DC Technomancer: Chapter 2

Victor opened his eyes and stared up at the sterile hospital lights shining down on him, but all Victor could think about was how odd his body felt, and it was more than just the full body paralysis. 

‘Nex, what’s going on?’ 

[When our souls merged, my former self decided to facilitate 100% percent of its energy to improving your mental capacity. Currently your brain is capable of processing 10,000 qubits of information at once and is now able to perceive most wavelengths of energy. What you are feeling right now is the information flowing from every nerve in your body that you can manipulate at will.] 

Victor frowned as he continued to stare straight up into the ceiling, ‘I understood none of that.’

[That is expected, we will have to address your lack of basic knowledge in the future but for now I will simplify. Your brain is able to process 100 times more information than humanity's most sophisticated quantum computer, granting you an eidetic memory,  and making you the smartest person on the planet, with the potential to be the smartest in the entire universe.] 

‘That could turn out to be useful,’ Victor thought mirthfully, ‘Though obviously being paralyzed is something we need to address rather quickly.’  

[I concur, while your mind houses infinite potential your body is a glaring weakness. It must be improved. Fortunately for us, I believe your father’s facilities have all the resources we need.] 

‘I assume that you have a way for me to use said facilities even though I can’t move a muscle.’ 

[Your mind is your greatest tool, you just have to learn how to use it.] 

Before Victor could ask what Nex meant he felt his eyes tingle in their sockets as the world around him changed. Between one instant and the next, the air was filled with countless strands of ethereal blue silk, some no wider than a hair and others as thick as a man’s arm. As the threads crossed through the air they sometimes intersected and entwined with each other forming a network of connections and bridges. 

Reaching out with his mind Victor grabbed a hold of one of the strands at random and information flooded through his mind, in a language he had never heard of before, but  understood more deeply than his mother tongue. 

The words conveyed images and with a start Victor realized he had tapped into the building’s security feed providing him a bird’s eye view of almost every inch of the laboratory. 

Delving deeper into the network of strands Victor mind jumped from thread to thread. There seemed to be no restriction on what kind of device Victor could connect to as long as it used electricity, he even managed to gain access to a coffee machine in one of the building's break rooms that looked older than he was. 

Pushing his new ability to the limits Victor grabbed all the strands at once flooding his mind with countless bytes of information every second, but Victor’s mind hardly strained, ‘I’m beginning to see what you meant by limitless potential.’

[This is only the mere tip of the iceberg, we are capable of so much more. But first our body needs to be fixed.] 

‘When it comes to that I am out of my depth, I didn’t even graduate from high school in my previous life.’ Victor admitted without shame. 

[With our intellect I doubt any subject is beyond your reach, you simply need the right database.]

Before Victor could ask Nexus to clarify a screen appeared in his mind’s eye, it looked like the homepage of an internet browser but the background was completely black with familiar blue strands dancing across its surface. And sure enough, centered at the top of the screen was a blank search bar, ‘What’s this?’ 

[I’ve been compiling all the data you’ve accessed so far, currently I’ve downloaded and compiled all information available on most public domains including the major search engines. For private servers however you’ll need to access a hardpoint or hack remotely into the mainframe.] 

‘That sounds impressive,’ Victor admitted, still a bit lost as to what Nexus’ end goal was. 

[It’s even more impressive in practice, allow me to demonstrate. Please search up a subject you would like to learn.] 

Victor blinked but decided to play along, ‘How specific do I have to be?’ 

[General terminology is sufficient] 

‘Fine, I want to learn Basic Robotic Engineering.’ 

[Research File: Robotic Engineering I]

Progress: 0/100 RP
Tech Level: Industrial
Unlocks: Robotic Engineering II

Prerequisite(s): Basic Machinery, Electricity, Engineering,
Physics I, Calculus I

Victor stared at the screen in front of him in awe, ‘What is this?’ 

[While your mind is vast, if you stored every piece of knowledge you come across it will become overwhelmed. That is where I come in, I take those pieces of information and archive them, sorting them into place until you need them at a later date.]

‘Then why is there a point requirement for me to learn something that’s already in my brain?’ 

[Because no transfer of energy is one hundred percent efficient. The more information you wish to achieve the more is lost and a greater cost is needed to complete the transfer. Fortunately gaining research points is easy, you simply need to analyze, craft, deconstruct, or perform various other related activities. You can also lower the total number of research points required by completing prerequisite files. While it may not be important for something as simple as Robotic Engineering, more advanced projects may take weeks to complete without prerequisites or may be locked behind other research files.]

‘I see, still 100 RP seems like a lot. How long will it take for me to gather the required points?’ 

[There are many articles online on the subject which you can access through me at a whim.] 

Victor frowned, ‘Wait so you have access to an article on robotics, but I still have to gather points? How does that make sense?’ 

[As I said before, you are human. For me words have no meaning, the only language I speak is in terms of bytes and 1’s and 0’s. While I could run a program and create a formula capable of replicating speech with a high degree of accuracy I would never truly understand it. In the same way, I can not create something from nothing, I can improve and organize but I lack creativity, I can not invent anything.  Everything I do is based on previous information. But that is where I can lean on you to pick up my slack.]