A/N: I'm not dead, although I certainly feel dead. So we're back with another chapter of whatever this is. The reason for the late update? COMPUTAH VIIIIRRUUUSSS...
No, not really. Just complete and utter laziness as well as finding better things to do like waste my life watching YouTube or playing... Certain genres of games that men of culture play.
AHEM
You did not read that, nobody ever reads A/Ns anyway.
Still open for betas, although at this point, I don't really care too much. I'm too lazy.
- Aoste -
Beep…
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Beep…
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Beep…
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The steady beeping of a heart monitor were the only sounds I could hear as I laid on some sort of soft material, which I assumed to be a hospital bed.
I tried making some sort of sound, but all that came out of my lips was a high-pitched wail.
'Oh for the love of… Please don't tell me I am what I think I am' I thought irritatedly as I tried to open my eyes. 'I fucking swear to god if I'm a-'
My inner monologue was broken when I heard a door open and the voice of who I assumed to be a nurse started speaking.
"Shhh shhh… There, there, little one" the unknown woman's voice. "I know you're hungry and it's time for your bottle. Let me get it for you."
Well… That's just great. Of course I'm a baby of all things.
I have read fics where the MC had started out a baby, and they all had one thing in common; the indignation of having to defecate and urinate on themselves. The sheer embarrassment I knew I would feel made me cry harder, startling the nurse if the small jump I felt from her was any sign.
I have no doubts that the exact same thing would happen to me.
As I wallowed in my self-imposed misery, I didn't notice myself getting put down and a bottle shoved right between my lips. It was that action that seemingly jarred me enough for me to open my eyes ever so slightly.
The first thing I noticed was the massive mirror opposite me that allowed me to see myself as well as the room I was in.
I was in a brightly lit, but fairly small room that had virtually nothing in it, except for a few filing and medical cabinets to the right-hand corner and left side of the room respectively. I saw myself lying in a small crib on top of a metal trolley, which was attached to a myriad of machines each displaying numbers which I could make neither head, nor tails of, excluding one. The only one which I could understand was the heart rate monitor, which I knew what it was from the steady beeping sounds and the up and down movement of the line.
I found myself wondering how the machines could measure whatever they were measuring without any wires being attached to myself.
All in all, it looked like a typical hospital room, with the exception of the large mirror covering the wall opposite me. Speaking of the mirror, I would bet my left nut that it was a one-way mirror with an observation room behind it, the same as those used in police interrogation rooms.
That notion made me slightly anxious, because why would they need to covertly observe a baby of all things?
As I looked away from the mirror and at the nurse who was staring at me with a gentle smile on her face, I felt my blood turn cold.
It was not that she was ugly, or anything, she was quite the opposite in fact. She had bright red eyes and blood red hair, both of which seemed to glow ethereally. Her figure was very easy on the eyes as well. She was decently tall at around 170cm and she wore a rather form-fitting dark green trench coat that really outlined the curves on her body. I was no expert in boob sizes, nor did I have some absurd ability like DxD Motohama's "three-size-scouter", but those surely have got to be AT LEAST J-cup size.
I idly wondered how she coped with those melons during her missions. It surely must be a pain having to move around with those in the way.
She wore a set of thigh-high black boots that had daggers and small green vials strapped to them. The boots weren't anything too remarkable, if not for the fact that there seemed to be some runes etched down it that glowed rather eerily. Her face had no blemishes or wrinkles at all, and her smile radiated a sense of purity and peace.
No, it was the stats popup bubble appearing beside her head, and the description of who she was which made me so scared.
Name: Liliana Scarlet (Age: 22y 4m)
Title: Queen of Blood
Level: 241
Race: Revenant - Augmented/Bound
Class: Magician - Hemomancer
Alignment: Scarlet Cult
HP: 192500/192500 (38500 Regen/Min)
MP: 335600/335600 (67100 Regen/Min)
STR: 536
AGI: 349
INT: 831
LUK: 209
CHA: 661
Description: A successful necromantic experiment carried out by the regional Cult Leader, Darius. The identity of who she was before her death is a very highly guarded secret and only Darius knows of who they truly are.
