Chương 9: My First Upgrade

The options are as follows: Crushing Bite - Your jaw can now clamp down with greater force Physical Resilience (General) - Your body becomes more resistant to physical damage overall Physical Resilience (Blunt) - Your body becomes more resistant to blunt-type physical damage, in particular Physical Resilience (Torsion) - Your body becomes more resistant to torsion-type physical damage, in particular Quietness - Your body itself no longer makes as much sound as before Music Box - Your body forms a music box capable of playing a simple melody at will Forward Shine - Your eyes can grow brighter, casting light to peer through darkness I scratched my metallic skull.

There are more options available than I would have expected, more diversity as well… Some are just general improvements, whilst others are additions to my current self. Though I am not quite certain about the use of a music box, would you mind explaining, system? Certainly, Miss Nebulo, additions made to your body are permanent and become integral parts of your being. In other words, if you were to choose the music box, it would regenerate even if destroyed, just like other parts of your body would Huh…

So I can only make one choice from this list, right? Will I get seven options every time I get a chance to choose an upgrade? One pick only unless stated otherwise. As for the number of options, it is variable, but will never be fewer than three Mmh… Is it possible to… Oh, it is.

In my curiosity to know more about how these upgrades work, it seems that my intention caused the system window to react on its own, displaying information about the concept of the upgrades rather than just descriptions of each individual option. It is simple but effective. Upgrade opportunities are like breadcrumbs left on the way to evolution.

I still don't know what 'evolution' entails in my particular case, considering that I am not exactly a typical living being, but I presume that it will be the main way for me to acquire more innate abilities. In any case, it says that upgrade opportunities can not only be earned through reaching a milestone, but impossible to pry more information than this, even asking the system itself yielded no result. But more importantly, there was the fact that certain upgrades could be picked multiple times.

For example, the physical resilience one was intended to be chosen more than once, as the effects increase every time. This piece of knowledge made me want to take the general physical resistance upgrade, although it was pretty obvious that the overall improvement would be weak compared to a more focused kind of resistance, like the other two. The fact that it could be enhanced as many times as one could want was enticing.

But fact was that there was no guarantee that the same option would show up again in the future, so it was a bit of a risky move to bet on that. This type of upgrade felt more like the sort of thing you would pick if there was nothing better. Or so I was guessing. This is my first experience with this, so I was going in a bit blind, and the system does not give me all the relevant information, letting me think for myself about this. So…

My bite force is actually already very impressive, although I am not confident in my overall speed. In terms of brute strength, I should be capable of murdering the typical trained warrior with the same ease as I tear into unsuspecting people. As far as I am aware, the toughness of one's body did not increase that much, even for those practising physically demanding ways of power, so as long as I can get a hold of them, ripping their head off and such should not be complicated for me.

The same went for my durability. I am a damned automaton made from pure steel. It wasn't a good thing for regular ones, as they were far too cumbersome, but for me? I was unnaturally agile and flexible, all the while getting all the benefits from being heavy lumps of metal stuck together. Spears and swords would probably be chipped and broken before they could actually deal significant damage to me, so there wasn't really any urgent need for me to upgrade my defences, especially if I kept to the shadows.

Not to mention that the increase from just a single upgrade would hardly be significant enough to matter if someone actually capable of punching holes through steel showed up… This left the last three options.

'Quietness', 'Music Box', and 'Forward Shine'. No upgrades are useless if their usage seems to be of no value. It is probably because they shine best when coupled with an innate ability that you do not yet possess So, you know the innate abilities that I can get already? Forget my previous words Unbelievable. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Are you trying to get me to pick the music box? Is that it? Are you trying to hint that it could be incredibly useful later on?

I understand the concept of thinking long term, but how am I supposed to think long term if I don't have the knowledge to imagine the future usage of something at all? Heh? If you aren't going to provide a clear case as to why I should pick that option, then don't say anything! I sigh, a sound that is more akin to someone drowning whilst getting stabbed when it comes out of me. Getting to an evolution takes time, right? Yes Alright, then, if the music box is useful after the upcoming evolution, say something.

If it isn't, don't say anything, and I'll be picking the 'Quietness' upgrade. This one could actually come in handy. I am not… I am not really allowed to advise on these sorts of things. If I do that, your path would be determined by what I believe to be best, and as great as my thinking power may be, I am not qualified to advise someone of your pedigree Of my pedigree? You are getting more suspicious by the second! … … Damnit, I am tempted to pick the damned music box now–What is the song that it plays?

