Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

After abandoning this familiar human market, Gao Gong stood up and walked into Hanging Street.

This street is a bit like a night market, with many vendors selling mental drugs, synthetic food, pornographic CDs, and gang members with holographic tattoos, virtual blue dragons, and virtual white tigers swirling around them. Though somewhat juvenile, they possess a strange sense of coolness.

After passing by a couple of virtual ads of scantily clad women, Gao Gong couldn’t help but rub his ears.

It’s too noisy; every stall’s loudspeaker seemed intent on blasting at the highest electronic volume.

”Hey brother, want to play? I’ll give you some coins for free.”

Dodging a gangster’s attempt to put an arm around him, Gao Gong glanced at the arcade not far away, clearly seeing through the ’Data Brain’ that a large amount of sensory data was congregating there.

”A base station for the Cyber Network.”

Sensory signals come from humans, so the arcade’s function is to get people in there to continuously produce signals.

This could also be considered some form of infrastructure.

Gao Gong coldly glanced at this gang member, emanating a trace of a Radiation Beast’s aura. The gangster immediately realized Gao Gong was not someone to mess with and retreated awkwardly.

Gao Gong walked into the alley of Hanging Street, clearly showing it must have been recently refurbished. Unidentifiable white bricks were used, but the buildings on both sides remained old. Numerous discarded wires wove through the air like cobwebs, with narrow spaces between buildings well-suited for flying thieves.

”Hanging Street, Staff Lane 3-301.”

Gao Gong looked up and, after confirming the building number, went up.

301, Gao Yuanyuan.

His kinship target.

’A 17-year-old girl, orphaned, in a rebellious phase with no supervision—quite tricky to deal with.’

As he climbed the stairs, he saw a lot of red paint splattered on the walls, with electronic mice ’chirping’ around, but when Gao Gong stepped on them, they vanished.

’Holographic projection, eh.’

Mice, red paint—it still feels like something’s missing here.

On the third floor, just as expected, the large characters ’Pay back your debts’ appeared densely on the walls, floor, and doors.

”These days you can’t survive in a gang without some skills. Using holographic tech for debt collecting, even with automatic sensing.”

”Seems like I don’t need a key after all.”

Gao Gong guessed correctly; both the peephole and keyhole were blocked, but there was a noticeable gap at the door seam. Gao Gong’s fingertip slowly extended a bone spur and flicked it upwards, opening the door.

’Meow~’

Oh, there’s a cat. In the cramped space, an orange cat stared blankly at the sudden stranger.

”Are you also a Devouring Elemental Beast?”

Gao Gong reached to pet it but came up empty-handed, as lots of electronic light points appeared on the cat.

”So it’s a 3D projection. The fur effect is quite well-done.”

Gao Gong glanced around. It was a one-bedroom, one-living-room, one-bathroom apartment. The living room was very small, and he doubted he could even squat in the bathroom. The dripping water paired with the dark, cramped environment would make a great horror movie set.

Moreover, with Gao Gong’s keen hearing, he could clearly detect faint breathing in the bedroom. In the darkness, it felt like a ghastly white eyeball was staring at him.

”Forget it. I’ll make do for now and clean it up tomorrow.”

Dragging the dilapidated sofa away from the leaky window, he looked around only to find nothing to cover himself with, so he shrugged.

He took off his coat, laid it on the damp sofa, and collapsed onto it, soon falling asleep.

Behind the bedroom door, seeing that Gao Gong had no intention of barging in, a girl breathed a sigh of relief.

...

In Nightless City, distinguishing between day and night is easy. When the neon lights and various screens go out, it’s dawn.

’Creak—’

A girl-version Zhenzi slowly peeked from behind the door crack. Confirming that Gao Gong wasn’t around, Gao Yuanyuan gently patted her chest.

Somehow, the house felt different today.

The leaky window glass had been replaced, the leaking bathroom faucet was fixed, and even the peephole and keyhole were cleared.

The holographic plant in the chipped flowerpot lit up again.

The once gloomy and frightening environment unexpectedly felt a bit warmer.

’Zhenzi’ pursed her lips, suddenly thinking of something as her eyes widened.

Oh no, there’s not enough time; she’s going to be late for school!

...

By early morning, the stalls were out again, but due to this planet’s unique nuclear terrain, vegetables were more expensive than meat, and natural food was pricier than synthetic food.

But still better than just gnawing on Nutrition Paste.

”Boss, what do you have to eat?”

”Oh, it’s you,” Uncle Beard, wearing sunglasses, clearly recognized him from the day before.

”Seeing as you provided fresh human material, this meal’s on me.”

”What do you have?”

”Maggot pizza, cockroach skewers, rat noodle soup, rat salad.”

Gao Gong licked his lips, ”Got anything vegetarian?”

”You’re quite picky,” Uncle Beard slammed a bowl filled with rat meat but hardly any noodles onto the table.

”Eat if you want, if not, get lost!”

