"By the way, Old Wei, I need an intelligent connection installed in my hand too, I bought a smart weapon."
"...Alright, compared to your hacker prosthetic, that's nothing of a burden, lie down, I'll start with the Network Access Vault."
Victor saw he made up his mind, could only sigh in his heart and start preparing for the surgery.
This was the first time he was doing this kind of modification for a minor, and it really didn't feel right.
Even if Mercer could handle it, he didn't like seeing a kid turn into this... just looking at it made him uncomfortable.
But seeing Mercer as the leader of the team, managed to gather such a team in two days, found a genius like V, and make them all trust him...
Victor knew the weight on Mercer's shoulders was heavy, so he couldn't say anything to stop him.
Mercer's heart was not as calm as he appeared. Mechanizing parts of his body made him feel jittery too.
The feeling of abandoning his flesh wasn't as wonderful as he imagined. If he could, he would rather live as a complete human being.
But Mercer couldn't stop walking forward.
Damn it!
I'm done being human!!
He closed his eyes, felt the injection of anesthesia, and then sank into deep sleep.
...
When Mercer woke up, he saw a machine revolving around his arm, running automatically, inscribing circuits in his palm, welding the prosthetic.
"This is installing the hand's intelligent connection, just a few minutes, don't move... does it feel uncomfortable?" Victor looked worried.
Mercer remained motionless, closed his eyes, and felt: "My back feels chilly, and so does my neck."
"They've all become machined hollow, and the blood is mixed with coolant, you'll surely feel chilly." Victor said with a heavy tone.
"Hmm, my head feels swollen too, is it because of the Synaptic Accelerator installation?"
Mercer spoke and soon became fully awake from the anesthesia: "I need to try connecting online, overclock the Brain-Machine once, see the cooling power."
"You need to sit up. Once cooling is on, the gill-like cooling portals on your back and neck will expel hot air.
In the future, don't wear clothes too tightly, you might want to prepare for wearing backless clothes."
Old Wei finished speaking, Mercer wasn't in a hurry, patiently waited for the intelligent connection in the hand to be completed: "It's no big deal, my Black Customer Service modules are modular specifically for this cooling.
When the time comes, just align the cooling on the back, do the hollowing process in place.
I'm just curious about what I look like now."
Mercer reached with his hand, touching his neck with the one not operated on, only to feel a layer of cold metal.
He fell silent for a moment, then suddenly thought of the DLC Lark's inhuman appearance, but then simply laughed: "It's pretty cool, isn't it?"
"I hope you really think so."
Victor could see from his expression: "Prosthetics aren't irreversible, even with your level of modification, with current technology, you can revert to flesh and blood at any time."
"I know, but... let's leave it at that."
Mercer smiled, waited until the intelligent connection in his hand was completed, retracted his hand, and moved it: "Feels good, I think the strength in my arm has increased."
"The Muscle Enhancement Module indeed makes you feel a lot stronger, you're bulkier now than before."
Victor pointed to the restroom after speaking: "Go have a look, then come back for the cooling and Network Access Vault effect test."
Mercer responded with a nod, got up, and entered the restroom.
Looking at the guy in the mirror, his first reaction was—he grew taller.
His entire upper body seemed to have enlarged a full size from the stomach upwards.
The spliced skin showed evident black lines, with the chest muscles and shoulder muscles visibly bulkier.
He seemed to have grown about four to five centimeters, now looking about one seventy-three to one seventy-four tall.
Black cooling replaced the skin on his neck, it seemed normal from the front, but when Mercer turned around, his back had almost entirely turned into black machinery.
From his shoulders to the lower back, it was all just cold metal, and as his thoughts moved, the gill-like cooling flaps lifted up, revealing the cold mechanical framework underneath.
There was no sight of flesh, only a complex of machinery stacked together, with bright red circuits visible.
Mercer's unmodified internal organs were also covered and intertwined with many mechanical parts.
A very peculiar feeling—the back was still perceptible, with touch and temperature senses, albeit slightly dulled, yet it didn't resemble a human back at all.
Exiting the restroom, Mercer for the first time felt a bit drained, muscles clearly stronger, yet feeling weak.
"How is it?" Victor looked at him.
Mercer nodded: "It's alright, just took a few steps and felt a bit weak."
"You need to eat more, nutritional supplements have to keep up, your prosthetics consume much more than you think.
Get used to it for a while, if your heart, lungs, can't take it, you'll have to come for further modification.
The cooling's original target might be to fully mechanize your heart and lungs, I can't get you the matching mechanical components, have to use synthetic lungs and heart.