The blue screen hovered, expectant. As the man's mind struggled to process the glowing prompt, a sudden, violent surge of electricity seared through his consciousness.
Bzzzzzzzt!
He buckled, hands flying to his temples as fragments of jagged memories tore through his mind. Faces he didn't recognize, voices he couldn't place-a whirlwind of data too fast to catch. He screamed, a raw, guttural sound that echoed off the damp sewer walls. Machine remained motionless, a silent observer to his agony.
"Aghhhhhh... stop... make it stop!"
The surge receded, leaving a dull throb behind his eyes. He slumped, trembling, as a single designation bubbled up from the wreckage of his memory.
"A77," he muttered, the taste of the name familiar yet bitter. "My name... is A77."
He looked at the screen and spoke the name aloud. The interface blinked, processing the input with a soft chime.
[ IDENTITY VERIFIED ]
[ STARTING SYSTEM SET-UP ]
[ WELCOME, UNIT N° A77 ]
[ I AM ALPHA 77, YOUR INTERNAL BIO-PROGRAMME ]
[ STATUS: ACTIVE. QUERY INVITED. ]
Before he could even breathe, another fragment struck-clearer this time. He was in a room of blinding white. The air felt sterile. An old man in a clinical coat stood over him, looking down at a young boy strapped into a chair.
"A77," the old man's voice was warm but firm. "Listen carefully. You are ready to—" The man's voice suddenly turned into a harsh static, a void in the memory that A77 couldn't pierce.
"—and the programme will help you to do that," the Master continued, the words returning as if nothing had happened. "There will be assistance also, so do a good job."
"Yes, Master," the boy's voice-his own voice-replied. "I will do my best not to disappoint you."
The memory vanished as quickly as a blown-out candle. A77 looked at the machine with a newfound, desperate clarity. The void in his chest had been partially filled, replaced by the heavy weight of a mission he only half-understood.
"I understand now," A77 said, his voice gaining a shaky confidence. "I have a purpose. But what did the Master say? It's... blurry. There's a hole in my memory." He turned his gaze to the floating machine. "You're my assistant. You know what the Master told me, right? My mission."
Machine paused, its internal processors whirring for nearly two minutes before responding. "Mr. Juvenelict, of course I know. You must find the key that opens the gate at the city in the sewer."
"The city in the sewer? What do you mean?" A77 frowned. "And why do you keep calling me that name? Juvenelict... what does it mean?"
"You have a mission here," Machine replied flatly. "It appears your memory remains fragmented. The name 'Juvenelict' is a hard-coded designation within my logic core. Its origin and meaning are unknown to me."
A77 reply "So my mission is in Sewer, i didn't expected that. Maybe because i don't remember much But It's strange you don't know the meaning of the name"
(Maybe it just a nickname like host.....hmmm host.)
"Oh right! Alpha 77," A77 spoke out loud, his voice echoing through the dark tunnel. "Do you know the meaning of the name?"
[ DATA NOT FOUND. ORIGIN: UNKNOWN. ]
"Great," A77 sighed. "And Alpha 77, what did the Master say? The part I can't remember?"
[ INFORMATION ENCRYPTED. RECOVERY PROGRESS: 0%. ]
"I expected that," A77 muttered. He looked at Machine. "And the city? You're saying there's a city down here? In a sewer? Are there other people?"
"Affirmative," Machine said, rotating its chassis toward a dark corridor. "The Sump City is our destination. You will encounter others soon. Follow me."
They walked. Minutes turned into hours as the repetitive clink of the machine's frame and the splash of A77's boots became the only rhythm in the dark. One hour. Two. Two and a half. The air grew thicker, smelling of rust and ancient ozone.
(How did they get that box down here? Why was I inside it? And the others... do they have the same mission?)
He couldn't keep the questions in any longer. "Robot! Do the others have missions like mine? Am I the only one who can't remember?"
Machine stopped, waiting for two minutes as if calculating how much truth he could handle.
"First: the others must not know your mission. Not all are allies. Second: you are not the only one whose memory was suppressed. I am here to facilitate the restoration of yours."
"How?" A77 asked, stopping in his tracks. "How did you bring those memories back?"
"Upon scanning your biology, I located a neural chip that required activation. I administered a localized electrical discharge to restart the hardware within your body."
A77 went cold. "A chip? There's a chip inside me? Why?! Where?!"
[ ALERT ⚠️ ]
[ HEART RATE ACCELERATING RAPIDLY ]
[ NEURAL STRAIN DETECTED ]
[ ADVISORY: REGULATE BREATHING ]
"Heart problems?" A77 shouted at the interface, his chest heaving. "Fine! Deep breaths. In. Out." As his pulse slowed, Seven spoke again.
"The chip enhances your mind and body," the machine explained. "It is essential for the mission."
"Weren't you supposed to be enough? As an assistant?"
"I am a tool. The chip is a part of you," machine said. "In time, you will understand its importance."
A77 looked around the tunnel, trying to distract himself from the thought of metal buried in his brain. "This is a sewer, right? Why isn't it... dirty? Where is the waste?"
"The system was decommissioned long ago due to inefficiency," machine replied. "Previous inhabitants cleaned the sectors for exploration and habitation."
Exhaustion finally began to win. A77's legs felt like lead. Suddenly, a low, rumbling sound echoed through the tunnel.
Grrrr-owl...
"Robot," A77 groaned, clutching his stomach. "I think I'm going to die of hunger before the mission even starts." He looked at the air again. "Isn't that right, Alpha 77?"
[ NEGATIVE. VITAL INDICATORS ARE STABLE. ]
[ STATUS: HUNGRY. THREAT LEVEL: MINIMAL. ]
"You're not helpful, Alpha," A77 muttered. He looked at the hovering machine. "And you... I can't keep calling you 'Robot.' My name is A77, the system is Alpha 77... we all have a '7' in there. I'm calling you Seven."
"Updating designation..." the machine buzzed. "Done. Name 'Seven' is now registered."
GRRR-OWL....
"Seven, how much further?"
"We are approaching the exit."
A new sound began to drown out the silence-a distant, heavy rushing, like a massive waterfall. A77 saw it then: a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel. He didn't wait. He broke into a ragged run, his hunger forgotten as he chased the glow.
He burst through the gate, gasping for air, and stopped dead.
Deep within the bowels of the subterranean world, the city hung suspended like a titan's heart inside a vast, industrial chasm.
A77 stood at the mouth of one of four massive, rusted red access tunnels. Before him lay a staggering display of scale and industrial majesty. The city itself was a gargantuan yellow sphere, a weathered mosaic of ancient stone and heavy metal plating that pulsed with the electric blue glow of integrated circuits.
Sleek, black industrial bridges extended like spindly fingers from the red tunnels, reaching across the misty abyss to the golden core. To his left, three ancient, circular sluice gates vomited torrents of blue sewer water into the darkness below, filling the air with a heavy, shimmering mist. To his right, a single, armored brown metal gate stood bolted into the rock, silent and guarded.
The cold air vibrated with a low-frequency hum-the song of the city's power core.
"What the hell..." A77 whispered.
"Welcome," Seven's voice came from behind him, bathed in the blue digital light of the chasm. "To The SUMP CITY."