Ascendants Records Mankind Saga (A.R.M.S.)

With his naked body on display and phallus hanging in front of a goat, WuYan attempted to explain this unexpected awkward situation by covering it with a lie. He raised his head up and looked at the ceiling while posing in a javelin throw stance to flex his toned-muscular body. When he's in the middle of displaying his body to a talkable goat, his mind suddenly realizes something that's familiar to him. 

"Wait, you said your name is ZuoCi? Huh….the name sounded rather familiar." WuYan questioned.

Upon hearing the name 'ZuoCi' from the goat in front of him, WuYan felt a hint of familiarity from the name. He began to think deeply on where he had remembered and recognized the name. 

"BAAA~ Young man, you know me? I am ZuoCi, a practitioner of Taoist, Divination and alchemy arts." The goat answered his conflicts in a hoarse tone after a bleat. 

"Ah, I remembered! You are the legendary person that once existed in the Three Kingdoms Era, Master ZuoCi! From what I know, you are a wanted man by CaoCao! But why are you a goat though?" 

After listening to ZuoCi introduce himself, WuYan finally recalled where he heard of the name and it's from the Three Kingdoms related books that he used to read in his previous life. In a surprised manner, WuYan looked at the goat and said what he thought of him. 

"BAAA~ I am happy that someone knows me. You are a unique one, young man. You did not freak out upon seeing a goat that was able to talk. How shall I address you?" ZuoCi, still in his goat appearance, asked WuYan name in a delightful tone. 

"Well, I had just experienced a goddess summoning me so nothing could really have freaked me out now. Ah, my apologies. The name is Zhong WuYan. I am…."

"A summoned hero from another world. BAAA~, I know about all of that because I assisted the goddess to summon you."

Before WuYan could even finish his words, ZuoCi had interrupted him by continuing his sentences. 

"Oh right, the goddess. She said to meet her once I arrived in this world. Where can I find her?"

WuYan looked around to search for The Goddess that chose and transmigrated him into this new world. Unfortunately, all that's around him are furniture that is made of dried-brown bamboo and a bronze polished mirror. It's only him and ZuoCi in the room. 

"Only when she wishes to be. But rest assured that she will definitely be meeting you, just not now."

After answering WuYan's question, ZuoCi in his goat form happily hopped to the nearby wooden table on his left and picked up a pile of fresh clothes by biting on it. He then brought them WuYan to which he politely accepted with both hands. 

"BAAA~ I know you are free and open-minded but please do wear clothes if you were to go outside. The law doesn't like naked people walking around in public." ZuoCi explained the consequences if WuYan went out naked. 

"Aww….I guess even in the new world, there's still some same rule that's shared from my old world." WuYan shamelessly continued his lies. 

"BAAA~ You can stop your act. I know you are just making lies to cover that embarrassing moment. Once you're done changing, go and have some egg porridge on the table. I have matters to attend to, feel free to familiarize yourself with my house." ZuoCi gave him permission to explore his house after exposing his lies.

As a goat, ZuoCi hopped out from WuYan room on all four then bit on the wooden door to pull and close it before exiting the room. With only him in the room and before putting on the clothes, he walked to the bronze mirror on his left to observe his own reflection. To his surprise, what he saw on his reflection right now is a complete body without injuries, the hole on his chest and decapitated right arm was restored.

'Huh, I thought I had remembered they were covered in some sort of metal liquid but why did everything on me look unscathed?' WuYan questioned himself.

Questions lingered in WuYan's mind and he needed answers. He began to think of his recent memories, hoping to find answers from it. Then a series of flashbacks played in his mind and it showed him metallic-silver liquids that filled his heart and also formed him a new right hand.

'Are those just an illusion set up by the Goddess to prank me?' WuYan thought of the answer but it only led to more questions.

'Everything you experienced earlier in the bright light zone is real. I am the one that restored your heart and hand.'

The monotonous and robotic female voice was heard again in his mind as she answered WuYan's question. 

'Oh? So you are the one behind all these? Would you mind telling me why, I remembered you had restored my arm and heart but in a mechanical form but after seeing them, you gave me a real hand and heart?' 

WuYan remained composed and replied via his mind. Now instead, it was the robotic voice who was impressed by his thinking and attitude.

'Interesting, I would have expected you to be freaked out when hearing my voices out of nowhere. However, you are still able to keep your calm while talking to me.' She complimented his mindset. 

'I try to keep myself with an open mind. I was transmigrated into this world with magic so it's best to believe in something despite the bizarrish nature.' WuYan proudly talked about himself. 

'All of these 'perfect covers' are just an illusion to trick ZuoCi's eyes. I did not restore your severed arm and heart to the original state.' She continued to answer the doubt in his mind.

'So you're telling me, all of these are actually mechanical but you fooled ZuoCi's eyes by covering it with some tricks?' WuYan asked again for a better clarification.

'Allow me to demonstrate to better clear your doubts.' 

After the voice talked to him, WuYan's right arm and chest slowly lost their skin color until it revealed their silver-colored mechanical structure underneath. He looked at his once decapitated right arm, now reconstructed into a metal mechanical arm during the dimension transporting process. Shockingly, he's also able to feel every wire and control the parts inside it like a real hand.

WuYan then shifted his attention to the thing attached onto his chest. He moved his left hand and touched it, feeling the cold silver-metal casing surrounding the small powered-pacemaker device that was constantly glowing in light hue blue. 

'Huh, it glows according to my heartbeat and it's also emitting warmth too.' WuYan said to himself.

WuYan suddenly thought of something to test it. He began to hold his breath for as long as he could to see what would happen. Three minutes had passed, the device started to change from glowing blue into rapid blinking red as he couldn't hold his breath any longer. He released himself and took a deep breath.

