The woman turns around after I ask my questions and starts whispering with her peers. I really hope using a broken speech pattern helps fool these people into believing that my level of intelligence is on the lower end. People are easier to manipulate if they think you are of lesser intelligence.
I am pleasantly surprised when I hear my voice for the first time in this new body. I find myself actually liking it, unlike my old one, but I do find my voice is rather deprived of any emotion at all.
I am rather calm for someone who died and woke up in the body of a five year old girl in a lab staffed by strange people with animal ears and tails. Honestly, I find it hard to feel anything it's like my natural emotional responses are simply missing. The male voice I heard from before my eyes had adjusted mentioned other first generation specimens being monsters. If I am one of the first generation of this experiment of theirs; could their experiments have caused my emotional disconnect?
I don’t have very long to ponder these matters because the woman turns back to me and says, “Alright I am sure you must have many questions, but first we have to check a few things,” as she helps me back to the bed.
Sitting back down on the edge of the bed I notice that the man directly behind the woman seems rather displeased and when he speaks I realise he is the male voice I heard earlier when my eyes were closed. “Come now must we waste our time with this? Even if it is capable of some cognitive thought that broken speech is proof enough that it is simply another first gen failure,” he says harshly.
Sighing the woman answers while fishing something out of her pocket, “I know the first gens displease you immensely, but even you must realise the fact that a first gen has even managed to talk is an incredibly important matter. Even if it is not the perfect sample depending on it’s stats there is always the possibility of training this one into a weapon we can control.”
As she finishes her sentence the woman pulls out a small stone from her pocket and reaches over to touch it against my forehead. I doubt my odds of success if I try to resist so sitting still becomes the best option. After touching the stone to my forehead she pulls it back and mumbles something under her breath. The stone responds by materializing what looks to be like a blue holographic window.
The woman starts talking to herself while examining the window with the rest of her colleagues. “These stats are actually rather terrifying but that is to be expected considering the materials used. The very last of the first gen might actually be useful to us,” she informs them.
Deciding to chime in the displeased man says, “Yes if its growth is within, follows, or exceeds the expected course this one could actually become quite an unstoppable weapon.”
Okay, I really don’t like all this talk about me being a weapon, but there is nothing that can be done about it right now. I will worry about that particular problem later. What I really need are answers and hopefully, they start providing me with some.
I must look rather confused because looking up at me the woman decides to explain what the blue screen is, “Since your intelligence is quite high you will probably understand if I explain this to you. What we are are looking at is your status. Basically, it is a tangible interpretation of your physical abilities and knowledge. Here, seeing it should also help answer some of your earlier questions.”
Finishing her brief explanation the woman walks over and shows me my status. Surprisingly enough, this status is like a stat page one would find in most role playing games. I have no idea how a little stone could possibly figure out any tangible information about a person, but I have to grasp any information I possibly can.
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Name:Race:ChimeraAge:2SexFemaleLevel:1Job:N/AHealth:750Mana:2000Str:150Int:200Dex:5Wis:200End:150Charm:150Titles:Skills:Chimeric BeingInformational SpongePhotographic Memory
Looking at these stats I really have no idea whether they are good or bad because I have nothing to base them on. There are some interesting things to note of.
For one how the heck am I a two year old? After having seen my body it looks like I should be at least five. Could it have something to do with my race being a chimera and what the heck is a chimera in the first place? In games, I played in my past life Chimeras are lions with a goat head attached to their back and a snake for a tail. Which is definitely not what I saw in the mirror.
Judging from the title ‘Chimeric Being’ however I can hazard a guess that my race is an amalgamate of several races, but I can never truly be sure unless these people decide to confirm that fact.
Further, looking at my titles why would one of them be ‘Genius Programmer’? While I was a programmer for most of my past life no one would ever have referred to my programming as genius level. I can only guess at the title ‘Informational Sponge’ without any concrete information to go on, but ‘Follower of Logic’ seems rather self explanatory. Moving on to my skills the only one that makes sense to me is 'Photographic memory,' which I had in my past life.
Lastly, mana is mentioned there, right? Is it mana like in games with magic and stuff? Then again what else could it be? Does that mean there really is magic? Wait, if there is magic then is this not earth?
Alright, staring at this status page is not going to give me any more answers. So I turn to face the woman and ask her, “Age … is … two?”
Looking lost in thought for a moment the woman answers, “Yes ... Physically your body is two years old, but due to of the mix of races used in the culturing your body its growth cycle is incredibly rapid. If our calculations are correct your body should fully mature by the time you reach the physical age of ten.”
Races used in culturing my body? What does that even mean? The more I dig the more questions I unearth, but I can’t stop searching for answers when I barely have any at all.
The woman seems to be waiting for more questions so I ask, “Culturing? … Races … used?”
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A/N: I have decided to release at least one chapter a day until I run out of the chapters I have already written. as a side note, I really dislike how the table in this chapter came out using the editor so I am going to learn to craft my own for next time.