As Baines crumpled to the cold stone floor, his body wracked with pain as crimson streamed from his ruptured eye. The remaining unseen messages flickered in his vision regardless of his consciousness.
[USER HAS SUFFERED 'HEMORRHAGE']
[ESTIMATED PERCENTAGE OF BLOOD LOSS: 20%]
[USER IS UNDER PROCESS OF BLOOD CLOTTING]
Immediately, it went into effect, and the outburst of blood on the surface, he stuffed the eyeball, and stopped.
The eyeball repositioned itself, removing the chunks and remnants of the previous eye, and fixed itself, taking the space of his new eye.
[USER IS UNDER PROCESS OF HEMATOPOIESIS]
[RECOVERY RATE 10%]
[UNFAMILIAR ENERGY HAS BEEN DETECTED IN THE USER'S BODY]
[UNFAMILIAR ENERGY CONTAINS 70% UNHARMFUL SUBSTANCE, 30% HARMFUL]
[USER'S BODY IS UNDER PROCESS OF DISPELLING TOXIC SUBSTANCE]
A torrent of red mist erupted from his skin, thick and choking, swirling into the air.
It was so much that one would have to wonder. If this was the 30% toxic portion, what power lay in the remaining 70%? The mist dissipated into the air, leaving a faint metallic tang.
[DISPELLING ACCUMULATED IMPURE ENERGY]
[USER IS UNDER PROCESS OF ENGRAVING]
[RECOVERY RATE: 98%... 99%... 100%]
Then, silence.
...
Three hours later,
Baines stirred, a groan escaping his lips as pain lingered in his right eye.
He touched it gingerly, startled to find it whole. "What… happened?"
His gaze dropped to the blood-soaked floor beneath him, then the memories came crashing back like a tidal wave.
The eye. The blood. The voice.
"I'm alive?" He scrambled to his feet, heart pounding. "My eye…" He blinked, vision sharp through both eyes. He put his hand on his eye and realized. He could see through both eyes.
'How? Impossible.'
Then, like a flash in his memory, he remembered the voice—mechanical, otherworldly—before he'd blacked out.
"W-Who's there?" he demanded, scanning the shadowed chamber, intently searching for the source of the voice. 'Was there someone here all this time?' He frowned, his gaze combing each corner.
However, there was only silence.
The air was still, save for a faint, acrid smell. It was in that terrible silence he perceived it.
He froze, sniffing.
"What is that?" The stench grew stronger.
"Urgh…what is that smell?" He took steps away from where he perceived, however, the smell followed him. With dawning horror, he looked down at his blood-crusted robe, now streaked with black ichor.
"I-It was me?" He panicked and quickly looked around in embarrassment, hoping no one was watching him.
Five minutes later,
"Phew…" Baines exhaled, staring at the blood pool and stained clothes a few meters away from him. He had pulled off his clothes to clean himself before throwing them aside.
Now that he had finally calmed down, he tried to understand the situation.
"I can see," he murmured, marveling. He had just done it out of a gamble, and it worked.
It was a great situation. He had risked an eye and got another, a better one at that. However, there was another issue.
"Then what were those voices?" He wondered. Had he imagined the voice? Shaking his head, he approached the elevated stone platform housing his ancestors' relics.
He bowed deeply.
"I don't know if this was your doing, but you have helped me in my revenge. I swear I'll rebuild our family and make it stronger than ever."
He straightened himself to leave.
Then his eyes drifted to the artifacts around him.
"But I should be able to use some of these collections, right?" Since no one else could use it, couldn't he just use it for his goal?
It was just unfortunate he didn't know their uses.
"Yes, I can take the dagger." With a hopeful face, he looked around at the blood pooled.
His gaze settled on an empty spot where a dagger once rested. "The dagger…"
"Where's...the dagger?"
[THE DAGGER HAS BEEN ENGRAVED ON THE USER'S BODY]
Baines spun, fists raised. "Who's there? Show yourself!"
Silence answered, but a translucent window materialized before his right eye.
He stumbled back, falling hard. "What are you?" Strangely, the window followed his retreating gaze, unwavering.
['EYE' – ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY CREATED BY THE BAEK INSTITUTION, YEAR 3025]
"What?" His movements stilled as he processed the words. "Wait, Eye..."
