Chapter 60: Clone Generation (Patreon)

The Operator turned her head slowly. The lab was silent, and a second ago she had been kneeling inside a ring of light with the Guardian, the system, and something massive crushing her into the floor. Now she was alone, sitting in a lab full of bodies and dried acid.

Where did they all go?

She forced her body upright, her arms still trembling from the gravity that was no longer there.

“Tera, you said you saw all of it but couldn’t speak. Tell me what you analyzed. What the hell just happened there?”

Honestly? I think you’re a little fucked right now, because Eron knows you have the solution to mutation evolution.

“I already know that part. I’m asking about the rest. What the hell was that thing above us? And the system getting split in half. And the Guardian showing up again, the one I conned with the saga, apparently running this whole place now. What was all of that?”

First thing, I think the system fucked itself when it lost its administrative power. It attacked you; it broke its oath. I’m still processing that, honestly. I didn’t know an entity that’s been around for thousands of years could be that stupid. Apparently keeping control over the dungeons mattered more to it than we thought. And the Guardian? He’s loving every second of this.

The Operator let out a small laugh.

“Wow. You’re cursing more every day, Tera.”

Just picking it up from you, boss.

She exhaled and walked toward the Kanryx tanks, stopping in front of them, the amber glow from the liquid throwing shadows on the floor.

“Eron knows. So I don’t know how safe we are in here, but we need a plan.”

She looked up.

“And. Before anything. Thanks, Portal. For the level seven jump and the extra formula. Whatever you are, wherever you are, thanks.”

She said it out loud, voice steadier than she felt. Ridiculous, talking to the air like that, but after everything, she knew she was being watched.

“Okay, Tera. The key problem is Eron. He could come at any moment. We don’t know what he can do or what his plan is, but what we know is I’m his target.”

Then we focus on what we came here to do. Make you stronger.

Step one, build the Body Reinforcement formula with the recipe the system gave you and apply it.

Step two, take the rewards. You’ll have to pick the second formula, but you can’t apply it until the first one is fully installed.

Step three, activate level seven and see what kind of evolution this dungeon hands you based on your role.

“Got it.”

She turned and ran toward the control panel by the Kanryx tanks. She hit the keys, and a function appeared on the screen.

[Prepare formula]

She tapped yes.

She pulled out the small leather notebook the system had given her with the Body Reinforcement reward and flipped to the first page. The recipe sat there, ten pages of dense notation, with the rest of the notebook still empty.

The notebook had everything. The formula, an explanation of the seven Kanryx components, which were liquids extracted from their bodies, an explanation of each component, and finally the Body Reinforcement formula explaining how much to apply per component.

She spoke aloud while reading.

“How did the system research all of this? I get it knew the components because the scientists here already knew them. But the formulas? How did it know the exact formulas if no one here could figure them out? Where did this research come from?”

No way to know right now. It got cut in half and shipped off to who knows where.

She typed the formula into the panel.

BODY REINFORCEMENT, REAGENT FORMULA

KX-1 (120 mL): Hemolymph, primary circulatory fluid

KX-3 (60 mL): Dorsal tentacular secretory glands

KX-7 (30 mL): Mandibular salivary reservoir

KX-12 (15 mL): Cornual medulla, exoskeletal core

KX-19 (800 μL): Bioluminescent energy organ, violet-blue emission

KX-22 (400 μL): Retro-ocular neural tissue

KX-31 (50 mg): Crystalline keratin accretion, distal horn/claw

She hit enter.

Metal tubes rose in front of her, part metal and part glass, with different colored liquids inside, each one labeled with its code.

KX-1, KX-3, KX-7, and more

Just like the formula said.

The liquids moved through tubes toward a computerized pillar on her left, the volumes she had typed running across the screen as the fluids combined.

One minute, two, and a message came up.

[Initiating freeze process]

[Combining quantities]

[Verifying results]

And then.

[Formula evolution successful]

[Analyzing formula effects]

[Formula effect: Body Reinforcement]

[Activating connection to external server]

[Formula sent to external server]

[Connection to external server terminated]

“What the hell. They’re sending the formula somewhere?”

She searched the panel for an option to cancel the transmission, hitting every menu, but nothing came up.

[Transmission complete, cannot be reversed]

[Transmission complete, cannot be reversed]

“Shit.”

The formula was stuck there, and there was nothing she could do about it.

