Chapter. 17. Travel Preparation (3)
****
“Hey, do you remember measuring your grip strength a long time ago? Squeeze it tightly~”
Pop!
“Yes, that’s good~ Shall we check your eyesight next time?” here?”
“three.”
“here is?”
“seven.”
“What about down there?”
“airplane.”
“Next to that?”
“Uh… why do you keep measuring the same size?”
“Well, one is for normal vision and the other is for infrared projection images. “You shouldn’t have been able to see it, but you can see it clearly?”
“….Eh?”
After waking up in a military warehouse-like laboratory and briefly chatting with the people outside.
What awaited me was not a drinking party and a return party to tell me about my long hardships, but a long and tedious test.
First of all, since the patient woke up after being medically declared to be in a vegetative state and received unprecedented treatment of brain and nervous system recovery using Data Soul, it was necessary to make sure that all activities of the entire body were perfectly controlled.
I tried once more the dynamometer, such as the hydraulic press that I used to test when my left hand was deformed, and I
tried walking, running, and complex movements like a gymnast in a laboratory like a playground (there are blood stains here and there, etc.), and I
tested my eyesight, hearing, touch, taste, temperature, and other things. After checking all the tests without exception –
“Congratulations! I guess you’ve become something that can no longer be called Homo sapiens?”
I was able to receive a confirmation that…. Damn it. Now that I think about it, this doctor is the person I first met when he was just becoming a brain in a barrel, right? He was a person who spoke so harshly that I told him to go away, a psychopath. What did you say? Did you say that you would be good at soccer because you have two hearts?
“The name was… Chelsea?”
“Cheisha. This is Chaisha Lutherperg. In the past, I studied the theory of genetic coordination and evolution, and now I am researching the systematics of variant evolution, and I am also your doctor.”
“You’re the attending physician… Then can I ask you something? “Can you tell me exactly what state my body is in right now?”
“I thought you would be curious.”
As she played with the computer in the corner of the lab, a large screen on one wall projected three types of dolls.
“The first one looks familiar, right?”
“Yes. Because I lived in that body for quite a long time. “I was active enough to get used to it.”
The first is the period from the Dom-Raptor war to the Area 38 incident. What it looked like back then when only the left arm mutated.
“As you can see, only one arm was completely mutated into the type 3 variant. In a state where there were no changes related to death, the conscious mind called ‘Professor Park’ handed over control of the left arm to the subconscious mind ‘Hyde’, and the mutant virus recognized the left arm as dead, which was the change that occurred. “Are you well, Mr. Hyde?”
“…I left it behind. “Inside.”
“oh. Then, most psychological counseling sessions can be canceled. Anyway, I heard that most of the characteristics of that mutated form followed the form that the vice consciousness ‘Hyde’ envied. Hardness comparable to that of cemented carbide, aggressiveness, prominent claw shape, strong strength, etc. It was created in a way that took advantage of the physical body in the game and compensated for its shortcomings, but there were also parts that put a burden on the body. “If I had lived like that for a long time, my arms would have gotten stronger and my body would have become thinner.”
“…I remember that the amount of food I ate increased significantly, but other than that, I didn’t notice any changes?”
“The records show that there was an increase in food intake, an increase in blood pressure, a decrease in body fat percentage, a record increase in liver levels, and subtle changes in various hormonal systems. “I’m not sure, but if I lived with eight thousand mutations, it would have been difficult to live a long life.”
“how much?”
“When calculated based on the increase in numbers…. 8 years from the date of record? I would have died from high blood pressure or malnutrition in about 9 years. “You must have had a separate procedure to amputate your left arm before that, right?”
but. There is no way it can continue to maintain such an irregular state of eighty thousand variants.
“They say the history of life is Saeongjima, right? Should I call it a phone call? If it weren’t for the incident in District 38, he would have died young after his great career. “Of course, he died medically prematurely after that incident.”
The screen switched to the second form.
It’s as tall as a three-story building.
