Mark of Survival

There once was a boy. The boy never had a very happy life. He was born orphaned and left in an alleyway without clothes, or anything for that matter. The only clothes he had were from an orphanage that had burned down when lightning struck it. He was two and a half years old back then.

He lost his right arm at the age of three when a large metal trash bin fell on it while he was asleep. He had no idea why it fell, just that it did. The pain was excruciating, especially for a three year old, so he screamed, yelled, and cried for help. Perhaps if he was born anywhere else, someone would have helped him. But not here. He wasn't helped for more than one reason.

His arm was a mangled and disgusting mess, his entire body looked hideous because of the disease and various chemicals he got on his body while searching for food in a trash bin, and his eyes.

His eyes were a dark blue color, but that wasn't why people didn't help him. When they looked into his eyes, it felt like they were looking into an abyss, one which, if they were to help him, they too would live in.

Every time he so much as looked at someone, they would run. When he spoke, some would even hit him.

He wasn't sure if he should hate that trash bin or thank it. It provided him a way to get food, but it mutilated his arm. But even though it destroyed his arm, it blocked off the bleeding long enough for him to gain a semblance of sanity, and wrap his arm with cloth that fell out of the trash bin when it fell on his arm. He knew that he needed to wrap his arm from his time at the orphanage, however, the main reason why he had wrapped his arm was because he feared the sight of blood.

.......

His fear of blood came from his time at the orphanage. What should have been the happiest time of his life became an unceasable nightmare. His best friend, Joshua, was beaten to death in their own room. One of the caretakers had came into the room and appeared to be angry and drunk for some reason unfathomable to the boy. With her fist clenched, the caretaker came to Joshua's bed, picked him up, and threw him against the wall. The boy woke up from the sound of Joshua colliding with the wall. Before Joshua could slide down the wall, the caretaker was already throwing fist at Joshua. Joshua's body was already bleeding, but the caretaker didn't stop. For what seemed like hours to the boy, the caretaker continued to wail on Joshua, while the boy was frozen still in fear.

........

Life for him was harder after losing his arm. Finding a source of water was hard because it only occasionally rained, and the most stable source of water he could find, a river, was very far away. Food wasn't too hard to find before, but it was harder now that he only had one arm. It was already hard for him to get into the trash bin that seemed like a mountain to him, but after losing his arm, it was nearly impossible. He had to use his brain to help him get into the trash bin, and he did. He found anything he could use to step on and dragged them over the trash bin.

To find enough material, he had to search for three days. On several occasions he felt like he would faint, but he bit his tongue and powered through. Finally having enough material he made his stairway. And so, he continued living.

As he grew up he seemed to be losing something. The longer he lived, the less he could tell, but it was affecting him in a drastic way. It was one of the characteristic to be considered living. He lost one of them.

In his mind, maybe due to mutation, or another reason, the notion of reproduction disappeared. To make up for it, his mind increased all of his other basic characteristics of a living being. The one that was increased the most though, was the need to survive.

No longer searching to spread his DNA, his mind instead wanted to preserve his DNA for as long as possible, even for eternity.

Everyday was a struggle to survive. Just from trying to live, he almost died multiple times. The moment of his breaking point though, which could have been the reason he lost a characteristic to be alive, was when a group of bullies beat him to the point that many of his bones were broken, and left him in an alleyway bleeding all over his body, which just increased his already severe fear of blood. His body was likely to never completely heal from that incident.

His struggle to live continued, and at the age of thirteen he could finally speak English. He learned how to speak from the occasional conversation he could hear from his alleyway.

Now all of the thoughts he had were based off of one thing, survival. What should he do when he wakes up? Find a source of energy. What should he do after that? Preserve that energy for his body to survive and develop.

Had a special event not happened, he might not have lived a year longer. But luckily for him, it did.

The event that should have caused him to be surprised didn't, because his mind tried to rid himself of anything it could that would hinder his survival.

"Found a suitable host," a genderless voice echoed through his mind.

"What," he asked in an unnaturally calm voice, "are you?"

"A parasite," the parasite answered.

"Then why are you talking to me?" He questioned again, still in an emotionless and calm voice.

"Because you are my host," replied the parasite.

The boy asked, "How'd I become your host, and what's a 'parasite'?"

"A parasite is an organism that lives off of another being," explained the parasite, "and you became my host because you have the strongest will to survive within my range of choices for a host."

Being driven by survival meant that he wanted to know about anything that could harm or help his survival, so he continued to question the so called 'parasite', "Why do you need a host? How will you living off of me affect me?"

The parasite still continued to answer every question it was asked, "I need a host to bond with something of this dimension, so that I can avoid destruction by its laws, as well as gain partial control of them. I will not harm your survival as I am now bonded to you, so your survival is my survival. The amount of control I have over the laws of a dimension is dependent on your strength, so I will increase your power, and increasing your power will also increase the likelihood of your survival."

He knew in his subconscious that he was unlikely to survive much longer, so he was going to try everything he could to survive. This new parasite was the perfect chance.

....

"Scanning host," the parasite said in the boy's mind, "scanning complete. Host's body is in a terrible condition for survival. Listing defects: crippled arm, fractured and disfigured bones, extreme damage to the outer body, disease, malnutrition, and degenerated muscles."

The boy just listened silently. He was already aware of most of the defects that were listed. He just didn't know how to fix them, so he asked the parasite, "How do I fix my body?"

"First, the host must take in energy and mass to repair his body based on the laws of this plane."

