Bad Born Blood-Chapter 159

Chapter 159

- You can’t fight properly without combat limbs, can you? A weak body is such a hassle.

En spoke in front of the machine maintenance room. He knocked lightly on the door.

Ssshhk.

As the door to the maintenance room opened, an alien species that looked like a child appeared. It was only about chest-high to me, with a small, delicate frame. A pair of small horns adorably jutted out from between the strands of its hair.

‘Tarfa.’

I knew this being well. I had seen it in Noel’s memories, too.

‘The species that passed down their science and technology to the Accretia Empire.’

The Empire’s mechanical engineering was based on Tarfa technology. Even now, some of the Tarfa worked as engineers within Imperial corporations.

"Oh, so this is the guest who will be receiving the prosthetic implants."

The Tarfa lifted her sky-blue face and looked me over. Her eyes were completely black, without whites, but they didn’t give off an eerie feeling. Since Tarfa looked quite similar to humans, I could tell she was female.

- Make this human capable of fighting, Lapis.

Standing side by side, the Equessian and the Tarfa looked almost twice different in height.

"Come in, human man. What’s your name?"

"Luka."

"A nice name."

"It’s a common one."

"You probably heard it earlier, but my name is Lapis. Lapis Lazuli. I changed my original name to something easier for humans to say."

I smirked as I stepped inside.

"Hmph, Bellato may be a multi-racial nation, but... it looks like everyone is desperate to appeal to humans. Changing names to be easier to pronounce, learning the language..."

It probably sounded mocking. That was because it was.

"It’s not just Bellato—every nation on Planet Novus is human-centered. If we want to survive here, we have no choice. On other planets, I’m sure humans adapt to the dominant species just the same."

Lapis responded smoothly, without even a hint of irritation.

Inside his combat helmet, En scoffed and took a seat.

- What a narrow-minded bastard. You think kindness is just flattery? Seeing how twisted your personality is, I can already guess how you grew up.

En’s sharp remark hit me squarely in the back of the head. And since he was right, I couldn’t even argue.

"Please sit comfortably on the procedure table."

Feeling awkward, I rubbed my neck and sat down at an angle on the table. Around me, complex electronic machines and monitors were scattered in a mess. The tangled cables on the floor were so numerous that they caught against my feet whenever I moved.

Clang! Kiiing!

Two pairs of mechanical arms rose on either side of the procedure table.

"You do it alone?"

When I asked, Lapis smiled softly.

"I prefer working alone. Besides, I have AI-controlled mechanical arms. They’re excellent assistants."

She stroked the mechanical arms attached to the procedure table. In response, the arms gave a small nod, as if acknowledging her touch.

Lapis struggled to carry over a prosthetic leg and arm, which had been leaning against the wall. They were likely meant for me. Given her small frame, the task seemed quite burdensome.

- Want some help?

En, who was sitting in a chair, spoke.

"No. I prefer doing everything with my own hands."

- Stubborn one, aren’t you? Suit yourself.

En leaned back into the chair and gazed out the window. Since the machine maintenance room was on a high floor, the city below was clearly visible.

Border City was just as chaotically developed as the lower districts of Akbaran—perhaps even worse due to the mix of architectural styles from various species.

Clatter.

After moving the prosthetic limbs next to the procedure table, Lapis wiped the sweat off her forehead.

The prosthetic leg and arm she brought hadn’t been covered with artificial skin, leaving the metal and machinery completely exposed. However, they didn’t have the rigid, industrial feel of Imperial designs.

Vmmmm.

Their surfaces followed the grain of muscle fibers in smooth, flowing curves, and the circuits embedded within emitted intermittent blue light. They almost looked like works of art.

"Which company made these? I don’t really know Bellato’s manufacturers."

"If I had to name one, I’d say Lapis Lazuli Inc."

"How flattering. A custom prosthetic made by an individual."

It seemed my body data had been handed over long ago. Custom prosthetics from a private workshop couldn’t be made in just a day or two. They required at least several months, sometimes even years.

Ivan’s variable prosthetic and Francec’s ornate prosthetic armor were also custom-made, with no mass-produced equivalents.

"The model you’re using now doesn’t transmit sensory signals, so removing them won’t cause pain. I’ll begin."

Lapis carefully replaced my limbs one by one. She did it gradually, likely to prevent me from feeling uneasy if all my limbs were removed at once. It was a meticulous and considerate process.

"Do you have any spare cybernetic eyes?"

I glanced around as I spoke. The machine maintenance room was filled with various prosthetic parts and equipment. It seemed likely she’d have at least one spare eye.

"A cybernetic eye? Why?"

Lapis asked as she removed my right arm. She switched tools with the help of a mechanical arm.

"Biological eyes are inferior in function. Since my brain was being treated, it looks like my eyes regenerated along with it."

I tapped beneath my right eye with my left hand. The soft, organic feel of it was unfamiliar.

"Throwing away a perfectly healthy body just to get stronger—that’s something only a madman would do."

I twisted my lips into a smirk.

"Sounds just like me. So take this eyeball out and put in a combat-grade cybernetic eye instead."

For the first time, Lapis’ smile disappeared. She frowned.

"I don’t remove healthy body parts to replace them with machines. If you want a cybernetic eye, go look in the black market. And don’t ever come to me again. Even if Jafa orders it, I won’t have anything to do with you."

En, who had been listening to our conversation, chuckled.

- Less than ten minutes in, and you’ve already pissed Lapis off. Impressive. You’ve got talent—talent for being a garbage human being.

"Guess my true nature’s been exposed already."

I shrugged.

- Typical Imperial. You people throw away your natural bodies like worn-out clothes.

"I didn’t know Equessians talked this much."

- Akies or whatever, Jafa’s wasting his money on you.

Hearing our exchange, Lapis frowned even more.