A body surrounded by a hardened outer shell, as if the mutation in the left arm had spread throughout the body.
If the appearance in GG was closer to a muscular humanoid, this one looks like a monster imitating a human. Long, muscular limbs better suited to crawling on all fours rather than walking on two legs. Dark red body, almost black.
The image that Hyde used before leaving.
Professor Park, a pure type 3 variant.
“Is this your first time seeing this other than the material I showed you last time?”
“…I had a chance to meet him indirectly.”
“I assure you, it will be even more amazing than you know.”
The screen changed and showed the monster lying in the same laboratory where I woke up.
The body, which was large enough to fill the laboratory, was fixed to a large metal frame to match, huge vein-like wires were stuck in every corner of the body, and, as I had seen at the time, the chest was wide open, exposing the internal organs.
“how is it?”
“If you ask me how it is….”
“Isn’t it beautiful? The level of perfection that approaches this work of art! A miraculous balance that cannot be matched by human engineering! “This miraculous sight of the human body, more complex than a Swiss watch, undergoing drastic changes and yet perfectly tuning it!”
….Ah, this is who he is.
Seeing the doctor’s eyes sparkling as she showed me ‘that look’, I could understand why she had become an expert in this field.
“Now look. The blood pressure to maintain the strength of your left arm was putting pressure on your body, right? As a result, my heart became two. The two hearts do not beat at the same time, but work together organically to naturally pump blood to every corner of the huge body. “The limbs are strong and flexible, and are finished to the point where they do not easily break down even from the impact of a tank bullet.”
“Yeah well… it’s cool too-”
“It’s not over yet! Above all, the head! “If you look at the head, it’s clear that all of those mutations are perfectly fit for purpose!”
‘….What else did I think at that time that changed me?’
I think I just got hit by the Orpheus beam and crawled up while saying guaaaaaaah.
Chaisha operated the computer while wiping the drool from the corner of her mouth.
The head of a monster wearing an oxygen mask the size of a refrigerator is projected onto a hastily modified MRI.
“Now, how many thin layers are there between the scalp and the skull?”
“Oh, I can see it. “There it is.”
“Can’t you see anything other than that?”
“Uh… there is something like a black shading lump inside.”
Percussion!
Chaisha hit the screen hard with the folder she was holding.
“The point is that you can’t see anything else! I ran an MRI and found that only the scalp and skull were visible, and the brain was not even visible! That means that the layers made up of fat and electrolytes between the scalp and skull strongly block the interference of external ultrasound waves! Professor Park! Professor Park, who is called ‘the hero of the dome’? “What were you thinking during the Battle of Area 38 right before it changed like that?”
“Uh… I have to stop Orpheus?”
Thump!
As if she had been waiting for those words, Chaisha’s hands grabbed my right hand and shook it wildly.
“That’s it – that’s it! The mutated virus, which generally mutates based on the deepest experiences of the past, in the case of Professor Park, mutated based on present memories and thoughts! This is a really important difference! “It is evidence that a heterogeneous variant called ‘adapter’ and another type of mutation have occurred!”
“Ah yes….”
“Compared to the current situation, people with certain mental characteristics called ‘completers’ have the mutation of a mutant virus! do! It becomes possible to infer that it can be done! “If we can find the intersection between that trait and mutation, it may be possible for humanity in the distant future to control and use mutant viruses!”
“Humanity is controlling and exploiting mutant viruses…”
The doctor’s words made me think about the future she was pursuing. A person with a mutant virus can change into any desired form. In front of the house, a slime-like lady extends her arms nearly two meters to hang out the laundry, an insulator electrician hangs his rubber-colored body on a high-voltage wire to repair the wire, a giant-like worker compacts reinforced concrete…
‘….No matter how you look at it, humanity Isn’t it a bit much to call it the future of ‘?
Even if you think about it roughly, it’s a picture that’s closer to a dystopia than a utopia, but they seem to think differently.
