Leta’s addled mind didn’t question how words and sounds in a strange, archaic language were there, hovering like eye floaters in her vision.
Instead, she stared at them passively, curious in the way that ghosts are when watching the living pass them by.
[Warning: Abnormalities found within the Host biological structure.]
‘Uh oh.’ Leta thought. ‘That doesn’t sound good’.
[Nanites rerouted for abnormality removal.]
Suddenly, the blinding darkness that was her world was filled with searing pain that seemed to burn her nerve endings and blister her muscles.
It was so painful that Leta could make out the feel of her own body in the blackness as her back arched, muscles locking in pain, and every brush against her skin was like it was being raked with coals.
Worms made of magma felt like they were wiggling through her body, swarming to various places and leaving a trail of fire in their wake as her body thrashed.
Leta could hear someone shouting, “She’s seizing!” in Greek like it was shouted through a tunnel, but she couldn’t feel the press of her hands against her body as her muscles twitched uncontrollably.
She could barely perceive the feel of latex-covered hands holding her down. Her mouth opened to scream, but nothing came from her raw throat.
They must have injected her with a sedative because she could slowly feel the tightness of her muscles relaxing by degrees, dulling the agony of her burned nerves ever so slightly.
[Early-stage breast cancer removed.]
[Hereditary arthritis removed.]
[Hereditary dementia removed.]
[Nearsightedness removed.]
[Weak metabolism removed.]
[Abnormalities removed.]
[Nanites returning to system installation.]
Leta’s body relaxed further into the darkness, and she happily let it wrap around her like a warm blanket to escape the torture. Muscles that felt like cinders moments ago started to cool and lose their tension, letting her tired mind focus on stringing thoughts together.
What was this voice and the strange symbols that flashed in her mind’s eye?
How could she understand their meaning?
Why was she in so much pain earlier but now felt fine?
She remembered the artifact underwater that injected her with…something.
Was she dying? Was this voice just the delusions of a young woman on her way to the afterlife?
It seemed odd that, if she were dying, she’d feel so calm about the situation. Perhaps her weakened brain was just happy not to be in pain anymore.
In the silence of her mind, she started to hear a soft, steady beeping that grew louder and louder.
It felt like she had dived underwater and was slowly floating back to the surface, becoming increasingly aware of the surface above.
Then the smell of disinfectant and antibacterial wipes grew more robust, the feel of rough sheets and the chill of a cold hospital invading her calm darkness.
Was she in a hospital?
A few heartbeats later, she could perceive her chest rising and falling rhythmically with her steady breaths, her eyelids heavy with weakness, and her muscles exhausted like she’d run a marathon.
[System uploaded successfully.]
[All functions are performing at peak levels.]
[Anesthesia removed.]
[Rebooting of the Host’s nervous System will now commence.]
[It’s time to wake up, Host.]
Leta gasped in a heavy breath, her eyes wide as if someone had kick-started her heart.
A nurse who had been checking her vitals nearly dropped her clipboard in shock, fully expecting Leta to still be under, as a squeak of shock escaped her.
“Oh, thee mou,” the nurse breathed with one hand over her heart before switching to English. “I’ll get the doctor. Please wait, miss.”
Before Leta could make any remark, the young nurse scampered off, shouting, “Dr. Kappiadis! Doctor! The young lady from the archaeology team is awake.”
Leta blinked, realizing she somehow understood the nurse despite her limited knowledge of Greek.
Traveling worldwide, she’d gotten pretty good at picking languages up, but it took time, effort, and a lot of awkward miscommunication.
While her earlier memories were slowly returning to her, she was positive she hadn’t been fluent in Greek before.
Alone, she took stock of her surroundings. She was in a private room with an IV in her arm and oxygen tubes in her nose. Someone had cut away the rest of her wet suit and replaced it with an uncomfortable hospital gown, covering her in a thin blanket that did nothing to ward off the chill of the building.
Despite her current state, Leta felt remarkably good for surviving a life-threatening situation. Instead of feeling at death’s door, she felt like she had just had a perfect nap after a long day of hard work.
The door opened, and the nurse entered, followed by an elderly doctor in his late sixties with balding white hair and kind eyes behind his thin glasses.
