Chapter — 10

After following Franklin to a new room, Rei was forced to discard her old clothes for a white gown with many seams to open it up. It was barely a garment and didn't protect her modesty at all, but she acquiesced, knowing there was no other way forward.

Rei lay down on a clinical, white operating table that matched the rest of the room's decor. It had taken some prodding from Franklin for her to do it, as the spider-like metallic limbs surrounding the bed freaked her out. Her anxiety didn't lessen when clamps suddenly sprung forth and fastened her body — trapping her and placing her at his mercy.

The white spotlights from above felt blinding to Rei's senses, and she watched as Franklin moved about the room, opening hidden cabinets and plucking out packages, fiddling with some lethal-looking instruments such as a wicked-looking saw, and swiping at a holographic terminal with unknown data flowing across its surface.

"Are you ready?" he asked, his creepy white, pupilless eyes moving from a syringe of some sort and meeting her eyes.

Ready for what?! You haven't told me anything about what's going to happen!

"I, I want to know what you're going to install before we proceed if you don't mind," Rei said, her voice unable to hide her rapidly increasing anxiety.

"Oh, this and that," he said in a bored tone as he started to move toward Rei with the syringe in hand. "A new neural link, for a start, the one you have won't be able to support the chrome we're installing. Then a new cyberdeck, of course, amongst other things."

Amongst other things? Way to increase my anxiety, dipshit.

"What's in the needle?"

"The syringe? A tranquilizer."

He wants to put me to sleep? No way. No fucking way.

Rei felt herself embrace her [Merciless] perk, her emotions fading. It was liberating, and she needed it to focus.

I won't allow him to put me to sleep in a precarious situation like this. The guy is too creepy and gives off vibes that set off all my alarm bells.

"No," Rei stated, her emotionless tone getting his attention as he peered inquisitively at her soulless eyes.

"No?" He questioned, his full attention now on her.

"Can't you just use anesthesia? Why the need to put me to sleep?"

A smile as creepy as his eyes blossomed on his face. "I can certainly do that," he said. "Some of the more paranoid types prefer it that way, but it can take a toll on one's sanity to see a ripper work on their body. Are you sure?" He sounded excited just thinking about it.

Rei tried to nod before realizing that the clasp holding her head wouldn't allow her to, so she answered confidently, "Yes."

"Very well."

Franklin moved back to one of the hidden compartments that sprung open without his touch. He replaced the tranquilizer and retrieved another syringe.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Franklin said, his creepy smile still in place as he inserted the needle into Rei's neck.

Rei immediately felt her body going numb. After a few seconds, she couldn't feel anything at all.

Without warning, the clasp holding Rei's head suddenly twisted, her head going with it as the neural link's ports became more accessible. Franklin inserted a cable into one of the ports before his eyes went silver, and he hummed a cheery tune to himself as he gazed into nothing.

"Neural link, cybernetic eyes, auditory implants, medical chip, and nanites. All civilian-grade. No synthetic nerves, good, good." He said, somehow managing to incorporate his diagnosis into the cheery humming.

Nanites?!

Without [Merciless], Rei would have panicked, yet thanks to the perk, she managed to sound disinterested as she questioned, "Nanites? I have nanites?"

His eyes remained silver as the clasp holding her head reoriented itself. He removed the cable in her data port and went to grab some instruments, answering over his shoulder, "Of course. Your amnesia must be worse than I'd been led to believe if you don't know about something so basic."

He ran his finger along the blade of a straight knife that started to buzz ominously, the sharp edges blurring to her eyesight.

"Everyone has nanites these days," he continued, his voice still cheery, "At least everyone that wants to stay alive, that is. If you were born the natural way, in a womb, that is, then your mother's nanites would have replicated and moved into the fetus on its own. If you were born in a birthing vat, like most folk these days, then the nanites would have been inserted by whatever corporating operating the vats. No doubt it was Phanes Shaping & Proliferation, as they dominate the market — at least on earth."

