[Master, you have awakened.]
[The procedure was a complete success.]
The familiar synthetic voice echoed calmly inside Kenny's mind as consciousness gradually returned to him once again.
His eyelids twitched weakly before slowly opening toward the unfamiliar sky above the ruined forest. For several moments, his vision remained blurry while lingering dizziness caused his head to throb painfully. Every muscle in his body still ached from the reconstruction process, yet unlike before, the soreness no longer felt unbearable. Beneath the exhaustion and lingering pain, Kenny could feel something else spreading throughout his body.
Strength.
A strange, unfamiliar sense of vitality pulsed through his muscles and nerves like hidden energy flowing beneath his skin.
As Kenny slowly regained focus, his gaze eventually landed on Noct standing several meters away beside the burning wreckage of the crashed ship. The humanoid machine remained motionless beneath the drifting smoke while faint violet light glowed softly from within its metallic eyes.
Then suddenly, something strange happened.
The moment Kenny focused his attention on the robot, the vision in his right eye abruptly shifted.
A faint mechanical sound echoed inside his skull before the world around him instantly zoomed inward with frightening precision. The robot's body enlarged within his field of vision until Kenny could clearly see even the smallest scratches and dust particles resting across Noct's damaged armor plating.
Streams of translucent symbols and scanning data immediately appeared across the right side of his sight before eventually stabilizing several seconds later.
Kenny blinked repeatedly in shock.
"What the hell…"
The enhancement in his eye had activated automatically.
The realization sent another wave of excitement rushing through his chest.
Then, almost instinctively, Kenny lowered his gaze toward his own body.
And froze.
His legs.
For several long seconds, he could only stare silently at the reconstructed limbs beneath him while disbelief slowly spread across his face.
The same lifeless legs that had remained useless for more than ten years were now completely different. Beneath the torn remains of his clothing, faint silver lines flowed subtly beneath synthetic flesh while dark metallic structures reinforced his knees and calves with sleek mechanical precision.
The design looked unbelievably refined.
Not crude machinery.
Not prosthetics.
It looked as though advanced technology had perfectly merged together with a living human body.
Carefully, Kenny moved one leg.
The reconstructed limb responded instantly.
Left.
Right.
Up.
Down.
Every movement felt impossibly smooth and natural. There was no stiffness, no uncomfortable resistance, and none of the mechanical screeching sounds he expected from metal limbs.
If anything, his new legs felt more responsive than normal human ones.
A grin slowly spread across Kenny's face.
"This is insane…" he muttered quietly while continuing to move his legs in fascination. "This is even better than the cybernetics from James Cameron's movies…"
For several moments, Kenny simply sat there experimenting with the movements like a child receiving the greatest gift imaginable.
Then gradually, his expression shifted.
Because there was one thing he wanted to do more than anything else.
Stand.
After spending ten years trapped inside a wheelchair, the simple act of standing had become something almost sacred in his mind.
Kenny placed both hands against the ground before slowly pushing himself upward.
The moment his weight shifted onto his reconstructed legs, his entire body trembled violently from instability. His muscles tightened instinctively while unfamiliar sensations surged throughout his lower body.
Then suddenly—
THUD!
His legs buckled awkwardly beneath him, sending him crashing back onto the dirt.
For several seconds, Kenny remained motionless.
Then unexpectedly, he laughed.
Not bitterly.
Not angrily.
Genuinely.
Because for the first time in over a decade, falling while trying to stand actually felt wonderful.
It meant his legs worked.
It meant he could try again.
And so he did.
Again.
And again.
Each attempt lasted slightly longer than the previous one as his body slowly adapted to sensations it had not experienced for years. The cybernetic systems fused into his nervous system continuously synchronized with reconnecting neural pathways while his reconstructed muscles gradually learned to support his weight once more.
Finally, after several painful attempts, Kenny managed to remain standing.
His breathing became uneven as he froze beneath the alien sky.
Standing.
Actually standing.
The mountain wind brushed gently against his face while his legs supported the full weight of his body without collapsing beneath him.
At that moment, Kenny genuinely felt as though his entire life had changed.
A painful tightness formed inside his chest while emotions he had buried for years threatened to overwhelm him completely.
Slowly, cautiously, he took his first step forward.
Then another.
Every movement still felt slightly unnatural after so many years of paralysis, yet the exhilaration surging through his body drowned out everything else. Even the sensation of dirt beneath his feet felt extraordinary.
"This…" Kenny whispered while laughing quietly to himself. "This feels unbelievable…"
The excitement rapidly grew stronger.
Without thinking, Kenny suddenly bent his knees before instinctively jumping.
The result shocked him.
The ground beneath his feet exploded apart as his body launched upward with terrifying force. Within a fraction of a second, Kenny found himself soaring high enough to reach the upper branches of nearby trees before panic immediately crossed his face.
