3 The sphere

Chapter 3

…

A few years ago a small meteor flew towards Earth and broke through its airspace. The meteor slowly dispersed and disintegrated as it entered the earth's atmosphere. Then after that, it melted and disperses into dust through the air, and only a small tiny piece of it was left.

It fell on a small dilapidated factory and was buried under the soil in a small crack on the floor. It then slept there for a few years until one day a disturbance happened inside that factory.

A red warm liquid slowly seeped into the soil where a pea-sized sphere was buried. That pea-sized sphere was the remaining part of the meteorite that fell on Earth years ago. As the red liquid made contact with the sphere, something miraculous happened. The sphere slowly absorbed the red liquid which turns out to be… blood.

Like a hungry ghost, the sphere began absorbing the liquid faster until it was filled. Then something happened, it suddenly shrunk and travel down the flowing pool of blood and directly enters the body where the source of that blood came from. The sphere swirls inside the body as if it was really excited in finding a host.

It began recycling the blood inside the figure and rapidly closing the many gaping wounds of its new host.

Then a faint voice echoed inside the head of its host who is unconscious.

'Initializing new host system…'

'Begin integrating to the new host…'

'Releasing Nanomachines…'

'Release complete… Integration complete…'

'System will activate once host's vitality reaches 5%...'

'Sleep mode activated...'

…

Another morning has passed as I woke up. I can now feel the strength in my body recovering. I can already somewhat move my arms and my head. But the pain still exists which would make me winched every now and then if I move my muscles wrongly or abruptly.

However, this morning, something seems different something weird is happening to me.

I can somewhat see, at the upper right corner of my eyes, a blurry image that I could not see clearly as I just woke up.

I tried to rub my eyes, but I could still not see it that clearly.

After a while, my mind and vision recovered, and have now fully woken up. I could soon clearly see that strange image. It was a green panel with some words written on it. If I open my eyes, the panel is not that clear as it would blend in the background, but when I close them, I could see everything clearly due to the darkness.

I then carefully read what on the floating panel and what I saw made me dumbfounded. It displayed some words that I knew should only exist in games.

Those words suddenly made me confused and a little skeptical of what is happening in my mind. Then the words like strength, dexterity, constitution, and intelligence, along with some numbers after it, caught my attention.

As I focus my sight on those words, I suddenly saw something pop out as it explained what those words signify.

On strength, it says, 'measuring physical power and carrying capacity,'. Thus this means that strength can give me power physically? The more strength I have the stronger my muscles are?

"Well, I hope this would not make me looks like some muscled buffoon; I really hate looking like that," I thought.

Then my eyes hovered to dexterity and the words 'measuring agility, balance, coordination and reflexes' appear. And in my mind, I immediately knew that dexterity would make me fast and also agile. This made me think of those flexible and fast superheroes I've seen on TV.

Then I look at the constitution, and this appears... 'measuring endurance, stamina and good health'…

So I guess the constitution is something that can tell me about my health and stress in my physical body.

And then I could not help but look at the last word, intelligence. Then I saw the description appearing. Intelligence - measuring deductive reasoning, cognition, knowledge, memory, logic, and rationality.

With that, I now have an idea of the basic display on the floating panel. It made me think that everything is really like a game.

But how could this happen? I mean, how could I see these things?… What is happening?

I mulled over this situation in my mind as I feel confused and irritated as I could not figure out what is this situation. I feel like I am already losing my mind… is this just a dream or my hallucination? I don't know… I'm now really getting confused.

With no choice, I just closed my eyes and decided to not think about anything. I just drifted to the dream world as I fell asleep wanting to wake up from this confusing situation.

In my dream, I began to have nightmares once again. My heart and my mind still could not accept what had happened to Lin Qiao. I seem to still blame myself for what had happened to her and my heart is filled with darkness and the blooming desire for revenge grows.

…

Another 2 days have passed...

I can already stand up. My recovery made me think that everything is truly like a dream. Even the old man who helped me is always filled with curiosity and amazement while looking at what is happening with me and the speed of my recovery.

Though he did not say anything, I could tell that he is surprised and curious at the same time.

I once again look at the floating panel at the upper right corner of my sight. I have already come to terms with this thing as it would not seem to disappear sooner.

