System Programmer Chapter 44: Guinea Pig

Hearing Joshua's reply, Catherine couldn't help but look confused.

"Me? What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Exactly, the one removing the seal in people's head should be you."

"Well, if I can do it, of course, I will but why me specifically?"

"There are two reasons. The first one is more long term. Remember the effect you had on those beggars when you enabled them to train properly? They instantly swore their loyalty to you!"

"... You want me to use this as the opportunity to gain followers?"

"Bingo! We'll turn you into a sacred person who will accomplish miracles wherever she goes! Make place for Saint Catherine! She has come to unleash your true abilities. One touch of her hand will turn you into an expert! OK, the slogan needs some work but I don't think you'll find a better marketing opportunity than this. "

Catherine looked skeptical. She had gained the support of homeless people, true…

"I get the idea and it's not a bad one but even if I get this ability, it doesn't mean everyone who will remove the seal from will automatically follow me. Once it's removed, they could just take their leave."

"Yeah, I'm not saying it will be perfect, we'll have to see the finer details later. There is a much more short term benefit for having you do learn the process anyway."

"And that is?"

"We need a guinea pig!"

"....What?"

"My lovely Catherine, allow me to clarify. You probably remember when we first learned about the seal, you asked me if I could try and remove it from you. I refused back then, cause it was too risky. Our knowledge of runes was minimalistic back then and if I messed up, I could end causing you some brain damage."

"That was then, we learned a lot about runecrafting since we found this lab."

"True, and we now have a chance to successfully remove the seal. Except... the brain damage problem is still real."

Catherine nodded but she wasn't sure where he was going… unless.

"Wait… Are you suggesting I learn the process by trying it out on you?"

"Catherine, how many people are currently present who can afford to have their physical body being destroyed over and over? No matter what happens during the tryouts, I won't die. Worst case scenario, I dismiss my body and make a new one. Furthermore, I can equip the body I'll make with the rune we want to dismantle. We'll just have to try over and over until we develop a safe way to remove the rune. Therefore, yes I am officially asking you: 'Catherine, please mess with my brain!' "

Catherine gave him a blank stare not knowing what to respond. In theory, his explanation made perfect sense. What he said was true, no one was better suited to be experimented on than he was. But to volunteer the way he had done… That was… such a… 'Joshuthing', she didn't have a better word for it. Suddenly, she burst out laughing.

"Let me guess, while I'm doing the experiment, you want me to dress up like a doctor or something?"

"How about we give you a coat full of blood, making it look like you're someone who enjoys cutting people to pieces?"

"...Deal!"

To help the homeless people, they had developed a method where Catherine materialized a rune with Luna's help for a few seconds using her water magic. However, this time around they would have to remove a permanent inscription so they decided to use the equipment Joshua had discovered in the medical room.

Joshua had spent some time examining the apparatus in the room. It was a bit similar to a tattoo machine except instead of ink, it would send energy to be inscribed on the human body. The type of energy could be freely changed via a button. Of course, it only contained the 8 basic types, none of the advanced particles Joshua had recently discovered. Catherine grabbed the pen used for the inscription and started to practice a bit while Joshua prepared the procedure in his lab.

Joshua sat behind his computer and took out the model of the brain-limiting rune. The design of it was incredibly complex. Even with his newly acquired knowledge, it took him over an hour to study every single part. Its effects were really nasty, it forcefully deactivated some parts of the human brain and severed the connection between the brain and energy vessels. Furthermore, it seemed to hinder one's ability to prevent them from growing too powerful making each breakthrough to the next level more difficult. A portion of the rune was also dormant most of the time but could be activated remotely. Joshua suspected that was what had neutralized Jacques and the other teams. The trigger to that part was most likely getting too close to Easa.

Removing an existing rune from someone was a new experience for Joshua. The books he had read offered some clues so he had a decent idea of how to proceed. The basic idea involved sending opposite energy types at various spots on the engraved rune. The thing is, it had to be done very carefully or the energy inside the rune could start leaking and go out of control. For example, imagine if someone had a fire rune engraved on their hand. If the rune went out of control, the energy could end up severely burning the person's arm. Now, if a rune went out of control in someone's brain… you can easily imagine how that would end. To dismantle the brain-limiting rune, they would have to disrupt the energy flow at least 30 spots. The chance of an error occurring during the test was thus pretty high.

Nevertheless, Joshua made the first draft for the process and had it simulated by Luna. In theory, it could work although it would only become clear during a live experiment.

Considering that Joshua had volunteered to be experimented on, Catherine couldn't turn down his demand of having her dress up for the part. She asked Luna's advice on the subject and the system proceeded by presenting her a few horror movie characters. Seeing those, she actually started to look forward to the whole thing. She found an old white coat in the stock of the laboratory and smeared it full of animal blood. She then went into the kitchen and attached several knives and even a cleaver to the coat. She even considered wearing making one of those bizarre masks those killers were wearing but opted not to, in the end, it would obstruct her vision during the experiment. Instead, she practiced an evil demonic look in the mirror for a moment. Satisfied, she smeared some blood on her face and her hair, she grabbed a cleaver and headed for the medical room while maintaining that expression.

