Chapter 645 - 616: The Ship of Theseus

Lille had replaced his entire body, using the most advanced neural implants to replace his naturally designed nervous system, and he cut off all the functions he barely used to free up space for his brain to overclock.

For example, his digestive system was completely removed—stomach and intestines replaced by a high-energy drink storage bag that only opened in emergencies. Normally, he relied on the nutrient solution stored in his wheelchair for direct brain nourishment, while the rest of his body parts were powered by electricity or biological energy provided by the wheelchair.

But in reality, as a character who didn’t emphasize physical combat, Lille had almost no retained limb motor functions and instead transformed them into precision tool bases directly connected to his brain.

It only needed electricity.

Take his endocrine system, for example: as a transhuman whose brain was the only part left untouched, the existence of growth regulatory hormones, mood-control related hormones, and other regulatory hormones became redundant. He retained only the hormones that enhanced metabolism and brain function, and these hormone-secreting glands were controlled directly by neural implants, not by instinct.

Immune system, complex motor system, sensory system... many other parts could also be simplified, liberating the parts of the brain that supported the passive operation of the body and integrating them into the actively configurable computing power with the help of brain neural implants, further squeezing the brain’s computational capacity...

And to make the effects of the Lizard Serum more concentrated, to extend the overall cellular life span of Lille.

In terms of specific data, this meant that Lille’s brain-computer overclock function had more uses and was stronger.

The cost was that he had few parts of his original body left. If a human underwent such extreme surgery to become a living computer, the sheer difference could easily drive someone insane.

[Evolution Heart: The sense of emptiness and discrepancy brought by full prosthetization has been eliminated.]

[Evolution Heart: Please note, your body can no longer produce certain hormones necessary for emotions, which will inevitably leave an impression on your thoughts.]

[Evolution Heart: However, this will not affect your thinking, your thought process is even clearer.]

Lille looked at his arms—or rather, bases designed to equip multifunctional blade heads. "Grasping," a capability that humanity had evolved over millions of years towards perfection and that had enabled modern humans to make and use tools, had been completely removed from Lille’s brain.

The "module" for this skill had been deleted. Such drastic changes could cause serious mental issues, which is why the Cyber Modulator would reprogram the function corresponding to the "grasping" skill, activating a different program that drives another prosthetic when the idea of grasping arises—

Thus, although the changes were still radical, they were at least safer and given time, there was a decent chance of adapting to them.

Hackers would also transiently lose this sensation during a brief dive into the depths, but they would soon grasp the Jing Yuan-Brage Protocol, start inventing code and programs corresponding to their own body movements, and begin adapting to the life in Cyberspace. However, all of this was based on native perception.

And diving too deep for too long could easily cause hackers to suffer from perceptual imbalances and mental issues.

But Lille has not adopted any of these solutions. He had truly deleted such functions, and there were many more functions he had eliminated...

The vacated spaces in his brain had been converted into pure computing power, allowing him to calculate with the simplicity of... an AI.

[Munemasa: You can’t turn back now, your brain functions have permanently changed.]

[Munemasa: People think that slowly replacing limbs is like Theseus’ Ship, but their brains have never changed. You, however, you have changed.]

[Munemasa: Do you still think of yourself as human?]

[Munemasa: You’re like an AI. The biological body is a failed work, you are like us, personally defining success.]

Lille shook his head, even feeling like he could hear the noise from the artificial muscles below his head.

He had been the first to propose the Lizard Cell Prosthetics, but he could not use that type of prosthetic himself. Instead, he had to use the artificial muscle prosthetics of Cyberpunk World.

However, with Matt making a name and opening the market, it was estimated that many people would soon be using this type of prosthetic.

[Lille: I’m not human, so are you? Why do you keep nagging?]

[Munemasa: Because I know more than you do, you...]

[Lille: I’m muting you now.]

Lille turned off Munemasa’s feedback, causing his data body to disappear from sight.

Having handled all that, Lille glanced at the bodily tissues discarded in the trash:

These tissues began to visibly rot and decay once severed from the body, like bread overtaken by mold, their 30-day decomposition process accelerated to a single day.

Without the support of the Lizard Serum, his body would decline like this.

In place of his old form was a brand new, custom full-body prosthetic. It even overwrote the underlying functional code of a biological entity, complete and without excess, with all computing power purposefully, reasonably, and efficiently allocated wherever his will demanded.

In comparison, the evolution of biological entities seemed somewhat of a failure.

As he thought this, Lille pushed the cart out of the surgery room: The operation had taken a full 30 hours, accommodating two different bodies from two worlds, completing two sets of unique full-body prosthetic surgeries with drastically different needs and circumstances.

If there was any gap in prosthetic enhancement between him and Adam Hammer, it was that he still retained one natural eye and a face that hadn’t changed much.

Bang.

Lille opened the door, "All done."

V was lounging on the couch, munching on snacks, with a blue light still flickering in her eyes, clearly watching a match and keeping an eye on Luxor Sports Academy by the side.

V saw Lille walking in looking fairly human, quite different from the figure that had emerged from the surgery room, and the dummy monkey snack halted midair:

"Ho ho... such a big change? Worthy of Little Li Zi, almost..."

Zing!

Before the words finished, a black and crimson shadow of lightning, precise as if directed by a Lightning Rod, struck her neural interface!

The greeting that had just reached her lips was immediately replaced by chaotic sounds, V’s body trembling uncontrollably, flipping off the couch on the spot!

Clap—

Two mechanical arms extended from the wheelchair, seizing control of her body and holding her in midair.

Jack, who had been sleeping on another couch, sprang up, "What’s going on!"

"It’s nothing..." Lille’s expression was eerily calm, numerous mechanical arms sprang from his limbs, rapidly and precisely driving electrodes into V’s body.

But to Jack, Lille looked particularly ferocious this minute...

He thought of Lille as someone who seemed a bit old and stern, but one who actually was quite spirited and down-to-earth when you got to know him.

But now, all that was left was the old and stern—

A young person would scream threats to kill someone’s entire family and charge in with rage, knife in hand; but the kind of old man he felt inside, would merely let his eyelids droop and his enemies would vanish from the world, silently.

Like dust decomposing in air, eventually scattering and flying away.

Someone had rubbed him the wrong way.

Jack just felt his prosthetic eye become a bit unstable.

But hackers saw something different.

What the hackers witnessed was Dog Town, this complex and chaotic shithole of Cyberspace suddenly collapsing—

A wild program was tearing and overclocking every signal source in its path.