"Phew, F*ck, I... had such a vivid dream, almost ripped my throat out, the pain felt so real... and that damn, beeping machine..."

John, emotionally charged, looked around the hospital room while gasping for air.

He admitted to himself that he was a bit crazy, but being confined for so long, it felt unbearable not to let off some steam.

"Damn, where's that beeping thing?"

The room was an ordinary spacious flat, with only a mobile iron rack holding some nutrient drips beside him, lacking any vital sign monitoring equipment.

"What's going on, there's a beeping sound echoing in my head, could it be an illusion... really strange, was that dream of pulling out the tubes real too... Damn, felt just like the real thing."

John looked at his hands in confusion.

Brand new alloy skeleton prosthetic limbs, with skin-colored durable faux leather, the knuckles were black metal, like a portable brass knuckle, balancing local hardness while maintaining an aesthetic look.

Even someone as rugged as him could appreciate the design of these implants.

The realism and strength were high.

Not enough to turn into a heavily modified freak on the outside.

John's clothing was a cardigan opening at the back, so he took off the blue-gray hospital gown and saw:

Muscle bundles were grafted onto the chest and scapula, the severed limb stumps and surgical scars were already refined.

Not a single evident knife wound or burn mark was visible.

There were matte radiation lines along his abs, with a string of black script tattoo next to his heart.

[Yggdrasil]

"That's the product name I chose, it's the name of the Norse World Tree, symbolizing rebirth and flourishing... Mm-hm, you just need to know this thing costs a fortune."

Oulos sat on a red leather sofa.

The suite had a floor-to-ceiling window, with a bright view overlooking the skyscrapers and traffic of Eden City.

It gave a sense of pride to a superior being.

John calmed down for a moment, got out of bed, naked, and found the automatic water dispenser, gulping down two cups to forcibly suppress the medicinal taste in his throat.

His steps were somewhat unsteady, he failed to hold on, directly crushing the metal cup like a gym-goer with a body imbalance issue — lower body strength lagging behind the overall power.

Oulos, after introducing the product, did not speak again.

Her cybernetic eye flashed, recording John's words and actions, paying particular attention to the slight imbalance that appeared earlier.

"...WTF?"

John, like a newborn in this world, had yet to recover from the brush with death and the recurring nightmares.

[Detected new prosthetic body, proceed to scan/confirm?]

Black Light floated in his mind.

John stood frozen, as if stumbling upon a secret, pretending to feel unwell and turning his back to Oulos.

He leaned on the wall, moving forward while his brain worked rapidly.

Now that Black Light was fully restored, based on past experience, any new implant would be scanned, firewall breached, and automatically calibrated by it.

He was unconscious throughout the surgery, surely there was a physical data connection monitoring in real-time...

Has Black Light run wild?

Did Oulos and her team notice anything?

John didn't dare to look back at the intermediary, focusing his attention back to the text in front.

He attempted to expand the detailed information.

[Prosthetic: Messiah-Igdrasir (Experimental)]

[Part: Torso]

[Function: Experimental torso implant, compatible with high-intensity dynamic operating system, full-capacity computational program, multiple spinal connection slots, posture adjustment, and shock absorption.]

"Are you okay?"

Oulos suddenly appeared in front of John.

Her cybernetic eye constantly flashed, the data flow reflecting a face.

On John's face, Oulos read panic, guilt, and a complex emotion of hidden secrets.

"What's happening, John?"

Her tone was calm, furrowing her brows in thought, but she didn't press him as if interrogating a prisoner.

"Did you implant something new in me? Ugh~ wait, let me catch my breath first, it's a bit overwhelming, can I have a little... personal space?"

"Heh, quite the demand."

Oulos cast him a meaningful glance, yet let her raised arm relax, returning to the sofa by the window.

John seized the chance to go into the bathroom.

Oulos propped up a tablet to play fashion magazines, took out a pair of black-framed glasses, several surveillance screens popped up in her vision, capturing every detail of John's actions.

"...Liar."

[Eden City - City Core Sky View Apartment (32nd Floor)]

John leaned against the wall.

The dark, classical marble bathroom, with only a few soft, hidden light strips breathing, exuding a calming fragrance in the warm air.

John closed his eyes, scanning his body condition.

The arms and chest were a complete set of implants, seemingly to complement this new component, adding high-strength muscle fiber bundles near the arms.

Black Light showed no outburst.

It was actually waiting for John to confirm the next action.

A thought crossed John's mind – did the Pandora Algorithm upgrade this thing?

He moved his mind slightly, clicking confirm.

Black Light erupted with astonishing activity, almost in the blink of an eye, it engulfed his entire body, sweeping through the built-in system of the alloy skeleton.

[System calibrating, parameters correction completed.]

"Ugh—"

John covered his mouth, like a street dancer straightening his waist and abdomen to stand upright and turned around to lean on the basin and retch.

"?"

Oulos raised an eyebrow.

In front of her, red letters appeared on the screen.

Indicating the backdoor and network programs inside the implant were offline.

She swiped away the error message, switched back to the room camera, and saw:

John retching into the basin, waving his hand to activate the faucet, then pulling tissues from the nearby box to clean up.

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