Eric and Lydia were talking in the hallway when they suddenly saw a bloody figure armed with a cleaver rushing toward them. Cold sweat dripped down their neck for a moment as they quickly prepared for battle but the figure ignored them and just went past them and disappeared from sight along a corner. They looked at each other for a moment, not sure what just happened.

"Was that Lady Catherine?" Lydia asked.

"I'm starting to think Lord Joshua might be a influence on her…" Eric replied and let out a deep sigh.

Catherine barged into the medical room and saw Joshua lying down on the operating table. He had obviously put on a patient's garb. He looked at her in amazement.

Cleaver in hand, she approached the operating table with an evil grin.

"I'm Doctor Catherine Killgood. I will take good care of you," she told him in a sinister tone while caressing the cleaver.

"I see… I'm really sensitive but I will place my faith in your capable hands." Joshua replied, pretending to be scared.

Catherine placed the cleaver under Joshua's neck and brought her face close to his.

"Oh don't worry, none of my patients ever complained about my services. Of course, they never had the opportunity to do so."

They looked at each other for about 10 seconds and burst out laughing at the same time.

"Not bad, I'll make a true geek out of you someday." Joshua gave her a thumb's up.

Catherine rolled her eyes.

"Why did I agree to this?" she wondered. "Oh well, it was fun but let's get down to business."

She put the cleaver and all the knives she was carrying aside and washed her hands & face clean. She then grabbed the rune inscribing pen and asked Joshua if he was ready. He nodded and closed his eyes. Considering the area Catherine had to operate, he couldn't see it from his own vision so he monitored it by looking at the input Luna recorded via Catherine's eyes.

Catherine began by scanning Joshua's head. Even though it was a reproduction, the brain-limiting rune was present in his body. She took the pen and carefully placed it against's Joshua's head and sent a bit of energy through it. The pen allowed her to control the energy flow for a second after the energy had been released. She had reviewed the procedure Joshua had elaborated and had Luna assist her with the process, thus, she sent the energy to the spot Joshua had marked as the beginning of the sequence to dismantle the rune. Joshua twitched a bit when the energy flowed into him but otherwise, it didn't seem to harm him. A small crack appeared where the rune had been poked and no energy was leaking. Catherine smiled, the first step was successful.

Confident, she proceeded with the next steps with caution. Unfortunately, on the fourth energy injection, things went wrong. The rune began to go out of control as energy leaked out from it. Joshua put his hand on his head in pain as he tried to repair his body. The damage was too severe though and Catherine saw raw energy flooding out of Joshua's right eye, burning his skin in the process. Joshua quickly abandoned his body to recover.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine… Damn, wait a moment, I'll make some adjustments to the procedure."

About 10 minutes later, Joshua had established a new 'poking' order. They began anew but while they went a bit further this time, the rune began to leak again.

"Back to the drawing board…" Joshua told her. He never complained. Catherine was feeling bad for him. Even if it was his idea, he was the one going through all the painful parts.

This process continued for a couple of hours. Slowly but surely they made some progress. However, the rune always seemed to go out of control toward the end and Joshua couldn't figure out why. Catherine's knowledge of runes was limited but she was also looking into the issue. Catherine watched the recording of the rune going ham. It seemed that no matter what, the energy didn't seem to know where to go once the balance of the rune was being broken.

"Maybe we could try progressively removing the surplus of energy that's getting loose?" she suggested.

"Hmm, that's not a bad suggestion. Let's give it a try."

Catherine began to use the pen differently from then on. She would release the energy in Joshua's head and every time cracks appeared she would inverse the flow to drag the unstable energy back to the pen. This was much harder to do than the previous movements so their progress regressed quite a bit and they had to start over. Still, Catherine progressively got better at performing the movements. By the time evening arrived, they were both exhausted but Catherine successfully removed the rune from Joshua's head.

Of course, the rune inside Joshua was just a copy, his body didn't have energy vessels so he felt no change at all. This was still a major step forward so they were both satisfied. However, Joshua suggested they should perform more tests until Catherine could reach a 100% accuracy with the operation, which she agreed upon. Since it was late, they decided to call it for the day, they both needed a rest. Catherine was worried about her friends, but rushing in there wasn't a solution. If everything went well, they would be able to finish that experiment the next day.

There was another matter Catherine needed to take care of and nighttime was probably the best moment to handle it. As she entered her room, Joshua wished her good night and was about to vanish but she stopped him.

"I think we need to have a talk," she told him.

Chapter end