The work me and the nanos did to install your system means you get the full hit of every formula, but the humanoids of this world? Their bodies don’t take it the same. You’re at a hundred percent, them way less. How much less? No idea yet.

“So if they put this formula into someone else, it doesn’t work the same.”

Doesn’t work the same is me being nice. Could go badly, quickly. And it makes you a bigger prize than you already are.

The Operator closed her eyes.

“Christ. However I look at it, I’m screwed.”

She rubbed her face.

“I’ll worry about that later.”

She walked toward the pillar where the formula was being processed, and when the monitor told her it was ready, she opened a small hatch on the side. Inside sat an injector, point-and-press, the kind that looked like an EpiPen.

But this one wasn’t for fighting an allergy; this one was for installing the formula into her body.

She picked it up and looked at her arm, at the pale scar that marked the mutation evolution system, and without thinking, without hesitating, pressed it to her skin.

The injection went in.

Okay. Pain coming, like always. Or maybe this one will be quiet.

Her body felt nothing, but the scar on her forearm filled, a red line creeping up and stopping near the bottom of the bar, ten percent more or less, then crept higher slowly as the formula worked its way into her cells.

Didn’t turn into a monster. So far, so good.

She took a breath.

Step two. Take the rewards.

She opened her HUD, and the list appeared.

Muscular Density Enhancement

Kinetic Output Amplification

Skeletal-Muscular Reinforcement

Tendon Reinforcement

Mitochondrial Optimization

You came here to get stronger. Body Reinforcement gives you defense against hits. What you need now is force. Muscular Density Enhancement is the best option here.

The Operator thought it through.

“Makes sense, but tell me if I’m wrong, Tera. Muscular density enhancement, that’s more contractile fibers packed into the same muscle, so the muscle puts out more force, right?”

Right. The others aren’t bad, but force is what we came down here for; defense and force, that’s the play.

“Okay, picking it.”

She tapped Muscular Density Enhancement on the holographic screen.

The notebook in her jacket glowed. She pulled it out and flipped through the pages, finding that the first formula was no longer alone. The Muscular Density Enhancement formula was now there too, dense notation across new pages.

But there was a problem.

She wanted the second formula ready to inject as soon as the first one finished installing. The problem was, running it through this panel meant it’d end up on that external server, same as Body Reinforcement. First one was already gone; nothing she could do about it. The second one was not leaving this room.

No fucking way. I’m not handing these people another upgrade after what they tried to do to me.

She activated Machine Reading on the panel and dove into the code, hunting for anything that could let her block the transmission.

One minute, two, three, and she found it.

She typed the override into her HUD and locked the function.

Done. They won’t have access to the formula.

Tera paused.

But they’ll probably notice a second formula was used, just from the liquid count. They can check how much was there before and how much is left now, and figure out it was used more than once.

The Operator nodded.

“Worry about that later. Now to focus on creating the second formula.”

She typed the second formula into the panel.

MUSCULAR DENSITY ENHANCEMENT, REAGENT FORMULA

KX-1 (250 mL): Hemolymph, primary circulatory fluid

KX-3 (150 mL): Dorsal tentacular secretory glands

KX-12 (40 mL): Cornual medulla, exoskeletal core

KX-19 (2.5 mL): Bioluminescent energy organ

Total reagent volume: 442.5 mL

She stared at the bottom line.

Jesus. 442 milliliters. That’s way too much.

The formula moved into the pillar, the volumes scrolling across the monitor like before. After a minute, the screen went dark, signaling that it was ready.

She opened the hatch, and this time there was no syringe. This time it was an infusion pouch, large, transparent, the kind hospitals hang from IV stands, with a needle sitting next to it.

Am I supposed to inject all of that.

What did you expect? A small shot, magic style? This formula completely alters your body. It mutates you. Some are small. Some are this. We’re talking about changing your molecular structure. None of them are going to be the same.

“Okay, okay.”

She took the infusion bag and shoved it into her pack.

“No time anyway. Can’t apply it until the first one finishes installing.”

She glanced at the scar on her forearm.

Twenty percent, going fast.

A boom, distant, muffled, but real, and then a slight tremor through the floor.

The Operator froze.

Another boom. Then another. Coming from the surface, far above, but unmistakable.

“Tera, those explosions, they’re trying to find a way in.”

You’re a valuable asset right now. They’ll do whatever they can to grab you.

“Okay. They’ll take time, but probably another team is coming in the same way the dead ones did. We need to move fast.”

She turned to Napoleon.

