I opened my eyes quickly, like a soul that had just been forced back into its body. My vision was still a bit blurry, but it's starting to clear up.
I could still feel the terrible events that had just happened to me.
I tried to move my hands, but my limbs felt heavy. I slowly looked up, trying to take in my surroundings.
"Where the hell am I...?"
This room gave me a sense of déjà vu. Was I still in the same lab where they had grilled me?
I tried to sit up, but it didn't work.
"Damn it..."
My head was still spinning, as if the world was spinning for a moment.
The last memory I can recall is carrying out a mission from a linker to steal data from this building, then getting caught and interrogated by a man in a black suit, injected in the neck, and then an odd state of unconsciousness.
"...Damn it, I can't remember anything before that incident…!"
My body also felt heavy, but strangely, it was no longer restrained.
"Wait..."
I realized one thing It seemed like they hadn't tied me up anymore.
There were no more ropes or belts binding my wrists and ankles.
I looked down at the clothes I was wearing, and they looked like medical attire.
"What the fuck did they do to me…?"
I had no idea what they'd put me through, but one thing was clear.
I had to get out of there right away.
I got up slowly and started making my way to the door at the far end of the room.
But before I could move any further.
Tap… Tap… Tap…!!!
The sound of footsteps echoed. Then the automatic door in front of me slowly opened.
A few people came in.
They were decked out in white lab coats, their faces obscured by masks and digital glasses that appeared to display various data on their lenses.
"Oh…shit... here we go again..."
These people were just chatting, their voices a bit soft. It was a bit of a challenge to understand. I had no idea if it was some kind of technical code or if it was a language I didn't know.
But one thing was clear—they were talking about me.
"Easy now... You're not quite back to normal yet. Go back to bed," one of them said.
"Huh..."
I looked at them. Their faces were covered in cold, and they didn't even seem to consider me human.
"No... no, I won't just sit here and wait for my turn to be their crazy experiment..."
I tried to take a few steps to escape, gathering all my strength.
But.
One step... two steps... and...
Braak...!
I collapsed to the floor. It felt like my energy wasn't fully back yet.
They were taken aback. Some people stepped back quickly, but one of the leaders hurried forward.
He kneeled down in front of me, his hands out, trying to help me up.
"Oh, you're so careless... guys quick...! Help me lift him... put him back on the bed...!"
"No... not again..."
Without even thinking, I pushed the guy away as he tried to help me up. The strong force from my hands sent him stumbling backward.
I looked over at the table next to me and saw some metal tools. They looked like long pens with sharp tips and thin wires.
I grabbed one and pointed it at them.
"Don't come any closer..." I shouted.
"W-what...?"
The scientists stopped in their tracks.
"I'm done letting you screw with my life…!"
"Try to stop me, and I swear—I'll bring this whole place down. You included."
They seemed a bit taken aback by my warning.
One of them panicked and made a weird gesture, as if trying to contact someone by lifting a communication panel, probably thinking of calling security.
But she made a mistake.
I swung the metal equipment, sending it flying through the air and crashing into the glass instrument rack behind them.
Crashh…!
Metal shards and glass fragments flew everywhere, creating a loud enough explosion to shake the floor.
They were totally frozen in place.
I took the opportunity and ran out of the room.
...
One of the scientists reactivated the communication panel inside the room I'd just left.
"Professor! Subject Eisen is awake! But... he's hostile—looks like he's trying to break out!"
"Hmph..."
"What did you say...?" His tone got a little tense. He sounded shocked, almost like he couldn't believe it.
Then, out of the blue, he stood up from his chair, totally flabbergasted. Soon after, he looked at the screen with Eisen's vital signs on it.
"Impossible... He should still be in the stabilization phase..."
He clenched his hands on the table.
"Yeah... We also didn't expect the process to take faster than our estimated time..."
"Should we activate the security protocol?"
The professor didn't say anything for a second.
"Professor...?"
.
.
.
"Guys…Quick! Hey, contact the guard unit! We need to activate-..."
