Read Online Continue Online (Part 3, Realities) by Stephan Morse - Free Book Online Page B

a press on either side around my legs first. I tried to jerk away then another clasp locked around my chest followed quickly by the shoulders. Words printed in blue across my line of sight that seemed like subtitles or a marker, at least if my life had been a movie.
     
Attention unit identified as Hermes!
     
    Please wait, model enhancements underway. New information will be provided upon completion.
     
    "How long does this take?"
    "Your modifications should be done shortly. I will provide additional details while they are being performed." Her voice made me think of slow dripping syrup.
    "Okay." These games would be so much easier with actual dialog choices. "Anything you can tell me would help."
    "Anything?" Treasure raised an eyebrow and smiled. Again I was startled by her expression. The confusion wasn't seeing a video game character look alive, but seeing a robot do it. Hal Pal could use a few lessons.
    "Anything related to the mission," I clarified and half-smiled.
    "Ah, yes. Contribution to the Consortium is paramount," Treasure said with a single nod.
    "So I've heard." They liked the word contribution.
    "You will gain contribution value by completing the tasks assigned. Higher difficulty tasks will reward higher contribution."
    "Okay. That makes sense," I said to Treasure's explanation. She basically told me that I could gain points, probably reputation or something similar. Real life work equated to paychecks and performance reviews, in-game work turned into contribution.
    "Since you are an extremely new unit, it is worth advising you that contribution can be exchanged for unit efficiency increases." Treasure stared at me for a bit longer than normal. It was only after we locked eyes that I realized neither one of us were blinking.
    That felt weird. I tried to blink but didn't seem able to. My body rocked as one arm tried to come up and feel how the eyes were formed. The material locked around me kept everything still and the ticklish itching kept right on going. A rolling sense of numbness kept transferring between both feet and hands.
    "In some cases, task completion and continued performance will increase your parameters. This should all be in your standard interface directives." Treasure turned to a display hanging on the wall. I looked at it with her and took note of the map displaying black spots.
    "What is that on the screen?" I asked.
    "One moment, I am attuning your visual interface to our outside hull. This will allow you to see the portions that need to be cleaned." Treasure didn't seem to be doing any such thing. She stood there staring at the wall and a second loading bar appeared to one side. It moved much faster than the [Model Enhancement] status.
    With a ping of noise a small screen popped up on one side. I failed to blink a few times then focused on the small window. The map grew bigger and showed a vision of our ship floating through space. Black spots littered the sides but mostly gathered near one side.
    "Neat," I said.
    "Simply dislodge any objects you find. Sensors are found on the forward portion and sides, here, and here." She pointed to the screen and glowing areas showed up on my map interface.
     
Attention unit identified as Hermes!
    Chassis upgrade received: [Anchor]
    Enhancement Details: When activated, this will increase your grip on various metallic objects. [Anchor] performs best when locking onto high concentrations of iron, nickel, and cobalt.
     
    The system went on to tell me that an energy drain would apply. I did the math and determined this ability could last a few minutes.
    "Portions of your makeup have been exchanged with Neodymium. Activation takes a minor amount of time and will concentrate the elements to your hands and feet as a default."
    "So I'm a giant magnet." I didn't understand exactly what space science went to this lifeform. It was probably more likely than the ARC's strange abilities.
    If I asked, these other [Mechanoid] s would probably explain, if I kept