Brad, who was slightly disheartened by not being able to hear the end of Flo's story, realized that the knock on the door could lead to an even more interesting story. Perhaps the knocking on this door would lead to him getting out of this damn place. They would finally awaken Fallen One. This thought triggered a feeling of eagerness in him. He suddenly rushed to the door, looked at Flo as if asking for permission, and asked "Who is it?".

The voice behind the door belonged to Dan. "It's us, I came with Lucy." His excitement was also apparent in his voice. In fact, the enthusiasm in his voice could be read as “OPEN THE DOOR ASAP.”

Flo pointed at Brad with her eyes as if to say, "Well, go on." Having received the approval, Brad opened the door to the consulting room. Lucy and Dan quickly walked in, and Brad closed the door after them. He hoped that they did not arouse the suspicion of the people of Araf. Lucy coming to talk to the Fallen Ones was nothing new, but the fact that this Fallen One had the CyberDeck made Brad uneasy. He was worried as if everyone in Araf could sense that they were hiding something. This was the kind of paranoia people feel when they're hiding something.

Since Lucy didn't know about the seriousness of the situation yet, she was trying to chat with people in a leisurely manner. She hadn't been able to read the room and sense the hidden excitement of everyone. She greeted Flo and asked Brad how he was doing. Dan hadn't told Lucy about the CyberDeck, just in case, thinking walls have ears. Lucy congratulated and thanked Brad and Dan. Saving someone in the Abyss was always something to be admired and celebrated.

“So, Flo,” said Lucy. “How's the Fallen One doing?”

Flo briefly talked about the Fallen One's situation. She explained the interventions she made, and the parts she change. “I have stabilized her situation now. Her core was damaged, but I repaired it as well. Now I'm keeping her in sleep mode on purpose. Because we have something to talk about." Flo lowered her X-ray viewfinder. She gestured with her facial expression that she expected Lucy to do the same. Lucy followed after Flo and lowered her X-ray viewfinder.

“You might want to look at her spine.” Flo added. She was confident that Lucy could recognize the CyberDeck at a glance.

Lucy did what was asked of her. She had already guessed what she would see the moment Flo told her to look at her spine. "I see, that's why you called me so hastily," Lucy smiled. She was slightly excited but was concealing her emotions. She could sense the excitement in the room now even though they were also trying to hide it.

Flo started to speak. “So, what should we do now? We don't know what might happen or even what she might do if we wake her up. Is your opinion about CyberDecks still valid? You know I can dismantle it." Lucy cut her off.

“My opinion still stands. If we dismantle this CyberDeck and plug it into someone else, I believe it will only bring turmoil. Personally, I prefer to trust the Fallen One. But if you want, we can ask the public about what we're going to do." Lucy suggested.

Dan broke his silence. “Even when the clock came to town, people started to kill each other, Lucy. I don't even want to guess what people out there can do for a CyberDeck. But on the other hand, I think everyone would respect it if you were the one wearing the CyberDeck. You are the only person in this city that everyone owes."

Flo also made it clear that she agreed with Dan. “The only option that won't cause chaos would be to install the CyberDeck to you. Everyone respects you, Lucy."

“You know I don't want that, Flo, we've talked about this before. I told you I had my reasons. However, you are right about what can happen in the city. I've thought about all this before, and I think the same way now. After all this thinking, I see that our best option is to trust the Fallen One." Lucy said confidently. It was visible that she had no interest in taking the CyberDeck and would never change her mind. The reason was certainly not understood, but it could be seen.

Brad chimed in. “Lucy, I'm ready to do whatever you say, but how right do you think it is to trust the Fallen One? What if she gets up and kills us all? After all, we know what kind of people are usually thrown in here. Let's just say she turns out to have good intentions, can we still trust her?"

Lucy spoke firmly. “If you respect me, I expect you to respect my decision not to get the CyberDeck installed on me. If you have any other suggestions that won't cause chaos, I'm all ears, but I don't think it's right to dismantle anything out of the Fallen One. It was our choice to save her. Now it's her turn to choose, she can choose to help, she can choose to bring chaos, or she can choose to flee alone. After this stage, the ball is in her court.”

After Lucy's last argument, no one came up with another solution that would not cause chaos. Dan opened his mouth to speak but gave up before the words were even out of his mouth. He thought Lucy was right, even if they were in a risky situation. Awakening the Fallen One could also cause chaos, of course, but at least it felt like the right thing to do. If the Fallen One had died, they could have talked much deeper about what they should do with the CyberDeck, but at this point, these conversations were a bit unethical.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"So," Flo began, "should I awaken the Fallen One? I've deactivated her weapons, but there's no way to deactivate the CyberDeck other than disassembling it." The anxiety in her voice could be felt easily. The nervousness of Flo, who was known to be a stern individual, seemed to sum up the situation for the others as well.

Everyone started looking at each other after Flo's question. Finally realizing that everyone was waiting for her approval, Lucy nodded yes. Brad and Dan also looked at Lucy, a little nervously, and repeated the same head movement, respecting her decision. It was now decided. Whatever was about to happen would happen.

Having received everyone's approval, Flo tied a cable from her wrist to a port on Zoe's neck and performed the action that would wake her up. Flo took the cord off and stood over the Fallen One. Zoe opened her eyes as a result of this procedure. She found herself lying on something that resembled an operating table. She stood up slightly and looked around. She was feeling so much better. At least she now had a body she could feel. Only problem was that the damn pain in her chest hadn't gone away. But she didn't care, after all, she was fine now!