"No need..."
Everyone in the room looked at each other, confused.
"Huh...? But, professor..."
"Calm down... I'll take care of it. Everyone should go back to your posts and get the medic gear for his recovery process..."
They still looked a bit unsure, but no one said anything.
"O-okay...professor"
The professor hurried out of his room.
He was making his way down the corridor at a slow pace and muttering to himself.
"Eizen... finally..."
...
I was still trying to get out of there.
I hadn't quite recovered yet, but adrenaline made me keep going.
I searched every corridor and room. I felt like I didn't really know this place well. It was hard for me to remember how to get out.
.
.
.
I felt like a prisoner who had just escaped, running through the corridors,
I saw a bunch of technicians, staff, and even someone in a white coat, just like the one in the room before.
But this was weird. None of them tried to stop me.
They were just a bit surprised and looked at me for a second as I walked by.
I wasn't sure what they had done to me...
But one thing is clear: I don't want to be hit again by that guy in the black suit.
When I got to the end of the hall and turned right, I stopped suddenly.
It's a dead end.
It was just an empty room with a big window in the corner. I hurried over to it.
I could see the courtyard outside the building from behind the glass.
It felt like I was on a high enough floor that jumping would be a matter of life or death.
"Damn...!"
My head was spinning.
"Jump...? It seems like this is the only way..."
I touched the glass.
It's pretty thick and strong.
It's impossible to break with your bare hands.
I tried throwing a metal object from inside the room...
Crash…!
Not a scratch on it.
This glass was even stronger than I thought it'd be.
I let out a growl.
"Damn it... I'm trapped in a maze with no way out."
I decided to head back to the corridor to look for another way out.
But as I stepped outside the door
I saw someone coming my way from the south, moving pretty slowly.
And out of the blue, the person stopped for a second when they saw me.
It was a middle-aged guy with neatly combed gray hair and a white lab coat.
He looked at me like I was a piece of meat.
His eyes showed a lot of tension.
I'm wondering if I should go head-to-head with him.
He looked at me like I was a suspect, and it made me nervous.
But then, surprisingly, he lifted his hand slowly, almost as if he was telling me not to do anything foolish.
"Calm down... I'm not your enemy...!"
I narrowed my eyes and kept an eye out.
"Stop, don't come closer... What do you want from me, you bastard...?"
He didn't answer right away, just walked slowly and carefully closer,
Those words were still spinning in my head, and I was having a hard time understanding them.
"The hell did you do to me...? You bastards better start talking...!"
The professor took a second to respond, and I found myself even more confused.
"After all this time, we've finally reunited your soul with this body. Hey, Eizen, you've been asleep for quite a while. A very long time..."
The room went quiet again.
Those words left me speechless.
I tried to remember, but I couldn't for the life of me recall what had happened while I was in a coma.
I shook my head slowly, trying to make sense of it.
"How long...?"
"Hmmm...longer than you could possibly imagine. Years."
My heart was beating super fast.
"No way. I should've only been out for a few hours... or maybe a day after they drugged me last time."
But the way he spoke, I knew he wasn't lying.
"Shit...!"
They basically used my body as a test subject. I was at a loss.
I looked at my body, but I couldn't tell if it looked any different on the outside. But who knows if they've modified my internal organs?
I didn't say anything. My mind was racing.
If I get away, where should I go?
Is my home still there after all this?
My life... is over.
I'm at a loss, I'm all over the place.
I can't even fight back.
The professor looked at me for a long time, like he could read all the questions going through my head.
"You must be tired. And it doesn't look like your body is fully recovered. Come with me. I'll take you to a place where you can rest."
I didn't trust him. I didn't trust anyone here.
But I had no other choice in this situation. I also had to find out the truth.
I immediately followed the professor out of the hallway.
.
.
.
We walked down a very wide hallway.
This building seemed bigger than the last time I broke into this place, or maybe I had never passed through this area before.
While he was driving me to the place he mentioned, the professor started talking.
