The mechanical eye was staring at Brand. Its huge red lens was pulsating with eerie light, as if calculating and making judgment.
"Why?" A rhythmic voice emerged from the mechanical eye.
"I've been telling you for hours!!" Brand was chained in the air, struggling for breath. Yet, the mechanical-eye monster in front of him was asking the same question again and again.
His limbs were pierced and chained to the chamber floor. Each chain sends a shivering pain into him, holding him in place. He was fixed in the center of the chamber.
At his left side was a tiny spherical robot, which had been scanning him up and down repeatedly.
At first he was counting each time it made a full loop over his body. After a hundred times, he lost count of them. It was hypnotizing, and he felt his mind drifting into sleep.
The worst part was, his consciousness was still open, as the pain would keep him awake. His mind was breaking. The only thing that kept his sanity was his family.
He swore to return to his family no matter what. Memories of his mother and sister began to flash by his mind.
"Why are you able to enter this chamber?" The mechanical eye asked again.
Brand looked at the giant mechanical eye in front of him. He could feel his mind literally tearing when looking in the eye.
It was so oppressive that it did not feel like being in this world. The sight made him wonder, was even looking at it a sin?
"My answer would still be the same." Brand's voice was firm as he replied. "I pondered here by accident while on a field trip, researching ancient ruins."
The tiny robot rolled up to him and scanned him again. Now, his piled-up anger had reached the boiling point. He felt as if the tiny spherical robot was teasing him. Maybe his mind was playing tricks with him, as he was losing his sanity.
"Enough!" he spat at the tiny robot. His voice was cracking with fury.
He vented out his anger on this tiny robot. He could only vent to it, as the presence of the mechanical eye was too suffocating. Even looking at it felt like his soul would be dragged out.
The mechanical eye lingered its gaze on him for a while before the sound of chains unlocking propagated to him.
Without warning, he was dropped hard to the ground, free from the chains. He could feel the bones of his left hand twisting at weird angles.
He tried to scream, but his blood oozed out at the same time, drowning his voice. At this point, he was stripped even of his voice.
The tiny robots kept rotating around him. He could no longer keep it in and snapped. He slapped the tiny robot, but it was silent. He had grown too weak, seemingly on the brink of death.
His limbs were all tattered with blood and scars. His lungs felt like they were burning with every breath he took. The pain that radiated through his body was indescribable. But he still maintained consciousness.
The mechanical eye was staring at him for a long time. Before shifting its gaze onto the tiny robot. The tiny robot vibrated, as if it had picked up some signal, as it rolled back to the giant mechanical eye.
Brand slowly stood up. His limbs were broken and bent at impossible angles, yet he still stood up firmly. He stood face-to-face with the mechanical eye. He continued to stare at its eyes, despite suffering from the incomprehensible pressure.
His eyes started to bleed as he continued to stare at its eyes, but he did not care.
Anger. This was all he felt. This emotion was what supported him, keeping him alive.
"Brand Smith. Male. Age 24. Programmer at FromSoft."
He could hear the mechanical eye voice. reciting his information as if reading a resume. So, would it continue with his hometown, education, and even personal relationship?
However, what came next was unexpected.
"This chamber has a force field installed." The mechanical eye started to explain some alien sci-fi stuff. "It rejects all living organisms, even bacteria."
Brand remained silent as he listened. His heart pounded as he found out this was nonsense. It would be more unbelievable than an alien invasion.
"What you're speaking of now is at a microscopic level!" His voice exploded.
"Exactly, human."
"Does any of this make sense?" He asked, dissatisfied with the mechanical eye's reply.
"That's what I've been wondering as well, human." There was a clear shift in tone from the mechanical eye. He had become somewhat… humane?
As if he were now communicating with it. Compared to earlier, it felt like an interrogation by some artificial intelligence.
Brand's eyes widened as he slowly processed its words. Then he screamed, with desperation.
"Do you mean I'm not a living organism?!" He shouted, his voice cracking with anger and pain.
Since he arrived, the mechanical eye had been torturing him with needles, chains, and beams. It was as if they were running a series of tests to figure out his pain tolerance level.
"This chamber was not meant to be found by any living organisms," the mechanical eye stated bluntly. "Only those with ethereal form could enter."
Brand was caught off guard as the iris of the mechanical eye suddenly enlarged. "This means you could bypass the rules set by this chamber!"
The mechanical eye then let out a high-pitched laugh. It continued for a while. And when it stopped, Brand's body started to float in the air.
He tried to resist, but it was hopeless. He desperately put force into his broken limbs. He needed to move. Even if it was just a small movement, he needed to move!
Because the sight in front of him was hell incarnate.
Countless tubes were spreading out from the mechanical eye. The tubes radiated from the mechanical eye's core and slowly approached him.
Did this bastard want to torture him until the end?
"You will lose consciousness and wake up in a foreign world." The mechanical eye spoke to him solemnly, as if bidding farewell. "Don't fret; little Sera will be coming along with you as a guide."
The tiny spherical robot earlier was wiggling, as if greeting him with enthusiasm, as if it were a tiny puppy.
This was so uncomfortable, to look at some weird spherical robot acting adorable. If it wanted to be adorable, it should be a real puppy or angel!
The tiny robot wiggles once again as if nodding.
'Could it read my thoughts?'
But his thought no longer stayed with the tiny robot and instead fixated back at the giant mechanical eye. To be precise, he was looking at tubes that were extending toward his body.
Unable to escape, he watched the tubes pierce his body and let out a voiceless scream. He couldn't even hear his voice at this point.
But weirdly, he could hear a voice in his head.
[Body reconstruction begins.]
A strange heat began to spread throughout his veins. He felt an immense pain as the mechanical eye injected something into his blood.
Steam began to escape from his skin, and his skin color turned from white to silver. He could hear his broken bones rattling underneath his skin, the broken fragments mended back together.
All of these events seemed bizarre to him. The sensation was haunting.
Before he lost consciousness, he heard one more voice in his mind.
[Installing GHOST on the host.]
A rift opened in front of him, and he was shoved into it with the mechanical eye's tentacle-looking tubes.