Aren't These Just External Soul Bones from Douluo Continent?

Her first headshot had given Ning Rongrong confidence. Add the system's beginner protection, and she finally cut loose.

With Lin Ye coaching her from the sidelines, the pampered little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect turned a stealth rescue mission into a berserker's shooting spree.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Hahaha! Die, you ugly freaks! That's what you get for hitting me with a rifle butt!"

In the dim Scavenger hideout, Ning Rongrong gripped her Unity Kinetic Pistol and fired wildly with her eyes shut.

Reloading had gone from an awkward struggle to instinct. She still often forgot to release the safety afterward and wasted another two seconds cursing at the gun, but the Scavengers were terrified of the madwoman spraying bullets everywhere. They didn't know her eyes were closed. All they knew was that bullets were pouring their way.

Eight out of ten shots hit the walls. Of the other two, one whizzed past Jackie's ear.

Jackie cursed and quietly moved a couple of steps aside.

Under that relentless barrage, the remaining Scavengers were wiped out by Ning Rongrong and the NPC Jackie.

Ning Rongrong had just pulled their target, a girl named Sandra who was barely breathing, from an icy bathtub when a deafening engine roar sounded outside the window.

A massive armed Aero Car hovered beyond the balcony, its red and blue warning lights flashing.

Then several Trauma Team members smashed through the window. They wore heavy green protective suits and carried large-caliber Assault Rifles.

They roughly but efficiently injected Sandra with an assortment of unknown drugs and carried her away on a stretcher. Before leaving, they even pointed their guns at Ning Rongrong and coldly ordered her to stand back.

"Th-this is what support-type Soul Masters are like in this world?!"

Ning Rongrong stared after the departing Aero Car, dumbfounded.

On Douluo Continent, support-type Soul Masters like those of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect were usually the most vulnerable members of a team. Countless combat Soul Masters had to risk their lives protecting them.

But Night City's "medical team" flew around in a giant steel beast, wielded terrifyingly powerful hidden weapons, and looked vicious enough to make even assault-type Soul Masters seem reasonable!

"Support types can fight like that?" Cracks were beginning to form in Ning Rongrong's worldview.

After the mission, Jackie drove Ning Rongrong to a place called Little China.

"V, you're a busy woman now. Come on, I'll take you to see Vic. He'll get you some good stuff." Jackie led her into a gloomy little clinic hidden in a basement.

Inside, a bespectacled, kindly-looking man was tinkering with a heap of precision parts.

This was Night City's legendary Ripperdoc, Viktor.

"Boss Lin..."

While Ning Rongrong looked around the game with curiosity, she pulled one side of her headphones off in the real world and asked, "What does this Vic guy do? Is he a blacksmith? Or does he study Soul Tools?"

"He's a doctor. A Ripperdoc, to be precise."

Leaning against the counter, Lin Ye explained, "In this world, humans replace parts of their flesh and blood with machinery to gain greater power. Those mechanical parts are called cyberware."

"Replace your own flesh with lumps of metal? Wouldn't that turn you into a monster?!" Ning Rongrong shuddered.

But the next scene in the game hit her like a hammer.

Vic motioned for Ning Rongrong to lie back in the surgical chair, then took out an eyeball-shaped metal device. It glowed blue and looked exquisitely advanced.

"A Kiroshi Optical Eye. It lets you scan enemies for weaknesses, zoom in, and display bounty information right on your retina. For mercenaries like you who live on the edge, it's a lifesaver." As he spoke, Vic picked up a scalpel.

"Wait! What's he doing?!"

Watching the mechanical surgical arm draw closer on the screen, Ning Rongrong curled up in her gaming chair at the Internet Cafe. "He... he's going to dig out my eye and replace it with that lump of metal?!"

"Don't worry. It's just a game," Lin Ye reassured her casually.

After a faint sting—the system had dulled the pain—Ning Rongrong's vision went dark for a moment. Then a whole new world opened before her eyes!

Everything looked clearer than ever before.

When she looked at Jackie, dense strings of data and information appeared out of thin air!

