'Wait, System!'
Vio's train of thought was suddenly cut off. The screens in front of him vanished as his body was lifted into the air like a puppet out of control. He tried to move his limbs, but none of them responded. He was nothing more than a helpless spectator, trapped in a body that refused to obey him.
Before he could process what was happening, a savage pain tore through his being—like a flood of heated blades slicing him from the inside out. The outer layer of his metallic body cracked, releasing scalding steam as pieces broke off, exposing a complex network of glowing copper veins beneath. Tiny electrical sparks flickered across the surface, crawling over it like a swarm of ants—nanobot workers, each assigned a specific task.
Within seconds, his body opened up completely, like a book with its pages spread wide. With his own eyes, he saw the metal plates aligning like a mechanical puzzle while nanobots swarmed from his spherical joints, breaking apart old connections and announcing the start of reconstruction. They moved without pause, working from the outer shell to the deepest nerves—polishing the surface first, then transforming the nerves into transparent, glass-like threads.
He tried to scream, but the throat tightened—nanobots had slithered into the vocal cords, paralyzing them with burning stings. Even the cyborg heart—resting beside the frantically pounding organic one—wasn't spared. A crushing pressure pressed down, as though an invisible hand were trying to squeeze while nanobots tightened their grip on the surrounding nerves. The lungs, which had resembled two pumps, also stopped working, leaving a feeling of drowning in an airless void.
The nanobots seized the copper veins and approached the organic spinal cord, connecting it as a blacksmith welds iron rods together. Then, they moved to his head—and that was when the real pain began.
The swarm of nanobots surged toward his skull, an area that was supposed to be free of any mechanical components. Felt their tiny bodies slithering under his skin, drilling into his skull, shattering his human bones with searing laser beams—only to replace them with a metallic structure, just like the rest of his body. His face burned with excruciating pain, but his eyes remained wide open, forced to watch the horror unfold, unable even to blink.
Golden sparks erupted from his body, as if were a factory still under construction. Each spark marked the destruction of one part of his old self and the birth of something new—something unnatural.
The process lasted thirty minutes. Every second dragged on like an eternity. And then, without warning, it stopped.
The transparent nerves retracted, sealing the new outer structure. The force that had held him up vanished, and the heavy body crashed to the ground.
"Aaaagh!"
Scream finally tore free, air rushing into renewed lungs. His head spand his un, his eyes rang from the prolonged lack of oxygen. A strange buzzing sound escaped from his chest, gradually fading into silence. He sat up slowly, unfamiliar body humming with an overwhelming weight.
[Congratulations to the Hero on a Successful Evolution]
[Store Updated]
[Cores Updated]
[External Data Storage Expanded]
The loss of control was unbearable. Every time thought he had adjusted to his body, something happened to reset everything—reminding him that it wasn't truly his. He had never liked that feeling. He despised it. Everything Vio had done—whether in the previous world or this unfamiliar one—had been for the sake of gaining some sense of security, of making sure that life was in his own hands.
And now, not only had he lost what he built in his old world, but he had also found himself trapped in a place he didn't understand… in a body he couldn't trust.
But what choice did he have?
Nothing, except what he had always done—struggle.
A bitter struggle, clinging to the hope that one day, he would regain control.
He exhaled, forcing himself to push his emotions aside. No other choice. He gathered his scattered thoughts and forced himself back into the present.
The first thing he did was glance at his chest. With hesitation, he opened it to check inside. His organic heart was still there, unchanged. But CyborgHeart…
A chill ran through him.
It had been split in half. One side glowed like a beacon. The other was hollow—an empty shell.
Without thinking, he grasped the heart designed to store pure energy and pushed it toward the hollow half. The heart was pulled in, swallowed as if by a black hole. Even though the space seemed too tight, the core compressed without bursting—something that took Vio by surprise—before settling beside his electric heart.
[Second Heart Installed]
'Second… You mean third… Damn it, I have three hearts. What kind of monster am I?'
Even with barely any charge in it, he felt waves of energy surging through his veins, spreading through his limbs like a flood.
At the same moment, the store interface popped up, revealing a new section filled with unfamiliar parts.
Water-Air Pumps (Artificial Lungs)
External Arm Structure (Additional Limb)
Metal Fusion Stomach (Synthetic Stomach)
Every item was mechanical, as if he had stepped into a shop selling organs… artificial organs.
A wave of frustration washed over him.
For a brief moment, he had tasted what it felt like to be rich. But just as quickly, he was reminded of his poverty. The prices were insane.
He shut the window angrily before its sight could drive him to despair, and instead pulled up the system updates.
CyborgHeart (Electric, Pure Energy)
Level 1:
Capacity: 100EP.
Level 2:
Capacity: 200EP.
Requirements: 30 Plastic, 55 Metal, 22 Steel, 1 Battery Cell.
