I felt like throwing up.

I shoved the instiller gently on the floor. It was too pricy for me to throw it and break it. I really wanted to though.

There were loud knocks on the door but I could barely move.

I felt more than just sick. I knew it was going to be a grueling process but seriously? Seven friggin hours!? That was more than just double. And the intensity just kept on increasing without stopping.

If these loud knocks hadn't forced me out, I might or might not have been dead and that wasn't an understatement.

When it started it hurt but it wasn't unbearable but as time moved on, it got more and more painful, and there were no kill switches. I had to live through the whole thing. Like seriously.

Knock!

Knock!

Knock!

It was hell. Nay! It was worse than hell.

Knock! "You in there? Still alive? Should I break in or get help?"

Apparently, a moron was at the door. It took me another minute but I finally could stand up. I got up and reached the door, swaying here and there, almost falling to my doom on more than one occasion. "Still kicking." It took a lot just to unlock the door.

"Well, it doesn't look like that: you look like a zombie. Anyway, what happened? Did you take drugs or something?" Merin came in. And he was as sarcastic as ever.

"Unfortunately, I'm not that dumb and drugs probably won't work on me."

He looked at me like he didn't believe me. "So, what happened? When I first came in and the door was locked, I went out again since you didn't open for five mins, and bought dinner but you still weren't opening even after I came back. I've been out there banging the door for ten minutes now. I was just about to head over the manager when you finally opened."

"Would have been nice if you just went to the manager the first time." I stopped my mouth as I was about to make a literal mess.

The world spun and my insides wanted to come out and explore the world.

Merin sighed and picked me up. "Let's head over there."

He led me to the bathroom and I did my business. And boy was there business.

It almost felt like everything was coming out: the guts, the bones, the organs, everything. I wondered why they didn't.

Breathing was hard and I kind of wanted to die.

"I thought you were supposed to lay low for a few days, what the hell did you do? Drink beer or something?"

My ears were kind of funny and my vision felt like I had magnifying glasses or something. I couldn't focus one bit.

"Never drunk. Blueh!" This wasn't easy.

And what the hell was Merin still doing here!

***

I lied down on the bed, life was a drag and for the first time, I wanted to die. This whole thing was too much of a drag. Yeah, I was probably just being dramatic but I wanted someone to end my suffering already.

"You still haven't told me, what happened?" Merin changed his clothes in the corner and lied down on his bed.

"I used the memory instiller and it probably malfunctioned." The keyword being probably.

I felt better than before, but definitely not enough to not lie down like this.

He gave me a bit of a glare. "These things have seven layers of firewalls to protect you from that." He picked up the instiller and looked over things and then again glared at me. "Are you a moron? You literally tried to take in two years' worth of knowledge in three hours?" He sighed: he sighed again. "This stuff at least takes a month with repeated process not, three hours. You're lucky it only lasted seven hours in your case. Though I'm not sure about what you'll remember from this." He got all that information just by looking at it? I guess he was tech-savvy if nothing else.

Remember? Study?

Yeah, I didn't care. I was never going to put that thing over my head, ever again.

I did remember a lot of things though: those being pain and more pain. "I'll try to sleep." I put a sleeping mask on.

"You know, I've heard of people trying to do this, but I never heard anyone came out unscathed like this." I didn't know if that was him just pitying or genuinely feeling glad I survived.

"Are you kidding me? I can barely breathe."

"Well, the people who tried something like this before, either died or came out leaking blood from all their holes."

"Don't say scary stuff like it's nothing." I groaned.

Merin chuckled. "You sure you don't want to eat anything?"

"And die? No thanks." I'd already had enough puking for one day.

He laughed some more and didn't say anything else.

I didn't either. I just focused on sleeping.

My head hurt way too much to think about anything anyway.

***

I had no idea how or when I'd fallen asleep but I woke up around 2. It was still dark and rather quiet. I actually felt a lot better, but also hungry.

Hunger probably was the only reason why I woke up now anyway.

