2 Where am I?

Squatting for three hours straight I did, gazing the calm flow of the stream as I contemplated this ridiculous situation I had. Angry, confused, afraid, and desperation blended into one – these mixed feelings brutally bombarded my mental wellbeing. Even I did not realize I had squatted for so long and did not feel any pain.

It was unbelievable. Bullshit. It's impossible. Those thoughts intruded my brain. I was in full denial. But soon I realized this was not a dream. It was reality. Even if I didn't want to, I had to accept the fact that I was no longer in my previous world. The idea that I was no longer human also soured my brain.

I had become a creature that resembled human, but I do not have any internal organs that belong to a human. In fact, I doubt I was made of any organic material. My whole body was covered by synthetic skin, whereas below them was metal. This was too much, too mind-blowing.

I lost my humanity, in return for living again.

Looking at my reflection on the water, I examined my arms and face.

"I've studied thousands of literatures, but never can I think that I can transform into a machine. Heck, I have a HUD view in my eyes. It's like I've turned into an android."

I sighed. Well, musing about it would reach no end. I must begin exploring around this… odd place that somewhat looks like a catacomb.

I kept track of where I went through so that if I needed to retrace, it wouldn't be a hurdle. I knew very well I should not get lost from my starting point. I was so close to a water source I must not lose my sense of direction! That water stream was my only source of drink!

The more I wandered, the more I learned the place I was in right now shared the architecture of medieval times. The walls were made of brick that had been sullied by mosses and growing vines. The air was humid. It felt like I was deep under the earth. Many chambers and passages that splits into junctions made it into a maze.

I liked the HUD view in my head. It felt like I was wearing Augmented Reality goggles – an apparatus that displays an overlay of digital content and information onto the physical world. But man, it felt so out of place with this medieval architecture around me.

About an hour into exploring the labyrinth, I found a staircase heading down. It led me to the previous water stream. As I got down, I found an arching stone bridge, then I headed towards a long corridor.

After a few hundred meters, the view ahead captivated my eyes.

"Whoa… What is this place…?"

Amazed, I was. There were many rhombus-shaped lights on the wall. Formed from crystal-based material, they emanated just enough luminescence for me to see the area around me. Those lamps are an absolute work of art. I wonder who made them…

Well, this explains that this place should've been inhabited by some people in the past…

*croooak*

My body froze for a second.

"What the hell was that?" my head looked around.

I heard a loud noise that seemingly came from a creature. As I turned around, my eyes shrunk. My entire body stiffed. My voice couldn't come out. I found a nasty looking frog that sized like an adult rhino. That monster somewhat looked like a golden poison frog.

Slowly, I stepped backwards, shifting myself away from the monster.

Hey, hey… Gimme a break, man. I was having an existential crisis, why would there be more problem to add insult to my emotional damage?

And all of a sudden, that giant frog turned its sharp eyes at me. In a shot of reflex, I ran away. The monster chased me. I sprinted with all my might, trying to get my ass off its chase.

"F*************************CK!!!"

It leapt rapidly. Every time the big creature hopped, the ground trembles. I quickly realized I could not outrun the frog. I could go and fight the frog, but touching it would be an instant death flag. A small golden poison frog had enough poison to kill up to 10 people. I could not imagine if it's this big.

The only thing I can think of was to head for safety.

Meanwhile, the monster did not relent on trying to bite my ass. It even tried to catch me with its slimy tongue.

"Uwah-hah! That was TOO close for comfort!" I said, dodging the beast's fangs and tongues several times.

"I am NOT going to become a giant frog's dinner! Faster… I need more speed! COME ON!" I screamed to myself as I tried to challenge the froggy's leaping speed. The earth trembling beneath me struck unbalance in my steps, but I managed to maintain stability.

"Come on!" I shouted to myself. "Go! GO!!! Give me maximum power! I need the highest velocity!"

The HUD in my eyes blinked, giving a notification that says "Activating". I did not understand what that was supposed to mean, but shortly, I felt something heating up in my body. Eh? What is this hot sensation in my chest?

When I looked below, I was in for a world of surprise.

"What the hell is this bullshit?!"

My chest was emanating light through the skin, forming a circular shape in fusion of colors. It felt like I was on fire, but it gave me a quintuple of energy coursing through my body like electricity.

Thousands of lines of programming rolled over my eyes in a swift second. I couldn't tell what was unfolding. Heck, I couldn't care. I simply focused myself on escaping.

"Give this old man a break, will you?!"

Suddenly, I saw another loading bar before my eyes.

And then, another one appeared.

"Wha—Fusion reactor!?" I thought to myself in shock. Suddenly, I felt an otherworldly sensation. My legs felt like they could spin faster than a jet propeller. My entire body went wild. An enormous amount of power was coursing aggressively in my body.

"Th-This is…!"

My legs moved on its own. My sights glowed brightly. I felt like I was entering hypersonic velocity like a super travelling speed of a spaceship. And then, it happened.

"Huh? What the—UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

My overall speed blazed, faster than the SR-71 Blackbird. The winds were crushing into my face. I was scared as heck, but because of that, I managed to outrun the frog monster.

