1 Mindspace

Martin opened his eyes. They stung and he was having trouble breathing at first.

It felt like his eyes had been closed for a very long time and dust had accumulated across his face. Scattered rocks laid everywhere around him as if he had been buried in rubble purposefully.

His skin felt dry and his throat was sore. He was in a cave and the space was dark, the light outside was blinding and while stepping through the entrance, he could hear water moving in the distance.

When he was washing his hands and face, he noticed that things seemed different. His hair was darker, and his eyes..

His age was the same but his appearance was not.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Martin's outer appearance was like that of a beggar, he not only looked poor, he felt weak, still and like he had been dead.

Looking around, he wondered if it was even possible. He wandered around for a minute in stupor. It him hit him, all at once. Martin figured out that the impossible had happened, he was now like all those main characters in online novels, reincarnated into some important person who should have become powerful but died tragically. Then, after that person's death, some powerful entity would give another soul a chance at their fate to save the world or some other fantasy like adventure.

Shocked at what might be happening to him, Marvin looked at the color of his eyes. They were orange. His face had a lot more hair like he hadn't shaved in months and he was wearing some foul smelling robes.

"Am I a monk?" 'I must be dreaming..' Martin splashed the water against his face and noticed a ring on his finger.

"Doesn't look like I'm all too poor, doesn't look like I got robbed either." Martin stood up and wandered the courtyard.

[System rebooting, Please stand by.]

A message scrolled into Martin's view. The letters followed his eyes and the direction of his head when he tried to move around it. 'Weird!'

Martin was stoked, he had read so many manga and light novels. He felt prepared.

"BRING IT ON!!" Martin jumped up and down for a second then threw out a round of punches.

The punches were surprisingly slow and as he struck the tree, his hands hurt a lot.

Martin felt underwhelmed. A rustle came from behind some bushes and Martin was reaffirmed.

A small animal, no bigger than a Dog came out. It had four limbs like most other creatures of its size but there was a distinct difference, one Martin had no expectation of seeing. The creature had no eyes.

It sniffed at the air, the breeze was moving downwind.

Martin's scent caught the creatures attention, it darted towards him.

The beast had claws and it's jaw didn't look inviting. There were three horns along its back and it had a short doxed tail that looked like a miniature whip at the end. Each of the four limbs had thumbs and even though Martin could climb, the beast could as well.

[System startup complete. Accessing system requirements, processing. Please Wait]

The System choked Martin's spirit a little, there were tears in his eyes and he was running for dear life.

Trees stood in his way and then, there was a sharp incline.

Martin was quick, even with the not-so-new body. However, his speed was nothing compared to the beast that was chasing him. Since it was relying on his scent, Martin stripped himself of clothing and scattered them as he ran.

Eventually, there was just a naked man in the woods.

Martin found a puddle of mud and dove into it. The feeling was indescribable, he had never been in a mud bath before but he felt invigorated. That was, until he felt a scratching at his stomach. As he was sliding through the mud, he skid across a rock hidden in the muck.

The Rock was sharp, after the surface was rubbed off by his belly and crotch, Martin took a look at the damage and then at the rock.

'Oh thank goodness, the bits are still good.' Martin patted his little fellow and saw the beast in the distance. There were still a few articles of his clothing that were between him and the beast. Martin stood up and was about to leave but the rock was giving off a light.

He tried picking it up then Martin heard the system ring once again.

[System Operations starting, initializing. Please set parameters.]

"Ughh, just help me and make sure I don't die." Martin didn't know what the system could do but he felt that he needed help more than anything. 'A tutorial would be nice.' Martin thought to himself but kept his mouth shut. He was unaware of what sort of methods his 'character' would have to fight with.

[Command accepted. Authorizing. System control relinquished by User, Assuming function. Please Wait.]

'System what?' Martin had a brief thought but his vision went black for a moment.

When he regained sight, there was an image of a dismembered corpse on a screen that was being projected in front of him.

Letters and numbers flowed around him in concentric rings but beyond that were small cubes.

The more than 99.9% of the cubes were blue in color but there was a block of them that were marked with an orange color.

'I wonder what those orange ones are..' Martin tried to move but realized that he was unable to shift his position. He could move his legs but the distance between him and the blocks never changed, it was like he was walking in place. Martin yelled obscenities and turned back toward the projection.

An abrupt announcement from the system played within the space with Martin inside.

[Generating Protocol. Host mainframe insufficient, rerouting information channels.]

[Original Host consciousness detected, Isolating..]

'Isolating? What the fuck!' Martin tried to speak but he saw the hand, his hand from before moving back and forth along the screen as if the AI was playing with his emotions. There was a prompt underneath the window in it's view.

