I left the place rubbing at my new eye as my tear ducts overflowed. They took the Advent Phantom, and by extension Blackout, back, which was a little bit of a loss. In the future though, I might be able to put together my own version of the device and get the utility of Blackout back.

Did I feel a little sad to lose Blackout? Yes, yes I did. There was no denying the usefulness of the feature, though I could respect the doctor not wanting to push it through thanks to his own moral compass. Morals were a thing sorely lacking in this day and age, and, while annoying, was respectable. Additionally, I got a cool new piece of chrome to mess around with, so it wasn’t all bad.

My new cyber-eye was the Advent Ghost. It was arguably better than the Blackout in terms of sheer utility. It had a built-in feature scrubber, so I would hopefully never have to worry about a camera catching my face again. I lost the dual-zoom, which was unfortunate, but it came with something I knew that the doctor was very excited about.

Doctor Fodisa called it the Genetic Optical Node Enhancer, or GONE. It apparently would allow me to look at DNA, and the eye would memorize said DNA as a Genetic Template. Then, with the memorized Genetic Template, it would automatically scan and attempt to match the DNA to other sources.

It was extremely experimental, but a hundred percent safe according to the doc. At the moment it could only store one Genetic Template at a time, but they were looking at increasing the amount. GONE with the feature scrubber made the Advent Ghost a relatively easy decision compared to some of the other pieces of chrome offered.

It felt off in my head as I headed back to my bike as if my vision sat a tad off-center than it used to be. The feeling was a peculiar, though familiar, one. Thankfully, the Phantom hadn't caused such a reaction, but installing chrome wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows. In severe cases, it could cause someone to glitch, diving them headfirst into a murderous rage.

The annoyance of my new eye wasn’t at that level. It was just a little dissonance with my vision and a subtle sense of wrongness. I should take things easy for a couple of days and wait for it to settle down. After I visit Nael, of course. I trusted him to check over the installation far more than the doctors at Advent.

The drive to Viceroy Street was about as fun as could be expected with only one eye. It was hard paying attention to the road and traffic with an eye that didn’t want to work, to the point that I decided to just drive with my chrome eye closed. It was dangerous, but I was better off not even trying to use it till I got more comfortable.

I nudged open the door into Absolom Clinic, for once not immediately noticed by Nael. Another man, one that didn’t feel quite like a customer, kept the Medech’s attention. He wore a similar uniform to the ones I had seen the Medevac teams wear, though his seemed a little higher end. I activated my Perks and kept back slightly so as not to interrupt the two.

“... told you, I’m not going back,” Nael said, a bit of frustration entering his voice. It was quite odd to hear. Never once had I heard him speak in anything but his relaxed tone.

“C’mon, doctor. It’s not the same without you.” Seeing that his tactics weren’t working, the man shifted to a more business-centric tone. “Look, I’ve been authorized to grant you an incredibly competitive salary, at least sev-”

“Hey, kid. Just give me a moment.” Nael cut off the other guy as soon as he spotted me. It was honestly impressive. My Stealth may not be the highest, but he always seemed to be able to pick me out with seemingly little effort. Maybe his years as a Medech had vastly improved his perception. “Dr. Carcinaten was just on his way out.”

“Real subtle. Alright, I’ll get out of your hair.” The man stepped away, his eyes tracking to me. Eyes as in four, not two. The guy had what looked to be his two biological eyes, but he also had two slightly glowing chrome ones just above his eyebrow. It was incredibly off-putting to try and meet four eyes over the usual two.

We passed each other as he made his way out and I walked further into the clinic. “Hey, Nael. Sorry for interrupting.”

“Don’t worry about it, kid. How’d your trip to Advent go?” He asked, pulling out his usual smooth tone as if the annoyance had been a lie.

I motioned to my eye. “Preem. Got a free new piece of chrome. You- uh, mind checking it over? It feels a little sideways.”

“Chek, chek. Take a seat.” He twirled the Medech chair to me as he went to grab some stuff. "How was Fodisa?"

I sat down and plugged my jack into the port preemptively. “He was an interesting guy.”

“Yeah?” Nael said as he moved back to my side and tapped on his terminal. The various scanners and machines around the Medech chair started to whirl into action.

“He was a fan of Baseball. Kinda weird to see a doctor being a fan of a blood sport.” I felt a slight buzz as the diagnostics continued.

He chuckled and met my eyes. I had a feeling he was more so checking out the Advent Ghost than anything. “He used to be the Slashers’ Medech back in the day. That was long before we ever worked together though, so I can’t tell you much.”

“Wow. That's impressive.” To think, I was just talking to someone who worked directly with my childhood idols. And he seemed to be a rather stand-up guy based on my short interactions with him. 'Course, it could've all been an act, but for once, I wanted to be optimistic about someone. Maybe since Nael vouched for him?