From there I could see once again my stats. My strength is 5, my dexterity is 1, my constitution is 10%, and my intelligence is 10. I could still not understand the numbers and it is making me feel confused. However, I could tell that my constitution is talking about my body and my recovery.

I have noticed it increasing from 6% to 10% and that 10% can already make me able to stand albeit it is still hard and painful for me.

The confusion in my mind still lingers, but another problem that's bugging me is something that the old man told me.

From what I learned from the old man, it has already been 1 week ever since the incident happened.

But I wanted to know what has really happened. It's making me feel worried about my parents and of course my guilt towards Lin Qiao. Since I could not do anything now, I just wanted to know what's happening outside right now.

When the old man saw me standing, he showed a surprised expression on his wizened face.

"You… you can already stand up?" he said with disbelief written all over his expression.

I just showed him a smile and shrugged my shoulder. And this action made me cringes a little as I feel a slight pain in my back.

"Rest for now... don't push yourself." The old man advised as he gestured for me to lie on the bed.

"It's okay, grandpa… I want to breathe in some fresh air. I… I think I can already manage myself."

I have decided to call the old man grandpa as a form of my respect and gratitude to him.

However, as soon as I take a step forward, my body suddenly shivers as I feel another bout of pain assaulting my senses.

"I told you… now lie down…"

The old man helped me while having a tinge of pity in his eyes.

For the rest of the days, I stayed inside the small dilapidated house, I spend my time trying to understand the floating panel while trying to recover my strength.

I then discovered that my body recovers at around 3-4% per day. And when I eat, this recovery rate would increase after an hour. And this made me feel like eating more food. However, grandpa could only bring enough food for the two of us, so I dare not eat more than I should.

Another 3 days have passed, and now, I am able to move with little to no pain in my body. And this progress truly made me happy.

On the 3rd day after dinner, the old man suddenly heaves a deep sigh as he approaches me and slowly told me about what had happened that day when he rescued me.

From his story I learned of the gruesome event and that Lin Qiao is now gone forever. As he was telling the story my eyes could not help but became cloudy as I began crying. Though I already knew it, yet I could not help myself but get hurt. My heart was once again filled with pain and anguish as I remember what happened that day clearly.

He said that, at that time, he thought that the two of us are dead because my body is riddled with stab wounds, and the girl has a slit on her throat. But then he said that I was miraculously still breathing and that the wounds on my body seem to have already stopped bleeding.

It was truly a miracle and because of that, he decided to help me.

That night, as he told me how he saved me, I soon discover that the old man is actually a traditional doctor. He is a bit more unconventional, but still a doctor in my eyes. He told me about how he uses some medicinal plants to help me with my wounds and how it could stop them from getting infected.

Then he told me about his acupuncture skill which made me feel a bit astounded.

From the way the old man talks, it seems that he has not spoken to anyone for a while. And with this, he seems to be pouring his heart out explaining things and with me listening to his story.

I learned from the old man about his experiences as a traditional doctor and about some herbs that I haven't heard of before in my life.

As I listen, I noticed something; I can actually remember everything that the old man is saying as if it is recorded in my mind like a computer.

While listening to the old man, I suddenly noticed at the corner of my eyes the intelligence stats suddenly increasing by 1.

Then it dawned on me, that the more I learned new things, the more I can increase my intelligence. It's no different from me studying, right?

But the thing that made me baffled the most is the retention of that knowledge in my mind. I can actually remember them clearly. Then something dawned unto me as I suddenly asked.

"Senior, about acupuncture… can you show me more about it? I suddenly feel interested…" I said with a curious expression.

The old man was a bit taken aback and a happy expression appears on his face.

He suddenly stood up and then from an old bag at the corner inside the house he takes out an old inch thick book.

"Read…" he said with a smile then turns around and walks inside the room.

Ever since, my recovery, I began sleeping on a makeshift bed on the floor and gave the old bed to the old man.

As I was left alone outside, I began to curiously scan the contents of the book and it immediately got my attention and curiosity.

The reason for this is because I began to realize as I understood what the old man is talking about a while ago. That night I began to look at the book and ponder it in my mind.

And I didn't notice that the intelligence part in the floating panel suddenly added another 1 point to its number which now totals to 12.