Chapter 5
Sunday, September 14th, 2059
Day 1
32 days to Armageddon
“Hi Imp,” Leo said. “Haven't heard your voice for a long time.”
“That is hard to believe,” Imp said. “I'm your first and only implant and I've never spoken to you before. What should I call you?”
The implant didn't know he'd returned from the future. The implant was like it had been when he'd put it on when he was twelve. Only his memories had changed.
Out of habit, he pulled up his stats. A mental screen appeared in his head.
Subject: Name Unknown
Sex: Male
Age: 12
Strength: 5.2
Vitality: 6.3
Agility: 4.4
Intelligence: 5.1
Charisma: 4.9
Common Sense: 4.1
Class: Undetermined
Special skills: None.
Demon Tears: 0
Corruption: 0
His basic stats were as he remembered, nothing great, nothing terrible. 10 being the maximum possible for a normal human and 1 being a cripple or mentally challenged. His stats meant he had normal intelligence, was a little clumsy, people skills could have been better, but overall he was a painfully average twelve-year-old boy in every way imaginable.
His pre-death corruption level and the red flashing state of his implant stats had been caused by the so-called genetic enhancer known as Bio-Blessed that he'd taken both before and soon after the Change.
He hadn't consumed enough to turn him into a monster. But he'd managed to corrupt his implant and leave his body twisted and deformed. It was also why Imp had quit speaking to him two weeks after he'd put on the implant. Implants and Bio-Blessed did not mix.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Obviously, if he'd known Bio-Blessed turned people into ravenous man-eating monsters, he wouldn't have done it. But his parents practically lived on the stuff. The internet, media, anyone who was anyone, claimed taking Bio-Blessed made everything better.
“Imp. Pull up advanced features. And call me Leo.”
“Right away, Leo,” His stats vanished and a second list appeared.
Implant Interface settings.
Implant Class Selection.
Implant Special Skill Activation.
Implant Replication.
He pulled up the last one.
“Create Duplicate Implant,” he told it. When speaking to Imp, he didn't speak out loud of course. He murmured to himself.
Warning while your Implant is duplicating itself, regular functions will perform at reduced capacity.
In the future he'd lived through, implants equaled life, and there was someone he wanted to save. If he could prevent what had happened last time around and the memories that still haunted him, reduced implant capacity was a small price to pay.
“Do it.”
Implant Duplication in Process flashed on the screen. It would take at least a month for his implant to duplicate itself. At this point, there was little he could do to speed up the process.
“Leo, I should warn you, any attempt to exchange an implant for money or items of value is forbidden,” Imp said.
“I know.” He'd met the sad wreck of a man who'd made that mistake. Both the man's implant and the one he'd tried to sell had deactivated. Unable to replace, or fix, his deactivated implant, the poor bastard was a walking dead man.
Leo sat in front of the now-abandoned apartment and thought.
Last time, he'd used the implant to train in martial arts to fight Brick and his cronies. He'd taken a bunch of Bio-Blessed to make himself faster and stronger. Ironically, the Bio-Blessed had helped him survive in the short term, making him stronger and faster than he'd have been otherwise, but more importantly, the Bio-Blessed corruption inside his body made him a less attractive meal for the Afflicted. He wasn't quite one of them, but he wasn't fully human either. It wasn't that Afflicted wouldn't eat him, but it made him a second or third choice. Like the difference between prime rib and mystery meat.
The corruption had hurt him in the long run. His implant barely worked, making him far weaker than he should have been.
Way to go, Leo.
One step at a time, he thought. He'd lived through countless hopeless situations by taking things one step at a time.
Step one, go down the stairs. Step two, go home. Step three, save the world. Piece of cake, Leo. You can do this.
It felt odd walking down the stairs. He had to keep reminding himself that with his current stats, his twelve-year-old body couldn't handle a ten-story drop. Jumping off the walkway to the ground would leave him severely injured, or dead.
His body felt slow and clumsy as his undeveloped muscles clashed with a lifetime of memories of being faster and stronger. This would take a bit to get used to. He stumbled on the stairs more than once, having to grab the railing to keep from falling.
By the time he reached the bottom, his steps became steadier and he was taking the stairs two at a time. A passive effect of the implant was kicking in, helping him learn faster now, even at reduced implant function.
Imp's cheerful voice said, “You have gained +1 skill at walking downstairs.”
Yay, he thought. Improving enough common skills would lead to a rise in his stats. Something vitally important in his gaining a decent character class. Navigating stairs was pretty unimpressive, but every bit helped.
As soon as he reached the ground he heard running footsteps. Before he could respond, something big collided with his face, knocking him to the asphalt. He looked up. Brick and his two friends stared down at him.
Shit. Leo knew he'd forgotten something.