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Mind & Machine C.35
🕑 Added 2024-06-14 19:07:27 +0000 UTCChapter — 35
Falling through the gravel-like substance felt strange to Rei. She picked up speed as she dropped, never coming into contact with the material beneath, which swiftly closed back up above her.
Then, she had a split second for her eyes and foggy brain to take in a dimly lit open space that looked about as long and wide as the arena above — if not as high — before she impacted with a gentle splash.
It wasn't the splash of water, though. It felt too soft, as if it had cushioned Rei on impact. The world had become green and murky to her eyes, and as she floated beneath the surface, she felt herself sway slightly as if accelerating horizontally.
Where am I?
There was an odd itching in her shoulder, right breast, and right forearm, but it felt muted and distant, unlike how [Pain Tolerance] negated the debilitating effects of physical pain while still supplying the data on the damage incurred.
What said skill told her now was that the most severe damage was swiftly lessening.
As she couldn't see more than a few decimeters, she tried scanning her surroundings for nodes, but it wasn't very useful other than telling her she was moving fast. The few nodes she picked up on disappeared to her right like traffic lights when driving along a highway.
This must be some sort of transport to a medical facility. Is it healing the damage on the way?
Am I in a tank on rails or something?
Rei felt herself slow down and change directions a few times as she floated, sometimes bumping a few fingers against what felt like plexiglass.
She was just beginning to wonder what would happen when she had to take a breath, but barely twenty seconds after her transport started to move, the tank slowed to a complete stop — Rei floating back and forth gently as whatever liquid surrounded her sloshed.
Still scanning for nodes — even though she didn't dare try to breach random devices — she saw one above her. Rei wondered what it was for.
A second later, something she could only describe as thirty or so wires sank into the liquid — their appearance blurry to her vision — and then snaked toward her in a somewhat disturbing fashion before gently wrapping her up.
Rei was lifted upward, breaching the surface as she took a long breath. She felt the green liquid slosh off her without ever binding to her clothes or hair. It was as if her whole body had become hydrophobic.
Rei barely hung suspended for a fraction of a second before the device connected to all the wires ran sideways on a rail inserted in the ceiling, dragging her while she swayed lightly to the right.
She came closer to two voices chatting beneath her, and as Rei turned her head to look, she saw two people in white coats with red trim next to two softly padded white tables.
Her opponent was already lying on one of the tables. A woman in white and red did something next to Royal Gloom as a machine connected to the table ran metal rods back and forth over the patient's body. Holographic markers displayed on each injury were updated with information each time the rods passed.
So, a medical inspection? Should I turn off [Merciless]?
In the end, Rei decided not to. She didn't care if everyone came to know 'Voidliac' as some sort of psychopathic murder machine, after all. There had to be many who were like that, even without a System perk, so Rei displaying the same symptoms wasn't an issue.
Rei was lowered onto her own table, and the wires let go. The device that had carried her returned to its original position. However, there was no tank of green liquid beneath where it stopped.
"Oh? You're still conscious?" the man in white said to her right as the same device she'd seen run over Royal Gloom's still form unfurled on her left — two rods extending half a meter above her as they ran back and forth while passing each other in the middle.
"Um, yeah. Why?" Rei croaked. Her throat felt distant.
"From the data your med-chip supplied, it seems your opponent did nearly as much to you as you did to her. Well, not exactly. The crotch? I mean, seriously?" He chuckled somewhat darkly.
Oh, yeah. The required data sent from my medical chip would have given them a basic read on my health. Stupid Colosseum rules making me give up data for free...
Rei wouldn't compromise her ICE to any corporation or company — no matter how minor — but manually supplying her med-chip data through a channel to a secure local mesh nested within the arena's public one was OK with her.
The AI determining the victor of each battle certainly had other ways, like drone cameras, to help it decide when to end a match, but the warriors' health, as reported by their own cyberware, no doubt helped.
After all, some people could probably lose a lot of blood and some very little before they'd run into the risk of losing consciousness, their fighting spirit unbroken. Rei seriously doubted those at higher ranks even needed much blood — at least if most of their body was cybernetic, as that would run on power from their fusion cores.