Rei had to take a few seconds to digest that bombshell of information. Hundreds of new questions surfaced at the revelation, but one still took precedence, and she decided to push on, even as the operating table she lay on started to turn. The clasps held her steady as she soon faced the floor.

"What do you mean that everyone who wants to live has them? What do they do?"

She heard him moving closer and felt a slight breeze on her neck as the back of the operating table opened up, giving him access to her neck and back.

"Truly ignorant, are we? Well, I suppose I don't mind some small talk as I fix you up."

He started to hum once more as Rei saw blood begin to drip down onto the tiles below.

Did he start cutting into my neck already? I didn't feel a thing.

"Where to start... You know about The Breaking and the forming of the Abyss, correct?"

"I do; at least I know the basics."

"In that case, you should know about the reactions of most of the world to the start of the war, am I correct?"

Rei thought she started to have an inkling where he was going with the leading questions.

"Nuclear bombs. A fuckton of nuclear bombs dropped all over Helson Corp's holdings in North America."

"Exactly!" Franklin said happily as Rei saw more than felt her neck jerk backward, her neural link pulled out of her spine. "The GNP — the global nanite program — was initiated as a response to the globe-spanning radiation that resulted from these initial bombings. Every living being that remains alive to this day was infused with nanites developed by a joint effort of all major corporations.

"They help keep the ecosystem healthy, or at least from deteriorating further, by preventing cancer and such illnesses from taking root. Those in humans are a little more advanced than the rest of the ecosystem and combat more types of illnesses, such as biological viruses and those resulting from the pollution present in Megacities."

Rei felt reassured when presented with the information, as it clarified that Franklin hadn't noticed the nanites composing the Samurai System. It was also a pleasant surprise that cancer was no longer an issue and that these microscopic machines prevented other minor illnesses.

Blood continued to drip down into her view before the new neural link was successfully installed.

The operating table was once more turned until she faced the ceiling, the blinding lights hurting her eyes. Not that it mattered, as those eyes soon went away.

Without [Merciless], I would totally have passed out from terror by now, Rei thought as she watched one of the spindly, spider-like arms pluck one of her eyeballs out of its socket before moving on to the next.

Rei was left in darkness for a few minutes thereafter, listening to the cheery humming of the ripper before her head was once more pressed backward, and a new eye slotted itself into her skull. The next one followed soon after.

"Am I going to remain blind?" Rei asked, forcing some irritation into her otherwise emotionless voice to get the ripper moving after a few minutes of not seeing anything.

"No rush. No rush. Vision should come back in a couple of seconds."

As he said, as if a switch had been flipped, vision soon returned to Rei, and she was inwardly astonished at the new clarity. Her old eyes had given her what she presumed to be vision no better or worse than the biological counterpart, but now it was like going from viewing the world in full HD to Ultra-HD.

It took a few seconds to orient herself to the sudden clarity and until the lights in the ceiling no longer felt blinding. She saw Franklin out of the corner of her eye as he unwrapped a package and extracted a small, oval-like object with multiple tubes dangling from it.

Seeing her look, he presented the object. "Your new cyberdeck."

Rei didn't question it, even if the shape and small size of the object raised questions in her mind.

Can something so tiny truly be powerful enough? I suppose it has to be tiny to fit into my body, and technology has advanced more than I can currently comprehend, so perhaps the size isn't indicative of its operational efficiency.

As Rei watched, the spider-like limbs started to slice open her chest beneath the collarbone. Franklin inserted a new tube close to her heart, and she saw what was no doubt blood start flowing through it.

"Can't have you bleeding out on me now, can we?" He said, even more cheerful than before.

His bored tone only vanishes when he cuts people open? Yeah, he's as creepy as ever.

Franklin proceeded to insert the cyberdeck into her chest, his cybernetic fingers fiddling inside her body as he went to work connecting the tubes to veins. The operating table's limbs started to cut deeper, and she was once more turned around as he connected the cyberdeck to her neural link.

That done, and Rei once more facing the ceiling, he grabbed yet another package, opened it, and extracted a sphere so black it might as well have been a void in space. A cable was coming out of it, and he used some of his tools to adjust the length of it before seeming satisfied.

