Alex lay on his bed while Dr. Vikram prepared a new syringe. For the past 20-plus minutes, he had undergone some mandatory medical tests before the injection. Finally, it was time to get the implant.
Dr. Vikram rubbed alcohol on the back of Alex's neck and said, "This will sting a little." Before Alex could reply, he felt something digging into the back of his skull.
As the needle moved deeper into his skull, his eyes widened, and the hair all over his body stood on end.
At that moment, time seemed to slow down, and all the surrounding noises faded away as his five senses switched off one by one. He found himself in a dark space, the only sensation being the needle scraping the back of his brain.
He began to panic, but with a clicking sound, he suddenly found himself back in reality.
Alex didn't know how much time had passed, but he found his entire body soaked in sweat. He took deep breaths to calm himself and looked at the doctor for an explanation.
Dr. Vikram removed his gloves and said, "Don't worry about it. Everything you experienced was because of the numbing agent in the syringe. It temporarily numbed your brain. I've already attached the capsule to the back of your head."
The doctor placed a mirror at the back of Alex's head, showing a centimeter-wide, thin cut on his scalp. After showing him the area, the doctor applied a small blue metallic bandage there. "You don't have to worry about anything. Just don't pull off this blue bandage, or things might become troublesome. It will help your scalp seal the wound and will fall off after 2-3 days."
Alex was so drained that he didn't want to speak much and just nodded his head a little.
Dr. Vikram continued, "Because of the numbing agent, you'll feel lethargic for a few hours. It's normal, and sometimes you may also experience slight pain in the back of your head after the agent wears off. There is no need to panic in that case, as the pain will subside after about three hours. If you're still feeling something after three hours, you can contact me through the website."
Alex rubbed his forehead to get some sensation back and asked in a low voice, "Anything I should avoid?"
Dr. Vikram tapped on the screen in front of him and, without looking up, said, "Nah, feel free to do anything you want after three hours. Until then, it's better if you rest." He added, "You can go now."
Alex didn't stay any longer, as he still felt weird about that sensation. The clinic reminded him of it, so he wasted no more time and rushed out into the open air.
As soon as he stepped onto the road, his nerves calmed down. Before moving anywhere, he checked his phone. After making sure the website added the details of his operation, he started walking back to the bus stop.
As he walked, he felt so drained that he didn't want to stay out for long, especially if he was one of the unlucky ones who experienced pain after the operation.
From what he knew, it wasn't due to any complications with the capsule insertion but to a stronger immune response in some individuals.
The DR capsule was a foreign substance that was now actively changing to mimic his cells, and that process would take about three hours. During that time, the immune system would attack the capsule.
Most people didn't feel much during this period, but he had a weird premonition that, in his case, it wouldn't be simple, especially after last night's incident. Just thinking about it made him shiver.
Not wanting to take any risks and scream on the road, he decided to take the bus back home.
...
Alex lay on the floor, staring at the clock. One hour had already passed, and he could sense the numbness in his head fading, but the problem was that, along with it, he felt a throbbing sensation at the back of his head, extending behind his eyes.
It felt like something inside his brain was trying to push both his eyeballs out of their sockets. Alex didn't panic and just tried to sip some water when suddenly he felt a current passing through his brain.
It was so sudden that he dropped the water, but it wasn't a one-time thing, and soon he started feeling rhythmic currents passing through his brain.
"Fck, it's irritating..." He tried to massage his head, but nothing helped. As he was sensing the throbbing, he thought about last night. Did he experience something similar then? The jolting sensation suddenly increased a notch, and before he could react, he passed out, lying there on the wet floor.
...
After a long time, Alex opened his eyes in confusion. He found himself lying in a puddle of liquid, which made him panic as he jumped to his feet. When he looked down and saw it was just water from the bottle, he calmed down.
Still, to make sure nothing was wrong with him, he walked to the bathroom and looked into the mirror.
As he stared into it, focusing on his eyes, he noticed a thin green line in the top left corner of both eyes. Upon closer inspection, he saw that there was a thin red line behind it. This line started from the leftmost corner of his vision to the center of the vision in both eyes.
It was so thin that, if not for the mirror, he might not have noticed it. The green line was on top of this red line, starting from the left corner and covering about one-third of it.
Alex rubbed his head. "Ah, what's going on with me these days?" First, the note with the nano operation or something, then this.
Alex froze as some memories of him learning about nanobots and the idea of the operation came to his mind.
He just stood there, staring at the mirror, all emotion drained from his face as he looked at his reflection with cold eyes. He realized that what happened last night was something he did to himself.
He still didn't remember all the details, but he knew it was part of the plan. He... no, the past himself designed all of this after years of work, and whatever that operation was, it was there to help him in the game.
This excited him. After all, the only person he believed in was himself, and these eyes were something the past him had spent years developing.
The only reason he didn't know anything now was because he had planned for the possibility that HUNT might steal his memories.
Now things start to make sense. He pulled his eyelid back and focused on the thin white line around his pupil. A smile formed on his face. "It will be interesting."
With that, he walked toward the living room. He first crushed the syringe he had found earlier, then tore up the note without opening it.
After throwing both things in the garbage, he opened his laptop and started checking for any hidden notes.
After an hour of searching through various sites and emails, he finally found a plain page with a smiley face sticker on it and a simple message: [Don't waste my work].
A smile formed on his face as he deleted the file. He realized his past self had already cleared the entire laptop so that he wouldn't learn much about it.
He closed his laptop and sighed. For the past four years, he has not only worked at a construction site in the morning but also on a personal project at night.
Right now, he could remember all his days, but the nights were bleak. The only thing he remembered were blurry glimpses of him reading books and working on his laptop. Whatever he did during those nights for four years was not on his mind.
He sighed once again, not knowing how to feel about it. Not wanting to dwell on it, he finally decided to call it off and enjoy his days until the game started.