'So this is why the manual said to only instill one subject at a time.' The manual also might or might not have warned me that instilling excessive knowledge could have been harmful.

Probably a bit late to think about all that.

I sighed and went to the mini-fridge: in the end, it was all my fault.

There wasn't much in the fridge. I didn't want to drink water or juice cause I certainly didn't want to get up again but there wasn't any choice.

"There are some biscuits in the container." Merin turned over and I saw his back.

I had no idea what ticked the guy. But yeah, I was kind of glad he was my roommate. I was never going to tell him that though.

Apparently, he had chocolate digestive biscuits, not my favorite but oh well. They were good enough.

I ate some biscuits, I drank a bit of juice.

Off to bed.

Didn't know if he was still awake or not but- "Thanks-" I whispered.

***

Huff*

Puff*

Someone was climbing a building.

It was a tall building, with at least a hundred floors.

She was roughly in the middle and there were at least fifty more floors to climb. Above, was the night sky, and below was the concrete floor just waiting to welcome her and embrace her with passion: her death.

Her body sweated and beads of sweat fell from her seamless body. She was in a tight climbing suit. She didn't have any other gear and climbing this glass building was difficult if nothing else. But it wasn't impossible, at least not for her: even if it was, she was going to overcome it.

It was late night- about to be dawn soon, and she saw few stars above her head: the deadline was near. Her hands were fatigued and so was her body. But she couldn't stop now. She was on a mission and she had to complete it, even if her life was on the line.

The mission mattered more than her life.

But then- her Holo glowed. 'Message?' She checked the contents and grinned. 'Well, if that's how you want to play-' She grinned some more and jumped off.

"WhOO!"

Seconds later, the whole building exploded.

***

Andrew Simon laughed hard at the news.

"Now the brat's done it."

"Yes, it would seem that way," One of his men said from the side.

The size difference between the two was immense. While the man was perhaps six feet, Simons was at least seven and a half and he was also rather well built.

The place was dark, probably underground and there were at least a hundred people in here wearing cloaks of some kind.

"But that's what I'd expect of Julio's son."

"His grandson, bro," the man said.

Obviously, Simon was the boss, but he insisted that his men call him 'bro'. Apparently, it gave him satisfaction for some reason.

"Wait, wha?" Simon scratched his head. "He wasn't his son?"

"Did you forget what Roger told you already?" The man sighed. "Sometimes I really wonder how you're still considered one of the tops of this world."

Andrew Simon burst out laughing again. "Oh yeah, that pretty lady was the ugly bastard's daughter. Yeah, I remember." He laughed even louder and the whole place shook. "Maybe I'll give em another visit."

"I really wish you don't. We're kind of behind schedule because of you, you know." The man sighed.

But Simon just chuckled. "Well, it'll be fun to watch em' beat each other out. I'll be betting on the brat btw."

The man sighed again. He started to question his life choices all over again. "And you're already assuming they'll start fighting right then and there?"

Andrew Simon's grin widened.

***

Rose had her hands full again. Three very important guests were about to arrive on the island and even stay for two whole days. It was a crisis.

And because of that even at two-thirty, she had no sleep.

'Maybe I shouldn't have taken this position.'

During these three weeks, the rings beneath her eyes grew wider and wider. She was virtually at her limit.

'But seriously? What is happening to this place?'

There were three rather important guests coming in on a specific day. One of them was a Battlesuin, one, a Rodwich, and the last, a Romswell. It wouldn't have been a problem if they were just members of those families. But the real problem was all three were heads of their respective families, or at least branch heads: she didn't yet know for sure.

'This isn't going to end well.'

But she did know one thing, the moment all three of those people would come together, hell would break loose.

Rose's sighs and restlessness were keeping her awake even at this hour and no matter how she thought about this, this was probably leading to a disaster and just the thought of it was frightening enough to rob her of her sleep.

She could almost cry. But she didn't. 'Maybe I'll quit?'

But her justice wasn't that shallow. She sighed again. 'Maybe not.' She was too bound to her ideals.

She got up and headed for the bathroom. A walk was bound to distract her, right?