Military Contractor

Rose Gasoline Bar

Gao Gong sat in a corner of the bar, a classic cocktail in front of him. It was Black Rose's favorite, named "Flame Chariot." The azure flame burning on its surface resembled the exhaust from a motorcycle.

It tasted very bitter, with a hint of gasoline mixed with cola.

Although Black Rose hadn't returned, the bar had regained its usual liveliness. People were there to gather information, conduct business, chat idly, or drown their sorrows. All walks of life were present.

"Sir, someone would like to buy you a drink," a bionic waitress approached, holding a drink on a tray.

It was evident that this bionic human wasn't of high caliber. There were noticeable seams on its limbs, and its smile was unnatural, indicating it only had basic AI services downloaded, lacking even a personality template.

Gao Gong didn't speak, merely waved his hand.

A sigh echoed from the shadows.

A bearded man's face darkened. He downed his gasoline beer in one go, stood up, and walked out without looking back. He was missing his left hand, replaced by a large hunting rifle.

"Even an Elephant Hunter isn't good enough? His standards are too high!"

"He's got seniority, though."

"Yeah, I saw him myself. His large double-barreled rifle blew the head off an E-Class Radiation Elephant. That's a massive Radiation Beast."

"Can't be helped, he has the qualifications."

"Isn't he just an old man? What's so great about him?" a newcomer suddenly grumbled indignantly.

"Young man, don't get your wires crossed. In the desert, seniority is the least valuable thing."

A Mechanical Hunter sneered and shook his head.

"That's right. If you can bring back the head of a Reaper Commander and the corpses of four D-Class Reapers, then you'll have the right to be so picky."

The newcomer froze and instinctively asked, "Reapers? Those melee monsters that even chainsaws can't cut through?"

"That's right. Five heads in total. Automobile City hasn't had such a haul in years."

"Amazing!"

Gao Gong finished his "Flame Chariot" and asked the waitress for a "Beautiful Woman." As expected, the mellow, brandy-flavored cocktail suited him better.

Over ten people had offered him drinks today, but Gao Gong hadn't accepted any.

It wasn't because they were men.

Nor was it because he was afraid of being "picked up"—okay, maybe a little.

There were women too.

But their intentions weren't pure either.

Women who purely wanted to hook up with men would mostly not approach him. Those who frequented this bar knew about his relationship with the female owner.

The woman belonging to a powerful man, or the man belonging to a powerful woman—both types of beings were not to be trifled with, though it might be very exciting.

The fundamental reason was that accepting someone's drink was equivalent to accepting their team-up invitation.

According to the satellite aerial photos from the factory, at least several dozen beasts had appeared around Automobile City.

The Security Brigade had issued a strict order: within five days, regardless of how they managed it, they had to assemble an armed team of at least three people.

In this free-for-all team formation, powerful Mechanical Hunters were naturally in high demand.

Automobile City, as a central Oasis, was home to many renowned Mechanical Hunters, but lone wolves without fixed teams were few and far between.

And even among these special talents like lone wolves, someone with Gao Gong's track record was uniquely exceptional.

Yesterday, when Gao Gong brought back five corpses, the entire military supply depot was alerted. Even the logistics supervisor, who usually looked down on hunters, came out personally to exchange pleasantries with him.

Everyone knew Gao Gong had hunted a C-Class Reaper—for the second time!

After another drink, Gao Gong glanced at the mechanical clock on the liquor cabinet. It was almost time; he needed to head to the military supply depot to pick up his goods.

"Wait!"

Just as Gao Gong reached the doorway, a bald, burly man suddenly stood up and aggressively approached him, shouting, "My name is Black Death Ape. I believe I'm qualified to be your teammate."

Amidst the low jazz music, Gao Gong lowered his head, tapped the bottom of his cigarette case, and picked out a cigarette. He used the dim light to size up the man.

This guy was tall, over two meters, but it wasn't the physical distortion of a native. It was bone-strengthening surgery—an enhanced version of bone hyperplasia.

His muscles were developed and bulky, likely some kind of low-quality synthetic muscle. Whether it was due to implantation issues or muscle type, it looked like he was wearing oversized clothes.

Most striking were his oversized metal arms, at least three sizes larger than normal. The protruding parts on his forearms were likely flamethrowers, and his carrot-thick fingers had nine metal joints.

These things would definitely hurt when used for smashing.

"Gorilla arms imported from Sleepless City?"

"Sharp eyes!" Black Death Ape's eyes lit up. He casually grabbed a wine bottle, closed his palm around it, and with a series of crackles, quickly turned it into a pile of glass shards.

