Ethan followed Dain and Nayu out of the command room, still trying to process what had just happened.
He barely understood half of what Varia had thrown at him—except one part.
The Perfect Synchronization Serum.
That sounded very concerning.
Dain, ever the chipper one, clapped Ethan on the back as they walked.
"Well, buddy," he said with an easy grin, "cheer up, you're about to get a power-up."
Ethan shot him a deadpan look. "Varia said 'If he survives', I apologize if I do not seem too enthusiastic about the whole thing."
Dain chuckled. "Aw, don't be like that. This is a big step for you! In fact, it's a huge honor. Not everyone gets this opportunity, you know?"
"Don't listen to him. Everyone gets it. Its mandatory," said Nayu, just as stoic as ever.
Dain made a sour face at Nayu and turned back to Ethan.
"I mean everyone does get it, but given that you haven't gotten it yet, means you do not know just how amazing it feels. There's a lot of benefits to it, I mean you've seen Nayu in action right? All of that and more, we are still in the middle of bettering it and creating more stable versions, but it is pretty amazing!"
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Right. All of that. Caveat being, if I survive."
Dain scratched his cheek. "Well, yeah. There's that."
Ethan groaned. "You're really bad at selling this, you know that?"
"You want a sell? Fine how about this, normal humans suck."
Dain paused and crossed his arms, turning to face Ethan.
Ethan blinked. "…Come again?"
Dain laughed. "I mean, compared to Syncs, humans are laughably inefficient. You ever notice how no matter how much you train, you never use your full strength?"
Ethan frowned. "That's just… how muscles work."
Dain shook his head. "No, that's how human inefficiency works. You see, a normal punch? Only a fraction of your actual potential strength goes into it. Muscle inefficiency, wasted energy, bad technique, and most of all—your brain actively stops you from exerting too much power."
"Well, I mean that is what training is for right?" said Ethan.
Dain looked at him as if looking at a three year old.
Ethan stared back.
"What?"
Dain rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Okay, you were an ice-cube until not too long ago so, I mean let's go with that to explain how you do not follow what is common sense."
"The Serum," Dain continued, "optimizes neural control over muscle fibers, allowing you to use 100% of your body's potential by allowing you to actually use those muscles to enact what you are envisioning very precisely. Hence, you can train better! And also more efficiently, putting in one quarter of the effort to get the full result."
Ethan nodded slowly as he started to understand.
So that's why Enhanced Humans have double strength and dexterity multipliers. It's not about raw power—it's perfect control.
Dain snapped his fingers. "We aren't just physically stronger. We are faster, more efficient, more precise. It's what you saw Nayu doing when she fought those Syncs. The Syncs are not just scary because they are a hive species, it is because they are a completely enhanced hive species. SAI technically created this Serum, we just reverse engineered it."
Ethan nodded slowly.
That explains that Granny… it's not just superhuman strength. It's just perfect usage of what the body already has.
"Look man, I know how this is happening too fast for you to process, but given Varia's dedication to bringing down SAI, she will do anything to achieve that. You taking down Syncs was not pure luck, of course you know we are aware of that," said Dain patting his shoulders.
"But this is the best outcome you could have asked for. Which by the way, you are welcome for. So man up, its just going to hurt for a bit and then you'll be flexing those evolved neurons as if we did not even have this conversation."
Ethan sighed. "I still hate everything about this."
__________________________________________________________________________________
Nayu sighed, clearly annoyed by their antics. "Enough talking. We need to get it done anyways, Varia will be expecting results soon."
They continued walking until yet again Ethan was in front of a metallic, reinforced building.
Dain turned around and spread his arms wide in a comical gesture.
"Here it is! Welcome to the base hospital!"
___________________________________________________________________________
Ethan was led into a room that did look like a large empty chamber. The only problem was that it looked like one of those large rooms from the movies where experiments conducted tend to go horribly wrong.
Nope, that is fiction. This is real, not like they are going to strap me to a tabl-
Just as Ethan was mentally reassuring himself, as if to prove a point, a white coat wearing individual wheeled in a metallic table with restraints and locked it into position into the middle of the room.
Oh god. . .
Ethan gulped audibly as he saw the doctor then pulling out a vial of shimmering blue liquid, its glow reflecting ominously off the metal table.
Ethan looked at between Dain and Nayu. "So… are we gonna talk about how this works? Or do I just drink it and hope I don't die?"
Dain smirked. "Nah, we don't drink it. You'll be injected straight into the spine."
Ethan stiffened. "I beg your pardon?"
Dain just grinned.
The scientist continued prepping the monitoring equipment while Ethan tried to delay what his instincts screamed at him was going to be his impending doom.
"Say guys, I am not suddenly feeling mentally up to it, can we try again in a few hours?"
Nayu and Dain both deadpanned and simultaneously refused.
The scientist finally turned to them. "Enough stalling. Get him strapped in."
Dain and Nayu moved before Ethan could react and before he knew it, he was strapped in facing the ceiling. They had also placed a black strip on his chest that felt like cold metal. He then heard the monitor nearby come to life, beeping rhythmically.
