System Break

The lights flickered through my eyelids.

"Test," a voice said.

"Confirmed," a voice with a Russian accent said.

"The anaesthesia is wearing off," Dr Juan said. "Nurse watch his vitals."

I blinked and tried to sit up. A female said, "Easy now. Let me get you another pillow." She lifted my head and put a pillow under it. 

I could barely swivel my head to look at her breasts. "Man," I said. "I can't move."

"It's early days," she said. "The doctor said you might improve. Time will tell."

The Russian voice spoke from across the roam, "He won't if he's in the game the whole time. He needs physical therapy."

"Shh," she said. "Mind your own business. If Ben wants to do physical therapy, he can. The first stage is massaging and reflex therapy. It works on coma patients; it will work while he is in this game."

"He may as well be in a coma."

I could hear the annoyance in her sigh. She leaned over me and I got a great look at her cleavage. "We've been here a day and the technician can't shut up. I'm sick of him already."

He scoffed. "Technician. Geez. If I'm a technician you're a bottom cleaner."

She looked into my eyes and hers smiled. "See."

"Just send me back in," I said. Here I could do nothing but lie in bed and feel sorry for myself.

"Working on it comrade."

"What's the hold up?"

She wiped the drool from my lips. I lucked out on nurses, this one was hot, caring, and competent. "Don't be in a hurry," she said. I could smell her as she leaned over me. There were two parts of me that worked - my brain and libido. And I knew which one of them was stronger.

"It is here wiper lady."

She frowned and looked at the doorway. Her eyes widened.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's to help you get around when you're not working in the game. It's … I don't know what it is."

"It's a wheelchair tweaked out with robotics. Do I have to do your job as well as my own?"

I felt a twinge on the back of my neck. She must have seen something in my eyes. "Are you okay?"

"I felt something on my neck."

She touched me just under my ear. "Can you feel that?"

"Yes."

She smiled and her finger went lower and to the back of my head. Then she made a circle. "That's your cybernetic implant. I'm told it's so you can plug in and out of the game."

"I can feel your finger, but not the implant thing."

She smiled. "Are you thirsty?"

My nod was tiny, but she noticed. 

"Ah, it's here," Dr Juan said and walked up to the automated chair. "This is a marvel."

"He's awake and lucid," the nurse said.

"Great, thank you Xinyi. I'll be with you in a moment Ben," he said. Whirring sounds accompanied the vehicle.

"Raise him so he can see," Dr Juan said. He smiled at me. "I can't really call this a wheelchair, but Mr Huan was very kind to have this built this for you by some of his experts."

It had a chair in the centre, four sturdy wheels and robotic arm at the back. It was massive and it had lots of gadgets.

"The chair itself raises and lowers and can pick you up out of the pod or off this bed. There are a few ways to control it, one of the experts will have to explain them. If you want to get around this chair can take you anywhere on the grounds. It will charge itself  I'm told."

The Russian voice added, "But can it wipe his bottom?"

Dr Juan smiled patiently.

"Shush you," Nurse Xinyi said. "Do your work in silence."

Dr Juan checked my reflexes, eyes, hearing and got me to look at some pictures and describe what I could see.

"Benzhi," he said seriously. "You are a quadriplegic, there was extensive damage done to your spine when they attached you to a generation one system. But there is hope, the body sometimes heals itself and it could recover because we only just detached you three days ago."

"Wait three?"

His eyes widened then he smiled and shook his head. "This is what concerns you?"

"Yeah, they're counting on me."

He smiled patiently. "But you cannot go back until Pieter is finished with the modifications. He can't work on the pod fully once you're connected."

"Nope. You're going to have to wait big man."

The doctor nodded. "And Mr Huan is coming to see you. He's busy but he wanted to know as soon as you were awake. I don't know when he'll come, but it will be before Pieter finishes, I hope."

"Me too," Pieter said.

"How long?" I asked.

"Oh me? I'm going as fast as I can."

The nurse said, "Maybe if you listened to us less and concentrated on your work, you'd be faster."

"No. I can do both," he said and began tapping away at his keyboard. "Doing diagnostics now, if it passes, we'll be ready soon." A short time passed. "Damn. Not soon."

"Well," I said. "At least I'm alive. Good work doc."

He smiled. "Glad to be of service."

The hacker said, "Nothing to do with the millions you're being paid is it doc. You just love saving people."

His phone beeped and he checked his screen. "He's on his way." The nurse began to hustle and checked everything was clean and tidy. Dr Juan checked my vitals and read through the logs.

An hour later the door to the games room swished and Huan Xie entered. He was followed by the brown-haired fixer, Michael.

"Ah he's finally awake? Good work Doctor."

"Never in doubt sir," the doctor replied.

He approached my bed and stood beside it so he could look me in the eyes. "Welcome Ben. Or do you prefer Benzhi?"

"Either is fine Mister Huan."

"If I call you Ben it is only right you call me Xie," he said. "We're not that formal in Huan Industries."

"Yes sir," I said.

"You sound like a soldier still," Xie said.

"I've been a vet longer than I've been a soldier now, but it's still a habit."

Xie placed a hand on the bed. "As soon as the technician is finished you can go back in. Gan and Jia told me all about you; how you love being in the game." He looked at my dilapidated legs. "And it's understandable given your condition."

"Yeah."

"Ben," he said meeting my gaze. "I want to know how you make all those discoveries."

It wasn't that strange a question, but he just told me that Gan and Jia told him all about me. And I assumed Gan and Jia were Ailen and Sakaala.

"I work out how the qi flows and I copy it. It's pretty simple," I said. "Things like qi strike are very simple, it's just a matter of hitting something with your qi."

He peered at me. "How do you work out how the qi flows?"

"I can see the streams when I try."

He rubbed his chin. "And when did you know you could do this? Can you do it now?"

I chuckled. "I never tried in the real world. I didn't think it would work. It's a game thing."

"Is it?" he asked. "Are you sure?"

I opened my sight and stop breathing. I could see qi in the real world. "Shit."

He chuckled. "This ability you developed in the game works here. I can tell by the look on your face. We've done a lot of research in the last month. I've had teams on it. You'll find qi is stagnant here. Less of it and not as free flowing."

"True," I said. I could see all their cores were tiny. They were barely visible, less than a third the size of a pea. Mine was better. I had a marble sized qi core. And it all started to make sense, they somehow measured my qi and that's what they called a qi-count.

Xie watched my face as the thoughts ran through my head. "We need you Ben. You're vital to our goals. I need to know you're with us."

"Sure, what do you want exactly?"

He shrugged. "Keep learning and making discoveries. Load them into the quickbar now you don't have to worry about the directors anymore. Huan Industries became the majority shareholder ten days ago."

"That's easy, just keep doing what I'm doing."

He nodded. "Is there anything we can do for you? Do you have any family or friends that need taking care of?"

"No, I've been alone for a long time and my squadmates died on the same mission I was injured."

"So, you really have nothing to tie you here," he said and rubbed his chin. "Ben, I have an idea I want you to think about. Don't answer me now but its something we want to try in the future. I want you to take on a new body in Qi World 3 or another."

I was shocked. "Why?"

"We're engineering vastly improved raw material."

"Sir, with respect, mine works fine. It's actually very good."

"Think about it," he said. "I have a meeting. If you'll excuse me." He began to walk and waved. "Keep up the good work everyone."

"I will," Pieter the Russian hacker said with a smile.