1 The New World I Find Myself In

It was just a normal day for me I was sitting in my room hunched over my computer playing some new mmo game I had found or the other fifty different games I had installed at this point in time and then I felt a very painful sensation a heart attack it felt like my chest was being squeezed in a vice I screamed but no one heard me I lived alone after all and then my vision went black

The creaking of rusted metal the whine of old nearly broken servo motors the clicking of ancient battered gears was all that I heard the wind picked up every now and again to throw more sand at me I could only see my arm it wasn't my arm though it was a clockwork limb of a skeleton like robot I tried to turn my head but the gears were too rusted to turn I could only look out into the endless sands and sob I felt something underneath myself it hurt and dug into my torso but I still couldn't move even in the slightest the gears and joints of my new body were too rusted to even be moved by force even after the constant sand blasting they had been receiving from the light but steady paced winds at least I wasn't hungry I had been here for days not moving and still but I still felt no change in how hungry of thirsty I felt then I saw it

A dust storm on the horizon. It was a massive cloud of dust and metal debris that would be extremely painful for any normal human to be inside of, but my new metal body could resist this easily, I was sure. As the cloud engulfed me I realised I had made a horrible miscalculation, the storm hurt like hell it was agonizing but at least the rust was loosening it was still immobile but I could feel it coming off it was slow and painful but I was regaining the ability to move myself again.

Slight, tiny movements were all I could accomplish but I could move now it had sandblasted the joints till the rust came off and I felt elated at the thought of movement after the days of stillness it was agonizing but I had never felt better in my life I saw during the nights a bright light off in the desert it must be people and that meant I could get help for my current condition the joints were still so rusty that I could only crawl by digging my hand into the sand and twisting my wrist it was slow and at some points I thought I wasn't even moving but slowly I left a long drag mark behind me as I moved through the desert the strange thing was I was getting tired or so I thought I twist my head and see I'm leaking oil from my chest area

This is bad I need to get to that city and fast I crack the rust off from my elbow joints with such force that it hurt like, hell but I didn't care at this point I was, losing oil which I assume is like blood for me I drag myself across the sandy dunes at twice the speed I had been moving and the progress I had been making was much more noticeable and I could see the city in the distance it had a large wall that was an amalgamation of twisted scrap metal and stone brickwork I could see some vaguely humanoid shapes on the wall and some of the rust on my legs and been scraped off I could kick my legs to aid in my movement

I'm almost at the front gate of the city and there are three guards with massive rusted swords standing outside the gate. Two of them are human, but the other one had blue skin, long bony horns extending from the back of her head, and plates of bone covering her vitals. It was strange, but I would not question it given my current circumstances.

It took me another minute and a half to drag myself up to the gate and up the stairs that led into the city. I was at the feet of the guards now. The guards looked at each other and laughed a little. One of them squatted down and waved their hand in front of my face. I lifted my hand up to wave at them and then he walked back to the others and spoke in a language i didn't understand

The female guard walked over to me and sat down in front of me. She also spoke to me in a rough voice that fit her appearance well

"Skeleton, what business do you have here in Sho-Battai?"

I try to speak, but all that comes out is what sounds like a glitchy pre-recorded message

"THIS autonomously operating, [ERROR MEMORY BANK DAMAGED] requires extensive repairs. Call the nearest service representative please and thank you. "

The woman takes a deep breath and exhales twice as heavily

"Ok, so I can see that you need to be taken to the robotics shop. I GUESS I can take you there."

She says that through heavily gritted teeth. She stands up and walks over to me, bends down and picks me up slinging me over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She walked through the city at an uncomfortable pace that was both too fast and too bumpy. I was flopping around like a dead fish. She took me to a shop that was little more than a small shack with a wooden sign outside with two crossed wrenches on it.

The inside was no better. It was cluttered and the only things I could make out from the mess of parts other than the floor and walls was a strange workbench with robotic arms and a shabby sleeping mat made from hemp. The woman yelled in a language I still could not understand. After that, a hunchbacked man hopped out from a backroom and scrambled like a monkey over the scrap and spare parts that lay on the floor. He spoke to the woman who was carrying me like he was her old friend and the strange part was I could understand it.

"Kat y-you brought me some more parts for me from a ruin I s-see"

The man ran across the store like lightning snatched me from kat, shoved her out the door and then slammed it, bolting the door shut from the inside. He hefted me onto the workbench and spoke to me like an object.

"D-don't you worry now, chumbucket w-will dismantle you quite gently little one"

This man is planning to take me apart piece by piece. I had to do something so I tried to play the message again

"This autonomously operating, [ERROR MEMORY BANK DAMAGED] requires extensive repairs. CALL the nearest service representative please and thank you. "

"O-oh kat brought me a live one this time, OH PRAISE BE OH JUST YOU LISTEN LITTLE GUY WHEN IM DONE WITH OH YOU'LL BE SHOUTIN HOLY ALL DAY LONG"

I'm not sure if what he's shouting about is good or not, but it sounds better than being taken apart and used as salvage

"I-I jus gotta turn you off first and then you'll be ready to repair."

And then it went black for a second. After that I was brought into a pure white void and it showed a message in front of my face it said.

[WELCOME TO YOUR MIND PALACE PLEASE CUSTOMZE IT TO YOUR ENJOYMENT AND RELAX UNTILL YOU REBOOT]

I can open a menu that can place down buildings and other things that I have seen. It was a pleasant distraction to the hell that I had been experiencing, but it was over faster than it started

"S-saint, wake up saint, are you awake now?"

"Yeah, I am a a a am now wait I can can can talk now"

"S-sorry about your voice. That was the best p-p-art I had."

"Why why why do you keep keep keep calling me saint?"

"T-that's your callsign it was on your core. Follow me saint I-I will show you around the city"