City of Biological Signals

My name is Ah Q, and I've been kidnapped by an NPC. If you VIP me for 50, I'll take you to a game of "Giant Enterprise Battle".

Ah Q, looking distressed, dialed the signal station and connected the unplugged communication cable to the socket on his wrist. In an instant, a simulated signal covered his entire body, and the leave request information was directly transferred to the company's database through the signal station.

Your leave application has been approved.

These signal stations look like old-fashioned street phone booths, and there are many of them in Liangzhou City. Basically, every street has three or four of these devices.

This type of signal station can handle all activities related to information processing, even eating and mating.

At this moment, the signal station user next to him was blushing and excited. Needless to say, he was definitely doing something inappropriate for children by using the signal station.

Ah Q had considered calling the police, that is, notifying the "security maintainers" of Liangzhou City, but the attribute panel full of red question marks made him give up the idea.

Name:??

Race:??

Profession:???

Overall grade:?

Health:??

Note: This is an extremely dangerous high-level NPC who has the ability to kill you instantly. You can try to deal with him; you might be surprised by the results.

Harvest, system, are you kidding me?

As we all know, when an NPC's attribute bar has one or two question marks, you can still try to fight them. But when even their name has a question mark, you only have two choices: either cling to their powerful backer or run as far away as possible.

He slowly made his way to the other side. As an ordnance engineer, the other person gave him the feeling of being a very dangerous mechanical life form.

Super robot?

The senior engineer picked up his coffee, took a sip, and gestured to the other person before Ah Q sat down opposite him.

"What would you like to drink? It's on me," the senior engineer said casually.

"You... are you really an NPC?"

Although the NPCs in this game are all rather eccentric, there shouldn't be any NPCs who can break the fourth wall, right?

Or is this a little Easter egg planned by the organizers?

Looking at the other person's expression, the senior engineer knew what the other person was thinking. After all, in the world of "Cyber World," which is said to be completely virtual and thoroughly cyber, anything is possible.

For example, AI has possessed players and taken control of their bodies; this has happened quite a few times already.

All players can do is try to recruit others on the forums.

"Ah Q, I made a deal with another part of you to release him from the corporate cage. He told me that if I didn't agree, he would say this: Judging from your expression, is 'reducing you to level zero' some kind of special code?"

Ah Q finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all that, it turned out to be another version of himself who was behind it all.

He tentatively asked, "Well, since you signed the agreement with me, theoretically, I can cancel it, right?"

The senior engineer looked at the other person with a half-smile, "What do you think?"

Under the other person's gaze, Ah Q felt as if he were standing naked in place.

That's the look of a seasoned driver.

"Alright," the engineer finished his coffee in one gulp and said, "Now that you've taken the day off, come with me and let's go sightseeing."

Like the City That Never Sleeps, Liangzhou City is also a mechanical city, but it is much more developed than the City That Never Sleeps. There is no longer an old city or an outer city. All the buildings are printed using '4D printing technology'.

The so-called '4D printing technology' adds the option of 'material' to the length, width, and height.

In other words, he can synthesize iron, steel, and even some special aerospace materials at the molecular level.

Moreover, '4D printing technology' is also the foundation for intergalactic travel, because most of the universe is a vacuum region or a dark matter region, where you simply cannot find any material that can be repaired. Therefore, mastering the technology of synthesis at the molecular level is very important.

Having '4D printing technology' provides a guarantee for navigation for hundreds or even thousands of years.

This is also one of the top technologies of a Type II civilization. After all, a Type II civilization is equivalent to a first-stage interstellar civilization, and flying out of the planet is of paramount importance.

However, using '4D technology' to build a house is truly a luxury.

The senior engineer squinted, touched the high-tech wall, activated the "Data Brain," and observed the flow of "signals" with his naked eye.

Sure enough, every building was like a "signal tower," and the signal transmission within Liangzhou City was ten times stronger than outside.

"Architectural fiber optic cable? Is it for technical testing on the signal side?"

The senior engineer shook his head and walked into a nearby prosthetics store. A service android automatically approached him.

"Sir, what do you need?"

"Show me the latest model of prosthetic body."

"Okay, sir, we have five of the latest prosthetic models here. They are the Advanced Signal Implanter, a plugin that can double your work efficiency, and this is the Balance Technology - Biodynamic Berserk Type IV, which is very suitable for prosthetic powerhouses and can ignite your cells like an explosion..."

