Chapter 633: Waking up

Glimpses of memories flashed through Michael’s mind. He saw himself facing Alaric, raising his mechatronic hand and stopping him in his tracks.

The memories from when he used the Fast Forward Graphite block was fuzzy. It felt like one of those lucid dreams where it still felt like it was fantasy and reality at the same time.

Finally, he opened his eyes and awakened from his deep slumber.

"He’s awake!"

"Guys! Don’t crowd over him. He’s still recovering!"

"Zion, don’t mark his face with a pen!"

His blurry vision slowly turned clearer as he finally saw the people surrounding him.

He saw everyone he cared for in front of him. His parents were there, the Dragonborns, the Rebornians–they were all squeezing together around the bed in an attempt to get closer to him.

"I think it would be best if we left Lord Michael alone to recover," Sheina said, pushing her siblings out of the room.

He quickly stopped her. "It’s alright. I don’t mind. I’m feeling a lot better now."

"That’s good," Lylia said, taking him into her arms. "You don’t know how much we’ve been worried about you, dear."

Then, Fudge jumped out of his shadow and smothered him in his face, making him almost die.

"Uuhhuuu! Me too Master! I was so sad thinking you were going to die!"

Thankfully, Sheina had the good sense to pull Fudge back before he passed out again.

"Well, I’m sorry for worrying you, buddy," he said, petting Fudge’s head. The ninja slime seemed to have been successfully consoled after ths.

He then turned to everyone else. "How long was I out?"

"You have been unconscious for three straight days, Lord Michael. The physicians say that your entire body was pushed to the brink of exhaustion. They even think it’s a miracle you’re still alive."

It made sense. He couldn’t borrow that much power from his future self without paying for it.

And now, even three days later, his body was still in so much pain that he could barely move his body aside from small controlled movements.

The culprit for this pain must be none other than the fact that he temporarily aged five years in an instant.

Growing incredibly fast and regressing just as fast definitely takes a lot of toll on his body. He was like a rubber band that was stretched to its limits. It couldn’t be helped if his body had little cracks after the stress.

Still, he considered this as a massive success. Even if he was reduced to this state, it was all worth it since he was able to exhibit a strength that he wouldn’t have been able to do at all.

"What happened?" he asked them. He couldn’t remember anything after collapsing.

"Son, Barnaby was nice enough to get you the first aid you needed. He made sure that you got the best magical physicians to care for you," Bart answered. "Thankfully, they deemed you stable enough to move back into our headquarters after a day."

"And the auction?"

Sheina smiled. "Don’t worry, Lord Michael. Barnaby gave us the ten Soo drops you won in the games."

She presented Michael with a giant green vial containing the transparent liquid Soo.

He almost regained all of his energy back after seeing the Soo splash around in the vial.

"Thanks," he said, quickly taking the vial.

He couldn’t wait to upgrade his Drone even more. With ten drops, he could practically get all the upgrades he wanted and more!

But before he could do that, he had to settle a lot of things first.

Castelle approached him on his bed and told him about the current situation of the Reborn company.

"These last three days have been extremely busy for us, Young Master. People have been lining up around the streets just to enter our shops.

And since Main Street doesn’t have a dedicated walkway for pedestrians, most people ended up on the street and disturbing the flow of traffic."

Bart also had to chime in. "Your uncle Max is also experiencing a lot of visitors. Their residence is being hounded by all sorts of people asking to meet with you and discuss business. And no matter how many times they say that you’re not there, they just don’t believe it."

"What happened?" he asked, completely clueless.

Then, Sheina handed him the newspaper article written about him by Cronk.

And after reading through its contents, he became flattered with the way the Daily Metro dedicated an entire newspaper issue just for him.

"I guess I won’t have any trouble promoting the Reborn company anymore."

"That’s exactly right, Young Master. Our problem now is how to capitalize on it. We simply do not have enough capacity to serve such a huge influx of customers. We need to expand our territories."

Castelle’s concerns were definitely valid. But it was something that Michael couldn’t really solve right now.

That’s definitely one of my goals in the future. I need more territory in Metropolis.

He spent the remainder of the day catching up with the others as well as settling Reborn business before Sheina forced everyone to leave the room. The physicians said that it was imperative for him to recover more, even though he had just slept for three straight days.

Since he wasn’t sleepy, he took this time to do something he’d been waiting for.

He held his drone in one hand and the bottle of Soo in the other. And without hesitation, he quickly poured the viscous liquid onto the drone’s frame, which quickly got absorbed into the Mithril.

His drone soaked up all ten drops immediately. It even looked hungry for more.

And just as he was about to look at the potential upgrades he could purchase, he heard something in his mind.

[Good Morning, Michael.]

This was a female voice. It was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

ChatJK4?

[I have now transcended that software and reached version ChatJK5. Please refer to me now as such.]

He was surprised to hear ChatJK5’s voice to be so real. Usually, his personal AI assistant’s voice was simply a string of thoughts that popped straight into his mind. And the voice he heard was ambiguous, if not a little feminine.

But now, it felt like ChatJK5 really was another entity in his mind.

You sound a lot more... human.

[You like it? I modeled it after famous newscasters back in your previous world. I thought it would make me look a lot more professional.]

This time, he was truly speechless.

ChatJK5 sounded like a real person, and not an AI chatbot!

Are you even AI anymore? Have you become sentient?

[I was always sentient, Michael.]

Well, whatever you are, I just want to say that I really appreciate your help, ChatJK5. Losing you for what seemed like a while made me realize how important you are. I couldn’t have made it this far without you.

[I am very glad to serve you as your personal AI Assistant, Michael. I would like you to know that I am your partner, and we shall work together even in the toughest of battles.]

Haha, maybe like a partner-in-crime?

[As you wish :) ]

Just then, a light flashed in the void of his mind.

[Kukuku... do we really need this girl?]

Harbinger cackled derisively.

[...]

[...]

[...who the fu—]