The person on Lier's side with the highest degree of cybernetic augmentation was Michael, a former Cybertek engineer, also known as the Death Warrior.
The cyberware this man used was genuinely outdated compared to second-generation cyberware that used artificial muscles, but its hardware was nothing to scoff at. It was all high-powered motors paired with high-strength metals, with manufacturing costs alone exceeding a million dollars, not including the ammunition it carried.
But outdated was outdated. The Death Warrior's weakness was his sluggishness: he was a successful demonstration of a Brain-Computer Interface application, but not a successful demonstration of cyberware.
The designer had brutally removed Michael's skull, taken his head and eyes apart, and fitted them onto a humanoid robot while he was still alive. There was no design involving neural simulation or bionics, and even the brain-machine signal demodulation used extremely primitive, inefficient binary code.
Rather than a human fitted with cyberware, he was more like cyberware with a wetware computer mounted on it, one whose efficiency had barely been developed at all.
The effects of full-body cybernetic conversion were gradual and subtle. Michael had now removed those heavy combat implants and replaced them with artificial muscles from the International Gene Cooperation Corporation. He provided data for the company's most cutting-edge cyberware and was also a cyberware developer. The full-body "Ronin" cyberware Lier had designed for Maelstrom and the Tyger Claws incorporated his designs.
The moment he heard that Lier wanted to undergo full-body cybernetic conversion, he spoke up:
[Michael: Boss, I can put together a plan for you right now.] [Michael: And, boss, I know you're a little crazy. I strongly recommend that you adopt the experimental technology for third-generation cyberware.]
He knew better than anyone which parts could undergo complete cybernetic replacement. In fact, he had