'Data rebooting'
'Cyberware data matching'
'Endoskeletal system resuming operation'
'Intraocular chip activated, ocular implant operating normally'
'Mechanical heart charging'
Gao Gong seemed to have a bizarre, surreal dream. In that dream, neon light streams stretched across the galaxies, and he transformed into a virtual overlord, wandering through the territories of countless civilizations. Behind him were templates compatible with countless intelligent races, and wherever he went, countless old simps bowed and worshiped.
Suddenly, someone jumped out and roared, "I even had my kidney cut out to buy your paper waifu! One good turn deserves another. You're going to meet the same fate!"
Before he could sell him the "Enhanced Reproductive Package," the virtual songstresses, electronic idols, experience queens, and married-woman models behind him swarmed forward and buried him.
"My kidney, my kidney, my kidney! Give me back my kidney—"
Gao Gong suddenly sat up, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.
It was terrifying. The virtual units he had developed had actually charged him too, and after spending so much money that his account exploded, he couldn't even enter Mechanical City. To make money, he had been forced to sell his body and kneel before wealthy women, begging them to keep him.
The experiences of his previous life had mixed with the original host's memories, piecing together this strange dream.
Still, that wealthy woman in the black bodysuit really had a smoking-hot figure. It was just that her whip was a little thick...
"You look like you have kidney failure," Little Finger mocked as he operated the operating table.
"Do you want a bionic kidney, or should I install an 'Oak Mister Type-Three' for you?"
Gao Gong rubbed his right eye. His blurry vision sharpened as it focused, finally settling on the middle-aged, balding man in front of him.
The Iron-Sand Desert wasn't the City That Never Sleeps. Few cyberware doctors would choose to settle in this radiation zone.
After all, with their skills, they could live quite comfortably in the City That Never Sleeps.
And among all the cyberware doctors in the oases, Little Finger ranked among the top three.
Gao Gong, however, wasn't polite with him.
"My kidney failure is from overuse. What caused your baldness? Did you use your mechanical hands to fly planes every day?"
Little Finger's face darkened. He glared indignantly at Gao Gong, wishing he could plunge a scalpel into the other's chest.
"Enough nonsense. Pay up! The cyber-eye and endoskeletal repairs come to five thousand six hundred credits. Plus the three bullets in your body, one hundred each. I'll round it off for you—six thousand credits in total. Card or cash?"
"You charge for removing bullets too? Why don't you just go rob someone!"
"With my skills, do I need to rob anyone?"
"No money, no life, and my ass isn't available either."
"Fuck, don't get cocky, kid! Believe it or not, your old man will pull out your cyberware tubes and turn you into a vegetable!"
Gao Gong succinctly raised his middle finger, then yanked out several IV tubes from the access ports. The surgery was already over—who did Little Finger think he could fool?
"Where are you going?" Little Finger couldn't help asking when he saw the other man staggering toward the exit.
"To the bathroom. You want to eat my shit?"
In the washroom, Gao Gong switched on the mirror. A curtain of water flowed down from above and washed the mirror clean, revealing an unfamiliar yet familiar face.
It was a handsome face mixed with a hint of wildness, belonging to a man of twenty-five or twenty-six. He looked a lot like the first-generation version of the "Maiden Slayer" he had developed. Unfortunately, that version of the "Virtual Companion" hadn't sold well. More precisely, it had earned praise without sales.
The ironclad truth proved that even in the universe, young women's wallets were like their breasts: neither was as full as a wealthy woman's.
Fortunately, after learning his lesson, he had immediately changed direction and developed the second model, "Rich Lady Love-Love." Only then had he turned a loss into profit and gone on to make a fortune.
That had only strengthened his resolve to cling to wealthy women.
The metal plate in his palm had also been removed during the surgery. Judging by the skin tone, it had been replaced with bionic skin.
This kind of decorative metal implant did nothing except increase his modification rate.
The path Gao Gong would take in the future was difficult. He had to make every point of modification count twice. Cosmetic modifications were completely unnecessary.
After all, he was already this handsome.
Overall, Gao Gong was quite satisfied with this new body.
If one didn't look too closely, he could pass for a bionic male model from the City That Never Sleeps.
Name: Gao Gong Race: Carbon-based human Total Level: Lv 12 Body Modification: 24 Consciousness: 10 Main Class: Mechanical Modifier Lv8 (You are an excellent bounty hunter. Your powerful ambition has granted you brutal strength.) Secondary Class: Factory Four Junior Worker Lv1 (You are an ordinary factory worker with rich hands-on experience with all kinds of machinery.) Health: 112/112 Stamina: 23/108 Mechanical Energy: 96 Personal Attributes: Strength 16 Agility 9 Endurance 14 Intelligence 8 Perception 10 Luck 4 Free Attribute Points: 0 Personal System: N/A System Modifications: Enhanced Endoskeleton (Locomotor System): The bones in your body have been replaced with titanium-alloy mechanical bones. Although they are mass-produced factory goods, they still grant you sufficient mechanical power. Strength +5 Endurance +2 Agility -2 Bionic Joints (Locomotor System): Articulation joints that work with the mechanical endoskeleton's exertion system. Equipped with miniature motors and requiring timely charging. Agility +2 General-Purpose Cyber-Eye *1: Performs simple visual imaging. Visual range: 300 meters (non-adjustable) Basic Mechanical Heart (Circulatory System): An ordinary mechanical organ and the body's backup energy source. Requires charging once every twelve hours.
