Wang Zhong stared at the [Basic Physique Augmentation (Type I)] icon in his field of vision, his breathing growing heavier.
A concise description appeared beneath the icon:
[Price: 100 Imperial Coins]
[Effect: Slightly increases bone density, muscle efficiency, and stamina limit]
[Adaptation period: 24–48 standard hours]
[Augmentation time: Approximately 1 standard hour]
[Warning: The subject must remain in an absolutely safe environment during augmentation. External interference may cause augmentation failure, tissue necrosis, or unpredictable mutations.]
One hundred coins.
For the players who had just enjoyed a looting spree in the Industrial District, it wasn't the astronomical sum it had been when they first entered the game. They could all afford it if they gritted their teeth.
Wang Zhong currently had 4,987 Imperial Coins in his pocket.
He had earned them by risking his life to scavenge like crazy at the East District Warehouse during the final haul in the Industrial District. He'd bought some tools during the day and spent a little.
"One hundred coins..."
Wang Zhong did the math. "I can afford all the basic physique augmentations from Type I to Type III."
Type II Augmentation cost 500 coins. It optimized metabolism and enhanced the nervous system, but required Type I to be at least 30% complete.
The system hadn't explained how completion was measured, but given the way things worked in Warhammer World, it would probably take time—or... a lot of field experience.
"I'll try Type I first and see how it goes." Wang Zhong made up his mind.
This wasn't an impulsive decision.
The base had only just been established, the surrounding jungle was strange, and four major factions controlled this chaotic planet. Strength was always a valuable currency.
More importantly, he needed to blaze a trail for the other players.
As the provisional leader of the Crimson Dawn Chapter, he couldn't just order everyone else to do the heavy lifting while he hid in the back.
The Warhammer universe respected strength, but it also respected setting an example.
"Oil-Guy! 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. A blurred cogwheel pattern was etched into it.
"I'm going to get an augmentation. The system says I need an hour of absolute safety. Can you keep watch?"
Mechanicus Oil-Lover on the Run looked up. "The augmentation process needs to be observed and recorded."
"This is an excellent opportunity to collect data on the system's modification mechanisms."
"Sure!"
Tax Brother slapped his thigh. "Perfect chance to see if that hundred coins is worth it! If it's as amazing as it sounds, I'm getting one too!"
Xue Brother nodded. "Safety first."
"Let's go to the dormitory. It's relatively enclosed."
The four of them headed toward the prefabricated dormitory they had just reinforced.
Calling it a dormitory was a stretch. It was really just one big room, partitioned into little spaces with scrap metal and wood, each barely large enough to lie down in. Dry grass and cloth exchanged from the shop covered the floor.
The conditions were so crude that any Imperial noble would have sneered at them, but for players who had just spent the night sleeping on concrete in the Industrial District, this was already heaven.
Wang Zhong found a spot toward the back and lay down on a makeshift bed of wooden boards lashed together with vines.
He took a deep breath, opened his personal status panel, found [Augmentation], and tapped [Basic Physique Augmentation (Type I)] again.
[Confirm Basic Physique Augmentation (Type I)?]
[Cost: 100 Imperial Coins]
[Please remain still during the augmentation. Any significant external interference may lead to unpredictable consequences.]
[Estimated time: 58–62 standard minutes]
"Confirm." Wang Zhong made the selection with a thought.
His balance instantly dropped from 4,987 to 4,887.
Immediately afterward, he felt his body grow heavy.
It wasn't physical weight, but something like... being locked in place.
It was as though countless invisible threads were descending from the void, pinning him to the bed.
"Here it comes," Wang Zhong murmured.
The next second, a countdown appeared in the corner of his vision: 59:58, 59:57...
Then the situation changed abruptly.
The air above the bed began to warp.
It wasn't the blasphemous writhing of a Warp Rift, but a ripple with the precise beauty of machinery.
A point of silver light appeared in the middle of the ripples, quickly expanding into a circular portal about half a meter across.
Inside wasn't darkness and starlight, but a shifting phantom made up of countless tiny gears, pistons, connecting rods, and energy conduits—the interior of some impossibly complex machine.
"By the God of All Machines..."
Mechanicus Oil-Lover on the Run's eyes focused on the scene before him, which defied everything he knew about Mechanicus technology.
