Roy

"Sigh, this is what, the 111th time?"

Roy was ready to give up.

He had thought that the struggle would end after his graduation, but what he met in the outside world was fierce competition and he was unable to keep up with his peers.

He was a graduate of Stan Bridge University under the School of Computer Science, but he barely got passing marks.

If the cut mark was a point higher, he would not have graduated.

It was not that he did not study, he just did not get it.

The programming, the math, they all made no sense.

He had powered through by pulling all-nighters and spending most of his free time in the library.

The only thing that made him endure was the thought that everything would be easier once he graduated.

But man was he wrong.

Outside, it was as if they did not even use the same language taught in university.

Of all the job interviews he had gone to, none asked to see his proficiency in the language he had learned in college.

This was nothing like he had expected.

This interview was also a burst. It was also the strangest one.

With the hype caused by the emergence of artificial intelligence, most companies were looking for people proficient in using this tool.

But clearly, he was not among them. He was asked to write a prompt to convert a video created in the 90s to a high-definition VR file.

This might not be hard for others, but to him, this was a foreign concept.

He had not even fully understood the concept of VR. Let alone extract a video from a cassette, convert it to mp4 then to MPEG4 or H. 264.

He came from a poor family with a single mother raising him. He did not even know who his father was.

He would have dropped school to go work after high school but the government offered him a scholarship and he join Computer Science because he heard it had a lot of money.

But now he was regretting it.

All his hard work and he could not even get a job… Sigh.

"WATCH OUT!!"

BANG!

Roy did not know what happened. He just saw the sky and how beautiful and vast it was.

Then with a turn, he kissed the ground and did not feel anything afterward.

…

Roy opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar ceiling.

Don't rush, he did not transmigrate, he was in a hospital with every part of his body bandaged.

He could no longer feel his hands or legs. His mind was racing and he could hardly believe the situation he was in.

He started feeling despair and he knew that whatever had happened was not favorable.

And by the way, he was bandaged up, he knew that his injuries were serious. All he could do now was hope he did not become crippled.

His family was already heavy in debt and struggling to put a meal on the table. If he became a burden… he would rather just disappear.

His heart was heavy and the more he thought about it, the more he wished he did not wake up just now.

He looked around the room and the machines that were beeping incessantly caused his despair to deepen.

Who the heck could afford this? They could have just taken him straight to the morgue.

Why put bills on him without consent? Maybe he should sue them, at least if he won, his mother would be able to start a small business.

*Ding*

[Suitable body found. Arc AI-00100X Binding to Host. Please prepare for the binding process.]

Roy did not know what was going on. He just heard a voice in his head.

He was alone in the room.

"Don't tell me I am mental now, I can't afford that… Ah!!"

Pain unlike any he had ever felt assaulted his body and he felt a burning itch deep in his soul.

It was as if something was engraving itself in his soul and the scraping made him go mad with pain.

Sweat seeped through his bandages and a gooey black substance oozed from his body.

He wanted to move but was restrained by a mysterious force and the more he struggled, the more pain he felt.

This was hell, and he was forced to endure all of it.

This level of pain would have already knocked out any other being, but a strange entity was forcefully keeping him awake.

It was as if he was being ground and restored and this process repeated for five minutes.

As for his screams and struggle, no one seemed to hear it. The ruckus did not leave the room at all.

*Ding*

[Binding process complete. Arc AI System initiated.

Arc AI-00100X is one of the hundred modules released by (!@#$%^&*) for experimentation.

Choosing a matching role for host…Error! Error!]

[Host does not have any outstanding traits. The module is unable to find a suitable role.

Initiate secondary measures…

The host has little to no occupational proficiency. Technical Skills meet bare minimum requirements.

The host has been assigned a Tech System.]

Roy felt like he was being insulted but he was too busy catching his breath.

The pain had stopped and he was still traumatized from the experience.

He was willing to relive his past hardships a hundred times more than experience that pain again.

He felt the change in his body and he could not believe it.

He felt light all over and the previous sore feeling had disappeared.

Although he could not see the changes, he felt like a new person and knew that his injuries were gone.

The only downside was the smell. He stinks, god!

The sewers were child's play. He felt sticky all over and this made him uncomfortable.

Click…

As he was lost in thought, he heard the door lock click. Someone was coming in!

It was time to go.

He did not know how to explain his current state and there was still the bill to worry about, so…

"Gotta go!"