Ryder opened his eyes just to be met with a huge headache.

The pain was sharp and made him unable to focus. He groaned and rubbed his forehead, trying his hardest to rub that pain away.

It didn’t help much, but that was all he could do then.

After a couple of minutes, Ryder took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. His eyes had cleared out, allowing him to analyze his surroundings.

He seemed to be in a normal bedroom, surrounded by white walls and minimal decorations.

He looked down on his bed to see Brigitte sleeping peacefully with her head on his blanket. Her glasses had fallen off, so it was the first time Ryder had a clear look on her face.

It was... just like how he imagined it to be. Clear and full of innocence.

Ryder quickly shook his head; it was not the time for that. What was she doing here? This was also not his bedroom, so he assumed it was Brigitte's.

Not knowing what to do, he laid back down until his headache faded away. But as soon as his head touched the pillow, thoughts began invading his mind.

‘What just happened.’

The last thing he remembered was talking with Brigitte before… before what?

Ryder assumed that he had fallen unconscious, but how? He remembered trying to enhance his organs before walking to Brigitte’s chamber.

‘Did something happen while trying to enhance my heart and brain?’ Ryder wondered.

Realizing that falling unconscious might be a side effect of the nanobots’ work, Ryder immediately reached out to Epoch for an update on the progress.

Conversing with his thoughts, Epoch responded in his mind. Epoch updated him on what happened during the enhancement process.

Following the update, Ryder could only sit there stunned.

Epoch reported that the enhancements were proceeding as planned until one of the teams working in the brain encountered an object.

It was a strange looking orb, bluish-gray in color. Epoch said that it had a dim glow to it and seemed to be in an inactivated state.

But it was only after the nanobots got close to it, that the orb suddenly let out a mini shockwave that stunned the brain causing Ryder to fall unconscious.

‘What could it be.’

Ryder was in a dilemma now that he knew something was in his brain. This was especially concerning since the brain was one of, if not, the most important organ of the human body. Just the slightest injury to it could potentially kill him.

Where did it come from? Was the original host born with it? What did it do? Questions whirled in his mind.

One good news was that as long as the nanobots avoid direct interaction with the orb, then the enhancements for the brain could still proceed.

However, Ryder still commanded Epoch to scan the orb without touching it.

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He wanted to know its composition and what it was doing to his brain. He was definitely not content with something living rent free in his head.

Tired, he closed his eyes again, letting the nanobots enhance his organs in peace.

After a moment of rest, Ryder only felt a dull throb in place of a headache. He turned his head to look at Brigitte, who was still fast asleep.

Slowly, he got up, careful not to disturb her. But it didn’t matter since the next thing he knew, Brigitte was rubbing her eyes groggily while getting up.

“Hey Ryder,” she greeted while yawning.

"What's up."

“You scared me there, passing out on me without warning," Brigitte said while pouting.

“Sorry…” he apologized.

“Haha, it’s fine,” Brigitte laughed. “But you know…”

Seeing her pause, Ryder looked up at her. Brigitte’s face was now filled with worry.

“I don’t know what you are doing, and I also don’t know why you always want me to give you mana.” Brigitte looked at Ryder with a weak grin. “You also don’t need to tell me, just don’t stress yourself out too much, okay?”

Ryder looked surprised, but deep down, he knew that he hadn't been consulting with Brigitte as much as in the past.

He nodded in response. He felt bad that he couldn’t tell Brigitte what he was doing, but it was just far too important.

A couple of days had passed since the incident, and Ryder was feeling a lot better.

Not only did he need to eat less, but he could also sleep less while also performing many more tasks before getting tired.

And this was when the enhancements were still in progress, which made Ryder excited about the possibilities once it was done.

Using the extra time he had, Ryder went around the entire lab hoping to gain some information about the orb in his brain. But there was not a single mention of it, which made him all the more curious.

All he could do now was to wait on Epoch’s report. Now, he was just thinking of the next step of his enhancement plan.

One day, however, while he was going back to his chamber after helping Kade with his research, he ran into a very stern looking person.

With his bob cut and glasses, Ryder couldn’t take him seriously at all. That was, until the person announced that he was sent by Dr. Krugal.

In all honesty, Ryder had completely forgotten about Dr. Krugal and the task he gave him since he was too preoccupied with the nanobots.

He didn’t even know where to begin to enhance his genes. He developed several ideas but never had enough time or resources to start on them.

“Dr. Krugal said your time is almost up,” The man said with a hint of disdain. “He wants results by the end of next week, or else he’ll come execute you himself.”

Ryder nodded with beads of sweat rolling down the sides of his head. He was already beginning to devise all kinds of plans to make up for this unforeseen situation.

The man gave a quick harrumph before walking off. But with Ryder’s enhanced hearing, he could pick up the words the man muttered under his breath.

“What could someone like him do anyway…”

This enraged Ryder, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Instead, he quickly calmed down and continued to devise his plans.

The first one was the easiest, which was to use the nanobots to change his face structure before adopting a completely new identity in the lab.

That way, he would be able to escape from Dr. Krugal without doing much.

However, the only downside to this plan was that Ryder did not want to stay in this lab forever, and he also didn’t know the risk of the nanobots failing.

Ryder wanted to explore the outside world not because he liked danger, but because he wanted to find out why he was sent to this world.

His initial assumption was that he was reincarnated, but he never remembered dying in his past life. This made him question, who or what sent him into this world. And why?

There was also the risk of the nanobots failing and ending up completely disfiguring his face.

He shook his head, this plan should be a last resort option.

The second plan was to follow Dr. Krugal’s order and develop something that could activate his bloodline genes without needing elixirs.

It sounds easy, but Ryder didn’t know whether he could do it in just a week. It sounds like an impossible task.

His final plan was to just escape from the lab and figure out how to survive on his own. Surviving would be a lot easier with his enhanced organs now that he could eat and drink less.

But it was a lot easier said than done. First, he would need to figure out the layout of the lab. He would need to find the safest escape route that would attract the least attention.

Furthermore, once he got out, he didn’t know whether there would be any guards outside, so he would need to be careful of that as well.

Another problem with this plan was that he didn’t have a source of mana for his nanobots. He didn’t want to bring Brigitte with him as that would be way too selfish of him.

Ryder contemplated on his options, before deciding to abandon the first plan. It was far too risky, and he also didn’t like the idea of being contained here forever.

Instead, he’ll combine the second and third plans.

He will start developing something that could activate his genes while also figuring out the layout of the lab.

If he isn’t able to develop something by next week, then he will escape on his own. That way, he can still save his life.

He only had a week left, so Ryder quickly got started on his plans.