Suddenly, there's a knock on the door. The atmosphere becomes tense once again, a suffocating silence hanging in the air as a man in a white coat enters.

The doctor closes the door as he enters the room. With a tall, slim figure and a creepy smile, he looks more as an insane scientist with the round, crossed nerdy spectacles and messy grey hair, It appears as though he hasn't seen himself in the mirror since an entire decade!

He smiles at me in an awkward manner and asks, "Well son, I hope you have already realized what happened to you. Shall I skip that part?"

I nod and reply, "yeah". He looks at me and says, "Oh well that's great! Now, I would like to ask you few more questions. Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?", I ask him confused.
He looks at my parents and brother. "Well could you please give us privacy for sometime? There's something personal I have to talk with your son."

My brother now annoyed, looks at him and asks, "Say what?"

The doctor looks at him and replies, "I will tell you all once I confirm something with your son. Oh yeah! And you are his brother right?"

Shu looks at him and says, "Yes?"

"Oh that's good. I want to talk to you after I'm done with your brother", he says.

After that, he signals everyone to move out of the room. Followed by Shu, my mom and dad move out and close the door behind them.

The doctor turns to face me. "Hello son! I'm Dr. Stoian. Well there's something I want to ask you and you have to reply to me honestly."

I look at him and say, "Okay?"

He sits on the couch and asks, "So can you tell me everything that happened before the accident?"

I look up at the ceiling and try to recollect the incident once again and narrate him everything that happened since the final showdown of the tournament until when I fell unconscious.

The doctor looks at me surprised and smiles after I complete narrating the incident. He turns away and mumbles something to himself.

Then he looks at me once again and says something unexpected, "Well the gizmo is an amazing invention, isn't it? It has completely changed the future and its still changing. And its final form, it would be when you can take control of it to the maximum and change the world to whatever you are comfortable with. It would be the ultimate weapon of mankind!".

I look at him still confused, "what do you mean?"

He answers, "What I really mean is, the gizmo shows the true phases of mankind. Its the final step and also it may lead to extinction once it reaches it's peak levels."

"You mean the human race would perish because of it? Then shouldn't we stop it? That would be insane if we know it and yet can't stop it!", I shout astonished.

He looks at me and grins, "Who said we aren't gonna stop it? That's were you come in. You will be the hero of the world's destruction!"

Puzzled, I ask him, "And how's that possible?"

He grins as he tells me, "We have finally created a new version of the gizmo and we need a test subject. The gizmo medicure is used to give a second chance to people like you. Your mind would be turned into more of an AI- artificial intelligence as you wouldn't be able to use your body ever again. You can travel anywhere you want but in the form of pixels. The only thing that would be active is your brain, heart and lungs but you wouldn't feel it anymore. You would altogether have new senses and feelings. You would basically live for eternity ."

"An eternal life, huh.." I say to myself.

I then ask him, "Are there any cons? Is there something I can't do in there that I can do in my real self?"

He replies, "Good question! Even I've thought over this for a while and yes there are some defects. As you can see, you wouldn't feel your real self anymore. This means, you can move in a pixelated form but can't touch or feel anything. You can't eat too. And if you are in a relationship, your girlfriend would definitely not want to live with a ghost. You are going to be all alone."

I look up at the ceiling. An eternal life sounds cool and also I wouldn't be stuck to my current useless self anymore. But then I would also feel lonely. Only if I had someone else with me..

I ask him, "Am I the only test subject right now?"

He replies, "There's also a girl of around your age. She has an illness since she was born and now her body has turned completely useless. The disease is something we have never heard of and I really don't know if the project would be a success with her current body. She might not live for an eternal life like you. We can just slow down the illness but termination of it would be impossible."

Tears roll down my cheeks involuntarily as he says that. Unlike me, her whole life's dependent on the device. If there's any chance, I would want to help her out. And the only way to do this would be by using the device. But that would mean I would lose my body. It's just too confusing. But if I there's any chance for me to help her, I have to do it.

"Fine, count me in", I say gloomily.

He jumps up as he stands, "I'll inform this to your family then. I'm sure they would take your feelings into consideration and accept it."

He turns towards the door to leave, when a sudden question pops up in my mind, "Dr.Stoian, you still haven't one of my questions yet."

"What do you mean?", he asks.

"What happened to my gizmo back then while I was running? Overheating wasn't the only reason right?"

He replies with an awkward smile, "Aah! Let's talk about it some other time, shall we?".

"One more question! How is all this related to saving the world?", I ask.

He replies, "Well the answer to this is complicated. You would understand it yourself some day."

He turns away and goes for the door. He stops and looks down when I ask him the next question, "What's your true aim you want to achieve by doing all of this?"

He smiles a bit as he removes a picture from his wallet. I couldn't see the picture because he had his back turned towards me

He then whispers, "I'm doing this for my daughter who is stuck in there." And then he leaves.

I look up at the ceiling, as the room gets quiet once more. Was it the right thing for me to do? What's going to happen to me after that? What would happen if the device fails? And will I be able to meet and help the other test subject? And what about Dr. Stoian's daughter? What happened to her? All of these questions still remained a mystery to me.

Few minutes pass by. Then, I hear the door being opened. I look at the door as my parents and Shu come in. They look at me with worried faces.

