Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

”I heard you’ve been quite impressive lately.”

In the transformation room, Gao Gong was chatting idly with Leaky while tightening screws.

Ever since Gao Gong cured Leaky’s frequent urination, urgency, and incontinence, Leaky felt much more spirited, no longer trembled when peeing, and even became more forceful when fighting. He walked with the air of a Double Flower Red Staff.

”Hehe, it’s mainly thanks to your help,” Leaky complimented.

”I heard your gang recently recruited a Prosthetic Doctor?”

”Are you talking about Miss Sakura? How could her skills compare to yours!”

”Miss Sakura, so this Prosthetic Doctor is a woman?”

As a gang occupying ten streets, the Welfare Gang was no longer the same as before. It wasn’t surprising they brought in another Prosthetic Doctor to spar with Gao Gong, but having a female Prosthetic Doctor was quite rare.

Leaky carefully looked around and said, ”She was recommended by Lady Red Dream.”

”The boss of the Red Dream Club?” Gao Gong made a curious sound. He had seen the local area network of the Red Dream Club in cyberspace and found it quite advanced. He didn’t expect they had a Prosthetic Doctor under them.

Could she be another old schemer lurking underwater?

”Stand up and try it out.”

”Sure thing.”

Leaky rose to his feet; his lower half was no longer a diesel engine plus metal skeleton but two smoothly contoured mechanical legs, almost indistinguishable from normal human thighs, full of power, with built-in military energy boards, and two firearms slots, two melee weapon slots.

The label on the right mechanical leg read ’Mas-Military Type-31.’

Fine-level mechanical prosthetics like these weren’t usually available on the market.

The military exhibition should be starting soon; I wonder how Director Du and the others are preparing. A good opening act could let them charge into the global arms market like a fierce dragon.

In this little transformation room, Leaky practiced a set of mechanical martial arts, the harmony of the opening and closing of the pneumatic pumps, the rhythm changes of the kinetic energy output, and various mechanical parts on his body.

”Hit me with a punch.”

Leaky didn’t hesitate for a moment, taking a quick and firm step forward. Starting from the sensors in his feet, the kinetic energy of each mechanical joint began accumulating layer by layer. The most remarkable thing was this guy’s sound system and 3D effects, which, as he threw a punch, transformed into a ferocious green dragon lunging forward with a raised head and swinging tail.

Amazing! These special effects are even better than Qiao Feng’s!

Gao Gong extended his palm and casually caught the punch, turning off Leaky’s sound system along the way.

He glanced at a game panel.

Advanced Mechanical Skill: A combat technique native to Fucheng Island that can make a prosthetic body perform beyond normal parameters, +15% prosthetic efficiency.

”Who invented your Welfare Gang’s mechanical skill?” Gao Gong asked with interest.

Leaky was dumbfounded for a moment and rubbed his head.

”It seems like it was around when I was born. According to the elders in the clan, it has been passed down through generations, but there are many theories about who invented it. Some say it was taught by an immortal on the island, while others say it was handed down from the mecha team during our ancestors’ exile.”

Gao Gong knew a little about Fucheng Island, located southeast of the Guanzhong Plate, a 200 km small island, and like all the 9th District islands, it was a fragment formed when the continent disintegrated in the Second Mechanical War.

Like most islands, the living environment on the island was extremely harsh, with sea beasts roaming and constant storms, making the islanders the main force for smuggling.

”Master, do you want to learn? The one most skilled in Mecha Technique in our gang has to be our Boss Gao.”

Looking at Leaky, who seemed eager to matchmake, Gao Gong waved it off casually.

”I don’t intend to. Besides, if I were to learn, I’d want the best.”

”The best? Our Boss’s Mecha Technique is the best; even the uncles on the island can’t compare. It can develop prosthetic performance to 200%.”

”Let’s talk when he can develop it to 1000%,” Gao Gong waved his hand, ”Hurry up, I’m leaving early today.”

”Getting off work? Master, where are you going?”

”To pay taxes. Doesn’t the underworld have to pay taxes?”

But instead of going to the Business District to pay taxes, Gao Gong took a ’floating rail car’ in the opposite direction to the Nameless Terminal. The reason it was nameless was that some genius had spray-painted away the station’s name on the signboard, replacing it with a big, blood-red X.

This place belonged to the outer edge of the Outer City District, desolate and rundown. The only good thing was the absence of random noise pollution and light pollution.

Slums, fringe areas, virus villages, these were Red Leaf Street’s impressions to the outside world.

’Contains patients with mechanical syndrome, mental illness, infectious disease, normal citizens please do not enter.’

