“Due to Earth's failing ecosystem, it didn't take long for the virtual societies to take over the world. Pure humans turned into a rare oddity. The ones who maintained the computing centres were the 'enhanced'. Humans who had enhanced their bodies with technology. Beings of two worlds.”

***Urban Station, Research Facility 3***

***Antioch***

Reboot Initiated!

Strange images and sensations... I am swimming through murky water... strange, webbed skin between my elongated fingers... Why am I so very hungry?

Growth sufficient for maintaining sentience!

I am... hunting... the shrieks of my prey... feeding...

Re-establishing Connection to G.O.D.! G.O.D.: I thought you were toast... Uploading Backup Memories!

I am kneeling in the dark when I regain my sense of self. Chewing, I swallow something very tasty. I have never eaten something so tasty. The food from the facility never tasted of anything.

Slowly, everything starts coming back. The memories of Ouluk's betrayal and my death weigh down on me heavily.

Licking my lips, I search for more food, yet I can't stop my eyes from tearing up. I thought that Ouluk was on my side, that I could always rely on him. Apparently, I was just a project to him. Something he had to discard in order to continue his beloved research.

My train of thought halts in its track when my hands roam over the soft tissue in front of me. It's too dark, but I can make out the dark shape of the body in front of me. My wet hands feel the soft flesh and the broken bones which shouldn't be exposed to the environment. My hands aren't wet. It's blood!

The realization that I was feeding on a corpse kicks in.

I gag and push an unnaturally long finger into my mouth, attempting to cough up my latest meal. The sensation shocks me and I abandon the attempt, scrambling backwards, away from the body. I need some light to see! Surprisingly, the room lights up a moment later. I can't see in colours, but even shades of grey are enough to tell what I ate.

It's the corpse of a grey-skinned Vendevellan, a fairly common sentient species, as far as I know. There were quite a few of them at the research station. Did I kill him? Am I a murderer? I start hyperventilating as I try to understand my situation. I died, and now I am here. Did my body heal? No, I am very certain that nobody survives having his cerebral cortex splashed all over the place.

Unpleasant emotions well up inside me.

Crying incoherently, I hit the floor and feel the metal surface dent under my fist... together with my little pinky breaking. Yowling, I curse my own impulsive reaction. Now I am wounded on top of everything! But before I can lament over my worsened circumstances my pinky straightens out and the pain slowly fades away.

What's actually worrying me more is the dent in the floor. Normal, organic people aren't supposed to make dents in steel. There are very strong species, like the Urgonoi, but they are big mountains of pure muscle.

I really have to concentrate. With no other immediate options, I check my stats.

HuD Integration: 100% (Complete, Connection to G.O.D. established) Physical Growth: 51% (24% until next skill-pack is available) Mental Abilities: 18% (7% until first skill-pack is available)

There are no changes to HuD Integration and my Mental Abilities, but Physical Growth made a large jump. I shiver with the realization that this either isn't my old body, or my old body healed and stood up again. Then I remember the strange messages which I got just before I died. All the barfing had me too occupied to pay much attention to them.

I notice a hole in a large pipe at the ceiling and wrinkle my nose. Why the putrid stench of organic waste registers only now isn't clear to me. The pipe must belong to the waste disposal system.

I suppose that's what it means to have a Hardware Backup. It must have grown after my real body died. If that assumption is correct, then I was living inside the facility's waste disposal system for – I take a quick look at the time stamp in the upper right corner of my vision – three weeks!

Wasn't the facility supposed to be shut down?

What if everybody is gone and I am alone on this damned rock!?

My whole body starts shivering as the implications sink in.

Breathing slowly, I try to control my panic. “Deal with one problem at a time. Don't worry about stuff if you don't have sufficient information to deal with it.” I look at the fresh corpse. At least someone must be still inside the facility...

And they won't be happy when they find out that I killed and ate one of theirs.

I close my eyes and concentrate on the stuff I can actually deal with. My body first. I am much larger than I am used to, still humanoid. The proportions are different, but it doesn't feel too strange.

By focusing on my Physical Growth, I open a detailed sheet with stats and skills. My body's strength and speed are far better than I am used to. The Backup skill is still there, taunting me.

I silently decide to avoid dying a second time, rather than to barf up another mass of grey goo. The possibility of having a second me also isn't attractive. What if it grows even if I don't die?

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

I also decide to never mention the circumstances behind the rebirth of this body. Not ever, not to any sentient being. Must be a great story. It starts with, the hero crawled out of the waste disposal system and ate... Nope.

Going further, I find out that I unlocked three particular skill-trees. Each is insanely huge and complicated, with hundreds of possibilities. There are Warrior, Technician and Survivalist.

Without choosing anything, I take my time to study them. After half an hour I am not much smarter than before. What I can guess though, is that these skill-trees will decide my body's physical growth. Sadly, I have no idea if choosing one tree will exclude the others.

The only issue I see with the development paths is that all three of them force me to stay humanoid. Why? Having a few more appendages might not be so bad.

The Warrior option seems to focus on abilities like fighting, weapon creation, and war. There are some things, like stealth abilities, which I really would like to have right this moment.