She appeared under his command around ten months ago, but during that time, she has carried out numerous assassinations and has a kill count well into the hundreds. The few lucky survivors or witnesses could only recall seeing her red hair, earning her the title of "Queen of Blood" among the general public and the criminal underworld.
She is ████ ███ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ██████. However, ███ █████ ███████ █████ ████ ██, ███ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ █████.
Thoughts about you: She thinks you are an adorable baby and she is determined to make up for her sins by helping you as a 'mother' would. Maybe you can use this to your advantage?
Affection: 20/100
What. The. Fuck.
That was my only reaction upon reading her description.
What was a goddamn level 241 with those kinds of stats doing in front of me? Those stats are that of a final boss! Surely, she's not an enemy right? I'd be dead many times over even if she accidentally sneezed in my general direction if she was one.
However, the affection level threw me off entirely. I didn't even do anything; I literally just woke up in this world and I'm already one-fifth of the way to getting to a hundred? Just what sort of a charismatic baby was I?
The parts of the description which were blotted out made me nervous for some odd reason. They were literally just text, yet I felt apprehensive after looking at it for a while. I hoped that by staring at it for a while, that it would vanish or become understandable but to no avail. Whatever was concealed must be something very important, or a part of the "main story" which I still have yet to discover.
I also noticed that there seemed to be a comment inserted into the thoughts section. I didn't think it was Enterprise who wrote them, because the game told me that the 'description' was only visible to me even if I toggled the overall stats page to be visible to the people around me. The fact that the comments seemed rather cold also made me think it wasn't Purity either, she seemed more like the playful type, and based on our short interactions, I really didn't think she was hiding it.
I had no idea why the word "mother" was in quotation marks, but it didn't matter too much right now.
Speaking of Enterprise and Purity, I wonder if I would be able to contact them in any way.
'Enterprise? Purity? Are you there? Hello?'
There was no response forthcoming at all, which worried me greatly. There were two possible explanations as to this, none of them good. The first one is that there is something that is actively preventing communication between myself and my summons, the second is that during the installation of that Scarlet Cult mod or whatever, the corrupted data also removed my ability to communicate.
I'm not sure about the exact workings of the game, but I'm almost certain that my link between the game and the ability to communicate with them is soulbound or something similar. What that basically means, is that in both of these cases there is something powerful enough to sever a fundamental connection.
The worry must have shown on my face, because I started crying and suddenly found myself being gently rocked back and forth by the boss-level woman. Her peaceful smile never wavered as she looked at me with eyes full of warmth and… Longing? Guilt? I couldn't quite identify the emotion because the lullaby she was humming was making me drowsy.
For some reason, even though the overall tone she hummed was sad and slow, I actually felt quite at peace and very calm. It was as though she was lamenting something she once lost, but at the same time, couldn't quite remember it resulting in parts of it being disjoint.
If anyone looked at her right now, they would never guess that she was, in fact, a resurrected assassin with hundreds of kills under her belt.
I soon found my eyes fluttering shut and a small smile forming on my face. I didn't know how a somewhat sad lullaby could make me smile, but it did. It was as though there was some sort of magic weaved into the notes she hummed.
Wait a minute…
I instantly became awake as I realised that it must have been the case. There must have been some sort of magic at work to make me feel at ease. Hastily, I opened my character screen intending to check my status to see if I was under some sort of hypnotic effect.
Lo and behold, that was exactly what it was.
Status: Charmed (Drowsiness I)
However, just as I saw that line, I felt myself getting sleepier again, only this time, I couldn't fight it off at all.
Status: Hypnosis (Sleep)
Well… It seems like she really wants me asleep for some reason. It's not like I can do much to fight the effect off as an infant anyway. I was actually surprised that I managed to resist the "Drowsiness I" debuff honestly.