[Original Host contained, Delete?]

Martin yelled out, "!NO!"

[System Authorization has been authenticated. Receiving Data from Original and Secondary Host. Isolating.]

[Containment Complete.]

Martin felt like he wanted to cry but he didn't even have a body to do so. 'Why? Why can't I have control again?'

[Consolidating Data, Prioritizing.]

[Removing ancillary memories, Prioritizing]

'Does this mean I'm going to be erased?' Martin whined to himself, he had already lost control of his body and this just moments after his awakening in another world. It felt like a dream but more like a nightmare. He had no words to accurately describe his heartache.

[Command Transfer Function Erased]

[Original Template Deleted, Rewriting]

[Re-Writing]

The command blinked in front of Martin's view for more than eight hours straight. The night passed in quiet and the AI had moved the body into the mud, keeping itself hidden during the processes.

The View on the Projection was of the night sky and though Martin was now a prisoner in his own mind, he was still able to appreciate the view.

The light in the night sky became lighter and eventually the Sun burned overhead.

[Data Compiled Successfully, Sorting]

Martin sighed. He hadn't experienced anything that slow concerning computers since the 1998 Y2k scare.

The AI got out of the Mud when the body started to emit a grumbling and physical reaction to hunger.

[Accessing Threat.]

[Objective, Consume.]

The AI stood up like a newborn with weak legs, it panned its head around and found some fruit.

[Visual Inspection required, Fruit ripening process appears to be at 38%.]

Martin felt like he was watching the nature channel, he yelled at the screen and kicked his feet. "DON'T EAT THAT!"

[ACCESSING SECONDARY HOST MEMORY]

"Hey, you could just ask me!" Martin yelled again but it didn't seem like the AI was listening.

[Database Non-Compliant, Accessing information will result in it's destruction from Original Sources.]

Again, a prompt flowed in front of the AI as it walked around the forest quietly. Even now, the AI had not made single noise outside of it's head.

[Access Information? Yes / No?]

The AI seemed to hesitate, the databases were not perfect. Eventually, any hard drive would be corrupted and unusable given time.

A series of code started to come from no where, the screen went dim like the AI had closed its eyes to concentrate.

[Initializing Patch..]

[Patch Successful..]

[Reloading..]

The whole space around Martin went black, he thought for a moment that he had been given a chance to retake control but the System was much faster and within half a second, the lights had returned and shattered any hope Martin had in that moment.

[Running Keyword Association against Host Database.]

[Query response, 427,245,456,245 Item descriptions marked with #Food Tag, Searching Original Host Database.]

[Creating Sudo-HUD]

The AI wove the body's hands into several symbols that hung in the air. When it was finished with what seemed like an endless amount of what Martin called runes, using the body's palms, the AI drew a large circle and stepped through it like a hulahoop.

The spell circle vanished and Martin could see dozens of plants popping up with corner box indicators like facial recognition software. He felt like it was exciting to watch but he was stuck behind the curtain and the controls had been locked out. Martin wasn't even sure that the AI could hear his responses, replies or pleas.

Staggering around, the AI soon found a more firm footing. It had never been tasked to handle a nervous system and the electrical impulses to move a body were fine motor skills. It took a bit of 'Tuning' but after a while, the AI stopped wandering around like a drunken fool.

Once the AI had gained a sense of composure, it gathered many plants that were labeled as non-toxic and ate them.

The stomach pains disappeared momentarily but returned about thirty minutes later when the plants began to intermix within his digestive system. Their combined effects were like a potent sleep agent.

The AI stumbled back toward the mud for safety reason and hid underneath.

Sick to it's stomach, the AI was soothed by the cool mud.

[Foreign Particles Detected, Identified as Radioactive.]

[Exposure rate unknown, analyzing System.]

[Radiation localizing and concentrating in Unknown Organ. Function unknown. No abnormality detected, Analyzing.]

[Unknown Organ classified as an Energy Organ]

'So maybe this host was originally a cultivator? Radioactive organ doesn't sound like a great name.' Martin kept his thoughts to himself but in truth, there was nothing he could do either way.

He was now along for the ride and the AI was stuck in learning mode, his headache continued until he somehow passed out from boredom. Martin was unconscious in the space within the Host's mind, a blue light trail whisked around him while he laid unconscious and the avatar that was his body flowed midair among the runes.

֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍

'How, more importantly, why do I still exist?' Martin wondered what was happening to him. Lost in his own consciousness and put to the rear of an AI, he was dumbfounded on how to grasp his current status.

Flowing around him were strange strands of energy.

Martin grabbed onto one of them and a bag of popcorn appeared in his hand.

