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"Hey, you with the buzz cut, stop."
Because of some mess with the Monster company, Li Pan had a lot on his mind as he left the park, and he hadn't even reached the subway station when someone stopped him. Hearing the call from behind, his first instinct was to draw his gun, but as he looked up and saw the other's dark blue uniform, he quickly stopped himself and switched to a smile,
"Officer, what can I do for you?"
NCPA Night City Police Department.
Two uniformed officers approached Li Pan, one aiming a smart submachine gun at him, the other holding a police terminal with a law enforcement drone following, its red and blue strobe lights shining on Li Pan's face.
"Name, address, why aren't you connected to the network?"
"Eh? Why aren't I on the network..."
Li Pan was confused and suddenly realized that it was not just the security system that was offline, but as he walked along, he couldn't even see the street-side virtual advertising projections! He instinctively touched his neck and broke out in a cold sweat.
His neck was bare, the neural interface was gone!
The archive cabinet had not only restored his flesh and fixed his left arm but had also reset and erased his neural implant! He had been offline in the company the whole time, and he hadn't noticed he had been disconnected from the security network when he went outside!
Are you kidding me!? This was possible!? And they had removed his neural chip in an instant!?
It was then that Li Pan finally snapped out of the shock from the Monster company, realizing how miraculous it was for the archive cabinet to swap out his hand in an instant, and he broke out in another cold sweat,
Fuck, you see the back alley prosthetics doctors in the slums, performing surgeries like slaughtering pigs, and the company silently reset his entire prosthetic body? Was this the latest nanotechnology? Or cloning technology? Was this the power of monsters, or the power of the company...
"Are you high on something? Why aren't you talking? Run an emotional assessment on him, look into the camera."
The one opposite already had his hand on the holster, and the police drone flew up to his face, leaving Li Pan no choice but to reluctantly comply.
"Li Pan, citizen, employee of TheM company. My chip is damaged."
Although the chip had been reset and disappeared, it's not uncommon to have a damaged chip replaced. Since TheM company provided social security and paid wages, they certainly wouldn't be so generous as to reset Li Pan's citizenship and his 250,000 in debt along with it.
And the drone also scanned Li Pan's identity data, sending the emotional assessment to the police terminal.
"Fuck, that's so blue!"
Even the police officer got a fright from the mental health report, but seeing that he was a taxpayer in good standing and an employee of the company, with no crimes or bounties found against him, naturally, they weren't too concerned.
"Alright, a legal citizen should connect to the network as soon as possible. You can go."
"Thank you, officer."
Li Pan rubbed his neck, fuck, his debts were high enough, okay? Applying for a warehouse job and ended up losing an arm and a system chip, and it's not just about a prosthetic limb! The system chip, dammit! There's nothing these days with a better cost-performance ratio than a Type-2 chip from a military academy graduate, alright!
Now that his chip was gone, Li Pan really wasn't used to it; these days one must get a virtual network chip installed.
Otherwise, not to mention the police and security guards on the way who would treat him as some criminal who went offline on purpose to check his identity, but he couldn't log in to his contact list or personal account. Those old junk devices without facial recognition functions were even more unusable; plainly speaking, he couldn't even get into the elevator in his own apartment, truly a case of being unable to move even an inch.
So, Li Pan looked around and found a nearby prosthetic clinic. The clinics in the urban areas of Night City were bound to be dozens of times more expensive than the black workshops in the slums, but there was no choice. A virtual network chip needs to link to the security system network. If he was just hustling for a gang in the slums, he might manage with second-hand or junk chips, but now, since Li Pan works for a company and frequently commutes back and forth in the Downtown District, where cops are everywhere, the last thing he needed was a rotten chip with a criminal record or a virus-infested Magic Puppet; he wouldn't even know how he died.
"Welcome to PROSTHESIS Prosthetic Maintenance Center, how may I assist you?"
In the clean and tidy lobby, a Prosthetic Body Dance Spirit, shining with a metallic luster, came up to serve him.
This PROSTHESIS was a part of a major chain, similar to supermarkets and car dealerships, specializing in the installation, upgrade, maintenance, customization of prosthetic parts, and they could take orders for various types of chips, processors, and functional components for prosthetics.
"I need to install a virtual network chip."
The Dance Spirit staffer scanned him and with a sweet voice said,
"You have not had any prosthetic body installed previously, are you a follower of the Pure faction? Please rest assured, our company is a certified maintenance business by the security system. The failure rate of surgeries and the incidence rate of cyber psychosis are fifteen percentage points lower than official statistics. You can use our services with confidence.
Here is our current inventory of virtual network chips. Do you see any signals or brands that you like? Do you have any specific functions in mind? May I make a promotional recommendation to you? Would you consider getting a membership card? There's a first-time discount of 5% off!"
Li Pan got a little dizzy looking at the virtual menu displayed by the Dance Spirit, with its string of zeros in the price.
Firstly, it was indeed too expensive, and secondly, he worried if there was another save-and-load, spending so much money on prosthetics just to have it reset again.
"Um... do you have anything with Type-2 technology?"
The Dance Spirit staffer stood up straighter, hands clasped behind her back, her metallic face unchanging with its electronic smile,
"Sorry, but we are in business, not charity."
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