As my eyes closed, I heard the door opening and a male voice saying something about experiments. I just sure hoped that they wouldn't be performing them on me.
- Liliana -
To say that Liliana was angry was an understatement; she was positively livid. It was not because of the fact that she was interrupted while fussing over this child, although that certainly played a part in her anger, it was the person who walked in who made her angry.
"Step away from the subject, revenant" the gruff voice of the object of her hatred spoke from the direction of the doorway.
Her face quickly transformed from the loving, caring visage into one of cold indifference; the one she used when she was sent out on assassination missions.
She gently put the sleeping baby down and turned around to look at probably the only man she hated more than Darius standing before her.
The man standing in front of her was none other than Pierre Moreau, or as he is more commonly known among this facility, "The Doctor". Liliana thought that such a title was completely inappropriate, given that what this man did is the exact opposite of what a doctor should do.
From what she gathered, Pierre was Darius' head researcher and basically embodied the concept of machiavellianism. He had absolutely no morals at all and there was nothing he would not do to get his desired results.
She knew all this because she was assigned the gruesome task of cleaning up after his experiments. She was given this task because she was an undead revenant, thus was immune to the various toxins and chemicals used, as well as having high resistance to the corrosive magic used in his twisted experiments. Even until this day, the ghastly visages of the dissected and mutilated bodies combined with the guttural screams of the not-yet-dead people used in those experiments constantly haunt her.
Pierre is a rather lanky old man that looked to be in his early seventies, but still somehow manages to perform his daily activities with surgical precision. He was short and his build seemed to be rather frail, but Liliana knew better. She had seen him burst one of his failed experiment's heads with a single punch because he lost control of it.
His hair was grey and rather frazzled, giving him the appearance of a typical mad scientist, which Liliana thought suited him perfectly. His face was filled with wrinkles, and seemed to be sewn shut in some places. He had a scar running down the left side of his face, crossing through one of his pitch black eyes, giving him a very foreboding appearance. He was wearing a simple white scientist coat with a keycard around his neck, and was pushing a trolley filled with three different syringes and vials of strange liquids that she couldn't identify.
"Good day to you, sir" Liliana spoke without any sort of inflection, her face carefully blank as she stood still, refusing to move.
"Has death also claimed your hearing? I said MOVE." Pierre said again, with the last word being shouted, drawing in the guards standing outside.
As the guards rushed in and aimed their guns at her, she too, got into a combat pose, her daggers in hand and her magic ready to burst forth at a moment's notice.
Her eyes quickly evaluated the guards, and she knew that she could take at least three down before they could even react. In the few seconds it took her to get into her pose, she was able to analyze the magic woven into their equipment - which were standard CTSFO issue - and was able to determine that most of the enchantments on the armour were the likes of featherweight charms, on-demand disillusionment charms and night vision charms. There were also a few acceleration rune arrays along the barrels of the guns and derivatives of the refilling charm in the magazines.
"ENOUGH!" Pierre shouted, as he held up a rounded device and pressed the button. "You shall move away from this room."
Lilina felt a buzzing sensation in the back of her neck, and she suddenly found herself being unable to move at all, not even being able to blink. She let out a curse in her head when she realised that of course, Darius would give his head researcher a copy of that particular device.
The device in Pierre's hand was a rather simple combination of magic and science, but it still did its job very well. It worked by sending a direct magical command based on the user's intentions to the microchip attached to the target. The chip would then convert the magic into electrical signals used by the body's neurons and transfer the command directly to the limbs, fully bypassing the brain.
Luckily for Liliana, the device is still in its very early stages, so it could only control the limbs and process very simple locomotive commands such as walking in a certain direction. It is also rather limited in range, and unable to send commands repeatedly; there had to be a period of a few minutes before the next command could be issued. She really didn't want to think what would happen once such a device has been further researched and developed.
Suddenly losing control of her body, she dropped her stance and started marching out with the guards following slightly behind her, the barrels of their guns almost touching her shoulder area.
