The screen closed, and Alan stared at the white screen blankly. He supposed he was taking this rather well. The fact that his body had been changed and was currently evolving didn’t alarm him too much. From the sound of it, the changes were all upgrades. He was sure some might be worried about their potential loss of humanity, yet Alan felt sure of himself. He would be able to tell if he was no longer human, right? And who ever said being human was such a great thing? There were countless atrocities that had been allowed by humanity before the Game came, and they had only been stopped when the Administrators had stepped in despite the fact they could have been stopped just as easily before the Game. This was a chance at power and knowledge on a scale he’d never known before, and he may have been manipulated into this position, but he would accept this gift with open arms, for surely that was what this was, a gift.

His resolve steeled, Alan stood up, and proceeded to the med-bay.

***

The med-bay turned out to be a fairly large room, with a series of four overly-large capsules in the middle of the room. Each looked like they could easily fit a Predecessor. The walls were covered by a series of compartments, divided into around a hundred metal boxes, each holding various medical supplies. Standing next to the entrance behind a counter was a sleek android that looked to be a copy of the Administrator in his Home. The Administrator had a white circle on its forearm, which Alan understood to be the universal symbol for medic.

Uh, hello, Alan sent.

Greetings, traveler, it responded.

I’ve decided to become a Machine Lord.

Oh, no further questions? Not even about the cost?

Well, I guess I’ll look at that information.

Of course.

The implant in-game menu opened up. Alan was reminded that he’d had two implants previously installed, the Computer-Human Enhanced Interface and the General Status Enhancer, and wondered if some limited version of them were now part of his actual body. They probably were.

The Machine Lord implant was apparently an upgrade to the Computer-Human Enhanced Interface, and required a series of obscure, doubtlessly rare and expensive items. Or a class mark, which he had been conveniently awarded earlier. The procedure also cost 250,000 credits, 1000 ability points, and would take a week of in-game time to complete. That left him with 500 ability points to spend afterwards on class skills. A new series of options had appeared in the abilities purchase menu as well, and he needed to decide what to do with the marks he’d been awarded. But all of that would come after the procedure. Alan could see why it was so hard to decide to play your own class rather than the recommended one, as the cost was quite prohibitive.

The Machine Lord implant would take up two mechanical slots and one biological one, filling up all the slots Alan had for implants. He’d gain another two slots at level 100, then two more at level 1000, and so forth, if he remembered correctly. It looked like the talented, machine communication, and AI interaction abilities were requirements for the augment. This implant would develop the talent skill, and apparently also upgrade the hypercognition skill. A series of other unknown bonuses were also there. Alan also met other hidden requirements for the class. He looked over the screen one last time, then let the Administrator know: