Wow, Incredible, You Have a Ray of Spiritual Light Shooting Out of the Top of Your Head, Did You Know That? (4k)

"Let's go." Chu Ke patted David on the shoulder and led Jackie and V outside.

The Scavenger, whose legs had gone limp beneath him, twisted his body and squeezed into a corner. He stared in terror at David, who stood before him at a loss. "Don't... don't kill me!"

His hands groped frantically around until he grabbed a filthy scalpel from the floor.

At the same time, the operating room doors slowly closed.

Chu Ke and the other two sat on the benches outside the door and waited quietly.

"Are you sure you want him to go down this path?" Jackie broke the silence. "That's the uniform of one of those corpo dog schools, right?"

Jackie truly hated corpo dogs, but the facts had proven that there were people among them like his good brother V. That boy also seemed like a decent kid. If nothing unexpected happened, he could have continued living quietly and earned himself a better life in an Arasaka corporation.

"He was expelled from Arasaka Academy, and he has some unusual talents." Hearing several gunshots from the operating room, V smiled and explained, "He has an extremely high tolerance for cyberware. If this keeps up, Arasaka will sooner or later capture him for experiments. Better for him to leave early."

"Damn it." Jackie nodded and said nothing more.

The operating room doors slowly opened. David emerged, clutching his blood-soaked left arm. He took a deep breath and returned the gun to Chu Ke.

The melancholy in his eyes was gone now, replaced by determination.

"Brother Chu, I want to join you."

In Night City, there was a profession known as Cyberpunk, also called edgerunners or edge runners. They were essentially mercenaries in the Cyberpunk worldview, taking jobs from fixers in exchange for commissions and reputation. Becoming a Cyberpunk was both the easiest and the hardest way to become a legend in Night City.

Though they had not known one another for long, David had already realized that these three were the legendary Cyberpunks.

He had been kicked out of Arasaka Academy. Even if he wanted to return, he would need a huge sum of money to pull strings, something his family could never afford. Besides, his mother was bedridden now, and the household's only source of income had been cut off.

Only by becoming an edgerunner, by becoming a Cyberpunk, could he support this family again.

His mother would surely object, but David felt that this was his only path now.

"Yeah, I knew it." Jackie sounded helpless, as if he had seen his younger self.

"We can discuss joining later. Get your mother to the hospital first."

"Okay."

"How about taking her to Old Vic?"

"Yeah. Mostly, she has some ruptured internal organs, plus a broken rib and thigh bone. Fortunately, the doctor gave her emergency treatment, so she survived. Now she just needs to stay hospitalized until she wakes up. If she doesn't plan to replace her organs with cyberware, she won't be able to do any strenuous labor in the future."

Victor took off his mechanical glasses and withdrew his hands from the operating table. He glanced at the boy some distance away, anxiously tapping his foot.

Looks like V and Jackie were playing saints again. Victor shot V a sidelong glance.

"I know you're doing a good thing, but you still have to pay back what you owe me. Not one credit less."

"Hehe, I know. I'll go make money boxing right away." V scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.

V still owed Old Vic quite a lot. After all, reality was not a game. There were not that many bugs to exploit.

After boxing for a few days and building up some reputation, fewer people would be willing to step up and hand over their money, so the income would dry up.

"Not doing so well, are you, V?" Chu Ke teased.

"Hey, I'm just an ordinary person. At most, I have higher cyberware tolerance, but installing cyberware costs money too. I'm still in the capital accumulation phase." V sounded helpless.

"And this is?" Victor had noticed the boy from the beginning. With his years of experience, he could tell at a glance that this young man had not installed any cyberware at all.

His skin was so good it did not seem like something this era should have produced. It was entirely natural. More importantly, he did not even have cybernetic eyes or a neural interface.

In this day and age, cybernetic eyes and neural interfaces were equivalent to phones and the internet in the old era. In fact, they were even more important. Without them, it was nearly impossible to get around this city.

"Chu Ke, a good buddy. You could call him a legend." V thought about it. A Beyond the Standard big shot could easily count as a legend.

"Oh?" Victor was somewhat surprised. After all these years, he had never heard of a legend by that name, but he did not pry.

"Hello, boxing champion Victor. I've heard much about you." Chu Ke greeted him.

"Old Vic was a boxing champion?" Jackie was dumbfounded and looked at V, who did not seem surprised at all.