The doctor gave her a tired but gentle smile. “Good morning, Miss Black.” He said slowly, in rough English, “My name is Dr. Kappiadis. You’ve had quite an ordeal and have been in our care, recovering. Could you tell me how you are feeling?”
Leta looked down at her hands, clenching them into fists, then relaxing them to see if they were stiff, and was happily surprised that they weren’t.
Not a tingle or twinge could be felt.
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“Good… Which is odd. I don’t think I should feel good right now, but I feel fine.”
Dr. Kappiadis nodded as if that made all the sense in the world. “Your body was under great stress, but you slept very soundly after the first 24 hours. I want Nurse Logakis to check you over and run more tests. I’d also like to keep you here overnight for observation. Is this acceptable?”
One side of Leta’s mouth went up in a half-smirk. “I’m not going to argue with a professional. Do what you need to do, doc.”
The doctor nodded. “Good. I will get those tests in order.” He said this before closing the door behind him. The nurse came to her side, checked her heart rate, blood pressure, and other standard vital signs, and drew some of her blood.
“Are there any other symptoms you are feeling?” The nurse asked her.
“Uh… yes. Right before I got up, I heard this weird voice in my head, and now I see some symbols floating in my vision. Is that normal?”
The nurse looked quizzically at her before jotting down something on her clipboard. “It is probably just something left over from when your body was under stress from healing. I’m sure it’s nothing, but I’ll ask the doctor.” She said this before politely exiting the room.
Then she was alone again in the room with nothing but herself and the floating symbols that read ‘Time to wake up, host’ in a strange language.
“Okay…” She whispered, “I guess it’s just you and me then.”
[Assimilation complete.]
[Welcome, Host, to the Atlantian System.]
Leta blinked as the words changed in front of her. “Atlantian System?”
[Correct. I am Gada, your system assistant. I am the collective hive mind of your nanites. I became active when you acquired a specialized class system.]
“What the… what?” Leta scowled, her brows knitting together as she tried to follow what the voice and words were telling her.
[The Host is confused. Would the Host like to initiate the Nanite Tutorial?]
Leta gave a rough exhale, feeling like she would get a migraine with whatever this was. “What the hell is a nanite?”
[Nanites refer to atomic-sized machines within all human lifeforms. These nanites improve the Hosts’ overall physiology, mental capabilities, and skills.]
“I… no. I’m not dealing with hallucinations. I’m going back to sleep.” Leta groaned, readjusting to try and fall back into oblivious sleep.
[This is not a hallucination.]
“That’s just what a hallucination would say. You’re not fooling me.”
[Sarcasm will not depreciate the truth, Host. The Host’s System is now active, and the Host will soon be able to see the physical updates that have taken place. The Host has already experienced some new system updates, including a newly installed linguistics skill.]
Leta frowned. She had noticed that she’d suddenly been able to understand the nurse as if she’d been living in Greece for decades.
She opened one eye with a frown and said, “Fine, I’ll entertain this delusion a little longer. What the hell do you mean by systems?”
[A system refers to an active hive mind where nanites are programmed to execute specific skills based on the Host’s designated class.]
“I feel like that didn’t answer my question.”
[More simply, a system is the web of nanites that support the Host’s class. Like a spider, the class defines and reinforces its system web, giving it particular strengths and weaknesses.]
“And a class is…?” She drawled.
[Classes are programs and software organized into a particular framework. Classes define a Host’s capabilities and limitations, allowing the Host to surpass human limitations. Classes can range from physically dependent, such as Warrior, to mentally esoteric, such as Scholar and Alchemist.]
Leta pinched the bridge of her nose before running her hands over her face as she moaned, “Oh, this is crazy. Why am I even entertaining these delusions?”
[Would the Host like a small demonstration of class capabilities?]
“You know what?” She threw her hands up and said, “Absolutely. I’d love a demonstration to prove I’ve gone insane.”
[As observed, the Host is no longer nearsighted or requires man-made inventions to see, as this abnormality was corrected during the initial system installation. In addition, the linguistics software ‘Tongues of the Many’ has been uploaded. This software allows the Host to read, write, and speak any language as long as the Host has adequately been exposed to the language for a short period.]
Leta tried to ignore the voice, running her finger up her nose to push her glasses up and realizing she wasn’t wearing any.
