Infinite Metaverse

Chapter 19: Awakening

Fu Qinghai was dreaming.

A long, boundless dream.

Sometimes, he felt like a fish, breathing underwater, swimming freely in the depths of the ocean. As he swam, he thought: 'So this is what it feels like to breathe underwater.'

Other times, he felt like a bird soaring through the sky, like the petrel from his middle school textbook. The text he had memorized as a child appeared hazily in his dream. He became the petrel, flying through the storm. Fierce winds, torrential rain, towering waves, lightning and thunder...

"Boom!" A bolt of lightning pierced the dark clouds and struck him.

'Damn, that hurts!'

Fu Qinghai felt like he was being struck by lightning repeatedly—sometimes in the chest, sometimes in the abdomen, sometimes in the back.

Suddenly, he felt a cool sensation on his head, as if a weight had been lifted. But most of the time, it was just a hazy, indistinct dream.

Until...

{You have successfully been transformed into a Space Marine of the White Scars Legion, achieving a milestone event!}

{Calculating assimilation points... 781 points}

The cold voice in his mind pierced through the fog of his dream, jolting him awake.

Fu Qinghai's eyes snapped open. Before him was a swirling, murky yellow fluid. Through the liquid, he could see the transparent glass of the incubation pod.

He realized he was breathing naturally in the fluid, the liquid filling his lungs and flowing through his nose and throat.

He tried moving his hands and feet, but they felt unfamiliar, restrained. Yet, he had a strange sense that he could break free with a slight effort.

But Fu Qinghai didn't struggle. He lay in the pod, calmly observing his surroundings.

At the same moment, the red warning light outside the cryo-chamber lit up, emitting a series of beeps.

Magos Kurnos, hunched over his workstation, suddenly looked up.

"Hmm? Awakened early," he muttered, his mechanical eye flickering. "Half a month ahead of schedule."

He walked toward the cultivation chamber.

Fu Qinghai, peering through the murky fluid, saw a shadow moving outside. Just as he tried to focus, he felt the pod shake, and the fluid surrounding him began to drain.

"Whoosh—click!"

As the fluid drained away, the glass door opened.

Fu Qinghai saw Magos Kurnos' aged face beneath the dark red hood, his glowing green mechanical eye staring back.

"Magos..." Fu Qinghai's voice was hoarse.

"Come out. Be careful. Don't fall, and don't exert yourself too much," came the familiar raspy voice.

Fu Qinghai carefully controlled his unfamiliar limbs, slowly standing and climbing out of the pod.

His skin was still coated with a thin layer of sticky, transparent fluid. He was completely naked, but he noticed that his body hair had grown back.

As he stood, he noticed something strange. Magos Kurnos, who had once been shorter than him, now only reached his upper abdomen.

Fu Qinghai's mind, still sluggish from the long immersion, slowly processed this.

'Have I... grown taller?'

"Follow me," Kurnos said, turning and walking away before Fu Qinghai could ask any questions.

Still naked, Fu Qinghai stumbled after Kurnos to the workstation.

"Sit," Kurnos pointed to a metal box nearby.

Fu Qinghai sat down.

Kurnos' mechanical hands deftly pulled out several metal tubes from the workstation, attaching the probes to Fu Qinghai's head, chest, and back.

As he sat on the metal box, Fu Qinghai adjusted his breathing, getting used to his new body.

He noticed his hearing and vision had improved. The dim corners of the room, previously hidden in shadow, were now clear to him.

But something else felt off. Fu Qinghai held his breath and listened carefully... He could hear his own heartbeat... but it sounded strange.

'A heart murmur? No, not a murmur... It's...'

"Good. Both hearts are beating normally. No organ failure," Kurnos' voice interrupted his thoughts.

The Magos picked up a small scalpel from the table and made a deep cut on Fu Qinghai's chest. Blood gushed out, but beneath the skin was not red muscle tissue—it was a black, chitinous substance.

The blood quickly coagulated, forming a fresh scab within seconds.

Fu Qinghai looked down at this. He understood now.

From this moment on. He was no longer human. He was a two-hearted, three-lunged Astartes. A precision-engineered war machine. A meticulously designed killing tool.

***

Meanwhile, in the training cage aboard the 'Shortsword' frigate.

Ogotai, now legless, sat in a mechanical wheelchair, wielding two heavy longswords with all his might.

Without his legs, he couldn't dodge the weapons attacking from all sides. He could only rely on his strong arms and blades to block.

"Clang! Clang! Bang! Slash!"

Ogotai twisted his torso, his swords becoming a blur as he deflected the incoming attacks. Sparks flew as metal clashed against metal.

Suddenly, a metal spear thrust from his lower left, catching him off guard. Blood sprayed from his side.

"Ah!" he cried out, more in frustration than pain.

Outside the cage, Taral watched silently, arms crossed. Being injured by the training cage was a disgrace for any seasoned Astartes veteran.

At that moment, a floating black mechanical skull entered the training chamber.

It was a servo-skull.

The skull's hollow eye sockets flashed red, and a cold electronic voice spoke.

"Lord Taral, Lord Ogotai, Magos Kurnos requests your presence in the laboratory."

Taral stopped the training cage and looked at Ogotai, who was drenched in sweat and panting heavily.

"Ogotai, guess what? The kid's probably out."

Ogotai looked up, surprised. "He completed the transformation already?"

***

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