The Allbright System - A Sci-Fi Progression LitRPG Story

Thea’s eyes opened sluggishly as she came to, her body aching in ways she never even knew existed. The world around her was a blur of indistinct shapes and muted colours, everything swimming in a hazy fog.

“Uggghhh…” she groaned as she tried to move and look around, her mind slowly recalling the dire situation she had been in before passing out. Her hands grasped aimlessly for her weapons, her fingers brushing against cold metal as she attempted to get back into a combat-ready state.

“You back with us, sleepyhead?”

Thea stiffened at the voice, her brain too mushy to immediately recognize it. A mixture of adrenaline and the desperate urge not to end up like Viladia—captured alive by the enemy—spurred her on to blindly grab for her weapons again.

“Thea, stop that—Hey, stop!”

A set of hands pinned her to the ground, nullifying her meagre attempts to regain some agency. She started headbutting whatever was in front of her, but in her weakened state, it ended up being more like gentle nods brushing against somebody’s armour than anything dangerous.

“Thea, it’s me, Kara,” the strangely familiar voice said intently close by, as Thea felt herself continue to be restrained. “Take a deep breath. You nearly bled out before I managed to get to you. Stop thrashing around like this, you’re not in a state to handle this much right now.”

Thea's vision slowly began to clear, the fog lifting just enough for her to make out Karania's concerned face hovering above her. The sounds of battle still echoed faintly in the far distant background, but for the moment, they felt irrelevant, as if coming from another world.

She tried to focus on Karania’s words, taking deep, ragged breaths to calm herself.

Karania gently loosened her grip as Thea's struggles ceased. “Good, just breathe,” she said soothingly. “We’ve got you. We managed to get to you just barely in time, but the area is clear now. Just rest up for a little while longer.”

Taking her friend's words to heart, Thea closed her eyes once more, trying her best to recoup as much energy as she could. The rough texture of the ground beneath her, the coolness of the air, and the distant sounds of combat faded to the background as she centred herself.

A few minutes later, she had managed to regain enough coherency to remember where she likely was, what they were doing there, and what was going on, to the point that she felt moderately like herself again.

Her limbs felt heavy, but the throbbing pain had dulled to a manageable ache.

‘Gotta rest up more or I’ll just be a deadweight…’ Was the first fully coherent thought that managed to coalesce inside her mind, which prompted her to focus intently on options to hasten her recovery.

She took a brief inventory of her surroundings, noting the makeshift triage Karania had set up and the literal pool of blood and mountains of soaked bandages mere metres away from her.

‘Is... is that all mine? It better not be. I don’t think humans are meant to be able to bleed this much,’ Thea thought, taken aback by the sheer quantity of life-giving liquid in sight.

‘Kara already gave me meds, there’s no shot she wouldn’t have. That probably explains why my pain is as manageable as it is, considering the beating I took. So just resting is probably my best bet right now…’

There was a certain Ability she had never really gotten much use out of in the assessment so far that seemed tailor-made for this exact situation in her mind. Deliberately focusing on her breathing, Thea tried to get her thoughts and body into alignment again.

Surprising even herself, she managed to fall into a meditative trance in a matter of moments, letting her Passive Ability [Meditation Focus] help her recover as best she could.

The world around her turned almost imperceptible as the Ability kicked in, further deepening her connection to her body and thoughts.

She had only used the Ability once or twice before to test it out but never for its intended purposes as most situations in which she would have needed it hadn’t allowed for a secure enough area for her to recover in. The Perception limiter imposed by it made it almost impossible to use if she wasn’t within the secure confines of her squad’s embrace.

As the Ability fully took hold, Thea felt her heartbeat steady, the throbbing pain in her body diminishing further.

Her breathing became rhythmic, each inhale and exhale harmonising with the pulses of her blood, her consciousness drifting to a place of serene focus.

The sounds of distant battle outside the triage area faded into an imperceptible murmur, replaced by the rhythmic beating of her heart and the gentle rush of blood flowing through her veins.

With her senses honed to a razor-sharp focus and fully locked into her own body by the Ability, Thea began a methodical self-assessment.

She started with her arms, feeling the numerous scars and bullet holes that had been expertly tended to by Karania.

Her left arm had a particularly nasty gash near the bicep, where it had likely been cut open by one of the countless shrapnel during the last few moments before she blacked out, which had been neatly stitched together but was still raw even now.

Several fractures had been set in her right arm and hand, the bone knit back together but still tender.

She flexed her fingers slowly, testing each joint and tendon, satisfied with the range of motion despite the lingering discomfort. Her hand, while steady, bore similar signs of recent trauma, with cooling compression bandages covering several cuts and bruises.

Moving to her torso, Thea's perception zeroed in on the myriad injuries there as well.

Her chest had borne the brunt of multiple impacts, the ribcage a mosaic of bruises, fractures, and broken bones. She started focusing on each rib, feeling the painstaking work Karania had done to set them back in place and get them to heal back together in record time in order to allow her to continue on with the mission.

Her lungs, while still functional, had suffered severely from both the countless shockwaves of the explosions and shrapnel that had narrowly missed puncturing them created by the numerous grenades that had been thrown her way. Her breathing was steady and even but undoubtedly more shallow than usual, a clear sign of the trauma they had ended up enduring.

The dull ache around her diaphragm also indicated to her that Karania had likely used a regenerative injector, repairing what could have been fatal damage, as the organ itself was practically in pristine condition, despite the utter warzone of torn, bruised and cut flesh around it.

Her lower abdomen revealed more of the same: Superficial cuts and deeper wounds that had been carefully bandaged.

Her liver had taken a hit, the organ bruised and tender but still working. Thea could feel the subtle, internal ache of her kidneys, a reminder of the multiple blunt force traumas from being thrown around like a ragdoll as she had searched for cover behind the reception desk.

Her stomach, surprisingly, had come through relatively unscathed save for a few minor cuts and bruises. The area around her spleen, however, felt oddly warm and tender—another sign that Karania had likely administered another regenerative injector there as well, fixing what could have been catastrophic internal damage.

Finally, Thea focused on her legs.

Her thighs still bore the scars of the many shrapnel that had managed to pierce through her armour as the reception desk’s rock-crete had continuously been shaved away at by the Stellar Republic’s downright fanatic attempt at killing her.

Her right leg had a fractured femur that had been expertly set but was still fragile, while the left leg had managed to make it out with only its own fair share of bruises and cuts.

Her knees ached, but were surprisingly without any real damage, the aches likely simply being leftovers from the various impacts of her landings after being blown away.

Her calves and ankles were swollen, but nothing seemed broken or irreparably damaged here either.

She noticed that the muscles in her legs felt unusually tight, however, probably from the strain of her earlier, severely desperate evasive manoeuvres and the subsequent explosions that had continuously thrown her around the room.

As she completed her self-assessment, Thea couldn’t help but marvel at Karania's incredible level of skill.

‘She managed to fix up this much damage in the middle of an active war zone with nothing but her own supplies at hand in what… a couple of hours at best? She’s an absolute monster… But I’m glad to say that she’s my monster, if nothing else. I’d absolutely hate having to face off against an enemy medic that could simply fix up someone as damaged as I seem to have been in the middle of an extended firefight...’

Thea took a deep breath, feeling the oxygen suffuse her body as it streamed through her lungs and into her bloodstream, energising each part of her body as it continued its cycle.

Each breath felt like a rejuvenating wave, washing away the exhaustion and pain bit by bit.

She decided to summon up the System Interface to check on how she was doing in the System’s eyes.