***Hardware Integration successful!***

A mechanical voice takes me out of my stupor, and I take deep breaths. What happened? I had the silliest dream; I downloaded some random garbage on the Internet and it somehow upgraded my laptop before jumping into my face.

What a silly idea.

Am I doing my best to ignore the floating, half-transparent computer in front of me? Of course, I am.

This can’t be happening. It simply can’t. Nothing of the sort can exist, it’s impossible.

However, reality tells me otherwise. The laptop-shaped apparition taunts me with its existence, I want to swat it away but my hand just passes through it.

“Fuck,” I grumble. My reflection in the rear-view mirror makes me stop thinking about anything else. I-Is this me?

I touch my face to make sure I’m not hallucinating, but I have to accept that this handsome version of me is… me.

Can the situation get any weirder than this? Everything I thought impossible just happened in front of me. This MERTICORE business is getting out of hand. I should go to the hospital to get my head checked. I bet it’s a hallucination induced by the pressure I have to endure at that shitty job.

I force a chuckle. This is too insane to be a hallucination. My mind couldn't have possibly dreamed up something so absurd.

Once again, I’m forced to admit that I somehow magically turned myself into a male model. Oh, and don’t forget that my-

***New apps are available!***

A notification, which is eerily similar to what usually shows up on my phone, appears in the corner of my vision.

Fuck this shit. At this point, I’m in too deep to back out, so I look for my laptop. I haven’t realized before since I was still shocked, but the device became green and half-transparent. It’s also floating above my wrist. I don’t even gasp this time.

The human mind is truly wonderful, I’m amazed how well I adjusted to a situation that nobody should be able to consider ‘normal’. But maybe it’s another effect of the Hardware Integration? It changed my appearance, so it wouldn’t be surprising if it also changed my mind.

But I’ll open this can of worms at a later date. For now, let’s focus on those apps. I click the MERTICORE Manager on the floating laptop. This does look like a typical app store, but the apps all have weird names. They are also all quite expensive.

To make matters worse, I don’t recognize the currency used in that store. The money symbol looks like an M and an X has been superposed. Hovering over the mysterious symbol with the mouse reveals the name of that currency… MertiPoints.

Somehow, it feels like someone is making fun of me.

As luck would have it, I have none of those MertiPoints. I check the ‘free apps’ section, but there’s only one app available.

This ‘Object Editor’ doesn’t look too special, and the app description is just one very helpful line which says that it can ‘edit objects’. I have no idea what it means by objects, but it’s the only app I can get from now. If my previous experience with stuff related to MERTICORE is anything to go by, then I bet that even the free app has tremendous abilities.

I click on the buy button and my vision flickers before being filled with static for a second. I blink while massaging my eyes, I never knew that installing an app could affect me so much.

A notification saying that the app was successfully installed appears in the corner of my vision again. I take a deep breath, now how do I even use this Object Editor?

A small green crosshair appears in the middle of my field of vision. It seems to have selected my car since a bunch of information related to the vehicle floods my mind. I take a deep breath and ‘look’ over all the information. There’s so much it’s almost impossible to process everything, or at least it should be for a normal person.

For some unknown reason, I’m able to ‘see’ every single parameter of my car at the same time. Gears click in my head, this Object Editor is processing my car like an ‘object’ from programming; it’s a structure with numerous fields containing various types of information.

I select the ‘horsepower’ section and focus on changing it. Might as well test what this thing can do, so I change the value of 100 to a more respectable 600. A warning suddenly appears in front of my eyes, apparently changing this parameter to such a high value would cause something called ‘Object Failure’. The window then asks if I want to run an instance of MERTCORE.Debug() to make sure that everything goes well.

Reality is written in this strange MERTCORE_API… This means that I could, theoretically, make my apps.