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Seeing her inquisitive eyes, he answered without being prompted: "Soulflame Core Mark IX by Solaris Corp. It's a good core. Should last between thirteen and fifteen years, depending on how much time you spend in the mesh while connected to an external power source."

"A core?"

Rei had never heard of such a thing, even with all her reading up on Meshmagi cyberware.

"What? You didn't think your cyberdeck could be supported on bio-electricity like the civilian-grade trashware you had before?"

Rei's confused silence was answer enough.

He scoffed before moving over to Rei and started inserting it into her stomach after a few new cuts by the spider limbs. "Any real cyberware needs power, power that your body can't possibly support. Maybe some secret project by one of the major corps could fix the issue by burning nutrients or something — I don't know — but we're not quite there yet. At least it isn't on the market.

"No, everyone with cyberware over civilian-grade has a core. Solaris, based in Italy, is the largest manufacturer on earth, and most have one of theirs installed. It's a miniature fusion reactor with built-in fuel; hence, replacing them every so often is necessary. Mind you, Mark IX is a lot more powerful than most have. It's probably needed in your case, though."

That comment about a secret project hits a little too close for comfort. My System nanites seem way out of the norm. And a fusion reactor? That tiny thing? What about radiation and cooling?

Rei asked, and he scoffed in response, going back to humming a cheery tune. After securing the core into her chest, he proceeded to connect it to her cyberdeck, or at least Rei thought so, as seeing was a bit hard without being able to crane her neck.

"If the extensive shielding against both radiation and outside interference weren't enough," he eventually answered as he stopped humming, "then the nanites in your body would take care of any cancer and whatnot. And the cooling... I have no idea how they did it. Proprietary information. Stop being such a rustskull. You're ruining my mood already."

Not long after, he inserted yet another syringe with what he said were reconstructive nanites that would boost her natural regeneration in the area before sealing her up and spraying some foam above the now-closed skin.

Her head was then turned side to side as he and the spider limbs went to work on her ears, extracting the old auditory augments before replacing them with new ones. Rei was once more pleasantly surprised about the new clarity to her hearing.

"Only one thing left," Franklin said, sounding almost sad that his slicing of her flesh would soon be over.

Rei watched as he started to cut up her left arm all the way from her wrist up to her shoulder. She supposed it was good she was right-handed in case he fucked up and hacked off the appendage.

Oh, wait. I'll just get a new arm if that happens, duh.

He then proceeded to insert a long cable next to her bone before connecting it to a cable that he'd laid previously from the cyberdeck.

Sealing the arm up, he worked for a bit on her wrist, removing skin and flesh before inserting what she believed to be synthetic variants with a short black seam.

"Is that a data jack?" Rei asked.

"Right on! You only need to spread the seam here," he pointed to the black seam. "And extract the cable when you need to jack into a system. The cable can be extended for two meters and then retracted into your arm again at need."

Soon, everything was finished, and the spider limbs were retracted. Franklin took a few minutes to look his work over, both in person by prodding and poking the bruised flesh as well as on the holographic monitor.

When he deemed the operation a success, he pressed another needle into her neck, and Rei felt her body swiftly coming back under her control. Not that she could move, as she was still fastened tightly to the table.

Discomfort and pain started to radiate across her neck, chest, and arm. Thanks to her active perk, she easily pushed the feelings down, yet buzzing irritation soon began growing in the back of her mind. Her brain kept telling her that the inserted technology wasn't part of her body and that it was wrong — that it didn't belong.

"Now that we're done," Franklin started, his voice back to absolute boredom, "You'll have to remain here for a while and acclimate yourself to the changes. Cyberware is intrusive in nature, and only when you feel the irritation subside will I activate the new cyberdeck and neural link."

Rei didn't answer, too preoccupied with analyzing the strange feeling of wrongness and irritation.

I've never heard of people experiencing this feeling, even back in 2040, when exchanging their hearts or other organs for synthetic ones. What's so different about technology now that the body resists it so vehemently?

