Originally Medical Analysis was a simple tool that was meant to allow a doctor to analyse the wound of a patient quickly and efficiently however, after time because of his own boredom and inability to perfect the code he’d edited it to record the signals of nerves through the HUD and analyse the health of the user.

Medical Analysis v0.0 had been a simple program however the first upgrade to v0.1 which Haley had laboured over for months before submitting to his undergraduate class however, the devil he was forced to call professor had told him it was worthless – in fact from a piece of code he’d added to the version he sent to her he was able to verify that she didn’t so much as glance at it, she deleted it as soon as it was transferred and then blamed it on Haley for creating ‘self-destructing code’ which was completely ridiculous.

Just now when 001 had found more than a dozen fixes he’d felt as if his heart had skipped a beat, this was the opportunity he was waiting for – he didn’t need to graduate to earn money, if not for ModCo’s Review Department deeming that there were too many flaws with the code he would’ve already sold it; of course, he could have also sold it on the dark web, a part of human society that had remained even with their venture into the golden age of space travel but he refused to get involved with such shady transactions because despite his circumstances he still didn’t want to betray all of his morals, the moment he did so he would see himself as less than human.

‘ModCo’ was the most powerful force in the HUD Modification market, they were responsible for the trade-kiosk web system where independent coders would sell their code to the market of course, the seller had to detail the flaws with their design beforehand otherwise if ModCo received any complaints of flaws they were unaware of and identified them themselves the code would be removed and the seller would be banned.

It was due to this strict practice that many felt it was the best place to buy their modifications and thus the safest place for sellers to make transactions. The reason Haley had created a HUD Mod with Medical capabilities had been because many, if not most, HUD Engineers avoided tinkering with the field because even the smallest of errors could result in them being liable for someone losing a life in the future which was a burden many weren’t willing to shoulder.

Arrogantly Haley had begun his project only to realise the problems with such a project, he’d sent years on it and it was no closer to ‘true’ perfection.

The next hour passed at a snail’s pace, Haley paced back and forward several times before finally slumping into bed. He tried to call out to 001 several times but there it didn’t respond, out of frustration he tried to get some sleep, but his mind was too restless – he was too excited to be precise.

‘A real medical modification could be worth millions; my debt could be gone within minutes! What the hell is 001?’ His desperation had caused him to give in to greed, but despite this he was still cautious – he hadn’t reached the level of selling his soul to the devil just yet, ‘and hopefully I never will…’

Slowly the time passed…

10:30pm...

11:30pm…

Midnight…

It was only at 1:20am that he finally got a response from the sphere, it slowly rose from his hand and floated above his head. The text appeared, positioning itself pointing down at him while he laid down, ‘I wonder how this thing perceives the world, cameras? Vibrations?’ Haley mused to himself, but it was just pointless wonderings while he waited for 001 to start.

[Medical Analysis v0.1 has been upgraded to v0.2, the improvements made allow for better analysis of open wounds, accurate techniques as to how to fix the wounds – the HUD Modification will allow for accurate analysis of internal health through the nerve system, also provides warning for potential health problems due to current lifestyle, stimulates nerves to improve regeneration of damaged tissue.]

Haley nodded as he’d expected the main improvements to be performance related however the last one truly surprised him, ‘This one… no one would believe me if I put this into the description, right?’ He laughed, it was the sort of thing that couldn’t be publicly stated or else it would be ridiculed but once discovered… ‘This information has to be treated carefully, if I start to sell the software and then use an anonymous account to hint at the health benefits and then prompt others to discover it themselves…’

He didn’t dare to imagine what would happen after it was discovered that modifications could improve the human body, it couldn’t be something that was totally undiscovered however and it might cause trouble for him in the future…

‘If the government already knows about this then aren’t. I putting myself in more danger by disclosing it in the first place?’ It was a dilemma; he could take a leap of faith or pretend it was something he had no knowledge of in the first place.

Fortunately, 001 interrupted his train of thought and dragged him back to reality.

[Would the User like to transfer the improved file back?]

Haley nodded to confirm but was met by an unexpected message, something that caused his expression to darken as he stared at it.

[1 Point required to Transfer.]

“Points? What are points?” He asked as calmly as he could, he had no money to his name if it was something, he needed to exchange for then… He didn’t even want to think of that possibility.

[It’s a process which appeared the moment I began the upgrade, Points are given based on the Users own actions and are judged by a sub-process of the sphere – luckily a base of 10 Points are given, originally the upgrade would have also cost points however because the User has put years of effort into the code the upgrade cost was negated.]

“So I have 10 Points huh? I guess that’s better than nothing, how do I gain points?”

[Insufficient Authority, please discover on your own.]

‘I really should’ve expected that huh? Well 1 Point to transfer software potentially worth millions is worth it, I’ll be able to finally move off of this crappy planet!’ Haley let his mind run wild as he thought to the future, “Transfer the software file.” He said quickly, in a second, he saw a new file on his HUD containing the new code.

‘Should I… test it?’ He thought as he stared at the file floating in his field of vision, if it really had an effect on improving a persons health as the creator he should naturally be the first to benefit from it, right?

With that line of thought he began the installation process, it was estimated to take approximately three hours – it was recommended that he sleep during that time because it would place mental strain on the brain, a common warning for HUD Mods considering they used the processing power of the human brain during the installation and side effects could include temporary amnesia, headaches etc. During that time.

Taking his own advice Haley closed his eyes in content, after a few minutes 001 silently merged back into his body and the room was silent.

What Haley didn’t notice was a ring appear around his wrist, text began to circle around it silently creating an eerie light in the darkness…

[001 OS Apocalypse… Installed]