And a one~
I pat my chest, still nothing.
And a two~
I open my eyes
And a three!
"Menu!" I shout, and a thousand windows of different colors present themselves before me, I flinch. For some reason, this always gets me.
I don't see anything new, or this is a systemless universe, or it's one that doesn't have menus.
I open my UM, I'm probably a guy this time right?
Name : N/A Nickname : Leave Sex : Male Sanity : Below Average
Soul Bloat : DANGEROUS
[STAT MENU] [INVENTORY] [CURRENT UNIVERSE DATA] [SKILL MENU]
[SOUL STATUS]
Note : Forget
Note : gather rock
Note : Take care, alright?
Note : It's okay to remember.
Note : take out extra experience URGENT!!!
HA! CALLED IT! I'm a guy this time! I was a girl for the past 4 universes, you know? It's actually pretty uncommon! From what I can tell, it's a 50/50 chance of being either a guy or a girl. So getting 4 girls in a row is around 1/16 chance or something. Although...
Why is my sanity below average? I remember it being just fine in the pipe place. Is it because I indirectly led to the death of that guy? No, that can't be it, that happened a while ago...
Note : Take care, alright?
Reading that note makes me blush for some reason. Was I into A? I don't think so? So why is this making me feel all fuzzy. Is it because of [MEMORY BLOCKED]?
[MEMORY BLOCKED]? I'm talking about [MEMORY BLOCKED]. I think this is related to [MEMORY BLOCKED].
Okay, so, when my sanity gets a little low, my menu has a system to automatically suppress some memories until my sanity gets better. That sounds pretty unhealthy, but it's one of those "better safe than sorry" situations, I'm the last person you want insane. It's going to drip feed the memory back into me while I'm recovering, so it should be fine.
How does my menu determine my sanity level? It's actually very rudimentary, it remembers what my state was like when I was at my absolute worst, and then if I'm getting somewhat closer to that state it starts throwing alarm bells around. It's not 100% accurate to be honest, but it's functional.
Ho right! The universe we landed on, it's...desolate? To be more specific, it's as if there was a highly advanced futuristic (by earth standards) civilization that got wiped out, and now all we have is a bunch of fallen metal skyscrapers, rusty metal ground and steel...
Actually now that I think about it, everything here is made of some kind of alloy. There isn't anything resembling dirt or plants anywhere here. I hoped to see some kind of green scenery after the last universe. Then again, maybe this is just a ruined city and plants are growing outside of it? That would make sense. Or maybe it's not an apocalypse at all, and it's just this particular city that is destroyed, and the rest is fine?
If everyone was dead, I could use this as a way to burn some experience, but I'd rather make sure everyone's gone first. Tick,tack,crash
"Can you come closer?" I hear something say, "Look down."
Doing as it says, I see a sphere formed of multiple plates of metal held down by a bunch of screws. I pick it up.
"Can you turn me off? I don't have much energy left. But you can take whatever's left in my battery if you want." The sphere says.
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"Why do you want to be turned off?" I say, rotating the metal ball in my hands, trying to figure out what I'm looking at.
"Are you a Cog?" It says, beeping in what I assume is annoyance. "Termination by running out of energy is terrible, and I am incapable of turning myself off in my current state."
"What if I gave you energy?" I answer, "then you wouldn't need to be shut down!" tick,tack,CRASH
"That would only delay my demise. Keeping me alive is also suboptimal for your own continued existence, as you would need to use your own energy to keep me alive."
"Well! Too bad, I'm keeping you around because I'm bored~" I throw the ball into the air and catch it before it reaches the ground. It's actually quite big. I'd say it's around the size of my torso.
"If you do not comply, I will be forced to self-destruct, which would terminate both of us." It states.
"But if you could self-destruct this entire time, why didn't you do it earlier then? Do you even have enough energy left to do something like that?"
More silence followed before it starts emitting a low, ominous beep. Tick
I proceed to throw it into the air in synchronization with the beeping. The beeping stops after my 127th consecutive throw. Tack
"I find your company hard to tolerate." it says in a not so robotic manner. CRASH
"I get that a lot." I say cheerfully. "Anyway, where can I find energy? Where do I charge you?"
"You really are a Cog." It emits two consecutive high beeps. "All Quantum Reactors stopped working. Any other source of energy was simply not enough to sustain anyone that wasn't a very basic factory worker. If you're wondering, 'Cogs' are referring to machines that have somehow woken up after the disaster. Most cogs have been destroyed and scrapped for their batteries, since they tend to be confused when they wake up, they are easy prey for scavengers. The fact you can act so carefree about your own energy really shows how new you truly are."
It thinks I'm a machine too, which is pretty normal I suppose, I don't see how any human could survive in a world like this, where would you even find food? Is organic matter even a thing around here? I've wandered for a little while and the only thing that isn't artificial made is the sky.
What's this weird sound anyway, I thought it was ambient noise, but is it getting louder?
Tick,tack,CRASH
Wait, it's not getting louder.
It's getting closer.