Of these five prosthetic bodies, two are Tier 2 - Blank, two are Tier 2 - Excellent, and one is even Tier 2 - Excellent+.

Speaking of which, the best app for reading aloud and listening to books right now is Wildfruit Reading.

Install the latest version.

Name: Biological Lander

Rank: Tier 2 - Excellent+

Equipment part: Vibration system - Ankle

Equipment requirements: 10,000 units of bioenergy, 30% modification rate of the musculoskeletal system.

Attributes: Agility +10, Stamina +10, Strength +5; Additional Skill: High-Altitude Landing

High-altitude landing: Also known as a hero's landing, this involves falling from an altitude of over 100 meters. During this process, bio-electric energy is activated, creating a large bio-electromagnetic field with a range of 10 x 10 meters. For every additional 100 meters, the diameter of the electromagnetic field increases by 1 meter. Simultaneously, fall damage is reduced by 50%.

Within the electromagnetic field's range, the attacked will be inflicted with five status effects: Paralysis -10%, Resistance -10%, Armor Reduction +10%, Impact Damage +10%, and Ranged Attack +10%. For every 10,000 increase in bio-energy, the species' status increases by 5%.

Note: A hero's landing begins with destroying the enemy.

This is a rare Tier 2 minor gem that adds area-of-effect negative status effects. With the high-level engineer's bio-energy, these five negative status effects can be increased by about 40%. In other words, when the high-level engineer descends from the sky, the enemy's resistance, armor, and other status effects are directly cut in half.

The appearance of this biological lander is very similar to the "biochip" of its own faction, and even smaller. Overall, it looks like a fleshy ball the size of a coin.

On its surface, the senior engineer indeed saw the four characters "Tianping Technology".

"Buy now and get it implanted for free. You can take it home for just 2 million Liangzhou coins or 200,000 Mother City coins."

The bionic salesperson enthusiastically promoted the product.

The senior engineer smiled, put down the biochip, and left.

On the way, Ah Q couldn't help but ask, "Judging from your expression, you're very interested in that prosthetic body. Are you short of money?"

Why spend money when you can steal something?

"Of course, if you're planning to give it to me, that's a different story."

Ah Q shrank back and immediately started acting like a grandson.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yu, the logistics manager of Tianping Technology's Liangzhou branch, walked down the corridor with a gloomy expression. The surrounding employees quickly made way for him, afraid of offending him.

Tianping Technology is a super-large enterprise with various R&D bases distributed around the world and close cooperation with major military giants.

This is both its advantage and the reason for its internal strife.

As we all know, a large part of the reason why a company engages in internal strife, besides poor management, is the difference in development philosophy.

To be more precise, it's that they're pursuing different directions in their technology paths.

In its early days, Tianping Technology, with its strong accumulation of biotechnology, became a partner of major military giants, providing these military contractors with customized biotechnology, such as artificial soldiers, biochemical beasts, biological viruses, etc. Over the years, it has naturally pointed out several, or even more than a dozen, biotechnology routes.

They can be roughly divided into two major factions: the weapons faction and the armed faction.

The former, needless to say, specializes in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, such as laundry detergent.

The latter is much more complex. For example, researching drugs that stimulate the human body's potential on the battlefield, allowing an ordinary soldier to have strength comparable to a cyborg in a short period of time, or using biological structures to modify weapons, or even achieving racial modification.

Because the "armed faction" has a very complex technological path, they are not only fighting to the death with the "biological weapons faction," but also the various smaller factions that have sprung up within them are constantly fighting each other.

Zhang Yu's faction belongs to the "Programmed Robot Faction," which is a small faction within the "Armed Faction." The reason he had such a grimace was that headquarters had cut another portion of the budget for the Liangzhou City experiment.

Besides this, he had another hidden worry in his heart: after he was ready to welcome the Knights' pawns, they suddenly disappeared without a trace.

The latter is the most troublesome.

The Knights played a significant role in his rise to a high-ranking position in the branch, and they also possessed a great deal of dirt on him. If this dirt were exposed, they would be finished.

"General Winter isn't planning to find someone to replace him, is he?"

"Impossible, unless it's internal strife within the Knights and General Winter is removed from power, since I belong to General Winter's faction."