Not only that, Vic implanted a tiny metal chip called a Personal Link Interface beneath the skin of her palm, connecting her nervous system directly to her weapon. The recoil when she fired now felt less than half as strong.

Ning Rongrong sat dazed in the surgical chair, taking in the strange changes to her eye and palm as thoughts raced through her mind.

No need to train!

No need to meditate endlessly to increase her Soul Power!

All she had to do was implant something called cyberware in her body, and she could gain abilities far beyond those of ordinary people!

Wait... implanted inside the body, granted special abilities, and strengthened its user... Why did that sound so familiar?!

Ning Rongrong's eyes flew wide open.

"Boss!!!"

She yanked off the VR headset and rushed to the counter, her voice trembling with excitement. "Th-this cyberware stuff—isn't it just like the Soul Bones from Douluo Continent?!"

And not merely ordinary Soul Bones. Ones implanted directly into the hand and eye were clearly priceless External Soul Bones!

On Douluo Continent, even the worst Soul Bone could drive countless Soul Masters to fight over it.

A head Soul Bone could even spark a war between the two great empires!

But in Night City?

"You caught on pretty quickly."

Lin Ye smiled at Ning Rongrong's astonished expression. "You can think of them as mechanical Soul Bones you can buy with money instead of hunting soul beasts."

"You can just... buy them?!"

"And those are only the most basic implants."

Lin Ye dealt another merciless blow to the little witch's crumbling worldview. "In Night City, there's the Sandevistan, which lets you move so fast for a short time that it's almost like teleporting. There are Mantis Blades, polymer blades that spring from your arms and slice through metal like mud. Some people have even replaced more than ninety percent of their organs with machinery, turning themselves into human killing machines."

"As long as you have enough in-game currency, Vic can install not just one set of Soul Bones, but ten sets of 'hundred-thousand-year mechanical Soul Bones' if that's what you want."

All the strength seemed to drain from Ning Rongrong. She slumped onto a stool in front of the counter.

As the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, she knew exactly what kind of storm would sweep across Douluo Continent if these mechanical Soul Bones—things that let anyone with money grow stronger—appeared there.

The exalted status of Soul Masters would take a devastating blow!

Even an ordinary person with no Soul Power could install high-end cyberware, pick up one of those so-called Kinetic Pistols, and easily shoot dead a high-level Soul Master who had trained for decades!

The times really have changed... The absurd thought sprang into Ning Rongrong's mind.

The next moment, the young lady who had once looked down her nose at the Internet Cafe lunged across the counter and clung to Lin Ye's arm. Her eyes shone with unprecedented eagerness.

"Boss Lin! Brother Lin! If you can create this illusion, can you bring those 'mechanical Soul Bones' and that 'Unity Pistol' into the real world too?!"

"Name your price! If you'll sell them to me, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect will pay... ten million Gold Soul Coins! If that's not enough, I'll have my dad empty the whole sect's treasury for you!"

Lin Ye calmly pulled his arm free of the little witch, who had latched onto it like a koala with gold gleaming in her eyes, and pointed to the "Internet Cafe Rules" on the wall.

"House rules. In-game items can only be manifested through luck and skill in a draw. We don't sell them directly."

Ning Rongrong narrowed her eyes.

She had grown up around all sorts of rules and schemes in the sect. She understood exactly what Lin Ye meant: it wasn't that he wouldn't sell them, only that he couldn't sell them openly.

As for how this "luck and skill in a draw" worked...

She would tease that out of him later.

Lin Ye paused, a faint smile tugging at his lips.

"However, as this establishment's only trainee attendant, if you perform well, clean the place every day, and serve the customers tea and water on time... perhaps I'll consider applying for a few employee benefits for you."

She was the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, the treasured daughter of the world's foremost support sect.

Yet when Ning Rongrong heard such humiliating demands as "clean the place" and "serve tea and water," she didn't get angry. Instead, she stood up straight.

"Consider it done! Boss, where's the rag? I'll mop the floor right now!"