Requirement:

0/20 kilograms of mass

0/100 units of energy

"I understand the mass part, but what exactly is 100 units of energy?" The boy asked.

"1 unit of energy is the amount of energy the average adult male of this plane uses in one day," answered the parasite, or as the boy had decided to call it, PASS: the Parasite Assistant Survival System, because it was a parasite that assists his survival and everything that it does has a system-like feel.

"Okay then, how do I get that much mass and energy?" the boy asked again, this time in his head to test if Pass could hear him.

"Any and all mass will work as I can use this dimension's laws to reconfigure the mass into a suitable form for your body. For now I can convert 10 kilograms of mass into 1 unit of energy. When you become stronger I will be able to manipulate this dimension's, or any other's, laws to a better degree, and the ratio of mass to energy will be more efficient."

"Do I just have to touch the mass?" The boy spoke in his mind because he found it to be easier.

"That will work," Pass replied.

The boy looked to the trash bin that he had lived off of for most of his life. Ironically, he was like a parasite to that trash bin. He walked over to it and put his hand on it. 'Absorb it,' he thought.

"Absorbing what the host has marked as mass," Pass took action as soon as the boy thought to absorb the trash bin.

Requirement:

100/20 kilograms

0/100 energy

The trash bin didn't weigh that much because it had recently been emptied.

"How did I make you absorb the trash bin?" The boy asked.

"You marked it as mass," Pass answered.

"So anything I mark as mass, you can absorb?" The boy asked again.

"As long as what you have marked is indeed mass, then yes. Unless absorbing would negatively affect your survival," replied Pass.

'So anything I mark huh. Then from this day forth, I shall be known as Mark,' Mark thought.

....

Since Mark absorbed the trash been he's been looking for things to absorb. He tried marking a building, but Pass said that it would negatively affect his survival, so he's just been absorbing small things that people won't notice are gone. He thought about absorbing more trash bins, but if he did that then someone would eventually notice that a bunch of trash bins went missing, so he just absorbs the trash inside. Other than trash bin trash, he absorbed everything he found in his alleyway. Now his alleyway is spotless. He even absorbed the dust.

He absorbed more than what was necessary just in case, and then change enough of the mass to have 100 energy.

Requirement:

1,351/20 mass

100/100 energy

"What happens now?" Spoke Mark within his mind to Pass.

"When I start the healing process, I will make you unconscious so that you won't feel the pain. You will be in an unconscious state for approximately three days. After fixing your body, we will return to my dimension of this plane using the energy that I gained on my way to find a host. Thanks to your cautious actions, I didn't have to tell you, but I will tell you now for future reference. The requirements that I set are a rough estimate of how much is required. It could take less or more, but the difference will not be more than double or less than half," Pass gave a tiny speech.

Hearing something new, Mark decided to ask, "What's the difference between a dimension and a plane."

"Dimensions are inside of planes. Within a plane there are basic similarities that every dimension inside of it have. Each dimension has its own unique differences and laws," explained Pass.

"Okay," was the only response Pass got out of Mark.

He went into the corner of the alleyway and thought, 'start'.

....

Mark hadn't dreamed in a long time, nor was he now. He was surrounded in darkness, nothing within his line of sight. He assumed this to be his soul. There was a time were he could at least see few things, and it wasn't as dark as it is now, but about the time when survival became the reason for his existence, this space become how it is now.

At first, it made him feel scared and lonelier than ever. Later on he began to enjoy the silence, and even felt at home in it. When it reached that point, he no longer felt the existence of others. They became like blobs of mass with no meaning, unless they affected his survival.

He came to this place very often. In fact, most of his life was spent here. After he found in an energy source, food, he would just rest inside of here. His mind would become empty, with no thoughts, and time would just pass, until he needed more energy.

Just like the many times in the past he was ready to rest in what he called his soul, but a screen appeared in front of him.

'What is this,' he thought.

"The data of your body represented by quantifying it into numbers, as well as my progress with fixing your body," Pass answered. Mark was still not visibly surprised, but the dark space he was in rippled. It created a wave that spread out with his body as the center, and then the dark space calmed after the ripple passed.

Mark was indeed surprised, although only enough for a tiny ripple to appear in his soul. He was only surprised because this was the only place where he could be alone, away from the cruel world. But his surprise passed quickly, as he understood that they were both of one soul and body.

His thoughts calmed down, and his attention focused on the screen that appeared in front of him.

Name: Mark

Quantified data:

Constitution- 2

Strength- 2

Speed- 1

Intelligence- 3

Will- 20

"What do the numbers mean?" Mark started with his now common questioning of Pass.

"The average mortal of this plane has 10 for every trait shown," Pass answered.

Mark looked over the numbers and understood why they were mostly low. For constitution, his body had never been healthy due to malnutrition and disease; for strength, the only reason it reached two was because of the trash he had to sift through to find food; for speed, he had barely moved since the orphanage burned down; for intelligence, the only things he could learn were from what people outside of the alleyway spoke, and from what little he knew from the orphanage; and for will, it was probably from his will to survive.

Looking farther down the screen, he only saw one other thing.

Body reconstruction: 12% complete

With nothing left to do, he decided to rest.

Body reconstruction: 17% complete

Body reconstruction: 30% complete

Body reconstruction: 61% complete

Body reconstruction: 99% complete

Body reconstruction: 100% complete

"Initiating dimensional transfer," that was the last thing Mark heard while he was in this dimension.