Then, like a sledgehammer, realization struck him. His fingers trembled as they reached for his right eye. Covering it made the screen vanish; uncovering it brought it back.
"S-So, Eye... Advanced te-chnology?" Confusion laced his voice.
Then, another name caught his attention. "Baek? That's my family name." Yet, he didn't dwell on it too much. After all, his ancestors had built many things.
"And what's with this year?" He frowned. "3025? That sounds ridiculous."
[FUTURE YEAR 3025 – YEAR OF PRODUCTION OF 'EYE']
"Future?" His mind reeled. How had his ancestors acquired this? Before he could process, another message appeared:
[PERMISSION TO TRANSFER THE USER MANUAL OF 'EYE']
"Manual? Yes—" Before he could finish, his mind was flooded with information. Pain lanced through his skull, like a sharp headache, and he collapsed again, clutching his head as a flood of knowledge poured in.
[TRANSFERRING INTRODUCTORY MANUAL TO USER]
[STABILIZING USER TO ACCEPT MANUAL]
The technology was directly transferring the manual to his brain, and due to the volume of the information, his consciousness faded again.
Thirty minutes later, he awoke, beads of sweat trickling down his face.
However, unlike before, his face now shone with understanding.
"So, you're Eye," he whispered, piecing it together. "And you can do all this?" He exhaled deeply, adjusting to his new knowledge.
He got up and glanced at his right arm. 'And the dagger got engraved here?' Yet, his skin appeared unmarked and unscathed. Strangely enough, he knew the reason.
'I haven't even gathered a single speck of energy in my energy center.'
That was why he had to leave. To begin his training.
He rose, invigorated, and approached the ancestral collection again, specifically the collection closest to the founding ancestor.
It was a worn-out brown pouch. He placed his hand over it, "So, what does this do?"
[SCANNING…]
[DIMENSIONAL SPACE DETECTED IN OBJECT]
"Urgh... Can you simplify your words?" he muttered, wary of the jargon.
[LOWERING SPEECH STANDARD TO LOWEST]
'Urghh, why do I feel insulted?' Baines frowned.
[THE USER CAN FIT MORE THINGS IN THE POUCH THAN WHAT THE EYE SEES]
"Storage?" His pulse quickened. "Oh? So how do I use it?"
[APPLY A DROP OF BLOOD TO THE OBJECT]
"Blood..." He shuddered at the sound. The disturbingly large amount of blood on the soaked floor made him pause, but he steeled himself. Grimacing, he commanded, "Cut me."
And a precise slice appeared on his finger.
He pressed it to the pouch, and it vanished in a flicker of light, its secrets flooding his mind.
Then, the pouch disappeared inside him.
"Whoa..." Information flooded his mind, explaining its usage.
He drew his fingers across the air and,
TEARRR...
An empty white space opened before him in the room.
"Whoa..." He marveled at the sight. Though he couldn't enter, the discovery thrilled him. "Incredible," he breathed. Now, he has just gained personal storage.
A smile bloomed on his face as he locked on the next artifact. This time it was a black cloak. With a gesture, he tore open a pocket of space before him—a void for storage.
Next, a black cloak.
[SCANNING…]
[UPON ACTIVATION, CLOAK PROVIDES DEFENSE OR SERVES AS CLOTHING]
"Nice..." He picked it up and stored it in the storage pouch.
The next was a book. Its cover was brittle with age, and its pages were written in old, thick sheets rather than normal paper.
'A Martial technique?' Baines was surprised.
Martial techniques were fighting methods guided by an aura technique. They were among the things his family traded in. However, with the way this particular book seemed, it was very important.
He placed his hand to scan it.
[SCANNING…]
[MATERIAL ESTIMATED AT 700 YEARS OLD]
"Seven hundred years?" His eyes widened. People fought over techniques just fifty years old, and this was seven centuries old.
"T-The name? What is the name?"
[UNKNOWN MARTIAL ARTS]
"Unknown? Then who made it?"
[RECORD DOESN'T STATE IT]
"Hmm?" He stored it.
Moving on, he found a small box and placed his hand over it.
[PERMISSION TO COPY MEMORY]
"Memory?" He hesitated but still agreed.
[COPYING WORLD LANGUAGE... TERMINOLOGIES... BELIEFS...]
After five minutes, it finished.
[BEAD CAN GRANT USER SECOND ENERGY CORE]
"S-Second... What?!" His voice trembled.