I don't remember dying.
Well, I do. The details are just a blur now—blinding lights, a screech of metal, and the sensation of my body being ripped apart. Then, nothing. No pain. No sensation. Just an endless void.
But when I came to, I didn't expect this.
The first thing I realized was that I wasn't human anymore. I had no skin, no muscles—just cold, rough stone. My body, if you could even call it that, was made of jagged rocks, piled together like some poorly made sculpture. My arms, legs, torso—everything was made of stone, gray and heavy, like I had been carved out of a mountainside by a beginner with no real understanding of anatomy.
I tried to move, but my body didn't respond.
I froze. That wasn't my voice. It wasn't even human. It was mechanical, calculated, cold—like a robot speaking directly into my mind. It sounded advanced, almost... clinical.
"W-what?" I muttered out loud, but the sound that left my mouth wasn't what I expected. It was a hollow, gravelly rasp, as if my throat had been replaced with stone.
What the hell was going on?
I looked around—if I even had eyes to look through. I didn't feel anything familiar. The world wasn't an office building, wasn't a city—there were no buzzing fluorescent lights or computer screens. Instead, I was in a dense forest. Tall, ancient trees towered over me, and the air was thick with the smell of damp earth.
"Where am I?" I asked, still in a daze. "And what the hell am I supposed to do now?"
I tried to move again, this time focusing on my legs. They felt like they were weighed down by tons of stone. I attempted to take a step, but my right leg only dragged behind me, stumbling awkwardly across the uneven ground. My body creaked with each movement, the stone limbs moving like they hadn't been used in centuries.
"Ugh… I can't even walk right…" I grumbled, frustrated. My body was too stiff, my legs too heavy. I was a *golem*, whatever that meant, and right now, it felt more like a curse than some special gift.
What did that even mean? I wasn't sure how to answer that, but the voice didn't wait for me to catch up. It was already working on its own protocols.
Before I could process what it was doing, my body moved without my consent. My legs jerked into motion, but it wasn't smooth. It was stiff, clumsy, as though someone was dragging a broken puppet across the floor. I couldn't control the movements at all.
I could feel my stone feet dragging, each step dragging me closer to something—whether I wanted it or not.
"Wait!" I tried to stop myself, but it didn't matter. The voice inside my head—Nexus, whatever it was—was taking over the basic movements of my body. My will didn't matter.
I stumbled forward, dragging myself across the rocky forest floor, half-falling, half-walking.
"Help me…" I muttered, almost pleading. This wasn't how I was supposed to be. This wasn't how I had lived my life.
The voice didn't seem to care about my panic. It was like it had a plan for me—whether I wanted it or not.
After what felt like an eternity, I managed to stumble into a small clearing. But the moment I entered, I froze. A large creature emerged from the trees—its body low to the ground, massive and shadowed in the forest's darkness. It had glowing red eyes, sharp claws, and teeth that looked like they could tear through steel.
I didn't have a weapon. I didn't have anything to protect myself. I wasn't even sure I could move properly.
"What do you mean *defense*?" I tried to shout, but my voice cracked. "I can't even *walk* properly, and you're telling me to fight?!"
I sighed, frustration bubbling up. "Scan failure? Again?!"
I could feel the creature moving, its claws raking the air as it snarled, preparing for its attack.
I felt my body shift automatically into what I could only assume was some kind of combat stance. But it was awkward and clumsy, like a puppet being jerked around by invisible strings.
"Come on! Can't you do *anything* right?" I gritted my teeth.
I raised my arm, awkwardly swiping at the creature. My stone arm moved in a direction I didn't intend, and I completely missed. The creature roared in irritation and lunged forward.
I couldn't dodge. I couldn't even move fast enough to counter it.
The creature's claws slashed at me, raking deep gashes across my stone chest. A crack ran through my body, and something within me groaned in protest.
What good was a *golem* if it couldn't even repair itself?
"Damn it, Nexus! Can't you do anything?!"
I wanted to scream, but my body was too stiff. I couldn't even muster the strength to fight. I was nothing more than a weak stone shell, stumbling through a world I didn't understand.
The creature prepared to strike again. I had no options. No plans. Nothing.
I didn't know if it was the system or just pure luck, but suddenly, my body lurched back, dragging itself away from the creature. It wasn't graceful. It wasn't even voluntary. But at least I was alive for now.
I dragged myself further into the forest, knowing that I couldn't stay in one place for long. That creature would come back. It would find me. And when it did...
"Great…" I muttered under my breath. I was just a stone golem with a broken system and a failing scan function. How was I supposed to survive in a world like this?
If I didn't find a way to fix this... I didn't know how long I could last.
But as the voice of Nexus repeated its failure after failure, I couldn't help but wonder—how could something so advanced be so utterly useless when I needed it the most?