The outer edge of a deep crater, in the center of the forest of Vannimei

  I didn’t sleep that night.

  Not because nanomachines can’t sleep; low power mode doesn't exactly counts as the human sort of sleeping.

  Not the tiredness from fixing up Citadel either, because well, nano machines can't really get tired if there is a constant stream of energy charging me up, as Citadel's engines are now working at full capacity.

  No, I was thinking about the world before the fall, back when I and my friends could happily go to school, and later our workplace, even if it was boring. I can't even remember their names now.

  I sat on the edges of the crater, remembering the wandering days that me and my friends had to go through, as city after city fell. If we hadn’t collected so many valuable items for trading, we would have starved on the streets, without a home, as the treads of Autotanks crush us to smithereens.

  That black liquid...

  If it didn't burn through me, would something else have happened?

  Who knows?

  Earth may be dead, but humanity, when facing any other disasters, always lives on. Hope lives on.

  I laughed quietly and looked upwards. There are definitely going to be humans who have also reincarnated into this world. The clearing was void of any trees blocking the view of the night sky, allowing me to see the shining stars, and intriguingly, two blue moons.

  It awes me that when half of Earth’s population was running for their lives from the unstoppable forces of The Collective, people still bothered to perfect a weapon of mass destruction. No offense to you, Citadel.

  Speaking of Citadel, well, I asked her to find signs of civilization as my first favor, and as a test of just what she can do. She said she would search the nearby areas with her monolith machines.

  The monoliths lifted into the sky, defying gravity. They pointed towards three different directions as opposite from each other as possible, before disappearing in a series of sonic booms.

  I hope whoever lives near here doesn’t mind seeing a huge rectangular object flying in the sky at supersonic speed. Do they even have the concept of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs)?

  "I will be retracting my humanoid body for maximize performance, is that alright?" Citadel asked.

  "No worries." I replied, distracted by the clouds that was split apart by the monolith's supersonic speed.

  I climbed down from the edges of the crater, and on the steep slope, I touched the burnt dirt with my right hand, and thought: “[Assimilation]”.

  Carrying out my will, silvery nanites poured out from my hand, and ate through the dirt, carving a me-sized hole on the side of the crater. Not like there is any better choice for shelter out in the open here, so a hole like this should be enough for a temporary place to sleep.

  I climbed into the large hole and looked down at the floor. Silver dust had spread out everywhere on the ground from the effects of [Assimilation]. The dust slowly conjoined together into small gray blobs and trailed toward my left foot at a snail’s pace. I stepped on it, and it melded into my boot, solidifying, and becoming part of my body again.

  I sighed, what is it like to be a human again?

  I know that I must go towards civilization once morning comes, for there ought to be survivors out in this world. Maybe they can tell if I am human, or if I am an automaton with the personality of one. Either way, having at least some companions might stave off the loneliness that is slowly accumulating inside of me.

  Citadel seems to be a pretty nice person(?) for an experimental weapon of mass destruction. But I hope that I can meet with real people.

  When I toggled on low power mode, a gray system notification appeared again.

  [Assimilation] Lvl. (1) > Lvl. (2)

  New effect: You can now control the process of [Assimilation] in real time instead of sending out one-time orders.

  New skill: Obtained skill, [Nanite Control].

  “C-1 and C-2 found a total of 76 villages, towns, and cities nearby. C-3 crossed the sea, but the continent on the other was a barren desert, with no signs of civilization.” Said Citadel.

  “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear about the part when you crossed an entire sea, I can't swim that far anyway. So how far is the closest place where people live together in a community, and which direction is it?”

  “It is located quite close: Walk Northeast from here for 10.7 kilometers and you will reach a wide dirt path. Stick to the left side of the path then walk for 2 kilometers and you will reach a small city.”

  “Hm, it will definitely take some time to walk there, but it’s not too far I guess,” I remarked.

  Citadel laughed, leaving me confused. “Did you forget the second favor you asked of me?” She said, as a slot in the monolith she calls "C-1" retracted and pulls out something that left my mouth gaping.

