Nothing caught Tatehan’s attention from the congratulation host other than:
’You have gained an ability.’
Regeneration?
That was basically immortality to an extent. But then it wasn’t, at least the one he got. The gravity manipulation powers, to him, were even more useful than the partial regeneration. Back on Earth, he had read comics about superheroes who had regeneration powers and boy, they were like gods. Cut one hand off and it grows back.
But since his was partial and not even up to level one, he honestly did not know what to expect.Since the ability wasn’t even up to level one like his gravity ability, he did not know what to expect.
This was literally 0.5/1.
The hell!?
What was he going to do with that?
Words appeared across his retina now, as if to give him answers.
[Regeneration (partial) 0.5/1: This ability makes you godlike at level 20. But for now, it heals wounds and deep injuries slowly. If you were pierced in the stomach, it would gradually mend the damage that might otherwise kill you, but at a crawl...]
Tatehan could only smile as he read the words, absorbing them quicker than a normal human would.
"By slow, how many days?" he asked out loud.
The spaceship’s AI replied.
[You say days, host? It would take months.]
Lord damn!
Tatehan was appalled.
"Months?"
[Yes. But only at this level. Once you upgrade, to level one, two, and beyond, it accelerates. At level twenty? It’ll heal in just Seconds.]
Tatehan narrowed his eyes. Level twenty was god mode. If he reached it, not just with regeneration, but with gravity manipulation and any other abilities he stacked, he wouldn’t just be strong.
COSMIC!
Much more powerful than the Obscuron even, since he only had one ability which he enhanced to a cosmic level. And with only one ability, he had pushed to the stars. Tatehan would have many.
[But reaching level twenty takes years, maybe lifetimes. The requirements are... taxing. Still, don’t worry. Just keep upgrading and improving.]
Tatehan shrugged. He wasn’t drunk on power. Just a fleeting thought.
But then, an idea came to his mind. With all the strength he could muster, he bit his hand. His teeth were sharper than he expected, and instead of the small wound he had wanted to inflict, it was more severe.
"Shit!" he cursed as he felt pain. "Shit!"
[Testing regeneration, I see,] the AI remarked. Its tone wasn’t mocking, but to Tatehan, he felt like it smirked at him.
Gritting his teeth and shaking his head to take his mind off the pain, he said to the AI:
"This is a small wound so it should be gone soon?"
[Yes,] came the reply. [Before the end of today.]
Damn!, what had he been thinking!
Tatehan sighed as he realized how stupid he had been to actually inflict pain on himself just to test his newly given regeneration powers when he knew how partial it was.
The pain soon subsided though. Not exactly subsided but it dulled and he decided to shower.
Now beginning to walk towards the hygiene station, he said to the Spaceship’s AI:
"I know you’ll see me naked when I bathe, but who cares, you’re not human..."
[I will respect your privacy, my good man.]
Tatehan smiled. Why the hell did that sound so gay.
He was going to the bathroom first because he was feeling itchy. Fighting monsters and killing holograms was something that made him sweat, although the most recent Brutenecks he killed was like kicking a ball.
The hygiene room was a sleek chamber of chrome and blue light. Chrome in the sense that the walls were smooth and shiny. Nano sprayers lined the walls, tiny nozzles that released sterilizing mist that adapted to the user’s biochemistry. At first Tatehan was confused, but then, when he thought for some seconds, he seemed to just know the information, like his brain had just googled it and stored it there.
It was because of his enhanced brain. It made him know that the mist from the nozzles cleaned the body but then, intelligently adjusted depending on the body’s makeup, skin type, germs, and stuff like that.
An automated scanner glowed overhead, a robotic device that moved and scanned from above, purging microbes, adjusting skin pH, and even repairing minor abrasions. The device killed germs, balanced one’s skin, and even healed tiny cuts or scratches.
Fascinating.
Tatehan almost wondered the use of his regeneration powers with this device, but then, he realized that it healed only minor wounds like a bruise, but for something deeper, like the piercing of the kidney or any vital organ, it couldn’t. That was where his regeneration powers would be a lifesaver. Only if he could upgrade it.
A subtle spark-like smell hung in the air, something like an electric tang.
Tatehan bathed quicker than he would have ever done in his life, and he didn’t even do most of the scrubbing, the nozzles did it for him. After he was done, he felt a wave of engineered freshness.
Very..., very clean.
Tatehan was sure this hygiene station could clean someone who hadn’t bathed for centuries. It felt like a rehabilitation center for the body.
He found a towel on a hanger by the wall and wore it around his waist, walking out from the hygiene station. As he walked out, the walls retracted and closed.
Tatehan looked at it, fascinated...
He must have forgotten that he was a century into the future. A century and a few years to be precise...
...a century and a decade into the future, and he felt perfectly normal about it?
Or how long was he dead before the spaceship decided to bring him to Mars as Tatehan? It felt like a mystery. To be in here, to understand all this, it was a big mystery.
It felt like he had reincarnated into one of those extra novels and the spaceship’s AI was the main character.