"Don’t fight in my workshop. It’s distracting. And En, if you keep this up, go wait outside. This is delicate work."

- Fine. Oh, and here’s your terminal, Luka. It has your room assignment and schedule. Check it.

En placed a terminal on the table and walked out.

And with that, the conversation between me and Lapis ended as well. She worked in complete concentration, meticulously installing and inspecting the prosthetics.

* * *

The implantation was finished. The procedure had been smooth enough that I could have fallen asleep.

I stared at my new limbs. They were embarrassingly high-end. Light flowed through the circuit-like veins instead of blood. The movement felt remarkably light, even without any adjustments.

"Now, I’ll measure the signal bandwidth for output control..."

Lapis wiped the sweat from her forehead with the towel hanging from her waist and stood in front of a monitor. A holographic interface appeared before her.

"Set it to the maximum."

"What? This isn’t some regular piece of equipment. You’ll fry your nervous system."

"I have a feeling. Even if you widen it to the max, it won’t be a problem."

I closed my eyes as I spoke. In the darkness, I imagined blue light bending along the circuits.

Kiiing.

My fingers moved slowly, powered by a surge of energy. I had manually pushed the output to its limit. Soon, I hit the programmed bandwidth restriction.

‘If I focus, I think I can break through it...’

It was a strange sensation.

"Ah! Wh-what are you doing?!"

Lapis spoke while looking at the monitor. Only then did I open my eyes and break my concentration.

Beep, beep, beep.

The screen was flooded with error messages. The complex graphs and numbers beside them spiked and crashed erratically.

"You saw that, right? I can force the signal bandwidth up anyway, so unlock it before the internal program gets messed up."

I put on a confident front. In truth, this was my first time doing it.

‘I just hacked a machine with biological signals.’

I knew this kind of thing was theoretically possible. Some electronic warfare specialists connected their brains directly to networks, using them as computers.

But I wasn’t an electronic warfare specialist.

‘The logical explanation... is that after pushing my prosthetics to their limits, I learned to control them as if they were truly part of me.’

The biological signals from my brain were converted into cybernetic signals, which controlled the prosthetics.

‘If the strength of my signal exceeds the program’s restrictions, my commands take priority.’

It was just a hypothesis. There were probably others in the Imperial Guard who had experienced something similar. If Hemillas were here, I would have asked him right away—he was a soldier who knew everything.

...It wasn’t a new realization, but Hemillas was dead.

Just thinking about it made me feel like the tightly locked box of emotions inside me was about to burst open. That was why I avoided mentioning the Custoria family in front of Jafa.

The room was silent. Lapis, sensing the shift in my mood, waited before gently breaking the quiet.

"Would you like a handkerchief?"

At first, I didn’t understand what she meant. Then, as I touched beneath my left eye, I let out a hollow laugh.

"Looks like my brain still isn’t fully recovered."

"Crying doesn’t mean you’re broken. Not crying does." ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

"That’s a good point."

Lapis seemed pleased with my answer, smiling brightly. By human aesthetic standards, she wasn’t particularly beautiful or striking, just cute. But I liked her smile nonetheless.

"I’ve lifted the bandwidth restriction. I’ll call that prosthetic set the Lazuli-21 model."

Lapis adjusted the holographic interface. My limbs felt even lighter than before.

Kiiing!

Then, a surge of sharp nerve pain and excessive signals flooded through my prosthetics. It felt like shards of glass and needles were stabbing into my limbs. Anyone untrained would have passed out instantly.

"Ah, that must hurt a lot."

"I like the pain."

I gritted my teeth as I spoke. This wasn’t a joke. For the first time, I felt like I had a proper body. The exhilaration of grasping power completely overshadowed the pain.

"...Pervert."

"Pervert, lunatic, psycho—I hear those all the time, so I don’t take offense. So, does it have any special functions? Feels like a prosthetic that sticks to the basics."

I detached the cables from my limbs one by one and stood up.

Pa-ang!

I threw a light punch, and the air trembled.

‘Impressive.’

The responsiveness and speed were excellent. Lapis’ craftsmanship was masterful—she could be called an artisan.

"You have a good sense. I only had your physical data to work with, so I prioritized the basics over additional functions. You won’t find anything better in this weight class."

"And?"

True artisans don’t settle for making simple things. There had to be something unique about these.

"They can repair minor damage on their own. Liquid metal is embedded between the metal layers using a dual-compression process. When exposed to the surface, it hardens and reinforces the structure. It’s the same principle as blood clotting."

"Expensive, complicated, extravagant."

"That’s what makes it special."

I walked past Lapis and grabbed the terminal on the table. It had similar basic functions to the one I used in the Empire.

Beep.

Since this was its first activation, it took a moment to start up. Meanwhile, a commercial played on the small screen.

- Snake, snake, snake! A burger made with patties ground from real snake meat! It might even be poisonous! But it’s thrilling, it’s good, it’s tasty, it’s fun! Snake, snake, snake! Come on down to Jafa Burger!

A snake slithered across the screen before launching itself into a frying pan. Then, the scene cut to various species cheerfully eating burgers.

- A taste so deadly, you won’t notice if one of your group dies! If you die while eating, you’ll win a life-changing amount of credits!

A person foamed at the mouth and collapsed backward.

- Jafa Burger has 12 locations across Border City!

I fought the urge to smash the terminal and turned my head to the side. Then, I looked at Lapis, silently demanding an explanation.

"Lord Jafa is the king of the food industry in Border City. He has the entire market under his control. Would you like to see a Jafa Pizza ad next?"

"Please tell me I don’t have to watch these ads every time I reboot the terminal."

"Sharp guess. Snake, snake, snake~."

Lapis swayed her head from side to side in rhythm with the jingle.

...This was going to drive me insane.