Cyborg Bones (Non-Replaceable)
Level 1:
Shock Resistance: 10%.
Level 2:
Shock Resistance: 20%.
Requirements: 5 Demon Bones.
Metal Plates (Outer Structure)
Level 1:
Durability: 1,000.
Level 2:
Durability: 2,000.
Requirements: 89 Plastic, 20 Metal, 40 Steel.
Cyborg Nerves
Level 1:
Electrical Energy Transfer Efficiency: +25%.
Level 2:
Electrical Energy Transfer Efficiency: +50%. Energy Loss Reduction: 15%.
Requirements: 45 Plastic, 60 Metal, 25 Steel, 5 Battery Cells.
'So, Demon's Bones!'
Vio felt relieved about his outer frame. He knew his body had limits, but now he could improve it and track its condition with precision. Still, the strange sensation pulsing through him—that which came from the new Cyborg Heart—remained. He was certain he had felt it before.
Closing his eyes, he shut out the world, listening to the steady beat of his organic heart and the unstable hum of energy from the two artificial ones. Then, suddenly, his eyes snapped open.
'Could it be...?'
He summoned one of the large, glowing stones he had taken from the demon's lair. Running his fingers over its rough surface confirmed the feeling was the same.
'It's the same sensation!'
With a firm grip, he crushed the stone. A wild surge of energy burst forth, unlike anything he had ever felt before. But his new senses detected it instantly. Without hesitation, he commanded Cyborg Heart to open. Tiny pores—barely visible holes across his fingers—absorbed every last drop of the energy, sending it rushing through his mechanical nerves.
[Charged.]
His eyes widened.
'These stones are pure energy containers! This world has pure energy!'
[Evaluation Complete: 53%]
Quickly, he pulled out all the remaining stones and crushed them one after another, draining them dry. He had 16 glowing stones, which gave around 20EP in total. No idea if that was a lot or a little—he didn't even know how rare these stones were.
But his expression darkened when he saw the scattered fragments left behind.
Reaching into inventory, he pulled out a bag filled with colorless stones and compared the two.
'They're the same!'
Once their energy was extracted, the glowing stones became thin, lifeless shards—pale and transparent.
'Which is more valuable in this world? Their glowing state or the faded one?'
Either way, the glowing ones were more useful to him.
He picked up one of the colorless stones and placed it in Cyborg Blood.
[Unable to Analyze]
'Why?!'
[Cyborg Blood analyzes materials. The observed object is not.]
'Not? Are you saying… It's pure energy?'
[The system does not know.]
They looked like ordinary rocks. But after breaking them down, they became crystal-like.
Regardless, he gathered all the colorless stones—313,452 pieces—and stored them in inventory.
Each glowing stone had left behind tens of thousands of these fragments.
Time passed quickly. Vio worried that the night would end before he could fully recharge, so he stepped out of the tent, stretched his hand past the barrier, and repeated what he had done before… only to regret it instantly.
The moment touched the outside air, a brutal cold attacked, forcing him to his knees. The situation worsened when he opened his fingers and Cyborg Heart, letting in a stream of icy energy. His internal organs began to freeze, and HP plummeted at a terrifying rate.
With great effort, he tore off his armor, sending desperate electric sparks through his body to fight the cold. Only then did he manage to force it out.
'Damn it! Why did that happen…?'
Unlike last time, he now had to process the energy inside his body before converting and storing it. Previously, the energy had split between his hand and Cyborg Heart, and the damage had only affected his hand—not his entire body.
'Everything is connected.'
In the store, he found mechanical organs and nerves designed to withstand extreme cold and heat, though whether they could survive a rage-filled night was questionable.
Opened his chest, removed the new heart, and repeated the process.
[Charging...]
The pain didn't disappear, but it became bearable.
After careful calculations, he realized that HP was dropping faster than he could charge his body. So, he decided to space out the suffering throughout the night—charging little by little, letting HP drop, resting to recover, then repeating the process while repairing any damage between breaks.
This continued until the first threads of dawn stretched across the sky. The barrier faded along with the fog, revealing that Vio had remained in the same spot the entire time.
The soldiers' corpses—or what remained of them—were still frozen.
But ignored them, focusing instead on his stats with a smile.
Name: Vio Kian
Age: 24 years (biological), 2 years (mechanical)
Level: 10 | XP: [89,809/6,400,000]
Rank: EvolveX-Cyborg
Titles: Skull Crusher, ???
HP: 8,439/9,000 (100%)
EP: 103/200 (split)
SP: 0/0 (Locked)
[Stats]
Strength: 60
Stamina: 55
Agility: 124
Intelligence: 107
Perception: 125
Endurance: 86
(Available points to distribute: 0)
Cores: Sigma-β
External Data: 0.04 /1 GB
99,500,000 system coins