Reaching the room, the door frame shines, and the door cuts in half entering the wall surprising Roberion, trying to go back to his usual Null persona, he continues with his last question, Here goes nothing, System, what did you mean when saying Neutrality when describing the spider’s electronic nucleus?, “Neutrality means its main function is adherent to the Neutrality Line”, the system answers his answers promptly, showing that he could use his thoughts instead of talking, he made that hypothesis because the system that was connected to his lobe could show an image directly though his eyes, so it was possible some sort of connection with his brain.
The answer he received wasn’t exactly useful though, and questions of what was Neutrality Line led nowhere. Feeling a little miffed, he went through the door, entering a big corridor. In the end of it a pod was revealed in bright like, with his body weakened he made a last push on his last legs, he needed a visit to the healing yard fast as possible. Reaching the pod, the upper glass opens up, showing a seemingly barely comfortable interior, having the white color in all its interior, it was soon blemished by the blood and oil of his clothes.
As he enters the pod, the pod automatically closes, and before he can do anything, a laser starts to pass through and analyze him, a connection between his engram and the pod is established, and as it connects a robotic voice invades his head “CHECKING NULL ROBERION...ERROR BODY COMPOSITION ALTERATION DETECT--—ODY COMPOSITION APPROVED, CHECKING HEALTH...HEALTH SUBOPTIMAL TRAVEL DO MEDICAL YARD REQUESTED...TOA 340 SECONDS, FIRST AID FUNCTION ACTIVATED”.
Finishing the pod message, a hole opens up in the bottom where a mechanical cable with multiple needles on its ends, resembling a toothed worm, as it nears him Roberion renegades himself to his fate and lets the pod do its work. The cable moves and starts injecting into all parts of his body a charge of the first aid. A herbal but synthetic odor impregnates the pod. He doesn’t feel cured, even barely, but his body recovers a little and the pain is lessened. That should be enough before reaching the medical yard.
The pod starts moving, flying to the air, the pod exits the training area, looking back he sees that various rooms have a red light, in them machines move for maintenance, his room being one of them, ‘I hope the spider doesn’t create trouble for me later’, the pod kept its travel speed all the while, soon he reaches a high altitude where he can see the massive size of the complex seemingly without end in the horizon, Damn how can someone create something like it?!, the complex uses even some of the mountains a part of its body, Roberion didn’t know, but a knowledgeable person would say it spanned the whole continent of the small planet of Xerxes, and what were the products aside Nulls that it made, it was anyone guesses.
Felling small Roberion tries to ask more questions from his system, but it didn’t get any new information from it. After approximately 20 minutes of the pod moving at high speed, he reaches one of the medical yards; the yard has a mix of white and red color, while nearing it his pod opens up again its bottom and the cable is released again, this time an anesthetic solution is released, That’s good, if for some reason I act up while being treated in there I could be compromised or worse, as he moves to get in a better position, the pod enters the medical yard.
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Numerous machines are treating the Nulls, from fresh wounds to some more grisly wounds, from time to time a machine could be seen moving dead bodies, from what he could guess tens of thousands are receiving treatment here, the robot staff seemingly overworked, no robot was idle. After a long minute. He finally reaches a location where the machines don’t have a patient. Before he can do something or see the process, the sweet freedom of the anesthesia is too much to bear, and he falls asleep.
Waking up, he felt refreshed. Although his body felt like a recently mended broken toy, he was sure he could get another go against that metal spider. Taking a look at his body he is surprised to see that his dirty medical gown was substituted by a sleek if simple uniform, with a mix of black and gold, most of the clothes were black, but with a bunch of golden lines and symbols, he didn’t know any of the symbols and none of them seems as well designed as the Man Ourobos.
Asking the system he discovered that he is localized in the quarters, knowing that he goes to the glasses of the pod and takes a look around, There are so many pods, Roberion is surprised by the vast quantity of pods, it was like a giant half coliseum, each pod taking the place of a seat, in the other side of it is a giant corridor where vehicles are moving around, far away from there, in the sky, black points that are barely visible could be seen.
The pods are being opened in ascending order; the pods being opened now are just below Roberion, 15 minutes later a screen opens up in his vision, showing a new message:
Quest detected: Reach the research station, Accept: Yes/No
Yes
Again, the quest is accepted automatically, if it was the macro or the work of the masked person he didn’t know. Just after accepting the quest his pod opens up, and he takes a secure and stealth look around, the Nulls act more rigid and in synchrony than an ant colony, trying his best to blend in he melts into his Null persona and follows the flow.
After descending an innumerable number of stairs, he starts walking through the corridor, little by little he gets near the transport region, there his speed gets slowed to a crawl, only increasing in short bursts, that’s because each time, several nulls started entering the vehicles, then after the vehicle left all the other nulls were forced to wait, in a way he was just waiting in a giant queue.
Nearing the end of the line, he can now inspect the vehicle, in a way they were like glorified buses with five levels, their aesthetic didn’t change much from the generic look of the place, but a difference could be seen, the bus had a sleek gold and black color resembling the color of his uniform, Even the symbols are the same, this seems like some sort of decoration this organization uses, but I still in the dark, that damned masked weirdo, all his information is just for the mission, the talk of reward feels like hot air-, just in his front, for the first time he sees a true person, not a Null, wearing a simple but better version of his uniform, he has black hair and white skin, there is a badge on his breast where Corporal John is read.
“The next six lines, proceed to bus number 142 to the left, GO!” Corporal John yells to all Null present, Roberion follows the flow and reaches the third level in the middle of the bus, getting a spot by the window he looks at the scenery, It’s about time!, it’s all Roberion says, before trying to get a better look at the sky.