Finger

At the morgue, Tamil and Ap arrived at the "black market rehabilitation center" that Ap had mentioned.

The environment here is somewhat like a vegetable market, except that it contains human corpses, and the bloody scene is extremely terrifying.

As the two walked through, they saw well-dressed men coming and going, and could vaguely hear words like "organs" and "prices."

Apu frowned, gave Tamil a look, and the two walked to the back of the market, where there was a curtain covered by a plastic sheet, and outside were two burly men.

"Brother, I made an appointment with your boss yesterday."

A burly man looked at Apu and nodded. Apu then pushed open the door and entered with a smile.

Inside was a prosthetic modification workshop. On a welding bed, a bald, fat man was adjusting a robotic arm. Amidst the 'buzzing' sound of electrical sparks, the bald, fat man injected machine oil into the adjusted robotic arm and then inserted it into the interface on the shoulder. With the current, the other party's metal fingers began to 'react with electromyography'.

Unfortunately, for some reason, the thumb just wouldn't move. The bald fat man tried to fix it several times, but couldn't get it right. Frustrated, he ripped the robotic arm off and smashed it aside.

"Tell me, do you want me to do it myself, or do you want me to cut off my own hand?"

Tamil frowned, took a step forward, and grabbed the other man's outstretched arm.

The artificial muscles on the bald fat man's other arm began to bulge, with dense blue veins popping out.

Tamil's right hand also has bulging muscles, but his muscles look more like metal.

Both of their arms had been reinforced in some way, and the match ended in a draw.

The bald, fat man withdrew his arm, gave Tamil an appreciative look, and said, "You have good eyesight, the eyes of a butcher. How about it, want to work with me? I can give you a free enhancement upgrade."

"Unnecessary."

The bald, fat man glanced at the two men's arms and sneered, "So you both already have your own prosthetic doctors, then what are you doing here?"

"Buying intelligence," Ap laughed.

"My information can only be bought by acquaintances. If you hadn't said you were going to sell your hands yesterday, I wouldn't have bothered with you at all," the bald fat man sneered, not taking the other party seriously at all.

"Really? What if I said the security force has acquaintances?" Ap said, raising his tiger skin as a banner.

"I'm doing legitimate business, I have a merchant's license. Even the security forces can't stop my goods for no reason. Who do you think I sell my goods to?"

The bald fat man's expression gradually turned dangerous, and the scattered human parts around him began to move.

A chilling feeling gradually arose.

"What about radiation organs? You must be interested in those, right?"

The bald, fat man indeed showed some interest, waved his hand, and the crawling mechanical bodies around him stopped again.

Apu said without changing his expression, "I have a large number of radioactive organs at my disposal. If you need them, we can cooperate."

"Out-of-towner?"

There aren't many radiated beasts in the barren desert, so radiated organs can only be imported from other deserts.

"You must know about the beast tide, right? Our leader consumed a large amount of biological materials in the central region, including organs from B-level irradiated beasts."

"I've heard about the beast tide. Those corporate bastards, ever since they started using those weird drugs, they haven't been able to squeeze out a single benefit from it."

The bald, fat man nodded. "If you really have radioactive organs, I can indeed make a deal with you. According to my rules, the first piece of information is free."

"Can I ask now?" Ap asked.

"Certainly."

"I want information about 'God'."

"The leader of the Flame Motorbike Gang? That's quite an arrogant and conceited guy. What, you're going to deal with him?"

"Haha, that's a secret."

"That's right. Flame Pass is a place with great feng shui. There are too many people who want it, but unfortunately none of them have succeeded." The bald fat man gave the two of them a meaningful look.

"Alright, I won't waste any more words. Let me put it this way: do you know how old that 'God' guy is this year?"

Ap was taken aback and shook his head. The native warlords of the Land of Fire were called "gene bastards" because they used gene modification technology so extensively that even their own people didn't know whether their leader was a gene clone or the real him.

Or perhaps it's someone else who had plastic surgery and was actually impersonating her.

"A very secretive piece of information: that guy wasn't replaced; he's still the original, and he's 95 years old this year."

Ap was shocked. 95 years old? That's so old. And at that age, is he a World War II veteran?

"That's all I can tell you," the bald, fat man grinned. "To deal with him, you'll have to work on his age."

"Haha, since that's the case, then let's start—"

"Who said you could leave?" The bald, fat man's expression changed, and he said coldly, "You don't think I'm an idiot, do you? You think you can extract valuable information from me with just a few words?"

He pointed at Tamil with his carrot-thick fingers.

"He stays, you leave. I'll wait for you to take the organ from the radioactive beast you mentioned."

"Also, according to my rules, since you're here, you have to leave something behind."

