Chapter 159
- You can’t fight properly without combat limbs, can you? A weak body is such a hassle.
En spoke in front of the machine maintenance room. He knocked lightly on the door.
Ssshhk.
As the door to the maintenance room opened, an alien species that looked like a child appeared. It was only about chest-high to , with a small, delicate fra. A pair of small horns adorably jutted out from between the strands of its hair.
‘Tarfa.’
I knew this being well. I had seen it in Noel’s mories, too.
‘The species that passed down their science and technology to the Accretia Empire.’
The Empire’s chanical engineering was based on Tarfa technology. Even now, so of the Tarfa worked as engineers within Imperial corporations.
"Oh, so this is the guest who will be receiving the prosthetic implants."
The Tarfa lifted her sky-blue face and looked over. Her eyes were completely black, without whites, but they didn’t give off an eerie feeling. Since Tarfa looked quite similar to humans, I could tell she was female.
- Make this human capable of fighting, Lapis.
Standing side by side, the Equessian and the Tarfa looked almost twice different in height.
"Co in, human man. What’s your na?"
"Luka."
"A nice na."
"It’s a common one."
"You probably heard it earlier, but my na is Lapis. Lapis Lazuli. I changed my original na to sothing easier for humans to say."
I smirked as I stepped inside.
"Hmph, Bellato may be a multi-racial nation, but... it looks like everyone is desperate to appeal to humans. Changing nas to be easier to pronounce, learning the language..."
It probably sounded mocking. That was because it was.
"It’s not just Bellato—every nation on Planet Novus is human-centered. If we want to survive here, we have no choice. On other planets, I’m sure humans adapt to the dominant species just the sa."
Lapis responded smoothly, without even a hint of irritation.
Inside his combat helt, En scoffed and took a seat.
- What a narrow-minded bastard. You think kindness is just flattery? Seeing how twisted your personality is, I can already guess how you grew up.
En’s sharp remark hit squarely in the back of the head. And since he was right, I couldn’t even argue.
"Please sit comfortably on the procedure table."
Feeling awkward, I rubbed my neck and sat down at an angle on the table. Around , complex electronic machines and monitors were scattered in a ss. The tangled cables on the floor were so nurous that they caught against my feet whenever I moved.
Clang! Kiiing!
Two pairs of chanical arms rose on either side of the procedure table.
"You do it alone?"
When I asked, Lapis smiled softly.
"I prefer working alone. Besides, I have AI-controlled chanical arms. They’re excellent assistants."
She stroked the chanical arms attached to the procedure table. In response, the arms gave a small nod, as if acknowledging her touch.
Lapis struggled to carry over a prosthetic leg and arm, which had been leaning against the wall. They were likely ant for . Given her small fra, the task seed quite burdenso.
- Want so help?
En, who was sitting in a chair, spoke.
"No. I prefer doing everything with my own hands."
- Stubborn one, aren’t you? Suit yourself.
En leaned back into the chair and gazed out the window. Since the machine maintenance room was on a high floor, the city below was clearly visible.
Border City was just as chaotically developed as the lower districts of Akbaran—perhaps even worse due to the mix of architectural styles from various species.
Clatter.
After moving the prosthetic limbs next to the procedure table, Lapis wiped the sweat off her forehead.
The prosthetic leg and arm she brought hadn’t been covered with artificial skin, leaving the tal and machinery completely exposed. However, they didn’t have the rigid, industrial feel of Imperial designs.
Vmmmm.
Their surfaces followed the grain of muscle fibers in smooth, flowing curves, and the circuits embedded within emitted intermittent blue light. They almost looked like works of art.
"Which company made these? I don’t really know Bellato’s manufacturers."
"If I had to na one, I’d say Lapis Lazuli Inc."
"How flattering. A custom prosthetic made by an individual."
It seed my body data had been handed over long ago. Custom prosthetics from a private workshop couldn’t be made in just a day or two. They required at least several months, sotis even years.
Ivan’s variable prosthetic and Francec’s ornate prosthetic armor were also custom-made, with no mass-produced equivalents.
"The model you’re using now doesn’t transmit sensory signals, so removing them won’t cause pain. I’ll begin."
Lapis carefully replaced my limbs one by one. She did it gradually, likely to prevent from feeling uneasy if all my limbs were removed at once. It was a ticulous and considerate process.
"Do you have any spare cybernetic eyes?"
I glanced around as I spoke. The machine maintenance room was filled with various prosthetic parts and equipnt. It seed likely she’d have at least one spare eye.
"A cybernetic eye? Why?"
Lapis asked as she removed my right arm. She switched tools with the help of a chanical arm.
"Biological eyes are inferior in function. Since my brain was being treated, it looks like my eyes regenerated along with it."
I tapped beneath my right eye with my left hand. The soft, organic feel of it was unfamiliar.
"Throwing away a perfectly healthy body just to get stronger—that’s sothing only a madman would do."
I twisted my lips into a smirk.
"Sounds just like . So take this eyeball out and put in a combat-grade cybernetic eye instead."
For the first ti, Lapis’ smile disappeared. She frowned.
"I don’t remove healthy body parts to replace them with machines. If you want a cybernetic eye, go look in the black market. And don’t ever co to again. Even if Jafa orders it, I won’t have anything to do with you."
En, who had been listening to our conversation, chuckled.
- Less than ten minutes in, and you’ve already pissed Lapis off. Impressive. You’ve got talent—talent for being a garbage human being.
"Guess my true nature’s been exposed already."
I shrugged.
- Typical Imperial. You people throw away your natural bodies like worn-out clothes.
"I didn’t know Equessians talked this much."
- Akies or whatever, Jafa’s wasting his money on you.
Hearing our exchange, Lapis frowned even more.