Rei halted her silent contemplations as the man — the doctor — continued to speak. "From the readings, you don't seem to have much cyberware, and none of it was damaged. Lucky you. Your fellow warrior over there isn't as fortunate."
"No, she certainly isn't," said the other doctor, and Rei lifted her head slightly to look down across her body to the other bed in the small room, seeing her run some sort of device over the nearly sheared-off cybernetic leg, tutting. "Expensive shit she's got too. I don't want to imagine how much repairing it will cost."
Rei felt her head being pressed back down as her own doctor said, "Don't move so much."
"Do warriors often come for revenge against people who damaged their cyberware?" Rei asked emotionlessly, looking into his eyes as they flicked to hers. He seemed to shudder before looking away.
"Uh, that's against the rules."
"I know. That wasn't my question."
He didn't answer her, which was an answer on its own.
So unless someone gets caught doing it, revenge against fellow warriors isn't unheard of. Good to know, Rei thought as the doctor injected something into her shoulder. She still barely felt it, though.
"Is there something blocking the pain?"
"Yes. Is this your first time... ah, yes. It was your second match and first real injury? Well, the liquid you fell into is functionally liquid biomass with ungodly amounts of nanites in it. It treats any immediate life-threatening damage while supplying anesthesia to the areas in question."
"Where is the tank that carried me here? Why didn't you just leave me in it until all the damage was repaired?"
It made little sense to Rei, as her shoulder and forearm seemed to have healed about a tenth of the way in the short time she'd been submerged. She was no longer bleeding even if most of the muscles remained torn and her skin split. The bone no longer stuck out, but she could see some white amongst the muscle, which wasn't sinew.
The doctor scoffed before clamping her torn skin together with his metallic fingers and spraying some sort of foam onto it that quickly shrunk before hardening into something like white rubber. "What, you think you can afford it?"
"I don't even know what it is, only that it seemed to work well."
That should've clued me in on how expensive it is, though. Pharmaceuticals aren't cheap, especially if they work well.
"Have you only been fighting in unsanctioned underground arenas where they slap on some first aid before throwing the fighters out — if they aren't already dead — before coming here?
"At Bonebreaker — at any proper arena, really — the lives of warriors are worth more than that. People want to see violence. They want to lap up the blood, guts, and gore. That doesn't mean they want their favorite warriors to die, though. If they did, the business model Colosseum Inc. operated under would never have worked."
He remained silent for a few seconds as he inspected Rei's forearm and the holographic image projected by the scanner on top of it.
"So what is that green stuff?" Rei asked after only a few seconds, impatient to get an answer.
He sighed before going to a wall and taking the injector that fell out of a shute before returning, continuing his explanation, "It's called Ares' Ichor, or just Ichor. Colosseum Inc. is the only supplier. Well, only legal supplier of this specific nanite-biomass blend. There are others, but none as efficient at arresting lethal damage in such short a time."
"So, what? These tanks of the stuff sit around beneath every arena until someone falls into them, and then bring the person here where you two take care of them?"
"Yes and no," The doctor said as he sealed up the wound on her forearm with another spray. "The tanks don't just 'sit around' but move around beneath each arena, ready to catch injured warriors.
"They do bring the warriors here immediately, but there aren't just the two of us working here. There are many rooms like this one with other doctors working in them. Do you know how many fights take place in a day? No way the two of us could handle it all."
"We're nearly overworked as it is, even with the shared workload," the female doctor supplied grumpily somewhere out of Rei's sight.
"And then?" Rei asked.
The information was crucial for her even though the scanner above didn't seem to have picked up on her System nanites or the minuscule structures across her body from [Thermal Venting]. At least, she hoped it hadn't, as the doctor had made no comment on it.
How does the System do that? Does it manipulate the scan results by constantly splicing every node around to remove any trace of itself?
"After we're done doing some preliminary patching up here, you'll either be on your way or, if you need more long-term treatment, you'll be sent up the elevators to a private hospital further up the complex for a lengthier stay."