But let’s leave it at that for now, I confirm the window and white light engulfs my car for a second before vanishing. Another notification warns me that my modifications were successful. From where I’m sitting, my car doesn’t look changed in the slightest. I get out of the modified vehicle to confirm that the outside appearance wasn’t altered at all, even the scratches on the paint were untouched.

“Okay,” I say to myself as I sit back into the driver’s seat. I stare at my key with a bit of apprehension; what if my car explode? At this point, I doubt that MERTICORE was an elaborate ploy to murder me, but something in the back of my head tells me that I should be wary of anything that seems too good to be true.

Or, in this case, impossible to be true.

However, I always was a curious person. So choosing between going back to that boring job or testing if my car can match the performance of million-dollar vehicles is a no-brainer. I turn the ignition and the rumble of the engine shakes the underground parking lot. The reverberation in my ears makes my head spin, but it only lasts for a brief moment.

Instead, my fear is replaced with a wide grin. I never thought I would be at the wheel of a car that made this sort of noise; the urge of going as fast as possible and doing whatever I want is getting stronger by the second. The troubles caused by the work at that shitty accounting firm has washed away, and the possibilities offered by the mysterious MERTICORE ecosystem make me chuckle.

I do not know what I did to deserve such a boon. The possibility of waking up is still here, or maybe I’m into a deep coma or something. But I already checked before and, as troubling and exciting as it is, this is reality. I laugh and take a deep breath before turning on the radio.

My mind is racing with possibilities, opportunities to use my newly found power to improve my life. I barely pay attention to the news; something went wrong in a lab not too far from here. It had something to do with quantum physics or something. I should know, I drive in front of that place every day to go to work.

But enough about science experiments gone wrong. I have experiments to run!

I lean back and close my eyes. I know I can modify existing Objects, let’s call them like that from now on, to change their properties however I see fit. But I also know that the Object Editor somehow interacts with reality via the MERTCORE_API. My eyes open and I gasp; doesn’t this mean that reality is a simulation?

But my doubts are dispelled by my rational mind, or at least I’m attempting to reason away the existential dread that started to set in. The universe somewhat follows a model of causality, and a lot of interactions between elements are, quite frankly, not that useful in the grand scheme of things.

That’s why I’m certain that the universe is not a simulation. No intelligent being capable of computing our entire universe would allow such a mess of inefficiencies.

My reasoning might be flimsy, but that’s enough to not make me despair about the true nature of reality. Instead, let’s get back on track. I can modify Objects, but can I create one? I have all the documentation of the MERTCORE_API loaded into my head, so making a new Object doesn’t seem too unreasonable?

I mean, creating gold bars out of thin air does sound like an interesting prospect.

However, a cursory glance at the documentation and the massive amount of parameters of my car act as a cold shower. Technically, it’s possible to create a brand new Object. But the sheer complexity is staggering. Even with hundreds upon hundreds of interfaces piled onto each other to make the process more palatable, creating a new Object from scratch would take me decades, if not more.

But all is not lost. I can’t create new Objects from scratch, but I should be able to use roundabout methods to do so. For example, let’s take this old pack of gum in my glove box. There’s only two left in the weathered packet, but there’s a parameter in the object editor that is aptly called ‘NumberOfGums’. Changing that to something like twenty makes a bright flash of light appear, which is soon followed by a notification at the corner of my vision.

I’m not even surprised to see that the packet is now full.

This MERTICORE system is truly mysterious, but I have the feeling that I’ll be able to learn a lot from a couple of basic experiments. From what I can tell, It seems like the purpose of an Object matters. I doubt there would be a ‘NumberOfGums’ parameter for my car.

But does that mean that I could write ‘gold bar container’ on any random plastic box and use MERTICORE to create an infinite amount of gold? Something tells me that it isn’t so simple, but it won’t hurt to try. I also check my phone; as luck would have it is wasn’t affected by the Hardware Integration.

I fire up the Object Editor with just a thought and a smirk creeps on my face. As it turns out, the phone has a lot of sub-Objects which corresponds to the apps installed on the device. I randomly choose my banking app, and I can’t help but laugh.

