“Not long left, I’m sorry."

Words. Formless, shapeless words.

“No, he won’t suffer. There’s nothing left to suffer.”

Words without origin, without meaning, just blips in oblivion.

“Goodbye, son. And good work. I love you.”

He opened his eyes.

Grey stone confronted him, coarse, unworked rock slick with green slime, which he could see easily even without any apparent light source. In the corner of his eyes, flashing on and off, over and over, were the words: “GOTO START” in electric blue.

He raised his hands, ghostly white. Had he always been so pale? His face felt smooth to the touch, smooth and-

He didn’t have a mouth. Or a nose. Or even hair!

Looking down, he saw that there were a lot of things he didn’t have, including clothes, or anything to cover with them, standing on a metal platform covered in unknown runes.

Was he even human anymore?

He stopped.

Had he been human before?

Trying to step from the platform almost knocked him from his feet as something tugged sharply at the back of his skull. Some quick probing found two thick cables which he yanked free, leaving no trace they’d ever been on the featureless skin of his scalp. The text in the corner of his eye vanished.

“...”

He couldn’t even talk to himself. He supposed that was fine, if depressing. You weren’t supposed to talk to strangers, and he definitely qualified.

Dropping the cables with a clank of metal on metal he stepped free and turned to observe. Apparently it wasn’t a platform so much as a tube, with a collapsed tunnel in the ceiling as though it had burrowed down from above. The front half of the tube was open to reveal a back panel thick with the same wiring as had been plugged into his head. A single monitor showed two words in the same electric blue font.

“ATLAS ONLINE.”

Atlas? He rubbed his shapeless chin. Was that him?

It wasn’t as though there was much competition, so he guessed Atlas it was. He reached in and tapped the monitor on the off-chance that it was a touch screen. The monitor flashed, though the words didn’t change, and a metal panel beneath slid open to reveal two round holes with pictures of a hand beside each.

Well this couldn’t possibly go badly. Shrugging off the urge to put the wrong hands in, Atlas reached into the openings.

He wished he hadn’t. A thousand needles pierced his hands, locking them in place as the interior of the machine grew hotter and hotter. Atlas couldn't even scream as the pain reached a crescendo.

The monitor let out a cheerful ping and the screen turned blue, new text flashing across it.

ERROR

NEURAL INTERFACE NOT FOUND. THIS MACHINE HAS PERFORMED AN ILLEGAL OPERATION AND MUST NOW SHUT DOWN.

The monitor went dark, and the agony in Atlas’ hands subsided into merciful numbness. He tried to pull free, unsuccessfully at first. His arms felt as heavy as lead as he dragged them bit by bit from the holes, taking part of the machine with them. Black metallic bracers bounded his wrists, a screen on the left one, a pair of buttons on the right, and his hands were now clad in armoured gauntlets, only his white fingertips still uncovered.

No wonder he’d felt so heavy. Atlas wriggled his fingers. Despite the weight the material moved, and felt, like a second skin. Probably just as well. He prodded and pulled at the contraptions but couldn’t find any way to get them loose. There were no straps or seams of any kind, it was as though they’d always been part of him.

The screen on the bracer flickered to life as his fingertip brushed past, though it showed nothing except two coloured bars, one blue and one red. After a few moments of anticipatory staring it turned dark again. Atlas furrowed a hairless brow. He poked it a few more times, but apart from showing the two bars it did nothing else.

Alright… Atlas switched arms to press at the buttons on the other bracer. One did nothing, but with the second a green beam flashed from his wrist, briefly illuminating the machine beside him. Blue words appeared in the corner of his vision.

SCANNING LEVEL TOO LOW

MORE DATA REQUIRED

The screen on his other bracer turned on of its own accord, blue bar now slightly shorter than before.

So it was an energy meter? Did it- Sure enough, after a few moments the bar began to fill until it flashed, back at maximum again. Atlas tilted his head before turning to look around the cave for something else to “scan”. Rocks?

SCANNING LEVEL TOO LOW.

The sandy floor of the cave?

SCANNING LEVEL TOO LOW.

His foot?

SCANNING LEVEL TOO LOW.

The… other bracer?

NESTING ERROR, REALITY STACK OVERFLOW.

OPERATION CANCELLED.

That one drained his blue bar entirely. Atlas would have sighed if he could. Maybe he should have left the wires in? There was probably a manual for something he’d missed out on. Atlas hovered his finger over the scan button, waiting for the blue bar to refill as he pondered what else to scan.

Wait a minute. Wasn’t there some slime on the wall? Maybe he could scan-

As Atlas turned to look for the slime, it launched itself into his chest with a rubbery smack. He fell backwards from the unexpected blow. On his bracer the red bar dropped by a third.

The slime splatted onto the floor before him, two black eyes peering up at him from a mucousy puddle before it pulled itself back into gumdrop shape.

Was he seriously being attacked by sentient snot? Atlas threw himself to the side as it launched towards him again, and it slapped into the metal tube behind him leaving a shallow dent as it trickled back to the floor.

He staggered to his feet, body moving through some half remembered instinct or muscle memory as he settled into a loose stance, armoured hands held up against another attack. The slime launched again, fast but predictable. Atlas leaned to the side and it sailed past, bouncing across the floor. So he could dodge it easily enough, but what was he supposed to do to stop it? It certainly didn’t seem to mind smacking itself into things.

Atlas looked around for an escape route. The collapsed tunnel upwards wasn’t an option. Well, maybe for the slime, but that hardly helped him.

There. From his current position he could make out a small opening in the far wall of the cavern. If he could run past the slime he could-

It launched while he was thinking. Atlas hurriedly raised his arms, absorbing the impact. The red bar only dropped a sixth, leaving it half full.

Well, blocking helped, but the bar - his health points? - wasn’t recovering, so three more hits like that and he’d be dead anyway. And what if there were more slimes down that tunnel? He’d just end up surrounded, or worse, they’d combine to make some giant super slime or something.

Atlas ducked, the slime sailed over his head.

No, he was going to have to kill it or stop it somehow. What were the weak points of slimes again? Traditionally you were supposed to shoot the core, right? Shoot the jelly, expose the eye…At least if it was a boss fight. And he had a gun.

Where were these memories coming from?

Atlas’ vision crackled with static as he clutched his, apparently earless, head. A moment later the slime slammed into his jaw sending him spinning to the ground. His skull cracking against the metal side of the tube jarred him back to his senses.

One sixth of a bar left.

Did it even have a core?

The slime glared at him with its two black eyes as it reformed. He quickly pushed up to a stance once more.

Well, here went nothing.

The slime leapt. Atlas dropped to one knee and thrust his hand up into its underside as it passed. The slime exploded into goo, coating his head and shoulders with sticky residue. Atlas opened his hand, the slime’s two eyes nestling on his palm.

MATERIALS LOGGED

The orbs disappeared. Atlas let out a fist pump in triumph before casting a suspicious glance around the cave for any more slimes approaching through the creature’s goopy remains.

Oh no.

He’d forgotten to scan the bloody thing.