  That “something” ejected from the massive machine was a metallic human endoskeleton roughly around my size, with some artificial-looking muscle fibers attached to its “bones”. Well, it sure looks creepy, but close enough to the human body I asked for, I guess? Maybe?

  Citadel used C-1's claws to plant the metallic endoskeleton vertically on the ground beside me with ease, as if it weighed nothing.

  "That isn't really a human body I asked of, is it?" I questioned Citadel.

  She explained, “Sorry about not being able to completely fulfill your favor. You see, this is the only blueprint with a humanoid shape that I could find in my database. While endoskeletons were very popular in robotics development, endoskeletons resembling humans are quite rare past the first corporate war.”

  “The device in front of you is the endoskeleton of a VAL Type-2 Autonomous support unit, used in the second (“and the last”, she whispered) corporate war as an agile but durable frontliner. If you connect to its system, you should be able to integrate your nanites to its body, and become a superhuman.”

  “Ahem, what do you mean by superhuman?” I pretended to cough, then looked at Citadel right at her, or at least I think its where she resides, as C-1 is the monolith she uses to talk, and the only one with that circular camera, which was positioned right in the center of the monolith.

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  I stared at the camera.

  It stared back, unblinking.

  I looked away, shrugging. (I was definitely not nervous)

  “To summarize: It has a hyper-resilient skeletal structure, powerful artificial muscle fibers, and enables syncing with nanites to create an artificial layer of skin and clothings. Wouldn’t that be great?”

  “Sure. But, is there really nothing else that is more human?” I asked, slightly disappointed.

  “...I apologize, but I really don’t have any other suitable blueprints that are similar to a human. My database only contains a selective amount of blueprints.”

  “Well, let me ask a few questions then. I can still see like a human right? The nanites does a good job at mimicking visual sight, but it makes focusing on far distances hard."

  I squinted, and sure enough, anything farther than a few meters feel a bit queasy. This was something I noticed late yesterday, and I don't want to be short-sighted for the rest of my life.

  “Yes, it has a dual oculus vision at the head that works as long as you supply tiny constant streams of power.”

  “How about senses of smell? Touch? Taste? How does it hear?”

  “That doesn’t matter because your nanites will be fused on top of the endoskeleton, which means the current sensors of your nanites will be integrated as part of your five senses, although I’ll admit that this unit does have a better variety of sensors. This includes a taste and poison sensor in the mouth, thermal imaging, and three concealed lenses behind your head in case you get ambushed.

  “It's not like I have a choice,” I grumbled, and touched the endoskeleton. Firstly, I want to try to identify it.

  I haven’t used this skill yet, so maybe it will be useful. “[Properties Scan]” I said.

  Identified: VAL Type-2 Autonomous support unit

  Properties:

  A factory new autonomous support unit. It is a Type-2 variant, having a humanoid shape. It is small-medium sized and made of hyper-resilient ASMO alloy as its main structure. It features a CORE Archer-875 Central supercomputing node, allowing artificial intelligence to run the model. It also features the option to integrate with an existing nanite network, taking on a completely human appearance, and allowing infiltration operations into human organizations. There are four extension ports on the head and one extension port at the back.

  [Properties Scan] Lvl. 1 > [Properties Scan] Lvl. 2

  New effect: You can now conduct this skill with your visual sight instead of only physical interaction. Physical interaction with the skill still provides more information, however.

  It did surprise me that the scan could gather so much information, but given that the abilities were produced by those so-called “gods”, anything is possible.

  “What did you do?” asked Citadel.

  Oh yeah, Citadel doesn’t know the weird game system that this world runs in. We definitely aren’t on Earth, as the flora and fauna are off-looking, and the two blue moons were a big giveaway, but I don’t think Citadel has ever seen a game panel before.

  “Some nanite scanning stuff that I can’t explain,” I said.

  “Oh well, try and integrate with it.” Citadel said, uncaring about whatever little secret I have.

  If this is the only closest body to a human that I could get, then I am all up for it. But how do I integrate with it?

  I touched the endoskeleton again, this time thinking about integrating with it.

  “Of course yes.” I mumbled before the blue screen glowed and its contents changed.

  “Of course what?” Asked Citadel, unaware of the floating blue windows in front of me.

