David’s mind was on the brink of panic; if not for his recently fused half AI-Half Human mind, he would have completely snapped. He felt nothing.
His fingers, made of metallic joints, clicked against his palm, nothing. His feet standing on top of scrap metal, he felt nothing. His heartbeat? Gone. His breathing? He couldn’t breathe. The heat or wind on his skin? Not a single thing.
Being suddenly trapped inside your own body was amongst the worst feelings he had ever personally experienced. He could at least be considered lucky that he could still move and see, but that constant feeling like he was about asphyxiate without it ever coming was torture to his human mind.
He looked around his new panorama. Massive piles of scraps left all over some sort of scrapyard? Even as he stared down at his feet, no surprise, just more scraps and broken machinery. The sun’s blaring light shined down on his body, all the metal reflecting so much heat the metal would have burned his soles if they weren’t made of metal.
“Why am I here? That… color… This has to be it. There’s no other possibility.”
No matter how much he tried to remember what happened that night or how he was able to evade any security and reach the top of the building, it seemed to remain hidden from him.
Only this strange color. It seemed so omnipresent, as if his brain was trying to understand more of it and decided to randomly delete anything unrelated to this color.
His head turned toward the top of the wall, past it he could hear voices, close, but he was too far to hear anything he could understand, and any words he could hear clearly was in a strange speech he didn’t understand.
Children’s laugh, constant steam whistle, loud electrical pulse.
He stood up, a strange experience when you didn’t feel your body.
He stared at the numerous robots walking around him. He had seen them quite quickly. While it was slightly shocking, honestly, it was the least surprising thing that happened today, amongst dying, being reincarnated in a robot in an unknown world.
Each robot seemed identical to himself, at least from what he could see of his body. Made from a copper or bronze-like metal with some electrical pulse coming from their cores at random intervals and with too many joins and pistons to count them. They were straight out of one of his son’s steampunk fantasies.
Bringing his newly minted mind to think about his old family.
“Jacob. Rose. Lan. Rest well. I was given a second chance, but for what…? What can I do… what am I good for without you all?”
David started to walk around, aimlessly, trying to find something, anything. He saw his fellow robotic companions relentlessly throw scrap metals in some pits. He walked forward, his footing hard to keep on an uneven floor.
He approached one of the pits, looking inside, he saw it was filled with lava, constantly melting more and more of the scrap metal that was thrown inside. David carefully walked away, making sure not to slip.
Despite being broken and battered, they kept going, most likely accomplishing their designs and the function they were given at their creation. Maybe he was wrong, but that was his interpretation.
This made him remember something, the promise he made to his children and wife.
He had promised Jacob that since he couldn’t move or walk, they would travel through all virtual worlds he wished, together. Discover all its secrets, hidden lores and beautiful panorama.
He had promised Rose that he would now try to actually make friends, and in exchange, she'd spend less time on her phone.
And he had promised his wife, one day, to breed the most beautiful of flowers, ones that would equal the love he held for her.
So David was left with a choice. To do nothing of this second chance, or actually try to make something of his life. He could wander, kill himself again… but why would he? He could now accomplish the promise he had made to his family.
Jacob wanted to see the world and discover its secrets. Then David would see this world and discover its secrets. Rose wanted him to try to make friends? He would find a way to befriend some people despite his robotic appearance. And Lan… he would find or make the most beautiful of flowers. And only then would he allow himself to truly choose if he wanted to end it again.
“I think… I found something to do. I failed you once, but I won’t fail you twice. I know what to do… I will make you all proud. Just wait a few more years, and I’ll be with you soon.”
[Acquired a new quest! Check out your Quest Journal!]
“Wh..what is this? A quest journal?”
David’s eye focused on the small green box of text that appeared before him. Showing him his newly acquired quest.
[Quest Giver]: ???
[One Last Farewell]: A tragic past, which ended in a tragic death, brought you here. You have decided that you would use this second chance to keep old promises made to those you cared for the most.
[Objectives] :
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- [Discover ten wondrous panoramas that would have amazed your son] 0/10
- [Discover ten secrets of this world.] 0/10
- [Make 10 real friends to keep your promise to your daughter] 0/10
- [Successfully create the most beautiful of all flowers to give to your wife] 0/1
[Reward] : To see them one last time.
David stared in shock, how could he not? He wasn’t shocked by the system. No, he was shocked by the quest’s reward.
“To see them…”
“To see my family again…”
Now he had an even greater reason to accomplish those promises, objectives that, if completed, would allow him to see his family again. He had a system to help him accomplish this. Could this be a lie? Maybe.
“But what choice do I have but to trust or jump into one of those pits? Better to have a purpose than nothing.”
Yet David wasn’t gonna run around to accomplish this quest, he was a robot, most people wouldn’t even consider him a living conscious being. And if we added to that the certain fact that this kind of world had to be dangerous, he would need to be careful.
“Wait, if this is a system then… bingo!” His robotic finger pressed down on the STATUS tab. Bringing up a new window to his eyes.
[Welcome to Project Rebirth!]
He was slightly shocked. A system? Like in those stories? David’s singular robotic eye started to focus and unfocus a few times before his mind started to function properly again.
“A system? Project Rebirth…wasn't it what Jacob was telling me he was excited to play?”
“It seems like fate is a jokester. To believe I would be trapped inside a world similar to the game I swore I would play with my son.”
His name was apparently Unit-123. He didn’t like this name, but he would think of a better one later. He couldn’t run around calling himself Unit-123 or telling people his name was David. People didn’t tend to name robots David. Unit-123 wasn’t much better.
Who would want to be named this way?
“Gnomish Scrap Bot… that’s my race. So that’s a gnomish city, I suppose?” He added softly, looking back toward the sprawling steampunk spires releasing steam and electricity everywhere.
The “Alpha 0.01” made it sound like the current system was still being developed. Did that mean he had to expect updates? His Data Break skill had to be an anomaly that could be patched; that sounded extremely strong.
Just the fact that he could one-shot any robot with it? Far too strong to be a normal skill. Where did it come from? Did every robot have it? Or was it because of the influence of that strange Color?
“So if I remember right, Jacob told me that leveling up was the most important in MMORPGs. Let’s see if I can level up for a start. I hope those bots aren’t sentient, but they don’t seem like it to me.”
David gazed at his body, looking pretty barebones with no clothes, not even a piece of tissue; all his limbs were linked through metallic joints that would make creaks anytime he moved from the rust in his joints.
His head was just a piece of metal with a huge glowing green eye in the middle. He walked and stared in front of him. It was another Scrap-Bot, pinned under a massive hunk of metal that fell on top of it. It was still functioning. Barely.
David looked down at the robot, muttering two words.
“Data Break”
A green electrical current rose from the target’s body, short-circuiting the scrap-bot; each bolt seemed to contain numerous lines of code. The big blue eye on its head is turning off forever.
[Gnomish Scrap-Bot was killed by [Data Break], received 1EXP]
“Sorry, I hope it wasn’t painful at least.”
He noticed huge doors on the side of the city which would sometimes open and expel metallic trash and even what seemed to be gnomish “wastes”. If that was added to the lava pits, flesh-melting heat, and the floor made of more scraps per square feet than there were gnomes in the city, only two words could be used to describe this “Scrapyard”.
“Lovely place…”
His eye focused on the south of his location, the furthest he was from the city, the fewer scraps he saw. Most of it is present only in some big piles, making literal hills of metals all over the place.
He could see the robots move from pile to pile to gather scrap and dump it all in one of the lava pits. David then went toward the metallic mountains, with fewer scraps around, he could see the robots much better, which would allow him to level up faster.