I slowly woke up, feeling like I had gotten the best sleep of my life. The usual aches and itches that my metal limbs normally felt after I hadn’t moved for a while were completely gone. Opening my eyes, I saw a ceiling, coloured a sterile white.

  Sitting up, I cast my gaze around the room. There was a curtain off to one side, poised to wrap around the bed I was in, along with an I.V. drip feeding into my side. A few machines surrounded me, with lines that seemed to indicate heartbeat, oxygen level, and a few more I couldn’t recognize. Across the room, there was a window, with sunlight starting to peek its way above the horizon.

  I was in a hospital. A rather nice one, considering that there was no one else in the room, and there was a distinct lack of the usual stains found in the cheaper places. I tried testing my limbs, feeling them move easily.

  As if reacting to my movement, a light lit up on one of the machines next to me, flashing on and off. I looked towards the door, which, unlike any hospital I knew, was a solid slab of metal, with a small keypad beside it.

  I walked over to the window. A lattice of interlocking metal bars covered it, the gaps too small to even fit my hand through. Looking past the bars, I could see a small courtyard at the centre of this building, 5 floors down.

  Next to the window was a small attached bathroom. I walked in, my feet making slight clicking noises every time they landed on the vinyl flooring. Spotting a mirror, I braced for the worst and looked at what had happened.

  I saw…that nothing had changed. None of the usual signs of hospital treatments, no obvious stitches, scars, or anything. In fact, I seemed to look healthier than normal, with many of my old scars having simply vanished. The only thing that I could notice that was obviously out of place was my clothes, with my usual streetwear having been swapped out for a hospital gown.

  I walked back into the room and sat back down in the bed, letting myself fall backwards until I was staring at the ceiling. I had no choice but to wait until someone came by. At least while I waited, I could investigate whatever the System was.

  I once again tried to bring up the screen, blue words manifesting themselves in front of me:

  System Online

  Crystallized Coleman-Heidle Capacity: 3/10

  Skills:

  (1) Machinery Integration, Tier: [Special], [Locked]

  (6) Technomancy, Rank: [6]

  -Currently Integrated-

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Limbs:

  Lesyme Model 3 Cyberarm (Right + Left)

  Helios Model “Panther” Cyberleg (Right + Left)

  Head:

  Solidtech “Panther” Optics

  Additional:

  Reinforced Lesyme Synthskin

  Solidtech model “Wasp” Boostware

  That was a lot to take in. The system was able to detect my cyberware, although it was only listing the bigger implants. It seemed to only list combat-related implants, lacking my cybernetics that were only for other things, such as my upgraded liver and kidneys.

  Then there was the Skills section. From what Song had told me, Skills were how people of this world channelled their “magic”. Interestingly, it seemed like it had already given me two skills. I focused on the name of the first one, hoping that it would work similarly to the small number of RPG games I had played. Luckily, more letters popped out next to the main panel.

  (1) Machinery Integration, Tier: [Special], [Locked]

  The User’s body has been enhanced with cybernetics, which have been integrated into T.A.E.I.S. to allow infusion of Mana. Cybernetics will improve in strength when exposed to Coleman-Heidle particles.

  Additionally, new cybernetics can be integrated through the usage of machine-human interface abilities.

  If I read this correctly, it was using these particles to achieve a level of cyberware integration that even the corpos had not achieved! This was insane. If something like this existed back home, every single corporate soldier would have been more metal than meat.

  I tried moving my right hand in front of my face. It felt smooth and natural, as if this were the same limb I had lost five years ago. I lifted my other arm and grabbed my right. I could feel the slight sensations as they brushed against each other, the faint warmth they radiated.

  I let my arms fall. My eyes started to water slightly. It was so strange, I had been feeling disconnected from reality ever since that day five years ago, as if my body was a vessel, and my mind wasn’t truly anchored in reality. Every day was another reminder of how I wasn’t the same person anymore, as if what had made me, me, had been taken away on the surgery table.

  I laid there, not fully thinking, immersed in the feeling of living. I felt the slight chill of the air on my skin, the breeze from one of the many machines blowing on one of my feet, and the softness of the sheets of the bed.

  I laid there, being human. It didn’t matter how much of my original body remained. How much remained of who I was. How much had been switched by what I had become.

  I laid there, mind drifting to thoughts of happier times, when I didn’t have to worry about what contracts would be available, whether a job would be my last, counting every dollar that I needed to earn to pay back my debt.

  Back when my parents were alive. When I thought the worst thing that could happen would be a large homework assignment. When I was ignorant, but blissful. Before I learned what sort of things humans were truly capable of.

  My thoughts slowed down, and I fell asleep.