CHAPTER 70: SYSTEM VERSION 2.0

Floating.

That was the first thing Ethan felt when his senses returned. He felt as if he was drowning but at the same time not.

It felt as if he was just hovering in the middle of a water body or rather, some sort of liquid.

Try as he might, his eyes refused to open although he was fully awake now.

’System?’ he mentally called out but there was no response from it.

Soon enough, sound returned to his ears and although it was muffled at first but slowly cleared enough for Ethan to realize that there were multiple people speaking.

For some reason, this felt really familiar, almost as if he had experienced it once before but couldn’t remember when.

The voice got clearer or rather closer and Ethan realized it was not of any language that he recognized, hell, it just sounded like a bunch of weird noises.

"$@&#" one of the speakers said and by the ripple in the liquid, it seems that someone just touched whatever container was holding him.

A few seconds later, he felt the liquid being moving and he slowly moved downwards, indicating that the liquid was being drained.

He was soon at the bottom of whatever container was holding him and that’s when he realized, he couldn’t feel his limbs... Or rather, he seem to have none.

Panic should have been his natural response, but all he felt was a cold detachment, as if his emotions had been stripped from him.

The strange liquid had drained completely now, leaving him lying against a smooth, metallic surface. His non-existent limbs refused to obey, and yet... he started to feel.

He didn’t know if it was through vibrations, the waves in the air or something else entirely, but his senses suddenly spread outwards as if they had previously been dampened by the liquid he was in.

In his mind’s eye, he could picture the outline of the beings that were speaking, their outlines stood upright just as humans but that was where every similarity stopped.

Some had what seemed to be multiple hands, while the shape of the heads of others felt similar to those of a shark’s and some even had a limb eerily similar to a tail.

"#%...Ω∆—" he heard one of them speak again but was interrupted by an angry voice.

"#@∆^•!" The voice seemed to bounce off every wall in whatever this room was.

Ethan could ’see’ how the others in the room immediately started trembling at the sound of the voice.

But weirdly enough, the direction where he heard the voice seemed empty, unlike as with the others in the room, he couldn’t ’see’ the owner of this voice.

One of the other beings in the room walked towards what Ethan now realized was a large tube that held his oddly cubic form.

The being placed its hands on a console, which for some reason, Ethan could ’see’ clearly unlike with the forms of the beings.

It had a keyboard of strange symbols and the being started tapping on them. A while after, cables started descending from the ceiling with in the tube, headed straight towards him.

He could do nothing but ’watch’ as the cables slowly approached and suddenly connected themselves to his form.

For a moment, nothing happened but all of a sudden, a wave of pain hit him.

This one felt more painful than when the stream of knowledge was being uploaded into his brain.

Images started flipping through his mind, switching from some random number, to faces he couldn’t even make sense of and to just balls of light.

The more he saw, the more he felt his mind breaking down and it went on until he lost the sense of time.

Had the pain been going on for seconds? hours? Days? Years? He had no idea, all he knew was that he wanted it to stop....but it didn’t.

It continued until he could keep it in no longer and his mouth let out a pained scream.

"—AAH!"

His eyes snapped open.

He was immediately greeted by bright white lights hanging above his head, causing him to squint.

The first thing he realized was that he could feel again and the feeling of his limbs had returned.

Judging by the smell of disinfectants and the white walls that surrounded him, he realized that he was in a hospital.

It took a while but his emotions soon returned and so did all the delayed reactions. He broke out in a cold sweat before he suddenly heard Athena’s voice,

[Calm down, Ethan] he realized that it was the system still using her voice but it still worked to help him calm down.

The hospital room where he lay in seemed empty with no one else around but him and no one seemed to have heard his scream.

"What the hell was that?" Ethan asked the system, referring to the weird dream or memory he just experienced.

[.....] The system went quiet, refusing to respond and Ethan knew it wouldn’t either but something else was surprising.

[Congratulations, due to experiencing a memory fragment, the system has been upgraded to version 2.0]

[The system shop is now unlocked, you have been awarded 1000 system points.]

Ethan raised a brow at this, was the system trying to distract him from asking more questions?

Still, he went with it for now. Sooner or later, he’d get an answer anyway or he’d just find a way to get it, either way, he wasn’t in a hurry to open a door when he wasn’t sure about what lay on the other side.

"Let me see my status," he requested.

[Displaying status....

Name: Ethan Carter

Age: 20

Technology Level: Tier 2

System version: V 2.0 {upgradable}

Sp: 1000

{Knowledge and Proficiency} [Tier 2]

Artificial Intelligence (AI): 80%

Robotics & Automation: 38%

Cybersecurity & Hacking: 80%

Quantum Computing: 26%

Biotech & Genetic Engineering: 70%

Nanotechnology: 22%

Energy Systems & Fusion Tech: 34%

Weapons & Defense Systems: 20% –

Software & Algorithm Design: 48%

Material Science & Fabrication: 10%

Mechanical Engineering: 80%

Electrical Engineering: 70%

{Assets}

Companies: OmniTech Corp

Current savings: $ 10,000

Income source: OmniTech Corp.

{Inventions}

Sentinel, Athena, CryptCall

Current Tech influence: Low

{Missions}

Public Exposure

Objective: OmniTech cannot change the world if the world doesn’t know it exists. It’s time to build credibility and technological presence. You must publicly launch your first product (Sentinel) and secure your first real user base or client contract.

---

Mission Details:

To complete this mission, the following steps must be fulfilled:

1. Product Launch: Create a public-facing platform (website, landing page, demo presentation) that showcases Sentinel’s capabilities. (Completed)

2. Secure Client Usage: Have at least one business, institution, or verified organization adopt Sentinel for active use.

3. Gather Results: Collect initial performance feedback or analytics from the client/user base to verify real-world utility.

---

Rewards:

Unlocks Tech Influence tracking

+10% free use knowledge and proficiency point

Multiplier Unlocked: x10 on the first 100 system points earned

Mission progress: 50%]

A lot had changed on his status screen, starting with the system version which had switched from 1.0 to 2.0. He now also had an Sp counter which was at 1000 SP.

But the biggest change was to his knowledge and proficiency. There was an increase in some subjects and he also had two entirely new ones, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.

Probably due to the knowledge he had absorbed before passing out. Speaking of which, he still felt light throbbing in his head but it was nothing compared what he experienced during that dream(?) or during the knowledge upload.

Now that he was calmly thinking, he noticed that he now understood concepts and designs that would have been impossible for him to even imagine just a few days ago.

The feeling was terrifyingly exhilarating.

[The knowledge has fully integrated into your brain,] the system explained. [Your capabilities have expanded. But note, your body is still limited. I do not suggest absorbing raw knowledge like that again.]

"I have no intention to," he muttered and he was serious.

He already had enough knowledge to create the simulation pod, so he had no intention to go through that pain again.

[Would you like to see what’s available in the shop?] The system asked after a moment of silence.

"Yeah." He answered.

Laying down and looking at the hospital’s light above him was boring, so he might as well check it out.