After the implant procedure, Ronin returned back home to his apartment. Dr. Leyana Firnesse had said there were no solutions to his condition, but she didn't know what he knew. The new memories from the alien artifact, might be the missing ingredient he needed.

  Ronin sat down and entered his mind palace.

  Walking along the corridors of the large spaceship, he quickly found what he was looking for. It was the door he'd opened earlier. Walking up to it, he peered inside, then began reading through his new memories:

  Near-death-sight: When in extremely dangerous life and death situations, when the warrior is but an instant away from either the abyss or the glory, the warrior can experience that time slows down. God juice makes this effect stronger and more easily triggered, increasing the thinking speed in battle the more life and death moments the warrior experiences.

  So, time will slow down when my life is in danger? Also...God juice… what a name…maybe not everything from the alien artifact was translated correctly.

  His new memories contained some other techniques as well, but they’d clearly not been designed for humans. From an energy tasting technique, one that involved mineral absorption, to something called cataclastic biobandament,— whatever that meant —Ronin couldn’t do any of it.

  Undeterred, he continued looking.

  Kalvrakian Embrace Vol.1: Through movements achieving harmony with the universe, the self and God juice, the warrior can strengthen his foundations. Only with a vessel of steel can the path to supremacy be traversed.

  Kalvrakian Embrace? Seems it's trained by positioning your body into various stances… Is this some kind of body strengthening exercise maybe?

  Out of the techniques he’d gained, this one looked like it might be possible to train. Sure, the technique was intended for someone with four arms, but as Ronin studied it closer, it still seemed doable.

  If I can strengthen my body, perhaps I can better resist the influence of the artifact? Maybe I won't explode?

  It was worth a shot.

  Exiting his mindscape, Ronin positioned his body as described, then took one awkward stance after another.

  Nothing happened.

  He tried harmonizing his breathing.

  Still nothing.

  He tried visualizing the energy of the artifact flowing in and out of his cells, nurturing them.

  Nothing.

  He tried again and again, changing up his breathing and visualization each time he did so, then... Suddenly, something clicked.

  It felt as if a heavy sort of liquid began pushing itself throughout his body. Like molten sap, it burned as it slowly filled him. Then, when he felt the liquid reach every part of his body, he switched to the next stance.

  The flow within him shifted, turning denser. It began tearing at him, becoming painful. Every muscle, every inch, even his mind turned sore and raw. It felt as if his very being was coming apart.

  Ronin clenched his teeth. It's like I have reactor fuel running through my body!

  The second stance had become much harder than the first. Eventually, he couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed onto the floor.

  Only 10 minutes had gone by, but it felt like he’d worked all day.

  Panting heavily, he rolled onto his back.

  Looking up at the posters covering the ceiling, he noticed the pixels making up the differently pictured spaceships. They’d become a little bit more clear. Old wear and tear in the plastic, had also become a little more poignant.

  So... if his sight had improved, what then of his body?

  Resting until he felt his strength return, he went over towards the exercise rack.

  Lifting up a barbell, he swung it up and down a couple of times. It was too light. Putting it down again, he grabbed the heaviest weight he had. It was a 100kg heavy barbell, and he'd been working his way up to it over the years. But now?

  I'm doing arm curls with a hundred kilograms... what in the world?

  Ronin couldn't believe it. The weight was a little heavy, and his posture was way off, but this was five times what he normally lifted!

  Had he just become one of the strongest people on the planet?

  If he looked past the subconscious influence of the alien artifact, this was actually kind of amazing. There were 108 stances in the Kalvrakian embrace, and he'd only completed 2 of them. How strong would he be if he completed them all?!

  Regarding his mind though, Ronin felt no different. This technique might be helping, but there was just no way to tell. The influence of the artifact had been subtle to begin with, and by the time he noticed something wrong, it was already too late. He could only hope.

  “...”

  The next few days, Ronin stayed home at his apartment, switching between practicing the stances and doing homework. And with the stances leaving him drained for hours, there was plenty of time to study. Leaning up against the bed, Ronin studied the holograpic screen before him.

  Quantum entanglement teleportation? How in the world does an engine create a quantum effect covering a whole ship? And then the ship somehow instantly teleports?! Ronin furrowed his brows.

  The courses on sub-light propulsion and spacecraft construction had been easy. All they required was a good memory and he had plenty of that. The other two courses though... They required more.

  Kicking away some of the dumbbells strewn across the floor, Ronin made space as he began working.

  The fundamentals behind the space folding drive — the so-called Alcubierre drive — was somewhat understandable, but when it came to quantum drives, he couldn't understand much of anything.

