He didn know for how long he was in the darkness.
Months? Sure. Years? Probably. Decades? He stopped caring at this point.
He had no body, no sight, no senses. Only the cold and empty vastness.
The only thing keeping his mind together after all this time was the memories of the final fight he had with the enemy general, and how he tore his throat apart before succumbing to radiation poisoning.
"Those Southern dogs will get whats coming to them when Chrissy and Dean finish the atomizer." He thought to himself, as he slowly approached the breaking point of sanity, being surrounded by nothing but the endless abyss.
"How long have I just been withering and slowly losing my mind, **…" He truly believed he couldn take it anymore. Whatever or whoever decided that his afterlife would be this horrible, deserved to get hit in the balls at least 5 times!
"[…]"
It was at this moment, he sensed something. Something foreign, yet familiar. Something distant, yet personal. It took him a few seconds but he ultimately realized what it was.
A sound! F***!
He didn have the slightest clue where the sound was coming from nor who produced it but he was still ecstatic.
If someone told him, he would feel better hearing a muffling sound than being sucked and rimmed at the same time by a Kappari hooker, he would call them an inexperienced fool.
"[...Del]" He heard.
"I know this voice," he thought. "My idiot sister, you can imagine how it feels to hear you voice after all this time." Del said, barely holding back the metaphorical tears that were forming.
"[Delvin… it just doesn seem real hearing you again. Its me, Chrissy, I missed you so so so m-much.]" He noticed her voice was quavering and Delvin soon heard she started crying.
"[We
e all right here and can hear you loud and clear egghead!]" An energetic female voice added.
"Maya, you sly fox, have you and Dean finally decided to take it to the next level?" Hearing the voice of his childhood friend reaffirmed his willpower, and he decided to fight the darkness till he could at least hug those closest to his heart.
"[Y-You idiot, how many times do I have to tell you, we
e taking it SLOW!]" Said a flabbergasted, and gruff male voice. The voice of his mate and best drinking buddy, Dean.
"You guys, what is happening and how am I alive?" He asked the question that was plaguing him since he awakened in the darkness.
"[Well, under the watchful eye of the government, your sister, Dean and myself we successfully utilized the atomizer to materialize and split your soul into two parts. We then used one half to oot up a prapared body and the other to digitalize your consciousness and upload it to the MERI supercomputer. It took us 14 months to reconnect the mana channels of the body, igniting the mana and awakening it, when we finally figured out a way to regain your senses."] Maya explained.
"[And another 10 to finally find a method to connect your current digitalized mind with your sense of hearing. This proved to be a breakthrough, and we are now close to connecting the rest of the sense with your mind!]" A still irked Dean said.
Delvin thought he had heard them wrong, surely he must have, right? Wasn he somewhere in the darkness of space or in some accursed death realm??
He is currently a digital being stored in a computer, that was then transferred back into a human body, but not his own body???
His soul was split in half and his mind was **ing digitalized????
Wait, was he even a human at this point?????
He has no body and no senses apart from his hearing. The familiar warmth of his soul was fading ever since awakening in the dark. Even the almighty System didn keep him company during his stay in the abyss; not being able to check his status or any other System related information truly made him think he was in the worst kind of hell.
"At least I took that bastards life with me, I-" Dels thought were interrupted by his sister.
"[Actually, you
e in a half and half state, since half of your soul has been transferred into this body, half was digitalized.]" Chrissy said, pointing to a body Del couldn see at the moment.
"[Your mind is still in digital form and is separated from your body, half of your soul, and your physical mana core. We
e having some difficulties finding out how to relocate it back to your body, but well figure it soon enough!]"
Delvin was shook once again as he realized why his soul and mana core felt so weak. Half his soul was stationed in the body, storing with it half of the power needed for a functioning core. His actual mana core organ was located in his future body; he realised that of the 3 things needed he only had 1, the strength of his mind.
"[We will slowly reconnect your mind with your body, this will be a slow process, but the end result will make all of it worthwhile. Im sure of it!]" A motivated Dean explained.
"Hopefully these idiots know what they are doing." Del thought to himself. "Because I sure as hell don ."
And oh boy, it was undoubtedly a slow process. It took Delvin 6 months to regain all of his senses, but he still couldn "technically" move despite feeling his body, because his mind was housed in MERI, not his body.
The majority of the time was spent trying to find a way to move his mind back. The team thought it would be at least as easy as it was taking it out of his fresh corpse via the atomizer but reality proved to be different.
This proved to be the biggest headache for the group, and it wasn until they totally revamped the mana core of the new body, relinked his digital and bodily senses and implanted a small piece of MERI into the core itself, that Del finally felt the world from a humanly perspective again. He collapsed after only 3 seconds of controlling the new body, but he considered this a monumental achievement.
Delvin slowly grew accustomed to his new body over a period of another 6 months, and could control it for larger amounts of time. During his struggles to stay afloat in the brutal training his gang came up with to bring him back in shape he learned that the Seven Continents War ended on the day of his death, almost 3 years ago, and his planet Noth Prime was now united under a new, and respected government which approved the testing of digitalizing a persons consciousness using their soul. Delvin Mayes was Patient No.0 in this project.