"What do you plan to leave behind?"

Ap's expression remained unchanged, but his finger pressed on the monomolecular linear catapult.

However, an unexpected voice rang out.

"I paid his bill."

Two blood-soaked fingers were pressed onto the table.

Tamil lit a cigarette and looked at the other person calmly.

"Hahaha, interesting, very interesting, you can leave now!"

Ap's eye twitched. He walked to the door and suddenly said, "You're not a local, are you?"

"Um?"

"I smell the stench of city people on you."

"Hahaha, someone actually recognized me. Not bad, not bad. I've been in this godforsaken place for so long that I've almost forgotten who I used to be. How about I tell your boss that we're all respectable people. As long as it's in our mutual interest, anything is negotiable. I have a lot of good stuff on hand."

Ap pushed open the plastic film and saw that a group of people had gathered outside, two-thirds of their bodies replaced by mechanical bodies.

"These guys are modified to an extreme degree, just like us. Has anyone solved their mechanical rejection problem?"

Only then did Ap realize that Tamil's actions were correct; if they had really fought, the two of them might not have been able to break through.

"I was careless. I thought only the warlords in the Land of Fire were troublesome; I didn't expect there to be monsters like this in the underworld."

Looking at the organ market before him, Apu's eyes darkened.

After dealing with that 'god,' this person becomes the next target.

"You guys are really in a sorry state. You can't do without an old man like me, can you?"

In a campsite near Flame Pass, the captains of eight mechanical hunter squads gathered together. Among them, the old man, the Creeper, was beaming with pride, seemingly in an exceptionally good mood.

Enraged, Matsushima Keiko drew her sword and was about to strike when the crow quickly stopped her, sizing her up.

"Captain Creeper, you seem to have gotten stronger?"

"Hmph, the old man's power now is beyond your imagination."

The crow and the other party were old acquaintances, both veteran hunters from the Motor City. Their original six elite squads were wiped out during the beast tide, with five of them being wiped out.

Among them, the creepers performed the best, even reaching the top three on the leaderboard at one point.

Based on this record, Lao Gu wouldn't underestimate his opponent. However, in his impression, this person had always been a cowardly and cunning individual. How did he suddenly become so arrogant?

"Stop looking. Bio-modification might have messed up this old man's brain. He was like this when he came here," Sun Tu said sarcastically.

Compared to the unpredictable nature of the Wriggle, this guy's strength is much more obvious. With a mechanical arm as thick as a water tank, a 100% mechanical body, and a black cannon barrel all over his body, he looks incredibly powerful.

Sun Tu was no less pleased than his opponent.

"See that? The base's latest gorilla module. Wait a minute, let me transform and show you."

"Super Gorilla, transform!"

The next moment, the metal support frame popped out, mechanical baffles covered the hands and feet, a large number of mechanical parts reassembled, and countless air jets squeezed out from the joints, and the humanoid form directly transformed into a mechanical gorilla over four meters tall.

"Holy crap, two mechanical forms! Tu Ge, you're amazing!"

"This level of modification must have been done by the boss himself."

"I'm so envious. When will I be able to install such a high-tech mechanical body?"

The mechanical hunters' eyes lit up, and they went up to touch and pinch the object as if it were a stunningly beautiful woman with a perfect figure.

"Hey? Brother Tu, why aren't you saying anything?"

"Nonsense, how could apes speak human language?" the wriggler beside him said sourly.

Sun Tu transformed back into human form and roared, "Bullshit! The vocal organs haven't been installed yet. Once they are, there won't be any problems."

"You also know that this mechanical module is an experimental version, right?"

"So what if it's an experimental version? It still works."

A mechanical hunter asked timidly.

"Brother Tu, why do you shout that when you transform? Is it voice-activated?"

Sun Tu blushed and said, "According to the boss, shouting before transforming will give you a boost in combat power."

"Really? That's high-tech!"

"So, Brother Tu, after you shouted that, did you really become stronger?"

Sun Tu hesitated for a moment, then said uncertainly, "It seems that there really is a mysterious power flowing continuously from within my body."

On the other side, Keiko Matsushima nudged the wriggling creature and said, "Old man, why does that guy look so unhappy?"

As everyone knows, the mechanic Huang Wen contracted an electronic virus and has been bedridden for almost half a year. Now that he has finally recovered, he should be happier than the other two.

Could it be a sequela of facial paralysis?

"Don't speak ill of me to my face, especially when I'm able to move," Huang Wen said, turning his head. "We've had enough of catching up, so let's discuss tactics."

"Our task from above is simple: ensure that there are no members of the 'Flame Motorbike Gang' outside Flame Pass."