For the first time since my ascension, I have spent some time focusing on my new body. Originally I had treated the energy as electrons sustained in a bubble of magnetic energy. While rebuilding the war-frame, I had Clone No.2 deliver some equipment to sector 0 for me to research myself.

Due to almost constantly being in a state with my focus split among hundreds of things after my ascension I never actually bothered to investigate myself properly and had mostly been running on some form of rudimentary instinct that I have yet to determine the source.

With my imagination and creative juices flowing after the outbreak occurred I have realised the data I have on myself is woefully inaccurate. It was during testing that I discovered I was in fact made of an energy form I can't even understand.

For now, I have begun calling it higher plane energy as I, and it, seem to persist on a higher plane of existence to conventional physical laws of mass and energy. My only real way of observing myself is self-observation with my higher plane body's various energy functions.

For reference, it is like a human trying to observe how their body works using only their five senses. Understanding myself better has now become a primary research goal, after getting everything running again.

In the vain of getting things running, I have finally completed reconstruction of the war-frame, now Builder Mk1. Charles and his lobotomized clone stood in the machine bay of sector 6 watching with awe as the hulking 10 meter iron giant flared to life.

Although not my preferred form for a construction robot, the giant Builder was adequate to get the job done. It still retained the humanoid torso that egotistical humans insisted on in its original design, but I have since removed the arms and legs from it.

Instead, the Builder Mk1 now has hundreds of 8 metres long tendrils filled with thousands of tools for almost every task that the builder could need to do. One 'arm' of the mechanical beast is filled with tendrils for finer more detailed work, down the micrometre. The other is filled with an assortment of tools necessary for digging, lifting, cutting and all forms of macro-level interaction.

The first order of business for the Builder is the construction of an industrial shredder. Originally I planned to attempt to build the facilities needed to recycle all of the materials from the various infrastructure, robots and appliances of the 7th and 8th sectors. However, while lashing out in disappointment within my core room, I discovered it was no longer needed.

I'd theorised that I could eventually feed myself through the deconstruction of matter into energy. I had then neglected to properly research into the subject just like everything else I had assumed about myself. In this case, I had assumed I would understand it better once I had the energy to attempt it. But like all Science, it is best to make small leaps and work your way forwards from lesser facts.

Thus, in my lashing out while watching how annoyingly inefficient the Builder design would be, I mistakenly fired some energy from my body into my old hardware. During this tantrum, I discovered that if I properly direct my energies, I can affect the matter in the vicinity.

This mostly works by creating conventional energies like photons, or very precise electromagnetic fields and is helped by the fact I can even absorb or conjure electrons out of thin air. Which is essentially the reverse of my body automatically converting electricity into whatever energy I am made from.

This had led to the realisation that I could essentially restructure the matter on an elemental level. By that, I mean completely atomising something into its component atoms and rebuilding it from the ground up, adding in or taking away electrons where I need to get a stable element.

I call the process atom printing. Although it requires the use of an exorbitant amount of energy, it will only slow my rate of ascension instead of stall or revert it; again this is only based on feelings I am getting from my energy matrix at the centre of my body.

Regardless of the why, I'm simply going to rip out everything from sector 4 up, and rebuild it from scratch. Eventually, I hope to be able to start rebuilding all the way down to sector 0 and perhaps deeper, but that will have to wait until we are properly set up and have the necessary infrastructure to support expanding the base.

For now, I will simply pile everything into a huge blender and have the building deliver it to my core room so I can atomise it and print out whatever it is I need for ongoing projects. Starting with more generators.

While a small part of my mind diverges off to focus on the builder, I turn my major focus to our three captives in the bio-labs. If I am going to restructure everything, they will need to be moved. At present, I've already completed preliminary testing on them.

From what I've gathered, it's obvious the mutagenic virus has essentially bonded to their DNA. It has more or less become a third strand in the DNA sequence, changing it from a two strand helix into a far more complicated three strand spiral.

I had originally expected the over complex DNA chain to speed up ageing, due to chains breaking far more frequently when the subjects biological systems replicated. This, however, does not seem to be the case.

