Upgrade - Acceleration (2)
One of the labs attached to the Shelter research institute. I was enveloped in a bizarre sensation I'd never felt before in my life. It was like becoming aware of the bioelectricity flowing through my body. In wuxia novel terms, I could say I'd awakened my qi.
I extended my arm and clenched and unclenched my fist. Flex. The five fingers and forearm muscles contracted and relaxed. Familiar up to this point. But now one more sensation had been added. It came a step ahead of clenching the fist—an electrical signal generated from the brain and spinal cord. It passed through the neck and shoulders, via the ulnar nerve at the elbow, penetrating deeper into the median and radial nerves. The moment the electrical signal reached each muscle and finger joint, it spread out like lightning captured in ultra-high-speed footage, scattering the brain's commands. I could vividly perceive the entire process.
"Why hadn't I noticed this until now?"
I clenched and unclenched my fist, twisted my neck, jumped in place. Each time, I felt the countless electrical signals being generated and dissipating repeatedly, racing through my neural network.
You've become able to sense the workings of your neural network now.
"Is this an implant function?"
Correct. The implants in your body are derived from technology originally used for prosthetics on wealthy disabled people.
"I know. I read an article about it once."
I'd seen it in a Hustler magazine given to me by a U.S. soldier I befriended during my deployment to Lebanon. A photo of an old man kneading the bare asses of two women with his prosthetic palms, tears of emotion streaming down his face. A man who lost both hands in an accident at age nine, became a self-made millionaire. He could have sex all he wanted, but he couldn't enjoy tactile sensations from his hands. Then, implant technology was developed that allowed perfect neural control to replicate sensations from the prosthetics! He could feel textures just like real hands! The photo of the man, over 60, touching a woman's ass for the first time and weeping in ecstasy. All of America cried. The GI who gave me the mag cried, I cried reading it, and the Lebanese kid I passed it to cried too.
The implants and neural network have just begun interacting, so for now, 'sensing' is the limit. But once you get used to it, your overall physical abilities will improve independently of acceleration.
"This sensation is really annoying. Like that frustration when you try to force a memory that's on the tip of your tongue... but all over my body."
Bear with it. The inserted implants are automatically pioneering your neural network right now.
Ever since the acceleration implant procedure, the connected nerves had been flickering, each sending signals.
"How long will this neural network update take? I won't even be able to sleep like this."
About half a day more? If it's bothering you too much to sleep, there's a good way.
"What method?"
Exhaust your stamina until you pass out. Normally, that requires long, intense activity sweating buckets, but luckily, we now have a far more refined way to burn stamina quickly, don't we?
She's talking about using the implants. I focused my mind on the implant embedded in my spine. On, off for the implants in my body. It felt as natural as bending and extending my arm, something that had always been part of me—I could 'sense' how to use it.
I understand your excitement at gaining such power, but be careful. Your muscles and bones haven't changed. Push too hard, and you'll tear ligaments at best—or shatter bones at worst.
Artemis warned me. Not just "break," but "shatter." She's really laying on the fear.
"I know."
I've seen plenty of soldiers get cocky with new weapons or tech and bite the dust during my active duty. A dirt-poor combat engineer without implants, preferring to roll in the mud, spent most of his career deployed—and survived with all limbs intact. That says a lot. Artemis knew my record well enough to wrap up her warning with that one line.
Time for the first real-world test of my new power.
A drone entered the lab and hovered close to me. A Hornet drone Artemis developed for urban security. A pair of coaxial counter-rotating rotors encased in a round plastic guard, with a battery, camera, and taser gun mounted below.
The neural network connected to the implant inside me. Between them was something like a circuit breaker switch. I didn't know if it was organic tissue or an artificial prosthesis. What was clear was that the breaker was off now—and I knew how to flip it on. Hard to explain the principle to someone else, like raising and lowering an arm, but I could move it. As my will arrived like a dispatched messenger with orders, the drawbridge between implant and neural network lowered. The moment the two connected solidly, lightning raced from my spine toward every neural tissue in my body.
Guuung!!!
A bizarre shockwave burrowed into my ears. In that instant, the world slowed down.
"Muuuuhhh."
A groan-like exclamation slipped out unbidden, but it wasn't human speech. I hurriedly stopped my lips twisting into a grotesque shape.
"Eeeaaahhh."
But even stopping my lips wasn't immediate. My mouth, already starting to form sounds, took a while to halt even after the "Shut your trap!" command.
What I'd meant to say was, "What the hell is this?"
I could see each blade of the Hornet drone's rotors moving one by one. Like filming a fly's wings with a high-speed camera. I felt like I could reach out and grab a rotor blade. Unfortunately, unlike my hyper-accelerated consciousness, my flesh wasn't keeping up at all. Even if my nose itched and I wanted to scratch, just raising my hand took forever. Frustrated, I flipped the implant switch back up.
Wuuung!!!
With the bizarre ringing in my ears, the world returned to normal speed.
How was it?
"The scientist in the lab's audio log said acceleration up to 2.5x, right? This is way beyond that. Feels like a much higher multiple."
The acceleration infected I'd faced last showed insane speeds far beyond 2.5x.
That 2.5x is the baseline for a normal human getting a botched procedure with cheap materials from a quack doc.
Artemis's assessment was scathing.
The test subjects from the lab had their safety limits removed to prevent bodily damage, plus infection-induced mutations, so they exceeded expectations.
I've heard stories of a mom lifting a car to save her kid pinned underneath, or a guy under hypnosis bending a steel pipe. Cases where the body's usual protective limits were released, unleashing superhuman strength. The aftermath—like torn ligaments, wrecked muscles and bones—isn't talked about much.
"During acceleration, cognition and awareness speed up, but my body's movements can't keep up. I feel some speedup, but nowhere near the doc's 2.5x."
Your neural network is enhanced, but muscles, skeleton, and joints are unchanged. Force it in this state, and you'll get hurt 100%. That's why physical movement is restricted to receive less acceleration effect.
Per the records, the lab's test subjects only had neural mods—no musculoskeletal enhancements.
"But the lab scientist clearly said they could accelerate up to 2.5x..."
Ah! Come to think of it, that lab probably wasn't researching while fretting over injuring test subjects. They just shoved people in for live experiments.
"Makes sense. The rotors were visible blade by blade, so if my body moved to match, a bone or two would snap clean for sure."
But it's still plenty valuable as is. Shooting alone will yield huge effects. And one more thing.
Click.
The Hornet drone suddenly aimed its underbelly taser at me and fired.
In that instant—
Guuung!!!
Acceleration activated without my will. The silver dart flying at me. The thin wire trailing it. Sparks from the taser's drive unit. Every motion framed in my eyes. I moved to dodge the dart targeting me.
Moving in acceleration felt like moving deep underwater. Each step crushed by immense pressure. Yielding to it and moving slowly equated to normal, non-accelerated motion. But pushing against the intense hydrostatic pressure felt like outrunning time.
Wuuung!!!
I released acceleration right after dodging cleanly—the taser dart whizzed past 5cm from my temple.
I've programmed it to auto-accelerate on sudden dangerous attacks. It'll help survival in emergencies.
"Definitely!"
It'd be a huge help against surprise attacks in any situation. Deaths on the battlefield are often "oops" moments. Calmly facing an accident as it unfolds? That's mastering how to dodge death.
Afterward, following Artemis's devised training program, I used acceleration several more times. Moving faster than normal speed in acceleration mode consumed massive stamina—even short sessions left my muscles utterly drained. Thanks to that, despite the nerves flickering with signals all over, I passed out into sleep.