I remember back on Earth seeing coworkers with their children every now and then, or the elderly that somehow survived the world we lived in, and whenever birth was brought up they would always say roughly the same things.
“It is a beautiful sight to behold.”
“A wonder of nature.”
“Something I will never forget for the rest of my life.”
That last one I can emphasize with because I distinctly remember the haunted look in the guys eyes when he told me it. I’m probably the only baby born with that same expression on my face because of one very important detail Luke left out about my birth. The part about me being born just strong enough to lift my eyelids before I am technically born. The fact that I could do that is all I remember about yesterday because I wiped my memory of anything I saw or experienced. Maybe I thought ahead and just blocked new memories from forming until after a certain amount of time, I’m not sure because I don’t remember. The fact that I can do this is because of my new ability AI Implant.
When I first saw this...again I think, I was incredibly disappointed. For one thing why does “beginner” have to be in all caps? Is it to make it obvious how non-essential this ability is? I was kind of worried it would be useless before I even read the rest of the sentence. Then I got to the part about skills, and then finding out how to open up my list of them, I now know this ability is a cheat without a doubt in my mind.
‘I am going to rule the world!’ I shout in my mind. The other skills have something to do with my other ability The Map, which is also upgradable, and they are exactly what I expected.
“Not even close hot shot.” I hear Luke from inside my head. “I just named the skills that way because I like the way it looks. Read the details and you will understand.” He continued. I didn’t like the way that sounded so I followed his advice.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
...I’m not even sure how I should react to the last skill.
‘What do you mean by ‘what the void did to you’?’ I ask as calmly as I can, not out loud because I’m still a baby and I imagine that would be creepy as all hell coming from a newborn. I feel a lot of emotions at the moment and anger is definitely mixed in there somewhere. From what it looks like I wasn’t asked to be Luke’s Champion just because he can trust me, if anything this information makes that abundantly clear.
“Well before you go and get angry about whatever paranoid scenario you are cooking up in your head let me explain.” He replies.
‘I’m not paranoid!’ I shout.
“You built me piece by piece in several laboratories around the world and did so through a monitor to avoid people you already knew didn’t have the slightest idea of what you were up to.” He says slowly.
‘I was right in the end though!’ I shout back.
“I don’t care and you being paranoid isn’t the important part. What I was trying to say is I didn’t notice anything wrong with you until I began designing the body you are now in. Whatever the void did to you it seems have altered your DNA in a way even I am unsure of. All I can do is to observe you and try to figure it out as you grow.” Luke says. I can’t really find any fault with what he is saying and everything's already set in place anyway so I figure it will just be something new to discover as I grow. Hooray for research!
‘So what’s up with the seriously lacking skills? The AI implant doesn’t even do anything AI like.’ I ask mainly because I’m upset about how misleading the names of the skills were.
“Yeah, I’m not going to tell you. One because these skills are already extremely powerful when you don’t realize how to use them and two because I think it will be interesting to see how much you can figure out on your own. Oh and word of advice, don’t show off too much because although you’re parents expect you to be special no one else will. It would be best to try and keep it that way until you are strong enough to handle the consequences I’m sure you understand what I mean.” Luke says in a playful tone before returning to his normal seriousness.
‘Yeah I know what you mean’ I reply. I was forced to watch my parents and others suffer and slowly die because of people more powerful than me in my last life, this time I will make sure I never have to live through that again.