"What the hell?!"
He crashed awkwardly back onto the forest floor several meters away.
Leaves and dirt scattered everywhere.
For several moments Kenny simply sat there blankly before slowly turning toward the height he had just reached.
"That jump was at least two meters…"
His heartbeat accelerated rapidly.
That was no longer human.
Excitement immediately exploded inside him afterward.
"Hah… hahaha…"
The laughter gradually became louder.
"I can jump higher than rookie Jordan now!" Kenny shouted while grinning wildly beneath the forest canopy.
For the first time in years, pure joy surged through his body without restraint.
He no longer felt weak.
No longer fragile.
No longer trapped inside a broken body.
Yet amidst the excitement, Kenny suddenly noticed another strange change.
His left arm.
The muscles beneath the skin looked subtly different now, almost unnaturally dense beneath faint silver lines flowing across the surface like microscopic circuitry. The entire arm felt heavier and stronger than before, as though steel cables had been woven directly into flesh and bone.
Kenny slowly clenched his fist.
Immediately, he felt a surge of force gathering inside the arm.
Curious, he threw a punch toward empty air.
BOOM!
A sharp explosive sound echoed outward through the forest.
Kenny froze instantly.
The force from his punch alone had compressed the surrounding air enough to create a small shockwave.
A huge grin immediately spread across his face.
Without hesitation, he bent down and grabbed a fist-sized rock from the ground nearby before slowly tightening his enhanced hand around it.
At first, nothing happened.
Then—
CRACKKK!!
The stone shattered apart inside his palm.
Fragments of rock crumbled between his fingers before falling harmlessly toward the dirt below.
Kenny stared silently at his own hand.
Then suddenly burst into loud laughter.
"Hahahaha!!"
The sound echoed throughout the ruined forest while excitement surged uncontrollably through his chest.
After spending most of his life feeling weak and helpless, the sensation of possessing genuine physical power felt intoxicating.
[I hope you are satisfied with the modifications, Master.]
Noct's calm synthetic voice echoed once more inside his mind.
Kenny immediately turned toward the robot with excitement written clearly across his face.
"Satisfied?" he repeated while laughing. "Noct, this is unbelievable!"
His thoughts spiraled rapidly.
Enhanced strength.
Cybernetic limbs.
Improved senses.
Alien technology beyond Earth's imagination.
If this was merely the beginning, then how powerful could he eventually become?
Then suddenly, streams of information appeared directly before his eyes.
[Kenny Reese]
[Human — 19 Years Old]
[Synchronizing Data…]
[Physical modifications successfully integrated.]
[Battle Power increased by 30.]
[Current Battle Power: 36.]
Kenny frowned slightly.
"Battle Power?"
Almost immediately, new information flooded into his mind explaining the meaning behind the displayed numbers.
Battle Power represented the combined measurement of physical strength, reaction speed, endurance, neural response, and overall combat efficiency.
The realization caused Kenny's eyes to widen slightly.
His original Battle Power had only been six.
Meaning—
"I'm six times stronger than before…"
Even if thirty-six apparently remained insignificant compared to real fighters in this world, transforming from a crippled engineering student into someone capable of crushing rocks barehanded already felt absurd enough.
Eventually, the initial excitement settled slightly, replaced instead by growing curiosity.
Because Kenny realized there were still countless things he did not understand about the changes inside his body.
The data streams appearing before his eyes.
The voice inside his head.
The strange mental connection linking him directly to Noct.
Kenny focused inward instinctively, attempting to search through the fragmented information flowing throughout his consciousness.
[Analyzing data…]
Streams of symbols and unfamiliar information flashed rapidly through his thoughts before gradually organizing themselves into understandable concepts.
And slowly—
Kenny began understanding what Noct truly was.
The robot was not merely an advanced machine.
It was an entire technological platform.
Even though Noct lacked heavy combat capabilities, it possessed countless specialized functions related to production, engineering, analysis, support systems, and technological development.
And because their minds had been linked together during the inheritance process—
Every one of those functions was now accessible to Kenny himself.
His breathing gradually quickened again.
The first ability immediately caught his attention.
Calculation Processing.
With Noct's processor supporting his mind directly, even the most complex mathematical equations and engineering calculations could now be solved almost instantly.
The second ability was Knowledge Appraisal.
Noct possessed enormous archives of stored information capable of analyzing materials, technology, living organisms, and surrounding environments in real time.
Combined together with Kenny's enhanced eye, the world itself suddenly became layered with data invisible to ordinary people.
Then finally—
Kenny discovered the core ability that truly made his heart race.
The function that defined Noct as a Class One Production Drone.
A technology so absurd that even Kenny struggled believing it at first.
Slowly, a single word appeared before his eyes.
[Replicator.]