2 2. Activation

An enclosed space filled with white mystic light. If tried to look beyond the light the walls are seen, filled with luminous stones. At one corner of this space, an oval shape thing can be found lying there.

The silence was suddenly broken when a groan was heard, just below a hole on the wall which serves as the only entrance to the cave. If looked beyond the hole, a steep upward slope would be seen.

When I woke up, I found myself a little groggy and something heavy on me, pushing me down. A sudden pain assaulted me making me groan.

I somehow managed to push aside the heavy weight weighing on me and took a deep breath. To my surprise, when I stabilized my condition, I found that I am in a well-lit space and my eyes cannot help but stare at the ceiling.

Seeing the ceiling, Advay's look changed from confusion to amazement only to become filled with happiness. In his happiness, he forgot everything around him, stood and ran towards the nearest wall. In his mind there was only one thought, 'This is what I was looking for.'

He even forgot, that some moments ago he was escaping with his life and had become dead tired in the process. It only took a few steps for his to realise the pain radiating from his back and his leg, which became wobbly. But, maybe because of excitement he just winced and continued forward unsteadily until he reached the wall.

'These are so mesmerizing', was my first thought after seeing the stone like substance from close. These minerals are embedded deep into the walls. I grasped a stone in my hand and tried to pull it out but it didn't even budge. I kept trying many times without any success, hence, I left that stone to try other stones only to come up with the same result.

'Oh, come on, how I am supposed to take these stones now?', Advay thought of using his knives but that may damage the stone hence he left it as his last option. He started looking around him to check whether any stones are laying around. When he was looking around, he noticed the object responsible for his fall to this cave.

'If I remember correctly, it was a human figure that crashed into me', filled with curiosity Advay approached it. Though curious he has not dropped his alertness.

'This isn't a human figure but a human itself', he thought after arriving near the object. The human looked like as if its whole body has been sucked off its blood and nutrients. Its body was also badly charred, so bad that its face has become unrecognisable. Advay felt nauseous looking at it.

"This person's clothing is very unique and different from ours, what a weirdo", he commented, when he saw that this person is wearing a single piece of clothing which fits him seamlessly. Though tattered in many places it can be seen that this clothing is made up of a very thin but durable material.

While glancing through the body, Advay's eyes came upon a fully intact thing on its wrist. It looked like a bracelet with a round body attached to its center.

'That looks like an important thing but before taking it, I must confirm whether this person here if fully dead or not, there are many uncommon things in this chasm', saying so he just nudged that person with his leg only for that part to become dust. This result made him took a few steps back, as it was unexpected, but sensing no other movement from the corpse, he went near that person again.

'Let's see what's that thing on his wrist', thinking about it, he touched the bracelet only for it to suddenly disengage from that person and attach to his wrist. It was so sudden that he was unable to react. His thoughts had just registered the fact that something has attached to his body when he felt a piercing pain from his wrist. It was so painful that Advay started shrieking in pain.

The shrieking resonated in the cave for a quite a time.

'I don't know for how long I was shrieking, my throat had become so parched', Advay thought while coughing.

He then remembered the pain he felt, 'It was so painful that I should have lost my consciousness but I remember that, whenever I was on the verge of losing consciousness a satisfying sensation will fill my body which helped me in retaining my consciousness, though I would have preferred losing my consciousness than keeping it.' Thinking about the energy, everytime it circulates through his body he felt so comfortable.

'The only beneficial thing which I can notice is that there is no more pain coming from my back, as if like it's been healed.' Feeling his back, he can feel that his wounds have closed and already healed. He was just thinking all this when he heard a voice.

[System activation under process]

[New host detected]

[Scanning under process]

[Scanning completed]

[Data collected]

[Stats upgraded]

"Who?", I shouted, this time I genuinely felt a deep fear as this unknown voice felt as if it is resonating directly inside my ears.

[The system's AI]

Advay looked around in horror only to find nobody near him, he then remembered the bracelet which got attached to his wrist. He became sure that the bracelet must be related to the voice resonating inside him. He looked at the bracelet and tried to forcefully remove it but to no avail.

Seeing that he was unable to remove it with force, he began examining it carefully to see if it can be removed in some other way. Even though his anxiety and fear kept increasing, he tried to calm himself down.

"Now that I look at it, this bracelet has a weird design. The whole thing is also made up of a single seamless material which has wrapped around my wrist and in the middle, this material takes a circular shape.", thinking that he had never come upon such a thing in his life.

Inside that space, he can see some weird markings around its edges and the center of it has a small and large stick pointing towards those markings.

Seeing that, he cannot find other way to remove it, he decided to ask the bracelet as he remembered that it had replied to his voice stating that It's an AI. Though this looks silly, he decided to go with that.

"You were saying that you were some AI, whose AI are you?"

[The system]