J.E.M. warned Aiden the moment he regained full awareness.
[MEDICAL ADVISORY: BED REST REQUIRED]
[RECOMMENDED DURATION: 72 HOURS]
Aiden stayed silent as he listened to J.E.M, letting the warning sink in without reacting right away. He slowly turned his head and looked down at his body, and his eyes were drawn to the empty space where his left arm should have been. The sight held his attention longer than he expected, and his mind struggled to accept it as real.
The absence felt wrong in a way he could not ignore. His sense of balance felt off, and even the weight of the air against his body felt different. As he stared, the memory of heat and blinding light returned with clarity, followed by the pressure that had pushed through the shield and into him. He replayed the moment without meaning to, and grimaced in pain.
Aiden forced himself to breathe slowly and steady his thoughts. The arm was gone. It was a fact that he would not be able to change, no matter how long he stared at the space it had once occupied. Accepting it was necessary, and wasting time on shock would only delay what needed to be done next.
"I agree..." he said quietly.
The words surprised even him. In the past few months, his voice had changed. His eyes felt steadier, and his thoughts no longer rushed the way they once did. He lay still and replayed the fight in his head, step by step, watching each decision and each mistake.
He stopped himself and cut the thought short.
"How are the natives?"
Aiden asked about the natives, keeping his voice even while his thoughts stayed sharp.
J.E.M. informed him that they were sleeping in shifts, using the warehouse and the stored hides for rest since their tents and supplies had been destroyed. The answer painted a clear picture in his mind, and he gave a single nod as he processed it.
They were alive, sheltered, and resting for now, which told him the situation outside had not grown worse. His first worry had been that monsters might have followed them back, so hearing this allowed him to relax a little. He also knew there was enough food in storage, and J.E.M. had already told them they could use it freely.
"How's my condition?"
Aiden asked, directing his focus to himself after confirming the safety of the natives.
[HOST STATUS: STABLE]
[CRITICAL DAMAGE: NONE DETECTED]
[CAUSE OF FAINTING: TRAUMA AND EXHAUSTION]
After that, Aiden shifted slightly and tested his body on his own, paying attention to every movement. He felt mostly fine, tired and heavy, yet still functional, except for the strange sensation where his arm should have been, as if it was there and not there at the same time.
As his thoughts wandered about his arm, the memory of the blast surfaced again. The sensation of burning heat came back with clarity, and his muscles tightened on instinct. His jaw set as his mind replayed the moment that happened about the incident. Even now, his body reacted as if the damage was still happening, and he could tell that the shock had not fully left him yet.
"What kind of beast was that?...." he muttered, more to himself than anything else.
J.E.M. answered without pause.
[ANALYSIS RESULT: TARGET ENTITY IS NOT NORMALLY PRESENT IN THE OUTSKIRTS. DATA CONFIRMS THREAT LEVEL COMMONLY OBSERVED IN THE MIDDLE ZONE OR INNER ZONE]
Aiden turned his head slightly.
"Explain more..." Aiden said, keeping his voice even as he waited for the response.
[DATA UPDATE: LOCATION CONFIRMED AS OUTER ZONE AFTER NATIVE INFORMATION ANALYSISFOREST OF DEATH CLASSIFICATION DETECTED
- OUTSKIRTS
- OUTER ZONE
- CENTRAL ZONE
- INNER ZONE
- CORE ZONE
CENTRAL ZONE BEGINS APPROXIMATELY 50 MILES FROM CURRENT LOCATIONTHREAT DENSITY AND ENTITY STRENGTH INCREASE BEYOND THIS POINT]
Aiden stayed quiet as the notification faded, taking a moment to think through what it meant. Fifty miles was far enough to give some time, yet close enough that danger could still reach them.
His mind returned to the siege class beast that had appeared so close to the edge, and he compared that to how the zones were supposed to work. The boundaries were not as safe as they should have been.
Aiden's thoughts went to overdrive. Distance meant time to react, and time meant systems could be prepared. He understood that the Outer Zone could not be treated as a safe place to stay anymore.
The problem was that he could not simply pack up and leave. The ship held everything he had, from tools and materials to systems that kept him alive. In a world he did not understand, filled with monsters and constant danger, the ship was his only stable ground and his only real chance to survive and grow stronger if he planned carefully. That meant one thing was clear to him now. He needed to protect the ship at all costs.
He let the information settle as he connected it with the data J.E.M. had gathered. Siege-class beasts were usually found two to three zones deeper than where he was now, far from the outskirts and even beyond the Outer Zone.
The one Aiden had fought likely moved down to the lower zones due to the winter coming earlier than usual, at least according to what the natives believed. It was only hunting for food, chasing ironhide boars as they fled, and in the process it ended up reaching the area where the natives had been staying.
"Talk about bad luck...." he muttered with a quiet sigh.
At least there shouldn't be another attack soon, or so logic suggested. Still, even the outskirts had produced a siege class beast. That meant certainty did not exist here.
He needed to work. Staying in bed and resting was not an option anymore once he knew all this. Even if he forced himself to lie down, his mind would not settle, not while the risk of another attack remained. Any hungry John, Mark, Peter--whatever monster wandering close could turn everything upside down again. Aiden could really not afford to be caught unprepared again.
Since J.E.M. confirmed that his condition was no longer critical anyways, Aiden pushed himself upright. The movement was careful and deliberate as his body adjusted to the missing weight on his left side. His balance felt different, and he took a moment to steady himself before fully sitting up.
[WARNING: BED REST ADVISED!]
Aiden did not reply and simply ignored the warning.
He stood all the way and drew in a slow breath, testing how his body responded. Fatigue weighed on him, yet his legs held firm. The room felt quiet, and that silence gave him space to think.
"This is the most vulnerable the ship has been since I arrived here. That creature melted a shield made from ship materials. If something stronger shows up, it for sure wont end up with just me losing an arm."
As he spoke, his right hand flexed on its own. His eyes dropped to the empty space beside it, and the absence felt impossible to ignore.
"Hmmm... I need a bio arm soon. I should make one."
Materials were not the problem. The secured storage held more than enough resources, and he could make several bio arms if he wanted. The real issue was the work itself. Building a bio arm required careful and precise steps, and trying to do that with his left arm missing would just be a waste of time.
He pushed that thought aside and shifted his focus.
"I should fix the Mech Frame Assembly Unit."
That machine had been broken , so he had taken it apart piece by piece and reused its components to build the tools he needed to survive.
The machine had been broken when he crash landed to this world, so he took it apart and used its parts to make tools that helped him survive. Those parts had helped him make cutting tools, repair equipment, and keep basic systems running during his early days here.
Rebuilding the machine would take time and care, but he believed he could do it with one arm if he worked slowly. Once it was working again, fixing the mech suit would be the next step. The left side damage was heavy, yet the main frame was still intact, so it shouldn't take too much time to repair it as long as he had the Mech Frame Assembly Unit.
Only after that would he turn his attention back to the natives. He did not plan to demand anything from them or bind them with obligation. He needed to understand their situation, their future plans, and more importantly, about this world itself.
Right now, Aiden knew he was still ignorant about this world. What counted as common sense here was a big question mark to him, from the forest zones to beasts that could fire mana blasts. That lack of knowledge had already costed him his arm, and he understood that learning more about this world was the only way he could plan better and survive.
Aiden took a slow step forward, his posture steady and his expression calm, as his mind moved ahead of his body and began organizing the work that needed to be done next.