As soon as she left the room and the door swung shut behind her, she felt the buzzing sensation fade away. She knew that she now had to go somewhere else, because the device forced her to do so. Even if she did somehow find a way to make it back in, she wouldn't be able to do anything anyway. She couldn't kill Pierre, because Darius explicitly ordered her to not harm him, she couldn't steal the baby away since she wouldn't even make it out of the corridor before the alarm was raised and the facility locked down.
It was with a bitter taste in her mouth that she started walking away from the room towards the library.
As she walked through the pristine and brightly lit hallways, several scientists and guards walking around deliberately avoided her gaze and hastened their movement. However, not all of them did so; a few of them stopped to leer at her body and it didn't take a genius to figure out what they were thinking of.
Outwardly, she acted like she didn't care at all, but inwardly, she wanted nothing more than to transform their blood into acid and make them melt into a puddle, literally. However, she couldn't do so because she knew the consequences of doing such a thing. She had done it once before, melting a guard who had tried to cop a feel of her butt, and she was instantly called up to Darius who ordered her not to harm the facility personnel without sufficient provocation.
She noted that the way that he ordered her actually still gave her some leeway, because he never specified what was "sufficient provocation". Darius could mean it to be something serious like being attacked, while she could deliberately misinterpret it as something as minor as looking in her general direction.
Despite having this loophole, she did not lash out at all, no matter how much she wanted to just destroy this whole facility. She would keep that little tidbit of knowledge to herself until she could get an opportunity to escape, or at least take as many personnel down with her as possible.
She is almost certain that whatever ritual that Darius used to resurrect her, he did not perform correctly, because surely there was no way that she should be given this much autonomy. If he could create a device which could interpret the user's wishes magically, then for sure, he would have found a ritual, or modified one to do the same to her.
This was the reason as to why she was headed in the direction she was going; she had found a section in the facility library that had extensive knowledge about rituals and the like.
Ignoring everyone around her, she reached the front gate of the library, swiped her access card along the scanner beside the door and walked inside.
The library was absolutely massive, so massive that she couldn't even see the ceiling of it, and it was extremely extensive. E-books, books and even ancient scrolls dating back to the Before Christ times could be found on the shelves, and every single one of them had been somehow catalogued and sorted.
She shuddered at the thought of such a task; she would have died from boredom before sorting through even a tenth of all the items in there.
It never ceased to amaze her every time she entered the place; it was like she was walking into some sort of holy ground that exuded an aura of majesty and grandeur.
"Back again, Liliana?" an elderly voice spoke up from beside her, breaking her out of her awe.
"Yeah, it's me again" Liliana said, her voice turning warm, a stark contrast to the icy tone she used with Pierre. "How have you been holding up, Larry?"
The person who Liliana was talking to was probably the only person in this entire facility who she viewed in a favourable light. Their first meeting was actually rather cordial and she quickly realized that Larry was essentially a mote of light in the darkness. He had helped her quite a bit with finding out information about herself, personally walking into the labyrinth of shelves and getting her books and scrolls about rituals and revenants.
She had a feeling that Larry wasn't telling her something, but she didn't pay too much attention to it at all. One of the abilities of being a revenant allowed her to sense the intentions of the people around her, and she could sense nothing malevolent from him at all. In fact, all she could sense was a genuine desire to help her, as well as a slight undercurrent of regret about something.
Larry was a very old man who looked to be in his late nineties, rather short as well, being around 160cm tall. His hair was completely white, with some parts starting to go bald. His face was not as wrinkly as one might expect from someone his age, but they were still very prevalent. He was wearing a simple, white button-up shirt, a pair of somewhat loose khaki trousers and a pair of office-standard leather shoes. He also had a cane in his right hand, which he leaned upon pretty heavily.
