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 , I’m your 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 Se Cai’s handiwork. It 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!