"I know, Eizen. Your consciousness isn't stable yet. The effects of long-term hibernation make sense if your mind is still a mess."
He shot me a glance.
"Tell me... what did you feel like when you were in Nullspace?"
"Nullspace...?"
"The name sounded like I'd heard it before, but I couldn't place it…"
"Is that place... the void?"
"I'm not sure... I don't remember exactly…"
"Hm, I see...I totally get it. It must've been super tough..."
"But one thing is for sure, Eizen... I'm sure this will bring great change for humanity."
I looked at him, kind of snorting.
"What do you mean, Old Man...?"
"Hmm... Old Man, huh? It still feels a little weird hearing you call me that..."
The professor smiled as he recounted the next events.
"You're the centerpiece of this entire project, Eizen. You should be proud..."
I looked at him straight on.
"Project...? What the hell did you do to my body?"
"Why didn't you just kill me back then?"
I clenched my fists.
"...I'll destroy all of you if you make me your pet."
The professor just let out a sigh and kept his cool.
"Haha…You're being dramatic. We never intended to make you anyone's tool or puppet."
"Listen, Eizen, you're part of Project Proteus-X, a pretty radical experiment to transfer human consciousness outside the body."
"For years, we thought this project was totally impossible. But you... You gave us all our last hope..."
I'm still confused. It felt like I'd heard that name before. Back in the day, it was on the O.R.B.B.I.T Corp server.
"Thankfully, I'm still alive to see this historic project..."
I narrowed my eyes, I was still pretty angry.
"But you tortured me. You drugged me. You forced me into this... without consent!"
"You're all corporate! All you know how to do is mess with other people's lives..."
"And where the hell is that guy in the black suit? He interrogated me before everything went black."
The professor paused for a second, then replied in a flat tone.
"No, no... You must be misunderstanding... I also don't remember clearly, but the last thing I remember is that you asked to join this experimental project..."
"And the guy in the black suit, right...?"
"Hmm...what do you mean, Deckardson... He hasn't been to this lab in a while, maybe he's at the main headquarters. He's not involved in that anymore..."
"Damn it... I never asked to be part of your crazy experiment...You bastard!"
"And that man… that smug asshole in the suit… I swear, next time I see him, I'll wipe that goddamn smile off his face...!"
"Haha... you're still the same Eizen. Even after all the brain and body reconstruction, you're still as stubborn as ever.
"Tch..."
…
I got to the A-015 room in the north corridor.
As soon as the sliding door opened, I was greeted by a warmer atmosphere.
This room was nothing like the cold laboratory I'd just left.
There was a clean white bed in the middle of the room. In the corner of the room, there was a small table with some medical instruments and equipment, as well as monitors.
"Take a seat. I'll check your condition…" he said in a calm voice.
I did what he said, but I was still a bit uneasy.
The professor took a small scanning device from the table and started checking out my body. The device gave off a blue light that scanned my whole body, and a holographic display on the monitor next to the table showed data that connected.
"Your body seems stable, Eizen…" he said, looking at the screen.
"Hmm…"
"But there's a slight hiccup in memory synchronization. Your neural pathways aren't fully aligned yet. The chipset should've bridged the gap by now."
I feel annoyed.
"Chipset...?...What the hell are you talking about, old man... Did you implant a bomb or a control device in my brain, huh…?"
"No, no…Relax. The chipset is what brought you back. It kept your consciousness intact during the hibernation cycle."
"Without it, you might've never woken up... or worse—woken up as someone else entirely."
But I wasn't satisfied with that answer and sneered.
"So you jammed a piece of metal into my brain and called it saving me?"
My anger began to rise.
"You're restraining me... Manipulating my thoughts... You dragged my soul back into this... and now you expect me to be grateful?"l? That's so funny…!"
The professor paused for a moment, as if weighing my reaction.
"I'm sorry..."
"I know this is hard to accept, but it's the only way we can change everything."
You're special, Eizen. Your abilities are unique, unlike anything we've ever seen..."
"Cut the bullshit...!!!"