Her hand went to her eyes. It was true; she wasn’t wearing any glasses, and a quick eye poke proved she wasn’t wearing her contacts either.
Yet she could see perfectly, her blue eyes dancing around the room as her naked vision could see the details she’d never noticed before.
The weave of the linen sheets.
The defined pixels in the numbers on her health monitor.
The ever-slightly uneven texture of the paper hospital gown she was wearing.
She could see it all.
“That’s… odd.” She poked the side of her cheek but stopped when she noticed the texture of her teeth.
Her filling on the back molar was gone, replaced by smooth teeth as if she’d never had a sweets addiction as a child.
She ran her tongue around the other side of her mouth. Her crown on that side was also gone, and her teeth were perfect.
“That’s… very odd.”
[Would you like to see your status window and upgrade options?]
“Uh, sure, I guess.”
Leta blinked, and, like before, text in opaque blue floated in front of her eyes in a language she’d never seen before and yet knew fluently.
[Height: 165 centimeters
Weight: 68 kilograms
Bone Density: +1.2
Power: 11
Speed: 10
Stamina: 10
Reflexes: 12
Constitution: 10
Mental Fortitude: 15
Current Skill Software Installed:
Tongues of the Many: The Host can fluently read, write, and speak a language after exposure to the language.
Sacrificial Touch: The Host can absorb organic nanites through physical touch.
Filter Feeder, Level One: The Host can filter out and absorb only inert nanites and will not be affected by programmed nanites.
Eyes of the Night Hunter: The Host can see in 95% darkness.
Ears of the Judge: The Host can detect false statements made by an individual.
Electric Misconduct: Level One: The Host can create an electric charge powerful enough to short-circuit electric wiring and other devices powered by the flow of electricity.
Persuasion: Level One: The Host can produce a frequency that can resonate with nanites within a victim’s brain, allowing the Host to make suggestions that the victim is more likely to agree with.
Upgrade Options Available:
Physical Characteristic Reconstruction: The Host can make changes to their physical appearance. This upgrade is affected by the inert nanoparticles available.
Internal Characteristic Reconstruction: The Host can change its internal structure by creating artificial enhancements and structures. This upgrade is affected by the available inert nanites.
Magician’s Hand: The Host can move a physical object without touch that weighs a maximum of 70 kilograms in their line of sight. This upgrade is affected by the Host’s constitution, power, and mental fortitude statistics. Nanites needed for this upgrade: 500,761.]
[Inert Nanites: 504,268.]
[Would the Host like to make an upgrade selection?]
Leta looked over the available options, but it seemed like she could choose only one.
“Fine, let’s prove I’m crazy. Give me the Magician’s Hand.”
[Magician’s Hand Upgrade Selected. Software upload is in progress.]
Leta gasped as her body locked up, feeling as though someone had inserted electric wires into her brain.
Her vision went white, and suddenly, knowledge was pouring into her brain. Mathematical equations and information from physics and quantum field theory raced past her mind’s eye, being absorbed and imprinted into her brain’s neurons.
What felt like thousands of years of information was instantly inside her head as Leta took in a great gulp of air like someone who’d just surfaced after being underwater.
“Holy shit…” She gasped, taking heavy breaths and steadying herself from the sudden shock.
By some impossibility, she knew.
She knew that telekinesis was possible.
She knew how the physics and science behind such a miracle worked and how to apply them.
She knew its limitations and physical limitations that would affect her ability.
She knew telekinesis opened up the possibility of other abilities that she didn’t know yet, like having a word on your tongue that you can’t figure out.
She knew.
‘Holy shit.” She repeated, a feeling of joy filling her belly. ‘Is this what Neo felt after getting kung fu into his brain?’ She thought, then paused as the wonder at her sudden knowledge faded into the shock of discovery.
“It’s real. You’re real.” She whispered to the System as if speaking too loud would shatter the moment. “The system, the classes—it’s all real.”
[Correct. The System is real. Does the Host have any questions?]
Leta felt like all the air in her lungs had suddenly been pushed out of her, her eyes staring out the window on the other side of her room but not seeing the blue sky and bustling city beyond.
“Yeah.” She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. “Yeah, I’ve got questions.”