It was puzzling, and Rei didn't like it. This was her body, and she would do what she wanted with it. Even if less than half remained organic in the future, she would dictate what parts she could replace and what parts to keep.

It's my body, primal instincts be damned! I choose this; I choose transhumanism.

Rei put all her significant willpower into pushing that thought to the forefront of her mind, battling the instinctual rejection.

Rei didn't know how long she had fought the mental battle of desire and instinct, but it had to be over half an hour of strenuous effort before something suddenly clicked into place.

Rei felt her irritation subside as a new notification from the Samurai System blossomed in her mind's eye.

「Notice:

New skill learned.

[Cybernetic Adaptation, Level 1]

Governing attributes: Body, Ego

Description: By replacing parts of your organic physicality with cybernetics, you've started on the path toward transforming yourself into something more than human. This skill will help your body and mentality adapt to these changes.」

Rei quickly glanced at Franklin to see if he'd noticed anything. If anyone else could pick up on her internal notifications, she'd reckon it would be someone like a ripper doc connected and monitoring her internal systems in real-time.

Luckily, he seemed none the wiser as he went on about cleaning his instruments and the blood-spatter covering the white floor tiles.

That's good. Now, let's see what we have here.

She found it a bit weird that the irritation that had incited this new skill acquisition hadn't been present when she first woke up from the coma, considering she already had some cyberware installed at that point — even if it was civilian-grade.

Could it have been the System's mental adaptation — as it called it — that negated this instinctual rejection then? It must have been a one-time thing if that is the case.

From what Rei could gather from the skill's description, it was an absolute godsend for her future. She knew the rejection felt against cyberware would lessen as time passed and the body adapted to cyberware. Still, each person was unique in how much cyberware they could handle until going full cyberpsycho. Vergewalkers such as the woman who'd escorted her to this facility were those who skirted that limit to push themselves to adapt faster to cyberware, impatient to naturally adapt.

As long as one didn't go over the edge, it worked from what she'd read, the caveat being it was an enormous risk. Cyberpsychos were the stuff of nightmares, and each person who became one was often put down swiftly and mercilessly, as having a hallucinating and unstable murder machine didn't bode well for anyone.

Rei was adamant about pushing the limits of transhumanism in due time and had therefore considered cyberpsychosis as her most significant hurdle to overcome. Now though...

If this skill works as described, it should make me adapt much faster to any tech I replace my body with. It might be the best skill I've received so far.

She pondered the skill and the lessened irritation she felt before proceeding with some testing. It could be seen as less than optional, considering that skills leveled faster at the beginning, but she felt that she had to get a feel for the process eventually anyway.

「Skill Points: 3」

Not hesitating further, she willed one of the points into [Cybernetic Adaptation].

「Notice:

[Cybernetic Adaptation] skill level has increased.

Level 1 → 2」

「Skill Points: 2」

The change was immediate, and Rei felt nearly all the irritation and feelings of instinctual rejection fade away.

That is a relief. It's not as if I've delved deep into cyberware, and I'm sure the feelings would have subsided on their own with time, even without the skill. Now I know that the skill points work as advertised, at least.

Her currently cold and calculating mentality didn't consider the point spent as a waste, as she knew she'd gain many more in the future.

Rei glanced at Franklin once more, only to find him missing. He'd left at one point or another without her noticing, but she was still clamped to the chair.

It's probably best to say nothing about my regained state of mind, as I don't remember how long it usually takes. I'll wait until he asks how I'm doing.

And wait, she did. Hours passed. It at least gave her time to overcome the feelings of horror that surfaced every time she tried deactivating [Merciless]. Franklin hadn't joked when he expressed that watching him work could be traumatizing. She eventually managed it before he returned, and she could somewhat compartmentalize the experience and shunt it to the back of her mind.

Even if it had been horrifying, seeing a ripper at work had been a valuable experience, and she didn't regret it.

***

WolfMosh sat behind his desk in his office. He rarely used it except for private meetings with members of the Cyber Fangs. No other person would be allowed this deep inside their headquarters, and any other meeting he held was always in the mesh anyway. It was safer, as in there, he was even more feared than out in meatspace.