He suddenly fell silent and focused on his work.
His hands moved back to the screen, his fingers deftly touching the digital panel.
A series of data began to flow onto the monitor, codes, graphs, and vital readings. I didn't know exactly what he was looking at, but he remained focused.
.
.
.
Shortly after, the professor finished his work.
"Hufft...finally done. Your body will recover completely soon, Eizen, so just keep resting..."
I didn't respond. I just sat on the bed, feeling uncomfortable. I clenched the white sheets in my hands.
"Well...I'll be right back with the equipment you need."
"Don't worry. I'll take care of you and monitor your condition closely."
As soon as he left the room and the automatic door closed, there was just silence.
I stared at my reflection in the window. I felt like I didn't recognize my own face. My hair was longer back then. My face was a bit thinner. I had just realized that my jaw, which had seemed to almost come off when the guy in the black suit hit me, now looked normal again.
"So they really did transfer my soul into this shit body…"
I'm not sure what they have planned for this project. It's pretty obvious that I've become the test subject for their wild experiments.
"No. I can't just sit here…" I whispered to myself.
I took slow steps out of the room.
...
I strolled along the hallway that went around the building. The glass walls next to me were clear, showing off the view of the floor below and everything down there.
.
.
.
After a bit, I got to the escalator. Without a second thought, I went down the moving stairs.
And when I got to the lower floor, and walked toward the center of the building.
I was speechless.
A garden.
The garden I'd seen from the window of my room was now standing majestically before me.
"Haah..."
I'm having a hard time finding the right words to describe what I'm seeing.
From here, I can see the green trees and winding paths, which make a striking contrast with the futuristic architecture around them.
There are a few people passing through the greenery. Some are wearing work uniforms with the O.R.B.B.I.T Corp logo on their chests, while others look like ordinary residents, perhaps residents of this facility. Some of the others are wearing medical uniforms, like the one I'm wearing now.
There are also several humanoid robots walking around, moving smoothly. They do all kinds of things, like transporting goods and helping out the people there.
I went a little further into the park.
The air felt cooler here, which helped me relax for a minute.
In the middle of the park, there was a big fountain that was spraying water in a regular pattern, and it was pretty soothing to hear.
I looked up.
A giant glass dome stretched above, reflecting the light of the still bright blue sky.
I totally get now that this building is shaped like a ring, with a huge garden stretching out in the middle, filling up the whole central area on the lower floor.
I had access to the internal blueprints of O.R.B.B.I.T Corp. I remember the structure, layout, and security patterns like it was yesterday.
But now, I see things differently.
…
I was still walking around without a clear direction, taking in the sights.
The people around me looked normal. They didn't seem to be afraid of the company at all, like the people wearing medical uniforms.
Then, out of the blue,
Crash…!
Somebody ran and accidentally bumped into me from behind.
I almost lost my balance. When I turned around, I saw a teenager who looked to be between thirteen and fifteen years old.
He bowed his head a lot, and you could totally see how nervous and awkward he was feeling. He was standing right in front of me, kind of bowing his head awkwardly.
"Ouch... I'm sorry!" he said quickly, bowing deeply.
I looked at him for a second, then nodded slowly.
"Ah... It's okay."
The boy lifted his face and looked at me sideways.
"Huh... You're new here, right? I've never seen you around before."
I frowned, feeling a bit confused.
"Hmmm...are you new here…?"
He nodded enthusiastically.
"Are you part of the Proxima project too…?"
"Proxima?... What do you mean?"
The boy's eyes lit up as he started explaining.
"The professors said we were all assigned to help develop a new system…"
"To be exact, it's a system that's supposed to make the world safer, better, and happier…!"
"And also, if everything goes well... we'll all be heroes, and our story will always be remembered by future generations for saving the world."
I didn't say anything. His words sounded overly optimistic, like he'd been brainwashed by something wrong.
"Saving the world, huh..." I asked gently.
"Hey…Have you forgotten the world is already falling apart? The professors said radiation levels out there are spiraling out of control. The soil, the water, even the air—everything's contaminated. The only way to survive is to build a new, safer system."
