Withdrawal

The tiny light inside my pod turned green when I woke. I'm sure it was comfortable, but I couldn't feel the cushioned white bed beneath me. The cybernetic link gave me access to a UI here in the old world and I opened the lid and ordered the robot chair to come fetch me.

I was alive, which meant the big bastard didn't eat my core. Not yet at least. I wondered about it - if I was disconnected from the cybernetic link and the Qi World - how could I die? Maybe the Qizhu scholar had no idea what he was talking about.

"You're here?" Jia stood there in a form fitting body suit.

"I died too. Assuming you died."

"No. You didn't," she said. She looked at me wide eyed with her mouth open.

"I did."

"The big ape thing?"

"Titan," I said. "And they aren't as tough as a Colossus. Which is fucking scary."

"I thought you would have escaped," she said.