"Ok… I can say this went with the least possible damage and most gained benefits for me…" John threw his body over the bed in his room after finally leaving the infirmary.
Sophie didn't let him leave at once like she said, she asked a nurse to run a few tests first. John refused any test that required a blood sample, knowing he escaped the lion's den with pure luck, and would be stupid to test his luck again!
He underwent some sort of a brain scan where his head got exposed to a beaming ray from a floating device. He could tell it was a device to scan his head, like an MRI scan on Earth. And that told him that Sophie cared about him, even if she acted as if she didn't!
He didn't need to ask to know she did that to check on his head injury. "At least they bought what I said," John touched the back of his head before adding, "I'm sure tests will be normal, but I can still cling to that excuse for a couple more days… I need to act fast during this period then!"
He knew he could play dumb for two days at most, then everyone would start suspecting him. So he must learn the basic stuff first, which included how to operate that big machine, the purpose of them being here, and the story of this world.
"I can get information about the world from books, or perhaps they have something like Wikipedia here?" John paused for a moment, thinking about all the advanced technology he saw so far. He was sure this was like an advanced version of what humans had on Earth, way advanced version.
"At least there aren't any aliens here," he tried to crack a joke to himself, to relieve his stress, yet he failed.
One of the perks he had by staying at the infirmary was to learn that rooms here weren't that simple! There were lots of hidden spaces that could be accessed by pressing over special spots in the walls!
It was like a game for him, where he touched the wall and found access to a small kitchen, a bathroom, and even an oval protrusion into the middle of the space, with only thick glass between him and the world outside!
"No thanks, I don't have a death wish," he instantly pressed the same spot to close that window on the world, "I prefer being confined in this metallic box!"
After exploring the possibilities his room had, he looked at his new room. It was more like a studio, which he liked!
"I don't know if they use computers here, do they even have the internet?" He started to question himself about tons of stuff, mostly related to technology, "I better stop fooling around and wasting time. I need to first secure my identity here and learn how to be a proper soldier!"
He didn't know why he had zero memories from John Mirage. He read lots of comics and novels, about people getting reincarnated, but they always end up with the host's memories.
"It surely makes life easier," he sighed when he envisioned himself with John's memories, "at least I'd know where this dude came from, what's his past, and how to survive in this base…"
There was no point in further dwelling on this matter. John started to look for food in the kitchen, to find weird machines there that he didn't know.
"This can be a fridge, it's like an egg, but it's cold…" there was this big egg-like structure that was at least half his height. It was on the ground, white in colour. It felt cold when he touched it.
"If everything here works on the same principle, there should be a way to open this thing hidden somewhere on the surface…"
*Tuck!*
As he was slowly touching that big egg, a lid suddenly opened. A white fog came out, and then he opened that small door.
"There is frozen food here…" he found lots of small boxes, lined neatly inside that egg structure, "it's safe to call it the egg fridge, but I should keep this name to myself for now… And now, how to heat this up?"
He took one box out, where he could see a piece of chicken, some rice and vegetables, "at least food didn't change, thanks god!"
He looked at the frozen meal, and suddenly it hit him, "this material reminds me of the microwave friendly materials on Earth… That means there must be a microwave here…"
He looked at the kitchen again. It was small in space, but filled with lots of different sized machines. "To make it easier for me, I'll only look for machines that can take this meal into it…"
He started filtering what he got by putting aside anything that looked smaller than his box, and there were many of these weird machines. In the end, he had three pieces that could easily accommodate his frozen meal.
*Tuck!* *Tuck!" *Tuck!*
As he did with the egg fridge, he started to open these machines one by one. A lid opened in each, and he soon found out the purpose of each piece.
"This one is like a cook, some sort of floating fire appears when I open it, and I assume it'll turn off when I close the lid…" one machine was like a box of tools, where it had three levels with three lids in it. Every level had a different coloured fire, red, blue, and white!
He didn't need to test it to know the colours were related to how intense the fire was. The second device was like a bag with only blue light and nothing else. "This one can let me carry food with me, I suppose, not useful for me right now, I guess…"
As the first two machines he tried weren't the one he was looking for, he knew the third was it. "It works fine," after ten minutes of attempting to let the globular device, that reminded him of small dishwashers, work, he finally managed to find the 'On' button.
"I never thought eating a meal here would be this hard," John ate at the infirmary what the nurse brought to him, and it wasn't that bad. To his surprise, the food he just heated tasted way better.
"Hospital food is always the worst," he shrugged while walking outside his room.
If he wanted to learn, he needed to find his friend first. Alfred must have been with the crazy sergeant and other soldiers, at that special place for the big machines.
John guessed that place was related to training the soldiers. So, if he needed to find Alfred before he would go to his room, then he had to go out and head there.