  “Ugh,” he grunted, trying to wrap his mind around the numerous complicated equations.

  He could solve them... But as for understanding them? That was another matter entirely.

  Slogging through the dense, mind bending physics for hours, he began to run into the theoretical FTL drives.

  Parallel universe drive? So, this thing... If it was ever made, could replace its equivalent spaceship in a parallel universe, thereby moving by jumping in between realities? Alright, I'm putting this down for now.

  He got up, deciding it was about time to do something else. He was running out of synthpaste anyways. With the huge sum of credits he now owned, it was about time he got himself some good food.

  Exiting his apartment, Ronin jogged out into the crowdy streets, then called down a shuttle. One of the numerous ships above, broke off, then landed before him.

  “Where to?” The pilot asked.

  Entering the airlock, Ronin leaned back in the seat and pondered.

  There were many places to go for some good food, but with him having already tried out one of the fancier restaurants, why not try something different?

  “Take me to district 101,” he said.

  The pilot showed an uncomfortable expression, but after Ronin nudged his implant, paying the man, they were off.

  “...”

  Neon lights, brothels, casinos and industrial facilities passed by the window as the shuttle headed out of the planetary trench that was district 91. The pilot looked intermittently back at Ronin along the ride, clearly nervous about something, but Ronin paid it no mind.

  Closing in on district 101, the ship only drove more and more carefully, and after finally reaching a 10-meter-wide chute, the shuttle landed.

  Looking back at Ronin firmly, the pilot said:

  “End of the line sir. From here on out, I'm not driving you any further. If you really want to go down into that place, you're on your own.”

  Ronin frowned. He was only getting himself some food. What was this guy's deal?

  “Whatever, I can walk the rest of the way anyways,” he replied, shaking his head.

  Exiting the ship, he headed into the chute, grabbing a pipe as he slid downwards...

  40 meters further down, he landed and was completely submerged in dense fog. It added a sense of exotic mystique to the district. He also noticed how sparse the neon lights were here. The sunlight didn’t reach this far down, so, normal people shouldn't be able to see much.

  “Hey baby! You here for a good time?” A woman shouted to him in a raspy voice.

  She was a fat, belchy woman. Her entire body was dappled by leaky pustules, and she had a dark circle around one of her eyes. The other eye... had some sort of optical device around it.

  Ronin didn't respond. He was here for some food.

  Continuing on, he spotted several hot power lines running along the streets.

  All of this fog must be caused by these powerlines. Run-off from the world above, likely contaminated, ends up here where it gets boiled by these cables. That means... I might be breathing poisonous air right now...

  Why had he come to a place like this? For food? Something was wrong.

  He spotted the woman who’d shouted at him earlier, signal someone, and several silhouettes moved out from behind a corner.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Five men…Ronin remarked.

  He'd only noticed them due to his improved sight, and as they silently began sneaking up towards him, he spotted several of them carrying weapons.

  Lasguns...

  Weak, but deadly if you didn’t have shielding.

  Growing up in the slums, he knew the difference between the rambunctious loud type of man and the silent sneaking type. The loudmouths came at you with puffed up chests as they approached you with wide confident steps. Those types of people were fighters. They would threaten, humiliate and beat you up, but at the end of the day, they would leave, and you'd be alive.

  The silent, sneaking type, however... They played by different rules. Moving with deadly purpose, they didn’t act on ego, nor insecurity. And there wouldn’t be any fighting if they could help it.

  Ronin narrowed his eyes. These people are planning to kill me, aren't they?

  Darting into an alleyway, he crouched down and hugged the wall as he waited. He could feel the hunger for battle rising, but he couldn't give in — not now.

  “Damn it!” He cursed.

  These people had guns, if he attacked them like he had with the rooftop bandits, he’d end up dead. The only thing with a shield he had was the academy suit, and he’d left that behind back home.

  He was now convinced; the alien artifact was definitely affecting his subconscious, and not by a little. District 101 was known as the most dangerous district in Ironglades. There was no way he'd come here on his own volition. He'd tried the Kalvrakian embrace, to stay back home, to account for the effect, but this... proved he couldn’t.

  Just holding himself back from running out and fighting was already hard enough.

  How do I deal with this? Think Ronin, think!

  He needed a way to deal with those lasguns.

  They will have to move around the corner if they want to shoot me. For that, they will have to get close. That’s my chance, he thought as he waited.

  “...”

  Step, Step, Step

  They were closing in.

  Ronin spotted the shadow of a boot at the edge of the corner. It was time. Centering himself, he leapt out, punching out with all he had.

  BAM!