He was one of those people who you just couldn't help but be very friendly with, he just had this aura around him that made you trust him more easily. Liliana was no exception to this, she found herself being less on guard around him than anywhere else in the facility. In fact, she even found herself sometimes completely forgetting that she was in such an evil place when she's either talking with him or just spending her time in the library.
Larry smiled as he walked towards a desk in front of the counter in the reception area, beckoning Liliana to follow him. "Ahhh, same old, same old. I've really got nothing much to do except to brush off the dust from the shelves and replace the books that the people in this place just leave around. So rude, the whole lot of them, leaving the thing they've taken from the shelves on the desks instead of putting them back where they belong."
Nodding her head at his words, the pair sat down on the rather fluffy chairs on either side of the desk and started some small talk. They chatted for over an hour, talking about their day-to-day activities, cursing the people at this facility and generally having a good time.
Liliana realised that she had gotten so caught up in chatting, that she almost forgot to do what she came here for; getting resources about rituals and revenants. Before she could ask, Larry held up his hand, got up, walked behind the counter and took out three rather thick and ancient looking tomes along with two heavy scrolls, each of which looked to be the size of his entire arm.
"I knew what you came here for, and I've already found the best things related to rituals and revenants in this library." Larry said with a huff as he hauled the scroll onto his desk, waving off Liliana who got up and tried to offer assistance. "Before you ask, no. It didn't take me too much trouble, given that I was the one who organised this entire place."
This was another thing that Liliana found interesting about Larry, he seemed to be able to predict your questions and answer them before you even asked them. Every time he did it, she always wanted to probe deeper into his past, but she always stopped herself. She could tell that the past wasn't the most pleasant for him because once she had asked about it, and she saw the very minute tightenings of his face which showed that he didn't like to talk about it. She could have tried to find out for herself, but she didn't want to ruin the friendly relationship she had with the only likeable person in the facility.
"You always seem to have this ability to answer questions before they're even asked, Larry" Liliana shook her head in amusement as she picked up the items. "You aren't secretly some sort of ancient oracle with mind-reading powers are you?"
If Liliana had been looking at Larry as she said that last part, she would immediately have noticed the minute dilation of Larry's pupils and the slight tightening of his hands upon his cane, but she wasn't paying attention to Larry, so those small details went by unnoticed.
"Hah! If I was someone like that, I wouldn't be stuck here in this cesspool now, would I?" Larry said jovially, laughing at what Liliana just said. "I'd be out there on some cold mountain as a hermit, spouting off riddles to whoever reaches me."
Liliana couldn't suppress a snort of laughter at that. "Yes, your old bones wouldn't be able to handle the cold. You'd be stuck in bed forever."
"Hey! I'm not that old yet!" Larry yelled indignantly, waving his cane around. "These bones still have a few ye-"
Larry suddenly broke off mid-sentence as there was a cracking noise that emitted from his back. He sat back down on the chair behind the counter, rubbing his lower back area, looking quite peeved.
Liliana stared at him in amusement, watching him sulk and mumble that he wasn't that old.
"Case and point, old man." Liliana snarked at him with humour lacing her tone.
She didn't go to help him, because she had seen the same thing happen to him numerous times. The first time, she was concerned but she was waved off when she tried to help. The second time, she just asked but was rejected instantly. The third time, she just sat there and watched him. Every single time, he would get up as if nothing had happened at all.
Part of her thought that he was faking it for her amusement, given how quickly he would recover each time. If he was, she would be incredibly grateful towards him for doing so, because there really isn't anything that can make her even crack a smile in this godforsaken facility. It felt nice to be able to smile once in a while.
"Bah. You young ones have no respect for their elders." Larry mumbled as he continued to sulk. However, a small smile formed on his face, unknown to Liliana, as he heard the melodious giggles from the woman.
"If that's all, I'm going back to my room now. I'll see you later, old man!" Liliana said warmly as she bid Larry farewell and walked out from the library, carrying the books and scrolls under her arms.
