Ch. 229 / 106821%

Chapter 229 - 211 Excitement of AI

~7 min read 1,372 words

"This is all you gave me?"

V looked disappointed—

She had waited all day, waited for that nano-surgery table, and it looked truly formidable.

Tubes were inserted into every limb and joint, nano robots constantly transporting prosthetic materials, the cyber-surgery table removing subdermal armor, and then welding and fusing...

The modification process was like building a tank, yet for her...

It was all standard upgrades!

"Just chill, will you? Even Arasaka Saburo would drool over this damn thing!"

"Bullshit, Arasaka Saburo lacks fine blades, huh?"

"Arasaka doesn’t lack good blades, but it sure as hell needs a blade that can slice through rocket casings!"

"Keep talking, like it can really cut through rocket casings..."

Old Vi stayed silent on the side; scans showed the blade Lille pulled out of his pocket was indeed... a bit over the top.

The strength, toughness, and hardness were all off the charts. Cutting through a rocket casing wasn’t even an exaggeration.

Moreover, according to Lille, this blade had other uses.

"Listen up, I’m now putting a motor inside the Mantis Blade— as soon as the Mantis Blade touches an electronic circuit, I can use the motor to perform an electronic intrusion.

If I’m not available to connect to this signal, there’s also a simple Magic Puppet Program inside to disrupt enemy prosthetics."

The blade was installed, and a micro-generator was placed inside the Mantis Arm to provide power for the Data Knife for electronic intrusion.

Of course, it was somewhat different from those flashy electrical Mantis Blades. Normally, this blade wouldn’t emit any flashy electrical arcs.

V clicked her tongue: "A knock-off electromagnetic Mantis Blade? I’ve seen Arasaka’s promo video, it sparks all the way. Why doesn’t this one?"

Lille inserted the motor without any goodwill: "You get something good and all you do is yap? Let me tell you, not even the blade guards of Arasaka Saburo would be able to leave a scratch on this blade!"

"Blow your own horn as much as you want."

"Alright, hurry up and get lost."

V’s cyber-prosthetics surgery had no major changes, just an upgrade and the replacement of the Mantis Blade—

It was done now.

[Cyber-prosthetics surgery complete.]

[Surgery target: Cyber-prosthetics/overall weight ratio: 16.4kg/91.3kg]

[Surgery target: Cyber-prosthetics/overall volume ratio: 19.43%]

[Surgery target: Cyber-prosthetics/overall organ percentage: 35.6%]

[Immune and inflammatory response: Weak, no need for additional immunosuppressants]

[Target brainwave activity: Stable]

V got up from the surgery table and tested the Mantis Blade: "Not bad, feels a bit lighter than before, the grip is good.

When can I use the Si Anweisitan?"

"Not anytime soon."

"Fine, so what are we doing next?"

"Unless something unexpected happens, we’re heading to Cloud Peak to ask for directions."

"Cloud Peak... Fine, didn’t expect to deal with a whorehouse. Oh, and make sure you use high-quality prosthetics, don’t skimp. Sis can lend you the money.

When you’re fully upgraded, we’ll settle the bill together~"

V walked to the door, turned around, and waved, with a sneering smile on her face.

Lille returned the smile awkwardly: "Then I really should thank you."

After V left, Old Vi took off his glasses, his expression complicated.

On one hand, he was happy to see the three youngsters making their mark.

But on the other hand... Lille’s current abilities seemed barely enough—

Maybe one day they could punch a hole through the sky.

But would those who punch a hole through the sky have a good ending?

Old Vi didn’t know.

Lille undressed and lay on the surgery table, the surgery continuing as usual.

Old Vi operated the interface as he spoke: "Same as before? No anesthesia, just a secondary panel?"

"Yeah— I also want to see my current condition."

"Then let’s take a look... Huh?"

Old Vi was stunned, looking at the values and waveforms on the panel jumping nonstop...

[Warning!]

[Warning: Target’s vitals extremely unstable!]

[Warning: Large-scale cellular death!]

[Warning...]

