While Daron was in deep sleep, his bare foot accidentally hit the coffee on the table, which had become ice-cold by this point in the night due to the Air conditioning, and splattered across the table, including his foot and laptop. Daron himself had not felt too cold due to the rather thick, yet comfortable clothes he was wearing, that would normally be worn by kings.

At the very moment that the cold coffee reached the laptop, and made contact with his feet, lightning struck.

But the lightening rod that was the product of science fixed above his penthouse room had absorbed all the electricity and grounded the charge effectively.

Nothing happened to Daron at that moment, who was enjoying some well-deserved sleep.

However, the very next moment, another lightning bolt stuck the lightening rod and was completely absorbed once again. As though mocking the heavens, the marvel of man, the concrete building stood tall and Daron stayed alive.

A few seconds passed in silence before a large flock of bird appeared flying above the building tower, and began to bend, slam into, and bite at the steel metal rod poking into the sky.

Nearly 10 minutes later, the lightening rod, and all other metal objects had been removed from the building’s terrace.

*Rumble*

Another bolt struck, but was directed towards the lightening rod of another very near building and absorbed into the ground once more.

Just as the sky was about to rain down lightening like rain itself, the 59-year-old Daron, whose parents had passed away peacefully from old age in their sleep, and who had no other relatives left, no other attachments other than his fantasies passed on through his novels, took a deep breath in.

Suddenly, he lost control of his tongue, who moved along with the air and inverted itself like a U-turn sign facing into his trachea, and blocking it completely.

Daron’s eyes opened wide from the shock of not being able to breath, but no matter how much he tried, he could not regain control of his tongue and bring it to move to let air in.

The little air he had successfully taken in before being blocked by his tongue did not last him much longer, and Daron collapsed in his chair due to lack of oxygen. Naturally, it took him a while longer to die, and a while even longer to officially become brain dead.

The stormy scene above his building suddenly vanished as though satisfied with the outcome.

Daron did not know what happened to him. One second he was chocking from his own tongue, the next moment he could not see anything, nor could he hear anything except two rhythmic thumping sounds like those of a heartbeat. He could only feel that he was within some sort of liquid, and he could not BREATH!

However, he soon learned that he did not require breathing.

‘What is this? Have I broken past my mortal flesh and gone through the barrier of requiring mortal activities like eating, breathing, and sleeping?’

However, his thoughts were proven wrong as he suddenly felt a rush of nutrients entering his body… through his stomach?

‘What have they done to me? I eat through my stomach directly? What is happening?’

Suddenly, he heard a sound inside his mind.

[Reboot initialising…]

[Correcting errors…]

[Failure in correcting all errors…]

[Estimating time to till correction of all errors…]

[Estimated time to till correction of all errors… 2221.5 days]

[Initialising backup functions…]

[Preserving 80% computational capabilities for correcting errors]

[Back up system starting up…]

Suddenly, Daron heard a sound inside his head he was incredibly familiar with. It was the usual sound he had pre-installed on his laptop in. place of the stock Alienware start-up soundtrack.

Daron was slightly shocked as he just waited, since apparently that was all he could do. Trying to move around would result in extreme resistance from his own limbs, and even when they did move, it would only result in him flailing around in the thick liquid.

[Back up System start up complete]

[Hello Master Daron. Welcome back.]

‘Sirious?’ He thought in his mind.

Daron remembered this as well. It was the sound he had created for the AI assistant on the laptop, which he had bought for personal use from apple, and could only use it for a single device due to legal considerations.

Daron liked the idea of Artificial technology since it was something that seemed rather close to magic. Magic’s ultimate goal in most of his fantasies was to either reach immortality, reach the pinnacle of power, or to protect others. Creating life by yourself in a way other than reproduction was an effective step towards reaching immortality, therefore the reason for his fascination with AIs.

He spent quite the amount of money to buy Apple’s assistant Siri X for personal uses in his own laptop. Since he had made quite the connections somehow through his long years of writing novels, Apple actually agreed to sell him a single use Siri for a non-apple device against their company policy. He had then adjusted the setting of it to suit his tastes, just like he did with the rest of his precious laptop.

[Yes, Master Daron. It is me, Sirious. To answer your previous question, it appears that nutrients are being sent into your blood directly through some sort of connection. Taking into consideration all the conditions you are in currently, there is a 54% chance that this is due to the Umbilical cord that connects the mother of the human race to their biological offspring. There is a 25% chance that this has occurred due to an operation being conducted on your entire body using advanced technology that does not exist to the knowledge of the general public. There is a 16% chance that these are one of your fantasies, a very strange fantasy where magic has not been created thus far, or has not been discovered by you yet. There is a 3% chance you are being experimented on by advanced technology beyond the level of the human race. The other options are too low to be considered.]

Daron was just stumped for words at this point, since he could definitely not speak, nor do much of anything other than thinking.