Name: Mechanical Arm · Polyphonic Beat
Position: Right Hand
Rank: Five-Star
Traits:
【Time Roaming】: The wearer and units under their control are unaffected by time-type skills other than those of this piece of equipment.
【Grapple/Leap】
【Multi-Attack】
【Insurance】
【Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell】(Sword)
Skills:
【Time Dilation】: Consumes a certain amount of durability to throw out a time field with a radius of 3 meters. The flow of time for objects that come into contact with the field becomes one-tenth of its original speed. Lasts two seconds. Only one field can exist at a time.
【EX Time Dilation】: Through charging, activates an extremely powerful time dilation, dragging everything within a 30-meter radius into a time field, causing the flow of time they experience to become one-hundredth of its original speed. The wielder’s own flow of time becomes ten times its original speed. Lasts one second. After the skill ends, durability drops to zero. This skill places a heavy burden on the body. (Note ①)
【Adrenaline】
【Great Strength】
【Use the Body as a Shield】(Dark Sword)
【Heartfire】(Dark Sword)
Evaluation: A powerful arm that toys with time, but compared to a hand, it is more like a hand-shaped time-stopper, to the point that its performance outside of its abilities is far below the standard of its rank.
……
“This thing really is absurd!”
Watching helplessly as his golden finger kneaded one part after another into a time-stop hand, Feng Xue could only sigh inwardly. The cost of this thing was a notch higher than the Explosive Arm. Even with the Sandevistan, the main component, already in hand, he still spent nearly six million buying all the materials from the shop.
And the money he had left, plus the portion he had extorted from Sa’er, was not enough to make a second one.
But that did not matter much. Feng Xue, who had only just switched to the Explosive Arm, was not about to swap it for this hand whose basic stats were only a little stronger than a three-star. As for this thing, his plan from the very beginning had been to make it into a piece of equipment, or at worst, an implant like an internal organ, separating it from the function of an arm.
Now that the blueprint was in hand, and he had watched the entire manufacturing process from start to finish—even using his eye’s function to generate a recording for convenient review at any time—all he had to do next was completely strip away the hand portion, then redesign and lay out the remaining parts related to time manipulation. Everything would then naturally fall into place.
However, this was destined to be a job that required a considerable amount of time. Feng Xue was in no hurry. He assembled an entire set of Trauma Team cyberware into a humanoid form, removed both hands, replaced them with a Second Son Arm using 【Heart-Confessing Sword · Replica】 as its Dark Sword, and the freshly made 【Polyphonic Beat】, then applied 【Great Strength】 to each in turn. After that, based on the different parts, he arranged suitable traits and skills for each of them.
It was worth mentioning that after the sword spirit of 【Heart-Confessing · Replica】 was replaced with the Moye AI loaded with the Hell Sword algorithm, its original 【Swordsmanship Compilation】 and 【Twin Swords Unite】 skills became 【Hell Sword · Modified】 and 【Sword and Man as One】. Since it was a practical combat weapon, the 【Multi-Attack】 trait was also replaced with the more combat-worthy 【Army Breaker】.
“Although the right arm’s strength is a little lacking, its mechanics are already very powerful, and it even has Insurance……”
A restless thought rose in Feng Xue’s heart. He opened the battlefield that had once made him suffer a crushing defeat—
【Beyond the Domain】, activate!
……
Just as Feng Xue deployed the new demon sword toward Beyond the Domain, Carlos, who had been away from the gang for several days, finally breathed a sigh of relief. It was not that he was unaware of what the Skeleton Iron Society had gone through these past few days, but he cared even more about his own life.
And just a few minutes ago, he had finally dealt a vicious blow to the fellow who had been tailing him all along.
Although he had not managed to keep the person there, this piece of evidence was enough to report back with!
“Beep, beep……”
Opening his communicator after a long absence, Carlos’s face immediately darkened. The communications from his son and the Skeleton Iron Society were one thing, but that long bill from Trauma Team nearly made him cough up a mouthful of old blood.
Still……
“Feiyun Port, huh? That location was well chosen. In that case, I won’t need to find an excuse.”
Carlos did not call his son to ask about the situation. Instead, he directly settled the bill with Trauma Team, and soon received the mission footage and related proof sent by Trauma Team.
“This killer, from the garbage district…… Heh, the garbage district doesn’t have drone technology like this!”
