Nano Machine Chapter 2: The Machine(?) Has Descended on My Body (B)

The boy's name was Cheon Yeo Woon.

By virtue of his lineage in the Cheon line of descent, he had an irrevocable claim as high as the Ma faction's highest rankings.

There were many of those of the Cheon lineage who felt entitled and expected preferential treatment for being related to the Grand Master, but the reality was a bit different.

Even with Cheon blood, unless you became a Grand Prince (right under the Grand Master) you were only considered to be just a member of one of the six outside clans that held up the Ma faction like pillars.

What set Cheon Yeo Woon apart was that he wasn't born into any of these six clans but was instead reared by a servant who served at the Grand Master's palace.

Despite his birth from a palace servant, he had the right to one day become a Grand Prince because he was of the Cheon lineage. However, the extraneous nature of his birth did not do him much good when it came to the war of succession.

So, how exactly did Cheon Yeo Woon get himself in this whole predicament?

The answer is found in his mother, Lady Hwa.

The cold-hearted Grand Master, who had showed no interest whatsoever in any of the six wives acquired for political purposes from each of the Ma clans, one day fell in love with a lowly servant girl.

The six wives of the Grand Master who lived together in the palace began to show great jealousy and anger towards the servant girl.

And their jealousy didn't simply stop at mere anger.

Cheon Yeo Won, by simple virtue of his birth from the Grand Master's real love, was incurred much contempt and was even the target of numerous covert assassination plots in his fifteen years of life.

Despite his almost non-existent probability to ascend to the level of Grand Prince, the reason for his troubles stemmed from the jealous anger of these six palace wives.

But, starting these past seven days, the attempts for his head became ever more frequent.

The reason for this was that the Ma Fighting Academy's official commencement was about to get underway.

Even though up until that point Cheon Yeo Woon really had nothing to show for himself, neither a good family background nor much power, if he were to enter into Ma Fighting Academy he could finally develop his skills and create a force of his own.

On top of that, once he entered the academy, all non-authorized personnel were restricted from the premises, and therefore, an assassination attempt would be highly difficult to carry out, even if the king's wives did have their hands in it.

Perhaps it was from this urgency that the previous night, which was only two days before the commencement, the once covert assassination attempts became just downright blatant.

They even sent someone to distract and keep Master Jang at arm's length so that he wouldn't interfere.

"Ma… Ma Shin, you were the one who saved me?" Cheon Yeo Woon asked the voice that was in his head with his face prostrate to the ground.

From his recent memories, he was stabbed in the gut and was almost near death. But, as fate would have it, his many enemies were all slain by a mysterious being and he himself spared.

The nano machine that was intricately connected to his brain replied:

[In terms of me killing your evil enemies, the answer is no. But, when it comes to saving your life through a process of what's called auto-recovery, yes, that was me, master.]

"When you say "auto-recovery," what do you mean by that?"

The language that the nano machine was using to communicate with him was very difficult to understand.

The nano machine quickly calculated that having a conversation with him this way was going to be very painstaking.

[Initiating transfer of my basic information to the master's…]

"Why do you call me master? What is the meaning of that?"

He couldn't even pronounce an English word correctly, let alone understand it.

Through a quick research on language, the nano machine began to search a vocabulary list of words that was more suitable for the user.

[Searching and converting the system vocabulary to a more colloquial language.]

The nano machine changed its default language to better fit the user's preferences.

After the language conversion, she again spoke to him:

[My lord, I am not the Ma Shin that you are supposing me to be.]

Unlike the previous times he was called "master," when Cheon Yeo Woon heard the word "my lord" he made a very confident expression on his face as the nano machine spoke in a very familiar lord-servant relationship language.

Of course, his voice was still a bit stiff.

"If you're not Ma Shin, then who are you?"

[I would like to transfer some of my basic information and digital instructions manual into your brain. Will you give me permission?]

The nano machine reasoned that it would be a lot more propitious to transfer the information into him than to explain everything in words.

Without giving it much thought, Cheon Yeo Woon nodded his head like a confused doofus.

In that moment, Cheon Yeo Woon felt a small static spark in his head and, as though someone was forcing something into it, he began to see rapid streams of video play out before his eyes.

*- Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom! -*

If someone were to see Cheon Yeo Won in this moment, there was no doubt that person would've ran away in horror.

His eyes were bouncing around in his sockets so rapidly that it was quite a bizarre spectacle to say the least.

After some time, Cheon Yeo Woon fell to the ground and started vomiting from the dizziness.

* Woooo-ehk! *

[It is a normal reaction that occurs after a user's first data transfer. You will not feel dizzy or nauseous from it after this point.]

After feeling dizzy for some time, Cheon Yeo Woon finally straightened up.

"What in the world is going on?"

It was unbelievable.

Although he had neither heard nor learned any of this stuff, Cheon Yeo Woon was aware that the nano system in his head, no, in his brain was a machine that embedded itself into him.

"Nano machine?"

[Yes, my lord.]