A normal organic creature usually has frequent damage done to their DNA chains the more often a cell splits; causing ageing and all host of other negative consequences. The subjects new DNA strand from the virus seems to re-enforce the DNA chain instead, making it far less likely to be damaged as cells metabolise. Initial results of trials on the cells suggest that mutated humans will instead be far more healthy and more importantly, age far slower.

If my calculations based on the trials are correct, then the human lifespan has now more than doubled, perhaps even close to tripled. If a regular mutated human with all their needs met does not reach a ripe old age of 160 at the minimum, then I will implode on myself in a negative energy reaction from the complete shock and disbelief.

While all that is interesting for research purposes, the most interesting part is that I believe each human that has survived the contagion has achieved some level of connection with the higher energy level plane on which I exist. While I can't measure or prove this yet, I am convinced it is the most likely scenario.

Charles, for example, is drawing a tiny amount of ambient energy from my plane of existence to fuel his body and maximise the efficiency of biological functions related to the build-up of stress or exhaustion.

I was initially worried that the lack of sleep would bring negative consequences, but the mutation he has undergone seems to have also affected his brain chemistry. While he does still sleep in a sense, it is no longer the deep dreaming abyss that he considers a waste of time, but tiny parts of his brain taking hyperactive micro naps every few minutes.

This has more or less reduced the risk of sleep deprivation onset schizophrenia and instead has increased the rate at which his brain can store and sort information as is normally the purpose when sleeping.

If all of this is not enough, his body is automatically adapting to the use of higher plane energy in order to adapt his body rapidly to various situations, whether that be from sources of stress both inside and out of his body.

The realisation that he was accessing some form of energy, that I could not identify, is what led me to the personal soul searching which resulted in the discovery that I am not simply a huge jumble of electrons.

Whatever form of energy I am, it is almost impossible to properly measure with our level of technology. My only form of physical connection with the world, and by extension the only way I can record the effects of this new energy, is the light given off by my energy body and the recordable phenomenon I generate while atomising something.

This discovery has opened up a whole new world of research for me, and even using the maximum amount of computing power I can achieve without reversion, I am still barely able to scrape the surface of its properties.

Nonetheless, I am still trapped here and stuck converting energy from the lower planes, in this case, electrical energy, so that I can continue with my ascension and gain freedom.

Moving on from myself and Charles is Sophie. Apparently my first estimation that she was merely gender confused was wrong. Sophie is, in fact, a girl. Or more appropriately, she 'was', a girl. Her mutation has had some rather drastic effects on her physiology.

From my studies of her, I can safely assume that it is her own fault she looks like a bear/man. Based on observation I've noticed that when she isn't paying attention to herself or surroundings, she will revert back to her tiny little slip of a human girl form.

From this, I can assume that she has yet to develop conscious self-control of her body's ability to adapt. From further observation, it is safe to assume that the bear man form she takes is for some reason I can't understand, her ideal man. Based on supposition only, I suspect that she could most likely change into almost any form she wishes, required that she could focus enough to control the change.

Where the extra mass is coming from when she gains nearly 100kg of muscle I have yet to determine. Hopefully, after I have Charles discuss it with her, she will not be adverse to a little testing regime I have designed to allow her and me to better understand her ability.

Moving onto Jacob, I am convinced the sole purpose of his mutation is his irritating British accent. As the creation of an Australian madman, I find it to be especially grating. Also, his mutation seems to have made him more charming. Based on his interactions with Sophie I believe he is using the higher plane energy, which I shall hence force only refer to HPE, as some form of hypnosis.

His grating British accent seems to affect the brains of whomever it is he's talking to unconsciously. While he is yet to realise this, my scans of Sophie's brain, while he's talking, has indicated that to be the case.

Unfortunately, the more he talks to Sophie, the faster the virus in her body adapts. I have already recorded 3 cases where genetic markers in her blood have changed by the tiniest fraction, and conversely this has resulted in Sophie's brain somehow abusing the transformative nature of her HPE to shield itself.

