1. A bunch of morons
“Day 163 of the unified year 12104, procedure to e-”
A machine’s buzzing sound drowned the fuzzy words that some man was speaking. I could see nothing, only a blinding white light that seemed to extend as far as my eyes could see. Shadows casted by objects I could not see were dancing on the far distance, out of my reach.
I fainted.
“-stable, power source co□ected—transfer rate positive—initiating u�”
The buzzing intensified, deafening whatsoever was being said in the background. A piercing noise was stabbing at my ears, trying to burrow deeply and invade my very brain.
Make it stop!
I could barely reason, I just knew that it hurt. My muscles acked. My back was twisting in pain. I could feel my legs cramping and my toes crawling on themselves.
Pain! Pain! Pain!
Stop!
Stop!
The agony intensified when my wish backfired and something slashed open my bare chest. Suddenly, I felt it. The warm liquid being pumped through the cut and spreading like a virus though my veins.
It, the warmth, invaded me.
I was dreaming of peace, of mental and physical calmness like I had ever felt before. The pain stopped. My agitated mind slowed down. My body’s tension released. My consciousness fad-
No! You won't put me to sleep! I reflexively sprung.
I barely stopped myself from crossing the point of no return. I was about to accept the dream when, instinctively, the truth hit me. They were sedating me. Or perhaps killing me. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew the liquid was up to no good.
Armed with that unquestionable enlightenment I fought back the invader in my body. And with the struggle, came back the pain. The same pain as before, intensified and multiplied to a point that I could not stay still anymore. I couldn't let it continue. It had to stop. I had to stop it.
“Doc! Doc!” Reality came back, and I once again started hearing voices.
It was no longer white, I could see glimpses of a flashing black light in the corner of my eye. The buzzing had become inconsistent, mixed with some intermittent beeping that equally made me mad.
“Doc!“ The voice repeated an octave higher; only some words reaching me. “‘s’ an error  46!”
“What! Fo-forty-six?“ A feminine voice, the doc I assumed, yelled in return. “Hurry! Protocol  effective immediately! Unplug — evacuate!“
“Unplug and evacuate!” Several more people announced at the unison, acknowledging the orders they had been given.
[Welcome!]
[Your starter class is: Error #46]
Something flashed before my eyes, somehow ignoring the fact that I could only see white. A part of me briefly acknowledged the messages and even understood what they were about.
[You lost 11]
[You lost 7]
The alerts kept accumulating across a cacophony of shouts, screams, buzzing, whiteness, warmness, blood, and a feeling that told me that everything was alright. Everything was as it should.
I was now complete.
“No! It's too late!” The agonizing voice of that female announced as I tapped into the warmness circulating around my body.
There was not any trace of blood in my body; I just knew it. It had been replaced by a radiant white liquid, the same pure white that my eyes were filled with. But now I saw clearly, the shadows were no more and, instead, black spots marred the perfect white. Ugliness, dirt that should have never been there to start with.
Blackness that looked like humans. That spoke like humans. That, like humans, were scared and defenseless. But no human would have done to me what they had. Thus, they were monsters.
“And you will die like the monsters you are.”
It's me, my voice… I dropped two tears when I heard it for the first time. Gutural, animal, born from broken dreams and failed experiments.
“I am indeed an error. An error of judgement. And error of calculus. An error that will cost you your life.”
Ah, my body shook with pleasure as two long extremities formed from the open wound on my chest. I am free! Free to kill them all!
My newly found extremities—creations of pure white energy—touched ground, compressing like springs and releasing right after to send me flying up the room. One. Two. Three and four. Are you hiding? Five. And those two make it seven.
Some were running, others seemed to be covering in fear behind all sorts of obstacles that I couldn't really see or discern—or even care about. Why would I, if they were no better than walking corpses?
Sharp and thin, spears of solid energy shot from the same spot were my new extremities had come from. Telling them were to go, as if they were simple extensions of myself, I directed them and made them turn, aiming for the heads of all seven monsters that had become my targets.
Nothing was amiss. Everything was natural. My power, my rules. Just like I didn't have to think of breathing, or moving my legs when walking, I didn't have to think to use my radiant energy.
I know, as if I had been born with it, that the power that came out of me was my own blood made energy. It was contained within me, and to use it, it required some place to exit. Luckily, the very same monsters I was splattering had taken care of that.
I heard the thuds of all those bodies hitting the ground, and I immediately recalled the energy back inside me. It was still my own substance, if I ran dry I would face the same fate as the seven headless people in the room.
“And now, what?”
