Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 8 | Day 14

After quickly finding a pair of gloves – getting a full pair just so that it doesn’t look weird only having a single glove on – I lay them both on my bed and refocus on the new terminal in the palm of my hand, making it activate with just a single thought.

Which is rather convenient.

The home screen of the terminal has several different symbols, and whenever I hover my finger over one of them, a name and basic description appears over them.

I move my finger from one symbol to another, revealing various different applications such as a messaging one, one for calls, one for the internet, and a lot of other basic applications.

That is, until I get to the Code Simulator application, which is usually too processor intensive to run on a simple terminal.

How the hell did he… actually, he’s the leading figure on magi-tech creation. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

I continue searching through the applications before finding quite a few other applications that normally wouldn’t be able to run on a personal, mobile terminal like this. Such as the device to lock down coordinates in a plane when one wants to create a spatial storage spell.

Although from what I can tell, there is also an application on the terminal that tells the doctor exactly where I am.

Which is a rather big invasion of my privacy, but the doctor probably doesn’t care. After all, I’m pretty sure he thinks of me as his lab rat.

And unfortunately, I can’t take the thing out. Considering that it’s inside of… my… hand.

I stare at my hand for a second before looking around my room for something sharp.

Let’s see if I can’t take this thing out of my hand and put it back in whenever I actually need to u-

My thoughts come to a screeching halt as a wave of burning pain radiates throughout my body from the terminal, seemingly fed by my own mana.

I grit my teeth to stop myself from shouting out in pain, only to hear a beeping sound coming out of the screen of the terminal, followed by a robotic voice, “Any attempts to remove the terminal will be met with punishment.”

The pain continues for a couple of seconds, and during the process, I feel all four of my limbs completely unable to move. However, as soon as the pain fades away, I regain my feeling and gasp in a breath of air.

Holy fucking shit… I probably should’ve expected that.

I glance at the terminal in the palm of my hand before sighing and climbing back up to my feet.

How did that thing even know what I was thinking? I’m pretty sure space mana shouldn’t be able to read a person’s thoughts.

Unless the doctor had a Special type mana user help him with making this terminal… but would that man really ask for help?

I narrow my eyes at the thought before reopening the terminal again and continuing to explore its features.

If I can’t take it out and store it somewhere, only putting it back in when I actually have to use it, then I might as well see what secrets it might hold.

Who knows? Maybe it might be possible to hack it somehow.

Even if that’s not very likely.

Within a highly secured lab in The Barren Pass

“Now that he has a taste of the punishment for it, he’ll not likely try that again,” Leodmir says with his hands held behind his back and his eyes glued to Nathan’s parents, who both have furious scowls on their faces.

Neither of the parents say anything, leaving the doctor to turn around and focus on the screen showing Nathan’s face and room.

“The camera will only be active when the subject has the terminal open, so I won’t be able to see and hear everything,” he explains further to the parents before crossing his arms.

All three of them watch as Nathan fiddles with the terminal for several seconds until the doctor uncrosses his arms, turns back to Nathan’s parents, and says, “You two will stay in this building for the foreseeable future. If you try to leave, then you’ll not likely make it to any sort of civilization outside of The Barren Pass.”

Both Julia and Jason Fox gasp in shock at the mention of where they currently are, but the doctor ignores them and continues, “The only reason I saved you in the first place was for the test subject’s mental health, so if you two want to dig your own graves, then go ahead.” He then raises a hand and snaps his fingers, causing several dozen small balls of blue and purple light to appear around them as he adds, “But if you mess up any of my experiments, then you’ll be dealt with harshly. With no concern for my test subject.”

The two continue to scowl at him for a few seconds before Nathan’s father says through gritted teeth, “Understood.”

Doctor Leodmir Archeron snaps his fingers again with a nod, making the spatial mana disappear in a flash, and turns back to the screen while watching Nathan navigate through the features some more in an attempt to familiarize himself with the system before trying to hack it.

‘Let’s see if he can figure it out…’ the man thinks with his eyebrows furrowed slightly at the screen.

Meanwhile, Julia and Jason both make their way out of the room, leaving Leodmir on his own.

Once the door shuts behind them, they look at the robots glowing with a faint purplish blue light passing through the hallways.

“Are these…” Julia begins to mutter, only for Jason to finish, “Magi-tech robots.”

Julia looks between the robots until they all turn a corner in the hallway and leave their sight before she says, “But those shouldn’t even exist…”

Her husband nods his head and adds, “From what I’ve heard, having an AI smart enough to run the robots messes with the magical circuits running through it, and no one has found a way to bypass that problem.” He then turns to look at the closed door behind them and thinks, ‘No one but that man.’