Pavela huddled in the corner, hugging her knees.
Her back was pressed tightly against the wall, as if she wanted to embed herself into it.
Her silver hair hung ssily on both sides of her cheeks, covering most of her face.
Only her eyes were visible.
They were red.
Not the crimson red of the Path of the Tower.
More like the redness after crying.
She stared at the door on the other side of the room.
The door leading to the treatnt room.
It was pure white, its surface as smooth as a mirror, and currently tightly closed.
But Pavela knew what was behind that door.
Those robotic arms.
Countless, silver, flexible robotic arms.
They should be quietly retracted into the walls right now, like a cluster of sleeping snakes.
But at a single command from Dr. Lovelace—
They would wake up.
Pavela shuddered.
She buried her face in ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ her knees.
She didn't want to look at that door anymore today.
Today was already her second day at this facility.
The second day.
It felt like a century had passed.
Yesterday's ntal Space test was actually okay.
Dr. Lovelace said it would hurt, and Pavela had wondered then, how much could it hurt?
She had connected to chs before.
The pain of tal probes piercing straight into the spine and nerves being forcibly torn apart—she had experienced it countless tis.
So the test in the ntal Space—
It did hurt.
But it was within her tolerance.
One might even say it was easier than she had expected.
Dr. Lovelace had tested her Return Power in the ntal Space.
Making her switch repeatedly between the Path of the Tower and the Path of the Magician.
Testing the speed, precision, and stability of the switching.
Testing her reaction ti, thought patterns, and power output under different states of The Way Back.
The entire process lasted about three hours.
Pavela remained conscious throughout, completing every action according to the instructions.
After the test, she felt a bit tired, but she wasn't injured.
Dr. Lovelace seed very satisfied.
She said Pavela's performance exceeded her expectations.
She said Pavela's Soul Adaptability was indeed the best she had ever seen.
She said this ch would definitely be able to exert unprecedented performance.
Pavela was quite happy at the ti.
Then they left the ntal Space.
Returned to the real world.
Dr. Lovelace said the ntal-level examination was complete.
Next was the physical-level examination.
Pavela nodded.
She thought it was just a normal physical exam.
asuring height, weight, checking vision, hearing, reaction speed, and the like.
She had undergone similar exams with the military doctors.
Although tedious, it wasn't a big deal.
Then she was taken to Dr. Lovelace's laboratory.
It was a massive room filled with various precision instrunts.
The walls were pure white, with pale blue arc lights everywhere.
The air was filled with the sll of disinfectant and machine oil.
Dr. Lovelace had her stand on a platform in the center of the room.
Then the examination began.
The first round was basic data.
Height, weight, wingspan, leg length.
These were all normal.
The second round was a nerve conduction velocity test.
Dr. Lovelace attached many small electrode pads to her body and then used instrunts to asure her neural responses.
It was a bit itchy, but bearable.
The third round was a bone density scan.
A huge machine descended from overhead, making a humming sound as it moved slowly around her body.
Pavela stood there motionless, waiting for the scan to finish.
Next—
Dr. Lovelace's expression changed.
She stared at the data displayed on the instrunt, her brow furrowing tighter and tighter.
Pavela noticed this change.
"Doctor?"
"...Continue to the next round."
Dr. Lovelace's voice was a bit heavy.
The fourth round was muscle tissue analysis.
The fifth round was internal organ function testing.
The sixth round was a spinal structure scan.
With each round completed, Dr. Lovelace's face grew gloomier.
By the end of the sixth round, her expression no longer looked like the curiosity and excitent from before.
She looked—
Angry.
Very angry.
But not angry at Pavela.
Rather, angry at sothing she saw.
Dr. Lovelace walked up to Pavela.
Her erald-green eyes looked directly at her.
"Turn around."
Pavela did as she was told.
She felt Dr. Lovelace's fingers lightly pressing against her back.
Starting from the cervical spine, feeling down section by section.
Each ti she touched a spot, she paused for a few seconds.
Pavela could feel those fingers trembling slightly.
"...This is the third section."
Dr. Lovelace's voice was very soft.
"Malunion, with a displacent angle of about seven degrees."
"Fifth section."
"Compression fracture, height reduced by at least three milliters after healing."
"Seventh section."
"Cracks, three of them, running through the entire vertebral body."
"Ninth section."
"..."
Dr. Lovelace stopped.
Her fingers pressed against Pavela's waist, motionless.
"There are also marks of probe insertions on your spine."
"Not just once."
"At least... more than ten tis."
"And without any protective asures."
"Pierced directly in."
Pavela didn't speak.
Of course, she knew what Dr. Lovelace was talking about.
Those were left from her ti in the Punishnt Camp.
Every ti she connected to thug-iv, the probes would pierce directly into her spine.
No anesthesia.
No buffer.
No protection whatsoever.
Pavela had originally thought that chs in the Punishnt Camp were just designed that way.
If you survive, you survive.
If you don't, they move on to the next person.
But later she learned that even in the Punishnt Camp, pilots would undergo Spinal Modification Surgery.
Her situation was likely even more exceptional than she had originally thought.
...
Dr. Lovelace's hand had already moved away from her back.
Pavela heard a deep sigh from behind her.
"Turn back around."
Pavela turned around.
Dr. Lovelace looked at her.
There was a very complex emotion in those erald-green eyes.
Anger, heartache, and sothing else she couldn't quite na.
"Your physical condition,"
Dr. Lovelace said,
"can no longer be described as just 'not good'."
"It's simply abysmal."
She paused.
"The original Aptitude of this body was near perfect. Bone density, muscle fibers, nerve conduction velocity—all indicators far exceed those of an ordinary person."
"If properly nurtured, you should have been able to beco a top-tier ch pilot."
"But now."
"Almost your entire body is covered in old and hidden injuries caused by repeated trauma and improper healing."
"Especially the spine."
Dr. Lovelace's tone beca even more severe.
"There are at least twenty obvious marks of damage on your spine. Fractures, dislocations, cracks, scar tissue left by probe insertions—if these injuries were on an ordinary person, they would have been paralyzed long ago."
"And just within the last month, you must have also perford a Violent Connection to a ch once."
"Right?"
Pavela nodded.
That ti in the void realm.
She was piloting the manifested thug-iv, fighting in a vision.
Although it was the void realm, the sensation during connection was real.
The pain of the probes piercing her spine was also real.
"The fact that you can still move normally now,"
Dr. Lovelace continued,
"is entirely a miracle."
"According to normal dical logic, you should already be lying in bed, unable to move."
"But not only can you move, you can run and jump, and even fight with people."
"This can only an one thing—"
"Your body is using so thod to forcibly maintain its operation."
"It might be the influence of Return Power, it might be your own willpower, or perhaps both."
"But this is not a long-term solution."
"If these old wounds aren't treated, your body will eventually collapse completely."
"When that ti cos, even I won't be able to save you."
Pavela was silent for a few seconds.
"So you..."
"So I am going to help you with treatnt."
Dr. Lovelace said.
"To heal all the old and hidden injuries completely."
"To restore your body to the state it should have been in."
"Only then can you pilot the ch I've designed for you."
"Otherwise—"
She paused,
"Otherwise, you won't even have the qualification to sit in the cockpit."
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