Chapter 632 - 603: Imitation

The second generation of prosthetics technology of Atlas Group had matured a great deal.

Professor Conners and Michael each were conducting the final tests in their respective labs:

The former had already replaced his arm with a prosthetic that was almost indistinguishable from a human limb and even more superior.

For someone like him, who had only replaced part of his limbs, this arm was almost indistinguishable from his original arm.

"Inflammatory markers normal, white blood cell count normal, hormone level fluctuation normal, cognitive function... normal."

Conners purposely held the test report with his newly replaced arm, his body trembling slightly with excitement.

He excitedly looked up at the observation room—

When it all began, no one could have imagined it would turn out like today.

When it all began, Lille was a destitute young man suffering from a terminal illness, a cripple who had woken from a coma; Conners thought he was a child like him waiting for rescue, eventually... he probably still couldn’t offer Lille any future.

Unexpectedly, the future wasn’t given by him to Lille, but by Lille to him.

Lizard Serum had become a raw material in the medical industry, and now, the result was in his hands—

A dream turned into reality; a second-generation prosthetic limb, built with synthetic muscle, almost indistinguishable from his original limb.

This was his last safety check: just like everyone else using the second-generation prosthetics, to check physiological conditions.

Everything was normal, he suppressed his excitement and stepped into the observation room—

Everyone was waiting there, waiting for Lille to make final adjustments to the prototype prosthetic of the third-generation.

This set of prosthetics, or to say, full-body prosthetics, would use the most advanced neural implants, mimicking the human native neural system, fully restoring and closely matching the original brain’s neural functions...

In other words, mimicking nature to manufacture a prosthetic that was functionally perfect and close to the human body.

Ever since Michael shed the title of Death Warrior, the strength of his prosthetics had been declining, and he had always been experimenting with cutting-edge civilian prosthetic technology.

He was also excited now:

Here, he had truly realized his idea of creating cool prosthetics, but for civilian use.

And after his body was forcibly replaced with Combat Prosthetics, he now had to restore all neural functions and feel the world again like before.

On the operation table, Michael’s second-generation prosthetics were being disassembled bit by bit, until only the brain, the skull wrapping the brain, and a covered native eye remained.

As the body was disconnected, the feedback from the brain-machine interface faded bit by bit, he realized he was still somewhat afraid:

Afraid of this sensation, clearly still having thoughts, consciousness also lucid, yet unable to move.

All limbs disconnected, only the head remained—

Right, the head also had to be opened; he was actually left with just the brain and the skull that was native, this was also one of the reasons he could adapt to the lower-grade mechanical Combat Prosthetics from Cyber Technology Company:

If it weren’t for long-term stimulation, the brain’s immune reaction was actually relatively weak, short-term unlikely to experience neural inflammation, lessening the chance of developing cyberpsychosis.

Of course, his strong self-control was also a factor: he trusted the prosthetics.

Now, as the prosthetics were disassembled, he still had people he could trust: Lille was worthy of his trust.

"Let’s start, boss."

Lille nodded and issued instructions to everyone in the lab, "Begin the Atlas Group third-generation prosthetics—experimental prototype prosthetic implant surgery."

...

The surgery went successfully without mishaps, and if anything, it was just the usual awe people felt towards the data and plans Lille somehow produced from nowhere.

Coming from the Cyberpunk World, decades of intense warfare and human experimentation, and even research targeting young nerves allowed him to easily produce software and hardware designs suitable for civilian use.

Before Lille obtained this data from Fiona, Atlas had already identified several materials that could be used on neural implants—

[Lille: Our best choice is nano-scale materials and neural regeneration, but our technological level isn’t there yet.]

[Dr. Otto: Achieving neural regeneration at the nanoscale is indeed suitable, though it’s already our limit for now.]

In this era, even though Lille had stolen a lot of chip technology from Munemasa in the Cyberpunk World, they could only manage to etch chips at the 3-nanometer scale.