"Yeah, no. I won't be doing that."
I can just sleep it off, as ridiculous as that sounds.
"Suit yourself. But as you don't have any kind of Reconstructive Suite, I'd recommend visiting a hospital to get it patched up properly. The injections I've administered will only do so much. It will take weeks, perhaps a month, for your wounds to heal unassisted, and the fractured bones won't set properly if you do it that way."
It's lucky I predicted I might be scanned during my treatment and shut down [Self-Repair], as even if the nanites might be invisible to the scanner, my body repairing itself that quickly — and seemingly without a Reconstructive Nanite Suite — would have raised many questions.
Rei pondered if getting cyberware like that would be worth it just to hide the work of the Samurai System but decided it probably wasn't. If she was rich enough to buy reconstructive nanite cyberware as efficient as [Self-Repair], then she'd probably already replaced most of her organics with something superior anyway.
Never say never, though. Who knows...
It had barely been four minutes before the scanner retracted and folded back down at the table's side. The doctor had confirmed that she was as healthy as they could make her without a lengthier stay in the hospital above. He did add that should she wish to stay, it would cost her credits, depending on how long she did.
Rei only saw that as another reason to make herself scarce.
There was just one problem:
"Where are my daggers?"
The doctor pointed at a wall, saying, "No matter where you dropped them — on the arena floor or in the tank afterward — they will be collected and dispensed there. It's the same in every room like this one. Just walk up to the holo display and supply your CIP."
Rei did, walking up to the holo display set above a black, rectangular outline on the otherwise seamlessly glossy white wall reading 'Equipment.'
After supplying her CIP, the holo wrote two other lines beneath that containing her warrior name and what she would get returned. It even provided the daggers' model and who'd made them.
After only ten or so seconds, the rectangle split in the middle, an opening forming into a box where her two daggers lay. Rei took both before sheathing them and starting to walk toward the exit.
As she passed the doctors, she also looked at Royal Gloom, who'd been stripped of her armor, the severe damage to her lower center being worked on by the female doctor.
Yikes, that must have really hurt.
Not that she could find it in herself to care. Her mind was cold, and she knew that some damage to her opponent's flesh was nothing compared to the lethal strikes she'd been fazed with.
Considering she didn't seem fazed with accidentally killing me, she must have credits to spare for any such accidents. She shouldn't come after me for the damaged cyberware.
It seemed logical to Rei, but there was still the question of why someone with such expensive cyberware would start their warrior career at Bonebreaker Arena.
Had Royal Gloom been E or perhaps D ranked, Rei wouldn't have thought much of it, as that could have meant that she'd been there since F-rank, working her way up and earning enough credits on her own to have such cyberware.
But to start at F-rank with it? It could only mean Royal Gloom had another income stream and should, therefore, be a warrior for glory or the thrill.
The thrill could be found at any arena, but the glory? If she only sought glory, she would have gone to Colosseum Inc.'s official arena in Tokyo, Zone 2. There was one such arena in every megacity, according to what Rei had read, and true glory could be found there.
Rei shook off the thoughts as she passed through the door, coming into a long corridor with similar doors along it. Calculating the distance between them, she postulated that each one led to an identical room to the one she'd been in.
Two injured warriors were walking in the direction pointed at by white, holographic arrows a few meters into the air — one of them limping slightly — and Rei set to follow, figuring they were leaving the emergency care facility.
Rei heard two doors open behind her as she walked. She turned her head slightly, seeing two others leave and start moving in the same direction. Only one was walking, though, the other lying motionless on a bed that rolled forward autonomously, swiftly passing by both the burly warrior behind her and then Rei as it sped forward.
Further ahead was a threeway intersection where the arrows floating near the ceiling split — the ones going right red and the left green. The limping man had just begun turning right when the AI-driven bed let out a loud beep that made him curse as he stumbled out of the way to let it pass the corner speedily.