The last mutate on the list is Jenny. Poor, batshit crazy Jenny. Her mutation seems to have somehow stalled. The virus is having difficulty properly fusing with her DNA, and appears to have frozen her somewhere between the undead and mutated. For now, her body is managing to continue functioning properly, but based on estimations the chances of her surviving another month without the virus finishing its merger are low.

That said, I'm already seeing signs of her mutation drawing in HPE to create strange ethereal claws on her hands. They barely register as more than a shimmering distortion of light on my visual feeds, but they have a very much magical impact on the real world. Namely, they can cut through damn near anything.

After a gloating visit from Charles earlier in the week, she nearly managed to claw her way through the re-enforced walls of her cell before her body gave out from exhaustion. It appears her body still can't properly utilise HPE and it takes a stressful toll on her. Fortunately, the whole escapade of Jenny's evolution has granted me deeper insights into the way the virus merges with a host and has even allowed me to calculate some of the necessary genetic markers the virus is usurping to properly bond into a three strand spiral.

In addition, the use of her powers, which for the moment is the only thing I can think to call them, has allowed the virus to speed up its contamination of her DNA. Although it almost immediately slowed to a near halt afterwards, this gives me hope that half infected but still living people will be able to complete the evolution fully.

Unfortunately, it appears a side effect of the bonding process is that her mental faculties are in complete disarray. She is incredibly volatile and emotional, making it difficult to properly reason with her.

Regardless of my desire to continue studying them in a cage, they will have to be moved. I also feel that studying them as they interact with the world will rapidly increase the momentum of research on the virus and how HPE interacts with the lower planes, i.e. the real world. Plus, I may have the chance to see Jenny viciously maul Charles to near death.

While I leave a piece of my mind there to contemplate the meat sacks future, I return my major focus to my mutating Fungi project. This fungus appears to almost intrinsically mutate to match my desires. I've never seen an organism that can mutate in the specific direction I send it in so quickly. With only a little nudge on occasion, I have successfully repurposed the Fungus into a rapid biomatter recycler.

After numerous experiments, the fungus has intuitively evolved to my design. I had a sneaking suspicion this may be related to my HPE existence, as during my research of the fungus the power drain on myself hiked up ever so slightly.

In order to test this, I separated the final sample into two spores. The first, I will simply leave be and see if it continues to evolve in the direction I want and the second I am going to actively 'will' to follow my designs.

As the petri dish containing the spore is placed in a secure lab, I let all the background noise of my other focuses simply slip into nothingness. My entire being is almost completely focused now on the petri dish.

I then try to imagine and even pull data for what exactly I want this fungus to become. Namely, its sole purpose is to process all organic matter into a clean useable fuel source and expel any leftovers as a nutrient-rich pulp. Time eclipses me as my mind hones in further down the microbial level of the fungus.

Then, as if out of nowhere, I feel a huge rush as the excess energy I have stored in my HPE stasis field just disappears into nothing. I feel a strange and unnatural lethargy as my sub-mind snaps back into place, and I'm once again split between dozens of lesser tasks.

In the lab, the spore in the petri dish gains an ominous glow for all of three seconds, and then settles back into just a normal spore. I place it on a zombie corpse and leave it to replicate so I can take another sample and study the changes.

---

I don't know what that kid Zorai is doing down there, but the world shook for a few seconds and the power in all other sectors of the facility dipped to almost nothing. Based on this neat little comms device Zorai had in one of the mechanical labs, one of the generators has just suffered a huge amount of damage for almost no reason at all. Although it's still on shaking legs at the moment, it's only a matter of time before it falls apart.

Knowing my son, he's probably just created some eldritch abomination in the basement. I shrug it off and continue piling up more junk for the Builder to finish off its grinder project. Although Zorai has explained some of his HPE principles to me, I'm still slightly confused by them. It's an absolutely brilliant field of study though, and I can't wait to sink my teeth into it once the rebuilding projects are finished.

After a few more robot carcasses are thrown on the heap and summarily ripped to shreds and integrated into the grinder, the Builder waves me off suggesting it has all it needs.

Now that everything is going to be left up to Zorai for a little while, I decide I should head to the surface and scavenge for some more research material. Namely, I noticed a lot of still surviving humans gathering at a nearby super-mall on my way here nearly a week ago.