“Anyway, Professor Park’s mutation has the unique characteristic of being very closely related to reality. And its current appearance once again proves its characteristics.”
The screen goes over again.
After going through a long and tedious explanation of the old appearance, I finally started explaining the current appearance.
“how is it. “It’s a little big, but it’s definitely different from the inhuman size of Form 2, right?”
“…How tall am I now?”
“About 198cm. “It’s big, but it’s not big enough to fall into the category of abnormal.”
My original height was around 175cm, so I grew 23cm in just a few months.
Thank you, mutant virus.
“Compared to the play video, there is Margrave territory, right? At that time, after Mr. Professor went on a rampage by himself, his brain waves rapidly stabilized and his body quickly began to return to an average physique. It seems that this change occurred as the gap between the mind and body decreased…”
After that, an incomprehensible explanation continued about what the parasympathetic nervous system is like and what mutant virus psychology is like.
While the explanation was going in one ear and out the other, I looked at every inch of my body that was visible through the patient gown.
First, the left arm returned to human form. No sharp claws, no dark red carapace. Although it is a little more muscular than the right arm, it can be said that all traces of the past have completely disappeared.
“When did your left arm come back?”
“…an hour ago? It was originally like that when only the left arm of form 1 mutated, but suddenly the outer shell fell off and it returned to that form. “Thanks to this, the engineering department was happy that they had obtained excellent materials.”
“It was an hour ago….”
5 hours ago in-game GG time. It was roughly around the time I entered the northern nest alone to slit the queen’s head. This probably means that Hyde had a premonition of clearing from this point on and was preparing to leave alone. Because that left arm was Hyde’s territory.
Although his physique was normal, he still had dark red skin all over his body. It is not in a form that completely surrounds the body like in the past, but in a form that seems to be embedded in the body here and there.
“This…”
“It’s like some kind of trace of deterioration. In the previous form, the outer shell was not a single smooth mass, but several uppers connected together, right? Among them, the most rooted one remains. “Like the vestigial wings of an insect or the tailbone of a person.”
“Can’t it be extracted? “It’s a bit unsightly.”
“It is difficult because it is not attached to the skin but rather grows from the bone and protrudes. What if I take out the whole bone? Oh, just in case, this body doesn’t have the power to regenerate, so keep in mind that if you overdo it like you did in there, you’ll die.”
There was a lot more to take in than that.
Post-human level strength. Especially grip strength. It is worse than industrial automation robots. It’s roughly on the edge of Raptor’s cyborg or a little better than that. I was familiar with controlling my strength as I had been doing it all throughout the game.
A hardened skeleton similar to the outer shell. I heard it would break if it was run over by a tank.
eye. His eyesight is somewhat good, but he has an extra eyelid like a reptile. I think that’s what I recognized as infrared numbers in the vision test earlier. When I asked him what I should do, he looked at me as if asking me why I was asking that.
The skin is also a bit tough like a wild animal, and the nerves are sensitive, so you may be able to feel pain a little more. As I listened to the explanations of the changes in each part one by one, like a complicated electronic product user manual, I was finally able to get to the strangest part.
chest.
There’s something like an iron plate attached to it.
The part exposed on the outside is about a span in diameter, but if you look at the part where the screw is embedded, it appears to be quite wide inside the skin.
Above all, this iron plate. There was room on the edge for a fingernail to fit into.
iron plate.
home.
The chest was unusually wide when it was in its gigantic form.
‘Oh no way. He was a hero in his own right, a man who oscillated between life and death.’
Even if you’re crazy, that’s true. I think I’ve heard something about remodeling as a joke before. No way would they do that with a human body.
Sweet.
‘….no way.’
Nod.
.
.
.
.
.
Squeak-
“Aaaah!!!!”
I felt it. I definitely felt it!
As the iron plate is lifted slightly, the inside of my chest feels strangely cool!
It’s not cool in the abstract; it actually feels cool as the wind enters your damp intestines! This means that you can hear your heartbeat with your ears, not your body!