'Huh?' Martin was in a Zero-Gravity type environment but the popcorn was settling into the bag like normal. 'Is anything normal here?' He started to wonder then tasted the popcorn, it was just like the best popcorn he had ever had.

'No, that isn't right!' Martin looked at the side of the bag and it had the logo to his favorite theater on it. It wasn't just like the best bag of popcorn he'd ever had, it was exactly the same bag, down to the kernel.

After swallowing, Martin gorged on the popcorn. It had been so long since he remembered eating last. When he was done, he wondered where or even how he would go to the bathroom.

Did he even need to?

Martin had been in the same state for what felt like days, he couldn't even see the projection because his body was facing the sky. Unable to even turn his head, he could only fool with the threads that were within his grasp. Pulling one at a time, many things came into his purview. There were couches and books, tables and lamps, beds. Beneath him lay an abundance of the things he at one time owned in his previous life.

Thinking things over, he couldn't rationalize it in any other way, he assumed that he had complete recall of everything he'd ever come into contact with.

Immediately his mind went to a dirty place and he hoped that his seething collection of porn would not make an appearance. Talk about the ultimate drain on his existence, his former life was equally dismal in terms of love. He had many relationships and the one thing they all had in common was that all of them ended.

Martin's life was primarily a sit at homebody type Neet. He still lived on residual incomes from mild investments.

Unimaginative as it sounded, to have lived his past life was even worse. He had friends online but no one was ever willing to come by and after his disappearance, he wondered if anyone would notice, if at all.

Now, with someone else at the wheel, Martin felt strangely comfortable with the development.

As if the epiphany were the trigger, the moment he came to that realization, he fell from midair and landed on the pile of artifacts from his former life.

"Che Che Che.." His back hurt but when he got up, there was no more pain.

Realizing that he had gotten up on his own accord, Martin moved his legs and walked around the items. It felt good to stretch, he spent an hour stretching and ignored the pile of gloomy reminders.

When he was done, there was still nothing to do within the space so he decided to use what had arrived and decorate as best he could. If he was to consider this place to be his prison cell, the least he could do would be to make the most of it.

Organizing everything took very little time, in fact, Martin had only pulled at a handful of threads and they filled the upper area of the space. He felt that he could probably pull anything out for his own enjoyment, genuine or fake, it all felt true and very real.

There were books scattered that he had picked up or glanced at, the words were blurry like he hadn't paid any attention them at the time. It was no surprise, a lot of books gave Martin headaches. They turned out to be tech manuals where even the cover was a dull white page.

"Damn, I can't believe I actually spent so much time handling these things and never read much, if any of them. This one cost me almost five hundred bucks and I never even opened it. For fucks sake, it's even wrapped in plastic." Martin kicked the book to the far side of the room, he knew that he hadn't read any of it. To him, it was as useful as a brick.

However, Bricks did have a use.

One of the games that dominated the better part of the last half century had been a block building game.

'Bricks!!' Martin started pulling threads. Remarkably, he found the book's thread fairly quickly and kept on tugging on it. Hundreds and then thousands of copies fell into the space.

'Hehe..' Laughing gently, a devious look appeared on Martin's face. He was determined to have some sort of home life, even if it was a mental prison.

Staggering the books, he soon made a small wall. Then, he made more walls and connected them. All of the books were the same size and he had an unlimited amount of them. Very quickly, Martin had a small room about the size of a one bedroom apartment. He quickly stowed the bed on the far side away from the projection and build another wall to block the playback from sight.

'Ahh, privacy..' It might not have been privacy but when it came to seeing what someone else was doing, Martin had little interest in watching it twenty four hours a day.

The Couch and some of his clothes were moved in front of the screen, while Martin didn't want to watch the projection at all times, he wasn't about to brick away his only form of outside stimulation.

As time went on, Martin kept pulling threads and eventually, he had quite a lot of things he had remembered in his past. He'd even manifested a toilet but the need to use it had not arrived.

'Is it only thing's I've bought or taken with me at one point?' the toilet was a variety he had installed into a friends house after a frat party went wrong, if he wasn't mistaken.. it was that exact toilet that now outside of the segregated rooms and in the voided space.

Martin finished organizing things and the rush of hunger seemed to come over him. He searched the pile of goodies that had come along from his random pulling and found some chips he had bought years ago, they were out of circulation because of an extremely high cholesterol content but tasted amazing.

He scarfed down the bag and though he felt like he had eaten more, it still felt meaningless. No matter how much he ate, he wasn't full. A few hours after that, he was hungry again and the vicious cycle had made itself clear. He was going to consume, watch someone else drive his body and rarely leave the couch for anything other than bed again.