  His fist connected, crushing the man's nose as it plunged into his face. But it didn't end there. The sheer momentum of the punch was so strong that it sent the man flying headfirst into the ground and with a—

  CRACK!

  The man's neck snapped, and blood began leaking out from the back of his head.

  Oh no, that did a lot more than just knock him unconscious!

  Mentally forcing the mistake aside, Ronin seized the moment of surprise, rapidly taking down two more of the men.

  The fourth man, however, was ready, and blocked his punch with a bionic arm. The two remaining men now had their guns drawn at him, and Ronin felt time slow down as they both squeezed the trigger.

  Quickly moving his head aside, Ronin dodged the first shot.

  The second, however… hit.

  Hot burning electromagnetic waves pierced into Ronin's stomach as he tried dodging. He’d moved as fast as he could, but if you weren’t out of the way once the trigger was pulled, it was already too late. Nobody could dodge something travelling at the speed of light.

  As his mind went into overdrive, Ronin tried thinking of a solution. He needed a shield, and he needed it quick. In a flash, he used his free hand to grab the fourth man's neck, squeezing hard as he moved him in front of the laser fire. Now, with a makeshift shield to protect him, Ronin charged the gunman, crashing into him as they both fell onto the wet streets below.

  This last guy though, must have gotten more bionic enhancements than the others. He began fighting back fiercely. With a limp man-shield in between them, the two struggled on the ground, doing anything and everything they could to bring the other down.

  What was that!? Ronin suddenly felt a sharp sting of pain from his neck.

  Something was running down onto his shirt and breathing was becoming difficult. He’d been hurt, and badly at that. With time now running out, Ronin desperately tried to hit something vital on the man in return.

  CLANG!

  He hit a metal enforced arm.

  THUD!

  He hit the ground.

  SPLAT!

  There it is! Ronin exclaimed as he felt his hand hit something soft.

  With his vision now swimming, he opened his palm and squeezed with all his might before a loud CRUNCH! signaled the end of the fight. The last remaining thug's hands fell to the ground and Ronin let out a breath in relief — he'd survived.

  “…”

  Rolling himself off and away, Ronin rose up. He looked upon the shattered skull of the enemy as the pustule filled woman screamed. She was the only one left of them still conscious now. Feeling the familiar release of energy he'd felt after fighting the rooftop bandits, some of his sanity returned.

  The world became a little clearer and he realized.... He needed to leave.

  A scream like that would cause a commotion, and a commotion would draw in more people. Tearing his shirt up into strips of fabric, Ronin bound the loose pieces around his neck and stomach to stop the bleeding. It would have to do.

  Dizzily stumbling back and forth a few times, he glanced down at the last two unconscious men beneath his feet. He'd killed three already, could he just leave them like this?

  They won't be very happy once they wake up and find their friends dead. Besides, I've already crossed the Rubicon now and there's no going back.

  Sighing inwardly, Ronin steeled himself and stomped down. One time for each man.

  He looked to the raspy voiced woman. She was still screaming and making noise. She was also the last remaining witness…

  No.

  He shook his head. This wasn’t him. The men who’d attacked him with the intent to kill were one thing, but this woman had only called them over. She wasn’t responsible in the same way they were. While he still had his wits about him, Ronin stumbled back into the alleyway he’d hid in earlier, continuing along the passage as his consciousness slipped...

  Somewhere along the way he spotted an overhang. If he could get up there, maybe he could rest a little. It was either that or dropping down right here right now.

  Settling in for one final push, he began scaling the wall, using whatever he could as a handhold as he attempted to pull himself up. He could barely breathe, he couldn’t even feel his hands anymore, but somehow, he made his way onto the terrace.

  It can’t go on like this… I need to find a solution, I need… His train of thought ended as his vision turned black and exhaustion took him.

  Not far from Ronin, in a dark room, sat the silhouette of a woman, silently sobbing. Though many had come to this room before, few ever left. Two more silhouettes stood beside the woman, one on each side, and above, sat a man.

  Raised on his chair, Specter was in a foul mood. The pustule ridden fat woman had recounted her story. Now the question was, did he believe it?

  Five of his men were dead.

  “Argus, find out who did this,” his deep voice rang as he glanced towards his left.

  Glancing right, his eyes conveyed a deeper meaning as he spoke: “Isamellos, take the lady away.”

  She would be tortured for information of course. A single boy, killing 5 of his men? They’d even been armed too. It sounded ridiculous! He did know one thing though, the ones responsible for this, would pay…dearly.

  “Ugh,” Ronin grunted.

