Chapter 137: The Weight of Flesh and the First Breath
The transition wasn't a fade to black; it was a violent collision with physics. Aki felt like he was being pulled through a straw, his digital essence being compressed into something heavy, warm, and terrifyingly solid.
When he opened his eyes, he didn't see a HUD (Heads-Up Display). There were no status bars in the corner of his vision. There was only a blinding, sterile white light and the rhythmic beep... beep... beep... of a heart monitor.
"Ugh... my head feels like it's full of wet sand," Aki tried to speak, but his voice was dry and raspy. He looked at his hands. They weren't glowing gold. They were pale, covered in small hairs, and had tiny blue veins pulsing under the skin. "Von? Rena? Are we... are we dead or just very, very heavy?"
"We're alive, Aki," a voice came from the bed next to him.
Aki turned his head—a movement that felt surprisingly slow—and saw a man with sharp features and intense violet eyes. It was Von, but he wasn't wearing his iridescent armor. He was in a hospital gown, looking human, yet still carrying that same aura of a king.
The First Sensory Overload
Next to them, Rena was sitting up, touching her face with trembling fingers. "The air... it smells like chemicals and rain. I can feel the texture of the sheets. It's... it's too much information."
Sai was already standing up, though he looked like he was struggling with gravity. "My legs... they feel like lead. How do humans move around in these bodies all day without falling over?"
"You get used to it," a new voice spoke from the doorway.
A young man with messy hair and thick glasses stood there, holding a tablet. He looked exhausted but ecstatic. "I'm Leo. I'm the one who sent the blue bird. Welcome to the 'Real World', guys. Or as we call it... the Office of Core-Tech Systems."
Aki's Reality Check
Aki stared at Leo, then back at his own hands. "So... I'm not a legendary thief anymore? I'm just... a guy in a dress?" He looked at his hospital gown with pure horror.
"You're more than that," Leo said, walking over and showing them his tablet. "Your brain patterns are still linked to the Server 777 core. You've occupied the bodies of 'Deep-Dive Testers' who were in a coma. Physically, you're human. But mentally? You still have the 'Source Code' in you."
Aki's eyes lit up. "Wait! If I still have the code... can I still spawn cheese? Or double my money?"
Leo laughed. "Physics doesn't work like that here, Aki. If you try to 'spawn' something, you'll just get a headache. But... you can 'hack'. With your mind, you can talk to any computer in this city. You're the world's first living AI-Human hybrids."
The Architects are Real
Von stood up, his gaze fixing on the window that showed a massive, neon-lit city of the year 2025. "And the Architects? The ones who ran our world? Where are they?"
Leo's smile faded. "They're in the penthouse of this building. They're the board of directors. And they're not happy that their 'Assets' just walked out of the screen. They've already sent security to this floor."
Aki grinned, his violet-gold spark flickering for a second in his human eyes. "Security, huh? Do they have HP bars? Because if not, this is going to be very, very easy."
"No HP bars," Von said, walking toward the door. "Just consequences. Let's go meet our creators."