"Do I really have millions of tiny machines interlaid in my body?"

[That is correct. To be exact, there are 6,408,240,000 nano machines arranged all over my lord's body.]

All of a sudden, Cheon Yeo Woon felt very uncomfortable about the fact that there was something artificial inside his body.

However, knowing that it was neither a person nor Ma Shin, his speech began to relax a little as he felt less threatened.

"If I preferred, are you able to leave my body?"

[As you have seen through the data transfer earlier on, I have been programmed to leave your body only in an emergency situation where my lord quits breathing.]

To put it bluntly, she meant to say that unless he died, she wasn't going anywhere.

Cheon Yeo Woon was perplexed as to how this whole situation came about.

His half-brothers tried to kill him, even though he didn't pose any threat to them.

And now, a thing called a nano machine installed itself into his body.

"Who was it that put you inside my…"

Before Cheon Yeo Woon was able to finish his sentence, someone came knocking at the door.

*- Knock, knock! -*

"Sir Gong Ja, Doctor Baek is here to see you."

It was Master Jang's voice.

Cheon Yeo Woon, who was lying on the floor, stood up in haste, completely lost as to how he was going to mend this situation.

He was worried that if others found out that he was talking to a machine inside his head that they would think he'd lost his mind.

"Okay, keep quiet for a bit."

[You can communicate to me just through your brain neurons.]

"Okay, okay. I got it. Just keep quiet for now."

[Temporarily entering low volume mode.]

Cheon Yeo Woon speedily climbed on his bed and slid under the covers.

As soon he lay down, the door opened and the tall, middle-aged Master Jang, someone with shoulder-length white hair who looked to be a doctor, and the latter man's assistant, walked in.

"It seems as though Sir Gong Ja is still deep in his sleep. Maybe you can just perform your routine check-up and… Oh? Sir Gong Ja!"

As he was speaking, Master Jang instinctively threw up his hand and covered his nose.

It was because a strong, pungent smell was exuding out of Cheon Yeo Woon's body.

"What is going on here?"

Because he was so busy talking to the nano machine, Cheon Yeo-Woon had completely forgotten about the physical state he was currently in.

A slimy, black substance was oozing out of his body, and it truly reeked of death.

"Huh?"

Very much intrigued, the elderly Doctor Baek approached Cheon Yeo Woon.

Doctor Baek Jong Woo was the primary physician for the Grand Master, and contrary to his refined look, within the Ma faction, they often called him the "Doc of Misfortune."

"Cheon Gong Ja, you know who Doctor Baek is, right?

"How can I not know Doctor Baek?"

There was no one within the Ma faction who wasn't familiar with the "Doctor of Misfortune."

On top of that, when his mother, Lady Hwa, once fell sick Doctor Baek was sent by the Grand Master to attend her.

"I'm going to check your pulse. Make a tight fist"

"Umm… the thing is…"

He was uncomfortable giving him his hand because of the black slime that covered his arm.

At Evil Doc Baek Jong Woo's insistence, Cheon Yeo Woon reluctantly give the doctor his arm.

Baek Jong Woo put his two fingers on his wrist and checked his pulse, when suddenly his eyes lit up.

"This is truly strange."

"What do you mean by that? Doctor Baek, is there something wrong with Sir Gong Ja?" Master Jang nervously inquired of the doctor with a concerned look on his face.

Baek Jong Woo shook his head from side to side as he reassured Master Jang.

"It is actually quite the opposite. It seems like a very odd coincidence has occurred."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Your body has completely expelled all toxic waste from itself, and the eight meridians that flow within your body have also become very active. Have you possibly been taking a miracle drug?"

Cheon Yeo Woon titled his head in confusion.

"What I'm saying is that your body is in an optimal state to train in the martial arts right now."

"What?"

As though he finally understood the doctor's words, Cheon Yeo Woon's face lit up.

The black slime that covered his body was none other than the toxic waste that had been secreted from it.

On top of that, all eight meridians of his body were highly stimulated and operating at maximum capacity, which gave him the perfect condition to train in martial arts.

This was an amazing turn-around for Cheon Yeo Woon, who, due to his lowly birth from a palace servant, never received enough sponsorship to receive formal training.

Of course, that didn't change the fact that his inner strength was at zero.

-Hey, nano machine. Is this your doing?-

[…..]

[Would you like to disable low volume mode?]

-Disable it.-

[Low volume mode is disabled.

As the nano machines began to install themselves into my lord's body, they expelled all the useless and toxic substances out of our body and optimized your respiratory, central nervous system and muscular-skeletal system for optimal physical performance.]

-… What the hell are you, really?-

Although he had an inkling that this whole thing that Baek Jong Woo was saying might be the result of the nano machine, after explicitly hearing what had been done to him from the nano machine herself, Cheon Yeo Woon was left speechless.

-You're really not Ma Shin, are you?-

[I am not Ma Shin. I am Machine.]

Her response sounded more mechanical and clankier than ever.