feelings when he started browsing through the female masseuse's exclusively. She probably would feel like a 3rd wheel somehow since a masseuse would inevitably start doing things of an intimate nature using their hands.
He inhaled and exhaled to shake off the feeling of being punctured then turned to Rueo.
"I think I'll go with the full mechanical arm massage" he said.
Rueo looked at him before smiling.
"There's no need to be shy you know.. Look over there, even those boys are choosing female masseuses in front of their girlfriends. I'm sure the girls have done the same thing before in choosing a male masseuse!" Rueo chuckled as he pointed out.
Sylzone could only bitterly smile inside.
Rueo spoke again after noticing Sylzone was silent for a while.
"Alright, I get it.. I won't force you. But you gotta try out the combination at some point!" Rueo responded.
Glad that Rueo didn't push into it, Sylzone selected a complete massage course on the lightest settings. He wanted to understand the minimum level of force the machine would use first.
Almost immediately after the selection, a robotic voice sounded in his head.
Hello Sylzone Godfiend, please head to table 3 for your full course full body massage.
Almost immediately after taking a step into the area,
"Bro, how are you going to get a massage without me, that's not cool!" a slightly deep voice said from behind him.
Sylzone turned around to see Jaff, his childhood friend walking towards him.
"Jaff.." Sylzone said as he smiled.
Rueo immediately walked up to intercept Jaff.
"Hey man, I'm Rueo, Sylzone's new friend!" Rueo said as he introduced himself
Jaff was momentarily startled by this new face.
"Hello! I'm Jaff, Sylzone's childhood friend!" Jaff nodded in response.
"Sylzone here was about to experience a mechanical arm massage for the first time, you want to join us?" Rueo asked.
"First time?" Jaff asked as he looked at Sylzone confusingly.
Sylzone noticed this look and tried to think of an answer.
"When I went there the first time, I ended up being too scared and gave a pass. Now I'm not too shy anymore and willing to give it a second chance!" he replied.
"Oh… that makes sense!" Jaff nodded.
Jaff happened to see the setting Sylzone chose.
"What the hell is with this weak sauce light setting!" Jaff said loudly while he burst out with laughter.
Immediately afterwards, he slammed the heavy setting.
"This is how a real man tackles problems, full throttle!" Jaff exclaimed.
Sylzone could only give out a weak smile. He was already expecting this type of behavior. After all, ever since he was a child, Jaff had always had a hyperactive personality. The reason Sylzone didn't mind is because he was dependable and loyal.
When he was a child and was getting bullied because he was perceived to be a teacher's pet, Jaff would stand up for him. If his hyperactive personality didn't scare you off, his large build would. If an opponent still wasn't intimidated, they would find out Jaff was incredibly weak, so they both took beatings together when facing much older kids. These kids were usually not from their school, otherwise every disgruntled kid in the school would beat them mercilessly.
This sense of loyalty and bonding had engraved itself deep into his body. Even as the new host, Sylzone could feel the overwhelming gratitude the original body had toward Jaff, so he endured with this personality which was completely the opposite of him.
As Sylzone got onto his massage table, Jaff was busy discussing terms with his own female masseuse. There seemed to be some kind of function to prevent others from overhearing private conversations because he couldn't even hear the masseuses next to him say anything.
"Excuse me, can you please let me know when you are about to start the massage?"
Customer, the massage has already started. You should feel the effects soon.
Sylzone was shocked. The massage had already started? Why didn't he feel anything?
He turned his head around and to his surprise, he was indeed receiving a massage, but every time the arms pounded him, he didn't feel a single thing?
"Why don't I feel anything?"
Customer, for the highest massage setting, some people complained it was good but too painful. After careful consideration, the technology department modified all the machines to be able to hit acupoints without triggering any pain.
'That's actually possible?'
Sylzone bitterly smiled.
'If only I knew this before, I would've chosen the hardest settings. This little baby massage doesn't do as much as I was expecting!'
Indeed, the weakest massage was more like a light tickle. Although he felt some relief, it was nowhere enough for what he had experienced the past couple days. However, he couldn't do anything about it because payment had already been made on someone else's tab. He would feel too guilty being ungrateful.
--
After the massage was over, Sylzone felt a lot more relaxed. He came here primarily to meet up with Jaff. He would try the other premium services at a later time.
Rueo bid them both farewell and claimed he just remembered he had to do something, but he noticed the special bond between them and so felt it was best to make a quick departure.
Sylzone and Jaff found a table to sit down at.
