Yamafu Military Affairs

Chapter 340: The Flexible Moral Bottom Line of Humankind in the New Era
"If being poor is considered an illness, then I am already terminally ill."

Qin Huai shrugged, answering Old Man Guan's question.

"If you are really so poor that you are just a body of rotten flesh, would you consider exchanging his Mantis Blade for your own? I can help you make his death legitimate and change the emergency medical records to say that the rescue was unsuccessful and he died in the fight with the walker, so that you don't have to worry about the future."

Old Man Guan patted the Cockscomb's mechanical arm and turned to look at Qin Huai.

Qin Huai glanced at the pair of Mantis Blades, which were camouflaged with a bionic skin coating and looked no different from ordinary human arms, and asked, "What do you want?"

"Of course, it's for the remaining prosthetics and biological tissues of this guy. Putting aside the [Mantis Blade] I promised to give you, the remaining parts of this guy can be processed into living hardware and sell for more than 10,000. It's easy to make extra money with just a few clicks, so why not do it?"

In Old Man Guan's words, the organ trafficking business seemed to be no different from killing chickens and cows, and was a common business in the underworld.

"Would you consider it? If you just nod your head, not only can you save thousands of dollars in medical expenses, but you can also get a pair of Mantis Blades for free. Such a good thing is rare in the world."

Old Man Guan clicked a few times on the virtual screen projected onto the medical operating table, and his tone was not at all like that of a profiteer or a black doctor.

"Never mind, I have something better."

Qin Huai shook his head and turned his gaze to the silver-white bald head in Chu Qing's hand.

"Yes, since you have a brother who can tear off a walker's head and play with it as a ball, there will definitely be better ones."

Old Man Guan's prosthetic eye accurately captured the changes in Qin Huai's vision, and he also learned of the two's fake identities through some secret channels.

There is no need to say much about Qin Huai's fake identity Ah Hu.

The key is Chu Qing’s fake identity: A Niu, the brother who grew up with A Hu in a public nursing home in the Greater Bay Area.

Ah Niu's situation is similar to Ah Hu's, but he sneaked into Southeast Asia earlier. In 2274, with his outstanding dynamic talent and wonderful encounters, he won the title of Rookie King in his first underground black boxing in Borneo. Since then, he has been boxing in several free states such as Singapore, Malaysia, Borneo, and Kuala Lumpur. Although he is not a legendary figure who shakes the world, he is not an unknown person either.

Perhaps in the eyes of corporate and religious bigwigs, Aniu doesn't even qualify as a bodyguard, but in the eyes of old man Guan and other black doctors hiding in the underground world, Aniu is definitely a big client who needs to be treated with caution.

Old Man Guan talked so much nonsense with Qin Huai just now. On the one hand, he wanted to make some extra money and save a new brain-computer that required an authentic key to activate. On the other hand, he also wanted to do a favor for the Niu and Hu brothers to facilitate future dealings.

Now seeing that Qin Huai rejected his proposal, Old Man Guan didn't care. After sitting on the medical operating table, he used his hands and brain at the same time. Under the control of radio waves, the robotic arm began to methodically cut the quarter of the Cockscomb's skull full of metal fragments.

Old Man Guan's pair of precision prosthetic hands, which were obviously of better texture than the Mantis Blade, held a very sharp scalpel and a walnut-shaped black flexible tray, and began to carefully remove the gel that wrapped the pink brain tissue.

Prefrontal lobe, hippocampus, inferior temporal lobe
As the operation continued, Qin Huai also saw the biological brain tissue of the cockscomb, which was much smaller than that of a normal human.

[23rd Century Human Biological Brain]: After being optimized and modulated, most functions are handed over to the brain-computer, leaving only a few functions (irreplaceable) as the life center.

Note: Perhaps, physical death is not real death.

"What grade of prosthetics do you use?"

"The cheapest one that can keep him alive is fine."

Qin Huai waved his hands, his eyes fixed on this high-tech medical operation that could barely be said to be resurrecting the dead.

"Then we'll use the basic prosthetic package for eternal life, but I can't choose the brain machine. I only have the [Chrysanthemum Blade Type 1] from Takamagahara."

Before Old Man Guan finished his words, several drawers popped out from the tightly fitted metal wall in front of him, and various types of prosthetics were arranged in the slots in an orderly manner like dominoes.

The robotic arm picked out the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and tongue one by one, and then took out a metal skull of suitable size and a tightly packaged chip. Then, Old Man Guan assembled the new head with a cockscomb on his neck like playing with building blocks, and then pulled out the broken artificial nerve fiber bundles from the interface of the biological brain like picking vegetables, and inserted them into the connecting cable of the new brain-computer.