When I pulled the groove in the iron plate, the iron plate attached to my chest opened.
Heavy as if opening a safe door.
“What have you done to my body?”
“sorry. “Isn’t it a bit difficult to apply the core to the chest?”
“No, is this a joke? “You made this modification without people’s consent?”
I was so scared that I looked around my whole body again.
does not exist. There were no traces of this mechanical procedure anywhere except the chest.
As anger slowly seeped into my embarrassed eyes, Chaisha continued what she was saying without any trace of agitation.
“Oh, could it have been done without consent?”
“huh?”
“If the surgical subject is unconscious. “Generally, consent for surgery is obtained from the guardian.”
Chaisha points to the outside of the laboratory with the word guardian.
“….who?”
“Miss Dana Elisha Hyacinth. Two of my closest friends. We even received approval from the president to proceed. It was quite a grand operation? In order to find materials suitable for the body, all BDSM members are sent far beyond Area 45. “We called in all the operators who had expertise in handling mutant by-products, discussed with them all night, and planned how to do the surgery.”
“A hole in my chest. This decision was made because that area had not healed as well. “I checked the video and found that when you destroyed Orpheus, that was the area most exposed to its concentrated light.”
“Oh, that.”
“Administrator of District 38 Dome. You remember, right? The human retrieved the remnants of Orpheus that you destroyed and connected them to the radio tower to eventually spread the energy. “The energy of the destroyed Orpheus alone caused Type 2.5 to swarm across the Central Asian continent, but I destroyed it in my arms right before it was fully unleashed, so I think it’s a miracle that it ended like this.”
To be honest, I didn’t know much about what happened at that time.
“Anyway, your breasts that have been exposed to Orpheus’ core energy will ‘never’ be able to recover. Because it was completely fixed in that state. Since I couldn’t leave my chest empty, I decided to fill it up. “Rather than turning it into a mass of complications like a damn suicidal cyborg, we should treat it with materials that can be used properly.”
Skin and ribs. Some of my chest muscles melted.
At first, they tried to repair it by using as much old-fashioned medical technology as possible, but the medical alloy and other materials reacted against the mutated body, causing it to fall off and fester.
It was Ian’s opinion to use mutant by-product technology.
“It’s a nascent technology, but it was definitely attractive. Basically, all modern humans harbor latent mutant viruses in their bodies, and the mutant bodies that mutate through the activities of such viruses do not show any rejection when fused to the human body. “The mutant virus that changes humans with various traits is completely compatible with the same virus population, thereby stabilizing the conjugation site.”
Simply put, the virus that transforms people into anything acts as biological glue.
So we discussed what material to use for the surgical area, and concluded that the type 3 variant with flexible metal skin observed in Area 45 was the most suitable, so we asked BDSM to specifically hunt it down… and from there, they found the variant
. He said he came across a Cheonryuje that was cut into pieces and piled up.
The Cheonryuje is stored in a BDSM training facility and
the metal skin of the type 3 variant brought is now attached to my chest.
“That’s who you are now. “Do you feel like you barely survived?”
“Uh, um…”
I carefully flicked my chest with my fingernail, and a metallic sound was heard from inside my body.
….I started to feel like I had saved something from death. Actually, ‘Spotted Iron Professor Park’ is much better than the 10-meter ‘Dome’s Secret Weapon Professor Park’. Except for the feeling of a bit of a difference, it’s no different from the original body –
squeak –
“Now, I’ll explain what I put in the empty space instead of the ribs and chest muscles, but first, let’s start with the broadband communication device you see here-”
“Hehe. !”
….there were a lot. It’s very different from my original body.
Along with the explanation, Chaisha handed me a folder that was really more like an electronic product manual, and I had to be educated until nightfall about the medicines I should take in the future, ‘precautions for using my body’, each adverse reaction, and the corresponding solutions. did.
“…Status window?”
“yes? What did you say?”
“Oh no. nothing.”
