Undergoing Initial Reinforcement Modification!

Wang Zhong stared at the [Basic Physique Enhancement (Type I)] icon in his field of vision, his breathing growing heavy.

Beneath the icon was a concise description:

[Price: 100 Imperial Coins]

[Effect: Slightly increases bone density, muscle efficiency, and stamina cap]

[Adaptation Period: 24-48 standard hours]

[Modification Duration: Approximately 1 standard hour]

[Warning: The subject must remain in an absolutely secure environment during modification. External interference may lead to enhancement failure, tissue necrosis, or unpredictable mutations.]

One hundred coins.

For players who had just experienced the looting frenzy in the industrial zone, this was no longer the astronomical figure it had seemed when they first entered the game; anyone could afford it if they gritted their teeth.

Wang Zhong currently had 4,987 Imperial Coins in his pocket.

This was the result of his desperate, frantic scavenging at the East District Warehouse during the final wave of the industrial zone cleanup, minus the few tools he had bought and used earlier that day.

"One hundred coins..."

Wang Zhong calculated in his mind, "That's enough to buy all the basic physique enhancements from Type I to Type III."

Type II enhancement cost 500 coins and offered metabolic optimization and neural enhancement, but it required Type I to reach over 30% completion.

The system didn't specify how this completion rate was calculated, but given the nature of the Warhammer world, it would likely require time to settle or... tempering through actual combat.

"I'll start with Type I to test the waters." Wang Zhong made up his mind.

This decision was not made on a whim.

The base had just been established, the perimeter was surrounded by eerie jungles, and four major factions controlled this chaotic planet; power was hard currency at all times.

More importantly, he had to pave the way for the other players.

As the acting leader of the Crimson Dawn warband, he couldn't just command others to move bricks while he hid in the back.

The Warhammer universe respected fists, but it also respected examples.

"Mechanicus Oil-Lover on the Run! Tax Brother! Xue Brother!"

Wang Zhong climbed down from the watchtower and found the three of them studying a metal plate they had dug out of the ruins, which was engraved with a blurred gear pattern.

"I'm going to undergo an enhancement. The system says I need an hour of absolute safety. Can you guys watch my back?"

Mechanicus Oil-Lover on the Run looked up: "The enhancement process requires observation and recording."

"This is an excellent opportunity to collect data on the system's modification mechanisms."

"Sure thing!"

Tax Brother slapped his thigh, "I'll see if these hundred coins are worth it! If the effect is badass, I'll get one too!"

Xue Brother nodded: "Safety first."

"Let's go to the dormitory area; it's relatively enclosed there."

The four of them walked toward the newly reinforced prefabricated dormitory building.

It was called a dormitory, but it was actually just one large room, partitioned with scrap metal and wood into cubicles barely large enough for a person to lie down in, with hay and cloth redeemed from the shop spread on the floor.

The conditions were so crude that any Imperial noble would turn up their nose, but for players who had just been sleeping collectively on concrete floors in the industrial zone, this was already heaven.

Wang Zhong found a spot in the back and lay down on the makeshift bed fashioned from wooden planks and vines.

He took a deep breath, pulled up his personal panel in his field of vision, found [Modification], and tapped [Basic Physique Enhancement (Type I)] again.

[Confirm modification for Basic Physique Enhancement (Type I)?]

[This modification will consume: 100 Imperial Coins]

[Please remain stationary during the modification. Any violent external interference may lead to unpredictable consequences.]

[Estimated duration: 58-62 standard minutes]

"Confirm." Wang Zhong focused his intent.

His account balance instantly dropped from 4,987 to 4,887.

Immediately afterward, he felt his body grow heavy.

It wasn't a physical heaviness, but rather a sense of... being locked in place.

It was as if countless invisible threads were descending from the void, pinning him to the bed frame.

"It's starting," Wang Zhong whispered.

The next second, a countdown began to appear in the corner of his vision: 59:58, 59:57...

Then, a sudden anomaly occurred.

The air above the bed where he lay began to ripple.

It was not the blasphemous writhing of a Warp rift, but ripples carrying the aesthetic of precision machinery.

At the center of the ripples, a point of silver light suddenly appeared, rapidly expanding into a circular portal about half a meter in diameter.

The interior of the portal was not darkness or starlight, but a constantly flowing phantom composed of countless tiny gears, piston rods, and energy conduits, resembling the interior of some hyper-complex machine.

"God of All Machines be praised..."

