Grandpa, Let's Have Our Livers Cut Out!

Night fell, and the lights of Heaven Dou City flickered on.

The sci-fi glass door of Origin Internet Cafe swung open, and two figures stepped out reluctantly.

Surrounded by Royal Guards, Qian Renxue climbed into a carriage, idly turning an empty glass Cola bottle in her hand. No one knew what she was planning.

Dugu Yan drew a deep breath of the cool night air. Her back, once slightly hunched from the serpent poison's backlash, was now perfectly straight.

She looked back at the cafe's neon-lit sign.

"Mechanical livers... Metabolic Editors... Just wait till I grind Night City into the ground tomorrow!"

Dugu Yan clenched her fists and set off toward Dugu Manor in the heart of Heaven Dou City, her steps light and quick.

Meanwhile, in the main hall of Dugu Manor.

A terrifying, sickly green poison mist hung faintly in the air.

Whenever a trace touched the hall's expensive porcelain or solid-wood furniture, it hissed and corroded the surface into black sludge.

At the center of the hall, an old man with dark green hair flowing down his back paced anxiously with his hands behind him.

His eyes were full of worry.

He was the renowned Titled Douluo, Poison Douluo—Dugu Bo!

"Damn it! Yan Yan's serpent poison was already on the verge of erupting today. How could she run off alone? What if she collapses somewhere and the poison reaches her heart?"

Dugu Bo was beside himself with worry.

He had spent his life mastering poison and climbed to the pinnacle of the Douluo Continent through it. Yet when it came to his one precious granddaughter, he was helpless.

The backlash from the damned Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison was a curse he could never break!

"Guards! Send more men! Turn Heaven Dou City upside down if you have to, but bring the young lady back safe and sound!" Dugu Bo roared. The guards outside trembled and hurried off to search for her.

Just then, light footsteps came from beyond the doors.

"Grandpa! I'm back!"

With that bright call, Dugu Yan skipped into the hall like a cheerful songbird.

Far from suffering as Dugu Bo had feared, she was rosy-cheeked and bursting with energy!

"Yan Yan?!"

Dugu Bo appeared before his granddaughter and seized her wrist.

The next instant, the world-famous Poison Douluo looked as if he had seen a ghost!

"How... how is this possible?!"

Dugu Bo shuddered, his eyes widening in disbelief.

He sensed that the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison, ready to erupt at any moment, had retreated docilely into the deepest reaches of Dugu Yan's body!

What was more, a life-filled energy lingered in her meridians. It was holding the serpent poison firmly in check!

"Yan Yan, did you meet some peerless master? Who could suppress the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison with such an incredible technique?" Dugu Bo's voice shook with excitement.

If they could find this master, might the centuries-old curse on the Dugu family finally be broken?!

"What peerless master?"

Dugu Yan picked up an apple from the table and took a bite. "I just went to an internet cafe on South City Backstreet and spent a few Gold Soul Coins on a bottle of black stuff called Cola. It was fizzy, too—and delicious. Burp~"

"An... Internet cafe? A bottle of black stuff for a few Gold Soul Coins?!"

Dugu Bo's mind went blank.

He was a Titled Douluo who had searched mountains and rivers across the land and tried countless precious Immortal Herbs, yet none had cured this affliction. A bottle of "black stuff" had suppressed it?

That was more absurd than the sun rising in the west tomorrow!

"Oh, Grandpa, that black stuff is amazing, but it only treats the symptoms. It suppresses the poison for a day, that's all. I can't bring any out, so I'd have to go drink it every day. What a pain!"

Dugu Yan chewed her apple, then suddenly remembered something.

She caught Dugu Bo's hand in return, her voice rising with almost feverish excitement:

"But Grandpa, I found the ultimate way to cure our Jade Phosphorous Serpent Poison for good in that cafe's Night City today!"

"What?! Cure it for good?!"

Dugu Bo gripped his granddaughter's hand. "Tell Grandpa, quickly! What rare treasure do you need? Even if it's a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's core, I'll risk my life to get it for you!"