The data showed that Lille’s cells were experiencing large-scale death every minute, every second!

And the reason he could still appear normal was...

His cells were also regenerating non-stop!

All of Old Vi’s shock of these past two days seemed insignificant now—

A person constantly getting injured and healing, that was Lille’s current state!

Lille raised an eyebrow: "Old Vi, you don’t mind if I set up a separate diagnostic module, do you?"

Without waiting for Old Vi’s response, Lille adjusted the monitoring data and disabled the warnings.

To him, most of the data was meaningless.

The Si Anweisitan operated at low power, serving as a spinal function and continually burning cells to counteract the Lizard Potion’s effects.

As a result, his cell lifespan was dozens of times shorter than an average person!

The Lizard Potion and that Si Anweisitan kept him alive, making him move like a normal person.

But... living in a state of constant multi-thousand cuts—how painful must that be?

Lille said calmly: "I need to redo the cell adaptation done on Jack to better control these reactions

Then... it appears the radioactive elements are decreasing in total as cells keep dying, almost down to a normal level."

"Normal level? Where did you get that normal value from, the medical reports from 2025?"

Old Vi was dumbfounded—because Lille’s current radiation levels were still several times that of normal!

Why mention the 2025 medical reports?

Because back then, the nuclear explosion at Arasaka Tower had stained the skies of Night City red with radioactive clouds!

"It’s a normal level, really, trust me."

Lille’s original world had raised the radiation safety threshold by a hundred times—

In peacetime, people always had a margin for safety, but in wartime, it was the opposite.

Post-nuclear war cases made Lille more aware than anyone of where the actual borderline of safety lay for him and those around him.

Of course, ordinary people should still rely on authoritative data.

"Alright, show me your inventory. I just need some standard prosthetics, for hacking give me a heat sink and RAM expansion.

And I want to add two multifunctional mechanical arms linked to an exoskeleton, using my own base modules."

[Cross-dimensional Material Transmission: Octopus Arm Basic Compute Module (Improved Version)]

[Technology Points -900]

[Current Technology Points: 2600]

"Two external mechanical arms huh..."

Old Vi’s mind was filled with questions, doubts taking up most of his thoughts—

In theory, two external mechanical arms were extremely dangerous because unlike replacement or repairs, adding arms didn’t align well with the human brain’s control logic and greatly increased prosthetic ratios.

But that wasn’t the main point; the main point was when he came back to his senses—

He saw Lille handing him a palm-sized exoskeleton base-link module, the circuits on the chip shining brightly under the light.

Damn it.

He had been so worried about Lille that he didn’t pay attention to where Lille got the chip from.

Old Vi patted his forehead: "I’ve made my decision."

"Decided what?"

"Decided I will never consider your safety again." Old Vi patted his face again, "Come on!"

"What are you saying, that sounds a bit terrifying..."

The surgery continued as usual—

As the base module was integrated into the brain-machine interface, Lille began synchronizing needed data from Si Anweisitan of another world—

Then Si Anweisitan’s indicator light suddenly flashed.

[Evolution Heart: Neural component built-in AI’s emotional excitation has been calmed]

Lille was stunned for a moment—

In Marvel World, when he climbed onto Vulture, he had briefly lost consciousness due to high-speed movement, and the Octopus Arm autonomously helped him grab onto Vulture.

That was undoubtedly due to the Octopus Arm’s autonomous AI, so he had also searched for residual research data from Dr. Otto to see what had happened.

Now... it seemed he had found the main culprit.

...

Blais Morris, network surveillance agent, arrived at Bradbury Street—

The higher-ups had approved his request for support and had given him an optional target.

But this target was a bit unique: The system, after integrating multiple pieces of intelligence, determined that this person could be a rogue AI, although the chances were slim.

Still, the situation in Night City was becoming increasingly complex, and the target’s combat experience forced them to consider hiring this option.

"Burger King buying from big-time idiots... what a brain-dead name."

End of Chapter

Ch. 229 / 106821%
Ch. 229 / 106821%