Dad breaks the silence, "Son, are you sure you want to do this to yourself? This means it would be the end of your current self, right?" I nod.

Shu punches the wall and shouts, "You know you still have an option for a surgery, why would you choose this!"

Mom gently pats and comforts Shu, "It's alright, it was your brother's decision and right now, all we can do is support him."

Well, I know that they don't want me to do this and so do I. But somewhere deep inside, I could hear voices. Voices of a soul that is trapped and is waiting for me.

And also, he did mention about me being a hero and saving the world. Then, if I'm the chosen one, I shouldn't back away. If I have to save the world from extinction, then i'm even ready to sacrifice my life for it. So I didn't have any option left but to choose this fate.

I share my thoughts with my family. Mom hugs me and says, "You don't always have to be a hero son. But if you want to be then go pursue your goal and never turn back. Shu, your dad and I will always be there to protect you. But whatever you do, always have the confidence that you can do it. That's all I can say. Your future lies only in your hands now."

She leaves me as she smiles.
I look up, tears rolling down my cheeks and I say, "Thank you Mom, dad and Shu. But even if I don't have a body anymore, I'll always be with you guys. I will behave as though I'm just living an ordinary life. I'll go to school, I'll keep in touch with my friends and I'll talk with all of you like I always did even before the accident took place. You wouldn't find any difference in me except for you can't touch me nor can I eat. My body may be gone, but I will always be myself and nobody can change that."

They all smile as I say that. Dad gently pats my head and says, "For me, you will always be the same, kiddo."

Shu comes forward and says, "Well, the doctor asked me not to tell anyone in school about your present condition. All they know is that you are in the hospital and still recovering. I guess you will be sticking with me from now, so that you wouldn't fall in trouble."

He pauses for a second and laughs as he says, "Then, I guess you owe me an ice-cream everyday!"

"Not everyday!", I shout at him.

Then we all start laughing. Well, I really do owe him a lot. After all, he's the best brother I've ever had.

I look at dad and ask, "So, when are they planning on putting the device on me?"

Dad replies, "Dr. Stoian says it's going to be sometime around tomorrow morning. I asked him if it was possible to postpone the date but he said it is not possible as the date has already been fixed by the higher authorities." Then they leave the room.

I look up at the ceiling once again. I'm going to lose my body tomorrow. I wonder how's it going to be like on the other side.. I would acquire a new pixelated body that doesn't feel anything except emotions. A body in which I can do everything as well as nothing. Lost in my thoughts, I fall asleep.

Next day, the sun shines once again, the sunrays making the glass window shine, illuminates the whole room brightly. I look at the window when suddenly, I hear the door knock.

My mom peeps in and whispers, "Nuke are you awake? Your friend, Anderson has come to see you."

I turn towards the door as a tall, blonde and short haired, with brown beady eyes, enters the room. He is my best friend at school, Anderson.

Anderson looks at me as he grins and says, "It's been quite a while, isn't it Nuke?"

I smile back and reply, "Yup, it has been a month since I've seen you Andy."

He sits on the couch next to me, "I heard that you were unconscious all the time and woke up yesterday. I used to visit the hospital everyday while going to school. I really missed you a lot, buddy."

He pauses for a while and then ask, "So, when are you going to come back school? Everyone are eagerly waiting for you."

I reply, "Well, it might take two more days to get discharged and then I would join back immediately."

"Oh, that's great!", he exclaims.

"Well, you don't have to be in a hurry to come back to school. You need to take rest."

I reply, "It'll be fine! You don't have to worry about me all the time, you worrywort".

Anderson is really a very caring guy with qualities suitable for the best friend a person can ever have.

Then he smiles as he gets up, "Okay bye then! Got to go to school." He sighs and leaves.

After he leaves, I see Shu leaning on to the door. "So, you are not planning on telling him?", he asks.

I reply him gloomily, "Well, we can't break our promise with the doctor, can we? So, not gonna go to school today?"

"Nope, the doctor says that the device would be ready for use in another two hours so I'm not going to school today." After that he leaves, closing the door behind him.

Two hours passes by.. a few nurses come in, shifting me to another room.

This room, wasn't like the other rooms. The whole room was white painted, with no other furniture or windows, except for a bed and a table beside it. On the bed, was a device which must be the medicure gizmo, that they were planning on putting it on me. On the table, were few medical apparatus and wires.

The nurse makes me lie down on the bed. Dr. Stoian comes in and he smiles, looking at me. "So, are you ready?" He asks.

I nervously answer, "Yes, I am ready!"

"Okay then!", he says as he injects me with few syringes. I couldn't feel anything, which must be because of my paralysis. He then passes some wires and tubes into my chest, which actually started to hurt a bit.

Then he whispers something in my ears, "Hang on to your soul." I look at him as he puts the huge device over my head and my face gets covered. All I could see was pitch darkness.

Then, I hear the sound of a switch being turned on, followed by something unexpected. I hear a girl's voice in my mind.

She says, "Thank you!"

Then, I hear a loud motor sound followed by the feeling of intense pressure and pain in my brain as though something is compressing and stretching it completely, trying to rip my mind apart. After that, I fall unconscious.