”Hehe, who doesn’t know about Old Jack’s temper? You must be new here.”

Gao Gong wasn’t angry, he took the noodles with a smile, a flash of mist in his eyes. Suddenly, a strong murderous intent erupted from Old Jack across from him, but when he saw Gao Gong burying his head in the noodles, he hesitated for a moment, then continued pulling up his own noodles.

Name: Jack K

Race: Modified Human

Profession: Mercenary Lv25, Bounty Hunter Lv15

Total Level: 40

Blood Volume: 630/1110

Skills: Intermediate Cooking lv4, Light Weapons Use lv7 (Elite), Heavy Weapons Use lv4 (Elite), Full Strike lv9, Battlefield Survival lv3 (Expert)

Negative State: Cyber psychosis

Template: War Madman

Note: Once a powerful mercenary known for hunting Bionic Men, he has now become a street vendor. His past must hold a special story.

’There’s actually a template!’

Generally speaking, only bosses have templates, but that’s not always true. Special plot protagonists can also have templates.

Nightless City truly deserves to be an advanced map. Just eating a bowl of noodles can involve a Soldier King in the urban plot.

Why is this mouse meat so chewy?

After finishing the noodles, Gao Gong decisively got up to leave. Let the players dig up this kind of character plot; he wasn’t short of a few bucks. More importantly, once cyber psychosis acts up, it recognizes no one, so better to avoid it.

While strolling to the arcade entrance, Gao Gong saw a group of people cleaning up bloodstains at the entrance. They were all new faces, with new weapons—chainsaws, dog leg blades, metal muscles, and metal skins. This rough style immediately reminded him of the Radiation Desert.

”A new gang? Makes sense, this is the Outer City District.”

The entire Outer City District gathers ninety percent of Nightless City’s gangs. It’s a melting pot, a standard hotbed for conflict. Typically, only the gangs that conquer the Outer City District can truly establish themselves in Nightless City.

”The fighting and killing, it’s truly terrifying.”

Casually making a quip, Gao Gong followed the address on the information to find the Wild Wolf Gang’s Prosthetic Doctor’s underground clinic.

Looking at the demolished construction site in front of him, he was speechless.

”This is part of Old Town District’s renovation project number 214. Is there anything I can help you with?”

At the construction site entrance, an old robot man puffing an e-cigarette switched to question mode when Gao Gong approached.

Gao Gong didn’t speak, instead handing over a title deed.

”So you’re the owner of Warehouse No. 124. Unfortunately, it’s beyond the specified transaction time, and you can’t receive compensation.”

”Then what can I get?”

The old robot man went idle.

Gao Gong sighed, pulled out a cigarette, and handed it over.

”The belongings from Warehouse No. 124 are in the construction site’s utility room; you can take them yourself. Also, this cigarette lacks nicotine. Next time, I want an e-cigarette.”

”Next time for sure.”

After dragging a bunch of stuff from the utility room, Gao Gong bribed the old robot man with another pack of cigarettes, exchanging them for a small cart. It took three trips to drag everything out.

”Kind-hearted person, please, grant me a line of code.”

”No use finding me, go look for a programmer.”

Bumping aside a robot beggar, Gao Gong finally got everything up to the third floor.

Watching the cramped living room, Gao Gong sighed.

Starting things are always tough, but it’s much better than immediately getting hunted after crossing over.

Opening the cardboard boxes one by one, most contained junk: wine bottles, electronic comics, expired drinks, discarded chips.

Luckily, there were some gains in the end.

A notebook with the Wild Wolf Gang’s former offline contacts, a projection TV, a portable surgery table, a pile of prosthetic surgery tools, four prosthetic limbs, and over a dozen Whiteboard-level prosthetic plugins.

”Not bad, at least I can open the shop.”

Mechanical Coin is just factory currency. In Mechanical City, people use Credit Points.

In Nightless City, they’re called Mechanic Points.

Between different Mechanical Cities, Credit Points can be mutually exchanged.

But generally, between factories and Mechanical Cities, there are bulk commodity trades.

So in a short time, Gao Gong has to be self-reliant and earn hard.

Pulling out the notebook, Gao Gong found a public phone booth downstairs and dialed a number inside.

”Who is this? Introduced by Brother Butcher? Alright, alright, I’ll comply.”

”When is big brother making a move? What? You don’t intend to re-emerge? You haven’t been in the underworld for years? So, what do you want to do?”

”Black Market near Outer City District? Alright, I’ll keep an eye out for you.”

”Underground modifications? No problem, I’ll introduce you to clients.”

It’s worth mentioning that although the Wild Wolf Gang’s headquarters was blasted and the leaders were wiped out, precisely because they died cleanly, their rivals didn’t eradicate them.

In other words, they still have a significant number of informants.

After making a call, Gao Gong went back upstairs, and at the entrance of the third floor, he saw Miss Zhenzi hesitatingly standing at the door.

Miss Zhenzi also saw Gao Gong.