[Kardian’s point of view]

“Conquering at 100%. Servant Host Body has been acquired. Beginning Self-Healing process. Beginning body schematic analysis. Purging unusable nanobots.” Xerya announced a few minutes after the whole process began.

It took longer than expected to get the final 10% done, and the reason for this, according to her, was because of the complications that appeared during the software reinstalling process on the captured nanobots. Depending on the situation, she had to either do a clean reinstall after a complete format the drives or modify and reconfigure the existing programs. If it was the first, then all the data that was stored in the nanobots was essentially lost, but it wasn’t as if there was something significant to gather from those reprogrammed either.

From what she told me, it seemed as though the error which resulted in the current version of this Mutated Cyborg was enough to lead to a corruption of most of the initial commands and files within the nanobots. What Xerya couldn’t figure out was why something like this happened in the first place, since if there was an error in the program or if the current host deviated from the original schematic, the Zombolik was supposed to make some automatic corrections.

“So, were you able to find out anything else about this cyborg now?” I asked her.

“Once I analyze this body, I will know more. So far, from the data that remained within the nanobots in this Nano-Z, I gathered that this is a special project military unit. If so, it is possible that either the original modifications of the body or some other event may have led to the current state of these nanobots.” she explained.

“Defenses against nanobot intrusion, well that’s something I would expect from the military, to be honest.” I shrugged.

It didn’t seem like such a farfetched idea for me, but Xerya seemed surprised in a way.

“I will analyze the data further and then reach a more satisfying conclusion. I suggest that you should use this time so you can gather the cores of the Nano-Z present in this building.”

“Alright, but do I need to keep the ugly and grumpy there nearby at all times just so you don’t lose that connection thing?” I asked as I pointed at the Mutated Nano-Z on the floor.

“Negative. I have full control over the body’s motor functions. I will be following you at a reasonable distance.” and as she said this, the body got up and looked back at me with a pair of eyes that seemed to lack the previous anger, hunger, and craziness.

Now, this thing... it, her... seemed to be more understanding, but that was probably just Xerya who was controlling her.

“Well then, if you would be so kind as to give me a little help, I can barely stand on my own two feet.”

I barely got back up, but as soon as I did, I could feel the energy coming back to me and all the nanites that were previously used for hacking those within the Mutated Nano-Z were now doing their main job again.

“Now THIS is better!” I said as I flexed my hands and then activated the retractable blade.

“All systems have been restored.” Xerya announced.

“Thanks.”

After this, I went out of the room and headed towards the stairs. When I went down, I noticed that the path to the first floor had been blocked by a bunch of furniture that was piled up there. The Nano-Z behind it were trying to get through, but they couldn’t do it. There were around 20 or so over there. I chose to ignore them and head up to the next floor.

There was a bunch of furniture here as well, but nothing that I couldn’t pull out of the way. The survivors must have thought that they could wait here for things to calm down before proceeding further or even wait for rescue. Seeing how there was all that blood in the dance room and so many Nano-Z as I went up, they probably either died or went up.

The first Nano-Z I encountered was an old woman with her spine implant sticking out. It seemed as though the Zombolik rejected the modification or maybe it was in the middle of repurposing it. Either way, it turned into a nice weak spot, which I sliced in half with my blade. With another stab to the head, the Nano-Z was dead, and I safely extracted the core.

Seeing how easy I was moving now and how tired out I felt after my battle with that Mutated one made me realize that Xerya’s changes to my body may have come at a cost. She couldn’t go against her programming for now, so she had to continue to evolve and change her host, me. Like two creatures who were in perfect symbiosis, they both gained something, it made them stronger, but once they were separated from each other, the illusion of that strength being their own shattered to bits and both would find themselves with one foot in the grave.

For Xerya, these advantages and disadvantages were something normal, natural even. After all, her nanobots were doing a lot of work in the background and helped out with the entire process which granted me all of these superhuman abilities. If she wasn’t sending out the Nano-Z signal that made the other stumbling undead think that I was one of them, then they would rush in to attack me at a moment’s notice.

Speaking of which, I couldn’t even consider the so-called zombies as undead now. While the Zombolik took control over the NanoHeal and TechScope nanobots inside their host, the restructuring of the body didn’t go so far as to downright kill the host, it just destroyed their consciousness to the point where they began to act like zombies who were driven only by instinct and the stimulus generated by the world around them. The undead in the stories and legends of yore were biologically dead, but the Nano-Z still bled and evolved. Still, it was difficult even for me to keep my mind straight and not see them as stumbling undead creatures spawned from the darkness.

“Human beings see what they want to see...” I muttered to myself as I took out the core from another victim.

Appearance-wise, this thing before me was not a human... it looked like the walking dead, it moved like the walking dead, and it sounded like the walking dead, thus, it was a zombie.