Checking her map, Rei saw that she — like the other man ahead — had to take the left turn to return to the arena, so she did, following him all the way before coming to a short spiraling staircase that only seemed to go up for a few dozen meters.
After climbing it, a door opened noiselessly before her and closed as she stepped through, hiding itself seamlessly. Rei would never have known it was there without walking through it.
Considering the decorations along the ceiling and wall — along with what her map told her — she now stood on the same path she'd taken after her first victory. She walked down it, soon passing the door to the arena she'd fought in. She continued moving, eventually entering the passageway that could take her to the waiting hall or out of Bonebreaker Arena, depending on which way she went.
I've had enough for one day.
Rei left.
***
Maybelle 'Bonebreaker' Garmont lay reclined on a large bed of soft fabrics as her dolls took care of her. They massaged every part of her body while refilling her glass of sugary bliss every time it grew empty.
Her bedroom was filled with shelves that displayed holographic pictures of herself in heroic poses, weapons of all kinds, and souvenirs from various megacities she'd picked up on her climb to C-rank.
Her most prized position stood in a corner, hovering silently as it spun over a majestic pedestal that lit it up like a holy relic: the Warhammer Bonebreaker.
As another climax passed, she made the dolls return to a more relaxing massage as they surrounded her on the bed, masculine hands kneading out the kinks in her few synthetic muscle fibers.
"Another drink, ma'am?" one of the men asked, offering to refill her glass.
Maybelle shook her head, kissed him, and let her eyes go silver as she subvocalized to her Arena AI, "Any interesting fights today?"
The five-meter-wide and three-meter-tall holo from the emitters placed in the ceiling shifted from the earnings report she'd been reading while her dolls took care of her, becoming a grid of different recordings from the day's fights.
As a C-rank Warrior herself and Bonebreaker Company's CEO, her arena wasn't allowed to have battles between warriors above D-rank. It was a shame, in Maybelle's opinion, as C-rank battles were so much more exciting.
All the same, she enjoyed watching the D-ranks frequent her arena as they engaged in one of nature's most primal acts:
Violence.
Then she saw what could only be an F-rank match in one of the corners. Their comparably slow movements contrasted with all the other recordings and, hence, drew her attention.
"The fuck is this?" Maybelle swore aloud, and her AI, seemingly taking it as a desire to know more, expanded the scene she was looking at to fill out the whole holo.
"I didn't-" Maybelle began before she saw one of the warriors obliterate her opponent's upper right chest, only to be immediately countered with two swift strikes.
Maybelle felt her legs twitch together minutely in sympathetic pain as one of the daggers went through the staff-wielding woman's armor and into her uterus, 'Voidliac' mercilessly tearing her lower core apart as she yanked the dagger downward.
The rest of the short fight held Maybelle captivated against her will, and as the recording finished, she subvocalized: "Crane, keep an eye on this one for me. If there are more fights like this, send them to me."
"Affirmative," The AI answered in its rough, scratchy voice.
If this Voidliac makes it to D-rank, I might have some good entertainment that I don't have to pay for, Bonebreaker thought, a grin stretching her features before she went back to watching the other battles — her right hand pushing one of the dolls down to continue their work.
The merciless strike had left her craving more stimulation of her own.
***
Rei woke, kissed Mr. Nibbles sleepily on his nose, and then yawned widely. She was still tired, as her recurring nightmares didn't seem to want to leave. Rei'd once more dreamt of WolfMosh, but most likely, it'd been worse than usual due to the recent violence.
Esmond's friend's tale of what he'd supposedly seen — nothing that had been backed up by anyone on the public mesh — and her own encounter with the spider drone had made the nightmares disturbing.
Rei had woken two times that night, screaming. A white, cybernetic spider with too many eyes — each moving like the lenses of cameras — had been tearing WolfMosh apart in front of her as it stared hungrily at her, daring Rei to intervene. Rei felt it in her bones that she'd join her master in death if she did.
It had been highly disturbing, like every dream she'd had since learning the truth.
Rei had to eat both times she'd woken, her stomach feeling empty as [Self-Repair], and whatever the System nanites usually did when she slept kept draining her resources.
