"If that’s the case, I understand," Jiang Shu nodded, his expression showing that he had figured it out.
At such a ti, Police Chief Tang Hexun’s arrest was more about trying to protect Gary first and foremost.
"I feel the sa," Wolf tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing a bitter smile, "If the Rift is Gary, then Officer Tang’s reaction makes sense."
Jiang Shu remained calm, while Police Chief Wolf standing beside him kept recalling the connection between Gary and the Rift’s dual identities.
"Right, I hadn’t noticed before, but it seems that the Rift appeared just after Gary disappeared, and the prosthetic parts on the Rift’s body are exactly where Gary was injured and disabled before he disappeared..." Wolf furrowed his brows, tilines and details aligning swiftly in his mind.
Possessing excellent combat and investigative skills, capable of independently solving cases and apprehending criminals; more than half of the body missing, replaced with special prosthetics; abhorring evil without ever harming police officers, even controlling his murderous impulses when officers shot at him.
All these details seed to suggest that the "Rift" might have once been one of their own.
However, what puzzled Wolf was what Gary had gone through during this ti.
Why had he obtained prosthetics of that caliber?
According to intelligence shared by the Thirteen District Police Station, the Rift’s physical abilities with that prosthetic body almost reached T1 level, and if he used so special weapons, his combat effectiveness would surge significantly, placing him on par with T1 in the Combat Sequence.
It was almost impossible within just a few months, with just one set of prosthetics.
If it really was Gary...
Wolf felt so imbalance in his heart.
He had honestly trained and developed himself for so many years but had never reached T2 level in combat ability, only attaining a T2 Social Sequence title.
After all, was it quicker to enhance combat ability through prosthetic bodies?
"What are you thinking?" Jiang Shu noticed his distraction and asked directly, "Did Officer Tang tell you anything else?"
"No, I was just thinking that Gary now probably has T1-level combat ability, and I might not be able to subdue him." Police Chief Wolf was sowhat unsure, sighing, "That set of prosthetic equipnt has terrifyingly enhanced his physical qualities."
By then, the two had reached the front door of the villa; Jiang Shu stepped forward to the facial recognition scanner and then partially opened the door.
He didn’t fully open the door but leaned his body over to block it, quickly scanning the inside of the villa.
From here, only the living room and kitchen were visible—both void of any people—so he relaxed a bit.
He was worried if the ’Fish Mother’ and ’Rat King’ were running all over the place, and Wolf saw them, explanations would be difficult.
"What’s the matter? Are you envious? Do you want a set of prosthetics like that?" Jiang Shu fully relaxed and swung the door wide open, letting Wolf in.
Wolf was slightly taken aback by the scene but didn’t dwell on it, responding to Jiang Shu’s earlier remarks, "I am envious, but gaining strength quickly through prosthetics isn’t good."
"How so?" Jiang Shu sensed Wolf’s desire to confide.
"It’s sothing I heard, not necessarily true," Police Chief Wolf added a disclair before continuing, "It’s generally believed that the cause of Cyber Syndro is due to having too many chanical prosthetics, and it seems to be true—the more prosthetics installed, the higher the likelihood of developing Cyber Syndro."
"Otherwise?" Jiang Shu walked into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, grabbed a bottle of coffee drink for Wolf, and took an orange juice for himself.
Wolf accepted the coffee drink, not picky at all, not minding the purity of the coffee, and started pouring it right into his mouth.
"According to those with Cyber Psychologists who excessively installed prosthetics, they can feel that there’s a threshold with the number of prosthetics—there’s generally no issue before reaching this threshold; after crossing it, they start to experience phenona like phantom limb pain, auditory and visual hallucinations, and these symptoms won’t stop once they start, even if they remove the prosthetics, it’s like a terminal illness, only worsening," Wolf explained.
He paused, placed the empty bottle on the table, then said, "But this threshold is only noticed after it’s crossed, and so people can install five or six prosthetics with no issues, while others get Cyber Syndro after just two or three—the individual variability is actually quite large. After comprehensive research, so in the Research Sequence have hypothesized that it might be related to the individual’s ntal willpower."
"ntal willpower?" At the ntion of the word ’spiritual,’ Jiang Shu’s ears perked, and he imdiately thought of research related to spiritual power.
"Yes," Wolf nodded, "People with stronger ntal willpower generally have a higher threshold for prosthetic load, but there’s no absolute correlation, as the Research Sequence can’t quantify ntal willpower anyhow."
"How was that hypothesis reached? ntal willpower can’t be accurately quantified, but there must be preliminary thods of assessnt, right?" Jiang Shu pointed out this issue with so confusion.
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