"No Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. No Immortal Herbs!"

Dugu Yan's eyes blazed. She spoke with solemn conviction:

"Grandpa, the times have changed! Flesh is weak. Now we must seek Mechanical Ascension!"

Dugu Bo: "...Huh?"

Seeing her grandfather's baffled face, Dugu Yan launched into the "advanced theories of Cyberpunk" she had learned in the game, unloading them on this old-fashioned Titled Douluo:

"Grandpa, I've figured it out! The poison backfires on us because our human flesh is too fragile! It can't withstand the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor's vicious venom!"

"So the solution is brutally simple—"

Dugu Yan leaned close to Dugu Bo's ear and whispered as though sharing the secrets of an unparalleled martial art:

"We just find a Ripperdoc, cut ourselves open, and take out our original livers, lungs, and blood vessels! Then we replace them with all-metal Metabolic Editors and Toxin Extractors!"

"Once our organs are replaced with metal, we'll be immune to every poison, and we can even turn serpent poison into energy that heals us! Grandpa, just wait till I grind quests in Night City for a few months and save up enough Euros... no, wait, enough access privileges to bring those things into reality. Then let's go have our livers cut out together!"

The hall fell silent.

Dugu Bo stared at his granddaughter as she waved her arms in excitement. He was speechless, his blood running cold.

For a long while, Dugu Bo said nothing.

"Yan Yan, tell Grandpa the truth. Did that shop give you some kind of mind-altering potion? Is someone controlling you?"

"No! Grandpa, why don't you understand?" Dugu Yan grew frantic. "I'm talking about science! Cyber technology! People there can even replace their hearts with metal and turn poison into energy!"

"Replace their hearts with metal..." Dugu Bo repeated faintly, his face growing paler.

"Exactly! And eyes! You can take out your eyeballs and replace them with Optical Eyes that let you see an enemy's weaknesses!"

Dugu Bo's lips began to tremble.

"And arms! There's something called Mantis Blades that split your forearms open and spring blades out!"

"Enough!"

Dugu Bo could bear no more. He grabbed Dugu Yan by the shoulders and looked at her in anguish. "Yan Yan, tell Grandpa honestly. Do they want you to dig out all your organs and sell them? Do they have some sort of full-body package, too?!"

Dugu Yan paused. "...I think they do. It's called a full-body cyberware... something."

Dugu Bo's vision went dark.

Cut out their livers?

Replace them with lumps of metal?

Flesh is weak? What Mechanical Ascension?!

How the hell was that a cure for serpent poison?!

It was a cult! Some evil practice ten thousand times crueler than anything an Evil Soul Master would do, one that went straight for the mind!!!

It's over... My Yan Yan has been possessed by an Evil Spirit and lost her mind!

Dugu Bo's eyes reddened. Terrifying Titled Douluo pressure erupted from him, making every roof tile in the hall rattle.

"Good! Very good! An internet cafe on South City Backstreet! Some cultist using black water to bewitch my granddaughter!"

Poison Douluo laughed in fury, his voice thick with icy killing intent. Emerald-green Soul Power rose around him, forming the phantom of a giant serpent roaring at the sky!

"They dare target my granddaughter—and even plan to cut out her organs? Tomorrow, I'll visit this wretched shop myself! If I don't grind that monster's bones to dust and drag out their soul to boil for forty-nine days, I'm not Poison Douluo!"

Watching her grandfather fly into a rage, Dugu Yan had no idea they were talking about entirely different things. She thought he simply didn't believe in science.

"Oh, Grandpa, what do you know? It's Cyberpunk technology, not sorcery! Look, I'll take you there tomorrow, help you make an account, and introduce you to Vic. Then you'll understand..."

"I'm not waiting until tomorrow! I'll flatten that lousy shop tonight!"

"You can't! They're closed now, and you can only play six hours a day anyway. If you smash up the cafe, it'll crush you like you're in a lower dimension!"

"Crush me? I'm a Titled Douluo! Who could possibly do that?!"