  Suddenly, I lurched towards the endoskeleton, and with a splatter sound, my vision turned dark.

  After a few seconds of confusion and nauseousness, I was able to open my eyes again. Instantly, I was the bombarded with that gray screen which showed my statistics, although with a few changes.

  Nina

  Class: [Sentient machine]

  (NEW) Class trait: Nanomachine swarm > Nanite embedded infiltration unit

  Skills:

  (NEW) [Properties scan] – Lvl. (2) > Lvl.5

  [Assimilation] – Lvl. (2)

  [Nanite control] – Lvl. (1)

  Passives:

  [Adaptive language understanding]

  [Adaptive Pain Immunity]

  [Adaptive Heat resistance]

  (NEW) Node amount: (1) > (2)

  Oh great, the screen of text is calling me an “infiltration unit”, like I’m sort of creepy robot who blends into human society.

  Terminator? That movie from thousands of years ago? Right.

  “Are you satisfactory?” Citadel asked, kneeling beside me, as I stared at the sky.

  “Yeah… I’m alright. It was really disorienting though.” I replied in a dry tone, and I got up with ease.

  “What the hell? I feel much lighter now.” I mumbled as I flexed my arm, and then my legs.

  “You are not lighter: you have a stronger endoskeleton than when you are a human, as well as your nanite form, so you can carry both yourself, and more weight, easily.” Citadel replied to my inquiries.

  One of Citadel's many panels retracted, revealing a mirror. "Have a look?" It asked.

  I stared at the mirror. Two horns are on my head?

  “Ummm, Citadel? Why do I have horns?”

  Citadel's camera's stared at my horns, then replied, “It seems like you have an excessive amount of nanites due to the volume displacement of the endoskeleton, so they overflowed through the extension ports of your endoskeleton, causing you to have some... unique attachments."

  “How do I get rid of them?” I begged Citadel.

  “You can remove them by shedding that extra mass.” Citadel said, “Just detach them from your extension port and they will drop onto the ground, turning into deactivated nanite puddles.”

  A text description of [Nanite Control] materialized in my mind.

  Skill – [Nanite Control] – Lvl. (1)

  Separate nanites from your main body and turn them into various objects for use. You can also control them with unrestricted movements in their natural state. Requires concentration and decent amounts of processing power to maintain this skill.

  I think I know what to do now. “Alright, goodbye forever, horns.” I declared and then activated [Nanite Control].

  Plop. Plop. Plop.

  They fell down onto the ground, and with my last command, dissolved into silver puddles, deactivated forever and quickly absorbed by the soil.

  "Deactivated nanites are good for the environment and doesn’t leave a trace,” Citadel stated. “If you happen to one day need 'extra attachments' again, just produce more nanites, that is all."

  I don't want to give any person I meet in the future the wrong kind of image, so I shook my head, it is time to walk towards civilization.

  "Alright, it was good knowing you Citadel. See you."

  “Good luck.” Replied Citadel, “Here, take this chip and swallow it.” The C-1 monolith rumbled, then ejected some weird capsule looking thing.

  “What does it do?”

  “When you require help, activate the chip’s beacon and one of my weapon platforms will fly to you in less than a minute, to assist you in whatever trouble you caused.”

  “Thank you, Citadel. I thought you were some cold killer machine when I saw you yesterday but apparently not.”

  “Sarcasm taken, do take care about your trauma for sentient killer machines. Have a good journey.” Replied Citadel from its main camera.

  The three monoliths howled, floated upwards before firing up their main thrusters disappearing in three sequential sonic booms.

  New chip detected: Encrypted SOS Beacon device (Inactive)

  I walked down the crater’s edge, looked back once more, and started jogging.

  “Woah, I am so much faster.” I remarked, feeling the wind blowing past me as I avoided obstacles such as rocks, bushes, and tree barks with great agility. What if I started sprinting?

  I picked up my pace, and still, I didn’t feel exhausted at all.

  9.4 km left until destination reached

  Augmented reality guided my route towards a certain direction with dots as I followed them.

  Determined to use my newly given life to the fullest, I ran as fast as I could, trails of dust erupting behind me from each of my steps.

  I forgor:

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