The eyes of the Mechanicus Oil-Lover on the Run focused, staring at a sight that defied everything he knew about known Mechanicus technology.

From the portal, three mechanical arms extended.

They were not the clumsy bionic limbs crafted by human artisans, but precision creations gleaming with a cold, metallic luster.

The joints were spherical gimbals, and the tips were tool heads capable of changing as needed; currently, they were equipped with:

A syringe filled with an amber liquid.

A probe tipped with a high-speed rotating micro-drill.

And a mechanical hand with multiple slender, manipulative tentacles at the end.

"What the..."

Tax Brother held it in for a long time before blurting out, "These special effects... they're flashier than the servitors in the Temple of the Machine Cult!"

Xue Brother said nothing, but his eyes remained locked on the movements of those mechanical arms.

The syringe on the first mechanical arm descended slowly, the needle glinting coldly in the dim light.

Wang Zhong could clearly see countless tiny, seemingly living metal particles suspended within the amber liquid inside the syringe.

It's going to inject! He instinctively wanted to tense his muscles.

But his body was pinned by some kind of force field; he couldn't even move a finger.

The needle pierced his neck with precision.

A sharp sting followed, but immediately after, a stream of icy fluid surged into his veins.

Anesthetic injected... Subject's consciousness remains clear, pain feedback reduced to 5%... Muscle relaxant taking effect...

System prompts flashed through his consciousness.

Wang Zhong felt his body go completely limp.

Yet, his mind remained exceptionally clear.

He could even see the amber liquid flowing through his blood vessels to every part of his body, and wherever it passed, his cells seemed to vibrate slightly.

The micro-drill on the second mechanical arm activated.

The high-speed rotating drill emitted a faint hum as it slowly approached the humerus of Wang Zhong's right arm.

"Holy crap! It's going to drill into the bone?!" Tax Brother almost jumped.

"It should be a localized opening to facilitate the direct injection of the Enhanced Nanite Swarm or Genetic Catalyst."

The Oil-Lover analyzed rapidly, his voice filled with the excitement of a research fanatic.

"The efficiency is far higher than traditional blood circulation diffusion... but this technology... even the orthodox modification surgeries of the Mechanicus aren't this..."

Before he could finish, the drill touched the skin.

The drill did not break the skin or enter the flesh as expected; the moment it touched the skin, a faint blue light lit up around the tip of the drill.

Under the illumination of that blue light, Wang Zhong's skin actually became translucent!

The outlines of his muscles, blood vessels, and bones were clearly visible!

The drill passed through the skin and muscle tissue without causing any wounds, pressing directly against the surface of the humerus.

"Phase-penetration technology?"

The Oil-Lover was shocked, "This... this is cutting-edge technology from certain factions of the Aeldari; even the Human Empire doesn't have it. This system of ours is a bit overpowered..."

The drill began its work.

But it wasn't drilling into the bone; instead, it was carving extremely complex, invisible-to-the-naked-eye geometric patterns onto the surface of the bone.

With every line carved, a trace of silver-glowing nanoparticles seeped from the tip of the drill, infiltrating the microscopic structure of the bone.

The third mechanical arm unfolded simultaneously.

Like living metal snakes, they wound their way toward other parts of Wang Zhong's body: his spine, ribs, pelvis, and thigh bones...

The ends of the tentacles were not drills, but finer probes and spray nozzles.

They entered his body using the same phase-penetration method, performing microscopic carving and infusion at key nodes of his skeleton.

The entire process was eerily strange.

There was only the faint friction of the mechanical arm joints turning and the almost inaudible high-frequency vibration of the bone drill etching away.

Wang Zhong lay there, feeling like a precision instrument being repaired by a master craftsman.

He could feel those nanoparticles depositing and reorganizing within his bones, making the original calcium structure denser and tougher.

He could feel his muscle fibers being scanned and stimulated by some gentle energy field; the arrangement of the fiber bundles was being fine-tuned, and the number of mitochondria seemed to be slowly increasing.

He could even feel his bone marrow's hematopoiesis being slightly stimulated by some catalyst, and his blood's oxygen-carrying capacity had improved by a fraction.

This was not crude genetic tampering, at least not as brutal as the chaotic distortions or the excessive augmentations of the Mechanicus found in the Warhammer universe.

It was more like a form of... optimization.

The system was utilizing the host's own biological foundation and the special drugs contained within the anesthetic to carry out the most economical and safe enhancement possible.

"No wonder it takes an hour..."

Wang Zhong muttered to himself, This is some truly meticulous work.