Rebecca grinned, feeling a bit pained, but still said, "This is all the money I have... let's take it slow."
"No worries, if it's not enough for now, we'll use team funds," Mercer nodded.
"Forget it, that money's also for fixing up our base, and didn't you want to buy equipment?" Rebecca looked at him and said with a smile, "I'll just take on a few more gigs! And it'll help me gradually get used to the new stuff I've installed."
She glanced at her arm and said, "With the Gorilla Arm and subdermal armor, I should have some decent combat power, right?"
Before Mercer could say anything, Rebecca immediately changed the subject, not letting him bring up loans or anything like that.
"Hey, Pira, come see what you want to install!" Rebecca turned her head toward Pira.
Pira rubbed his hands together, looking a bit excited, "Come on, let's see what our attributes are like! Dr. Victor, your place is truly unique. This is the first time I've heard of measuring potential body attributes."
"Most black clinics think it's a hassle; they'll just install whatever you want, so why bother measuring? The more you know, the more trouble it could be, and you'd need to crack corporate backdoors..."
Victor smiled as he watched Rebecca get off the chair and walk over to Mercer—despite her carefree demeanor, she was a thoughtful and kind girl.
This kid, besides everything else, sure knows how to look at girls... but... Victor had started to get a sense of things.
He glanced at Lucy, then at Rebecca, and decided he wouldn't say a word about Mercer's relationship issues in the future, not even give them a second thought.
This kid is bound for big trouble, he could feel it.
After Pira connected to the program himself, Old Wei looked at his pair of long arms, "Built them yourself?"
"Yeah, I couldn't afford anything fancy before, so I had to scrounge for secondhand parts everywhere. This arm was even pulled off a dead guy."
Pira said unabashedly, "That guy was always showing off these arms, and then he got shot outside a bar. I figured a good bargain for Cleaner Fish might as well be a good bargain for me... so I took them for myself."
"Hmm... you're interested in cybernetic mechanics?" Victor asked.
"Yeah, I used to make a little money on the streets fixing people's arms and legs, tinkering with weapons, making some weapon mods or whatnot,"
Pira said proudly, "Don't look at me like this, but I'm pretty skilled. Though I haven't learned anything formally, basic weapon mods and prosthetic upgrades aren't a problem for me."
"I can see that; you've integrated quite a lot into this arm." Victor nodded.
"Intelligence 13, Cool 10, Reflex 9, Body Potential 11—not quite as good as your sister, but good enough.
You don't need to look at attributes for technical work; real wisdom can't be tested."
After Victor finished, Pira beamed, "Right? I thought the same!"
Mercer struggled not to laugh—maybe he should've brought V along so she could see what an Intelligence of 6 really meant.
"What about you? How do you plan to modify it?"
Mercer didn't have many demands for Pira.
Pira thought for a moment and said, "I'll change to a prosthetic eye. I want one with higher precision. Nowadays, many things require such high precision, and my eye doesn't see details clearly when zoomed in.
Then I'll fix up my arms too—I'm used to these long arms, so just changing the hands is fine. I saw Zeta Technology's 'Engineer' series looks good.
Coat them in gold for me! I want a pair of golden hands!"
Pira's eyes sparkled, "I'm not interested in operating systems or anything, just add hand smart connections and a bit of heavy subdermal armor... just don't let a random bullet take me out."
I'm most interested in mechanics. Dr. Victor, just install hand welding plugins and prosthetic eye hardware detection plugins for me."
"Simple, Zeta Technology's 'Engineer' set."
Victor provided a simple surgery plan, "There's even a discount for buying the whole set. It includes the multifunctional hand from the Engineer series. It will replace half your forearm and hand, supporting nanoscale precision for hand modifications.
With it, you basically won't need any small tools; your hands alone can handle most technical work.
Couple that with a Zeta Technology engineering computer, and as long as you keep up your professional knowledge, you'll basically be a qualified tech expert."
Mercer felt a bit envious, "Old Wei, you said..."
"Get an external one, I'm begging you—look at me, I've never replaced anything, has it stopped me from doing surgeries?"
Victor glared at Mercer for the first time.
Mercer could only sigh and say, "Alright, I'll use an external one for now, but it's such a hassle to keep poking my arms with needles."
"I've been doing surgeries for so many years and it never bothered me... enough, don't meddle, I won't modify you in the short term. Just looking at your mechanical frame annoys me."
After Victor spoke, he turned to Pira, "Any other requests?"
"Nope." Pira shook his head, "I don't feel upgrades can enhance me much... just make sure people can't easily shoot me down.
I'd rather spend that money on some bigger gear, modifying some powerful equipment suits me better."
"A sensible approach," Victor glanced at Mercer.
Mercer spread his hands, "I want both hands full, both hands strong!"
"You're like a one-man army trying to do ten people's work, Mercer, you need to learn to trust the people around you—you're not alone anymore, right?"