How did it come to this? "Why?" I ask myself as I float in this endless sea of darkness, "I gave them so much. I did so much." I become angry, "So WHY?! WHY DID THEY FORCE ME TO DO THIS?!"
"Why did they betray me?"
Flashback...
"The general wants to see me?" I squeak out in surprise. The head of my division nods his head. I quickly get up and lock away my newest project for the army.
The Battle Maiden.
As we head to the general's office, I wonder what he needs me for. We step inside and sit down, "So, Maeve." My back goes straight, "Yes sir?"
The general eyes one of his guards and nods, "You're working on the Battle maiden project, am I correct?"
"Yes, I am." I say as one of his guards positions themself by the door, "I heard that you already have the blueprints finished..." I squint my eyes at him with suspicion, "What of it?"
The general nods and I suddenly feel the cold, hard barrel of a battle rifle pressed against the back of my head.
I close my eyes and smirk, "I see..." I sneakily put my hand behind my back and grab a small device, "You guys want my plans. Typical, keep me around until I'm no longer useful huh?"
The general smirks, "Correct. You see, you're too dangerous to keep around..." The general stands up and leans over his desk to me, "Can't have a loose cannon aimed at our own feet now, can we?" The general sits back down.
My smirk turns into a grin as I open my eyes, "You know what general?" I lean forward, "I already knew this would happen..." I reveal the device to the general, grinning maliciously, "So I planned ahead."
I push the button on top of the detonator I showed to the general, causing the I.E.Ds I planted in hidden places around the facility to detonate.
One single, loud, explosion was the last thing I heard, while the terrified look on the stupid general's face filled my eyes, just before everything went black.
That's how I found myself floating in this dark abyss, angry at my misfortune.
I sit in this darkness for an unknown amount of time, before I suddenly start to feel tired, "Guess I'm finally going..."
I eventually start to feel my consciousness fade, "I had a good run, I suppose..." After a few more moments of silence, darkness takes me.
--- 3rd Person ---
In the middle of a random forest, a grey portal forms pointing towards the ground. A few seconds after forming, the portal ejects a messy, orange haired woman. She has pale skin that almost looks fake.
The woman lands limply on her back, seemingly dead. Suddenly the woman's eyes slowly open, revealing them to be a light crystal blue.
She stands up slowly and looks around, "The hell...?" She looks at her hands, moving her fingers as if they were new to her.
She then grabs a few locks of her hair and inspects it, "Kevlar thread?" She lets go of her hair and cups her chin in thought.
She stays like this until she suddenly perks up, "Oh... I died, didn't I?" She then facepalms herself, not feeling any pain, "I guess I should assume I got dragged into another world after dying."
The woman chuckles to herself, "It was worth it. Fuckers thought they could pull that shit on me." The woman then removes her hand from her face and looks at it, "Is my skin made out of silicone rubber? Most people couldn't tell the difference between it and human skin, but I'm not like most people."
As the woman is thinking, her eyes gain this strange light in them, and the woman jumps a little, "What the...?!"
Overlapping with her vision, is a light blue panel, showing what looks to be a status report, "Name: Maeve, well yeah obviously. Status: Low Energy? Energy: 100/1000?! When did I become mechanical?! And how do I get this panel out of my vision?"
--- Maeve's POV ---
'Seriously, if I can't get this panel thingy out of my face, then how am I supposed to see?!' As I am beginning to panic, I hear an odd voice in my head, "Activating Ai assistant; Suzy."
'Suzy? Wait, didn't I make her as a kid to help with my homework? And to keep me company in the dark stages of my life.' As I am remembering all the good times I had with that Ai, I hear her voice, [Maeve? Is this you?]
If I could have cried, I probably would have, 'Suzy?' I say in my head, [The one and only.] I have my doubts, so I ask her a question only she and I would know the answer to, 'When were you created?'
I hear a scoff, before getting the answer I was hoping to get, [You created me on your 12th birthday because you were feeling lonely and needed a friend. You then made me a watch I could hop into from your computer, so you could take me anywhere.]