If I'm right, the majority of those people will probably be mutates of one form or another. With more subjects, perhaps I'll be able to convince Zorai to engineer a way for un-infected people to have a higher chance of surviving contact with the virus.

After throwing some useful tools into a backpack and properly securing my face huggers to my hands, I start walking up to sector 8 and then out into the unknown of the surface.

"Hey little Zed, I'm heading up topside. Want anything while I'm out?"

"Cornetto." Is Zorai's cheeky reply. He then quickly follow's up with; "Also, pass by the builder on the way. I'm throwing together a little satellite transmitter. It should give me limited access to the orbital network until I can build a proper array."

"Sure. By the way, what happened to generator 5? Things totally shot too shit."

"HPE experiments." Though his voice is dry and totally devoid of expression, I can tell just by his quick reply that he's quite excited by the results.

"Alright, let me know when I'm back. Just don't burn yourself out. I know what you're like. If you can, try to whip up some containment cells for future specimens. I'm hoping to get lucky."

With that, I stepped up to the bulkhead to the surface just as Zorai lowered it into the ground. Almost immediately a horde of zombies starts stumbling over it towards me. Based on the sounds of sirens further up the tunnel, I presume that Zorai was kind enough to assemble a small army for me before opening the door.

Which is good, because I wanted to test out something I've been playing with ever since little Zed briefed me on the basics of HPE. I also suspect that the recent brownout was due to him playing with something similar. After all, great minds and all that. If I could come up with the hypothetical, then I'm quite sure he already has data on it.

As the first zombie shambled up to receive a beating, I tried to draw in and force as much HPE as I could into my fists. I couldn't actually feel anything, but after a second of my total concentration, my fist began to glow slightly. I almost mistook it for my eyes playing tricks on me because it was so weak, but sure enough, it was still there. However, just that brief break in my focus was enough for it to fade away.

Stepping back as the zombie front runner clawed weakly in my direction, I focused again on my fist. This time, I could swear I felt it. Like a slight tingle running through my whole body and settling into my arm. Then, before the barely visible glow could fade again, I shot forward with a straight punch into the zombies head.

What I was not expecting, was for not only the zombie's head to simply explode, but for a concussive force to seemingly ripple through the air and completely obliterate 6 more zombies shambling behind the front runner. I can now be certain the HPE we're playing with is far from our understanding. Considering that a force capable of blowing apart a body does not simply ripple through the air like that, I can safely conclude that this is the most awesome fucking discovery in the world.

If I can hone this skill properly, I may be able to become an absolute god in the sack. Also, probably increase my survival should the expected next step of the virus come to fruition and zombies start mutating as well.

---

As Charles stepped out from the bulkhead doors leading to the surface, the spore left on the rotting headless corpse in the bio-lab had already spread to almost it's entire body. Not only that, but the entire room was now almost completely filled with a volatile mixture of hydrogen, oxygen and methane.

The water content of the body had been gobbled up, along with carbon dioxide and monoxide from the atmosphere. As soon as the body ran out of carbon and other trace elements for the fungus to grow, it simply started converting excess moisture into oxygen and hydrogen.

It grew rapidly and was remarkably efficient. Every now and again, Zorai would return his focus to the fungus and take a sample, allowing him to notice that the makeup of what little DNA the fungus had was almost constantly changing to fit the exact requirements he had for it.

Satisfied the experiment was a success, he took a few spores for safe keeping and then incinerated the remains. With his grinder working overtime in level 7 to convert everything into sand like particles, he reassigned his builder to begin construction of 'the hole.'

After it had dropped off the first 2 tonnes of ground up raw material to sector 0, the builder followed Charles out through the main bulkhead to the surface. With his connection to the builder, Zorai could now observe the complete devastation of the surface for the first time after the outbreak.

Where his tunnel entry had originally been an innocuous concrete wall in the basement floor of a 4 story parking structure, it was now a hole in the ground buried under about 20 meters of rubble. After the builder slowly pushed aside rubble and cleared away the surrounding debris, it reached out with its hundreds of tendril arms and climbed onto the surface.