As soon as she left, Larry got up and started walking back to his own room, showing no signs of injury at all. The smile on his face never left as he opened the door to his room and disappeared inside it.
- Aoste -
I once again felt myself waking up as if from a deep dream. My head felt like it was made out of cobwebs as I tried to move around, and my arms felt like lead. I tried moving around, but it took a monumental effort to even wiggle a finger, so I quickly gave up after a few attempts.
'What the hell? Why am I so sluggish and why do I feel like absolute crap?'
Barely a second after I finished that thought, my own status menu popped up before me, detailing the various different effects I was under.
Name: Aoste Lemieux (0y 11m)
Title: N/A
Perks: N/A | N/A | N/A
Status: BSB_1.0 (23h 00m) | EB_2.2 (23h 00m) | DSB_0.3 (23h 00m)
Level: 2
Race: Human (?)
Class: Aviation Battleship
Exp: 100/300
HP: 54/135 (-1.35 Regen/Min)
MP: 0/16 (-987.5 Regen/Min)
DMG: 1
PHY RES: 10.05%
MAG RES: 10.1%
CRIT RATE: 10.4%
CRIT DMG: 229%
STR: 50 | FP: 35
AGI: 40 | TRP: 60
INT: 100 | AVI: 62.5
CHA: 30
LUK: 30
Status points: 0
Credits: 500
Money: 0
Uhhhhh… What?
My mind went completely blank as I looked at those stats. On one hand, I had some very good buffs to my stats, on the other hand, my HP and Mana got sent straight down the drain and that's not even taking into account the negative regen I had for both those stats.
The negative hp regen concerned me the most, as it basically meant that I was on a timer of sorts. I had to continuously find ways to replenish my HP, which looked to be drained at around 1% per minute, meaning that I would be dead in just over one and a half hours.
The negative mana regen looked bad on paper, but honestly, it wasn't too bad right now. I have no spells or abilities that I could use that cost mana in the first place, making it redundant in the current state of things.
Just what sort of injections were used on me, that would reduce my max HP to 10% of what it originally was?
Looking at the three different statuses I was under, I mentally gave the command to expand them to see if I could get some details on what they did.
Status Name: BSB_1.0
Inflictor: Pierre Moreau
Status Description: A type of synthetic steroids created using the body parts of minotaurs and nogtails. It boosts the user's muscle strength in all areas, developing them faster, and significantly increasing the user's physical strength and dexterity. However, it effectively removes the ability for the user to use magic.
This drug is at its first release, so it is very unrefined.
Effects:
- Boosts STR and AGI by x10.
- Decreases MP regen by 1000, or 90% of Max MP, whichever is greater.
Status Name: EB_2.2
Inflictor: Pierre Moreau
Status Description: A type of brain stimulant created using the brain matter and cells of developing children, both human and creature. It massively boosts the user's brain capacity, learning speed and removes their need for sleep. However, the body is unable to keep up with the demands of this increased brain activity, thus the user's physical state will continuously deteriorate.
Note: All previous users have died before the drug was able to run for the full 24h.
This drug is at its second release, and has some previous modifications done to it, however, there is still room for improvement.
Effects:
- Boosts INT by x20
- Triple experience gained from all sources
- Decreases HP by 90%, Lose HP at 1% of Max HP per minute.
Status Name: DSB_0.3
Inflictor: Pierre Moreau
Status Description: A strange drug created using cut-off unicorn horns and the wings of live fairies. It is intended to increase the user's resilience to environmental factors such as heat and cold. It is unknown as to what parts of the body this drug affects, and the components of the drug are yet to be finalised. It seems to massively hinder the user's ability to store magical power.
This drug is still in development, and has yet to be released.
Effects:
- Boosts PHY RES/MAG RES/CRIT RATE by 10%
- Boosts CRIT DMG by 100%
- Decreases MP by 99%
I immediately wanted to throw up when I saw how these things were created. This Pierre Moreau was a psychopath to the maximum level. He used the parts of living beings in order to create these drugs and in the case of EB-2.2, he used children.