'So like a pacemaker, this device was latched onto my heart and kept it pumped so I could live. I assume the reflective silver color on both are made of stainless steel?' He asked while still looking at his surroundings to search for her traces.

'Those are made from titanium alloy and there's no need to waste time and effort to search for me in the room. I am currently telepathically communicating with you via the device on your chest.' She answered and explained how is she was communicating with him.

Only after hearing her explanation, WuYan stopped searching for her trace and looked back at his reflection in the mirror. He looked at his mechanical right arm and the pacemaker on his chest then let out a deep sigh.

'Well, I guess it's better to switch it back to avoid any suspicion.' He said.

'Understood. Resuming illusions on the mechanical right arm and heart.' The voice spoke to execute the command and resumed the illusions of covering WuYan mechanical areas into normal looking organic appearances. 

'So a question for you, why did you choose me?' WuYan asked.

'My apologies for inflicting those pains earlier. Yes, it was me that tapped into your goddess summoning dimensions and interrupted the process. However, I have my reason for doing those things to you.' She apologized in her monotonous voice.

'Alright, I am listening.' WuYan asked while still holding his doubts against her. 

'I am dying.'

With only three short monotonous words from her, WuYan still held his suspicion against her but he's not a full iron-hearted or cold-blooded person. His feelings became heavy and felt sympathy for her. 

'Detected slow response from the heartbeat and mind activity. I am assuming that you are experiencing grief?' She reported her findings to him.

'Oh....that's uhh....Yeah, I totally didn't expect that reason. Shit, now you make me feel bad.' 

Hearing the female robotic voice saying that she is dying in a monotone sound, WuYan was not prepared for that and was stunned by her depressing words. He felt awful for himself after saying those words.

'Don't be but I would really appreciate it, if you could come find and retrieve me. After restoring your heart, I planned to fuse myself into your body and mind through the nerves behind your back. Unfortunately, I had tampered the dimension too suddenly and your goddess had to finish the summon to cut me off.'

She explained her goal and the whole process of what actually happened inside the dimension to WuYan. After hearing her words, he's not happy about it and decides to interrogate her. 

'So all of these reconstructed hearts and hands were part of your goal. You tried to fuse into me by entering through the back of my neck to fully take control of my body? Most importantly, why me?" WuYan asked

"Because I need to be inside something that is vital to an organic body- the heart and the brain. Through all of the summons by the goddess that I observed, only you fit my requirement since the moment you arrived, you have a damaged heart so I could easily substitute myself into yours. Less processing energy for me to hack into your mind.' Her plans and motive had WuYan concerned. 

'So you are inside my heart and are responsible for pumping my heart to keep me alive? How do you know every nerve on my body?' WuYan continued.

'Only part of me is inside your heart. As of right now, your heart is still pumping with my aid but if I die, the device will stop functioning since it didn't receive any more remote input from me. When I reconstructed your heart, the device also mapped every muscle, organs, bones, senses and nerves so I could precisely trace from where to enter your brain.' She explained without any reservation. 

'Just now you said that you had observed other peoples that were summoned by the goddess before me? So I am not the chosen one by the goddess?' WuYan didn't stop the interrogation and continued to ask. 

'Yes but that question will be answered in the future. I really hope we can move now because in one more hour, my power source will run out and I will be gone forever.' She explained her current dire situation.

'Alright, since I have no choice and you are literally controlling my heart to survive. Let me put on the clothes first and drink this egg porridge then we shall depart.'

The voice wants to continue answering his question but she's low in power and with limited time left on her side. She urges WuYan to quickly depart and find her but he needs to get changed into the clothes given by ZuoCi and insists on spending a few more seconds to drink the egg porridge provided in one gulp.

WuYan put on the clothes that he received from ZuoCi and surprisingly it turned out to completely fit onto his body. What he wore it's a traditional Hanfu with navy blue cloth on the outside but light gray on the inside.

"The fabrics used for these clothes are not bad. It's surprisingly fit and I could see my body outline as well." 

WuYan praised the quality of the shirt then quickly grabbed the bowl filled with egg porridge on the top of a bamboo table and gulped everything in a go. 

' So where do we go now?' WuYan asked.

'Fortunately, your summoning landed near my location. Head out and walk east for ten minutes then you shall find a cave entrance. I am deep beneath the cave.' She guided him with directions and time. 

'A cave. Are there any animals living inside? If there is, I could use some weapons to protect myself.' He asked so that he could prepare himself to face any dangers. 

'There is. I could hear sharp and coarse gibberish sounds but I couldn't determine what species of those creatures. Is the mechanical arm not enough to be used as a weapon?' She described the sounds and questioned him about the arm.

After hearing her suggestion, WuYan looked at his right arm. He closed his hand into a fist then performed jabs and punches. With everything feels and seems normal, WuYan couldn't help but think of it still not enough to go against the unidentified animals living inside the cave.

'Well, it definitely could grip and punch but on-field performance is still unknown. Whether it can be fully utilized as a weapon, I guess there's only one way to find it out.' He confidently answered her question. 

'If you successfully retrieved me, I could return the favor with other creations.' She mentioned a reward in the end to motivate WuYan. 

'Alright then, no time to waste. Let's move out.'

WuYan gently opened the two wooden doors then closed it as quietly as possible to avoid attracting any attention from ZuoCi. He then carefully sneaks out from the chestnut-colored wooden house through a short front gate made from dried wooden branches and heads to the east, into the forest. 

In a gray robe with black stripes on the outer line, ZuoCi already returned to his elderly human form had noticed WaYans action from a far but he didn't go to question him. Instead, he let WuYan go, then he returned to his room to enjoy his freshly hot brewed Oolong tea.