Chapter 149 - 138 Surgery Successful

The surgery went smoothly.

Indeed, not many parents could watch their own child’s chest being cut open, but Maya belonged to those with an exceptionally strong mentality.

Lille felt this had something to do with her job as a caregiver, but more likely it related to her own childhood experiences.

For this surgery, Lille had written a program similar to a behavioral chip, setting up a large number of fixed operational routines.

With several cameras for visual guidance, the program ran quite well, cutting open Lille’s chest cavity accurately, avoiding all the blood vessels and nerves it should—

Using a prepared scaffold to separate the wound and the muscles, Lille pulled out his auxiliary heart.

It was a finely made artificial product.

Blood loss made Lille feel dizzy—this type of dizziness wouldn’t be compensated by the system.

"L Pharmaceutical 3ml, 1000ml glucose."

Maya had her doubts—the amount of 1000ml seemed too much, and the mysterious L Pharmaceutical didn’t seem like something registered on the market.

Besides, there was the auxiliary heart, as well as the cyber modulator and prosthetic lines entwined in the body... all looked quite abnormal.

But she smartly didn’t ask, she knew this was not the time for questions—this was the time to do whatever it took to stay calm and follow instructions.

L Pharmaceutical was a treated version of the Lizard Potion, having its effects minimized to the lowest necessary level, while glucose was for replenishing nutrition.

As the pharmaceutical entered the body, it took some time to take effect.

Intravenous injections weren’t as quick as arterial injections, but Lille only had equipment for intravenous use.

The already clotted blood began to disperse again, a phenomenon that is not good in clinical situations, but at this moment, it meant the Lizard Potion was taking effect.

The blood began to regenerate, blood pressure rose, causing the recently clotted wound to loosen.

Regaining consciousness, Lille started modifying the auxiliary heart, which did not take long.

Unlike a biological heart, the auxiliary heart had a single large chamber filled with 500 ml of fresh blood.

The blood was pumped by a micro-motor, which in case of an accidental stoppage of the heart, would pump blood into the biological heart and provide electrical shocks, attempting to restart it in two ways.

Normally, it would contribute to blood circulation at a low power mode, to ensure the stored blood remained fresh.

After a full load use, it would receive blood from the main heart again until it stored up to 500ml.

Overall, it was quite advanced.

Lille was now going to change this single-chamber structure into one with three smaller chambers—the structure had been prefabricated.

So first he stopped the auxiliary heart, then opened the chamber, drained the blood, and began the modification.

The modification used materials from pacemakers, requiring only pre-fabricated parts to be inserted, then connecting each chamber to micro-motors to enable control.

With the third of the chamber inserted, Lille sealed the auxiliary heart and restarted the prosthetic, then began reprogramming.

After reprogramming was complete, the auxiliary heart began working.

A new interface appeared in the biological monitoring: [L-type Auxiliary Heart Monitor].

Putting it back was much simpler—in Night City, many unlicensed doctors operated as if they were butchering pigs, just stuffing things into the body after adjusting the program.

Of course, Lille wouldn’t be that unprofessional, but rather precisely secured it in the center of his chest, shifted towards the left lung, separated from the biological heart by the diaphragm.

Then he began to stitch up—but Lille hadn’t prepared any sutures or needles, and simply got his mother to give him another two injections of glucose.

3ml of Lizard Serum was enough for a person to exhibit partial lizardization, more than sufficient for wound healing.

After the injection, Lille’s prosthetic medical glove brought the edges of the wound together—

"Surgery successful, beginning to stitch up."

A miraculous scene unfolded, Maya watched as Lille’s surgical incision slowly healed over...

It was nothing short of a miracle.

As Lille announced the success of the surgery, Maya finally couldn’t contain the shock within her heart. She opened her eyes wide and her mouth dropped open, staring at the scene that was akin to a miracle.

Even though he had just undergone surgery, Lille didn’t feel the slightest bit weak.

On the contrary, as the lizard DNA was activated under the effect of the pharmaceutical, he felt quite good—

His complexion gradually became rosier, his mind clearer.

Only after returning to normal did Lille realize that his previous state wasn’t just physically fragile, but that even his brain’s activity had been significantly suppressed.

He felt refreshingly clear-headed.

Looking at the astonished Maya, Lille shrugged, "Mom, I’m a normal person now."

Still immersed in the immense shock, upon hearing this good news, Maya disregarded the blood on Lille’s body and bent down to gently hug him.

"I’m truly happy for you."

"Me too, you don’t have to worry about me anymore."

Lille also showed a relieved smile—

As a son, the moment when a mother’s burden was lifted from her heart was also the moment he felt relieved—but how should he explain it?

With her eyes closed, Maya felt Lille’s warm body temperature, a testament to his health.