After Carlos finished watching the video, the conjecture in his heart grew even firmer. He picked up that piece of spoils, ignoring the wound on his body that was still dripping blood, and directly dialed a number……
“Carlos, I am very disappointed.”
A cold voice came from the communicator. Carlos could not help shuddering, but he immediately opened his mouth to explain:
“My lord, the attack on the Skeleton Iron Society this time was not accidental, but premeditated—the handiwork of a big shot from another tower district. I’ve spent these past few days tracking the other party’s trail, which is why the gang suffered losses. I……”
“You’re saying a ‘big shot’ from another tower district?” The man on the other end of the communicator interrupted Carlos. His tone seemed to carry a hint of interrogation, as if Carlos would be thrown straight into the abyss if there was even the slightest flaw in his words.
“Yes, my lord. This is equipment I tore off a watcher. This is not gear that a street district or building district could possess. Even if it circulated on the black market, it would be impossible for it to have received such complete maintenance!”
Carlos held the exoskeleton-like equipment in his hand up to the camera and simultaneously activated the scanning function.
The important figure on the other side naturally had sharp enough eyes. With a single glance, he understood that Carlos was right—
“So, what you mean is, someone noticed?”
“No, they probably haven’t. Otherwise, the other party would not have merely attacked the Skeleton Iron Society and put me under surveillance. If they wanted a share of the profits, negotiating directly with you would be far more effective than slaughtering the entire Skeleton Iron Society.” Carlos spoke with no lack of humility. The man pondered for a moment, then nodded.
“Send that piece of equipment to the lab. I’ll have someone identify it. Aside from that, do you have any other leads?”
“Here it comes!” Carlos’s heart stirred, but he maintained his previous tone and said:
“The one who caused the main casualties to the Skeleton Iron Society this time is an unregistered resident said to be from the garbage district. I can’t find any information on him. Although his cyberware and equipment aren’t especially unique, they aren’t common models either. In particular, he chose to carry out the massacre at Feiyun Port, and even dared to attack in the face of Trauma Team. I think his identity may not be as simple as that of a killer looking to make a name for himself.”
“That does make some sense. I’ve also heard a little about this John. To be able to achieve this much without five-star cyberware…… it would be somewhat of a pity to simply kill him outright……”
“……” Hearing this, Carlos’s heart jolted, but he was very clear on his own position and did not try to dissuade him. He merely waited quietly for the answer.
The person on the other end of the communication seemed quite satisfied with Carlos’s attitude. He nodded slightly and sent a string of keys to Carlos:
“However, we cannot ignore the possibility that the other party has a tower district background. This is the contact method for that organization.”
“Understood!” As soon as Carlos saw the key, he understood exactly what “that organization” referred to, and immediately accepted the task. The man on the other end merely smiled at this—
“It seems someone has set their sights on my little treasury. Let me see which old friend it is, then~”
Note ①: This is how I understand the multiplier for the flow of time.
If the flow of time becomes one-tenth, that means within one second, you only experience one-tenth of a second. Then you only do one-tenth of a second’s worth of things, which means you have slowed down.
The same logic applies when the flow speed becomes faster. If my own flow of time becomes ten times faster, then in one second I have already passed through ten seconds, and having done ten seconds’ worth of things, I’m naturally faster.
Five-star cyberware can’t do something as absurd as interfering with objective time, so my setting is that it changes the speed of the time experienced by the affected target. That’s why it may seem a little reversed.
Note ②: The Trauma Team set is not something one person has to install in full. That would only result in cyberpsychosis. The protagonist killed several Trauma Team members, then gathered their cyberware into more than one full set (the extras were sold to Sa’er). This so-called full set is enough to put together a robot, but it does not mean every Trauma Team member is a fully modified Adam Smasher.
P.S.: People keep asking me why I have them shout out their skills…… First of all, if I don’t write it out, you’ll ask what the protagonist did. For sneak-attack skills like Heartfire, I won’t have the protagonist shout them, but every time he uses them, people ask what happened. Having them shouted out isn’t because the protagonist is stupid, it’s because if I don’t, you’ll ask again.
Secondly, the protagonist has a trait where output depends on shouting. In a frontal battle, shouting once can increase damage.
Lastly, Hong Kong comic-style moves only have that flavor when they’re shouted out.