Chereads / The Atlantian System / Chapter 5 - Chapter Three - Part One: A Minor Upgrade

Chapter 5 - Chapter Three - Part One: A Minor Upgrade

[CONGRATULATIONS, HOST. THE CROWNING JEWEL OF ATLANTIAN NANITE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT NOW RESIDES WITHIN YOUR GENETIC MAKEUP.]

Leta blinked, speechless. Then she began to laugh with the uncontrollable manic snickering of a person one inconvenience away from going absolutely bat sh*t crazy.

"Oh, is that all?" She chortled, pressing her palms into her eyes to wipe away tears, "No pressure or anything. Just patient zero for the zombie outbreak."

[THIS IS AN INCORRECT STATEMENT.]

"Yeah, no sh*t, Sherlock." Leta rebutted, taking deep breaths to calm herself. "This is crazy. This… this is some hallucination. I'm dying, aren't I? A life of playing too many video games and DnD as a kid has led to a psychotic breakdown."

[REST ASSURED, YOU ARE NOT HALLUCINATING. AS YOU CAN OBSERVE, YOU ARE NO LONGER NEARSIGHTED AND REQUIRE MAN-MADE INVENTIONS TO SEE AS WELL AS THE MENTIONED SOFTWARE 'TONGUES OF THE MANY' THAT HAS BEEN UPLOADED. BEFORE THE SYSTEM COULD BE DOWNLOADED, ABNORMALITIES WITHIN THE HOSTS BODY WERE REMOVED AND CONVERTED TO RAW, UNPROGRAMMED NANITES. THESE NANITES CAN NOW BE REPROGRAMMED WITHIN THE HOSTS BODY TO IMPROVE FUNCTION AND EFFICIENCY.]

Leta paused, her hazy memories of those initial moments coming back to her. She remembered the floating text that had mentioned the 'abnormalities' that she'd had in her that were supposedly removed before the system could begin downloading.

'Did I really have breast cancer?' She thought to herself.

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR STATUS WINDOW AND UPGRADE OPTIONS?]

"Uh, sure I guess."

Leta blinked and, like before, text of opaque blue floated in front of her eyes in a language she'd never seen before and yet knew fluently.

[HEIGHT: 1.7 meters

WEIGHT: 68 kilograms

BONE DENSITY: +1.2

POWER: 11

SPEED: 10

STAMINA: 10

REFLEXES: 12

CONSTITUTION: 10

MENTAL FORTITUDE: 15

UNPROGRAMMED NANITES: 504,268

CURRENT UPGRADES:

TONGUES OF THE MANY: Host is able to fluently read, write, and speak a language after 50 seconds of exposure to the language.

SACRIFICIAL TOUCH: Host is able to absorb organic nanites through physical touch.

FILTER FEEDER - LEVEL ONE: Host is able to filter out and absorb only unprogrammed nanites and will not be affected by programmed nanites.

EYES OF THE NIGHT HUNTER: Host is able to see in 95% darkness.

EARS OF THE JUDGE: Host is able to detect false statements made by an individual.

ELECTRIC MISCONDUCT - LEVEL ONE: Host is able to create an electric charge powerful enough to short circuit electric wiring and other devices powered by the flow of electricity.

PERSUASION - LEVEL ONE: Host is able to produce a frequency that can resonate with nanites within a victims brain, allowing the host to make suggestions that the victim is more likely to agree with.

UPGRADE OPTIONS AVAILABLE:

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTIC RECONSTRUCTION : Host is able to make changes to their physical appearance. This upgrade is affected by unprogrammed nanites available.

INTERNAL CHARACTERISTIC RECONSTRUCTION: Host is able to make changes to their internal structure, including the creation of artificial enhancements and structures. This upgrade is affected by unprogrammed nanites available.

MAGICIAN'S HAND - LEVEL ONE: Host is able to move a physical object without touch. The host is able to move up to 70 kilograms of weight. This upgrade is affected by the host's constitution, power, and mental fortitude statistics. Nanites needed for this upgrade: 500,761.]

Leta read through everything, impressed by her current upgrades but felt a little underwhelmed by the short list of available upgrade options.

When she asked about this, Gada replied, [UPGRADES SHOWN ARE THOSE THAT ARE AVAILABLE WITH CURRENT UNPROGRAMMED NANITE NUMBERS. WITH MORE UNPROGRAMMED NANITES ABSORBED, MORE OPTIONS WILL BECOME AVAILABLE.]

[IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE HOST CREATE INTERNAL STORAGE OPTIONS IN ORDER TO ABSORB A HIGHER QUANTITY OF NANITES.]

"So I can't absorb nanites infinitely?"

[CORRECT. AT CURRENT PHYSIOLOGY, THE HOST CAN STORE UP TO 5,506,400 NANITES BEFORE COMPLETE SATURATION.]

"What happens when I hit complete saturation?"

[THE HOST WILL BE UNABLE TO ABSORB MORE NANITES. IF MORE NANITES ARE CONSUMED PAST COMPLETE SATURATION, THE HOST WILL BEGIN TO EXPEL EXCESS NANITES.]

"Gross." Leta commented, imagining throwing up metal pieces.

Looking at her options, it seemed like a no brainer, at least to her. She wasn't vain enough to change her facial features, and while Gada's advice for internal nanite storage was a good one, who could deny super powers if given the option?

"Give me the Magician's Hand."

[MAGICIAN'S HAND UPGRADE SELECTED. SOFTWARE UPLOAD IN PROGRESS.]

Leta gasped as her body locked up, feeling as though someone had inserted electric wires into her brain.

Her vision went white and suddenly knowledge was pouring into her brain. Mathematical equations and information of physics and quantum field theory raced past her mind's eye, absorbed and imprinted into her brain's neurons.

What felt like thousands of years of information was inside her head in an instant as Leta found herself taking in a great gulp of air like someone who'd just surfaced from underwater.

"Holy sh*t…" She gasped, taking heavy breaths and steadying herself from the sudden shock.

By some impossibility, she knew.

She knew that telekinesis was possible.

She knew how it worked and how to apply it.

She knew it's limitations as well as her own physical limitations that would affect her ability.

She knew how telekinesis opened up the possibility of other abilities that she didn't know yet, like having a word on the tip of your tongue that you just can't figure out.

She knew.

'Holy sh*t." She repeated, a feeling of elation and awe mixing in her belly. 'Is this what Neo felt after having Kung Fu loaded into his brain in The Matrix?' She thought.

[MAGICIAN'S HAND SOFTWARE SUCCESSFULLY UPLOADED.]

[UNPROGRAMMED NANTIES REMAINING: 3,507]

Leta looked to the rolling medical tray on her right, which carried a pen and a plastic glass of water.

With the giddiness of a child running down stairs on Christmas day, Leta steeled herself and focused on the pen.

The pen smoothly lifted into the air as if held aloft by graceful hands until it was at her eye level.

A sharp exhale escaped her lips and she blinked in shock at what she was seeing. It was one thing to know that something long though in the realm of fantasy was possible, it was another to see it in action.

The pen wobbled in the air and Leta took a deep breath to refocus, willing the pen to come to her slowly.

It slowly sailed towards her and in a second she was able to pluck it out of the air.

[CONGRATULATIONS, HOST. YOU HAVE SUCCEEDED IN PERFORMING YOUR FIRST ACTION OF THE SOFTWARE, MAGICIAN'S HAND.]