Chapter 2: Crisis and Witnesses

“Things aren’t looking good. His neural pathways have been severely damaged by the burn,” a weary female voice whispered near his ear.

“Cut to the chase,” a cold male voice replied, tinged with impatience.

“Alright... the bottom line is, even if he wakes up, there’s a significant chance he’ll end up mentally impaired. If not that, then most likely he’ll suffer memory loss. His neural pathways have been eroded to an extremely fragile state—so fragile, that even a minor network fluctuation could leave him unable to even stand upright,” the woman sighed.

“Understood... Has the technical team’s assessment come in? Is it AI or the Black Wall?” the man turned to speak to another.

“Unable to determine for sure, but it’s probably AI. If it were the Black Wall, it wouldn’t be so mild as to only damage one person’s brain,” came another indifferent female voice.

“When he wakes, we’ll run tests and evaluations. If he’s beyond help, we’ll proceed with the protocol. I have a meeting now,” the voice said.

“Got it.”

Footsteps gradually faded, and with the familiar click-click of the automatic doors closing, the room fell silent again, save for the rhythmic beeping of some instrument, sounding about every ten seconds.

Morse struggled to pry his eyes open, but no matter how hard he tried, he could see nothing before him. He attempted to move his arm, but it felt as if it had vanished, leaving only his body twisting involuntarily.

“Click.”

The door opened again.

“Don’t move,” a calm female voice instructed. “Listen, it’s normal that you can’t see anything right now, that your arms won’t move, that you feel dizzy, nauseous, and want to vomit. Most of your prosthetics have been removed.”

“As for your blindness, your cybernetic eyes were forcibly shut down. We’ll recalibrate them shortly.”

“Next, I’m going to reactivate your prosthetic eye. Stay calm.”

Morse could only manage a muffled ‘hmm.’

The tapping of fingers on a screen sounded near his ear, and soon his vision brightened suddenly.

[Arasaka Seed Model 3 Prosthetic Eye restarting.]

[Recalibrating...]

“Just like when you first had the prosthetic eye installed, take a deep breath. The blurriness will fade soon.”

Morse obeyed. After about ten seconds, the blurry, nearsighted view before him slowly cleared.

He looked around and saw a woman in a white lab coat intently monitoring several screens beside her. The room was brightly lit, resembling a sterile operating theater.

Well... in the cyber world, an operating room usually consisted of a bed, a doctor, and a tangle of instruments.

Morse lowered his gaze to his own body—luckily, his hands were still there. The inability to move them was likely due to the nerve links being cut off.

He could see the forearms where many interfaces connecting to prosthetic parts had been sliced open by surgical blades, exposing flesh and mechanical components, all secured by cold restraints.

“Good. The prosthetic eye’s matching data is stable. Looks like you’re not completely beyond hope,” the female doctor said, sounding relieved.I'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.