SYS_REF: LAB_04_RESEARCH

  STATUS: STERILE_ENVIRONMENT

  PRESCRIPTION: IT'S OVER

  XVII CLASSIFIED_ENTRY

  THE WAY IT IS

  HR:

  999ERR390 BPM

  TEMP: 37.0°C

  OXYGEN:

  ERR%OVR%350%?

  The first thing Xu noticed was that someone was touching his arm. Not in a casual way. In a very strange… very thorough way.

  He kept his eyes shut, his mind racing.

  Immediately, a wet, warm feeling could be felt from his chest.

  —A sharp pain drilled into him a moment later.

  He sat up and opened his eyes. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING…?” He paused. “To me…?” He finished, deflated.

  Not… Taylor?A Spec squatted against the wall in front of him, glasses now hanging half off his face.

  “You’re the guy who tested me a few days ago? What are you doing here?”

  Xu looked around. ”What am I doing here?”

  The Spec scrambled on all fours for something he had dropped, knocked it further across the tile, then shot up and pressed his back flat against the counter like Xu had pulled a gun.

  "You—" The Spec swallowed.

  "You're awake."

  Xu looked at the ceiling. It was white and completely unfamiliar.

  "You’re in Sector Medical. My office." The Spec adjusted his glasses slowly with a knuckle and slowly began moving toward the table. He picked up a metal tool from the floor.

  "Please don't move." He kept glancing from Xu to the tool.

  "What did you do to me?" Xu looked down at himself. He was on a padded examination table, shirtless, and covered up to his waist by a sheet. Several circular patches had been stuck to his chest, his ribs, and the side of his neck. A few of them were blinking. All of them had wires.

  "I was..." The Spec swallowed hard, his eyes darting around the room. "I was applying a topical acid to soften your skin before I took a biopsy, because it broke three of my needles."

  Xu looked down.

  Instead, it was a thick glob of purply black sludge dabbed on his sternum.

  He wrinkled his nose.

  Memories slowly drifted across his mind.

  Xu rubbed his eyes, trying to clear the fog from his brain.

  "Wait. Where's Taylor? Where's Lee? They took me here?"

  The Spec carefully, slowly, pushed his glasses back onto his nose with a shaking finger. “The psycho with scary eyes and the boy are in the waiting room. Well… they were, last time I checked.”

  “When was that?”

  “A few days ago.”

  “A FEW DAYS AGO!? HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN!?”

  “Calm down. It’s only been three days.” He looked off like he was thinking. “Anyways, I’m told they brought you straight here after they managed to get you out of the sink."

  Xu stared at him. "The sink?"

  "You were folded into it, at least… I am told."

  Xu's mind blanked.

  More memories gently surfaced.

  He swung his legs over the edge of the metal table to stand up.

  "WAIT NO YO—" the Spec squeaked, shrinking back even further.

  Xu ignored him. He grabbed the edge of the table and planted his feet onto the floor.

  The thick steel edge buckled under his grip with a loud metallic groan.

  The sound startled him. He instinctively jumped forward.

  The wall suddenly filled his vision.

  

  “WHY!?” His voice was muffled through the drywall.

  “I was trying to tell you… You have grown back an incredible amount of muscle…”

  “So what, now I'm as strong as a literal tank!?” “Technically, your strength hasn’t changed much. You do seem to be physically stronger than you were from the last time I scanned you, but this… is because all of your muscles are new.” He tilted his head. “The muscle your brain used to talk to is… well… somehow disappeared. It makes sense that you wouldn’t have gotten used to your new muscle yet. Give it a day or two, it’s not like standard rehabilitation. Shouldn’t be anyway."

  Another wall-muffled sound. “Can you get me out of here. I feel like moving could lead to another wall getting the jump on me.”

  “Of course, of course.” The Spec hurried over.

  Xu looked at his hands.

  His eyes landed on the new, complimentary window he had installed in the janitor's storage closet.

  "How's my leg?" Xu asked, sitting mostly still on the now-ruined table.

