An electric charge ravaged his mind, like an explosive force it spread quickly, shutting down his every thought and causing him to completely blackout.
...
His consciousness slowly returned to him after an unknown amount of time.
'What was that?'
It had been one of the most painful things he had ever experienced, second only to his nuclear death. 'And what is that... thing? That annoying blinking?' he pondered.
He searched his mind to find it's origin, and quickly discovered that it was some kind of light source.
'Of course.'
'How could I have been so naive? Why would my current eye sight be at all the same as when I was a human?'
'After all, I no longer am human, am I?'
Still, he tried to make sense of it as best he could. But try as he may, he could not escape the old habit of trying to process light in the same old human way.
'I just want to see.'
『A visual expression has been detected. Syncing to neuro-logical system...』
The scatterings of blinking lights began to group together, their processing becoming more complex —made obvious by the formation of regular shapes that Robert's mind could now recognize.
This continued for a few more minutes until eventually he could see a blood red sky, all the way from in between a valley of humongous snow dunes.
'Hmm, the sky is much like I expected of hell,' he thought before moving to his right to get a better look at the snow mounds. 'But snow? I expected this place to be a lava pit of sufering.'
As he was inspecting his surroundings, he found his attention drawn to a piece of what seemed like green glass embedded near the top of the snow mountain.
He attempt to move forward, to try and get a better look at it. However he moved way passed it, and crashed into another snow mound in front of him.
'What in the heavens?'
Despite the system's attempt to filter the visual information he was getting, he was still getting confused at times, since his vision was coming from all directions at once.
Even the depth perception that he was experiecing was an illusion of familiarity, to allow him to percieve distance.
In addition to this, his vision was capable of zooming in and out at will, which also served to confuse him.
He decided that instead of trying to move, he would just use his zooming abilities to inspect the green rock.
'That's a rather inviting green,' he thought to himself, realizing that he felt naturally drawn to the color.
'And it's pulsing.'
He spent some time staring at it, and then his gaze shifted to the sky.
It's blood red color was intimidating. There were no clouds... or atleast clouds in the sense he knew them. There were however large bodies of moving fog, these were red as well, but a darker shade, like clotted blood.
'I wonder if the others are here. Teller, Fermi, Feynmann...' he continued to stare at the sky as he pondered over this.
'But even if they were. There's no way I would recognize them in their new bodies,' he realized.
'And it's not as if i can even talk right now. I'd probably need more radioactive samples for that.'
He turned his attention back on the green crystal trapped in the snow mound. 'How do I get up there?'
He followed the outline of the snow mound trying to find and area where its slope was more gradual. However the cliff face stretched as far as his eyes could see —and they could see quite far.
'Then I'll just have to climb. Surely this vessel is capable of doing that.'
'For me to be able to move across this icey ground with zero slide, means that this vessel employs a great amount of friction.'
Robert moved so that his puddle like body was forced to press against the steep mountain wall. The familiar pull of gravity threatened to make him slip off, however a strange suction force kept him steady on the slope.
'Rather interesting indeed,' he thought, as he made his way up to the green crystal.
『Unpure Low-Grade radioactive sample has been collected!』
『Processing...』
'It's just like I thought. The radioactive samples are in the form of crystals. Perhaps solidified radioactive waste.'
As his system processed the radiation he had just consumed, he decided to go until the very top of the mound to get a clear view of the landscape he now found himself in.
'Still, the question remains, what is radioactive waste doing in hell?'
Once he reached the top, Robert felt that he had somehow gotten his answer.
To the right, as far as the eye could see, the land was covered in an icy blanket of white and blue. Which shimmered a light shade of purple under the crimson light of a blood red sun.
Mounds —much like the one he was standing on— towered all over the land, some seemed like mountains, natural in their structure. But others had more precise shapes to them, like rectangular monoliths, constructed by some sentient race.
To the left, far in the horizon, he could see the smallest outcrops of dark red land. However even with his maximum zoom, he could not properly determine the finer details.
『4 Rads has been processed.』
『Use available radiation reserves to continue ☼Light Sensing☼ mutation?』
Robert ignored the 'thought-messages' for now. His attention was focused on his search for signs of life.
No airborne creatures flew through the skies, and as far as he could tell, nothing else walked this icy desert. The only thing he could think to do was to inspect the odd ice structures that looked like they had been made by the hands of men.
He had to find someone he could communicate with, someone he could ask about this strange place.
After all, he was starting to have his doubts about this being hell. There was no conclusive evidence to point to the fact that it was, of course apart from the fact that he had died. But even that could not be completely proven.
Robert was a man of science first and foremost. And although no one could put a scientist on trial for making an incorrect hypothesis, it was beyond folly to stick to it even with new information.
'I'll just have to see what I find out once I reach that tower,' he thought, before turning his attention to the setting blood sun.
'It's going to be dark soon. I should hurry.'
With that, Robert accepted the system's offer to continue his mutation.
And just like before, a sharp electric pain consumed him right before everything went black.