Chapter 462 - 434: Brain Demon (Part 7)

"What is this thing..."

Jostar advanced in the darkness.

Heat sensors, low-light enhancers, dynamic vision components...

Each of these components, though not superior in their categories, comprised the Eyes of Golden Flame, an exclusive prosthetic eye from the Vortex Gang.

It could be said that although they looked similar on the outside, each component was picked up randomly, making each Vortex Gang’s prosthetic eye unique.

Separately they’re a mess, but together they form a star—a metaphor that fittingly encapsulates these prosthetics.

An exaggerated number of components had been tested by the Vortex Gang, perfectly compatible with the system called "Eyes of Golden Flame," forming a set of prosthetic eyes without high-tech materials.

However, this characteristic made the device inherently unstable; the best could rival Qilusi, the worst were worse than the mixed-brand prosthetic eyes bought on the black market.

The one Jostar had belonged to the better sort.

In the pitch-dark tunnel, the outlines of objects were clearly visible to him, and although colors were hard to discern, he could clearly see contours and didn’t lose his sense of distance.

He must have walked tens of meters...

Boom!

The entire underground space began to tremble, the lines indicating the walls looked as if someone had jerked them with a mouse!

A huge rock fell!

"Shit!" Jostar jumped to dodge, looking at the rock that nearly made him a flat-headed man.

It was this dodge that made his foot touch something of an odd texture.

Having lost his original limbs, his new full-body prosthetics didn’t have the sensitive tactile sense of skin, but he had become more sensitive to the transmission parts of joints and the force from motors.

He didn’t know what to guess, but this thing was somewhat soft and very sticky—

"Damn!"

A rotting corpse!

The mechanical leg, crafted from first-generation prosthetics, quickly lifted as Jostar wasn’t too fortunate; his foot had already stepped into the flesh of the corpse, and lifting it caused a tug on the muscle.

And inexplicably decaying, as his foot lifted dragging the corpse’s lower leg, the connection between the shin and thigh snapped. With a snap, this lower leg flew up, striking Jostar with a blow.

Jostar got hit by this leg and was somewhat dazed, instinctively swinging his Sadara Shotgun to send the limb flying against the wall, and himself losing balance to fall on his butt.

Bang!

The back of his metallic skull smashed against a tool stuck in a mound of earth, making a sharp noise.

Jostar touched his head, "Damn... That’s really freaky..."

Pop!

Suddenly, dim lights lit up on both sides of the tunnel, appearing to be some sort of indicator lights, blue and flickering.

This faint light woke up the low-light enhancement module in the Eyes of Golden Flame, and the world of mere outlines suddenly had complex shapes based on shades of blue.

Only then did Jostar realize that his hand had also penetrated the corpse’s head.

Splash.

Withdrawing his hand, the rotting skull oozed out a pool of foul-smelling liquid, and several skill chips also flowed out...

Although Jostar was a part of the Vortex Gang, truth be told, members of the Vortex Gang hardly ever saw such a disgusting scene...

"Ugh!"

But he quickly realized that he didn’t actually feel the nausea that usually comes with revulsion:

Only his head was semi-original; his somewhat basic full-body prosthetics, made from first-generation prosthetics, did not include the advanced function of "simulating nausea."

So the vomiting action stopped halfway.

"Damn... freaking myself out, what’s with all these skill chips in the head? Crazy..."

Pop!

Suddenly, the sound of an automatic door sliding from the tracks echoed from behind. Jostar immediately turned around and stood up with his gun.

But after he assumed this posture, what he found before him was...

An open door.

"Birds facing the sky, undying for myriad years...!"

Bang!

Jostar took a deep breath and strode through the gate!

Light flooded his visual system, filling his vision with white, but it quickly adjusted back to normal colors.

At the same time, what intruded into his brain was not only colors and light but also sounds.

The strange tremors and buzzing were unusually loud and very eerie, nothing like the natural sounds of machinery operating.

Looking closely, he realized these were indeed not normal sounds.

By the door was mounted a complex engine that Jostar seemed to remember seeing in school, a negative noise device, creating special noise to control specific sounds within a designated space.

However... most restlessness noise devices were mediocre at best, and even the top-tier ones were unaffordable for the average person.

But that wasn’t all, for amidst these noises seemed to be painful moans and screams—

The reason was, this new space was filled with numerous docks, each containing a human being with their eyes covered, yet their bodies were not completely inactive.

A time-consuming scan clearly showed their muscles still twitching, as if operating something...

[Dock: 037]

[Loading Chip: Combat Strategy CST—319P, Music Composition MSS—808M, Gymnastics Expert GM—111C...]

[Quantity: 119]

[Memory Capacity: 107% (First Group Overload Test)]

"What the hell... How can one person run so many chips at once?"

Jostar tapped the dock, the glass was very sturdy, filled with some kind of solution.

"You’re kidding... Dum Dum wasn’t turned into... this thing, was he? Huh?"

Jostar paused, seeing a somewhat familiar face in the dock...

This person... looked like his former neighbor.

Looking again, it indeed was.

A one-eyed bald man, whose left hand had been modified into a welding tool, he was the electrician of their area.

A horrifying speculation crossed his mind: His mother indeed wasn’t on the victim’s list, and the people here definitely weren’t on it either!

His mother... hadn’t turned into this, had she?

As he thought this, the man in the dock suddenly began to tremble violently, and his only eye suddenly opened, its eyeball cracked all over!

Bang!

A sound came from ahead in the corridor, startling Jostar, he panicked and hydraulic joints spurted hot oil, making him sit down abruptly behind the dock.

Thud...

"...dumbass, shut up, grab a gun."

The sound of footsteps, conversation, and guns being loaded pulled Jostar back from his thoughts—

The Brain Demon Gang.

His mind suddenly linked all the horrific and disgusting scenes he had encountered along the way.

The tension walking down the dark path, the shock of being kicked by a corpse, the confusion seeing the mysterious machinery, and the worry about his missing mother—all these feelings mixed together now were connected with the sudden appearance of the Brain Demon Gang.

Jostar had been involved in battles of high intensity but not often.

He was immediately disconcerted.

However, the benefit of having participated in high-intensity combat soon showed:

Even though his mind was blank, being scared?

That was impossible.

The Sadara Shotgun in his hands began charging, and Jostar recalled what Brick had said, murmuring to himself:

"The Brain Demon Gang? Just the punks that got thrashed by the Vortex Gang."

Thud!

The prosthetics harshly stamped on the floor, Jostar of Vortex Gang, proudly leaping out!

Boom!