“Day 163 of the unified year 12104, procedure to e-”
A machine’s buzzing sound drowned out the fuzzy words being interchanged in the background. I could see nothing but a blinding white light that seemed to extend as far as my eyes could see. Shadows cast by objects I could not see were dancing somewhere in the whiteness, far out of my reach.
I tried to stay away, but my eyes closed and my consciousness faded.
“-stable, power source co□ected—transfer rate positive—initiating u�”
The buzzing intensified, deafening once more the occasional words I barely managed to understand. A piercing noise stabbed at my ears, trying to burrow deep inside me, drilling down my very brain. It itched, but I couldn’t scratch.
Make it stop!
I tried to set my thoughts in motion to figure out where I was and why it hurt so much. I tried; I struggled, but ultimately, I just knew that it hurt. My muscles ached. My back was twisting in pain. I could feel my legs cramping and my toes’ nails scratching on a hard surface.
Pain! Pain! Pain!
Stop!
Stop!
The agony intensified when my wish backfired and a sharpened edge slashed open my chest. My body tried to move, but something was keeping it in place. The worst had yet to come. Suddenly, through the open wound, I felt a warm liquid being pumped. It spread like a virus through my veins and started invading me.
It was warm. Recomforting. My eyes closed once more.
I woke some time later in a peaceful dream, a place where both my mind and body were immersed in a calmness like I had never felt before. The pain had stopped. My agitated mind slowed down to a crawl. My body’s tension released. My consciousness fad-
No! You won't put me to sleep! I reflexively sprung.
I barely stopped myself from crossing the point of no return. I was about to accept the dream when, instinctively, the truth hit me. They were sedating me. Or perhaps killing me. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew the liquid was up to no good.
Armed with that spur-of-the-moment enlightenment, I fought back the invader in my body. I couldn’t die there. My life had been a mess—a chain of lies that brought me to misery. I could not die like a nobody. The same pain as before intensified and multiplied to the point that I could not stay still anymore.
I couldn't let it continue. It had to stop. I had to stop it.
The chains that held me down broke.
“Doc! Doc!” Reality came fully back, and I once again started hearing voices.
White still prevailed, but there were now glimpses of flashing black lights in the corner of my eye. The buzzing had become inconsistent and mixed with some intermittent beeping and a warning playing in a loop: unplug—evacuate!
“Doc!“ The voice repeated an octave higher; only some words reaching me. “-an  46!”
“What! Fo-forty-six?“ A feminine voice, the doctor I assumed, yelled in return. “Hurry! Protocol  effective immediately!“
“Unplug—evacuate!“
“Unplug and evacuate!” Several more people announced at the unison.
[Welcome!] [Your starter class is: Error #46]
Something flashed before my eyes, ignoring the fact that until now I had only seen white. A part of me briefly acknowledged the messages and even understood what they were about.
[You lost 11] [You lost 7]
The alerts kept accumulating among the cacophony of shouts, screams, buzzing, whiteness, warmness, blood, and a feeling that told me that everything was alright.
Everything was as it should be. I was now complete.
“No! -too late!” The agonizing voice of that female exclaimed as I tapped into the warm liquid circulating on my body.
There was no trace of blood in my body; I just knew it. It had been replaced by a radiant white liquid, the same pure white that my eyes were filled with. The shadows were no more, and, instead, those flashing black lights I could see before had become black spots that marred the perfect white. Ugliness, dirt that should have never been there to start with.
Black spots that took the form of humans. That spoke like humans. That, like humans, were scared and defenseless. But no human would have done to me what they had.
They are monsters in human skin.
“And you will die like the monsters you are.” I shed two tears when I heard my voice for the first time. Guttural, animal, born from failed experiments.
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“I am indeed an error. An error of judgement. And error of calculus. An error that will cost you your life.”
Ah, my body shook with pleasure as two long whips of energy formed from the open wound on my chest. I am free! Free to kill them all!
My newly found extremities—creations of pure white energy—touched ground. They compressed like springs and released right after, sending me flying up the room. One. Two. Three and four. Are you hiding? Five. And those two make it seven.
The black spots were the doctor and her assistants. Some were running, others were cowering in fear behind all sorts of impromptu shields that I couldn't really see or discern—or even care about.
But why would I, if they were no better than walking corpses?
Sharp and thin spears of solid energy shot from the same spot where my new extremities had come from. Guiding them, as if they were simple extensions of myself, I aimed for the heads of all seven monsters that had become my targets.
Nothing was amiss. Everything felt natural. My power, my rules. Just like I didn't have to think of breathing or moving my legs when walking, I didn't have to think of using my newly found energy.
I knew, as if I had been born with it, that the power that came out of me was my own blood made energy. It was contained within me, and to use it, it required some exit point. Luckily, the very same monsters I was targeting had taken care of that.
I heard the thuds of all those bodies hitting the floor, and I immediately recalled the energy back inside me. It was still my own substance, and if I ran dry, I would face the same fate as the seven headless people in the room.
“And now, what?”