The fact that there were actually different versions of the drugs only deepened my disgust and nausea. It made me sick to my stomach to even think about the sheer amount of living beings killed by that man to manufacture these… These…
I couldn't even find a word strong enough to express my utter horror at what I felt.
Despite my complete revulsion at these drugs, I found myself thinking about how to best utilise them, how to best counter the downsides, the possible ways of using it offensively, etc.
I even started thinking about how to refine them to be better and more effective.
As soon as I realised that my thoughts were going down that track, I immediately clamped down on them and buried them deep into my mind. There is absolutely no way that I would ever willingly touch these things again. Ever.
Any further things I had in my mind were suddenly forgotten as a massive coughing fit came over me and I spat out some blood.
-1 HP due to the effects of EB_2.2
53/135 HP
I could already feel my body breaking down. It was an incredibly hard sensation to describe, but if I had to put it into words, I'd have to say that it was like someone was wringing out the insides of my body, twisting the organs into a mush and squeezing them.
I had to find ways to replenish my health.
Fast.
[ X= New Quest! =X ]
Obtain medication
Objectives: Find anything that can replenish your decreasing HP. Anything.
Reward: Continued survival. 20 exp every time you find an item which can restore your health.
Time limit: 0h 39m 06s
Note: This is a repeated quest, and your time limit will increase proportionally to the amount of health restored. This quest will only end when the effects of EB_2.2 expire, or the anti-drug administered.
At least I would get something from this mess. It said that I would get 20 experience every time, but under the effects of EB_2.2, would I get 60? It said that I would gain triple the experience from all sources, so it should apply to this as well?
Seeing no more point in thinking over this, I instinctively tried to get up, but I fell back down almost immediately, hitting my head quite harshly on the side of the crib.
-40 HP!
13/135 HP
Oh crap.
In my panic, I had quite forgotten the fact that I was still a baby, and thus, I wouldn't be able to walk yet.
My vision wavered, and dark borders appeared in my vision, as though I was looking down a pair of binoculars. The pain from earlier intensified with each passing second.
I hastily looked around from where I was lying and I saw three potential things that might be able to restore my health. The first was the box labelled "First Aid" on the medical cabinet, the second was the tray of food on the floor in front of the door, the third and probably the least desirable one, was the trolley filled with unknown vials.
The first two were completely out of the question, as both of those required me walking to get them. In my current state, I could just barely crawl around, and it would take far too long to get to either of them.
I realised that I had no choice.
Slowly crawling over to the trolley carrying the vials, I shakily picked up one at random, trying to determine if it was harmful, or beneficial. The vial I picked up was tiny, it barely filled my hand and that was saying something, given that the size of my hand is that of an eleven month old baby.
I was very surprised when I saw a 'loading bar' of sorts appear on the vial. It said "Analyzing" in flashing blue letters, and slowly ticked up to 100%.
After what felt like hours, when in reality it was only two minutes, I had a popup appear before me.
Item Name: DaP_9.8
Creator: Pierre Moreau
Description: An extremely lethal toxin designed to completely eradicate someone's insides. It is created through a combination of black magic, basilisk venom, condensed nundu venom and many more. It is a highly potent poison which can kill someone merely by inhaling its fumes. A single drop is enough to poison an ocean the size of the Pacific.
This drug is almost perfected, and is in its final stages.
Effects:
- Deal an immediate 9000 pure damage to the target.
- Over 24 hours, the target takes 9% of their max HP in damage per second. This affects non-living targets and any medication given to the target that is not the antidote will increase the duration.
… … …
Holy fuck, that was so goddamn close.
If I had ingested that poison, I'd be dead more than a hundred times over.
-1 HP due to the effects of EB_2.2
12/135 HP
Shit. Time was running out. Given that it took roughly 2 minutes to analyze each vial and there are around 30 different vials on the trolley, I would have no time to check them all. I'd quite literally have to wing it.