His eyes were fixed on a holographic display before him as he swiped his fingers through it, sifting through data and contracts alike. Of course, he didn't need the physical representation, as his augmented eyes would be more than up to the task. Yet, he still liked interaction with objects like he did in the mesh, even outside in the physical world.

WolfMosh was waiting for Franklin, who'd just finished his work on Rei.

Soon enough, his wait came to an end as a knock came on the door.

Not that the knock was needed. Franklin knew, as well as anyone else, that WolfMosh kept a constant watch on everything going on inside his base of operations. Algorithms, the resident AI, and his own augmented mind sifted through the data at all times to prevent something from surprising him. He didn't like surprises, after all.

Especially not after Rei's... incident. A momentary lapse in manual overwatch, and that is what happens. A lesson to be remembered, for sure.

Occasionally, surprises could be pleasant, he supposed. All the same, he preferred to forego them if possible.

With a flick of his mind, the heavily reinforced door slid open as Franklin entered, his bored face back in place. Everyone, even WolfMosh, found it a bit unsettling how his demeanor only changed when he was cutting people up, but he was too good at his job to even consider firing him over it.

He had no reason to doubt his loyalties either, something that had become an issue as of late. Again, his mind drifted toward Rei.

"So?" WolfMosh asked.

"The operation went well, as expected," Franklin answered.

WolfMosh obviously already knew this, having watched the whole thing as it happened.

"And the cyberware?"

"Everything was installed as per your instructions. Cogmeld Link V6 neural link, Luminous Mark IV cybernetic eyes, Kosher Aug. Rend. 1 auditory implants, Mesh Herald 2 cyberdeck, Soulflame Core Mark IX core, and a Bitflow 1 data jack."

"And the cyberdeck was the-"

"The altered version, of course," Franklin interrupted, looking annoyed. "I'm no squeak."

WolfMosh had to hold himself back from snapping at the disrespectful interruption.

Despite his own annoyance, his voice sounded as flat and artificial as always, and his face didn't even twitch. "Good. You're dismissed. Check up on Rei in a bit, then activate the neural link, core, and cyberdeck. With the shielding, she shouldn't have access to the public mesh without access to the local one, so make sure to prohibit her access. And give her some pointers on connecting to a device in your workroom. I want to see how she handles it."

Franklin nodded in bored acceptance — the glowing metal discs on each dreadlock of his beard swaying with the motion — before turning and heading out of the office.

WolfMosh stood up and went to look out of the window. It wasn't an actual window, of course, considering they were underground, but a real-time holo display inserted into the wall. It showed the front of Cyber Fang HQ, and he spent a few minutes in silence, watching the crowds outside and the comings and goings of his subordinates.

By her lack of reaction today and not speaking up to me beforehand, it's become evident that Rei doesn't remember anything about the incident. I've always been able to understand her tells well enough to guess what went on in that brilliant mind of hers.

It galled him that such a traitor didn't show a hint of remorse for their actions. Rei had been the most talented of them, after all.

And they still think they got away with it. I'll find out who the backer is, even if they're corporate or a rival gang.

The attempts at obfuscating the intrusion into his vault had shown competence — competence far above what the intruder themselves could have achieved, indicating an outside party lending a hand.

It was unacceptable, and now Rei had to be kept under confinement to prevent any chance that the outside party would tie up loose ends.

He had enough strings to pull, and both the debt owed and blackmail needed to keep Rei safe under the doctor overseeing her case in Megabuilding G3's hospital, but the moment she was discharged, those favors were spent.

It hadn't been challenging to reinforce security around the apartment Rei shared with her sister, either. Still, as she grew healthier, the risk of her wandering out of the complex and into the open became too great to ignore. Hence, her confinement at the heart of his power.

There's still a chance they'd try to act in here, but even they should know that doing so would be a death sentence.

The whole situation had been puzzling from the start, but slowly and meticulously, the weave was being unraveled.

WolfMosh couldn't wait to sink his digital fangs into their brain and burn out their synapses when the time came. They'd come to regret making an enemy out of him.