As William was being walked in the hallway by This doctor locking guy, they passed by a large mirror. Upon seeing his reflection, William felt sick, it wasn't a pleasing look.
His hair has turned completely white, Thankfully he didn't lose his second eye, it is very much there and its coal-black color didn't change. But the eye that was missing and always hidden with an eye patch has been replaced with another one. It was an electronic eye, much similar to a camera lens, What should be white of it was jet black while the inside was losing faint blue. He could move his eyes separately like a chameleon lizard, he had seen it a lot in animal shows and dreamt of having one as a pet in case he got better.
Two cables are running from under his ears down to the back of his neck. looking closer even his neck was abnormal, a huge chunk of metal is appearing under his skin where his throat should be. William thought that they must have needed to exchange all his respiratory system as he was basically reliant on a breathing machine before.
His right hand and both his legs were exchanged for robotic parts. with the faint vibration he can feel inside his stomach he could guess that probably half of his organs were swapped.
He felt that he looked disgusting, weirdly that didn't upset his stomach. William stood there for a second, the doctor decided to give him some time and waited.
"I don't feel sick looking at the mirror..." William said with a monotone voice.
The doctor then flipped some pages in his notes and then replied, "Since we have swapped your stomach, we have removed the function to throw up as it was unnecessary after that!"
Soon after that, he was moved to a large white room where a lot of kids like him have gathered, they all had empty looks on their eyes as if they weren't actually there.
Each of them was slightly different than the others, with different body parts swapped. They all wore the same clothes as William, a Single, white, long shirt that reached down to their knees, it looked more like a half robe or something.
"Patient number 3580, clear... proceed to the next stage!" A voice echoed in the room from the corner, With it, a girl started to walk to was the door.
"Patient number 3581, clear... proceed to the next stage!" another kid walked out.
... Until eventually it became William's turn.
A sudden message appeared on his screen out of nowhere almost jump scaring him.
[Scanning for malfunctions...]==[None were found]
[Scanning for viruses...]==[Fou!"£!$"£@£"%%%^£$] The message got corrupted before it full appeared and another one showed up.
[None were found]
William could at least understand what happened, they are scanning them for errors and viruses. He was clearly bugged, corrupted but whatever that doctor Kihara left him, it's helping him get under the radar.
"Patient number 3594, clear... proceed to the next stage!" As he heard the message he walked toward the door, heading to the next room. It was then that a new message appeared.
[Side objective: Steal a weapon... reward +10 Exp]
[Obtional: Steal a memory stick...reward +1 intelligence]
William tried his hardest to keep a straight face, a w...w...weapon? I felt this place was suspicious but dose they have weapons? For him it was unthinkable, why would I even need a weapon?
Slowly the thought came to his mind, the system probably meant something like those medical knives or whatever...That's must be it! For the memory stick...Well, they have half cyborgs here, if they don't have memories then what are they even doing!
When he entered the next room it looked more like a weird mix between a medical office and an electronic repair shop, in the middle a single woman waited. she was wearing a full white coat, looked more like a doctor than that old man.
As he approached her she asked him to take off his shirt so she can inspect his cyborg parts.
"Would you mind taking off that shirt? I would do a quick check-up to make sure your machines won't suddenly stop working!" She said with a gentle voice, William went with the flow taking off his shirt, his eyes were looking around for a weapon.
The woman started to meticulously inspect his cyborg parts, one by one she seven checked each screw.
As William was looking around he spotted a pile of black shards, they were nail-sized with green lines passing through them.
[Memory sticks] A message appeared above them as if his system as detected and inspected them. They must be spare parts used for repair, if she is keeping that much I guess they are used pretty commonly.
The moment the woman turned toward her tablet to write something, William reached his hand grabbed one of those memories. his mechanical arm fingers opened slightly and sucked the memory stick.
[Side objective completed, +1 Intelligence]
"Well, you're all right, you can put your shirt back on!" She said as she smiled at him. She then pointed at a door at the back.
"In the next room, they will give you some better clothes, you better hurry!" She told him, talking slowly.
William nodded and started walking toward the door, rapidly glancing around for any weapon-like thing he can take. I saw no knives nor guns! What I'm supposed to take?
From the side of his eyes, he spotted a pokey thing laying in a box behind the woman's desk. As he had no more time, his thought train was simple.
Pokey thing=staby thing=weapon! He immediately ducked down and grabbed the thing.
It also was absorbed into his arm, then a new message appeared.
[Analysing the object...]
[Soldering iron]+1...[Objetct accepted as a weapon]
[Side quest completed, +10 Exp]
William smirked as he got closer to leveling up, he was excited to see what will he get.
[Dismantling the soldering iron...finished]
[Integrating it into the system...New skill was gained]
[Soldering fingers] {The fingers of your mechanical arms can now act as a soldering iron by consuming one EP per 10 seconds}
William looked at the message trying to understand what just happened, I can heat my fingers now? why would I need that! On top of that, It consumes my EP! I only have 10 and if I dropped to 0 I would be dead!
A 100 seconds of hot fingers than death? that doesn't sound right to me!
Brushing the thought from his head that he will ever need that, he walked to the next room, excited he will something better than what he is wearing!
What will it be! a jacket, some jeans! No, no I always dreamt of wearing one of those suit things!
His expectations were going too high, he almost started jumping.
As soon as he entered the next room, he was faced with sad sight. The clothing that was there was just plain white shirts and pants, awfully similar to what he was wearing.
Instantly from happy to sad, even the doctor sitting there to help the kids change noticed the instant change in William's face.
William quickly changed and headed toward the next room, he felt immense disappointment at what he got.
The next room was a bit different, It was significantly larger with big tables that could hold up to six people, a sweet smell passed through William's nose.
Could this be...Food! William's stomach started to rumble, he was getting hungry the moment he smelled the food.
I haven't seated in over a thousand years! Simon raced toward the tables and sat down with the other kids, shortly after a man pushing a card came to serve them the food.
Simon's face tensed up the moment he saw the food. there were two different things that were put in front of him beside regular food, there was a charger and a cup of oil beside his plate.
Oi oi! I'm pretty sure this thing should be put in a car engine and not on a kid's dinner table! William thought as he looked at the oil cup.
"Don't worry, your artificial stomachs can proses both food and oil, they are important to keep your living and mechanical side healthy!" After a short pose, he continued "The charger there is something you can take with you, in case you got a notification that says you have low energy! plug it here!" The man showed the kids where to plug the charger, at their hands were a small hole where the cable went.
The man then left after all the kids nodded that they understood. he then headed to the next table.
Being disgusted by the oil, William decided to drink it all in one go and be done with it, with two shaking hands he gulped it down. To his surprise, it didn't feel bad.
After they finished eating they were all dismissed to their rooms, each room was plain with two beds and a small cupboard for each. It had no windows. To William's eyes, it looked more like a cell than a room.
William's roommate seemed to be a girl, she was already sitting on the bed covering herself with the blanket. Being curious he approached her slowly.
"Hello, my name is William. How about you?" William got closer to see her face.
"KEEP AWAY FROM ME!" She screamed as she hid her face with the blanket, William could tell she was crying...
"O...OK!" William replied thinking about what is her deal?