Or perhaps General Winter received a temporary assignment?

What task could be more important than myself?

Zhang Yu was lost in thought the whole way, and only when he got to the office did he let out a long sigh, rub his head, and feel a throbbing pain in his forehead.

Since undergoing brain reconstruction, the "accelerated thinking" has been erratic from time to time, proving that this technology still has significant problems.

However, once he completes the "final experiment," his faction will rise to become an important faction of the "Bio-Armed Faction," and he himself may even be transferred to headquarters.

By then, he would no longer be under the control of the Knights.

Thinking about this made my head feel less painful.

Just then, a neural editor came over to report on his work.

"Steward Zhang, a high-level organism has been discovered in the city. What should we do?"

"Advanced life forms?" Zhang Yu took the information handed to him without looking up and asked, "Are they from one of our competitors?"

"It doesn't seem like it; it doesn't seem like a well-known figure in the global mercenary market."

"So, is he on the list?"

"They're not here either."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu breathed a sigh of relief. The so-called list was simply the personnel handbook for the six core departments of the mother city.

Once personnel from the mother city appear, all businesses must cooperate unconditionally.

While this represents the authority of the mother city, it must be said that this is a truly disgusting policy.

The Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division, in particular, used their power over the list to issue countless huge fines, which is disgusting.

"Since they're neither competitors nor from the mother city, let's deal with them directly."

Zhang Yu handed the photo back and scoffed.

"There are always some reckless ants who dare to challenge the authority of giant corporations."

The person in the photo is Senior Engineer.

In a clothing store, the senior engineer is being warmly greeted by a female android as he selects various styles of suits.

Ah Q watched this scene with utter boredom. This NPC was just looking and not buying, dawdling like a woman.

And what's wrong with this guy? Did he really just drag me shopping?

Somewhat unexpectedly, after the other person came out of the fitting room, they actually said to the salesperson, "This is the only one, but it has to be a size smaller."

The salesperson hesitated and said, "But sir, the size of this outfit you're wearing is just right."

"You don't need to worry about that, you just need to order it."

"You actually bought it?" Ah Q exclaimed in surprise.

The senior engineer smiled slightly but did not answer.

What's up with this guy? He's really handsome though, could he be a gigolo?

Sitting in the waiting area, the senior engineer tapped on the handrail and let his thoughts wander.

The best way to measure the technological level of a machinery city is to see what it can sell.

In this Liangzhou city, he could buy second-tier bio-prosthetics, second-tier bio-potions, and even some second-tier weapons.

In terms of Tier 2 products alone, Liangzhou City has far more than the City That Never Sleeps.

This shows that Tianping Technology truly lives up to its reputation as a giant; even a single branch can elevate the market of the Mechanical City to the level of a second-tier civilization.

Even some of the prosthetic components are tempting to senior engineers, since their biological modification rate of 20-30% is already maxed out, while their mechanical modification rate still has 30% room for improvement.

"Moreover, the foundation of this cyber test site is much deeper than that of the City That Never Sleeps. No wonder it's a veteran bio-giant; without relying on a mechanical mainframe, it managed this cyber test with the power of just a corporate branch."

The so-called 'foundation' is naturally the 4D building that covers the entire 'Liangzhou City'. The materials of this type of building are very special. According to the senior engineer's perception, they possess both biological and informational attributes.

He will soon find out the purpose of this material.

"Oh, by the way, I have a gift for you."

To Ah Q's astonishment, the senior engineer's fingers slowly melted, turning into a liquid that then shot towards the other person, burrowing into their skin.

"It should be about time."

As the senior engineer muttered to himself, the fluctuations of the data stream were reflected in his eyes.

The entire Liangzhou City, with its more than two million 4D buildings, almost simultaneously transformed into a biosignal tower. The speed of the biosignal flow surged wildly upwards, by ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times, and even a hundred thousand times.

With the assistance of enterprise-level supercomputing, the entire city of Liangzhou seemed to have transformed into a digestive system, processing all sorts of biological signals.

And its "stomach" is where the senior engineer is located.

The senior engineer's body visibly disintegrated, leaving only a mechanical skeleton that fell backward.

The organism is gone.

"Processing complete."

Seeing that the target's biosignal had been absorbed on the screen, the neural editor nodded and decisively switched to a different page.

"Holy crap!"

Ah Q was utterly shocked.