Almost stupidly, the man studied the bloody object while trying to catch his breath. His initial screaming fit was now over as his adrenaline moved in and dulled the pain somewhat. With a drawn out groan, he stumbled over to his truck.
With his uninjured eye, the stranger could see that the kid had stabbed him with an ordinary pencil. Difficult to believe, but he could (not quite) clearly make it out through the tears and hot pains that tore through his face.
Lukazio groggily started pulling himself up to his feet as he heard the stranger scream.
Looking over, he could see the man had somehow removed the pencil from his eye! "He's kind of a badass, of course." Lukazio muttered to himself sardonically.
Alarm bells began ringing in his head as he watched the guy climb inside and start the truck. Realizing his danger once again, Lukazio gathered himself and started to pick up speed as he moved towards a nearby building as quickly as he could.
Lukazio heard the engine of the pickup revving hard behind him. Taking his one opportunity carefully, he ran between the side of the small brick building and a concrete privacy wall used for shielding a small private area next to each apartment; used for outdoor cooking or for laundry hanging on a clothesline, usually.
Lukazio cleared the entryway with the roar of a vehicle behind him. The crunch of metal and shifting of material from the corner of the building made an reverberating crash on impact. The noise worsened by several windows shattering amid confused voices inside.
Lukazio kept moving because he wasn't sure if the truck could fit between the wall or not and the engine suddenly revved louder before a metallic pinging noise, suddenly repetitive, became high pitched and the engine ground to a halt.
Turning to look behind him, he could see the stranger slumped over, his head almost out the truck's window, blood pouring profusely from the side of his head. Thick black smoke slowly wafted from under the trucks hood.
Slowing his speed, he turned his head forward to see where he was walking just in time to see he was moving through a pitch-black doorway, leaving the strange memory behind.
Like awakening from a sleep, Lukazio stood in a large metallic room, vast and well-lit. A maze of spheres and interconnected light-beams floated above him. 'Just like that weird shelf in my room.' He remembered.
Looking down from the lights, he realized with no small relief that he was thankfully still wrapped in the unusual blanket from his room.
Nearby, an oscillating prism of light rose from the floor before suddenly shifting to become the fabric wrapped figure of the Concierge, holding the ever-clicking White Noise Staff. "You've returned. Wonderful. If you can recall it, describe what happened, please."
Lukazio replied honestly, clutching the blanket around his body, "I don't remember much now, but it's as if I was a child again. In that altered version of my memories, I relived a fight I was once in, but I was victorious this time."
Lukazio also described the strange scene with the adult and his belief that the adult was willing to kidnap and kill him.
During his explanation, the fog that made up Obinsal's faceplate began to shimmer and glow. When Lukazio mentioned his last image of the adult's bloody head alongside a bloody smear along the building wall, the Concierge's faceplate glowed so brightly that Lukazio could almost see an ethereal, skull-like face therein.
Uncomfortable, Lukazio thought 'He seems strangely excited.' While he only said, "I can't recall that guy, but I knew his son in my old life. I'm positive he never did any violent or outright aggressive stuff like that before."
Obinsal nodded, the lights amid the foggy faceplate blinking wildly. "Indeed. It seems your kind is quite susceptible to certain influences, as a result of your System's tampering. What you experienced was a more unlikely a scenario than most. I can only surmise that Tel'Amirin must have intervened in such a way to learn more about you; either directly, or through the Universal System. Only he and the System can access one's soul in such a way. Only your soul can store such memories, those integral to one's very being."
"So really important memories might be accessible there? In my soul? Can we access
more?" Lukazio asked hopefully.
"Perhaps." Obinsal responded hesitantly. "Important isn't the correct qualifier, they are more like memories related to one's gain of experience."
Recalling that his status previously mentioned Humans couldn't gain experience, he voiced out his concerns.
Making the obscure gesture once more, Obinsal reminded him that those restrictions were gone, and a translucent screen appeared in his vision:
-STATISTICS-
Name: Lukazio
Race: "Human" (Human, human subtypes appear to involve racial differences that are purely cosmetic, other racial types are socially constructed according to random chance of geographic birth and residence, with only slight variation for genetic differences; mortals, overall racial ancestry unknown, but base qualities could exceed cosmological grades)
Class: [null] ("Humans" or "Humanity" appear to be unable to choose a class, due to their own Universal System performing administrative overrides affecting the entire Race; the Universal System under the control of Tel'Amirin will delicately work to safely unravel those limitations)
Level: 0 (Limiters placed upon the entire Race appear to divert all experienced gained to the System; previous limiters now ineffective).
Experience: 40/200 (Although physiologically an adult, you lack experience due to prior alterations; you suffer from heavily reduced experience gains (-60%) as a result)
Frowning, Lukazio noticed that the results which, while not great, at least showed the potential for improvement. Several items there certainly held hope, such as the bit about humanity's base qualities. "So what's next?"
Obinsal's reply brooked no argument, "You will have to enter the Uncoiling Chamber again. Proceed to Uncoiling, you will join the matrix and then you become one of the Gladiators. After that, you will enter your Arenas in a different fashion."
"Again already? Why?" Lukazio asked.