Three mechanical arms extended from the portal.
They weren't clumsy imitation limbs built by human artisans, but precise constructs with a cold metallic sheen.
Their joints were spherical universal couplings, and their tips were tools that could change to suit the task. At that moment, they were equipped with:
A syringe filled with amber liquid.
A probe tipped with a rapidly spinning miniature drill.
And a mechanical hand with a cluster of slender, flexible tendrils at its end.
"Holy crap..."
Tax Brother held it in for a while before finally blurting out, "These effects... They're fancier than the Servitors in the Temple of the Machine Cult!"
Xue Brother said nothing, but his eyes were fixed on the mechanical arms.
The first mechanical arm lowered the syringe slowly, its needle glinting coldly in the dim light.
Wang Zhong could clearly see countless tiny, seemingly living metallic particles suspended in the amber liquid.
"Here comes the needle!" Instinctively, he tried to tense his muscles.
But some kind of force field had already pinned him down. He couldn't move so much as a finger.
The needle pierced his neck with surgical precision.
He felt a sting, followed immediately by a chill as fluid entered his bloodstream.
[Anesthetic injected... Subject's consciousness remains clear. Pain feedback reduced to 5%... Muscle relaxant taking effect...]
The system's notification flashed through his mind.
Wang Zhong felt his body go completely limp.
But his mind remained extraordinarily clear.
He could even see the amber fluid flow through his blood vessels and spread throughout his body. Wherever it passed, his cells seemed to quiver faintly.
The second mechanical arm's miniature bone drill powered up.
The high-speed drill gave off a faint hum as it slowly approached Wang Zhong's right humerus.
"Holy crap! It's going to drill into his bone?!" Tax Brother nearly jumped to his feet.
"It should be making a small opening to allow the direct injection of the Enhanced Nanite Swarm or Genetic Catalyst."
Oil-Guy analyzed the situation rapidly, his voice brimming with the excitement of a mad scientist.
"It's far more efficient than diffusion through the bloodstream... But this technology... even the orthodox augmentation surgeries of the Mechanicus aren't this—"
He didn't finish. The bone drill had already touched the skin.
But instead of breaking the skin and boring into the flesh, a faint blue light appeared around the tip the instant the drill made contact.
Under that blue light, Wang Zhong's skin turned translucent!
The outlines of his muscles, blood vessels, and bones became clearly visible!
The bone drill passed through his skin and muscle tissue without making a wound, coming to rest directly against the surface of his humerus.
"Phase penetration technology?"
Oil-Guy stared in disbelief. "This... This is cutting-edge technology used by certain Aeldari disciplines. Even the Imperium of Man doesn't have it. This system is pretty damn impressive..."
The bone drill began its work.
But it wasn't drilling into the bone. It was etching a series of incredibly complex geometric patterns onto its surface, too intricate for the naked eye to make out.
With each line etched, a tiny amount of silver-glinting nanites seeped from the drill tip and into the bone's microscopic structure.
At the same time, the third mechanical arm unfolded.
Its tendrils, like living metal snakes, wound toward other parts of Wang Zhong's body: his spine, ribs, pelvis, and thighbones...
Their tips weren't drills, but finer probes and nozzles.
Using the same phase-penetration method, they entered his body and performed microscopic etching and infusion at key points in his skeleton.
The whole process was unnervingly strange.
The only sounds were the faint friction of the mechanical arms' joints and the almost inaudible high-frequency vibration of the bone drill as it etched.
Wang Zhong lay there, feeling like a precision instrument being repaired by a master artisan.
He could feel the nanites settling into his bones and rearranging them, making their original calcium structure denser and tougher.
He could feel his muscle fibers being scanned and stimulated by some gentle energy field. Their arrangement was being fine-tuned, and the number of mitochondria seemed to be slowly increasing.
He could even feel his bone marrow's blood-producing function being mildly stimulated by some catalyst, slightly improving his blood's oxygen-carrying capacity.
This wasn't crude genetic tampering—not like the Chaos mutations or excessive Mechanicus augmentation he'd seen in Warhammer World.
It was more like... optimization.
The system was using the subject's own biological foundation, along with the special drugs contained in the anesthetic, to make the enhancement as safe and efficient as possible.
No wonder it took an hour...
Wang Zhong grumbled to himself. This really is precision work.
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