Magical Engineering

The moment I opened the System menu, the words “You’ve reached level one” flashed over the interface. Below that was the question, “Would you like to enable System integration?” That must have been what Elody had been referring to. Without my usual level of internal debate, I quickly selected yes. The electrical jolt through my brain made me regret it.

I woke up on the ground, my face covered in my own drool. Something felt different inside of me. It wasn’t an unpleasant difference, though the memory of how it had gotten there was. Had Elody known about the pain I would feel? If so, she had made the right call by not informing me.

I pushed myself back to my feet and sat down again at the terminal, once again bringing up the interface. Nothing new flashed over the menu this time. I still had the same three options as before. I tried status again, hoping for but not actually expecting a change. Before I could find out if my hope was in vain, a new message popped into my view. “Would you like to enable mobile System access?” I selected yes. The message disappeared, revealing the screen I had been waiting to see, this time with only a single error. I almost jumped in joy at having solved one mystery.