Nevertheless, the midnight resupply meant that it hadn't been taken from her fat stores, which was definitely a positive amongst the negatives.
Hearing her stomach rumble, nearly empty once more, she stood and made a new nest for her best friend. She'd patched him up as best she could with a needle and thread she'd bought on the mesh together with some cotton.
The package of cotton had been enormous as she didn't find anything below one kilo being sold, so she now had a plastic bag of the stuff sitting in one corner of her bedroom.
Going to her living room, she ate, her mind on her agent as she browsed the mesh, looking through the feed for news on the Piston-Fang War that seemed to have finally begun to calm down. From what people and articles said, it appeared to be over with only the occasional outbreak of violence whenever a Piston and former Fang accidentally encountered each other.
There aren't nearly as many reports of Fangs being murdered. This could mean that most already have been or that my daemon worked as I planned, and the remnants escaped.
Rei hadn't programmed any way for the daemons to contact her and supply data on their progress as she didn't want to leave an easy way for someone proficient to trace it back to her. Hence, the news on the public mesh was all she had to go on.
Letting out another yawn, she thought, As I'd suspected, my time at the Bonebreaker Arena yesterday was lucrative.
After her emergency treatment and leaving the arena, she'd let the notifications she'd ignored during the fight come to the forefront of her mind's eye. She'd gained one level in [Pain Tolerance] — which she could totally understand — and two levels in [Melee Mastery].
Considering the battle's briefness, two whole levels felt like a lot, but she chalked it up to its intensity.
Rei had been at real risk of dying several times as far as she could tell, and only her budding instincts for melee combat and her technical applications of violence had ensured she didn't.
Picking up her dagger lying on the coffee table with the rest of her weapons, she threw it up and down, her mind considering ways she could use it. There was a lot more knowledge in her mind about the subject now, and some of it even related to throwing the weapon.
That part was very vague, though, which got Rei thinking.
It's almost as if my skills reinforce my knowledge of things I've done with them and knowledge closely related to it, not everything the skill covers. It's like I'm incrementally illuminating distinct parts of a larger whole.
For example, Rei did have some vague understanding of unarmed combat from [Melee Mastery], but not nearly as much as she now had on daggers. She felt the same for other weapons like swords, maces, and axes.
She knew of general applications of all melee weapons she could think of, but not as much as she would have expected from [Melee Mastery] at level 7.
If an attribute at 5 is the non-augmented average, does it mean a skill level of 5 is also an average? No, that wouldn't make sense, seeing as all my skills have started at level 1; I can't be that bad at everything I have a skill for.
But still, level 7 in [Melee Mastery] should mean I'm reasonably competent at all melee weapons. It isn't called 'Dagger Mastery,' after all.
The only conclusion she could reach was that her skills had breadth she'd yet to explore.
If I become a master at daggers and my skill leveling for [Melee Mastery] slows down, perhaps I can keep it leveling by studying and training with other bladed weapons?
Rei also figured that if she knew how to wield a specific weapon, countering a less skilled opponent using said weapon would be easier. She knew she'd been fortunate during her fights when reading her opponents, as neither had been on what she would call the level of a true master.
The list of things I have to work on just continues to expand. I'll have to choose carefully what I'll dedicate time to, as I've done with spending less time on my mesh magic in favor of bolstering my physicality.
Now, she'd also brought combat training into the mix, lessening the time she had to spend on other pursuits.
But it's the right choice for now. I need to augment myself with cyberware to stand a chance against the bigshots amongst The Pistons, and I need credits to afford cyberware.
Rei sighed.
Am I just delaying confronting them because I still feel a lack of control and overwhelming power will give me that?
She wasn't sure. If becoming the most powerful entity in the Sol system was what she had to do to banish the anxiety haunting her every step, then she would just have to get back to work.
When I get the credits, what kind of physical augmentation cyberware will I buy first?
Questions like those were an easy way to get her motivated.
Comments
Monadologist
seem faced with => seem fazed with
Alpenmann
Thanks for the chapter.