How did all of you know except me?

"Hahaha, that was all in the past." Victor had not expected the other man to recognize him.

"We're leaving, Old Vic. Hope business goes well." Seeing that David's mother had stabilized, V led the others away.

Once outside the clinic, V handed David a bill.

David took it, and his eyes immediately widened. "Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands... forty thousand credits!?"

"This isn't some back-alley clinic that secretly steals your kidneys. That price is already Old Vic giving you a discount. You should be happy," V complained. He had long known that Old Vic was softhearted beneath his tough talk and had charged them the lowest price.

"Y-Yeah." David clenched the bill tightly and looked up at V seriously. "I'll work hard and make money!"

"Okay. Then come here at the same time tomorrow. There happens to be a small job that'll be good for warming up." V checked the job list. There was a data theft job that seemed fairly simple.

"Oh, brother, I might not be able to come." Jackie suddenly said with a constipated expression. "Those little punks from the Valentinos Gang caused some trouble with other people at my mom's store. I might have to go handle it."

"No problem. It's just a small job." V waved him off, signaling for him to hurry along.

After Jackie left, V looked at Chu Ke. "Brother Chu, what do you say? Staying at my place tonight?"

"Either works. We'll see later." At that moment, Chu Ke, who had been silent all this time, waved over David, who was also preparing to leave.

"Hey, don't go yet."

"Huh?" David turned around in confusion. "What is it, Brother Chu?"

Chu Ke crossed the distance in a few strides and carefully examined David, making goosebumps rise all over his body.

Hmm, good. David's level of modification was still low. He only had cybernetic eyes and a neural interface. He was nothing like the heavily modified muscular machine he would become in the later stages of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

"Wow, incredible, incredible." Chu Ke suddenly placed a hand on David's forehead. "You have a ray of spiritual light shooting out of the top of your head, did you know that?"

"Huh?" David was even more confused.

But V, standing beside them, understood the reference Chu Ke was making. V lowered his head and tried to hold back laughter, then thought better of it and pulled out a bottle of NiCola from his backpack to drink.

"You possess such strong muscles and bones at such a young age. You're a martial arts prodigy seen once in a century!" Chu Ke continued. "If one day you manage to open up your Ren and Du meridians, won't you soar into the sky like a flying dragon?"

David did not understand what a martial arts prodigy or strong muscles and bones meant, but he got the rough idea from Chu Ke's movements and tone.

Brother Chu was probably praising me for being strong? The part about once in a century made David so happy he could barely contain himself.

At his age, boys were most convinced that they were special.

"Thank you? Thank you, Brother Chu."

"As the saying goes, if I do not enter hell, who will?" Chu Ke continued. "The mission of punishing evil, eliminating villains, and maintaining world peace is yours!"

With that, Chu Ke pulled out a physical book. On its yellowed pages, several large Chinese characters had been written in brushstroke: "Buddha's Palm."

"This Buddha's Palm manual is a priceless treasure. I see that we are fated, so I'll pass it on to you for ten credits."

By the end, David's mouth was twitching wildly. He did not understand Buddha's Palm, but he knew this was the kind of roadside scam used to trick people into pyramid schemes—the lowest-grade kind, only useful for fooling children.

Fortunately, the price was low. Just ten credits. David could afford that. He would treat it as playing along with his lifesaver.

David paid the money and obediently accepted the physical book, something that had nearly vanished in this era.

V was about to lose it and let out muffled "kukuku" laughter.

V had not expected David to be so honest that he actually paid.

"You don't believe me?" Chu Ke looked at the two of them.

"Uh, I believe you." David, being an honest kid, still intended to go along with Brother Chu.

"You both know I haven't installed any cyberware, right?" Chu Ke asked.

Though he did not know why Chu Ke had suddenly brought that up, David nodded honestly. He had indeed heard from V and the others that Chu Ke was a "flesh-and-blood type."

V, however, could no longer laugh. He sensed something.

Chu Ke smiled slightly, raised his head toward an abandoned car shell in the distance, and thrust out his palm.

Flying Dragon in the Sky!

"Roar!" In an instant, golden fiery energy erupted from Chu Ke's body, condensed into a dragon's head, and followed his palm strike toward the abandoned car shell.

Boom!!!