After doing all this, Old Man Guan slowly pulled out the black flexible tray, rewrapped the biological brain with a layer of gel, and slid it into the new skull, and the job was done.

Qin Huai looked at the scene in front of him and inexplicably felt as if he was watching a hermit crab moving in the animal world.

"Ok, it's done. He should be awake in ten minutes. Then we can retrieve his memory backup from your Claw Gang's spiritual realm and re-download the information before the fight. Within twelve hours, I guarantee he will be able to collect his debts in good spirits again."

The robotic arm transferred the Cockscomb who had just undergone surgery to the single bed nearby. Old Man Guan threw the used medicine bottles, capsules, syringes and other disposable surgical instruments into the yellow trash can with the infection mark at his feet. He turned his head and looked at Qin Huai: "Eighteen basic trauma repairs and muscle fiber damage repairs, a total of three thousand six, the eternal life basic prosthetic package is one thousand five hundred, [Chrysanthemum Blade-1] is five thousand, the surgery fee is three thousand, and the [Merlion] usage fee is two thousand. The total is fifteen thousand one. I'll give you a zero, just pay me fifteen thousand."

"Can the balance be deducted directly from their personal accounts? I don't have any money right now."

Qin Huai pointed at the nineteen street thugs who were still unconscious and spoke tentatively.

"Yes, but if they force the deduction, they will have to charge an additional 7387.21% technical service fee. The total amount they owe is still ."

The honeycomb-shaped high-definition camera array embedded in Old Man Guan's eye sockets projected a holographic image, clearly listing the details of the emergency medical expenses.

Qin Huai glanced at the bill and opened Ah Hu's personal account through the [external electronic brain].

Account balance: 163.72
It’s not much, but the purchasing power is strong, enough to maintain the minimum living expenses for three months.

Since the currency of this era has long abandoned the credit-based monetary system and instead is linked to energy and computing power, gold and silver banknotes cannot circulate in the market and can only return to their original value and serve as raw materials for industrial manufacturing.

The way to reflect each person's wealth is also very intuitive. That is, major corporations and religious oligarchs work with the World Bank to use each person's unique genetic code to tailor exclusive accounts.

Since Shinobi had fabricated this fake identity for a short time and did not participate in "work" to make money like most people of that era, Ah Hu had no other surplus income except the 200 yuan resettlement fee given by the Split Claw Gang.

Although poor, it is still clean.

Thinking of the "work" that people in this era are doing, Qin Huai couldn't help but feel a little cold in his heart.

In 2277, highly developed AI and machinery have replaced most physical labor, but the people are not liberated because they still need to "think".

Yes, literally. The people of this era have no parents or relatives. They are all born in artificial wombs, and virtual caregivers replace their teachers and parents to raise them in public nursing homes.

So for them, the closest relationship is with their companions who grew up together in the public nursing home.

When their brains are about 16 or 17 years old and their brains are properly developed, the government, enterprises or religions will provide funding to install brain-computers for them for free. After having brain-computers that can enter the spiritual realm, as adults, they only need to pay some thought data to get corresponding rewards and live the life they want in the spiritual realm.

Although the spiritual realm, cyberspace, virtual network, pure land, and lotus world have different names, they actually represent the same thing, which is also the main target of Qin Huai and the others' investigation this time.

"Tear this thing down, and I'll consider picking out some suitable prosthetics to pay for it."

Seeing Chu Qing speaking, Old Man Guan naturally had no objection. He took the silver-white bald head and started working.

"Okay, these five Pisces are in good condition anyway, so selling them for 20,000 is no problem."

Old Man Guan grunted, and the robotic arm ejected a high-energy laser generator, which aimed at the tightly fitted head of the Walker and began to cut precisely.

Soon, the five scarlet prosthetic eyes had their optic nerve cable interfaces unplugged, and were peeled out like lychees by the precision prosthetic hands and placed on the tray next to them.

[Pisces-2 Prosthetic Eye]: It is said to be one of the thirty-two characteristics of the Buddha. It is a self-developed classic model launched by Bodhi Group in 2240. It utilized the breakthrough results in the field of neural connection technology at that time and integrated the most powerful scanning algorithm within the group. The price of a single piece is five thousand and the load limit is five pieces.

The Pisces-2 artificial eye is a steel-blue sphere with a circle of red crystals like the compound eyes of insects embedded on its surface. On the front is a miniature camera with a scarlet background, and on the back are hard nerve cables that are gathered together like appendages.