As it turns out, messing with gold bars was just a fool’s errand. Why bother with gold when I can directly adjust the amount of money on my account? I add a couple of zeroes with the Object Editor and launch the app again.

My laughter fills the empty parking lot when I see that my bank account is now very full. I check the operations on my account, but the money wasn’t transferred from anywhere, it just appeared out of thin air. That’s a relief, at least nobody should be able to trace the origin of the money and I won’t be asked questions I can’t answer.

But this train of thoughts kills my enthusiasm. What if someone discovers that I have the MERTICORE system with me? They would do anything to control me. I shudder when I think about all those political prisoners rotting in secret prisons because the government didn’t like them exposing their dirty secrets.

Being turned into a guinea pig for corrupt Congressmen doesn’t sound like a future worth living. My decision is taken; I won’t talk about this to anyone. I wouldn’t want anyone to be kidnapped, or worse, just to get to me.

Secondly, I need to find a way to protect myself if things come to it. I open my glove box again and stare at the Glock 20 pistol in its holster. The accounting firm has a no weapon policy, but I’m still reassured to know that I have it in my car. I know it’s a bit irrational, but I’ve been mugged once and have been carrying a weapon ever since.

I stare at the pistol and a smirk creeps on my face. I unload the magazine and remove a bullet before putting the magazine back into the weapon. A quick test with the Object Editor later and I’ve just created another 10mm Auto cartridge out of thin air.

Infinite ammo unlocked! I lean back and stare at the laptop. I open a text editor and copy the unique ID of my pistol since every single Object in the MERTCORE_API seem to work that way. I then override the update function and add a simple script that checks if the magazine is not full. If that’s the case, it’ll refill automatically. The simple program is then applied to the pistol with the Object Editor, a bright flash of white light confirms that it worked properly.

Infinite ammo is always a nice thing to have; even if the financial aspect of buying ammo is no longer a concern, it’s nice to know that I will always be able to fire no matter what.

Checking the weapon in more detail also tells me that every bullet is an instance of the same type of object, so I might as well edit that while I’m at it. First of all, let’s make the bullets faster. That way they’ll be able to pierce any armor I can think of. I also edit the projectile itself to make it able to penetrate a target more easily and expand into whatever I’m shooting for maximum damage. For the hell of it, let’s also make it explosive by using the powder's properties in the Object and add ridiculous values to the explosion.

To summarize, I made a projectile that flies at ridiculous speeds, penetrate any type of armor, creates massive internal damage, and also explodes inside the target. That sounds ridiculous and completely impossible, but let’s save the changes and see what happens.

Unsurprisingly, the Object Editor warns me of multiple Object failures. I run MERTCORE.Debug() and a bright light engulfs the weapon. A minute or so passes before the light subsides, and the gun looks quite different. For once, the inscription on it that said ‘10 mm Auto’ now says ‘10 mm MERTICORE’. The gun is also slightly longer and heavier, the polymer parts have also been replaced by some sort of metal. I eject the magazine and stare at the new projectiles. The casings are no longer made of brass but with another dark red material that looks like compacted powder. On closer inspection, it’s not metal at all. I inspect the cartridges again and realize that the weapon now fires caseless ammunition; that certainly explains why there isn’t an ejection port anymore.

The projectiles themselves also look like they were pulled out of a science-fiction movie. The bullet is completely black with a green tip which looks like it’s made of emerald. The green parts of the construct are pulsing with energy.

That’s insane, but let’s see if I can make it even better. I try to change a couple of parameters, but a warning stops me. I somehow reached the ‘Edition limits’ for that particular object. I sigh, it looks like I can’t make mini-nukes… That would have been funny despite being impractical.

Nevertheless, I feel like I’m adequately protected now. I wouldn’t want the power to alter reality to fall into the wrong hands.

…Also, having such a powerful handgun is just cool.