  "It’s regenerated to the distal tibia. The foot is still—"

  "Yeah, gone."

  "Not finished," the Spec corrected. He had moved the scanner again and was circling Xu like he was in orbit. "The rate of tissue generation has actually increased since yesterday, which shouldn't—" He stopped. Typed something. Muttered. "Which shouldn't be possible."

  He looked up at the data the Spec projected above the examination table. It was filled with dense columns and overlapping graphs.

  "What's that?" Xu asked.

  "Nothing you'd find useful," the Spec said, not looking up.

  "Sure."

  A pause.

  "But what are the blue lines?"

  "Meridian routing overlays." Still not looking up.

  “Like what your Qi runs through?”

  The Spec finally looked up, his expression heavy with disappointment.

  “Yes.” He answered with a slight shake of his head, then went back to his screen.

  "And the red markers?"

  A large sigh this time.

  "Anomalous cellular density flags..." The Spec narrowed his eyes. "You've asked two questions about the contents of my research."

  The Spec set down his scanner and leaned closer.

  “You mean my body—”

  "And," the Spec continued, leaning in even closer, "your friend was quite clear about the arrangement. No disclosure. No records. Flag the abnormal listing as a false positive. In exchange for which, I get to conduct my research freely. Without any interference."

  He paused and rubbed his chin with a hand.

  Stolen story; please report.

  "Which means…”

  “ I can’t tell anyone else. But I CAN tell ."

  The Spec seemed to suddenly grow excited.

  “I’m so glad you asked!” He started moving erratically, grabbing papers and swiping at the holographic screens.

  "Do you know why you just put your head through my wall, Xu?" The Spec pointed a remote at the projector, blowing up an image of Xu's chest. "It’s not just because you have dense muscles. It’s because…”

  Xu’s eyes immediately glazed over.

  “Orthogonal…serpentine…river of flesh…hypertrophy…”

  "Look at these lines!" The Spec shone like the sun as he traced a finger over zig-zagging blue patterns near Xu's

  “Woah” Xu added.

  "These are… fraction of a second… architecture… strictly…"

  "See?!" The Spec practically yelled, throwing his hands up. "The energy… because you pushed… body no longer… machine…"

  "Cool." Xu summarized.

  The Spec's frantic smile vanished, replaced by a look of extreme disappointment.

  "It would be ‘cool’ if you were a machine. But you are a Cultivator. And Cultivation requires knowledge… genetics are dirty... Your resonance compatibility has plummeted…”

  Which means, according to the scanner..." The Spec adjusted his glasses and leaned in, pointing one directly at him

  Beep.

  "...You are officially only an Eighth Stage Zero."

  “WHAT!?” Xu was floored.

  “HOW!?”

  The Spec was quiet for a moment. He walked to the side of the table and turned the screen to face Xu.

  It was a dense collection of more lines and graphs.

  The spec lectured like a religious fanatic.

  The meridian restructuring, the Spec said, had continued. "There's something else now, though," the Spec said, zooming into a section of the display. "Three days ago, this was almost entirely spread. The impurities were distributed evenly throughout your body, now they seem to be…”

  He pursed his lips.”I hate even saying this, but… migrating? It appears that whatever it is, it’s focusing on your meridian structure. And whatever it is, seemed to be exceptionally solid. I attempted to remove some from them when I caught it this morning, but it broke every tool I have here.”

  “What does that mean?”

  The Spec turned back to the screen. "I don't know yet. The density is increasing in specific areas near major organ clusters and along what seems to be your new primary meridians. It's as if it's… sorting itself?" He said the last part like he was embarrassed.

  "I mean, it sounds good. That's a good thing, right?"

  "Cultivation-wise? Unclear. Your stage reads as a stable Eighth. It hasn't declined any further." The Spec paused. "Physically, your rate of recovery continues to accelerate in proportion to this migration.”

  “But. None of it matters.”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “You asked about what it means for your cultivation, and I avoided the entirety of the question. It doesn’t matter what it means.”

