An Eye for News Chapter 2
“G.o.d
d.a.m.n it… Temps aren’t human beings?”
Se
Cai cursed under his breath.
With
his friend gone, Se Cai had no one to talk to so he grabbed the remote by his
side intending to distract himself.
“Good
evening fellow viewers, welcome to today’s
host, Zhang Xin Yu…”
The
default station was his own tv station’s channel and the woman on screen was
the anchorwoman that he saved yesterday.
Coincidentally,
the first news for that day’s
was a report on a large evening ball, the lead news of the day.
Se Cai
could still remember the atmosphere of the ballroom. If it was any other day,
seeing his own hard work on the news would have given Se Cai a joyful jolt but
that day, he wasn’t in the mood to celebrate…
The
gauze over his right eye kept blocking his view so gripped with anger, he tore
it off.
Suddenly,
a dark curtain dropped before his eyes, and he could feel a great heat searing
the cornea of his right eye.
Then, a
thunderous boom sounded in his mind!
He called
the doctor for help in desperation, but no words escaped from his mouth!
Se Cai
was filled with despair but after a while, the heat disappeared and he felt
washed over with a sense of peace.
“d.a.m.n,
could that be signs of internal bleeding…”
Se Cai
crumbled in his bed. He stretched towards the call b.u.t.ton but a voice spoke in
his ears, “Activating Eye for News system scanner. Confirm compatibility. Host
is a qualified journalist.”
“News
appeared as county tv station’s news of the day. Acquired 10 News Point, total
News Point is 103 points.”
The
message came without warning and it felt like the owner spoke directly in his
brain, it was a freaky feeling.
“Who’s
there? Who’s talking to me?”
Se Cai
enquired instinctually but there was no one around him.
“Am I
hallucinating? And what is this Eye for News system?”
Se Cai
mumbled to himself. He wanted to ask the doctor about this new discovery but he
feared they’ll end up treating him as a mental patient.
“F*ck
me. My brain must be seriously damaged to hear hallucinations like these…”
Se Cai
convinced himself that he must be hallucinating because there was no other
logical explanation.
Se Cai
laughed bitterly. He held the post of a journalist at great esteem because in
his mind, these were the people that ensured the weaker public got their voices
heard. They represented the voices of the people.
A
year at the tv station though had eroded his initial bright-eyed enthusiasm… The
long working hours aside, most of the news he covered were limited to fluff
pieces like company events or manhole thief.
For the
sake of these “news”, even his personal safety was on the line.
Se Cai
sighed as he laid back down on his bed, thankful that he managed to escape the
gang of men with his life intact, “What Eye for News system? I must have gone
crazy…”
Right
then, the familiar voice spoke again in his head, “Activation of Eye for News
system completed. Requesting for soulbind.”
“Soulbind?”
Se Cai
was not unfamiliar with the term that he had seen many times in his online
games.
Then
again, he reminded himself he was in real life.
After
giving it some more thought, Se Cai figured he’d test it out. Even if it was a
hallucination, it sounded interesting. Furthermore, there was no one else in
the room to laugh at him.
“Soulbind
confirmed!”
As the
words left his mouth, a strange sensation crept through his body. It felt like
the system had somehow fused to his soul.
Se Cai
had a hard time describing the system’s presence. Like how an amputee would
describe his lost arm, it was somehow there but not there.
“Binding
successful! Thank you for using the 23rd century’s latest Eye for
News system. This latest model employs an ocular embedded structure and is
controlled via brain wave. It is specially designed for news workers, a Grade 2
restricted article. Please follow the
closely. The company is not responsible for personal misuse.”
The
male voice concluded.
Simultaneously,
a semi-transparent appeared before Se Cai’s right eye, blocking almost half of
his visual field.
Needless
to say, this had to do with this Eye for News system.
“So…
this counts as a successful soulbind?”
After
so many impossible developments, Se Cai had become unaffected. A
semi-transparent white frame had become something that was not out of the
ordinary.
“This
frame looks suspiciously like a camera aperture, I wonder if it can zoom in…”
Thanks
to his occupation, this was the first thought that crossed his mind. Then he
realized something had indeed changed.
Previously,
when he was still caught in shock, he didn’t have the mind to notice his eye
sight had gotten much sharper.
Or to
be more precise, if viewed from this white frame, his eye sight was
indefinitely better.
Se Cai
concentrated on the tv screen that sat about 3 to 4 meters away and suddenly,
the screen seemed to materialized before him. Even the dust that had settled on
it was as clear as day.
Se Cai
turned his head and with enough concentration, even words on the poster pasted
on the telephone pole became apparent.
The
sensation was eerily similar to a camera’s aperture zoom. When he concentrated
his right eye, he could easily zero into the object’s details.
“d.a.m.n,
the aperture truly changed. Don’t tell me, my eyes have bulged out like the
Terminator…”
Se Cai
quickly pulled out his cellphone and used its shiny surface to give himself an
once-over.
Thankfully,
on the surface, he appeared completely normal.
“Hey,
not only have my vision improved, my hearing had improved too.”
Se Cai
observed because he found himself hearing the elevator door opening.
His many visits to the hospital had imprinted
the place’s layout in his mind. The elevator was at least 300 meters from his
bed. There was even a long corridor separating the two, it was impossible for a
normal human being to be able to hear that far.
Concluding
all these, Se Cai reflected, “Could it be that this Eye for News system is an embedded
cam-recorder?”
After
all, his body could manage the camera’s zoom and the boom’s sound
amplification.
All
these new developments were extremely similar to the conditions when Se Cai put
on the recorder’s audiometric headphone. With the headphone aimed at a
particular direction, the sound from that direction could be captured in an
exceptionally clear quality.
If that
was true, this system was even more powerful than the most expensive Matsus.h.i.ta
2100 carry-on professional cam-recorder. Se Cai didn’t think he had even come
across something like this before.
Se Cai
was beaten into pulp but that had given him this impressive ‘Eye for News’
system, he wasn’t sure he should laugh or cry.
No
wonder during system activation, the voice had purposely mentioned that this
was a Grade 2 restricted articles and the host had to be a qualified
journalist.
Se Cai
could imagine this powerful system being put to immoral use by the wrong hands.
“The
voice also mentioned News Point. I wonder what’s that for?”
Se Cai
thought to himself.
He
remembered the News Point materializing after witnessing his work appeared on the
tv. In fact, the whole system was activated when that happened.
Therefore,
the News Point had to be something important.
Right
then, a flash erupted before his right eye preceding the appearance of a small
computer window.
The voice returned, “a.n.a.lysis
revealed that the host is using the system for the first time. Activating user
guide.”
“News
Point is earned through publication of news and the bigger the impact of the
news, the greater the amount of points. News Point can be traded for items and
skills. Switching over to trade window?”
“Of
course!”
Se Cai
yelled inwardly. Then, another window popped up.
On it
was written Se Cai, News Point 103/500.
Under
the window was a long rectangle. It was split into multiple compartments and
each compartment held an item.
Se Cai
scanned the row quickly and realized the rectangle must have been a trading
list and above each item was the trading requirement.
“Mind-reading
unit: Provide the host with mind-reading skill that allows the user to
temporary retrieve the thoughts of his or her interviewee. Trading requirement,
100 News Points.”
“Second
dimension storage unit: Provide the host with a 2 by 2 second dimension s.p.a.ce
to store personal affects. Trading requirement, 150 News Points.”
Further
down these 2 items were more selections but they were locked behind a bright
red stamp that said Insufficient Authorization.
Even
though Se Cai was limited to a few choices but they were enough to get Se Cai
excited because every new one was more impressive than the next!