Alex's mind was on his last moments as he was wheeled to the surgery room. He had been wrapped in a white overall and administered three doses of morphine. He couldn't feel his body and was thinking about his life when he felt a sudden pinch on his skin.
Reminiscing about his life since he was a child; Alex's life had been a constant struggle.
Born to parents society had written off.
He was an outcast from the start. His father was in jail, and his mother was in rehab. Abandoned at birth, he was taken in by an orphanage, only to be adopted by a kind nurse when he was seven.
But when she passed away when he was ten, Alex was left to fend for himself, resorting to begging on the streets. As a result, Alex developed a mental health condition and a speech problem, making it hard for him to talk to others.
Life was really hard, so tough to the point that a single penny to him could solve all his problems.
While passing through the streets one day, he saw an advertisement on the walls, calling out for organ donors. The location seemed a bit close from where he slept.
The pay looked nice.
Packing up his tattered and worn-out clothes, he stumbled to the hospital, thin, and his face and body dirty and smelly due to poor living conditions and malnourishment.
The hospital staff were nice and accommodating, first giving him a good clean bath and shaving the hairs off his body.
It seemed nice because no one had done that to Alex. After he was wrapped in new clothes and taken to the office.
Twenty to thirty minutes later, he was told the conditions to participate in the surgery. Being overjoyed, he said that he was willing to do anything to repay their hospitality.
But first, they needed to conduct some tests to check whether his organ would be compatible with the recipient of the transplant. After going through several checks, Daniel was finally told that he needed to give out the hollow organ between his sternum and lungs.
His heart?
Giving out his heart? He had things to live for..
Nah!
But he had to think back.
What was he living for?.
If he leaves the hospital, what's gonna be there again?. Another day to crouch under the bridge and sleep off.
Another day to beg from the market sellers and get ridiculed again. He wasn't going to give in to the thought of living.
He was tired of life.
Tired of going round in circles.
Giving them the staff the consent, he was later offered breakfast, lunch and dinner..
Since then, he gotta say, that the last three weeks of his life were the best. Good food, intense care from the young nurses who seems to give him unwavering smiles.
But today was the slotted day of the surgery and a feeling of melancholy washed over Alex as he was administered three doses of morphine through a backshot injection. He wore a white overall and agreed to be wheeled to the surgery room.
The morphine injection slowed down the pain but he was soon applied another injection of liquid soporific.
An ominous feeling washed over Alex as he realized that today was gonna be the last day he would see the rays of the sun.
The last thing he heard before he got unconscious, was the beeping sounds of the hospital monitor to his right.
Then, suddenly he was woken up by a strange voice:
[SYSTEM BOOTING UP...…..]
These were the words that flashed in his eyes, and he could swear that he was in a dream.
[WORLD CONQUEROR SYSTEM...]
[INITIALIZING]
This was mostly seen in the video games he used to play when Aunt Sarah was still alive. Why is it showing on his face?...
Wait, I'm not dead?
[DING!!!!!!!!!]
[WORLD CONQUEROR SYSTEM…]
[Status: Near- Death]
[Current Tasks: 0]
[World: Unknown]
[Missions: Not yet determined]
[Goal: To Conquer Every Single Nation or Empire in ithe World]
Alex blinked hard in the darkness. Breathing hard, he tried to clear his mind off. To him, this video game kind of interface seems to be a figment of his imagination.
But it was there.
He swore he could see light, as if he's regaining consciousness; but he felt pains on his lower back.
But he remembered that he was in the hospital bed, under surgery.
But he's feeling pains.
How?
He could remember that he was being given painkillers and some supposed sleeping drugs, how is he still feeling pains? Or is the medical team inexperienced or crooked?
His thoughts changed from the video game mumbo-jumbo to the pain wrecking his mind right now.
But his body moved, to him it looked like he was regaining consciousness. He tried moving his eyes, but the eyelids were shut stiff.
Then the robotic voice said again…..
[Memories Detected!!!! Syncing with Host…..]
[10%]
[20%]
...…
His mind crawled out of the darkness in his mind, slowly overlapping with the image of the transculent screen and the robotic voice. He was breath, in short, intermittent gasps as he could still feel pain all over his body.
Something felt stale, like the smell of blood. Yeah, it was blood and that was coming from his body.
Alex opened his eyes, and choking up from the blood stench, he felt that something was in his mouth.
He jerked off, spitting. His spit was blood red and the worst of all, he wasnt on the hospital bed however.
Looking around, there was nothing around him. It seemed he was in a dark alley and moving a bit further, the surrounding buildings were strange masterpieces he never seen in his entire life.
This was weird, really weird.
"Where the hell am I?", he could only mumble.