11 [Data Sphere]

'Is it safe?' Haley thought silently, it was a standard HUD module to be able to connect to the internet but as mentioned before it was unadvisable to do so but he didn't know if it would be safer now that he could connect through 001 rather than the standard HUD connection. After realising that 001 had replaced his HUD he hadn't tried to use any of his original HUD features others than the already installed mods so out of curiosity he tried to go through the motions of how one normally booted the HUD.

['HUD Chip' Activated]

001's black text notified him almost immediately to his success, Haley took a second to refamiliarize himself with the objects that had appeared in his field of view naturally they included: His folders, code and contact information.

He'd assumed that 001 had replaced his HUD entirely as it was only programmed to deactivate upon the death of the host or if the host specifically tried to do so, 'Ah… I guess my body was dead for a while there, no wonder it turned itself off.'

"Hold off on connecting for now, can you interface with these drones?" He questioned the floating black text, he assumed that he wasn't seeing the sphere like last time because it was currently acting as his brain, so it didn't need to leave his body to display itself to him.

[Yes. Do you wish to connect?]

"Mhm." He nodded as he waited for a response, the black text silently faded out of existence leaving him once more alone in the room, much to his shock and surprise a thin white wire-like tentacle extended out of his fingertip and floated its way towards the drone on the table.

Slowly the end of it expanded and engulfed the entire drone, Haley could feel a connection almost instantly – it felt like he had another body entirely, he didn't even notice when the 'tentacle' had retracted back inside of his body.

"What… What was that?" He asked slowly, it had taken him a minute to process what had just happened and yet he still couldn't fully comprehend that that 'thing' had been a part of him, or inside of him.

[A Data Link.]

001 Replied curtly, it gave no more information and simply provided him with a name which considering he didn't have the authority for a large portion of the information of what 001 could provide was as much as he could expect currently.

He didn't even bother to ask again considering he already knew what it did it would be pointless what was more important was to understand how he could control it and what sort of power it gave him after it linked with something.

Haley focused his attention back on the weird connection that he could feel between him and the drone lying on the table. He tried to focus on that connection, it felt like a thin thread that could be broken at any moment but the more he focused on it the stronger the 'bond' between them seemed to become.

Slowly it felt as if he was moving along the thread, with a mental push he 'moved' over the bridge connecting them. When he opened his eyes what he saw was… 'Is that me?' He thought in shock, he had taken control of the drone's camera, his body was sitting there with its eyes closed as he stared at himself.

'Can I control this?' He thought, with a little effort he managed to move his 'limbs' began to shake as he slowly lifted up off the desk and into the air, 'How is this possible?' He marvelled as he tried to move, it was easier said than done.

Bang!

He moved too fast and crashed directly into the large pile of drones which cut his connection with the drone, he opened his eyes suddenly as soon as the 'bridge' between them was severed and looked at the drones now littering the floor.

"That was surreal." He muttered in a daze, it took him a moment to re-adjust himself to his own limbs – the feeling of controlling a body that wasn't your home and especially of one that wasn't even human was interesting but not easy to adapt to.

Haley heard the sound of the basement door swinging open suddenly, "Dammit boy what are you doing down here?" He heard the angry cry of the old man from the top of the stairs but not any of him descending down them.

"Just some problems with the code of one of the drones, accidentally activated one of the blades and it flew into the wall – nothing to worry about." He said casually, the old man didn't respond immediately but gave an angry sigh and closed the door.

'Well I guess technically I'm not human anymore, but does that even matter at this point?' He thought calmly, there wasn't anything he could do to change the past so he could only embrace his new 'abilities' as added benefits.

"Is there anything else I should know about 001?" He asked curiously, "Also, did you open that gate a while back?"

001 seemed to consider whether it needed to reply or not as it took several minutes this time for it to even start to speak and several more before it actually produced any words for him.

[Yes.]

That was its only response before the text silently disappeared, Haley waited for a minute longer to make sure it had nothing left to say but after that he was sure it didn't have anything else to say.

"Yes, to which question?" He asked impatiently.

[Both.]

This time it responded within a moment; Haley could only bitterly smile at how difficult this thing was to deal with. 'Sharing my body with this thing is definitely going to cause problems in the future.' Haley tried to think of someway in which he could survive without it in the future but apart from somehow separating his consciousness from that weird metal ball it housed itself in there wasn't a way in which he got out alive.

"Are you allowed to share what I should know?"

[No.]

"Is there anything you can tell me currently?]

[Please pay 5 Points.]

The cost surprised him, but it did cause him to become curious, 'What sort of information could cost 5 points to exchange for?' He nodded to confirm the transaction which left him with 4 remaining points to work with in the future.

[The Users race has been changed from Human to Human-Cyborg in the Data Spheres database.]

"Are you fucking with me?!"

Bang!

He hit the table in frustration at the thought of the code he could've upgraded with them points but he doubted he would be able to get a refund, 'This thing isn't so customer friendly.' He thought with a sigh before silently beginning his work on the drones like before.

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