Boulder City.
In the cybernetic surgery room of Boulder Military Industries, a naked young woman lay on an operating table surrounded by multi-axis mechanical arms.
Her skin was smooth and delicate, like flawless white jade, while her peaceful, beautiful sleeping face resembled a meticulously crafted work of art, radiating an irresistible charm from within.
In fact, it really was a work of art.
This brand-new set of bionic skin combined the Academy's cutting-edge technology with the Enterprise's engineering expertise, and had been installed using The Alliance's almost miraculous cybernetic surgical techniques. It perfectly replaced her original skin, which had been so devastated by neutron radiation that barely a single intact cell remained.
Judging solely by sight, touch, and every other sensation, this new skin was utterly flawless compared to the original. It could even be said to surpass it.
If one had to find fault with it, it would probably only be the trivial issue that it was so perfect it seemed less real.
And that was not all.
This bionic skin had also been designed to strengthen the user's soft-tissue defenses.
When longitudinal cuts or punctures stretched the skin's elasticity beyond a certain threshold, the bionic skin would automatically activate a hardening effect, forming a protective layer as strong as titanium alloy for a brief period and resisting cuts and punctures that penetrated into the dermis.
Combined with a titanium-alloy skeleton and cushioning components, it could even withstand the kinetic damage of light weapons at pistol and rifle caliber without much trouble.
Besides the armor built into the skin itself, Jiang Xuezhou had gone all in and made some DIY modifications on top of it.
For example, to adapt to extravehicular activity and all kinds of complicated special conditions, she had Boulder Military Industries implant temperature-control modules, negative- and