Techno Fever [ONC II Round 1 WINNER | Asian Scifi | Complete]

Chapter 8

Her mouth opened. Eyes squeezed shut. She tried to gasp. Her lungs were full of liquid. The world was black, but covered with an infinite layer of stars. Limbs flailed, striking hard surfaces. She was trapped. The darkness closed in, suffocating, unrelenting.

Sounds reached her ears, clear as crystal, making zero sense. The words were garbled, urgent, rushing around her brain.

She couldn't breathe she couldn't breathe couldn'tbreathe couldn'tbreathecouldn'tbreathe—

[System cooldown]

An arctic chill flooded down her body, reaching the tips of her fingers and toes. The screaming in her ears died down. The constriction in her chest eased somewhat. Meiha placed a hand over her chest, fingers pressed against her ribs, ready to feel the racing—

There was no heartbeat.

Her eyes flew open.

The world came into view in sharp relief, every surface and structure outlined with neon blue lines as if freshly removed from a designer's notepad. Numbers and letters danced before her eyes, jutting out of every object in her view. Orange lights highlighted humanoid shapes, circling her container. So much information, so much noise, so much light--

She couldn't breathe.

"Meiha, calm down!" She knew that voice. It brought memories of Tieguanyin tea, hearing devices, and musky smells of exhausted working nights. Meiha. That was her name. "Breathe."

She took in a shuddering breath and realised a soft plastic tube was wedged in her mouth and down her throat. She gagged and retched, hands sliding uselessly over its slippery material. Her feet hit the ground. Its smooth, cool surface pressed against her skin. Panicked fingers left the tube in her throat and ran over the cylinder surrounding her. The information jumbled and reassembled before her eyes, light and electric and numbers.

The lab. The experiment.

The Shennong.

Meiha gasped out loud. The noise was surprisingly human -- hers -- in her ears. The drip drip drip of water punctuated her ragged breaths. She got enough oxygen. Her body told her that. Fingers grasped the tube in her throat and she yanked it out with a dry heave. Fresh air flooded her lungs. The tube slid out of her hand and struck the floor with a soft thud. The whirlwind of panic dampened as if by some external force. She was in a cylinder made of a hard, opaque, light blue material. Liquid pooled around her feet, trickling away down some invisible outlet. She was stark naked.

[Adrenaline level falling]

Her breaths rattled in her ears. A light humming just beneath her chest raced at the speed of light.

[Heart rhythm: sinus tachycardia]

The words appeared in her mind, initially meaningless jargon before her brain deciphered their meaning. She was panicking. The coolness in her body settled further, slowing her runaway heart. The light-edged structures in her visual field spread, detailed lines criss-crossing and becoming three-dimensional blueprints. She blinked. Colours and gradients filled the surfaces before turning into furniture and machines. The world came into sharp relief.

[Modified Qinshi Model now functional]

[All Body Modification Units now fully functional]

Bodies moved into view. Tiny light blue letters above their heads detailed their Bod Mod models and registration details. The nearest one read Szeto Tselong.

"Meiha?" he said gently, approaching her. The cylinder surrounding her descended, allowing a cool breeze to drift over her body. The fluid she was bathed in had evaporated, leaving her skin dry. "It's okay. You can remember what happened. We've transferred your consciousness to the Shennong. It'll only take a few seconds before it's fully operational and you can make sense of the information." He paused, studying her with dark brown eyes behind thin lenses with a pale blue sheen. "How are you feeling?"