Though it was an abandoned car shell, it was still made of the incredibly durable alloy produced by the high technology of 2077. Yet beneath that golden dragon head, it was crushed flat like cardboard.

"Pfft!!!" V sprayed cola from his mouth.

V could understand that Chu Ke knew martial arts. After all, he was a Beyond the Standard big shot; nothing he did would surprise V.

The key was, "Didn't you sell him Buddha's Palm!? Flying Dragon in the Sky is from Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms, damn it!"

"Eh." Chu Ke waved a hand. "Why care about that? Aren't they both from Buddhism? Close enough."

"Bullshit! Buddha's Palm was created by the Tathagata, while Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms was created by the mortal Xuan Ku. They're not the same, okay?" In his previous life, V had been a hardcore wuxia fan.

It was like pointing at Kamen Rider and calling it a rip-off of Armor Hero.

The two bickered, while David beside them had already gone completely blank.

He stared dumbly at the crushed car shell in the distance, then turned to look at Chu Ke, whose build was rather slender compared to muscular men like Jackie. He rubbed his eyes.

Walking over to the car shell, he saw a massive five-fingered palm print deeply pressed into the concrete. The car shell at its center had been flattened as thin as paper.

His seventeen years of worldview shattered at that moment.

David abruptly turned toward Chu Ke. "Brother Chu, is this real?!"

"Of course it is. Would I sell you a fake?"

David excitedly pulled out the manual he had casually stuffed into his pants pocket earlier and held it like a priceless treasure. "I understand! I absolutely won't let down Brother Chu's expectations!"

A manual like this was surely priceless, yet Brother Chu had sold it to him for only ten credits.

This was an unimaginably great kindness!

David made up his mind that no matter what happened, he would not disappoint Brother Chu!

Chu Ke casually waved a hand. "It's fine. Anyway, go home tonight and familiarize yourself with the manual first. Search the relevant terms online and get a basic understanding, but don't practice yet."

"Practicing without my guidance will only backfire. One careless mistake, and you could be seriously injured beyond saving."

"Yes!" David was frightened by that, but it could not extinguish his enthusiasm.

So this was kung fu!

"Come early tomorrow morning. I'll teach you first, then we'll go do the job." Chu Ke gave him one final instruction. "I'll send you the address then."

"Okay! Goodbye, Brother Chu! Brother V!"

Watching David happily skip away, skillfully weaving through the obstacles in the streets and alleys, V looked around. After confirming no one was nearby, V dropped to his knees.

Thump!

V hugged Chu Ke's thigh, and tears began flowing from V's cybernetic eyes.

"V has drifted through life for half a lifetime, only regretting never meeting a worthy master. If you do not reject me, V wishes to call you godfather!"

"Enough, enough. Get up." Chu Ke kicked V a little to keep the snot from smearing onto his leg. "Just don't stab me with a halberd someday."

V stood up with a face full of delight. "Does that mean I can learn it too?!"

Chu Ke looked V up and down, then shook his head. "No. You're too heavily modified."

V had not only implanted Mantis Blades in both arms, but also installed reinforced tendons in V's legs. Most importantly, V's heart and lungs had also been replaced with machinery.

Flesh Ascension was no longer suitable for V.

"Ah!" V's beautiful eyes scrunched up, and V's little face drooped. "If I'd known, I wouldn't have installed them."

"Tsk, get away from me, shemale build." Chu Ke sucked in a breath. He still preferred women like Lucy.

"But it's not completely impossible. We'll just need to gather data. Wait for it."

"Really!? V has drifted through life for half a lifetime—"

"Get lost!"

Chu Ke was not lying. Though he could use Fundamental Forces to forcibly prop up David and V, that would never be perfect.

After gathering vast amounts of knowledge about the human body online, as well as concepts of "secret martial arts," "martial arts," and "kung fu" from several worlds, including Dragon Raja, Cyberpunk, ghouls, and My World, Chu Ke's main body had developed something new. Using a portion of Fundamental Forces as a "primer," it had created "basic martial arts" adaptable to various worlds—the very book in David's hands.

After that, once enough cyberware data was collected, it might be possible to create "cyber martial arts" that modified cybernetic people like V and Jackie could practice.

As for the specifics, they would have to wait until David practiced tomorrow.

Damn, writing 4k in one chapter was still a little difficult. Maybe it would be better to split future chapters into two 2k parts.