  Groggily looking around, he noticed a lot of blood below his neck. Further down, his stomach seemed to have bled as well. Along the terrace, he saw two streams of blood flowing out from his position, continuing along the metal overhang as they linked up, then dripped down onto the street below.

  He glanced down from the terrace. Apparently, his blood had formed a small pool down there.

  How much of it did I lose? Ronin wondered. There had to be at least a liter in that pool.

  Rodents had begun gathering and he spotted a ruddle slurping up the blood as it dripped down.

  The half a meter long rodent, distinct by its pale skin, green veins and long snout, stuck its even longer poisonous tongue out as it drank. Ruddles were supposed to be predators, but most lived as scavengers now. In fact, most of the animals on Concordia were scavengers. Those that didn’t adapt to the presence of humans had long since died out.

  Focusing on himself, Ronin saw several wounds along his stomach. Mixed in among the bruises and cuts, there was a burn hole. It looked deep. Pinging his new implant, he did a body scan of himself:

  My common carotid artery got nicked!? He gulped as he looked at the 3-dimensional hologram.

  The common carotid artery was the main artery transferring blood to the brain, and a cut to this artery meant certain death! There was also the deep lasgun wound to his stomach. The scan showed it as being 4 centimeters deep!

  He should have died from these wounds! Somehow, however, before he did, it seemed he’d healed just enough to stop the bleeding and survive. Was it the alien artifact that had saved him? Normal people didn’t heal this fast, and the artifact had improved his body.

  He checked the time. 3 hours had passed. It was about time he left this place.

  Dizzily, he heaved himself up, jumped down from the overhang then headed for the chute leading out of the district.

  How in the world was he supposed to control a spaceship company like this? He’d only had that artifact for a few days, and he’d already killed 6 people!

  "..."

  Climbing out of the chute, Ronin pinged his implant, calling down a shuttle.

  If he couldn’t control his thoughts anymore… What then about placing himself in situations that released the alien artifact energy, but in a safe manner instead? Maybe there was an underground fighting ring out there he could join? He’d get to fight, but with no weapons being allowed, he could do so safely.

  Not far from his position, he saw a shuttle land, and he headed towards it. As he entered the airlock though, a thought struck him.

  Why not? It can't hurt to ask, right?

  After telling the shuttle pilot his home address, he casually asked:

  “By the way, eh, if you wanted to, say, hypothetically speaking, fight in a safe manner. How would you go about it?”

  “You know this vehicle is monitored and has emergency measures against robbery and theft, right? Void dammit, I should have known when I picked someone up right next to district 101. Why did I—”

  “Wait, It's nothing like that! I don't want to rob you; I only want a ride back home. Here, I'll pay you in advance!” Ronin quickly interjected, sending over a sum of credits.

  “As you can see—” Ronin began, pointing at his body. “Fighting is really not something I want to do myself either. But say, if you had to, what would you do? And how?’’

  “For all I know, you could be one of those people that's into that sort of stuff. You meet all sorts of people in my line of work I tell you. But as for having to fight? What a stupid question. Who asks that sort of stuff? Does it have to be a fight in reality? I’ve played games where your character fights before. I’d never fight in real life though, better to have automated systems or the government do that.”

  Ronin perked up at the mention of games. That was actually a very good question! Why not fight in games? If he could release the alien energy by fighting in games instead of reality, he’d never have to worry about losing control again.

  He decided to explore this new avenue. Games that could be played on a lightly integrated optical implant would obviously not work. The game would have to replicate reality as closely as possible.

  “Game you said. That's a good point. Say, if you wanted to play the most realistic game possible out there, what game would you pick?”

  Pausing as he swung the shuttle around a skyscraper, the pilot scratched his head, thinking.

  “As realistic as possible? Well, I'd be focusing more on the gaming platform instead of the game itself if that's what I was going for. VR capsules are said to be so realistic you can’t even tell the difference between the game world and the real world. VR games are even said to be so addictive; the government did a prevention campaign a few years back, attempting to stop their usage. That being said though, I doubt someone like you could afford it. Those things are for the rich. There's a reason why the government never banned it you know.” The pilot chuckled, unaware that the scrawny, dirty and bloody youth behind him was in fact, a multi-millionaire.

  VR capsule ey, Ronin mused as he pinged his implant, dragging up several holoscreens in front of his eyes.

  Focusing in on the VR-capsule specs, he homed in on the most relevant parameter.

  The general neural resonance affinity.

  The higher this affinity was, the better whatever game you played simulated reality. Lag between thought and action, degree of fine muscle control, the realism of smell, taste and touch, all depended on this affinity. Pain could as well. And Ronin suspected he’d need that pain…