“Hmm. Anyway, the connection parts need to be maintained regularly like if you were importing a firearm -”
Listening to all the explanations and instructions on how to use it, such as how to manually control the heart rate in a crisis, I was confused as to whether I was in reality or still in GG.
****
Rumble!
“Be sure to remember what you learned today. For the time being, visit the administration every day to check on your progress and don’t forget to take your medicine!”
“Yes, yes.”
After taking such a shocking and boring ‘How to Use Professor Park’ lecture.
When I came out of the lab, a friendly face was waiting for me.
“Did you wait alone? “What about the other kids?”
“Ian and Bex are busy. Well, I’m in rehabilitation anyway, so I’m staying in the administrative ward. “Where did everyone go when they said they had something to prepare?”
“…Rehabilitation?”
“huh. Rehabilitation. “While you were living hard inside, I also gained strength in my own way.”
Dana,
who must have been dozing off while sitting in the wheelchair, got
up and came to my side, smoothing her messy hair with her hands.
“The surgery went well, but my legs have become very weak because I haven’t walked for so long. “I need to practice walking a lot.”
“So… is your heart feeling a little better now?”
“Some extent? Ah, I still need some support.”
Dana takes each step carefully and carefully hangs on my arm.
When I looked closely, I saw that, contrary to his casual tone, his face was red up to his ears. As if someone had practiced this moment for a long time before facing it.
The world is so cute.
Dana must have sensed my gaze as she hid her face behind her hanging arm and said,
“The world has changed a lot while you were away. Let’s go out. “There’s a lot I want to show you.”
“Your tone of voice has changed?”
“This is my natural way of speaking. Before… I just needed some time to adjust. “It’s been so long since I’ve had a face-to-face conversation with a real person.”
that’s right. I used to be the type of person who spoke like this. Speedwagon. My friend of 7 years.
The tone of speech is still a bit stiff and pointless. However, the emotions contained within him are quite rich.
I thought that the world and people had changed a lot while I was away.
“…Okay, let’s go. “I want to see how much you’ve changed.”
When I looked at Dana, who was hanging on her head and lowering her head, I suddenly remembered what I wanted to do when I came out.
“let’s go eat. hungry.”
We feed Dana proper food, not hospital food.
I also bought clothes for the girl who only had a white hospital gown and black mourning clothes.
He took me on a tour of the dusty wasteland in a wheelchair.
Uh and um… Anyway.
There were so many things I wanted to try.
Flap!
I roughly took off the lab coat I wore over me and put my arms into the leather jacket that someone had hung on the lab doorknob.
A black leather jacket tailored to my size.
The mark of ‘BDSM’ is clearly engraved with a slightly graffiti-like feel.
Additionally, the golden initial H appears to have been hand-stitched by someone short and engraved on it.
“Does it suit you?”
“….little.”
Dana.
Initials from groups I created and old friends.
Okay, what if your body changes a little? The fact that this is my place and that I am me remains the same.
My mind, which had been disturbed due to my body having changed considerably, became at ease as if it had never been so.
Just like that, Dana and I walked out of the administration building and into the night streets of the Dome with a more confident gait.
****
-Doo doo doo doo doo
『Professor! professor! Professor!!!!』
『The pioneer overcame death and resurrected!』
『Latura! Professor Latura!』
『There is no god or devil! Still, Professor Park is there! Right in front of our eyes!!!!』
Quang!
“Why are you doing this when you know so well? “He is also a smart person.”
“I’m sorry….”
“We’ll take control of this place, so go to the back door. “Congratulations on your return.”
“Yes…”
Then, he was buried in the crowd of people belonging to the ‘Wasteland Branch of the Gwangmyeong Church’ who were crowding at the main gate, and barely escaped with the help of the members of the Inspection Department.
“…Gwangmyeong Church? Here too?”
“I told you, this side has changed a lot too.”
“No, even if it changes, why is it always like this…”
Of course, that confidence didn’t last long.
….It seems like it’s really changed a lot.
****