"I've investigated you. I know you're skilled with a knife and have a big sniper rifle," Black Death Ape struck a bodybuilder's pose, his synthetic muscles bulging as if inflated, without veins, only some pale artificial fibers.

"I'm also skilled in close combat, and can handle mid-to-long range. I can attack or snipe. We'll be the most compatible partners!"

Gao Gong, with a slightly tipsy gaze, exhaled a puff of smoke and said, "I don't have a problem, but you do."

"How am I not good enough?" Black Death Ape's eyes widened, shoving his massive gorilla arms right in Gao Gong's face.

"Watch closely! This is the latest 'Impact Rocket Type III'!"

Honestly, the equipment was good. In the system panel, it would at least receive an "Excellent" rating.

It's just that the person wasn't.

Gao Gong took a few more puffs, tossed the cigarette butt into the ashtray, and prepared to leave without explanation.

"Wait, you can't leave without explaining yourself!"

Black Death Ape roared in anger, his mechanical palm slamming onto Gao Gong's shoulder. The mechanical grip met the titanium alloy skeleton, emitting a "creak" of compression.

"The equipment is fine, it's just your legs that are bad."

"What are you—"

Gao Gong suddenly turned, darted into the center, hooked a leg, and lightly stepped on the inside of the opponent's ankle. The other's slender ankle couldn't bear the heavy pressure, cracking with a "snap." The Black Death Ape crashed to the ground with a "boom," clutching his leg and screaming.

"My leg! My leg! I'm losing my leg!!"

"Your sports system augmentation rate is less than 4%, yet you installed such a massive piece of equipment," Gao Gong shook his head and waved, signaling the bartenders who had already reached for their guns to stand down.

"You're a bit reckless, friend."

Human augmentation is a meticulous, all-encompassing project. It's not that the stronger the prosthetic, the better. In fact, the stronger the prosthetic, the harder it is to install and the harder it is to remove. It can be said that every high-level prosthetic augmentation is like walking through the gates of hell.

And once the prosthetic compatibility is insufficient, the character is ruined.

Players can start over if they're ruined, but if an NPC is ruined, they're truly beyond saving.

In fact, in Gao Gong's opinion, the Mechanical Hunters in Automobile City all suffer from some degree of over-augmentation.

Perhaps they have no problems at this stage, but when they want to advance further, like crossing the main profession's Level 10 threshold or the Level 20 hurdle, they'll find their physical augmentations have been overdrawn, leaving no room for further modification.

This might be an opportunity.

Mechanical augmentation has reached its limit; shifting to biological augmentation is also a path, but mechanical rejection is a major issue.

Even Gao Gong, a Mechanical Augmenter with relatively balanced stats, was extremely cautious when facing mechanical rejection.

And these individuals with extreme human augmentation would inevitably encounter mechanical rejection.

He couldn't forcibly perform biological augmentation on them either.

That would only create a bunch of cyber-psychos.

Gao Gong headed south, driving to a modern military camp. The buildings before him had a rare newness in the desert. The main building, airport, shooting range, and various off-road obstacles, though made of real materials, gave off a strange sense of being a bubble.

This was likely 3D printed by a military contractor from a major corporation.

This was the Security Brigade's military supply depot.

Quite a few Security Brigade members could be seen undergoing practical combat training, their opponents being "Radiation Beasts" projected by virtual projection technology.

Their melee weapons dealt different levels of damage depending on where they struck the "beasts."

And the VR glasses they wore enhanced the immersion.

"Good training. No wonder the Security Brigade is getting stronger."

Gao Gong smiled, his gaze shifting to the other side. In a simulated Concrete Forest, an armed Security Brigade squad was performing targeted clearing of obstacles within the "forest."

This kind of experience often required Mechanical Hunters to pay with their lives to learn.

However, was this training method truly advanced?

At least the defeats on the front lines didn't prove it.

"Mr. Gao, welcome," a robot greeted him, its electronic voice devoid of inflection.

"How about it, has the value of my spoils been confirmed?"

"It has been confirmed, a total of 2124 contribution points. Would you like to see the breakdown, or go shopping first? We've just imported a batch of new smart weapons. Would you like me to show you around?"

"Let's take a look first," Gao Gong blinked, seemingly asking casually, "By the way, may I ask which military contractors this batch of weapons came from?"

"Taiber Defense System, Marubeni Global Security, Mas Fang."

All familiar names.

"Mas Fang," Gao Gong repeated the name. This crazy company, which would later become famous for its radical human augmentation, was already entering the weapons and equipment market at this time.