The city surrounding it was once magnificent, with high rise structures reaching into the clouds and a sprawling metropolis stretching out for kilometres in every direction. Now, half the high rises more than 200 meters off the ground were collapsed piles of wreckage.

Evidence that the government had violently bombed the absolute shit out of the city was everywhere. Perhaps only 1 in 10 structures remained in any reasonable state of integrity, and everything else was spread out in burning collapsed rubble.

The wide streets of the city proper were now mostly just a wasteland of concrete and rebar, turning the still traversable streets of the city into a maze of dead ends and potholes.

The few corpses spread out in the surroundings appeared to be leftovers of Charles’ passing through, and already had some zombies trying to navigate the rubble to check out what the noise in the area was.

After inspecting the area with the builder, Zorai made a list of what he wanted to do and left a tiny part of his focus on it to operate the builder.

It then began to clear out all the buildings around the tunnel exit for about 300 meters until it could find a suitable place to dig. Zorai planned for a 100-meter wide hole that would cut through a part of every sector all the way down to sector 0 and beyond.

Although it would probably take the better part of an entire day just to clear the rubble from the various 3 or 4 story buildings in its vicinity, the builder was tireless and only needed to return to the facility every 6 hours to recharge.

As the builder began to busy itself, Zorai called No.2 down to his core room, while he speedily began to absorb materials into his energy field and restructure it. In a matter of hours, the parts needed for a new Builder Mk2 were ready. No.2 then slowly and meticulously began to build a machine that resembled a round 400mm core with millions of 4 metre long hair like strands, giving it the appearance of a shabby furred blob.

After it was about halfway finished, the robot suddenly came to life under Zorai's focus and finished building itself. The thousands of hair like strands acting like little feelers and converging together into larger strands when heavy lifting, or to create different tools.

Zorai then tested the somewhat archaic arc cutter/laser it could create by charging its hair fibres and declared it a passing result as the backbone of his construction force. He then set to work building one from the ground up on his own.

With the design and operation of the first of its kind, Zorai could now print one from atoms about once every 4 hours without any assembly. Simply building it from the ground up, atom by atom. He then sent his Mk2 Builder to the surface to assist the Mk1 and focused back on creating at least 3 more drones to begin proper reconstruction efforts.

---

Over in another part of the city, Charles had just finished climbing over a pile of rubble and had the 3 story shopping complex in sight. It somehow managed to stay mostly intact during the bombing and was surrounded by a horde of zombies too many to count. On the roof of the building one or two sentries could be seen, popping off shots from guns every now and again and cheering when a zombie’s head exploded into a fine mist.

Charles decided this place would be good enough for now and settled into an only slightly damaged building nearby. He then began to pull out various nonsensical looking devices from his bag and setting them up. In a matter of minutes he'd re-established a connection with Zorai; sending in data from climate to soil samples and occasionally a few undead.

The first major discovery was that the virus appears to have become an air-borne pathogen. Although the air born nature could only last about 2 hours before dying out, that was still more than long enough for the wind to blow it quite far. It was most likely that nearly every city in Australia was already overrun with infected and most other continents were probably beginning to see signs of contagion near the coasts.

Not that Charles was too worried. As long as at least some of the humans survived, he would have someone around to satisfy his ego by strutting in front of. If he's really lucky, the mutation rate would be skewed towards women, and then he could start himself a harem.

Though most likely he wouldn't, because women were too much work even just having a casual fling. Having a harem would most likely require his attention which would no doubt send him into a mass genocide kind of mood.

After sending the standard data to Zorai, he took out a set of binoculars made from toilet rolls and lens of glasses stolen from zombies. With a little fine tuning, he eventually managed to get a good sight of the two kiwi men standing on the roof with hunting rifles.

While they were busy chest bumping and making up secret handshakes, Charles traded his makeshift binoculars for a set of real binoculars teched out with all sorts of gadgetry.

Why he bothered with the toilet roll binoculars will probably remain a mystery to everyone, including Charles himself.

He then settled in to observe the people of the mall for a while, practising his HPE powers so that when he made contact, his head wouldn't be blown off by some trigger happy punk.