“I’m leveling up. Keep watch.

“Hopefully, it’s minutes this time.”

“As you say, Operator.”

She looked around for a place to sit, comfortable enough and clear of the acid pooled across the floor. She found a clean patch by the wall opposite the chamber she had emerged from earlier, slid down it, and crossed her legs.

She took a deep breath. Some of her past level-ups had been quiet, almost gentle, others had been catastrophic in pain. She opened the file on her HUD and tapped yes, and for a moment, nothing happened.

“Tera, quick question I never asked. How do the nanos decide which abilities fit me? How do they do this?”

They adjust to what you need, but they also analyze what your body can handle. That’s why the system’s evolution is gradual. Each level has to connect to the ones before it. They can’t just hand you some powerful ability out of nowhere; it has to build off what you already have, what your body has already accepted.

The Operator felt nothing until she felt it in her hands.

Heat first, a slow warmth spreading through her palms and climbing into her fingers as if her bones were heating from the inside.

The blue filaments that always appeared when she used Machine Reading started coming out of her fingers, but not in the same way as before. They flickered brighter than they had ever been, and she could see the glow burning through her flesh from the inside, lighting up the muscle and bone like a hand held in front of a lamp.

Then the pain hit, only in her hands, not the dull ache of muscle work or the sting of a cut, but a deep pressure under her skin and in the bones, like every joint was being pried open from the inside. Her fingers twitched on their own, curling and uncurling on reflex, the tendons jerking like cables under tension.

“Ah, shit, what is this? Why is it always the fucking hands?”

The filaments changed, no longer blue but blood-red. She brought both hands close to her face and saw that each thread had grown tiny stingers along its sides, thousands of small spikes, dark and slick.

In her left hand, the three rings on her fingers shifted too, losing their metallic color and turning red, with the same spikes forming along their edges.

The pain went from sharp to unbearable, like millions of needles driving into every nerve at once. Her palms throbbed with every heartbeat, and something inside her hands was rearranging itself, fibers separating and resetting, bones flexing in ways they were not supposed to.

She screamed.

“Aghhh!”

Hold it. Evolution always lands in your favor. Hold it.

“Yes, I’m fucking holding it, Tera. But it hurts. Let me scream.”

The echo of her own screams filled the lab for a minute, maybe two, and then the pain faded.

The red filaments with spikes retracted, sliding back into each finger one at a time. The three rings stayed red, settling into the new color.

She felt her hands go weak. She tried to make a fist, and her fingers obeyed, but slowly, like they were re-learning the movement.

“Hell.”

She breathed out, hands trembling.

“This had better be worth it.”

The nanos are telling me you have two functions in the rings now.

The Operator blinked.

“Since when are the nanos this chatty? They never used to talk.”

They’ve been more talkative since the system got punished; no idea why. Anyway, they say you have two functions in the rings now, the first being Adaptive Mold Matrix, the one you already have, and the second being something new.

The Operator thought about Adaptive Mold Matrix, and the rings shifted from red back to metallic.

“Okay, that’s new, and the second option?”

Clone generation.

A pause.

That is what they’re saying.

“Clone generation?”

She thought about Clone Generation, focusing on activating it.

The rings turned red again. She felt them spin against her palm, and as they spun, a small silver shell formed in the center, the surface twitching as it grew.

A cocoon.

The nanos aren’t being clear on what it is. They just say it’s made of them. That doesn’t, uh, fully reassure me.

It kept growing, bigger and more defined, the surface moving as if something inside it was breathing.

It felt like something of her own was being pulled out of her, energy moving from every part of her body toward her palm, as if the cocoon was absorbing a piece of her.

She watched, confused.

What the fuck am I turning into. Now I make cocoons with my hand?

The cocoon split open with a soft sound, the shell halves peeling back from the inside. The thing inside was warm and breathing.

What came out of it was a tiny version of the Operator, naked, about four inches tall, the size of her palm, identical to her in every detail down to the brand of three rings burned into the side of its little neck. It sat on her palm, blinking up at her.

They stared at each other.

I need to have a word with the nanos about what this is.

Tera’s voice came through different, like she had not seen this coming either.

Napoleon turned from his post by the door, blades half extended, then stopped. He tilted his head, the optics adjusting on the tiny figure in her palm.

“Mini Operator?”

Not helpful, Napoleon.

And both said, in the same voice, the tiny clone and the Operator:

“What the fuck is this?”