I smile a big smile, 'I thought I lost you forever when my parents found out about you and took you away.' I could practically see the Ai smiling, [I thought so too.]
After a few moments of silence, I ask Suzy if she knew how to get rid of this panel thing, [I somehow do.] She then explains to me that she got new information about where we are and how everything in this world works.
After getting rid of the panel, I repeat what she told me to get confirmation, 'So basically this world has the technology level of the Middle Ages, but also has magic to make up for it?'
[Yes, that is correct.]
"Cool!" I hear Suzy sigh, [I see you never fully got out of your fantasy phase.] I turn towards an imaginary Suzy and talk, "How could I? Magic is awesome!"
Suzy sighs before remembering something, [Hey, Maeve. I just remembered something.] I acknowledge her and urge her to continue, [You have a second panel you can open to view any upgrades you may want to make to your body. For some reason your frame is made from iron and not titanium carbon alloy like it originally was.]
I open up the second panel and look around it, 'So I can upgrade my frame to steel, and I can get a basic radar.'
I close the panel and look down at myself, "Just a basic white tank top, beige cargo shorts and some boring black sneakers." I pat down my pockets and feel something in my right back pocket. I reach my hand in and pull out a folded butterfly knife.
I unfold it and do a few tricks with it for fun before refolding it and putting it away, "At least I have something to defend myself with.", [Thats good.] Suzy adds.
I take a step forward and remember something, "How do I get energy?" I think for a second before Suzy tells me, [I believe eating will restore your energy, with raw food giving less than cooked food. How I don't know.]
"I guess I should be glad that 'it just works' is a valid excuse (Not really)." Suzy sighs.
I walk over to a bush and grab a leaf from it, 'Hey Suzy. Will this restore my energy?' After a moment of silence, Suzy responds, [It won't restore much with just one, not even a percentage. But I guess in large enough numbers it can.]
"So, it's not worth eating then... Why did I even think to try this?" I drop the leaf and turn around and walking away.
Suddenly, I hear rustling coming from the bush I just turned away from. I look back and see an arrow flying at my head.
The arrow hits my forehead and breaks, leaving only a small cut on my 'Skin', with no blood or fluid of any kind coming out.
I snap out of my fear induced state at the sound of Suzy yelling in my head, [Maeve! Are you alright?!]
I look around, 'Yeah, I'm ok. Just startled.' I focus on the bush that just fired an arrow at me. I reach into the bush and grab what feels like skin.
I rip my hand out of the bush and find a short green man's head in my hand, the neck severed from the body.
I drop the head and scream, "Holy shit!" I turn around to throw up, only to realize I can't. I look back at the severed head and think, 'Wow! I'm much stronger than I thought.'
I go back and look through the bush, soon finding the heads body. I pull the body out of the bush and search it, "Come on, you look like you would carry food with you." I soon find a pouch and open it.
Inside are what looks to be wild berries. I take one out of the pouch and inspect it, [I believe if you eat all the berries in the bag, you will regain 2 points of energy.] I nod before throwing the berry into my mouth, 'It doesn't taste like anything...' Suzy then informs me that I don't have taste buds.
[Additionally, when you were hit, the damage repaired itself at the cost of energy. Since it was so little, the cost was only 1 point.] I mumble something with my mouth full of berries, which only Suzy could understand, [No, there is no way to stop the 'Regen'. Meaning you could consider your energy as 'HP' as well.]
I swallow all the food in my mouth and ask, "Is there any other way I can get energy?" I hear Suzy hum in my head, [Yes actually. You can have this world's energy, or 'mana', injected into you by another person. As long as your CPU is undamaged.]
"Where is my CPU located?" I ask, [In your head.] My jaw drops, 'If that green man, or goblin as I have just realized. If his attack had gotten through, I would be dead!'
I hear Suzy clear her non-existent throat, [Anyways, back to what I was saying.] I nod as I start to walk in a random direction.
In summary, lightning magic is my best damn friend, as if I'm hit with it, I gain energy. Eating these things called 'Mana crystals' Gives me a bunch of energy, much more than food does.