A red-haired woman she had never seen before called out to her with a smile, “Good morning! Welcome to Araf!”

Zoe thought it was Lucy, whom she had heard talked about all the way there, talking to her. She replied with a smile. "Good Morning!" Then she turned to the corner where Dan and Brad stood. "Thank you for saving me! I don't even know how long I lay there like that. I thought I was dead for sure. I owe you." she said.

Everyone, especially Dan and Brad, was pleased that Zoe started speaking with such good intentions as she awoke. Everyone was relieved when she thanked them and said she felt indebted. Lucy and Flo, who had previously seen some people attack as soon as they were awoken, knew it was a good sign too.

Dan thought it would be impolite to not respond to Zoe's thanks, so he began to speak. “We didn't do anything to be thankful for.” He pointed at Lucy. “She was the one that assigned us to search there.” He moved his finger towards Flo. “And she was the one who healed you.”

Zoe looked at Flo and Lucy and said, "Then I thank you all." Then she continued, “But thank you also for finding me. I am grateful to you. You were the ones who found me while I was lying at the bottom of that pit waiting for my death. When you saved me, I made a promise to myself. I will pay my debt no matter what!”

The team relaxed with this promise and started to try to get to know Zoe better. Lucy was the first to speak. Maybe Lucy was more involved than usual with Zoe, maybe because Zoe fell into the same spot as her, or maybe because she had a CyberDeck. “My name is Lucy, first of all, I want to welcome you aboard. The place where you have fallen is not very pleasant, as you know. But we, the AbyssCrawlers try to take care of each other. We're glad we were able to save you too. Can you introduce yourself to us?"

Zoe began to speak, afraid that at this point she might not sound convincing. “My name is Zoe, that's all I remember of myself and that I was pushed here by someone called Cain. The only thing I remember is the phrase "Why did you push me, Cain?" that I repeated over and over again so I wouldn't forget. I know it may not sound reasonable, but I don't remember anything else. When I try to access my memories, I see a warning sign that says I deleted them. I don't remember why I did this, maybe it was to conserve my energy. Maybe there were things I had to forget in order to survive. But believe me, it's the truth."

Although what Zoe said sounded sincere, her losing her memory didn't sound very convincing to people. After Zoe's last sentence, Flo took a cable out of her hand again and approached her, "If you don't misunderstand," she said, pointing to the cable in her hand, "I can see what happened to your memories."

“Of course, go ahead,” Zoe said as if to show that she did not take it personally. "I owe you my life too. I wonder if you can save my memories, can you take a look at that too? I also want to remember who I am, and who this Cain person is.”

Flo plugged the cord into Zoe's neck and began to examine. Now that Zoe's mind was awake, she had the opportunity to examine it in more detail. Because she had permission from Zoe, she was able to access the section with her memories and got the same notification. “These memories have been deleted by the user.”

Flo finished her study and began to speak. “It looks like you deleted your memories yourself, and unfortunately there is no way to get your memories back in the Abyss. But if you can go back up, anything is possible. The most likely scenario with your memories is that you erased them to conserve your energy because your core was critically damaged when they brought you here. We can think of other scenarios, but these cannot go further from speculations. By the way, I'm Flo, Araf's only TechDoc. How do you feel? I can check if there's a problem while I'm already connected."

While Zoe was happy that everyone saw she wasn't lying, she was a little upset that she couldn't access her memories yet. “Up,” she thought, “must be where I was thrown.” While thinking this, she decided to tell Flo about the pain in her chest. “Nice to meet you Flo and I appreciate what you've done for me! I feel like everything is fine with my body, there's just a pain in my chest that bothers me, but that's all.”

Flo was listening to Zoe while checking her system. When Zoe talked about a pain in her chest, she was quite surprised because she wasn't supposed to feel any uncomfortable feeling of the sort. She repeatedly inspected the system and checked Zoe's ports and parts. She repeated what she had done for quite some time, and each time asked Zoe how she felt now. Zoe said that the pain was still there each time.

Lucy understood what the situation was and decided to chime in. “Flo, don't bother trying to find out what it is. It comes from a point where you don't have access if I discern correctly." Flo understood what Lucy meant and disconnected. Lucy continued to speak. “Zoe, can you open the interface of your CyberDeck and check the status?”

Zoe had forgotten all the enthusiasm about this CyberDeck, as a result of the joy of coming back from the dead. She was going to ask what it was, but first, she wanted to access the interface and shed light on the situation. The CyberDeck's interface appeared before her eyes. In the status section, there was a word that surprised Zoe.

Before Zoe had a chance to speak, Lucy posed another question. “Is the word cursed written next to the status section?”

Hearing this, Brad, Dan, and Flo understood what the situation was, even though they were surprised. Zoe was studying the interface before her, unable to grasp the situation yet.

--CyberDeck--

Status: Cursed

A Legendary Curse: Endless Suffering

Those who are branded by Endless Suffering are cursed with never-ending pain. Each time the branded one gets used to this pain, the dosage of pain will increase.

Zoe turned to Lucy with shock. "I've been branded with a legendary curse called Endless Suffering. What does it mean?

Lucy began to speak, evident in her voice that she felt sorry for Zoe. “I don't know about your past, but that might mean you're lucky to have forgotten some of your memories.”