’Red Rain Street’

On a rough metal signpost, Gao Gong saw these words. Incidentally, the signpost also had three bullet holes, a clear warning.

The sky started to drizzle. Out of 365 days a year, Nightless City probably rained for 300 days.

Gao Gong had stayed here for almost a month and had become accustomed to it. He opened his prepared umbrella and walked into Red Rain Street through the mud.

Gao Gong quickly understood why it was called Red Rain Street. Electronic rain splashed onto the mystery-component red soil, splattering a blood-red color—red puddles, red rainwater, red streets.

Gao Gong even saw something similar to rural adobe houses. In Nightless City, this truly was an unimaginable sight.

The rain was getting heavier, and Gao Gong stood in front of an old man holding an umbrella.

This old man was sweeping the ground in the rain.

The old man was completely blind, and there were cut marks on his head.

Gao Gong walked behind him, lifted his stitched-up skull, and sure enough, the brain area was empty.

This was likely a participant in some brain experiment, most probably a project of a big corporation.

Ordinary street technology, like that from a Prosthetic Doctor, usually wouldn’t target the brain.

Gao Gong walked up to a mud house, and from the wooden door came a fierce knocking sound. Through the broken glass, he could faintly see a burly man tied up, missing a leg, an arm, and an eye, with obvious prosthetic implant marks on the cut edges.

It seemed to be some kind of withdrawal reaction, as the wounds started bleeding profusely due to his restlessness.

Most striking were his eyes. From them, Gao Gong saw a murderous aura not supposed to be in a junkie.

”Cyber psychosis?”

Then, Gao Gong saw a robot whose brain had crashed due to religious frenzy, a Transformer who failed at prosthetic implants, an unwanted spouse-type Bionic Man, and an entrepreneur who, after failing in business, had most of his body parts auctioned off.

Gao Gong knew what kind of place this was.

Abandoned place.

”Sir, would you like a cup of coffee?”

In front of a wooden house, an Artificial Intelligence turned holographic image was enthusiastically selling coffee.

”I’ll take a cup.”

Every time the girl made coffee, there was a noticeable stutter in her actions. Once it stuttered, the holographic image would disappear, revealing a rusty mechanical arm.

”Boss, the operating system needs replacing,” Gao Gong said casually as he took the coffee.

”I haven’t even cleaned the viruses from the brain yet, let alone have the money to replace the system.”

”Red Leaf Street rarely has visitors like you,” the Coffee Girl said.

”What kind of people usually come?”

”People who live and die on their own.”

”Oh.”

”Sir, are you looking for someone?” the Coffee Girl asked again.

”Is there a short girl with a keen sense of swordsmanship on Red Leaf Street?”

”Sorry, but we don’t have anyone like that on our street.”

Gao Gong stared at her for a moment and laughed, ”Your facial dynamic capture technology is lacking; I can tell when you lie just by looking.”

”But the coffee is delicious, thank you.”

”You’re welcome.”

...

An hour after Gao Gong left, a petite figure carrying big and small bags appeared on the street.

”Xiao Yu, you went scavenging again!” the Coffee Girl said disapprovingly.

”Yeah,” the young girl beamed brightly, ”I picked up a really big bag today, and I calculated that if I sell everything, I can buy Grandpa Robot a dust remover, Uncle Death God a vial of sedative, and get you an energy board.”

The Coffee Girl waved her over, and the girl trotted over.

”Someone was looking for you today; did you get into another fight?” the Coffee Girl said sternly.

”No,” Xiao Yu’s eyes darted.

”You need to change that habit of seeking trouble. It’s a behavior that endangers survival instincts, even I, a robot, know that a program only runs in the correct mode.”

”Yeah, yeah, yeah,” the girl clearly hadn’t listened, ”Got it, I’m off to give Uncle Death God his shot.”

After the girl left, the Coffee Girl’s expression froze for a moment, talking to herself.

”That girl must have a screw loose, talking like that and admitting everything herself.”

”Top-notch mecha blade art, what’s this girl’s connection to those people on Fucheng Island? And to the Empire?”

Leaky’s Mechanical Art, Xiao Yu’s Mecha Blade Art, both gave Gao Gong a strong sense of déjà vu.

This wasn’t an ordinary hand-to-hand combat skill, nor did it seem like the skill of driving an Exoskeleton. Instead, it resembled the Advanced Mecha Operation Techniques in mecha civilization.

The Empire’s mecha capability shouldn’t have reached this level yet.

Director Du plans to open a blue ocean market through mecha, but relying on mecha performance alone might not be enough; adding mecha operation technology would probably do the trick.

’I must find an opportunity to visit Fucheng Island.’