Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

”Are you sure you want to come with me?”

In the transformation chamber, a fully armed Gao Gong looked at Ahong, who had already entered the implantation chamber, and asked again.

”Of course, why wouldn’t I join in on something this interesting? Besides, I want to see how you, this peculiar guy, operate. No more talking, I’m going first.”

Ahong closed his eyes and fell into a slumber, while the shop’s speakers came to life.

”What the hell, a data maze, what is this!?”

Gao Gong exhaled deeply, and the next moment, the talent ’Data Transformation’ was activated.

Data Transformation: You can switch freely between neural signals and sensory data.

The horizon in his eyes changed; real-world buildings began to vanish, replaced by complex electronic circuits and currents.

In a world composed of optical fibers, databases, and output devices, sensory data surged.

The real world is Cyber Space!

Hacker Chip, ’Remote Hacking’ initiated.

On Hanging Street, every electronic device, sensory equipment, household virtual experience machine, portable virtual projection, holographic ads on the street, personal prosthetic body, all became ’Gao Gong’s’ stepping stones.

PP Boss’s ’Invasion Cameras,’ limited to five.

Yet at this moment, Gao Gong’s horizon went from one to ten, to a hundred, and then to a thousand.

Above, a level 20 Mechanical Eyeliner suddenly shifted direction, its red light became Gao Gong’s vision.

And at the outskirts of the Welfare Institute.

A passerby with a modified brain suddenly stopped, turning to look at the Welfare Institute.

Beside him, a bespectacled OL (Office Lady) suddenly lifted her head, adjusting her glasses, Gao Gong’s figure flickered in her lens reflection.

More and more passersby stood at the Welfare Institute’s perimeter, their collective vision forming a map.

And the Welfare Institute bared its fangs, walls opened up, revealing mechanical devices, machine guns emerged from the walltops.

A pedestrian stepped forward, and the gun suddenly spewed fire, amidst a mist of blood, the person was turned into a beehive by the bullet chain and collapsed to the ground.

The bullet chain, a shadow, swept across, dismembering a dozen pedestrians with wild bullets, including that OL.

On the blood-stained glasses of the OL, massive amounts of sensory data began to generate, and then, a strange smile curved her lips.

The next moment, three Mechanical Eyeliners descended from the sky, the red eyes like searchlights gradually lit up, and in a flash, tens of thousands of damage points in energy light pillars vanished.

Three mechanical gun heads exploded.

”Breaking news, a gun battle erupted at the Welfare Institute on Eleventh Avenue, both sides with significant firepower, multiple pedestrian casualties confirmed, 3 news teams are continuously covering the incident for you.”

”Hey, how do you know—” the cameraman saw the female anchor turn and run to Eleventh Avenue, quickly followed.

And as the anchor turned, a strange glint flashed in her eyes.

[You cast ’Electromagnetic Overheating’ on the ’Automatic Defense Machine Gun’]

[The damage equals Perception*10 + Wisdom*10]

[You dealt 1390 damage to the ’Automatic Defense Machine Gun’]

The next moment, the mechanical gun head at the gate suddenly shattered into pieces.

An unmanned flying car suddenly descended from the sky, fiercely shattering the gate.

Behind the gate, no longer were the late-night small guards, but one by one, prosthetic body security armed to the teeth, mechanized over 90%, exoskeletons thick enough to withstand rocket fire.

Level 25 Prosthetic Body Security had another name, Full Skeleton Guard!

Two tubes of adrenaline automatically inserted into thighs, as the security guards’ eyes turned from yellowish bloodshot to red bloodshot, that drug-like distracted gaze and bloodthirsty madness fused into one.

A single hand formed into a hammer, slamming onto the flying car, its engine blew up, the explosion of flames enveloped several prosthetic body security.

In the flames, several prosthetic body security remained motionless, while in their goggles, an electronic shield flickered repeatedly, massive amounts of green data flashed.

[Marubeni Type-III Security Guard sincerely serves you]

[Your brain has been invaded, security guard is conducting a full-force counterattack, this counterattack might cause irreversible damage to your brain, but please don’t mind, after all, your body organs have been outsourced and don’t belong to you]

[Virus Cleaning In Progress, ’Electromagnetic Short Circuit’ intercept successful]

[Virus Cleaning In Progress, ’Remote Hacking’ intercept successful]

[Virus Cleaning In Progress, ’System Manipulation’ intercept successful]

[Virus Cleaning, Virus Cleaning, Virus Cleaning, ’Prosthetic Body Overheating’ intercept failed]

The leading security suddenly looked up, in his mechanical vision, an unmanned flying car deviated from its aerial path, charging at him, he hastily raised both hands, anti-air tracking cannons popped out from both arms, but with a ’pop’ smoke gushed from the arms, with a ’creak’ both arms drooped as if fractured.

A ’bang’ resounded, the car’s front, at 500km/h speed, descended from the sky, forcefully smashing him into the cement ground.

With the Welfare Institute as the core, the entire sky transport system, ground transport system all collapsed.