"The transformation is so thorough? You are indeed a follower of the Four-Faced Buddha."

Old Man Guan looked at the completely opened cranial cavity. There was not a single biological brain tissue inside. Instead, it was completely filled with a variety of precision components, making the most of the small space.

buzz~
A low-frequency buzzing sound suddenly sounded, and old man Guan was quick-witted and quickly removed the two miniature sound wave generators from the extension board of the brain-computer interface.

[Qilu-1 type medium balance disturbance prosthesis]: Developed independently by Brahma Group, it can cause disorder in the vestibular organ of the cochlea of ​​a living being through sound waves of a specific frequency, resulting in spatial adaptation syndrome.

Note: For humans whose nervous systems have been modified and whose senses have become more sensitive after the addition of brain machines, the effect is extremely strong.

"Brahma's Crossroads, Bodhi's Pisces, and Whale Song's specialized brain machine all cost a hundred thousand dollars in total. Where would a low-level practitioner get the money to do a complete transformation?"

Old man Guan investigated the traveler's identity through secret channels. Although he was puzzled, he did not stop working. With a light lift, the dark blue brain-computer, which was half the size of a palm and covered with light paths inside and outside, was carefully placed into the flexible tray.

[Jingbo-1 Brain-Computer]: A brain-computer specialized for thinking that is monopolized by Jingge Company. It has low production capacity and high price. It is naturally suitable for Buddhist believers who want to develop brain consciousness. With this as the core, different prosthetics, chips and alchemy injections can be used to unlock different Buddhist magical powers.

Note: After the great power outage forty years ago, Whale Song fell into a slump, but it quickly regrouped and made a comeback, becoming the world's top manufacturing giant in just thirty years.

"This traveler must have unlocked his telepathy, which is why he was careless for a moment and was killed by his own gun."

Qin Huai pointed at the Cockscomb who was slowly waking up in the distance, picked up a Pisces artificial eye, and pushed the rest to Old Man Guan.

"I'll leave these four Pisces for you to pay off your debt. Please help us seal the remaining prostheses."

"No problem, but do you really want to consider prosthetic transformation? I have quite a few good stuff here, including a set of Level 2 prosthetics [Kaibi Mantis Blade] and an eighth-grade alchemy [Seven-Star Mantis Fist]. As long as you exchange that [Whale Wave] for it, I guarantee that you will have the strength comparable to that of [Red Blood Thug] in a short period of time."

"I want to be a hacker in the future. These old things that have been resold for who knows how many times have too many hidden dangers. They are not suitable for me."

Seeing Qin Huai's refusal, Old Man Guan nodded in understanding, took out two small metal boxes, disinfected [Qi Lu] and [Jing Bo] and put them in.

"Even if the deal doesn't go through, we are still friends. Since you spent a lot of money, I would like to remind you that the traveler has most likely uploaded his consciousness to the spiritual realm and left a backup in a small lotus world."

Old Man Guan paused and smiled with an inexplicable smile: "Today you destroyed his mortal body, be careful that this fanatic follower of the Four-Faced Buddha wakes up and becomes ruthless, attracting evil spirits to die with you."

"If you have no power to resist while alive, you are even less worth mentioning when you are dead. But thank you anyway. Also, I want you to help me find a better hacker. I have a job that needs help."

Qin Huai didn't care about the possible revenge of the traveler. He changed the subject and talked to Old Man Guan about another business.

"How powerful?"

"You can find the most powerful one."

Qin Huai thought about it, and after dealing with old man Guan, he turned and walked towards the man with cockscomb hair and the muscular men.

"So, he saved us?"

Cockscomb Head, who had entered the spiritual realm and re-downloaded the memory backup, looked at Chu Qing suspiciously after listening to Qin Huai's explanation.

"Why, you don't believe it? Why don't you try it yourself?"

Chu Qing grinned and raised his fist as big as a casserole.

"Forget it. I don't have the money to buy a new head."

Seeing that the situation was stronger than the person, and that the Niu and Hu brothers had saved his life, Jiguantou smiled awkwardly, took the initiative to lead the way, and went to the base camp of the Split Claw Gang together.

About twenty people walked through the underground passage and soon heard the faint eddy noise of the vacuum rail transit.

Qin Huai and others walked up the slope and left the underground passage.

It was daybreak, but the blinding light pollution had not diminished in the slightest. Various holographic images floated in the sky, and next to Qinhuai was the sign for an abandoned underground parking lot.

"Let's go, stray dogs have to go home too, right?"

(End of this chapter)