Wasting no time, I picked up three other vials, two in the same row, the other in the row below it and analysed them one by one.
Unfortunately, the two from the top row were poisons and the one from the second row was a sort of night vision potion.
5/135
FUCK! I AM ALMOST OUT OF TIME.
Grabbing up another vial, this time from the second row and opposite end of the holder, I analyzed it, but to my despair, it didn't have any health restorative properties. It was a mere sleeping potion that made the target fall into a deep sleep, with some extra things which I didn't care to read.
2/135 HP
There's no more time to analyse another one. I had to choose a random vial and drink it down immediately.
From what I gathered so far, it seemed like the first row was filled with poisons, the second row had more neutral or positive effects.
That left only the third row, which was completely untested.
1/135 HP
Reaching out and grabbing a glowing, pink vial, I quickly unsealed it and gulped the contents of it down completely.
Absolutely nothing happened. My body still felt like it was getting wrung dry, and I could still see the timer on my quest slowly ticking down.
.
0h 00m 06s
.
So it didn't work then. I chose the wrong vial.
.
0h 00m 05s
.
Heh. Heh heh. Of course.
.
0h 00m 04s
.
I laughed self piteously at what had happened to me. I was so excited to get the gamer ability, and I was about to die and lose it before my adventure even began.
.
0h 00m 03s
.
As my vision started fading completely, I briefly wondered how Enterprise and Purity would fare.
.
0h 00m 02s
.
I hoped that Enterprise wouldn't cry over my death… My only regret was that I never actually got to know her better.
.
0h 00m 01s
.
This is it then… Such a pathetic way of dying.
.
"Goodbye… Enterprise…" I whispered with my last breath, knowing that she would never hear it. A lone tear slid down my eye as it finally happened.
.
0h 00m 00s
.
I knew no more as the timer hit zero, and everything turned dark.
- Pierre -
"Hmmmmm…" Pierre hummed in contemplation as he jotted down notes on his tablet. "It seems like children have the same results as adults physically. Mentally however, it's another story. Interesting."
During that entire time, Pierre had been paying very close attention to both the one-way mirror and the surveillance machines in the room. He noticed how the subject had looked at the food and the first-aid kit, but made no attempt to make his way towards them like other subjects had.
He soon realised that the subject was evaluating his circumstances, weighing up which option was the most plausible given its circumstances and choosing the best one.
He watched with fascination as the baby picked up three of his most potent poisons and two neutral potions, before putting them back down again, seemingly understanding what they were. He silently observed as the baby started shriveling up due to EB_2.2 and it ingesting a glowing pink potion as its last act before it died.
It was amusing really. A child not even reaching its first year would be able to determine the best course of survival, almost succeeding when other adults have failed. If only it had grabbed the red vial that was beside the pink one, he would have been fine, since that one was a healing potion, which he knew would stave off the effects. Instead, he was just off by one, and he picked that pink one.
Speaking of the pink, he couldn't quite remember what it was, nor what it did. It didn't matter in the end though, he had got the data he wanted, and that was all that mattered.
Satisfied with the results, he stood up and ordered a guard standing outside of the observation room to fetch Liliana to clean up the subject's body.
As he approached the experiment room, the guards saluted him and unlocked the door for him, releasing a very pungent smell which made him and the guards cough quite a bit.
Waving aside the fumes, he went in and wheeled out the trolley carrying the vials and walked off, not giving the subject's body a second glance.
If he had looked back, he would have noticed the subject emitting a pink aura, its body starting to repair itself, and most importantly, he would have noticed the subject's eyes snap open, revealing a set of glowing white eyes with what looked to be flames trailing off from the outer corners of said eyes.
Ending Notes: Well, for those of you who know about SCP, I'm certain that some things and some drug effects would seem pretty similar. No spoiling though, or else you'll be dragged to the pocket dimension by a certain SCP and you'll decay in there.
Anyway, no reference list here. No items were used from other franchises this time.