An EKG.
"Alright, you're all set," Dain said, giving him a thumbs up. "Just, uh, don't pass out."
"Pass out?"
Ethan suddenly realised that he knew nothing about the process.
Dain for the first time lost the carefree demeanor and looked at Ethan with a serious look in his eyes.
"Look it is going to hurt, a lot. Reconstruction of the body at the cellular level is painful, probably the most painful thing you will ever experience in your life. But no matter what, you need to not lose consciousness, especially during the neural rewiring phase. Now we cannot tell you when that will start, so just stay awake all the time."
Ethan gulped audibly. "Got it. No passing out."
Dian suddenly went back to his chirpy self and turned to Nayu.
"See he is going to be fine!"
Nayu just rolled her eyes and then focused on Ethan.
"Do not die."
Ethan could not even think of a smart retort. So he just nodded.
The doctor inserted the vial into a mechanical injector.
Before Ethan could even process that, the doctor turned him over slightly; aimed the injector and pressed the button.
Ethan felt a sharp pain which disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
And then—nothing.
Just as he was about to call out to Dain to ask if this was a dud or something—the world exploded into pain.
A burning, white-hot agony surged through his entire body.
Ethan clenched his teeth. His hands balled into fists, nails digging into fists but he could barely make out any sensations.
All he could feel was the pain.
His veins felt like they were on fire. His muscles spasmed, his bones cracked and reformed, his nerves screamed.
But he kept his eyes open.
Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay akake. Say cake. Sy ake.
His thoughts became jumbled, he was barely able to repeat them in his head.
His vision blurred.
The pain was unbearable.
Seconds felt like eternities.
His vision darkened at the edges.
And before he could fight it—his perception went black.
Then outwardly—his body thrashing around in pain convulsed violently once and went limp.
The monitors flatlined.
The scientist said looked up for a bit, sighed and declared, "We lost him."
Dain cursed. "Shit—!" but before he could do anything a figure blurred past him and crashed into the door opposite to them, sending it flying off the hinges.
Dain reacted only after a few seconds.
"Nayu, what the fuck?"
__________________________________________________________________________________
Ethan found himself standing in an empty darkness.
There was no pain.
No sound.
Just… peace.
This feels so much more better. . .
He sighed in relief.
Until a gruff voice called out.
"Are you seriously giving up that easily?"
Ethan turned—and stared.
Standing before him, arms crossed, was someone he had never met but knew very well.
"Galen? What are you doing here? Wait, where is here? Am I back in the Explorer Lobby?"
Galen scoffed. "This is not the safe-room kid. The closest thing I could describe this place to be would be 'Limbo'. But the real question is, what the hell are you doing here? Hmm? Tapping out already?"
Ethan frowned. "Tapping out? And why does that tone sound like you're chastising me? Dude, I tried holding out for as long as I could!"
Galen gave him a deadpan look. "You're not dead. Pretty close yes, but not yet, moron. You just gave up a little too early."
Ethan scowled. "Early?! That felt like hours! And you don't even know how it felt!"
Galen tilted his head. "I do not know how it feels? Kid you can't even begin to imagine, actually don't mind that, we do not have a lot of time. But you need to wake up."
Ethan looked at Galen with a flabbergasted look.
"Wake up!? How do I do that!? You always have such simple solutions, but with no idea on how to implement them! Just like your goddamned guidance, worthless! I'd have been better off just going in blind! Oh wait, guess what, I went in blind! And here I am now, dead. Because of you! And why would I even bother going back, death is better than that pain, it felt like liquid metal flowing through my veins!"
" You don't see the bigger picture, do you? If you can't push through this, you're going to disappoint a lot of people."
Ethan was caught off-guard. "What people?"
Galen shook his head. "You wouldn't understand yet."
Ethan growled. "No? Then explain it! Properly this time old man or I swear. . ."
Galen sighed ignoring the non-threatening threat from Ethan, his confident and haughty demeanor breaking for the first time.
"For what it's worth… I get it. Such randomness and madness all within a span of a few days. It is unfair yes. But you need to stop being so selfish. You did crave a purpose didn't you? And now you have one, something you cannot even begin to fathom."
Galen looked straight into Ethan's eyes and in what was the most earnest sounding tone Ethan had ever heard, said, "Listen kid, I took a gamble on you. I need you to grow, and fast."
Galen paused, hesitating.
Ethan knew that it was the perfect opportunity to get substantial answers, so he pushed.
"What do you mean by a gamble? And why do you need me to grow?"
Galen looked away into the distance, although no one could tell what he was looking at in the endless darkness of the 'Limbo'.
"The Om-" Galen had just opened his mouth to speak when he stopped.
And then he grinned. "Hahaha! It looks like you've made a few friends in the new world."
"What is tha-"
Before Ethan could understand anything, the darkness shattered.
Ethan's eyes snapped open and the familiar ceiling of the medical chamber came into view
Then the pain hit him like a hammer on an anvil.
Just before he could lose his mind to pain again, he heard Dain's familiar voice.
"Holy shit, it worked."