“Two more floors to go...” I said as I went to the stairs.

“You are doing a good job so far.” Xerya told me.

Looking back at the Mutated Cyborg that was following around me with slow movements while keeping a fair distance from me, I let out a sigh.

“That thing still looks as creepy as a corpse spawned from the depths of Hell.” I shuddered.

“According to my data, this host body does appear to be similar to the monsters that are present in mankind’s fictive stories. Given the current amount of nanobots present in this body, I might be able to change her appearance in approximately 4 months and 24 days.”

“4 months?! Why so long?” I asked as I was taken by surprise by this. “It didn’t take that long to change me, but then again, I didn’t look like a monster either...”

“Your body contains a lot more nanobots than hers even as we speak. Thus, it is easier to make more calculated and precise changes than it is in her case.” she pointed out.

“Does the amount of nanobots really make that much of a difference? I thought that once you got a dose of them, they would just do their thing... like magic for a lack of a word for it.” I said scratching the back of my head.

“That is an erroneous perspective on how the nanobots work in your body.”

“Then how do they work?” I asked.

“The nanobots, in general, all look similarly and even behave the same too. Since they are each at a microscopic scale, this implies that their processing capacity isn’t too great. Hence why, in order to help them perform faster and better, then Link System was introduced based on the Hive Mind Computer Theory. The creator of this system described the action of the nanobots as being similar to how neuron cells work in the brain, with the only difference being the size of the said brain and the fact that it’s scattered all over your body.”

“So far so good, but this doesn’t really answer the question.” I told her raising an eyebrow.

“I was getting to that point.”

“Sorry, please continue.”

“The Link System is the basis for how the NanoHeal and TechScope works. In essence, the cumulus of the nanobots with the NanoHeal program installed in them form the NanoHeal, and the same can be said about the TechScope. This means that there will be nanobots with certain specific functions. Some are delegated to the simple processing capacity role, while others are made to act in specific predefined ways, and thus are unable to add to the overall processing power of the system. The nanocores I have asked you to collect are in essence the nanobots with the Zombolik program which are delegated for processing capacity.”

“So, if I got this straight, the nanocores are the actual brain of the whole system, so... what is the role of the brain of the host then?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

“The brain acts as an extra processor, with the nanobots in the cerebellum being the most active, as they control the movement of the body. The ones in the cortex will usually try to research and use the brain for its previous cognitive ability. In other words, the nanocore is trying to learn to replicate a human mind by studying the brain of its host after destroying or severely reducing the other cognitive processes as a result of their complete takeover. Hence why severely damaging, destroying, or removing the brain of the host nullifies the nanobot’s core programs. The Zombolik in this mutated host was unable to reach the brain, but still detected it as viable and functional, but the cybernetic implants prevented it from reaching it. An error occurred and the mutations began in order to either bypass or attempt to recover the brain. I am still not too sure what it was trying to do.” 

“Alright, kind of ironic that the nanobots have to first destroy the mind in order to learn how it works, but again, why do you need so many nanobots?” I asked.

“The nanocore acts as the processing unit while the brain is being analyzed and reused as a backup processing unit if possible. At least, that was in the original schematic, in your case and in this Mutated Cyborg’s case, this does not apply. However, the body of the host still requires the presence and use of the nanobots in many locations in order for it to function properly. Whether it’s enhancing the muscle power or simply sustaining the living cells, the nanobots are required to undertake various functions, which the brain was previously responsible for. To these, we add the constant need and attention that the mutations and modification to the body require. Without those, the host body would simply cease to function in a relatively short amount of time.” she explained.

“In other words, the main job of the nanobots isn’t to modify the body but rather to keep it alive?” I asked as a shiver went down my spine.

“Correct. However, you, who possess an abnormally large amount of nanobots in your system can make use of them in other ways as well, such as your Retractable Blade.” she pointed out.

“I see... so, how many cores do you need before you can return the Mutated Cyborg to her or his or its previous appearance?” I asked since I sincerely didn’t know what to make of it.

“At least until there’s around 50% of your original amount. Your first priority, however, is to replenish the nanobots inside your body, afterwards, I will create a stack for another dose to be added to this body. Right now, the 34.567% of your original quantity that was added to this body are mostly used to maintain its living functions. From what I can gather, it would have taken the previous Nano-Z around 300, maybe 400 more nanocores in order to stabilize its functions.”

“That’s a lot... Well, it was built to hunt, so maybe... who knows?” I shrugged.

“Do you understand why I need so many nanobots now or do you wish for me to explain again?” she asked.

“No need. I got it.” I shook my head and then looked up at the stairs “Just hunt more Nano-Z like before... Easy!” I declared and then rushed up.