Replying, Obinsal's arms moved and his wrapped "hands", seeming more like bulbous psuedo-hands, fiddled with his mechanical staff in ways Lukazio couldn't fathom. "Your Uncoiling didn't proceed as planned."
"The System even now reports that you weren't even able to approach the Coreforge, due to the interference. That is where the coil that tethers you to mortality would begin to become strengthened. You'll need such strength to challenge the other creatures that survive as Tel'Amirin's Gladiators."
"Unfortunately, your prior restrictions have made your soul somewhat atrophied , and it doesn't yet find experience palatable. Second unfortunately, there appears to be a multitude of beings in your universe that feed on experience, so even if someone could've overcome those restrictions, the challenge would be to keep those gains for themselves."
"Many such beings attach to residents, such as the adult variable you overcame at the end of your first test. That is one, sounds as if it could be under influence of one of my kind. One starved beyond reason."
With a start, Lukazio peered at Obinsal and said "One of your kind? Controlling that guy? How?"
Shifting somewhat nervously, the Concierge stated, "I can tell. My kind call ourselves the Korians, we are hybrid beings of matter and thought; that means, unfortunately that we do not fit neatly into any Universe other than our own. "
"Though the result is different each time, in many places we are ethereal, invisible to all but the most sensitive. Many sophisticated spheres of technology do not affect us. Our conduct while trapped in those realms would be strange to others, but it comes as a result of our forbidden hybrid existence. It is like they are trapped inside a tiny movable space, unable to interact except in the rarest."
"Therefore, my kind often attaches to residents in those realms. Influencing them into actions they wouldn't normally take. Usually, those actions produce emotions we can feed on." Obinsal appeared…almost thoughtful, judging by his overall posture. "Nevermind. Proceed once again, into the void."
Off to the side, a darkness moved and turning his head he could see the darkened doorframe, standing alone in the brightly lit chamber they stood in. Peering behind and around it, Lukazio noticed that it appeared the same from all angles.
With a shrug and a sigh, Lukazio stepped through the doorframe.
This time when he opened his eyes he was struck with an extreme cognitive dissonance. The amount of input to his brain caused him
physical pain and nausea as he seemed to be seeing through multiple sets of eyes and hearing numerous conversations at the same time.
At first he was several members of a human council, though he couldn't recognize the location. It was a desolate planet by the view through the council room's window, with a blue sun coruscating with orange and purple coronas around it. The result was a reddish-orange sky, making for a startling vista of color and light.
As his mind adjusted, he realized the humans were talking about what to do after finally discovering an alien race after traveling trillions of light-years away from long-forgotten Earth. Though they wished return, the distances and time-involved were too great. Communication was impossible, and expeditions would always return, too aged to continue, with their children and grandchildren unwilling to take up the journey.
The aliens had long-ago received an ancient satellite showing a star map to Earth using not only stars and other galatic points of interest thst could change drastically, but also immutable spatial landmark such as quasars- black holes at the centers of massive galaxies, unlikely to change for millions of years.
Surprisingly, the humans of this era chose conquest, without any further diplomacy. Also unsurprisingly, the two reasons were mostly superficial.
The first was simply that the aliens were disgusting and wholly incompatible with humans. The aliens were not carbon-based creatures, but silicon-based. They also breathed a similar gaseous mixture of oxygen, but also required carbon dioxide as well as nitrogen and many other minerals as a result of their unique structure.
The result was that all these factors made them fair competitors for the same habitable planets as humans.
The second reason was religious. Aliens, like many humans, believed they were made in the creator's image. Their differences obvious, with no common ground, war was inevitable.
To Lukazio, the sheer number of conversations, speeches, presentations, he endured from numerous viewpoints was exhausting beyond belief. Like a running stream of consciousness, he could hear numerous thoughts of the different councilors as he shared their mind-space with them all.
When he finally shifted into a smaller number of viewpoints, the relief his incorporeal mind felt was like setting down a heavy set of weights after holding them for hours.
In one mindset, what he began to consider the "main" one- he could focus enough to move around, with the benefit of the person's mental commentary to their-self in the background.
After a few steps in the gravity many times heavier than earth's, Lukazio realized he was still practically immobile; where every movement was difficult, and his head still foggy from numerous perspectives, the results were spectacularly bad. He fired off rifle shots, and other weaponry attached to his back, without meaning to.
He also slipped and nearly fell off the wall, but was saved by several robotic attachments to his suit. The person whose body he was inhabiting was fully capable in pulling themselves to safety, though they did wonder if they should visit medical.
Though Lukazio could control the body he inhabited, it felt too odd. Several cybernetic enhancements such as mechanical arms and spider-like leg supports made the body feel unfamiliar to maneuver. The enhancements made movement use virtually no energy and even provided automatic assistance based on the users' thoughts.
This provided another view into the struggles Lukazio was currently experiencing, as the languages spoken weren't those he knew, but he understood them fluently. The technology was so foreign that Lukazio took a backseat for a bit, as sharing a consciousness without the individual knowing made him feel dirty and slimy.
The person responded appropriately as he was ordered to patrol a remote area. For his part, Lukazio was incredibly surprised that he was being sent alone.