Chapter 2 — Change.
Merp's target was those streaks of light. Too few had passed through his previous location, and he no longer wanted to wait. He swung his arms, trying to intercept them, but the streaks were far too fast—his movements simply couldn't keep up. After missing several times, he began to observe instead.
Wherever there were more streaks, he would go there. He adjusted his position—up, down, left, right—placing himself directly in their paths before they passed through. These streaks didn't change direction; they simply collided straight into him. Each time, Merp would receive more information.
"A spreadsheet?"
The first streak he successfully intercepted this time turned out to be a spreadsheet. It was a quarterly financial report belonging to an import-export company. The imported goods, exported goods, pricing, profit margins—everything was listed in meticulous detail.
Though puzzled, Merp didn't care about the contents of the report. He immediately focused on growing his legs.
This time, it happened all at once—both legs appeared simultaneously.
"Hm? One streak and both legs came out? Looks like these streaks differ from one another… so what do I need next?"
Using his bizarre hands, Merp began feeling around his body. He tried to lower his gaze—
"No head?"
He was startled again, but quickly calmed himself. His current state was already strange enough—no sensation, no mouth, and now not even a head. A nose and ears were obviously out of the question. He could only continue intercepting the streaks.
"This time, I hope you can support my campaign for the Senate. I need funding. Of course, the returns will be substantial—if I win!"
Merp had no interest in whatever shady transaction this implied. He immediately focused on growing a head. Sure enough, his body changed again, and his perspective shifted.
But if he didn't have a head… how could he still see the streaks?
Merp began to form some guesses about his situation, but the priority was to make himself whole—at least something resembling a "human." It was an instinctive attachment, perhaps. After all, he clearly wasn't human anymore. He had no physical sensations whatsoever, yet he still retained emotions and thoughts.
That, at least, was good news. As long as he still had emotions and cognition, he still retained some fundamental aspect of being "human." For now, he needed to complete his form first—then he could figure out where he was, and what exactly he had become.
Intercepting the streaks was now going smoothly. After gaining legs, Merp discovered something astonishing—his speed had become incredibly fast.
"Fast" wasn't even enough to describe it.
With a single step, he could arrive anywhere he wanted, almost like teleportation. The effect excited him, but it also made him realize something—
He truly no longer had a human body.
His legs and feet were angular, made of rigid edges and corners, and after his head formed, he noticed something else—
There was no mouth.
Merp had no choice but to continue intercepting streaks. He imagined his facial features one by one, then checked his entire body. For the most part, everything was complete.
Except…
Below, there was nothing.
He thought about it for a moment, then decided not to grow a "third leg." quite a big one in fact.
"With my current situation… I probably won't be needing it."
With that strange remark, he began organizing his thoughts.
…
"First of all, something must have happened to me. My last memory is typing… I was too focused… and then what happened?"
Merp tried to recall. This was the first time since waking up that he deliberately attempted to remember what had happened.
Something astonishing occurred.
In his mind—or rather, within his consciousness—a panel appeared, filled with densely packed folders.
Merp froze.
He opened one of them.
"It's… when I was just born? Is this the hospital delivery room?"
The moment he opened the first folder, he saw the scene of his own birth. He recognized it immediately—he saw his mother, young and exhausted, yet still smiling as she reached out her hands toward him.
A wave of sorrow surged through him.
He wanted to cry—but realized he couldn't.
There were no tears, only emotion. His current body simply couldn't express his grief.
Merp quickly closed the first folder, then began opening the others one by one.
Each folder contained one year of his memories.
Thirty full years—completely preserved. Even the moment of his death was clearly visible.
Beyond those were additional folders, categorizing everything he had ever read, watched, or experienced—books, movies, TV shows—all neatly organized. These existed within his memories as well, but here, they had been fully sorted and structured.
"What have I become? Did I turn into a set of computer data?"
Merp looked around again.
"These streaks of light… are they data too? Can I use them to strengthen myself?"
Now that he understood how he had died, his mind naturally began forming theories about his current situation.
"Like in those novels… did I enter a virtual world? Can I absorb other data to grow stronger?"
At this thought, Merp felt a flicker of excitement.
"Does that mean… I'm some kind of artificial intelligence now?"
It sounded unbelievable.
As a web novel writer, he was very familiar with transmigration tropes—endless variations of time travel, world-hopping, body transformation, even becoming animals like cats or dogs.
While he still wasn't certain whether he had transmigrated, he was almost certain of one thing—
He had become data.
As for whether he had crossed into another world or truly become an AI, that remained unclear.
"Let me try again… can I make this body more human-like?"
With that thought, Merp decided to test his theory.
He continued absorbing streaks of light. The only thing he was certain of now was that absorbing them strengthened him.
After absorbing more than a dozen streaks, Merp raised his left hand and extended his middle finger, staring at it. He then imagined what a normal human middle finger should look like.
Originally, the fingertip was square and blocky.
Now, it began to round out slightly.
Merp was overjoyed—though no sound escaped his surroundings.
But in the next moment—
The finger collapsed.
It broke apart into scattered fragments, dissolving into tiny points of light and disappearing.
Merp froze.
He quickly imagined the middle finger again. It regrew—but returned to its original square shape.
This time, he focused intensely, not daring to be careless.
The finger began to round out again…
And then collapsed once more.
"Could it be… not what I thought? I'm not an intelligent system? Or… wait, no, that's not right!"
"If I really am an intelligent system, then the data I possess doesn't match. In a virtual world, I'm like a newborn infant. A system requires a massive amount of data—especially an intelligent one. It's not just logic programs; it also needs vast knowledge."
"Could it be that… my knowledge base isn't sufficient?"
This conclusion came from the collapse of his finger.
Because if he truly was data—or a system—and his finger ultimately collapsed…
Then that could only mean one thing.
System failure.