An Eye for News

            “G.o.dd.a.m.n it… Temps aren’t human beings?”

      SeCai cursed under his breath.

     Withhis friend gone, Se Cai had no one to talk to so he grabbed the remote by hisside intending to distract himself.

      “Goodevening fellow viewers, welcome to today’s , I’m yourhost, Zhang Xin Yu…”

      Thedefault station was his own tv station’s channel and the woman on screen wasthe anchorwoman that he saved yesterday.

                Coincidentally,the first news for that day’s was Se Cai’s handiwork. Itwas a report on a large evening ball, the lead news of the day.

                Se Caicould 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 butthat day, he wasn’t in the mood to celebrate…

                Thegauze over his right eye kept blocking his view so gripped with anger, he toreit off.

                Suddenly,a dark curtain dropped before his eyes, and he could feel a great heat searingthe cornea of his right eye.

                Then, athunderous boom sounded in his mind!

                He calledthe doctor for help in desperation, but no words escaped from his mouth!

                Se Caiwas filled with despair but after a while, the heat disappeared and he feltwashed over with a sense of peace.

                “d.a.m.n,could that be signs of internal bleeding…”

                Se Caicrumbled in his bed. He stretched towards the call b.u.t.ton but a voice spoke inhis ears, “Activating Eye for News system scanner. Confirm compatibility. Hostis a qualified journalist.”

                “Newsappeared as county tv station’s news of the day. Acquired 10 News Point, totalNews Point is 103 points.”

                Themessage came without warning and it felt like the owner spoke directly in hisbrain, it was a freaky feeling.

                “Who’sthere? Who’s talking to me?”

                Se Caienquired instinctually but there was no one around him.

                “Am Ihallucinating? And what is this Eye for News system?”

                Se Caimumbled to himself. He wanted to ask the doctor about this new discovery but hefeared they’ll end up treating him as a mental patient.

                “F*ckme. My brain must be seriously damaged to hear hallucinations like these…”

                Se Caiconvinced himself that he must be hallucinating because there was no otherlogical explanation.

                Se Cailaughed bitterly. He held the post of a journalist at great esteem because inhis mind, these were the people that ensured the weaker public got their voicesheard. They represented the voices of the people.

                Ayear at the tv station though had eroded his initial bright-eyed enthusiasm… Thelong working hours aside, most of the news he covered were limited to fluffpieces like company events or manhole thief.

                For thesake of these “news”, even his personal safety was on the line.

                Se Caisighed as he laid back down on his bed, thankful that he managed to escape thegang of men with his life intact, “What Eye for News system? I must have gonecrazy…”

                Rightthen, the familiar voice spoke again in his head, “Activation of Eye for Newssystem completed. Requesting for soulbind.”

                “Soulbind?”

                Se Caiwas not unfamiliar with the term that he had seen many times in his onlinegames.

                Thenagain, he reminded himself he was in real life.

                Aftergiving it some more thought, Se Cai figured he’d test it out. Even if it was ahallucination, it sounded interesting. Furthermore, there was no one else inthe room to laugh at him.

                “Soulbindconfirmed!”

                As thewords left his mouth, a strange sensation crept through his body. It felt likethe system had somehow fused to his soul.

                Se Caihad a hard time describing the system’s presence. Like how an amputee woulddescribe his lost arm, it was somehow there but not there.

                “Bindingsuccessful! Thank you for using the 23rd century’s latest Eye forNews system. This latest model employs an ocular embedded structure and iscontrolled via brain wave. It is specially designed for news workers, a Grade 2restricted article. Please follow the closely. The company is not responsible for personal misuse.”

                Themale voice concluded.

                Simultaneously,a semi-transparent appeared before Se Cai’s right eye, blocking almost half ofhis visual field.

                Needlessto say, this had to do with this Eye for News system.

                “So…this counts as a successful soulbind?”

                Afterso many impossible developments, Se Cai had become unaffected. Asemi-transparent white frame had become something that was not out of theordinary.

                “Thisframe looks suspiciously like a camera aperture, I wonder if it can zoom in…”

                Thanksto his occupation, this was the first thought that crossed his mind. Then herealized something had indeed changed.

                Previously,when he was still caught in shock, he didn’t have the mind to notice his eyesight had gotten much sharper.              

                Or tobe more precise, if viewed from this white frame, his eye sight wasindefinitely better.

                Se Caiconcentrated 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 onit was as clear as day.

                Se Caiturned his head and with enough concentration, even words on the poster pastedon the telephone pole became apparent.

                Thesensation was eerily similar to a camera’s aperture zoom. When he concentratedhis 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 theTerminator…”

                Se Caiquickly pulled out his cellphone and used its shiny surface to give himself anonce-over.

                Thankfully,on the surface, he appeared completely normal.

                “Hey,not only have my vision improved, my hearing had improved too.”

                Se Caiobserved because he found himself hearing the elevator door opening.

                 His many visits to the hospital had imprintedthe place’s layout in his mind. The elevator was at least 300 meters from hisbed. There was even a long corridor separating the two, it was impossible for anormal human being to be able to hear that far.

                Concludingall these, Se Cai reflected, “Could it be that this Eye for News system is an embeddedcam-recorder?”

                Afterall, his body could manage the camera’s zoom and the boom’s soundamplification.

                Allthese new developments were extremely similar to the conditions when Se Cai puton the recorder’s audiometric headphone. With the headphone aimed at aparticular direction, the sound from that direction could be captured in anexceptionally clear quality.

                If thatwas true, this system was even more powerful than the most expensive Matsus.h.i.ta2100 carry-on professional cam-recorder. Se Cai didn’t think he had even comeacross something like this before.

                Se Caiwas beaten into pulp but that had given him this impressive ‘Eye for News’system, he wasn’t sure he should laugh or cry.

                Nowonder during system activation, the voice had purposely mentioned that thiswas a Grade 2 restricted articles and the host had to be a qualifiedjournalist.

                Se Caicould imagine this powerful system being put to immoral use by the wrong hands.

                “Thevoice also mentioned News Point. I wonder what’s that for?”

                Se Caithought to himself.

                Heremembered the News Point materializing after witnessing his work appeared on thetv. In fact, the whole system was activated when that happened.

                Therefore,the News Point had to be something important.

                Rightthen, a flash erupted before his right eye preceding the appearance of a smallcomputer window.

The voice returned, “a.n.a.lysisrevealed that the host is using the system for the first time. Activating userguide.”

                “NewsPoint is earned through publication of news and the bigger the impact of thenews, the greater the amount of points. News Point can be traded for items andskills. Switching over to trade window?”

                “Ofcourse!”

                Se Caiyelled inwardly. Then, another window popped up.

                On itwas written Se Cai, News Point 103/500.

                Underthe window was a long rectangle. It was split into multiple compartments andeach compartment held an item.

                Se Caiscanned the row quickly and realized the rectangle must have been a tradinglist and above each item was the trading requirement.

                “Mind-readingunit: Provide the host with mind-reading skill that allows the user totemporary retrieve the thoughts of his or her interviewee. Trading requirement,100 News Points.”

                “Seconddimension storage unit: Provide the host with a 2 by 2 second dimension s.p.a.ceto store personal affects. Trading requirement, 150 News Points.”

                Furtherdown these 2 items were more selections but they were locked behind a brightred stamp that said Insufficient Authorization.

                Eventhough Se Cai was limited to a few choices but they were enough to get Se Caiexcited because every new one was more impressive than the next!