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Nael slid up all of the devices surrounding me and shut everything down. “Alright, the installation is good. I can recalibrate it and that might help, but otherwise, I’ll give you some eye drops.”

“Alright…”

I went through a series of calibrations and tests before getting up from the chair. Nael was a miracle worker, as always. The Advent Ghost no longer felt quite as off in terms of vision, though there was still a certain level of dissonance with how it sat in my skull. It was as if something wasn’t quite right. Almost like a ghost sensation of another eye overlaying the chrome one, making me feel a bit nauseous.

Nael passed me a small bottle with a stopper at the end. “Drip it in your eye twice a day. It should just be a light case of Cyber Syndrome, but immediately contact me if it worsens. Especially contact me if you start getting irrational feelings of fight-or-flight.”

“Right.” I grabbed the bottle and dropped some of the liquid onto the Advent Ghost. Almost immediately, a cooling sensation washed across my eye, dripping down under my skin. “How much?”

“Don’t worry about it, kid. You’re doing me a favor helping out my friend, so it's on the house.” Nael waved me off as he usually tended to do. As soon as I stood up, he began to disinfect the chair and wipe it down.

“C’mon! You gotta let me pay you, old man.” I tried a couple of times to at least give him something, but eventually left as a couple and their kid came in.

I returned to my apartment to find it empty. Feras had left at some point, though it looked like he was planning on coming back since his stuff still sat around. I took the opportunity to shower and relax since I had nothing pressing left- rather, nothing immediately pressing. There was still the twenty mil bounty and the chance of a Fedra strike team coming after me…

After drying off, I laid down against the wall and took out my journal. I wasted no time copying every schematic and blueprint in my memory except for the Sentinel ones down onto the pages. While everything was in my memory, having a physical copy helped me process them a bit better. A memorized schematic didn’t automatically grant me an understanding of how said schematic worked, after all.

The one for the Advent Phantom was incredibly important to me, and I spent quite a while just trying to figure out its inner workings. The best I could tell, it used some kind of radiation to mess with optical devices.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how exactly it worked thanks to the complicated mess of focusing lenses, some kind of radioactive core, and the micro batteries used to charge the whole thing. At least for now, it would remain a mystery just like the Sentinel schematics until Tech was at a higher level.

A short break from screens was in order as my new eye began to water like a fountain. It stung as the droves of tears flooded down half my face. For the first time in a long while, I wondered if I should just go back to flesh and free myself of such a problem. Then the rational side took back over, pointing out the usefulness of chrome.

After a short internal debate, I finally started on something I had been excited about for a long time: furniture! I already had a list I made in my free time, so I just flipped right to it and started to purchase stuff.

A super fluffy bed, a nice only slightly stained couch, several metal tables to work on, and some other miscellaneous supplies and tools. Most of the stuff, other than the bed, was cheap. Altogether I only spent a hundred and fifty on furniture, with most of that being on the bed. Not too bad all and all, though some of the stuff I got was of… questionable quality.

I also looked around as best I could for a 3d printer. Unfortunately, most of the modern 3d printers were explicitly kept out of civilians’ hands thanks to the variety of permits needed to purchase one. Permits which were only given to corporations. Thankfully, this kind of issue was precisely what fixers are for.

Confirming one last time that none were on the open market, I called up Carone. I could’ve called Ishimaru, but he was probably busy with the Savant Lab I dumped into his lap.

“What do you need?” Carone asked as soon as he answered.

I clicked through several pages on my deck, making sure I gathered the right kind of information. Although there were none on the open market, I could still find price ‘speculations’ on the Net. “I need a printer.”

“Okay… what kind?”

“A three-dimensional one. Preferably multi-medium, but just a metal or plastic one will do.”

He was silent for a couple minutes. “Alright… I can get you a multi-medium for forty thousand Rayn, a metal one for thirty-five… or an introduction to a Night Market. Someone might be willing to sell a… lower-grade one there.”

Those price points stung, though they were within my expectations. There's a reason they weren’t on the open market, after all. “This Night Market then… price point on detes to acquire a multi-medium?”

“Hmm… five thousand. I’ll send you the Constellation Night Market’s detes and entry pass. They’re holding a tech market this week… after a four hundred retainer fee, ‘course.”

Fixers- can always trust them to charge you more money than you want to spend. “Alright.” Saying that I transferred the Rayn anyway. Going through a Fixer was far less time-consuming than trying to find one myself. And getting access to a Night Market wasn’t a bad idea, especially one with an official name. Never know when I might need something.

'Course, I could buy the detes of the multi-medium one right now, but that would put me back in the red. I’ll just make do with what I could find at the Night Market for the time being until I had a bigger backlog of Rayn. Maybe seven or eight thousand?

“I’ll get you added to the list shortly.” He hung up. At least he didn’t hang up mid-sentence like the last couple times. Maybe because I was approaching him as a client and not a merc for once?

I sighed and looked around my apartment. It looks like I wasn’t quite done moving about yet.