Chapter 40: Chapter 38: The Potential of Prosthetics (Friday Early Morning Slot)

Lung issues were a short-term problem that could be solved with money—

In this world, all sorts of scavengers thrived due to the high cost of human organs.

Someone might ask, why is there organ trading in a world where cybernetic augmentation is so advanced?

Because the Cyberpunk World was one step away from true Mechanical Ascension, and the whole world had undergone technological regression and a generational gap due to the collapse of the old network.

Thus, most prosthetics had requirements for the original implant recipient’s qualities, which could be divided into three attributes: "Physical," "Reaction," and "Intelligence."

These three attributes were commonly used by prosthetic physicians to judge an individual’s cybernetic potential and determine whether they could receive some special implant prosthetics.

Theoretically, only after implanting enough prosthetics could these "potentials" be converted into tangible values.

But conversely, only if the potential met the requirements could the prosthetics achieve the desired effect.

Synthetic lung tissue was a type of synthetic tissue used to increase the lung’s surface area, thereby increasing the amount of oxygen intake per unit of time, fundamentally improving the body’s endurance.

However, if the recipient did not meet the requirements, the synthetic tissue could instead decrease the efficiency of the lungs’ function.

What does it mean when a body does not meet the requirements? For instance, someone with a weak body, where their intercostal muscles, abdominal muscles, pectorals, and diaphragm were not strong enough to expand the chest sufficiently, the gas entering the lungs would not reach the maximum capacity that the lungs could process.

Without being able to utilize the full function of the native lungs, adding synthetic lung tissue was useless because there wasn’t enough oxygen for the body to absorb.

Moreover, ineffective synthetic lung tissue could increase the burden on the lungs and potentially cause other health problems.

Lille’s situation, however, was different—his muscles were weak, but his lungs were even weaker.

So a lung transplant could solve the urgent crisis.

Old Wei first replaced Lille’s health monitoring, and while doing so, explained the relevant knowledge points to Lille.

Jack had gone out to discuss the price of lizards with Father, leaving V behind—because V also had injuries to deal with.

Curious, V asked, "Old Wei, I wasn’t aware of any of this before, why didn’t I hear you talking about it?"

Old Wei glanced at V, "Why don’t you think about it yourself?"

Upon reflection, it seemed V just never paid attention...

Forget Old Wei giving her lectures, she didn’t even want to read instruction manuals longer than 100 words.

So V smiled sheepishly and asked, "Then, what are my three values according to you?"

As Old Wei was checking the health monitor implanted in Lille, he said, "Your data hasn’t been updated in a long time, but from what I remember, both your Physical and Reaction potential were over 16."

"What about Intelligence?"

"You’re better off not knowing, it’s enough."

Old Wei executed the final program, fully integrating the health monitor into Lille’s body.

A new line of HUD appeared on Lille’s prosthetic eye, showing his blood pressure, blood lipids, weight, and other basic information.

Old Wei also thoughtfully added an advanced version of the HUD for Lille, which would show more complex info like white blood cell count, blood glucose concentration, red blood cell count, hemoglobin concentration, and so on.

V pursed her lips, "What about Lille then? I bet his Physical is only a 1."

"Uh... you guessed right." Lille saw his own pathetic Physical value; even his Reaction was barely a 3.

No wonder he always felt his body wasn’t as fast or exaggerated when he turned on Si Anweisitan.

Physical determined the overall strength of the body, while Reaction primarily referred to the coordination between the central nervous system and the neuromuscular system.

On a microscopic level, Reaction was determined by counts of neurons and synapses, which was detail beyond what implant prosthetics could achieve.

A 3 was the value for an average person, a 1 meant Lille could fall over with just a push.

"Ha-ha!" V laughed mercilessly, "Weakling!"

Lille didn’t speak, for he noticed his Intelligence column didn’t even display a value. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

A high score in Intelligence did not mean he was like Newton or Einstein, but it was mainly determined by the surface area of the cerebral cortex and the activity of the brain’s electrical signals.

The higher the value, the more convenient it was for the implant to utilize the brain for processing, akin to having a larger operating memory in a computer.

To say that one with high Intelligence would become a Newton, an Einstein, or a hacker god like Bartmos was not accurate.

After all, creativity and thinking ability couldn’t be accurately quantified with numbers, and besides innate talent, education also played a crucial role in a person’s achievements.

But those personalities definitely had an Intelligence over 20.

It was clear what Old Wei meant: the testing limit was 20, but that was meaningless for Lille.

Moreover, in this world, superior genetic potential could sometimes become a curse—Lille knew this well enough himself.

Understanding Old Wei’s implication, Lille entered a number, 12, on his own, and as he did, he glanced at V:

I may be a weakling, but you’re the idiot.