Jaff took out his schedule and Sylzone took out his. After comparing, he found out they shared some classes, but otherwise, they would only see each other sparingly. Jaff after all, was a computer engineer. He took some of Sylzone's classes as electives, but otherwise their classes were completely different.
"Hehe.. dude.. remember the surprise I told you about?" Jaff asked suddenly.
"Yeah" Sylzone nodded.
"Well listen, we are only supposed to use the chips we can acquire in the school. They don't want us to use foreign chips that they don't know anything about. However... " Jaff said while chuckling.
He scooted closer to Sylzone, bent his head down, and took something out of his pocket. When he opened his palm, there was a chip. This chip shocked Sylzone to the core. It was pitch back like his watch, almost the exact same shade. He instinctively grabbed for it. His first thought was to bend it, and when he did, he was shocked to see it was flexible yet hard! he strongly felt like it was somehow related to the watch. His breathing quickened. Jaff noticed the signs of someone who was visibly excited and silently laughed.
"Do you want it dude? My dad couldn't find a use for it so he gave it to me before I left. He found it in some garage sale. He said it was 'calling' out to him to take it away. He didn't want to buy it, but the feeling became so overwhelming that he gritted his teeth and bought it because the feeling gave him the creeps. After he paid for it, the feeling disappeared. However, he didn't want to be near it, and when he asked me if I knew anybody that wanted it, I said yes. He didn't ask me anything else and just handed it over to me. I want to give it to you!" Jaff explained.
"Are you sure?" Sylzone asked.
"Dude. How long have we been friends? I know about your financial situation. If I care about money, why would I still be friends with you" Jaff said with an unhappy expression.
Sylzone knew he had made a mistake.
"Sorry.. I definitely want it" Sylzone replied after a pause.
Jaff had a happy expression on his face again.
"However.. I should tell you that Rueo offered to buy me a chip before this and I agreed" Sylzone suddenly said.
"Dude.. we don't even know what this chip does. You should follow up on that offer and go with him on Friday. You need a practical chip no matter what!" Jaff replied after thinking.
Sylzone nodded.
"Also, there's this club I found earlier that I thought you would be interested in. They're called the Techno-mancers and they use technology to augment their bodies to do really awesome stuff!" Jaff said suddenly
"What!?" Sylzone asked as he loosened the grip he had on a stack of papers and they fell on the table.
He turned to stare at Jaff.
"Say that again!" Sylzone said.
Jaff was started by Sylzones' sudden outburst before he said with a smile.
"Ah? You seem interested. I said they are called the Techno-mancers and they use technology to augment their bodies to do cool stuff!" Jaff replied with a grin.
"Techno-mancers? Using technology to augment their bodies?" Sylzone repeated.
'A lead! It's a school club, but who knows what I can find out?' Sylzone thought.
"How do you sign up?" he asked.
"At the end of the month, in two weeks, there is a general recruitment event where clubs advertise for new members. However, the process behind how the bio-mechanical chips are made is usually very secretive, so they won't have a booth. Instead, you have to go directly to the club and make a chip in front of them" Jaff said as he passed a brochure to Sylzone.
Sylzone took the pamphlet and looked it over.
**
Greetings newcomers,
Interested in joining the Techno-mancers?
Requirements:
1. You must have the mindset of an inventor, this is mandatory.
2. We generally only accept 2nd year bio-mechanical engineering students who have a basic understanding, but if you show promise, we'll take freshmen in.
3. An extension of the above rule. You must show you have the potential to create a chip if you want to be accepted during your freshman year.
4. If you are not a freshman, you must create a full chip.
Why should you join:
Well, everyone always looks for like minded people correct? This club doesn't serve any special purpose other than to act as a dedicated gathering spot. The main reason for joining a club instead of gathering among friends is because we get special funding from the school. This allows talented newcomers access to resources they wouldn't otherwise have, accelerating their development.
Activities you can join:
Mock contests, competitions, ranking competition (local, regional, national)
Additional activities:
International competition (sponsored by government - unrelated to club)
These are duels of academic wits and street smarts!
You must also sign a legally binding contract saying you won't reveal any secrets you find in the club. This contract is enforced by the school. It is not required in most clubs, so you may feel some hesitation. Rest assured, this is only to protect you. The things we create could potentially be used for nefarious purposes if leaked. We are a group who wants to better society.
Once again, if you would like to join, please head to room 305 in the engineering building at the end of the month when club recruitment starts to get further instructions.
We look forward to teaching a new generation.
Thank you,
Techno-mancers
**