"You're just giving me this?"
V looked disappointed—
After waiting an entire day for the nano-surgery station, which looked incredibly advanced, she had high expectations.
The conduits had been inserted into every part of her body, the nanobots were continuously transporting implant materials, and the cyber-surgery station removed the subdermal armor and performed the welding and fusion.
The whole process was akin to manufacturing a tank. But when it came to her turn…
It was all just standard modifications!
"Enough already! Can you stop moving? Even Saburo Arasaka would drool over this thing!"
"You're full of it! Saburo Arasaka wouldn't be short of good blades."
"Arasaka doesn't lack good blades, but I guarantee they don't have blades that can slice through rocket casings!"
"Yeah, right. Cutting through rocket casings..."
Victor remained silent on the side: the scan showed that the tool Leo had pulled out of his pocket was indeed insane.
Its strength, toughness, and hardness were off the charts — cutting through a rocket casing wasn't an exaggeration at all.
And according to Leo, the blade had other uses as well.
"Listen up. I'm installing a motor into the Mantis Blades—whenever the Mantis Blades make contact with an electronic circuit, I can hack into it via the motor.
If I'm not around to link the signal, there's a simple AI program built in that can disrupt the enemy's implants."
Once the blade was installed, a micro-generator was added inside the Mantis Blades, providing power to the data knife for hacking electronic systems.
Of course, unlike those flashy electric Mantis Blades, this one wouldn't emit random electric arcs under normal conditions.
V clicked her tongue: "A bootleg electric Mantis Blade? I've seen the Arasaka promotional videos—they spark and shoot lightning when swung. Why doesn't yours do that?"
Leo inserted the motor irritably: "You get good stuff, and you still complain? Let me tell you this: even the bodyguards of Saburo Arasaka wouldn't be able to scratch this blade!"
"Keep talking, keep talking."
"Alright, get lost now."
V's implant surgery didn't involve any major modifications; it was just an upgrade and a Mantis Blade installation—
Now that was done.
[Cybernetic Surgery Complete]
[Cybernetic/Biological Weight Ratio: 16.4kg/91.3kg]
[Cybernetic/Biological Volume Ratio: 19.43%]
[Cybernetic/Biological Integrity Ratio: 35.6%]
[Immune and Inflammatory Response: Weak, no need for additional immunosuppressants]
[Brain Activity: Stable]
V got up from the surgery table and tested the Mantis Blades: "Not bad. Feels a bit lighter than before, pretty good handling.
When can I start using the Sandevistan?"
"Not yet."
"Alright then. So, what are we doing next?"
"Unless something comes up, we'll head to Clouds and gather some intel."
"Clouds, huh. Never thought we'd be dealing with a brothel. By the way, use quality implants; don't skimp. Sis can loan you some cash if needed.
Once you're upgraded, we'll tally the bill together~"
V waved sarcastically at Leo, wearing a smirk of mock pity for the poor.
Leo returned a stiff smile: "Well, I should thank you for that."
After V left, Vic took off his glasses, his expression somewhat complicated.
On one hand, he was happy to see these three young people making a name for themselves.
But on the other hand, with Leo's current abilities, saying they were just "making a name for themselves" might be an understatement—
Maybe they'd even break through the sky someday.
But would anyone who shattered the sky meet a good end?
Victor didn't know.
Leo undressed and lay on the surgery table, and the operation proceeded as usual.
While operating the interface, Vic asked, "Same as before? No anesthesia, and set up a secondary display for you?"
"Yeah—I want to see what's going on with me."
"Then let's have a look… huh?"
Vic paused, staring at the constantly fluctuating numbers and waveforms on the display.
[Warning!]
[Warning: Target's vital signs highly unstable!]
[Warning: Massive cellular death!]
[Warning...]
The data showed that Leo's cells were dying off in massive amounts every second!
And the only reason he was functioning like a normal person was...
His cells were regenerating just as quickly!
All of Victor's recent shocks paled in comparison to this moment—
A person who was constantly being wounded and healed—this was Leo's current state!
Leo raised an eyebrow: "Vic, mind if I set up a separate diagnostic module?"
Without waiting for a reply, Leo adjusted the monitoring data and disabled the warning alerts.
To him, a lot of the data was meaningless.
The Sandevistan was operating at low power, acting as a substitute for his spine, constantly burning through cells to counter the effects of the lizard serum.
As a result, his cells had an average lifespan tens of times shorter than normal!
The lizard serum and the Sandevistan kept him alive and allowed him to function like a normal person.
But... it was like being constantly flayed alive—just how painful was that?
Leo calmly said, "I need to redo the cellular compatibility adjustment I performed on Jackie, to better control this reaction.
And it seems the radioactive elements are decreasing as the cells die off, now down to nearly normal levels."
"Normal levels? What range of normal are you looking at? A medical report from 2025?"
Old Vic was stunned—Leo's current radiation level was still several times the normal value!
Why mention the year 2025?
Because during that period, the radiation cloud from the Arasaka Tower nuclear explosion had turned the skies over Night City red!
"It's normal, really, trust me."
Leo's world had already raised the safe radiation threshold by 100 times—
In peaceful times, people tend to err on the side of caution, but during wartime, the opposite is true.
After the nuclear war, Leo had more cases than anyone to understand where the real safety limits lay for him and those around him.
Of course, ordinary people should still follow the official guidelines.
"Alright, bring out your stock. I'll just need some regular implants. For hacking, give me a cooling fin and some extra RAM.
And I'd like to add two multifunctional mechanical arms, linked with an exoskeleton, using my own base module."
[Cross-Dimensional Material Transfer: Octopus Arm Base Computing Module (Enhanced Version)]
[Tech Points -900]
[Current Tech Points: 2600]
"Two external mechanical arms, huh?"
Vic was filled with confusion, his mind flooded with questions—
Normally, adding two external arms was quite risky. It didn't align with the brain's control logic and greatly increased the cyberware ratio.
But that wasn't the issue; the real issue was when he suddenly realized—
Leo was handing him a neatly packaged exoskeleton linkage module, about the size of a palm, its chip circuitry glittering under the light.
He was in trouble.
He had been so worried about this kid Leo that he didn't even notice where Leo had pulled this chip from.
Vic slapped his forehead: "I've made up my mind."
"Decided what?"
"Decided I'll never worry about your safety again." Vic slapped his face too. "Let's do this!"
"What are you talking about? That sounds a little scary."
The surgery continued as usual—
Once the base module was connected to the neural interface, Leo began syncing data from the Sandevistan in the other world—
Then, the Sandevistan indicator suddenly flashed.
[Heart of Evolution: Emotional excitement caused by the AI in the neural component has been calmed.]
Leo was momentarily surprised—
Back in the Marvel world, when he had climbed onto Vulture, he had momentarily lost consciousness due to high-speed movement, and his octopus arms had autonomously grabbed onto Vulture.
That was undoubtedly the octopus arms' autonomous AI at work, so he had retrieved Dr. Otto's research data remnants to investigate what had happened.
It seemed he had now found the real deal.
Bryce Mosley, a network surveillance agent, had arrived on Bradbury Street—
His request for support had been approved, and he'd been given a target to investigate.
However, the target was somewhat unusual: the system had compiled multiple intelligence sources, suggesting this person might be a rogue AI, though the likelihood wasn't high.
Still, with the growing complexity of Night City's situation and the target's combat experience, they couldn't ignore the possibility of hiring them.
"Who comes up with these ridiculous names, like 'Burger King' or whatever?"
(End of chapter)