Ding—

The clinic’s doorbell rang, and noises of disturbance came from the street outside—a floating car had arrived.

The floating car wasn’t large, nor particularly streamlined in design; obviously, it was an economical model mainly used for transport.

The text on the side door indicated the company it belonged to: Moore Technology.

This was the lung and prosthetics that Lille spent 300,000 euros on, finally arrived.

A man in a suit carrying a black case appeared at the clinic’s doorway, followed by two fully armed bodyguards.

"Thank you for choosing Moore Technology this time, Mr. Lille. Here is the premium organic organ and the latest synthetic lung tissue you purchased. To prevent installation accidents, the synthetic tissue has already been installed onto this organic organ using the most suitable method.

In addition, there is also the artificial auxiliary heart and blood pump you’ve chosen, crafted using exclusive Moore Technology. It guarantees your heart will never stop, and your blood will flow ceaselessly.

You have selected an alternative installation method, and given the local security situation, as well as your choice of purchase, our company bears no responsibility for the safety of the goods once they are signed for.

Please sign for your items."

Living in the year 2077, online shopping is convenient.

It’s just that Lille didn’t expect Moore Technology to deliver by floating car—although thinking about it, it made sense. Besides the 300,000 euros, he had to spend an extra 2,000 euros for the expedited shipping.

If it were delivered by car, it would be cheaper, but there’s a clause in the car shipping terms: for Night City customers, the company is not responsible for the goods once they are dispatched.

Lille didn’t dare to choose that option.

"Quite the spectacle."

Both V and old Vic were witnessing such a method of delivery for the first time.

Upon completing the signing, old Vic opened the package, valued at 300,000 euros, with a mixed feeling.

If it were just an ordinary lung, a Scavenger could get you one for a few tens of thousands, but Lille wanted something different.

Going by the standards just mentioned, the donor of this lung had a physical potential of 18, truly the créme de la créme.

There might be some exaggeration, but it surely met the standards for synthetic lung tissue installation.

Of course, once installed in Lille, it might not perform so highly and could even continue to deteriorate.

All one could say... it’s just clinging on for dear life.

Also, according to old Vic, now that the lungs are in place, the next likely acute failure could be the heart, and Lille would do well to prepare for both possibilities.

The blood pump will increase the speed of blood flow, ensuring as much as possible that the circulation can match the new lung’s robust respiratory capacity.

The auxiliary heart is there for extreme conditions—For Lille, vigorous activity could turn any organ into acute failure at any moment.

If the heart suddenly gave up, that would be it.

The auxiliary heart could ensure that if his main heart stopped beating, this top-notch product of prosthetic technology could pull him back from the brink of death.

However, this wasn’t a foolproof plan, as Lille’s body was weak. If the primary heart stopped, the auxiliary heart might just keep him alive for an extra hour or two...

"The next part might be somewhat..." old Vic began to prepare for the implant surgery.

Normally, he would offer Lille some words of comfort, but then he recalled the last time he worked on installing Si Anweisitan into Lille.

So, he changed tack and said, "...dull. I’ll send you a copy of ’Prosthetic Doctor: From Novice to Expert,’ have a look to pass the time and you might learn something too."

"Alright."

Lille agreed happily.

...

After the prosthetic implantation was completed, Lille and old Vic confirmed how to deal with the Si Anweisitan for the spine—

Lille had installed a power limiter himself, but in actual use, it couldn’t be stopped; if he kept dealing with problems this way, Lille could be ready for a funeral next month.

So he decided to let old Vic update the software system—a doubtless truth that the driver for this Si Anweisitan was not the best version.

Of course, old Vic wasn’t that amazing to be able to develop the driver for Si Anweisitan on a whim. The key was to limit the power of the prosthetics.

This actually made old Vic view Lille in a higher regard, as very few people would think to turn down the power on their prosthetics.

Using powerful combat prosthetics is like mortals stealing the sacred fire, simultaneously powerful and sinful.

For mortals, power is always an irresistible temptation, but Lille chose to seal this power temporarily, using this gadget as nothing more than a prosthetic spine.

But he still had to do his hacker’s duties; Lille decided to install a network access port in himself,

The standard manual for prosthetic doctors says: You can’t install Si Anweisitan and network access ports together, the reasons for which have already been extensively discussed.

But for Lille... he’d already proven that the risk of losing control was nonexistent.

Curiously, when this idea was put into practice, old Vic discovered that this Si Anweisitan itself had a port for inserting the core chip of the network access port—

It was actually designed to bridge a network access port!

A slight modification of the circuitry could establish a link between the access port chip and the cerebral cortex...

Completely breaking the design guidelines.

Could it be that this prosthetic wasn’t originally intended to be a Si Anweisitan?

How strange.