…But that was not the end of it.

"Shite, too fast! TOO FAST!"

I couldn't slow down. Heck, I had no idea how to hit the brakes. The speed went over the top, probably over Mach 2. Seeing a wall approaching like a bullet, I crossed my arms in front of my face, protecting it. My entire body collided with a brick wall, destroying it like a drag car crashing unto a wall in max speed.

In the air for a few seconds, and I noticed that beyond the wall was a huge stream of water. I crashed into it, causing unimaginably wild splashes all over the area. But because of the water friction, I could stop.

As I finally halted, afloat on the water, I could see streaks of electricity around my body, mostly focused on my chest where the odd circular light was. It was no longer emanating mixed colors of light through my skin, though.

The HUD in my eyes said, "Overclock Mode is now offline."

"I guess it's over… Phew…"

Relieved, that was what I thought. But sadly, that changed forever when I heard relentless splashing noises like a waterfall. I turned around to see where the water stream was taking me. I was in for the shock of my life.

"Is that a waterfall!? Oh, hell naw!"

A massive waterfall, and it was approaching fast. I tried to swim away as fast as I could, but I was already too close that the water was dragging me like thousands of hands grabbing my body, dragging me to the underworld.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

I fell off. It was about the height of the Angel Falls. It took some seconds before I finally crashed into the water below.

Shockingly, though, I was still conscious. Realized I was deep underwater, I hurriedly swam up to the surface. I opened my eyes a bit to locate where light came from and tried to swim towards it. But trying to reach it was taking longer than I thought. It might be too late.

I was holding my breath, but now, I couldn't hold it anymore. I let it out. Foams interrupted my sight and I thought that was it. It was over.

I made peace with myself and calmed down, letting the current take me. Even I laughed to myself.

Heh-heh. Nice try, me. Guess it's not my luck. Heck is it even possible to survive when I got thrown into this odd place?

I just limped my body, facing down, surrendering it to the stream, and closed my eyes.

Accidentally, I took a breath and it worked.

"Huh?"

My eyes opened instantly. I was able to draw air like I was in the surface.

"I… can breathe underwater?"

As I learned of this ability, I wrestled against the current. My survivability kicked in again. That panic attack which struck me all over the place disappeared when I realized I could breathe underwater. My eyes shortly glimmered, unperturbed by the pressuring water. They showed me the area beneath the waters. I could see the bed of the deep stream, and it was incredibly far below me.

And at that point, too, I felt a peace of mind. It was strange. I was panicking, but now, I felt calm. With such serenity flowing in my body, I swam back to the surface effortlessly. Upon resurfacing, I immediately looked for a shore to reach onto.

By the edge of the stream, I lied my body for a long fifteen minutes.

"Haha… I actually made it. Heh…. Heh-heh… That… that was crazy."

It felt unreal to me. Chased by a gigantic frog, crashing into a wall and fell into a deep river. And out of nowhere I learned I could breathe underwater.

"What a crazy day today… Even in the year 2085, humans still use scuba diving gears to breathe underwater… And here I am doing it without those gears."

As I eased my stress, I stood up and stared above. I stretched my arms up towards the far ceiling and clenched my fists. There was no sense of fatigue at all. In fact, I could still run a hundred mile. The sense of stress and anxiety I had earlier also wore off as if faded into thin air.

"Heh. This is completely illogical."

This new body of mine could withstand such fatigue, both physically and mentally. This sort of phenomenon felt too fictional, too much into fantasy. I could barely fathom it.

For the moment, the trouble was over. I decided to continue exploring. I was already far from my starting point. It was pointless to retrace my steps, especially after that long fall.

The walls at this point were like from sci-fi ancient-times structure. There were trims of faint blue light trailing all over them. And there were sapphire crystals all over the ceilings.

Exploring around while hoping no more monstrous beasts would come and eat me, I then found a crevice on the wall, large enough to fit a human body.

I noticed it was a passage to another chamber.

"I think I can pass through here…"

Curious, I entered it.

What I saw next was harder to believe.

In my eyes, I witnessed a mountain—no, probably lots of mountains of scrap metals from various stuff. Instantly, I thought it was a colossal junkyard. But upon closer inspection, it was mountains of… mannequins made of metal. It wasn't just mannequin, though. There were other things that resembled real-life creatures but made entirely of metal.

"Huh… What a strange place," I muttered quietly as I looked around me. Perhaps there's something of use down here…

Indeed. I was an engineer. These dumped materials could potentially help me. Well, for starters, to defend myself against that monster.

Suddenly, I heard a sound from among those metal mountains.

"…h…e…r…e…"

My eyes widened, trying to locate its source.

A dying moan. But it sounded robotic. But felt like a woman at the same time. It shocked me, but now I got curious, so I followed it. It took me ten minutes before I finally found where that noise was from. In fact, I could hear exactly what those dying moan sounded like.

"…w…h…o… g…o…e…s… …t…h…e…r…e…?"

I found it leaning against the foot of a mountain of junk. A legless robot with only a half torso and a left arm and a head and hair that looked like a young woman.

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