Is This Mayfly?
Before he could even react, Sing Sing saw a severed hand jump down from the incubator and stop in front of him.
Upon closer inspection, Old Zhou chuckled, "Xiao You, long time no see!"
The severed hand raised its middle finger at him.
"Looks like life is pretty stable; he hasn't even forgotten internationally recognized hand gestures."
Just as Sing Sing crouched down to shake hands with it, A You bypassed his fingertips and slapped down the red button on the wall.
Dozens of nozzles automatically lock onto the shoes, spraying disinfectant mist from head to toe.
"Who gave you permission to teleport in directly!"
A person in a white lab coat burst out from between two rows of incubators, their long, silvery-white hair spreading out in all directions.
Professor
She was wearing a slipper on her left foot and a blue shoe cover on her right.
A white-coated man, resembling a mad scientist, rushed towards the two, spitting everywhere.
"So what if you teleport? You think teleporting is so great? No need for disinfection? And you! You pork butcher, what's that black stuff on the sole of your shoe? Blood? Mud? Or some goji berries you stepped on in Wang Pangzi's office?!"
Sing Sing wiped the drool from his face, somewhat bewildered. "Professor Jiang Si, I haven't even said anything yet!"
"The more you open your mouth, the more bacteria you'll have!"
The Wandering Girl peeked out from behind Sing Sing: "You didn't scold me for this long last time!"
"Last time you informed us in advance, but what about today? You just jumped right in from the hospital! What kind of place is a hospital? A place where germs have a reunion!"
Jiang Si picked up the scanner and scanned her from the top of her head all the way to the sole of her shoe, the machine beeping incessantly.
"Go outside to disinfect, leave the milk tea."
Why did you leave the milk tea?
"Detect the source of pollution!"
"Then I'm leaving!" The Wandering Girl, unwilling to let go, pouted and retreated directly into the blue-purple light band. "Goodbye!"
As soon as the light strip disappeared, Professor Jiang Si chased after him, hurling a few curses. When he turned back, Sing Sing was still wiping his face.
"Where are the Mayflies?"
"How dare you ask! The patient is in this condition, and you just drop him off at the hospital and run off to United States to demolish buildings!"
Professor Jiang Si, grumbling and cursing, swiped open the isolation door. "Follow me, don't touch anything, and ask permission before you fart!"
The hem of the white coat swept past A You, and the severed hand climbed up the trouser leg to Professor Jiang Si's shoulder.
"Disinfect, change your clothes, wear two layers of shoe covers! Tuck all your hair in! If you dare drop a single ash, I'll implant it in your lung! From now on, every time you cough, you'll exhale smoke rings!"
"That sounds cool!"
Five minutes later, Sing Sing, wearing a protective suit, walked into the observation area.
The person on the operating chair had their head bowed, making their face impossible to see.
Who is this?
"Luke Shaw, Mayfly."
Upon confirming that this person was indeed Mayfly, Old Zhou was greatly shocked. How could a perfectly good young man have been transformed into a cyborg?
Professor Jiang Si was completely oblivious to what he was thinking, his expression smug.
"The biomimetic composite skin is heat-resistant, UV-resistant, and can also sense temperature differences and pressure."
"The eye socket contains a Spectrum bionic eye that retains the normal visual pattern, with the addition of smoke imaging and near-infrared observation. The optic nerve connection has failed twice, and it is still far from being put into use."
"Look over there, a modular bionic forearm! Interested in getting one?"
"No interest, my shoes are still under warranty."
Professor Jiang Si was a little unhappy after being rejected by Sing Sing. He thought that his bionic forearm was so good that no one else could replace it!
"His insect's basal cells were all necrotic, and the replacement wing membranes cultured by Da Vinci could only withstand relative wind speeds below 37 yards per second, making them currently only suitable for short-distance flight."
Professor Jiang Si illuminated the diagram of the back structure, and two carbon fiber wing bones slowly unfolded on the screen.
"I added bionic wing bones and a posture controller to it, so it can control itself after the nerve signals are connected."
Where did these hearts and internal organs come from?
Sing Sing's gaze shifted to the row of incubators, where several hearts contracted as the liquid was delivered through tubing.
There are also liver and lung lobes nearby.
"It was cultured using his own induced basal stem cells! What? You think I bought these from United States? These are all spare tissues! Used to sustain life in case the surgery fails."
Why is that eyeball staring at me?
"It's tracking a moving target."
Sing Sing took a step to the left, and the eyeball in the culture medium followed suit.
"The whole room is moving, why is it only chasing me?"
"Because you talk the most nonsense and your mouth moves the most!"
Old Zhou stopped teasing the eyeball and turned to look at Professor Jiang Si.
Who suggested the full-body makeover?
"Himself."
Jiang Si took the tablet that Xiao You had brought over and tapped it a few times to show him the electronic signature and fingerprint.
Then another video clip was shown; Luke was lying in a hospital bed with his eyes covered and his right arm wrapped in a dressing.
I know my company won't fire me.
The young man on the screen would say a sentence and then pause for a while.
"Brother Zhou said that even if I can't fly, I'll still have a job, and even if I can't see, I can learn again. I remember all of that."
"Then why did you apply for the renovation?" Jiang Si's question came from outside the video recording.
"I never imagined that I would accept this new country so quickly."
"Professor, I'm not afraid of pain, I just want to see this country again."
"I want to do what I can. Even if the modification fails, I'm willing to donate my body for research."
The screen freezes.
"This last one didn't qualify for surgical authorization."
Jiang Si moved the donation application to a separate page, where the status was still "not processed".
Sing Sing remained silent for a long time before finally shifting his gaze back to the Mayfly.
Did he take any medication at the time?
"Painkillers do not affect judgment. There is a seven-day cooling-off period after the application is submitted. He reconfirmed it on the eighth day. I read every risk to him."
Why didn't I get notified about the shipping company?
"Mayfly wouldn't let me notify you. Later, Da Vinci took a copy of the notification, saying he'd be responsible for contacting you after you returned. As for why he didn't contact you... go take apart his electric pressure cooker! I told you that old man couldn't be trusted!"
Sing Sing's lips moved, but he ultimately didn't try to find a reason for Da Vinci.
Jiang Si put the tablet back on its stand, and his earlier cursing subsided.
"The surgery is divided into six stages. He has just completed the neural interface implantation, and the drug-induced sleep will need to be maintained for another twenty hours."
"The success rate is 23% when the whole process is completed."
"There's one last confirmation." Jiang Si took a microphone and handed it to Sing Sing.
"The neural interface needs a familiar voice to guide it when it's first powered on. He filled in your name; a recording won't work, you must be present in person."
Old Zhou looked down at the microphone, momentarily at a loss for what to do.
"What... what did I say?"
Jiang Si closed the protective cover on the control panel, and the three rows of indicator lights lit up in sequence.
"Say whatever you want, as long as he's willing to come back with that voice."
Sing Sing held the microphone to his mouth.
The man who could usually spout nonsense in front of a gun couldn't find a single word that would resonate with Luke's nerve signals.