Once I killed all of them, Xerya sent me three levels below to block the paths with furniture like it was done before. Only after I did this did we seclude ourselves in an apartment on the last floor. We blocked the door there as well with a large desk. Initially, I didn’t understand why we had to take so much precaution against the Rabid Nano-Z. After all, crazy or not, I could still take them on with ease, however, once the night came, the streets changed.

“GRAAAH!”  the growls of the Nano-Z were spread high and wide.

The red eyes of the prowling beasts lit up and the whole city was changed in the blink of an eye. When I looked out the window at the streets below, I saw some of the Nano-Z chasing down what looked like a male survivor. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t outrun them and was quickly pinned down. Usually, they would just bite him and let him bleed out. The purpose of the Zombolik, as stated by Xerya, was to change the host not to kill it completely if they could avoid it. Of course, the nanobots could still resurrect the body if the brain and most of the vital organs remained. We had seen, after all, Nano-Z that walked with their guts spilling outside or injuries that would have certainly killed a normal human being.

Honestly, I couldn’t really tell what was needed and what wasn’t. It felt like the ‘infecting’ part was mostly to entertain the idea of the zombie and not a needed possible function.

The survivor who was caught by the Nano-Z, however, was neither infected nor bitten to death, he was literally pulled apart by them. They didn’t stop there and immediately began to feast on the flesh of the deceased despite not needing it. When it was over, only the bones remained from the former survivor.

Not far from there, a group of Nano-Z were fighting one another, and those who were defeated had their brains eaten out by the victor. I felt sick to my stomach after witnessing those two scenes and decided to just listen to Xerya and not take any chances by going out at night.

The Nano-Z returned to normal the following day, but there were still around twenty cores or so to assimilate before we were done with them. Thankfully, Xerya could absorb them passively while I was out on a hunt for new ones. With the batch that I gained from that building alone, I was barely able to fill up half of the missing nanobots. Instead of complaining about it, as soon as I was done with my breakfast, I headed out to hunt for more.

During the day, I went after the cores of the Nano-Z in the surrounding buildings, then late at night, Xerya would assimilate them while I had a nice long sleep. The following day, it was a grind and repeat of the previous day. It took me almost an entire week, but I was finally able to give the Cyborg a total of three more doses of nanobots, which should have been more than enough for Xerya to begin the restructuring process on the body.

“How long do you think this will take?” I asked after I retracted the Conqueror.

“At the moment, I estimate anywhere between two and twenty-five hours.” she replied.

“Hm, it’s going to be dark soon...” I remarked as I looked out the window and then walked up to it “I cleaned up the residential buildings next to us and the office building across the street, but there are still quite a lot of Nano-Z around these parts. I’m starting to think that even on our way here we skipped past quite a lot of them without knowing it.”

One of the creatures was already stumbling its way out of a building I hadn’t checked yet. During the evening, the streets were mostly cleaned up by my excessive hunting, but the next day, they were filled up again. Sometimes, I felt as though they were just spawning from some demonic circle hidden well among the alleys, and I was forced to fight them until I couldn’t take it anymore. Killing those human-like creatures time and time again took a toll on my mind, and I was beginning to feel stressed.

“Affirmative. My scans are limited in range and function. It is probable that Mutated Nano-Z who learned to cloak their signals could not be detected by me. I will make upgrading the scanners a top priority alongside new ways for you to combat them.” she told me.

“Is there anything you’re working on right now?” I asked since she piqued my curiosity.

“Affirmative. Given our earlier encounter with this Mutated Cyborg, I was able to prioritize the development of two tools and one weapon which I believe you might find useful. The first are the Claws, which are blades that extend from behind your fingernails and cover them up. They also hold the role of a climbing tool. The second one is the Exo-Armor, which will form solid matter hexagons that dampen physical impact. The last one, the weapon, I call it a HandCanon, which will form on the back of your left hand. You can attach to it the barrel of a pistol together with an ammo clip. It should work like a regular gun. I want to point out, however, that they are all marked with the Experimental Tag since I do not know how well they will fair in actual combat.” she explained.

“They sound quite useful, but why not a grappling hook instead of those claws or an entire gun, maybe an energy one?” I asked as I was getting quite excited over the idea of testing out the new gadgets.

“There are not enough nanobots to create them, as for the gun, I can make all the parts with the exception of the barrel. I have yet to learn of a good way to make one just out of my nanobots.” she explained, and for a second there, I thought there was a slight change in the tone of her voice.

“Ah, alright, I understand.” I said, hoping that I didn’t upset her.

“...”

She didn’t reply, but I took her silence as an annoyed grumble.

“You are doing, after all, everything that you can. I apologize if I was... insensitive.”

“Apologies accepted.” Xerya replied.

Guess she was a bit mad, wasn’t she? But can an AI like her get mad in the first place? I wondered; however, I wasn’t brave enough to actually ask her this.