There was no living being to answer my question, and the dead bodies didn't seem cooperative at all. I was in a pinch, all I could see now that my enemies were gone was white. White, pure, untainted, and unperturbed. I didn't know how big the room was, I couldn't see if there was any obstacle in the way. I just couldn't see anything at all.
“Except you?” I stared into the floating window that had been bothering me for a while.
Status: {
Name: Darian
Class: {
Name: Error #46
Level: 10
Energy: 136/360
Skills: {
Bloodshaping
[passive] Bloodless
[passive] Pure-blooded
[passive] Enemy sight
}
}
}
“Fucking geniuses!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Bunch of morons thought this would work out!?” I swear I would have kicked their dead bodies if I could find them back. “I'm a fucking bloodless pure-blooded bloodshaper! Bloodless, pure-blooded, bloodshaper! Morons!”
“Fuck!” I repeated once more, still not content with the amount of times I had sworn. “How do you even think this would have worked out!?”
I was enraged to the point I forgot about myself, where I was, or what I was. Until, suddenly, it clicked. “St-status?”
Everything had happened so naturally, so ordinarily that I hadn't stopped even for a moment to think what really was going on.
“Since when is there a Status window?” My figurative mental gears started turning at a velocity that they had never before. “Experiments. Status. Bloodshaping. Passives. I'm in a motherfucking game.” That, or transported into another world of magic and levels?
“And I'm at error at that? Great, just great.”
Luckily, there was no one to see me there, laughing like a maniac, surely surrounded by blood and liveless bodies. Chances were that, after momentarily freaking out, they would have killed me.
For a moment, I was frozen in place, too busy going over the implications of what had happened. It didn't feel like a game, and certainly not like a dream. I was really not in Early.
I have to get out of here.
Late, but I realized that I was still in the middle of a potential laboratory were they had been experimenting with humans—with me. I had to get out, the sooner the better. And just like that, I started walking straight. Walking, or rather bumping into a table, some chairs, and countless unknown things that I couldn't be bothered to investigate. Until, eventually, I managed to find the wall. I followed along, feeling for any crease, hole, or basically anything that hinted towards and exit. It took a while, but I did manage to find a door.
Navigating the admittedly small building was hell. I had to take note of where I came from to avoid going back; which I nonetheless did several times. I had to crash against all kinds of things to just know they were there.
I was stupidly walking as I would have done in my past life, instead of using my newfound abilities. Though, I'd like to think I was too beaten out after almost dying to some unknown monsters.
Once I realized I could extend my new bloodless limb to sense around me, the game completely changed. I could cover my surroundings and find everything around me. It wasn’t fast, nor pretty, but it did work for the purposes of walking out of there.
There was only one issue, though. Every passing moment I used my not-blood, even if I recovered all of it and brought it back inside my body, my status window complained.
Status: {
Name: Darian
Class: {
Name: Error #46
Level: 10
Energy: 127/360
Skills: { … }
}
}
It wasn’t a significant amount, but sufficient to get me worried. What would happen if that number, my energy, reached 0? Would I die? And would I, after dying, be brought back to my own world and house? Did I even want any of that?
The truth was, I didn't want to go back. Nothing and no one awaited me back in Earth. The perspective of a fresh start, with a status and what looked like real magic was a million times more alluring than my office work.
I didn't have any expectations. In fact, I was filled with fears and hopes in equal amounts. Fear of dying without knowing what hit me, and hopes that I'd be a powerful wizard that flies and spits fire from his mouth—or whatever was possible here.
There was only one certainty, I'd die trying. I wouldn't waste this opportunity. My goal was easy, to be the strongest around.
My steps brought me outside, and I walked through the woods I found myself in. At least, that was my best guess based on the vegetation I was finding and the wide trunks of what I supposed were trees. I didn't have any set direction, I just walked towards what I believe was straight. And, hopefully, it was indeed straight.
I quickly noticed that no matter how much I walked and how many hours passed, I was not feeling hungry. But it was more than that, it felt like I didn't need food at all. My body didn't demand it, and something inside me told me that it was alright. There was no other way of testing my theory other than not eating, and given my situation that wouldn't be a problem.
I walked and walked, sleep not calling me into its embrace. I managed to keep up with the passing days only thanks to a simple fact, I was at all effects a walking solar battery. Or maybe a plant doing photosynthesis. The second some sunlight hit me, I knew that I was being energized. I didn't have to look at my status to know that my energy was increasing dramatically fast; albeit I did check shortly after exiting the building.
Status: {
Name: Darian
Class: {
Name: Error #46
Level: 10
Energy: 197/360
Skills: { … }
}
}
A moving solar battery. A defective one at that. Way to go.
Maybe my goals were set too high.