There was no living being to answer my question, and the dead bodies didn't seem cooperative at all. I was in a pinch; all I could see now that my enemies were gone was white. White, pure, untainted, and unperturbed. I didn't know how big the room was, and I couldn't see if there was any obstacle in the way. I just couldn't see anything at all.
“Except you?” I stared into the floating window that had been bothering me for a while.
Status: {
Name: Darian
Class: {
Name: Error #46
Level: 10
Energy: 136/360
Skills: {
Bloodshaping
[passive] Bloodless
[passive] Pure-blooded
[passive] Enemy sight
}
}
}
“Fucking geniuses!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Bunch of morons thought this would work out!?” I swear I would have kicked their dead bodies if I could find them back. “I'm a fucking bloodless pure-blooded bloodshaper! Bloodless, pure-blooded, bloodshaper! Morons!”
“Fuck!” I repeated it once more, still not content with the number of times I had cursed. “How do you even think this would have worked out!?”
I had been so enraged and focused on freeing myself from those who caused me pain that I forgot about myself, where I was, or what I was. Until the moment I finally regained some peace of mind, and it clicked. “St-status?”
Everything had happened so fast, driven by a primitive part of my brain, that I hadn't stopped even for a moment to think about what really was going on.
“Since when is there a Status window?” My figurative mental gears started turning at a velocity that they had never before. “Experiments. Status. Bloodshaping. Passives.“
If fiction stories back on Earth were to be trusted, I was either in a game or summoned into another world where magic was real. I had to stop myself from jumping. I was joyous, containing shouts of happiness at what either of those two meant.
An escape from my reality. A chance to be someone. A real opportunity to become important, respected, and trusted. Just…
“Just… I'm an error?” I couldn’t decide if that was great or not; so far, I had managed to free myself and even enact revenge on my captors. I could not see, but why wouldn’t magic be able to solve that?
Luckily, there was no one to see me trying and failing to contain myself. I was laughing like a maniac, surely surrounded by blood and liveless bodies. Chances were that if anyone saw me, they would momentarily freak out and then get rid of the lunatic murderer.
I was frozen in place, too busy going over the implications of what had happened. It didn't feel like a game, and certainly not like a dream. I was really not on Earth.
I have to get out of here.
Late, but it finally clicked that I was still in the middle of a potential laboratory where they had been experimenting with humans—with me. I had to get out; the sooner, the better.
I started walking straight—or rather bumping into tables, some chairs, and countless unknown things that I couldn't be bothered to investigate. Eventually, after a one too many hits, I managed to find the wall. I followed along, feeling for any crease, hole, or anything that hinted towards an exit. It took a while, but I did manage to find a door.
Navigating the admittedly small building was hell. I had to take note of where I came from to avoid going back, and even then, I still had to undo my path several times.
Adrenaline had been a boon to survive, but now that it was gone, it took too much to see my mistakes. It took crashing into all kinds of things to realize how stupid I was. Acting as I would have done in my past life, but without seeing, was not the way to go. I had new abilities rooted in magic, and I had to use them.
Once I realized I could extend my new magic limbs to sense the world around me, the game changed completely. I could scan my surroundings and find everything around me. It wasn’t fast nor pretty, but it did work for the purpose of walking out of there.
There was only one issue left. Every passing moment I used this magic energy, even if I recovered all of it and brought it back inside my body, my status window complained.
Status: {
Name: Darian
Class: {
Name: Error #46
Level: 10
Energy: 127/360
Skills: { … }
}
}
It wasn’t a significant amount, but sufficient to get me worried. What would happen if my energy reached 0? Would I die? And would I, after dying, be brought back to my own world and house?
I definitely didn't want to go back. Nothing and no one awaited me back on Earth. Everyone I had trusted there had betrayed me. The perspective of a fresh start, with a status and what looked like real magic, was a million times more alluring than my soulless office work.
I didn't have any expectations. In fact, I was filled with fears and hopes in equal amounts. Fear of dying without knowing what killed me and hopes that I'd be a powerful wizard, flying and spitting fire from my mouth.
I'd die trying. I wouldn't waste this opportunity. I would become the strongest, respected, trusted, and never again betrayed.
My steps brought me outside to a quiet and chilly night. I walked to the chirping of birds and the rustling of leaves until I found myself in a forest. At least, that was my best guess based on the vegetation I was finding and the wide trunks of what I supposed were trees. I didn't have any set direction, I just walked in what I hoped was a straight line.
I quickly noticed that no matter how much I walked and how many hours passed, I was not feeling hungry. But it was more than that; it felt like I didn't need food at all. My body didn't demand it; I had these unquestionable thoughts that it was alright. There was no other way of testing them other than not eating, and given my situation, that wouldn't be a problem.
My energy kept descending as I kept it to find my way. I would have gotten worried if not for the fact tat the sun finally came out, and the second it hit me, I knew my energy was refilling.
A moving solar battery. A defective one if my class name has to be trusted. Way to go!
Solar battery or plant doing photosynthesis, I managed to keep up with my walking rhythm.
Status: {
Name: Darian
Class: {
Name: Error #46
Level: 10
Energy: 197/360
Skills: { … }
}
}