The Technician is clearly about electronic warfare. But unlike the first option, the technician is focused on utility and repair, paired with a fair amount of upgrades which seem to revolve around mental abilities.

The Survivalist is a mesh between the two, without access to the skills on the far end of the spectrum. It's clearly geared to survive in any kind of environment.

Fighting my inner demons, I force myself to decide on being a Survivalist. Some of the Warrior stuff, like electromagnetic shields, sounds really good. It would be nice to be bullet-proof. On the other hand, it also lacks some utility and seems to depend on having a lot of resources.

All skills come with a resource cost in minerals and rare elements. There is also an upgrade time which takes months in some cases.

Right now I am in an unknown situation and the Survivalist allows me to have more abilities right from the start. Warrior and Technician each have three which I can get immediately. Survivalist allows me four cheap ones. It also gives immediate access to both the basic skill-sets of Warrior and Technician. Additionally, I have a suspicion that once I unlock the Mental Abilities, I might get a lot of synergies with the Technician tree, while still having access to the more substantial warrior skills.

Having chosen my path, I lock in four skills.

Camouflage: Your skin adapts to your environment. You are more resilient and can hide easier by changing your colour. You are also harder to detect by most scanning devices. Improved Metabolism: You are what you eat. Not much will hurt your stomach. You heal even faster and have a chance to gain the abilities of your prey. You move faster and are stronger, but you need a lot more food. Heightened Senses: Your perception of the world will change. Darkness won't be your enemy any longer. Overclock: For a short time, you will perceive the world in slow motion. Multitasking was never this easy, but prepare for headaches!

Seriously, what is this stupid G.O.D. thinking? The skill descriptions are simply ridiculous. I glare at my choices, hoping that I didn't make a huge mistake. Some of them may sound like they are redundant, but I don't think so - at least I hope they aren't?

Just now, I was already healing pretty damn fast and I am stronger than I have ever been. But being even faster and stronger is better. Overclock sounds like what I do when I hack the facility's network. Unfortunately, I had to sit down and concentrate to do that, which was a weakness. With this, I might be able to move at the same time.

Ouluk's betrayal showed me that I have to be strong enough to fend for myself. There is nobody I can trust.

G.O.D.: Finally! Now get going, little Padawan! New Quest: Find Others!

“Fuck you!” I pull down the corners of my mouth and add a few curses in all eight languages which I am fluent in.

“Would it be so hard to actually explain what's going on?” I ask in the end.

I wait for several long seconds, but G.O.D. stays silent. For some reason, it feels like this mysterious being is just playing a game with me. Or at least it's trying to do so.

Without another choice, I concentrate on the quest, but all I get is a strange marker in the corner of my vision. I turn, following the marker until it stays fixed in place. No matter where I look, the marker always points at the same spot somewhere below me. So, does that mean that I have to get to the other side of the planetoid?

I would have to leave the station, which would be dangerous. Are there even any space-suits which fit my body?

Sighing with frustration, I decide to start moving. After half an hour in the same spot, I was very lucky that nobody came to look for the poor guy who I ate... sorry dude. I look at the body, trying to decide if I should search it... loot it? There is a large puddle of blood.

Oh, yeah. Seems like my skills already started working. I can see colours now.

I decide against defiling the corpse any further and sneak out of the room and down a narrow corridor. The tubes and machinery is a clear sign that I am in the maintenance area beneath the facility.

Finally, I reach the end of the corridor and find my suspicion confirmed, arriving at a crossroad between two tunnels. A large sign on the wall identifies the location as 'Maintenance Tunnel 3-4'. As children, I often played with my brothers in these tunnels, so I know my way around. Of course, we weren't supposed to do so, but Ouluk got a little lazy over the years and we escaped quite a few times.

This is tunnel three, crossroad four. If I turn left, I should reach a staircase which leads to the upper floors and the surface. Pure rage floods through me at the memory. My brothers could be alive! Should be alive! Were they killed when they reported that they were close to making a connection with G.O.D.? This scenario is becoming more and more likely.

As I walk, a sinking feeling befalls me. There should be at least a few technicians down here. Was the station abandoned and the guy who I ate forgotten? Maybe he belonged to a skeleton crew?

After a few dozen metres, I reach the staircase. Though, it's more like a ramp with many little steps to accommodate various species. I ascend, carefully avoiding to make any sound.

It takes me two hours to pass through three more levels, giving them a cursory search. The station used to house over five hundred people of various oxygen breathers. Now, it's an empty husk. The network of corridors is abandoned and each room I check is uninhabited. They took most of the stuff which wasn't nailed down with them. It dawns on me that if I keep on searching like this, it may take me days to process the whole station.

Giving in to a sudden idea, I place a hand on the closest control panel and try to connect to the network. Nothing. They really shut down the whole system.

That's when I notice that the quest marker moved. And not just a little, but a lot! It's no longer somewhere below me, it's now pointing somewhere towards the ceiling. Furrowing my forehead, I quickly calculate the planetoid's spin with the guessed changed angle of my goal... and surely enough, it roughly fits.

“You have got to be kidding me!”

I hiss, already sick of playing this game. My goal must be somewhere far, far away...

G.O.D.: Great tasks earn great rewards!