Chapter 3 Human Discoball

At about 5 AM Raj woke up to weird itching on his body. The nutrient media around him had turned pasty and grey. He felt no different from what he usually felt. Looking down he saw a grey sheen. Reaching out with his mind he found hundreds of millions new connections in his mind. Raj willed the color of his skin to alternate the full spectrum of colors. He looked like a human disco ball. Smirking at the changes, he moved to the wall. Soon, his skin camouflaged without any imperfections with the wall.

He laughed out loud before realizing his parents were still asleep. He made his way back to his room with a smirk on his face. His skin could do more than a simple change of colors, it had two more features. He had a list of things he wanted to test. In each of the cells, thousands of nanomagnets generated magnetic fields. Using this he could use generate significant magnetic fields. Also, each of the cells could generate energies at various EM ranges. This allowed him to generate signals that extended his range to kilometers.

He could command the skin cells to form tiny suckers on his palms and could climb up the walls like a spider. By upgrading the surface cells on his body, he would have gone up to grade E or D. He couldn't wait to put in place all the changes he wanted to try.

The next thing would be to improve his vision. Eyes were the most researched organs in the human body. Improvement to the rods and cones in his eyes would make his eyes much more receptive to light and manipulation of light. He would also be able to install a HUD system.

Among the list of the things he wanted to test was drone connectivity. He had some miniature drones lying in the room. All the drones started taking off. There were ten drones that formed a miniature swarm, he could control them and fly them across the room. He wore augmented glasses, that could show video from all the drones, he could cycle between the drones to pick the feed he wanted to check.

One of the specialties of these drones was that all these drones came with in built targeting system. Raj could fly these drones and the drones would report back in case there was movement on their sensors. He was a one-man surveillance machine, at this point, all the drones left the garage and started doing lazy loops around the house.

He let them go further and further away from the house. He could see various parts of his neighborhood. Recalling the drones back he went back to his room. Since this was the weekend he would have today and tomorrow for enhancing his control over the Syn cells before he needed to go to school.

Raj started walking out of his house at 7 AM. It was bright outside, he wanted to make it to the Taskboard near the city hall for pest control contracts. After the Ragnarök, the world went to hell in a handbasket, animals were first affected and most affected.

Almost all animals evolved into much more. A simple squirrel became blistering fast. Its fur durable to the extent that you needed knives or ammunition to kill it. All the animals became aggressive causing pest control a lucrative business for people.

By the time he was at the Cityhall, it was 8 AM. He swiped his finger on the fingerprint pad. It gave a long obnoxious beep saying fingerprint not recognized. He concentrated hard on his fingers and let his fingerprints change. This time it accepted his fingerprints and identified him.

"Hi Raj Strafford, welcome to city hall terminus. How can I assist you?" the terminal beeped out.

"I want to access citywide pest termination requests. Please arrange them as a function of distance and pay." Raj responded. He felt hopeful that the new upgrades he made will allow him to access more difficult tasks.

"According to our database, you can only take grade F and grade G tasks. There are 301 tasks within a mile radius. As an independent contractor you will be responsible for your safety. Also, note that your completion of a mission should adhere to local laws." replied the city hall terminal.

"Okay send all the requests to my authorized device," replied Raj.

He received a ping on his device with tasks, their grades, and the recommended team size. He will need to apply for individual tasks that caught his eye. once he got the task he will have a limited time to complete it. If he did not complete the task it would result in automatic failure and reduction in status.