I looked at him for a long time.
I had this funny feeling in my chest. An uncomfortable feeling grew stronger. This kid was too naive to believe the nonsense spouted by those shit corporations.
But before I could ask any more questions—
A voice from a distance called out to the boy.
"Heii…Kaito!!!"
Another boy waved from the other end of the park.
"Hurry up... come here! The professor said we're going to do it soon, they're done with all the preparations...!"
The boy in front of me turned with sparkling eyes.
"Ah...! Alright, Souta! Wait for me!"
He quickly turned back to me with a big smile.
"I gotta run! Sorry for bumping into you earlier..."
Ano… and just wanted to ask, what's your name?
"Huh... I'm…Eisen…!"
"I'm Kaito… Kaito Ernst… Nice to meet you, Eisen-san."
Before he left, he clenched his fist energetically toward me.
"Yoshhh!... See you again, Eisen-san...!"
I just stared at him, totally confused.
"Yeah, you got it. Just be careful..."
Without waiting any longer, Kaito immediately ran to meet his friend.
I watched them for a bit.
The boys were laughing and running around like crazy.
But I couldn't feel the same way. I still couldn't fully trust this place.
…
Then, the scene switches to a van speeding through the streets of a deserted city.
The sky over the city is all gray, with tall buildings that look like nobody lives in them.
The tall buildings stand like empty shells, some destroyed, dilapidated, and untouched by humans.
An unmarked combat van speeds through the empty streets. The vehicle makes it through the damaged road.
Inside the van, four people sit in silence.
Everyone's busy with their own tasks.
There's a guy in a black jacket in the passenger seat. He taps on the screen of his portable gadget, checking the data.
Two women with short hair are sitting on the right, and a woman with pigtails is sitting on the left.
The woman on the right looks like she's putting together a modular rifle. Her fingers move quickly and skillfully, carefully checking each part of the weapon.
In the driver's seat, a burly guy grips the steering wheel tightly. He's got his eyes on the road, but his hands are on the wheel, turning them like a pro.
"We don't have much time to breach their system…" the man beside the driver said in a firm voice…"
"If we fail… he's gone...For good..."
From the back seat, a woman with her hair tied back snorted softly.
"O.R.B.B.I.T Corp isn't going to let us take him without a fight. Their guard's top-tier, and we don't have much time."
"Aight, so what's the play? You got us a clean way in, or we wingin' it again...?"
"There's a weak point on the east side, near the logistics dock. If we launch the interference signal on time, we'll jam their sensors long enough to slip through. That's our window."
Another woman sitting next to her gave him a hard stare.
"Is the GPS he's carrying still active…?"
"Still online. I've got a lock on his exact coordinates…"
The woman who asked the question let out a sigh and clicked her tongue.
"Huff...This is a hassle. I didn't sign up to throw my life away for him."
The guy in the black jacket sitting in the corner of the van spoke again, looking pretty serious.
"Remember…He's still one of us."
"We can't let O.R.B.B.I.T Corp keep him locked up. You know what they'll do. They'll turn him into one of their experiments."
.
.
.
In the distance, you could see the O.R.B.B.I.T Corp building. It's majestic and sprawling.
The car stopped near the O.R.B.B.I.T Corp building.
The side door opened.
The guy in the black jacket got out first and then turned to his team, who were already ready behind him.
"Alright, listen up, this is where it begins…"
"We're splitting into two teams. I'll take one operative with me and breach through the main system access."
"The other two will head to the upper floors, disable external surveillance, and provide tactical cover."
"Once we're in, you move fast and secure the extraction route. No delays."
"And one more thing, no noise. We move in silent, we move out clean. If they catch wind of us..."
One of them just replied casually.
"Ayy-aye, Cap. Let's make it clean and loud—uh, I mean quiet. Real quiet…"
The others just nodded slowly.
"Hmph..."
One by one, they started to get out of the van.
The woman with short hair put on her protective mask.