Can I know what the song is? Is it creepy? Can I terrorise people with it at least? Instead of responding, the system directly began playing some sort of lullaby in my head. It wasn't innately frightening by itself, but it did have a certain oddness to it, like it was something so old that no one would play it anymore, making the melody feel out of place despite nothing being wrong with it. Nice song. Will definitely scare the crap out of kids… Can I control the volume? No response came. Figures…

Fine, I'll take the music box, if only to play some music whilst I am bored. You have picked the option: Music Box It will form in just a few seconds, stand ready Ready for what-"GAAARKH–WHAT THE HELL?!" For the next five minutes of my life–Five whole minutes. Five minutes is a lot more time than most people imagine, and time appears exceptionally long when it feels like red-hot needles are swimming through your nerves! My entire being feels like I have been skinned alive and was then thrown into an ocean of salt!

Like, wasps are constantly stinging my eyes directly! Like I am being burned alive without the luxury of my pain receptors melting away along with the rest! AAAAAAAHHHHHH! Oh, it's over. I am fine now. System? Yes? What the hell was that? Explain yourself. This is what happens when you receive an upgrade And you did not deem it necessary to tell me, you know, before it happened? And don't mention your warning, that was way too late and cryptic! You know what? Don't even respond to that.

This felt oddly similar to when that damned automaton squashed me like a ripe tomato, not quite as bad as I was able to think for this one, but close… Awfully close. This is not pleasant at all. I may have grown used to the constant agony, but I do not enjoy it in the least. Aaah… Where is the music box? I turn my attention to my new attachment, which has taken a most bizarre form.

There is indeed a small box that has taken form, but rather than being directly attached to my steel body, it has taken nest within a lump of flesh that hangs about within my ribcage. I believe that piece of flesh is meant to be a heart, but I am honestly not sure about that. This extra piece of me immediately feels right, like it had always been there to begin with. Since it is daytime and I don't have much else to do, I start playing around with it.

As the name and description hinted at, it doesn't have any special ability. It really is just a music box that I can activate with just a thought, but it isn't just a simple music box either. Although not groundbreaking or anything, I have control over how loud or quiet the music is.

It can be faint like a whisper, or painfully loud, but most interestingly, I can project the music forward a bit, so instead of just playing music and having it spread out all around me, I could direct it toward a particular person, and those behind me wouldn't hear much of it. Now, that was pretty neat. Where was I before this all happened? Ah, yes, digging.

Walking up to the wall in front of me, before picking up a tool, which are all like toys in my humongous grasp, I curl my hands into fists and take a swing at the wall, my right hook is as good as I remember, still the trusty partner that I could rely on. Although fighting had been beneath me, I had had to make use of my knuckles to have conversations many times in the past. Truly, some people were just barbarians who understood no other language!

It didn't mean anything about me that I always tended to get into fights. My fist struck the wall, and apart from the regular pain that surged whenever I did anything, I personally felt nothing as a result of that. The wall, though… It shook, and dust was lifted off its surface. Mmh… I don't know why, but I have a feeling that this is going to be fun. And thus, for the next several hours, I punched the walls without stopping whilst the music box in my chest played its delightful melody.

I did not have the faintest clue of just how long I had been going, as I experienced no fatigue whatsoever. Neither my body nor mind experienced any strain as a result of the constant strikes. My activity of beating the wall like it owed me money also led to discovering that I could put the music box on a timer, allowing me to know when a certain amount of time had passed whilst I was lost in my rage against the inanimate. By the end of it all, I was ankle-deep in debris.

My work had resulted in a rough passageway which could fit my head and half of my torso in, which I considered a great success. Although it should be nighttime by now, I did not bother to go back and just kept chipping away at the wall, having to cease using my fists in favour of pickaxes, shovels and my fingers as I was only digging a tunnel to crawl through rather than a true path. This was mostly because I was aware that digging out less would make it less likely for the whole thing to collapse on itself.

Also, if I were going to be forcing people into there, I wanted them to have to crawl to move around, it just seemed much funnier like that. Mmh… How come everyone's negative emotions are intensifying when I haven't done anything else since last time? That's a bit odd…