I Made A Railgun With Lightning Magic Chapter 1: 1.1.01 - Is That A Status Window

Read chapter 1 of I Made A Railgun With Lightning Magic by Josh_Shoniix on NovelPedia.

I woke up with a splitting headache. The first thing that came to my mind was trying to figure out where exactly I was. Before I decided to open my eyes, I tried to get a sense of where I was. I could tell my head was rested against a pillow that was unusually hard, straw maybe? Like that information did anything to help me decode where I was. Next thing I noticed was the air, it had the smell of dust and old wood, tang of unwashed laundry and faint mildew. Definitely did not smell like the lab or any hospital that I had been to. Which begs the next question, why would I think of a lab? For a moment, a bout of panic came about as I had a hard time trying to remember my name. It was not total amnesia at least, as I could still remember basic knowledge and my survival instincts were still intact. As I opened my eyes, I could see that I was in a room of some kind with wooden ceilings, no overhead lights, no visible signs of any AC vents that you would find in most buildings nowadays. There were only two possible outcomes. First possibility, I died and went to hell, as I definitely didn't do enough good deeds to qualify for heaven. Second, I did a one night stand with someone who lives in a 17th century shack. My kidneys must have been weak if I could not hold my liquor. As I tried to sit up to get a better look of where I was, things suddenly felt off. I was sitting a lot lower than what my eye level would normally be at. I could not immediately recall my name but I definitely did not remember being so short. I looked at my hands and almost had a heart attack, as I was looking at the hand of a kindergartener. "What the fuck? What in the seven hells is going on?" I said out loud. I snapped my eyes shut as my headache suddenly spiked, and flashes of memories started coming back to me. Right, I was doing the rewiring myself from the capacitor bank when there was a short circuit. So much for my grand ambition of miniaturizing a rail gun. The memory of the last argument between me and my assistant Peter came back to me among other things. "Damian, for the love of god, just please go to the dinner. Smile at Hendrinks, pretend you give a shit about his golf game." "I might do a lot more than just smile at Hendrinks if I went" I replied. Peter sighed. "You know they are going to cut our budget, especially when we haven't made any progress with the heat dissipation issue in the smaller models for the last six months" "Who needs the budget? Stop reminding me, that's negative aura" Peter just rolled his eyes "You know I don't understand your Gen-Z slang, just speak in plain English" "The budget can lick my balls, how's that for plain English. We'll make do with what we have" "I know you're a genius and all, but intelligence alone doesn't get you very far in this world. Like it or not, you'll need backing of people with real power. And that means people with money and the right connections. It might be a painful lesson but I guess it'll do you good to learn it while you're still young" Peter said as he left my office. True enough, I got sent an email the month after our next progress update. It started with reduction in the monthly grants. Then a month later, our technicians were reprioritized to another project in the company, which was a major setback for Peter and I. Eventually, one by one the other researchers and engineers either got reassigned, temporarily seconded, or just quit altogether without permission to backfill. I ended up having to do the maintenance work myself instead of leaving it to someone who was more technically qualified, and trained in proper safety procedures. Peter warned me against it, and told me its time to "unsubscribe", using my own words against me. He promised that he would quit together and came with me wherever I chose to go next. I still remembered that smirk on his face when he said that, thinking he finally nailed how our generation spoke. The next thing I know, I touched a wire I shouldn't have and tho