"Don’t fight in my workshop. It’s distracting. And En, if you keep this up, go wait outside. This is delicate work."
- Fine. Oh, and here’s your terminal, Luka. It has your room assignnt and schedule. Check it.
En placed a terminal on the table and walked out.
And with that, the conversation between and Lapis ended as well. She worked in complete concentration, ticulously installing and inspecting the prosthetics.
* * *
The implantation was finished. The procedure had been smooth enough that I could have fallen asleep.
I stared at my new limbs. They were embarrassingly high-end. Light flowed through the circuit-like veins instead of blood. The movent felt remarkably light, even without any adjustnts.
"Now, I’ll asure the signal bandwidth for output control..."
Lapis wiped the sweat from her forehead with the towel hanging from her waist and stood in front of a monitor. A holographic interface appeared before her.
"Set it to the maximum."
"What? This isn’t so regular piece of equipnt. You’ll fry your nervous system."
"I have a feeling. Even if you widen it to the max, it won’t be a problem."
I closed my eyes as I spoke. In the darkness, I imagined blue light bending along the circuits.
Kiiing.
My fingers moved slowly, powered by a surge of energy. I had manually pushed the output to its limit. Soon, I hit the programd bandwidth restriction.
‘If I focus, I think I can break through it...’
It was a strange sensation.
"Ah! Wh-what are you doing?!"
Lapis spoke while looking at the monitor. Only then did I open my eyes and break my concentration.
Beep, beep, beep.
The screen was flooded with error ssages. The complex graphs and numbers beside them spiked and crashed erratically.
"You saw that, right? I can force the signal bandwidth up anyway, so unlock it before the internal program gets ssed up."
I put on a confident front. In truth, this was my first ti doing it.
‘I just hacked a machine with biological signals.’
I knew this kind of thing was theoretically possible. So electronic warfare specialists connected their brains directly to networks, using them as computers.
But I wasn’t an electronic warfare specialist.
‘The logical explanation... is that after pushing my prosthetics to their limits, I learned to control them as if they were truly part of .’
The biological signals from my brain were converted into cybernetic signals, which controlled the prosthetics.
‘If the strength of my signal exceeds the program’s restrictions, my commands take priority.’
It was just a hypothesis. There were probably others in the Imperial Guard who had experienced sothing similar. If Hemillas were here, I would have asked him right away—he was a soldier who knew everything.
...It wasn’t a new realization, but Hemillas was dead.
Just thinking about it made feel like the tightly locked box of emotions inside was about to burst open. That was why I avoided ntioning the Custoria family in front of Jafa.
The room was silent. Lapis, sensing the shift in my mood, waited before gently breaking the quiet.
"Would you like a handkerchief?"
At first, I didn’t understand what she ant. Then, as I touched beneath my left eye, I let out a hollow laugh.
"Looks like my brain still isn’t fully recovered."
"Crying doesn’t an you’re broken. Not crying does."
"That’s a good point."
Lapis seed pleased with my answer, smiling brightly. By human aesthetic standards, she wasn’t particularly beautiful or striking, just cute. But I liked her smile nonetheless.
"I’ve lifted the bandwidth restriction. I’ll call that prosthetic set the Lazuli-21 model."
Lapis adjusted the holographic interface. My limbs felt even lighter than before.
Kiiing!
Then, a surge of sharp nerve pain and excessive signals flooded through my prosthetics. It felt like shards of glass and needles were stabbing into my limbs. Anyone untrained would have passed out instantly.
"Ah, that must hurt a lot."
"I like the pain."
I gritted my teeth as I spoke. This wasn’t a joke. For the first ti, I felt like I had a proper body. The exhilaration of grasping power completely overshadowed the pain.
"...Pervert."
"Pervert, lunatic, psycho—I hear those all the ti, so I don’t take offense. So, does it have any special functions? Feels like a prosthetic that sticks to the basics."
I detached the cables from my limbs one by one and stood up.
Pa-ang!
I threw a light punch, and the air trembled.
‘Impressive.’
The responsiveness and speed were excellent. Lapis’ craftsmanship was masterful—she could be called an artisan.
"You have a good sense. I only had your physical data to work with, so I prioritized the basics over additional functions. You won’t find anything better in this weight class."
"And?"
True artisans don’t settle for making simple things. There had to be sothing unique about these.
"They can repair minor damage on their own. Liquid tal is embedded between the tal layers using a dual-compression process. When exposed to the surface, it hardens and reinforces the structure. It’s the sa principle as blood clotting."
"Expensive, complicated, extravagant."
"That’s what makes it special."
I walked past Lapis and grabbed the terminal on the table. It had similar basic functions to the one I used in the Empire.
Beep.
Since this was its first activation, it took a mont to start up. anwhile, a comrcial played on the small screen.
- Snake, snake, snake! A burger made with patties ground from real snake at! It might even be poisonous! But it’s thrilling, it’s good, it’s tasty, it’s fun! Snake, snake, snake! Co on down to Jafa Burger!
A snake slithered across the screen before launching itself into a frying pan. Then, the scene cut to various species cheerfully eating burgers.
- A taste so deadly, you won’t notice if one of your group dies! If you die while eating, you’ll win a life-changing amount of credits!
A person foad at the mouth and collapsed backward.
- Jafa Burger has 12 locations across Border City!
I fought the urge to smash the terminal and turned my head to the side. Then, I looked at Lapis, silently demanding an explanation.
"Lord Jafa is the king of the food industry in Border City. He has the entire market under his control. Would you like to see a Jafa Pizza ad next?"
"Please tell I don’t have to watch these ads every ti I reboot the terminal."
"Sharp guess. Snake, snake, snake~."
Lapis swayed her head from side to side in rhythm with the jingle.
...This was going to drive insane.
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