The 3-nanometer technology’s three-dimensional stacked chips were the base of the neural implants, guided by the Remote Prosthetics pulled from Luxor Manor, Lille had designed and manufactured an upgraded version of the brain-machine interface chip.

The chip, as a mediator, could process more information.

However, the 3-nanometer level still wasn’t sufficient for the replicated neuron’s electrode tips—it wasn’t precise enough.

Not being precise enough meant they could only maintain sensory functions in a relatively safe region by controlling the electric current; thus, human sensations compared to native limbs would be somewhat crude and extremely dependent on the stability and accuracy of the current control system.

In the Marvel World, the replicates were cruder, but they provided Lille an opportunity to observe the technological development trajectory, while in the Cyberpunk World, the replicates were closer to cutting-edge, combining the experience of the former, allowing him the chance to reach a higher level.

[Peter: This precision is already enough. Human lizard muscle cells are relatively crude themselves and can withstand more voltage, safely enough.]

[Professor Connors: Lille... this structure seems...]

[Lille: Yes, it’s the same structure as on my body.]

The scalpel tore open Michael’s skull, and under Lille’s focused control, the Si Anweisitan that he personally oversaw, was inserted into Michael’s brain.

Without nano robots technology to soften the nerves and electrodes, they had to resort to the old method—

Direct electrification, allowing the electrode to generate heat to bind with brain nerves.

This method was used in the Cyberpunk World before the advent of mature nano robots technology for neural implants. It was very barbaric; many experimental subjects had been sacrificed to determine safe operational values.

The process was tingling and numbing; an operational interface appeared in Michael’s vision.

[Gwen: The internal environment is normal, no observed brain atrophy or degenerative decline...]

[Lille: Implantation normal, prosthetic assembly completed.]

The spinal cord was inserted into the prosthetic; Lille controlled the internal circuits of the prosthetics with incredible precision, allowing the interfaces under the action of electric currents to align one by one...

A single mistake could have caused an anomaly in Michael’s brain.

A very classical prosthetic doctor’s surgical procedure: That’s why, long ago, being a prosthetic doctor was an extremely high-end profession.

Zi—

Michael heard a sound of electric current.

Hearing restored.

He opened his eyes, and his visual system was restored.

He felt he was lying on a moderately warm operating table—touch restored.

He smelled a refreshing scent in the air—smell restored.

All the regions of his brain were activated, as if his body had come back to life.

He watched as the scalpel was withdrawn, and then slowly sat up straight.

Everyone watched this scene, seeing the mixed emotions in Michael’s eyes, knowing they had succeeded.

[Lille: Surgery successful, we’ve successfully synthesized a human nervous system.]

"Fantastic!"

Cheers enveloped the laboratory; people embraced each other, marveling at this great day:

The international gene collaboration company affiliated with the Atlas Group successfully produced a nervous system that was almost indistinguishable from a human’s and successfully implanted it...

No, rather, they successfully implanted a person’s brain into this body!

Lille pulled the link from the console, relieved as he watched Michael shakily step down from the bed, then wave to his family—

Now, even if a person’s spine was severed, they could still save them.

The data body of Little Octopus also appeared in Lille’s view, lying on the glass watching the joyous scene; it snapped onto Lille’s head with a pop:

[Little Octopus: Big brother, you can undergo the surgery now!]

[Lille: Let’s prepare mine a bit more... The simulation of the native neural system is complete, we’re now starting on the design and production of the enhanced neural implants.]

[Little Octopus: That’s easy? I can just program his spine, but this craftsmanship really can’t support high-end Si Anweisitan functions.]

[Little Octopus: Actually, I think the other side’s craftsmanship could support higher software; it’s just that without a learning target, generating software from nothing is a bit risky.]

[Lille: So now we look for a learning target, and prepare the neural signal collector.]

[Lille: Gwen, Peter, stay a moment.]