After about ten seconds, she wiped away her tears, turned to Lille and said, "Lille, I know you’re different from other people, but I won’t ask any more questions.

I just hope you can stay safe, and like today, whenever you need me, I will always be home waiting for you, no matter what happens or how you change.

Just... promise to stay safe."

Lille’s heart warmed and he also felt a tinge of sadness.

Parents are people too, their expectations for their children are based on their own experiences.

Honest parents hope their children stay out of trouble and live a clean life; shrewd and capable parents hope their children don’t get deceived; hard-working parents hope their children will also be industrious in work.

These are just some examples. They show that for parents, simply wanting their child to live well without any other expectations is an incredibly modest wish.

Clearly, during Lille’s comatose days, Maya had been approaching despair.

He gave a slight nod and then said with a smile, "Mom, you’re underestimating me with that request. Remember your big castle dream? It might come true sooner than you think."

Maya couldn’t help but smile, only saying, "Then you’ll really need to work hard..."

Before she could finish, Lille’s brow furrowed —

[ctOS subsystem monitoring and analysis alert]

[Type: Registered individual, abnormal entry time]

[Location: Empire College — Professor Connors’ laboratory]

[Surveillance sighting: Peter Parker]

[Crime possibility (internal test function): 40% (and rising)]

Maya noticed her son’s agitation and asked, "What’s wrong?"

"It’s just... there’s been a minor issue. I might need to go to Empire College to deal with it — not a physical issue, some academic ones."

"At this hour?"

It was already ten at night. At that time, New York wasn’t safe anywhere, let alone starting from Hell’s Kitchen.

But Lille tried to sound relaxed as he said, "Mom, have some confidence in the system I developed — how long has it been since you’ve seen a crime at night?"

"This isn’t about confidence, it’s about safety."

After saying this, Maya hesitated and added, "But if you must go, remember I’ll be waiting at home for you."

Lille nodded —

Speaking of which, his predecessor seemed to have run off to play after quarreling with his mother, and then something had happened...

No wonder she was always so humble.

The more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt.

Lille couldn’t bear to see this, told himself "That wasn’t me," and then hurriedly got dressed and headed straight for Empire College.

...

In the laboratories of Empire College, Peter quietly made his way to Professor Connors’ lab, gently opening the door to find the room empty.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey."

The sudden voice from behind startled Peter!

He turned around to find a researcher from the building next door — he and Lille had seen them just the other day, each one of them in a terrible state of fatigue.

The person speaking to Peter looked even worse, as if drained of life, with dark circles under the eyes, high cheekbones, and a pallid complexion.

Peter almost jumped: "Hey — you scared me!"

The other person scratched his head: "Just saw you were working late at the lab too, came up to say hi. Is your lab also rushing a project?"

"Uh... no, right, I just came to put in some extra time."

"Sigh." The person walked in and clapped Peter on the shoulder with an expression of shared misery, "Research is torture, man. It’s like having a knife to our backs when client daddies push us."

"Your client is the Osborne Group, right? That makes sense..."

"I never knew Osborne Group was so hardcore — we’ve always been collaborating, but lately... sigh, let’s not talk about that.

Because of this overtime, many colleagues say they can’t take it anymore. I think I’m close to that point too."

After saying this, he sighed again, looking sympathetically at Peter: "Even though we’re competitors to some extent, I still hope our efforts won’t go to waste."

Peter looked at this competitor, who seemed on the verge of collapsing any second, with mixed feelings in his heart.

"... They won’t go to waste."

"Optimistic, I like that — well, I’m off, enjoy your overtime!"

The man turned away nonchalantly, swishing the coffee in his hand through the air, his body swaying slightly too.

Peter calmed himself down and stepped into the lab, encouraging himself: This was a dangerous experiment, and if nobody volunteered, it would be hard to make rapid progress.

But it was a dangerous experiment, so he had to conduct it from within the safety of the glass enclosure.

After setting up the equipment inside the safety glass, the laboratory suddenly went dark —

Click!

Almost all the equipment shut down!

Peter was startled and, seeing the flashing red lights, realized that the lab had activated its emergency backup plan!

Someone had seen what was happening here!

But not all the equipment was connected to the internet; at least the pharmaceutical equipment that had just arrived in the lab wasn’t.

He dared not look at the cameras — he had convinced himself, but deep down, he might have known it was just self-comfort.

He quickly set up the Lizard Serum, then strapped various monitoring devices onto himself and lay down on the bed inside the observation glass chamber.

Looking at the green Lizard Serum, Peter kept encouraging himself inwardly —

If he couldn’t take this step, he would forever be the useless Peter Parker.

He wanted to be the center of attention like Spider Woman, help Harry overcome his illness, and make further progress in the experiments —

The last thing he wanted was to be this Peter Parker.

The green Lizard Serum slowly entered his body.