<Master, please wake up!>
Slowly I feel my five other senses returning to me, first I start to feel the rough stone texture of the ground beneath me, then I take a breath through my nose and I smell the damp cold air of a cave. Taking a few deep breaths and enjoying the return of these sensations, I hear the sound of water dripping into a larger mass of water, probably an underground lake.
I open my eyes, 'Black!', all I can see is all-enveloping darkness!
But then out of the corner of my eye, I see a shimmer, light is reflecting off the surface of the lake on my right side. I look up to where the light seems to come from, on the ceiling are lots of beautiful crystals, some small, some big, some green, some blue, even a few red ones! But a minuscule amount of them are luminescent.
I look back to the lake and see a few glimmers from underwater, 'They probably broke and fell down there, I need to get at least one, or I'll never find out of here!'. Then a sudden realization befalls me, 'Where even is here?'.
--|Sids (Ziekls) Pov|--
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-The Hospital
Gens' body is currently lying on a stretcher being brought to the crematorium, the doctors couldn't do anything about the unnatural way he died, 'For all we know, he had some sort of heart attack, but for sure it wasn't an ordinary one! Otherwise, the health chip would have sensed something...'
But it isn't all bad, the architecture from the pod seems to have sensed something wrong with Gens' body and should have uploaded his consciousness, we just need to grow him a new body and find his consciousness in the game! These are certainly not easy tasks, but doable! 'He can even design his own body from the ground up, now I am getting kinda jealous! Maybe I should die in a pod too... heh'
To be honest I try to comfort myself here, cause I have this feeling. Something is just not right, 'That guy in a business suit he just walked right through a solid object the lid as if it was air, I mean that's not possible, right? I probably were just under stress and saw things, he isn't even on video!'
"But argh! I need to do something", I stand up and storm outside through the front entrance, a few nurses in the lobby watch me perplexed.
--|Gens Pov|--
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-Inside of a dark cave
'Maybe this bastard has send me to another world? No that would be too crazy, though he talked bout reincarnation or something along these lines.'
'AARGH! Thinking about these things won't help me in my current situation, let's first just stand up and look around a little.'
After a few attempts, I manage to stand up, sweating, and breathing from exhaustion, 'Was I always this weak?'.
<No Master, but this is an entirely new body just born into existence a few hours ago, your muscles aren't developed yet!>
"Who? Wait are you Tachi?"
<Yes my name is SoulTachi, as you named me Master, though I have to complain that it is a bit unimaginative, too just add Soul to the name of my inferior former self!>
I somehow feel a bit offended, but these aren't my emotions, they seem to come from my new sixth sense. 'What is this feeling?'
<Oh, sorry I let some of my emotions slip through our soul connection it's a bit like a sixth sense, I use the same channel to communicate with you. But can you finally pick me up, I feel so dirty lying on the ground!>
"Wha-"
<You don't need to speak, just think and send the thoughts through our connection Master! Also, feel to your left>
'...'
I stretch my arm into the darkness and feel around a little bit until I find a solid object made of metal. I grab it and lift it up, my muscles aching under the weight.
"Heavy~"
<Hey, I am not that heavy, hmpf!>
'Ok, ok. Is that your body?' I turn around to the lake with the crystals to get a look at the object I am holding, it's an AK74 with a beautiful motif on it. 'So it's really you, you are a fully sentient AI now.'
<How Rude! I am no mere sentient AI, I am, per Supreme-Definition, a living being!>
'Supreme-Definition? What's that?'
<Uhh, I don't know exactly, I just know it has something to do with having a soul. I am sorry Master...>
<But nevermind that, Master, you still haven't activated the System yet!>
'The System... You mean like in Counter Attack?'
<Yes, because my body was upgraded with the upgrade ticket I am System supported, that means I own a System, it also means because our souls are fused we share the System! Isn't that great news Master?>
'How can I open the System then and can you please stop to call me Master it's making me uncomfortable', not that I am comfortable, to begin with standing naked in a cold cave with a more or less newborn body.
<Hihi, did I just feel a spike of shame in your emotions? So you noticed that your manhood is in full display Master! Hihihi~>
"It's not like that", I exclaim flustered, blushing a little bit, "AND didn't I say stop calling me Master?".
<What should I call you then?>
"Gen", I say but then realize that it's not necessary to speak out loud so I continue in my thoughts, 'And? How do I activate the System now?'
<OK Gen! Oh, you don't really need to do anything except telling everything you need to me! The System is more or less a part of me you see?>
<So Gen would you like to activate the System? Y/N?>
'Yes'
*ding*
<System has been activated, please wait for further messages>
The sudden sound in the almost completely quiet cave startles me for a second. 'How can this be I shouldn't hear that sound, right? Shouldn't I just feel something through our connection?'
<Oh, no not necessarily, you know like some people have mixed senses like some musician hearing colors and stuff, it's pretty similar to that. But I think it would be more appropriate to say some information send over your sixth sense, triggers some stimulation in your other senses.>
<But that's boring, let's continue with the activation!>
<Oh, look you already have a skill! It's a passive one and will activate in a few seconds when the initialization is finished. The name is 'SoulTachi-Metamorph Lv1', huh my nam->
Suddenly Tachi starts glowing and melts in my hands, surprisingly she's not even warm and luckily doesn't burn my hands. She then starts morphing into another shape, the shape of a Katana!
<Niaaaah, it's so weird, I feel like molten cheese!>
Then the process finishes as fast as it started and leaves me with an entirely different weapon than before.
<That must be automatic morph feature, picking the most suitable form for me!>
'What feature? It's picking the form automatically?'
<Look, I'll just show you the description of the skill.>
<| Skill: SoulTachi-Metamorph Lv1:
Passive
The ability to morph your partner into other forms, although the lower leveled versions have their limitations. Unable to morph Partner at will, the skill will automatically morph your partner into the most suitable form for the current world.
Current Morph forms: AK74, Katana. The first two forms were assigned because of the following reasons:
weapon type: AK74
cosmetic appearance: (girl holding) katana
|>
'Ok, I think I really have a better use for the Katana-form for now, because I have no bullets!'
<Hihi, but what now?>
'Let's first get something to illuminate our surroundings, or it'll be really difficult to find a way out!'
<Yeah do that, I'll go sleep now, goodnight!>
'Wait!'
<*Sleeping Sounds*>
'You didn't even try, you just said it!'
<...>
"Argh, whatever.", I stomp on the ground and walk to the lake.
OK, I noticed that all of the new line breaks I purposefully add, to make reading easier, are just being ignored in the reader... Does anyone know how to add more newlines?
Hope you had fun with this chap, it's a bit shorter but I hope that won't bother you!
edit: Reworded some odd wording choices
edit 2: Corrected embarrassing typo (instead of know - now) (˵≧﹏≦˵)