This patient zero was awarded a body that was cybernetically enhanced and previously belonged to a powerful being of the highest strength, although his friends wouldn mention who the body belonged to, he had his suspicions ever since he saw himself in the mirror.
Delvin was also awarded high military honours for his acts during the war. He personally believed there was nothing honorable about the acts he committed in the war and thought it was illogical that he got a medal for killing others.
"Well, Del? How are you feeling today, does anything feel unnatural or out of order?" Dean asked, his voice containing a hint of worry.
But his worry fell on deaf ears when he looked at his idiot of a best friend doing the same dance he always did when he was happy.
"This idiot…" he thought to himself.
Today was the 3rd anniversary of Dels death, and yet here he was. Doing the robot dance while being an android himself.
"Ooooh yeah baby, this daddy is too young and handsome to be dying at the crisp age of 26. HAHAHAHAHA!" Delvin exclaimed and started moving his arms and legs like a robot would.
Seeing him so happy Maya almost forgot to caution her BFF, but her stout character wouldn allow her. "Del, take it easy. It will still take a couple of weeks for your System to adjust to these changes because you have most likely already lost a great deal of your Essence," she explained.
Essence was the matter which builds and fuels a persons soul, and in time their mana core. It represented the accumulation of all your hardships, experiences and memories. These achievements were what the System used to quantify your strength, and ultimately create your Status screen (stats, skills, inventory, map…)
"Would you relax, I know i can only be in this body for six hours a day, but let me have some fun, will ya? And regarding my Essence, well all I can say is that it will be fun reclaiming it again!" Del exclaimed, but what he truly wanted was to visit the nearest whorehouse.
"We all know you want your blondes with big butts, brother Del," Chrissy said in a rather irked voice. "But you really should pace yourself, because this body of yours isn 100% without fault."
"I know this is a reconstructed body of the cunt I killed when he killed me, the Count Zirkof, sown together with some advanced android parts." Dee couldn help but clench his robotic fist when he remembered this bastard.
"But his body isn half bad. All of my stats should be A grade at least, Im also expecting some bizzarre and unique traits and titles; finally, due to the small presence of MERI in the core, my WIS and PER should be higher than normal. Although only my right arm and left leg are organic, I can feel and move everything just like before!" Del exclaimed, feeling ready to take on the world again.
And so another 3 weeks passed, and life at the underground research base of NNG (New Noth government) was busy. Delvin could now be considered physically fit again, he could start going to beginner dungeons and reclaim his power.
After he was finished sparring with Maya and laid down on the mat to rest he heard a sound that, for the second time, felt better than a Kappari hooker.
---
[DING!]
[STATUS]
Name: Delvin Mayes (29)
Race: Half-Human (Android)
Title: Unyielding (SS )
Trait(s): Android body(SS-), Comprehensive Analysis(SSS*), Immovable Mind(???)
Level: 0
Class: -/-
Subclass: -/-
Health: 549/549
Mana: 575/575
Stamina: 585/585
Stats: STR: 99
AGI: 104
VIT: 75
CON: 87
INT: 115
WIS: 180
PER: 203
LCK: 10
CHM: 48
---
His stats were quite strong for a level 0 being but were far from being ideal for someone who fought in the war and was 29 years old. He remembered that people of his country could reach the maximum value of 100 in every stat before they turn 16, they would then be thought battle fundamentals, strategies and teamwork for 2 years and subsequently level up to level 10 when they would pick their first class.
But the outliers of his status page were his title and traits. The unyielding title must have been given to him for surviving death and bordering on total mental collapse for years without succumbing.
The Android body trait was self-explanatory, and he figured the Immovable mind had something to do with his unrelenting attitude in the face of despair but its rating warranted further questioning. Also the * marking on the Comprehensive Analysis trait indicated it could evolve further, but wasn the highest rating already SS?!
What the hell is up with these traits, I have to know!
"Wait a sec Maya, there is something funny with my Status, probably cuz it took so long to come back, I have to check something out." Del said, not being able to contain his curiosity.
---
Unyielding (SS )
In the face of adversity, you smiled. In the face of suffering, you stood fast. In the face of death, you endured. Never back down, onwards into the frey.
Effect: All immobilizing or displacements effects on you are 50% weaker. All negative mental effects on you are 50% weaker. Resistance to pain 10% stronger. As long as your spirit is in what you do, you will never back down.
---
"What the hell is this, is the **ing apocalypse coming or something? Why would anyone get something this overtuned?!" The dumbfounded Del wondered in his mind what awaited him when he checked his traits and skills…
"Hey, you
e already as strong as a normal Special Forces soldier," Maya said seeing stunned look on Dels face. "Besides, you
e a goddamned robot, itll take time to polish everything out."
Del ignored her comment and started reading the description on the android body trait but he stopped when he heard the boom of a cataclysmic explosion so loud it nearly caused him to fall unconcious. The entire base shook like some small boat in a thunderstorm and in seconds wide cracks appeared in the walls, accompanied by innumerable explosions. Delvin then saw the air around the room slowly changing colors but another massive explosion got him out of his concentration.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Novel Bin 