  “Xu, you’re done. Maybe pick a different path if you have the money. It’s over, I’m sorry.”

  Xu’s heart flipped. “How is it over? You just told me it's incredible and rambled for 2 HOURS about how special it was. How is it over!?”

  “That’s why.”

  “I don’t enjoy crushing your dreams, especially after mine… regardless… You were paying attention, yes? You are special. So tell me, Xu. What cultivation technique will you practice?”

  “I don’t know, I haven’t even entered the inner sect yet.”

  “That question won’t get any easier even if you had.”

  “And why not?”

  “Because Xu, think about it. Do you know how a car works?”

  “I mean, yeah, kinda, but how does this have to—”

  “You are the world’s greatest car. The most optimized thing I have ever seen. It should be impossible, yet here you are.”

  “Yeah, I get it.”

  “No, you don’t. This car is SO optimized and SO special that normal controls don't work. No steering wheel, no gas pedal. So when you are reading whatever cultivation method you choose and it tells you to turn the steering wheel left…”

  “What will you turn?”

  “I’ll figure it out—”

  “All of your meridians are running on COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PATHWAYS. No one in all of HISTORY has developed a method or skill that would work for you.”

  “Then I’ll just make my own steering—”

  “NO XU, THERE IS NO STEERING WHEEL, AND THERE IS NO LEFT.”

  Silence took hold of the room.

  Xu’s heart tightened.

  Xu got quiet, “So… Nothing…? None of it would ever work for me?”

  “I mean… Not necessarily, some offshoot skills that teach a method of manipulation or an adjustment of energy still work for you, but those aren’t cultivation methods. Cultivation methods need you to circulate your qi in a particular way. None of those paths for you anymore.”

  …

  “So… your body is incredible, yes, but… If I were you.” The spec trailed.

  “I’d look into another path. You could see if you have the talent to become a scripter, or you could even become an academic like me. You know you could study your own body and make a name—"

  "When my friends brought me in, did they have a bag with them?” Xu lightly interrupted.

  …

  "I only saw what arrived on that chair—Xu, are you even hearing what I’m saying?"

  Xu closed his eyes.

  —

  “Xu… I’m serious.”

  "What time is it?" Xu asked.

  "Just… past nine in the morning."

  "I need to leave today."

  "Xu, you need a foot." He glanced down.

  Xu opened his mouth. Hesitated.”What’s your name again?”

  “You never asked.”

  “Right, no reason to change it now. Regardless, I need to leave today," Xu said again, unmoved. The examination is in three days. The journey is two. You do the math."

  "I've the math," the Spec said.

  “You did?”

  "Yeah, just now—It requires a foot."

  "I'll manage, and I need to stop where I came from last—a few days ago.”

  "You managed last time also. You arrived in my office looking like something that had been fed through a meatgrinder—More thoroughly than I would have ever liked to witness, I might add." The Spec picked up his scanner again. "I will make you a proposal. Let me finish my testing. If your leg regenerates to functional weight-bearing capacity before midnight—which, based on how it's been going, it may—I will give you crutches, and I will drive—"

  “Deal.”

  The spec’s gazer lingered on him before he pursed his lips and looked away.

  “I get it, but that’s just the way it is…” He muttered under his breath.

  ?? LAB_REPORT // SUBJECT_XU: BIOPSY_LOG

  STATUSHighly Atypical Biology

  OBSERVATION_REF: 44-B

  Xu woke up, felt something warm on his chest, and spent three seconds wondering if Taylor was making a move, only to realize it was just

  industrial-grade acid

  melting his skin for a biopsy performed by a doctor running unauthorized tests.

  If that doesn't sum up Xu’s love life and general luck, I don't know what will.

  But hey, getting offered a ride and some crutches in exchange for being a human lab rat?

  IN THIS ECONOMY?

  That’s basically

  premium health care.

  NOTE: At least the Spec is paying for the hole Xu just punched through the drywall with his head and shoulders (not to be confused with knees and toes).

  [ View Patient Rights & Liability Waivers ]