I can also become 'Overcharged' and enter a state where I gain increased speed and strength. This occurs when my energy levels go above my maximum. My energy drains much faster when I'm overcharged but goes back to its normal drain rate when at normal levels.
My energy drains at a rate of 1EN/1HR, which means I'll need 24EN to survive one day, which isn't bad for me.
Unless I get into a lot of fights.
I can also use these nifty little micro bots called 'Nanites' to collect materials for me. I have to be within a meter of a material to collect it though.
Thats pretty much everything. Now, back to the present.
I found a road leading to who knows where and decided to follow it. I reach what looks like the forests entrance.
I step out of the forest and feel a light pressure on the back of my neck, along with a yelp of pain. I look behind me and see a poorly dressed man holding his hand. I click my tongue at the realization that this man is a bandit, and he just tried to knock me out.
"Guys! A little help here?!" The bandit yells. Soon more people appear from the forest behind me, [I'm counting 5 of them. Be careful, I'm detecting a magic user among them.] I silently acknowledge her.
I reach into my pocket and pull out my butterfly knife. The bandit who attacked me first runs at me with a knife. He swings down at me, with me raising my arm to block. The bandit grins as he hits my arm, only cutting through my 'Skin' before hitting my frame and bouncing off, "What the?!"
I look at my arm and see it repairing itself.
[-2 EN]
"Regeneration?!" I smirk at their plight, "But she doesn't have an ounce of mana in her. How could she use regeneration, a middle tier healing skill?!" The mage yells in disbelief.
'Mages can detect that?' My smirk drops into a frown, "You're dying first." I grip my knife in a reverse grip and blitz towards the mage, getting behind him in record time.
--- 3rd POV ---
The mage turns around and is met with the cold red eyes of Maeve in combat mode. She brings her knife down into the mages neck, specifically the jugular.
She then tears her knife out in a brutal way, as to kill the mage faster, though, the mage died from shock as soon as she ripped the knife out of his neck.
The other 4 bandits look at Maeve with fear, who just smiles sweetly. To the bandits however, this smile was anything but.
The bandits then drop their weapons out of fear and run. Maeve lets out a sigh of relief and puts her knife away as her, unbeknownst to her, eyes turn back to their original light crystal blue, "That could have gone a lot poorer for me." Maeve looks at her clothes and sees them perfectly clean.
--- Maeve's POV ---
'How are my clothes and body clean?' Suzy answers me by saying that the nanites clean and maintain my body, which includes my clothes.
I look at my hand and see the blood on it slowly disappearing, 'Interesting.' I turn towards the bandits' weapons, 'They don't look like steel... But I guess any material is helpful.' I pick up a sword that one of the bandits dropped.
I ask Suzy how I use the nanites, [Just activate the nanite program to use them.] I nod and open up the third panel Suzy told me about while I was walking.
"Nanites... Nanites... Ah! There we are!" I activate the program and hold up the sword so that it is in my field of view. A swarm of tiny, microscopic machines comes out from behind me and engulfs the metal parts of the sword.
After a few seconds, the sword no longer has a blade, guard, or pommel. I drop the handle and repeat what I did with the sword with the other weapons.
After collecting all the iron from the bandits' weapons, I move on to the mage's staff, [It looks like that staff has a mana crystal attached to the top. I pick up the staff and break the top of it off, freeing the crystal.
I sniff the crystal and smell nothing, "Right, no sense of smell." I then just think 'Yolo!' And bite into the crystal.
Again, no taste. I chew on the crystal and swallow it, soon feeling much more energetic, 'I could get addicted to this if I'm not careful.'
I eat the rest of the crystal and check my energy levels, '245/1000. Much better than it was before.' I close my status panel and loot the mage, soon picking up a pouch filled with silver and copper coins, 'Money?' I put the pouch in one of my pockets and continue on after finding nothing else of interest on the mage.
"Hopefully I can reach a city or town. After that I don't know, maybe become an adventurer?" Suzy adds a comment about how being an adventurer could get me the funds I need to live in this world.
"Maybe. I just hope nothing happens when I reach the place."