[Memory Update Complete]

“Am I dead?” Dimitri pondered, ignoring the system prompt. He looked around to see himself floating inside a white sphere when a tiny black ball caught his eye. Right under the system prompt, the ball hovered steadily right in front of him, dead center of the sphere.

Seeing nothing else, he tried to reach for the only thing he could - the bizarre black ball. But despite his intense effort, it seemed like he couldn’t even move a finger. He felt that his entire body had become useless as though he were paralyzed from his neck down to his toes.

Looking down, Dimitri noticed another anomaly. He stared at this abnormality, clearly surprised to see his body completely see-through. All throughout this transparent shell, lines of red pulsated resembling blood vessels. The complete absence of his body parts nearly gave him a heart attack, his anxiety level quickly rising at skyrocket speed.

He took a closer look at his grotesque novel body floating near the black ball and system prompt. Without a heart or any body organs at all, he realized that he really wouldn’t be able to physically feel anything. Somehow, what he saw put his mind at ease. Everything he had felt so far, logically speaking, seemed to be all in his mind.

His strange new body, Dimitri presumed, though no longer quite sure, would still have some sort of a human head. Without a mirror, he arrived at this assumption simply by considering the fact that he could still think clearly. His height appeared to be the same, just like before this metamorphosis happened.

A typing sound emanating from the general direction of the small black ball interrupted his examination of his transparent body. He looked up to see a new message appearing out of thin air, one letter at a time.

[Activate Full Features? Yes/No]

“Yes!” Dimitri did not even hesitate, though unsure whether he actually said it out loud or just silently in his head. The only rational response could be “Yes,” given the absence of visible hardware or equipment.

“It worked!” With immense curiosity, he observed the system prompt change. The black ball had remained still, not moving a single inch during the previous two message displays.

[Initializing Host Integration]

Dimitri watched as the progress bar moved, albeit slowly. With no sense of time, he just stood there, staring at the progress bar as it was filling up bit by bit. He waited for a very long time.

***

“This is it!” His eyes sparkled at the one hundred percent sign. After an eternity of waiting, the progress bar finally peaked. But before he could fully celebrate, an error message flashed, turning his overly excited face into a frown.

[Integration Failed]

“[email protected]%K!” He shouted in frustration, finally hearing his highly agitated voice reverberating throughout the entire space. He had been waiting patiently for ages only for the integration process to fail at the end. “[email protected]%K!”

“What do you mean integration failed?” He yelled at the miniature black ball, annoyed at the fact that he wouldn’t be able to see the full features that he had activated. “Is there something or someone in control of this thing?”

But before he could spurt any more profanities, a series of system prompts appeared in quick succession.

[Error: Compatibility Issue - Current Host Too Primitive For Full Integration]

[Possible Fixes: Find a New Host or Upgrade Existing Host]

[Search for a New Host? Yes/No]

“Current Host? Primitive? Compatibility Issue? New host? Upgrade?” He murmured over and over, his tone barely audible even to himself, trying to make sense of his recent experiences. His present situation, completely veiled in mystery, was becoming more and more unfathomable. “Is this another nightmare?”

“What does it mean when it asks me to search for a new host?” He asked no one in particular, glancing around him to check for any clues. He could not see anything or anyone else out there besides the ball and the still unanswered system prompt. The whole place remained unnervingly quiet, the black ball staying still all this time.

“Yes!” He irritably gave in, still glaring at the last system prompt. His mind seemed to be on the verge of exhaustion. Everything that had happened so far had tired him out.

From the moment he woke up during that murder in Central Square, he had been under extreme mental and physical duress this whole time. He felt trapped in an endless rollercoaster ride - from being accused of crimes he knew he did not commit - to being subjected to a barrage of agonizing tests aka torture. The full range of events that finally led him to where he is right now had tested him to the very limits of his core.

[Searching For New Host]

Dimitri sighed heavily, looking at the new progress bar, his expectations now a bit less optimistic than before. He simply stood there, still completely unable to move. He kept on thinking, biding his time.

“Is everything in this dimension even real?” He stared at the progress bar, now stuck at fifty percent. “What is this reality I’m in right now, exactly? What is that black ball for? Why do I keep seeing all these system prompts?”

“Most importantly, why have all these things happened to me?” He knew full well that he wouldn’t be able to arrive at any satisfactory answers right now. Everything since Central Square had filled his mind with a continuous stream of questions, one by one, without any plausible answers. “Who am I exactly?”

***

[Connection Failed]

“Hmm… What does ‘connection failed’ even mean?” Dimitri mumbled dryly, feeling his already knitted brows creasing further.

Despite lowering his expectations, he still had that lingering hope for something positive to happen. Unfortunately, his luck still has not turned. Nothing positive has ever happened so far. He seemed to be living the life of a cursed man, one adversity at a time.

Before he could think any further, another error message came into view.

[Error: Mainframe Network Inaccessible]

“What mainframe network?” He wondered, fully aware of the absence of wires resembling some kind of network. “Why do we even need to connect to a mainframe network?”

“Is this thing broken?” He realized that nothing had worked so far. He began to think that being here was simply a waste of his time. “How do I get out of here?”

While trying to think of a way out, he noticed the black ball making three quick unusual beeps. This captured his attention, interrupting his train of thought. A series of system prompts followed.

[Enabling Limited Function Mode]

[Initializing Limited Function Mode]

[Limited Function Mode Activated]

[Warning: Usage Restriction Due To Limited Function Mode Activation]

[System Availability Duration: Unknown]

“So this thing even has a time limit?” He started to doubt the reliability of this strange system. “Nothing has happened since the first system prompt. I am almost certain nothing will happen now or ever.”

“How long will I be able to use this system? What are its limited features?” He did not see any specific time limit or features displayed.

[Access Current Host Memory? Yes/No]

“Yes!” He made this choice as a wild guess. “This must be one of its limited features.”

He saw another progress bar popping up from out of nowhere. Despite his pessimism, nearly certain that nothing works, he sincerely hoped to find all the answers he had been looking for this time around.

[Accessing Current Host Memory]