That bald man Little Finger hadn't tampered with anything. The heavy-duty endoskeleton had only lost a little endurance, while the blown bionic joints had been perfectly repaired.
This showed that the man's skills were quite exceptional.
After changing secondary classes, his attributes had increased by three. His apparent strength seemed to have risen rather than fallen, but—
" A general-purpose cyber-eye and a basic mechanical heart? Baldy, is your heart made of darkness?"
After squeezing his fifth nutrient paste into his mouth like toothpaste—he had been unconscious for three days and had undergone surgery during that time—Gao Gong slammed the table and turned hostile.
Little Finger froze first, then flew into a rage. "Everything in your body is a model used by the Mechanical Corps! Where the hell am I supposed to get you the original versions? Should I raid a military base?"
"Other than me, what cyberware doctor in any oasis can install military equipment for you?"
Gao Gong curled his lips. He knew the man was telling the truth, but this meant his actual strength had decreased by at least thirty percent.
Gao Gong swept his gaze around, then his eyes suddenly lit up. It turned out that besides bringing over the mobile operating table, the old bastard had also placed many cyberware doctor reference books on it.
He reached out to take one.
Little Finger was quick-eyed and quick-handed. His left hand, transformed into a mechanical hand, grabbed Gao Gong, and he said coldly, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Taking a look." Gao Gong chuckled. "Learning from you."
"I remember you didn't used to have such thick skin."
"Can thick skin be used for watching?"
"Dream on!"
"Only handsome people can dream big."
"You... get lost!"
Among all secondary classes, cyberware doctor ranked among the top three in terms of career potential. For players to enter the profession, they had to complete a complicated chain of cyberware doctor quests and obtain the doctor's handwritten manual before officially changing classes.
Of course, there was another way: kill a cyberware doctor and seize their legacy.
However, cyberware doctors were standard faction NPCs. Every one of them had multiple escape routes. They either had gangs backing them or worked for major corporations, and their defensive power was formidable.
Even Little Finger, who had fallen to the Iron-Sand Desert, still had Black Rose behind him, a contract killer broker with extensive connections.
In fact, if not for Black Rose's request, Little Finger wouldn't even have bothered dealing with the man.
There were more than enough mechanical hunters willing to treat him like their ancestor.
"What are you two arguing about?"
With a series of explosive engine roars, a heavy motorcycle that looked exactly like the Batcycle ridden by Catwoman in Batman 3 charged over without slowing down. Three centimeters in front of the two men, it suddenly slammed on the brakes. Its rear wheel, as massive as a truck tire, rose sharply before crashing heavily back onto the ground.
The fierce gust of wind ruffled Little Finger's already sparse hair and turned his face pale with fright.
Amid the green smoke, Catwoman—no, Black Rose in a black leather bodysuit—flipped her two long legs over the bike. She stood there casually, yet her figure had the bearing of a supermodel.
Little Finger immediately began fawning over her.
"The latest Grass Pheasant Hunter Blade 430, a Blazing Fire engine, 9,500 cc displacement, accelerating to 350 kilometers per hour in 2.3 seconds! It suits you perfectly, Rose. Sitting on it, you're simply heroic—the goddess of motorcycles. Perfect, absolutely perfect!"
Black Rose ignored him. She secured the motorcycle's chain to the operating bed, then walked directly up to Gao Gong. Her smooth, gleaming right hand gripped his chin as she lowered her head and examined him seriously.
Gao Gong felt her alcohol-laced breath brushing his face, along with Little Finger's envious, jealous, and resentful stare from behind.
"You seem to have recovered well." Black Rose inspected Gao Gong's physical condition as if checking a beloved toy.
"Mm, not bad."
With his mouth pinched shut, Gao Gong could only make a muffled sound. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of her snow-white wrist, impossibly smooth, with veins beneath the skin that resembled blue circuits.
Cosmetic-grade bionic modifications? Combat cyberware generally wasn't this beautiful.
Black Rose suddenly withdrew her hand and said calmly, "Were you two arguing just now?"
"He wants to take my cyberware modification notes!" Little Finger immediately flared up.
"He wants to read them, so let him. Are you worried he'll steal your skills?"
"Him!? If he can understand them, I'll jump off a building!"
"Since he can't understand them, why won't you let him read them?"
Little Finger was instantly rendered speechless, while Gao Gong left in high spirits.
Black clothes, chains, and a whip.
Gao Gong's expression changed.
The wealthy woman is actually right beside me!
Before you continue