Various garbled codes appeared in the virtual products.

As ancient people couldn’t live without electronic products,

people in the Mechanical Era similarly cannot live without virtual products.

Amid the chaos, fleshy tendrils appeared on the ground, the surface of the tendrils, with metal liquid from the Reproductive Soldier Body, dripped down, each drop would corrode a small hole on the ground.

Gradually, the tendrils entwined, coalescing into a human form, simultaneously, the Reproductive Soldier Body, transformed into Neuronal Armor, lit by neural signals, covered the tendril’s surface.

A mechanical monster over two meters tall gradually took shape.

The monster’s mechanical hand slowly clenched, and mechanical joints popped out one by one, finally forming a near four-meter-long mechanical gun.

Against the surging crowd, the monster strode forward.

Hanging Street

Gao Gong holding a skewer of cockroaches, eating as he looked towards the Welfare Institute, lamenting:

”Nightless City is really not a peaceful place, monsters going crazy every now and then, it’s really hard for ordinary people like us to survive here, right, Uncle Jack.”

Jack K gave Gao Gong a cold look.

”I didn’t know when a Prosthetic Doctor was considered ordinary.”

”And I smell the scent of blood on you.”

”Maybe your cockroach wasn’t roasted properly.”

...

Cyber Space, the data node where the Welfare Institute is located

The Rich Lady Love Prototype appeared on the outskirts of the Data Maze.

”You’re a bit late,” Ahong said lazily.

”And you’ve been making a bit too much noise in reality, remember we’re hackers, hackers! We should be elusive and undetectable, so much so that even the target of our hacks isn’t aware their personality has been altered. That’s what real hacking is about.” Ahong lamented.

Shota glanced at him, ”Well, you’re certainly a successful hacker.”

”Of course,” Ahong replied, delighted.

”Enough talk, you’ve been here long enough. Don’t tell me you’ve done nothing.”

”Don’t underestimate me, okay? In the hacker domain, I’m your predecessor.”

Ahong snapped his fingers, and in the next moment, the Data Maze started dissolving, with vast amounts of data being parsed and made open-source.

A path appeared before them.

”Three firewalls, this is the first layer unlocked.”

”Your Mirror Image Algorithm can’t crack the second and third layers?”

Ahong shook his head, his eyes filled with excitement: ”That’s the intriguing part, the signal source is too remote, only by getting inside can we hack the system.”

”Too remote? How far?”

”Preliminary judgment suggests it’s not on this planet.”

Gao Gong looked up, unable to see the sky, only the boundless layer of the Deep Web.

”I think I understand.”

The two exchanged glances, and in an instant, their human form data bodies transformed back into neural signals, disappearing into the torrent of data at a speed of 250 km/h.

...

Welfare Institute, Teaching Building

The first floor was empty, with vacant desks and classrooms.

But upon reaching the second floor, the array of complex advanced instruments left one in awe.

Inside each electronic pod was a peeled human brain, something that would certainly surprise Gao Gong if he were there.

Biological cans so soon?

The players aren’t even in yet.

Robots were operating the equipment, and the brains, only the size of fists, indicated that the owners of the cerebral matter weren’t very old.

The Dean was looking at the virtual screen opposite him.

On the screen, Gao Yuanyuan was leading a group of children in a game: you clap once, I clap once, one child boards a plane; you clap twice, I clap twice, two children make a call...

The Dean turned off the projection, while in reality, Gao Yuanyuan lay on an operating table, her head covered in biological tubes.

”Initiate Consciousness Upload,” the Dean ordered.

”The Electronic Woman isn’t fully matured yet,” a robot protested.

”I hold the highest authority.”

The robot’s eyes instantly turned from yellow to green.

”Executing your command!”

Almost at the very moment the Dean spoke, an alarm suddenly rang on the first floor.

”The first firewall of the Ghost Project has been breached.”

”Transfer all experimental data into my head.”

The Dean directly peeled off the wig from his head, revealing the mechanically transformed back of his head, from which a brain-machine interface slowly extended.

The Dean directly grabbed a connecting tube and plugged it into the brain-machine interface.

In the next moment, a violent stream of data surged in, causing the Dean’s facial features to bleed, his body convulsing violently.

Yet his immense spiritual power surged wave after wave.

...

In reality, Gao Gong slowly put down his skewer of cockroach, squinting his eyes.

”Why aren’t you eating?” Uncle Jack asked.

”Stomachache, need to go take a dump.”

Gao Gong walked back to his little transformation shop, closing the door. Almost simultaneously, a massive stream of data appeared in his eyes.

Hacker intrusion, biological separation, plus manipulating his body, it’s as if Gao Gong is juggling three tasks at once.

And through the Eye of Truth, he could feel that the spiritual power of the Welfare Institute was suddenly surging, and this wasn’t just any surge, it was increasing at tenfold, even hundredfold speeds.

He must change from multitasking three to multitasking two.

Only then could he stabilize the situation.