“You just said a full set of three-star cybernetics starts at five thousand, not five thousand per piece? What’s the market price for a single lowest-grade three-star cybernetic prosthetic?”
Harboring the suspicion that his golden finger had taken a kickback when he topped it up, Feng Xue posed the question to the AI. The AI responded almost instantly:
“The market reference price for a single lowest-grade three-star cybernetic prosthetic is five thousand credits.”
“No, wait a second!” Feng Xue’s eyes widened. All of a sudden, he had the same feeling he’d had in his previous life when dealing with some dumb-ass Taobao customer service rep. “Didn’t you just say a full-body modification costs five thousand?”
“That is correct,” the AI replied calmly. “Because the market price refers to the price of cybernetics sold by legitimate storefronts. Compared to manufacturing cost, there is an extremely high markup. Aside from those with medical insurance, individuals rarely purchase low-end three-star cybernetics from legitimate stores. Those with medical insurance also very rarely purchase or use low-end three-star cybernetics. At present, most low-end three-star cybernetics on the market are smuggled in from Da Yan, or are defective products produced by corporate factories while manufacturing high-end three-star cybernetics.”
The AI’s answer left Feng Xue at a loss for what expression to make. So he’d been screwed by the “market price”? He opened his golden finger again and searched for Da Yan cybernetics, only to be so infuriated by the two-thousand-percent tariff that he laughed.
Feng Xue resigned himself with a sigh. For the time being, he stopped thinking about buying cybernetics through his golden finger and refocused his attention on the source energy in his mind.
Although he had only a head left, just as that old man had said, the very fact that he was alive proved that his predecessor’s source-energy talent and level of development were both very high. In less than ten minutes, he was already able to follow the AI’s guidance and sense that flowing energy.
It was just that, right now, this energy was maintaining the activity of his brain, so Feng Xue didn’t dare move it around carelessly. He could only keep having the AI find him some basic materials to pass the time.
Clang, clatter, clang...
Just as Feng Xue was about to look into the cybernetic grading system, the sound of metal striking metal entered his ears. He turned his eyeballs and glanced toward the source of the noise out of the corner of his eye. He saw that old man pushing in a flatbed cart piled with all sorts of odds and ends. Before Feng Xue could speak, the old man said cheerfully:
“You’re pretty lucky. Your native cochlea sold for six hundred. Just barely enough to pay for your surgery!”
“That little?” Feng Xue couldn’t help but feel a little suspicious. The old man, however, seemed to have anticipated his thoughts and said directly:
“After all, it was just an ordinary cochlea. Find any commoner with a matching blood type and have them train for a few days, and you’ll have one. The fact that it sold for six hundred was only because someone happened to need one urgently. Sigh, these days, original parts aren’t worth much. But if you’re willing, in the future you can get some four-star cybernetics installed, assimilate them, then remove them and sell them. That way, the price will be a bit higher...”
“...” Although Feng Xue already knew about this setting, hearing it said aloud still felt a little too impactful.
Seeing Feng Xue speechless, the old man didn’t dawdle. With nimble hands and feet, he pulled all kinds of messy parts from the flatbed cart: filthy infusion tubes, steel rebar with cement stuck to it, rusty screws... Most outrageous of all, Feng Xue actually saw a cracked Purple Mood!
“Hey, hey, hey! What’s the meaning of all this stuff?” Feng Xue looked at the old man nodding in satisfaction, and a bad premonition instantly surfaced in his heart. Hearing him, the old man rolled his eyes and said:
“Obviously, I’m putting together cybernetics for you! With just six hundred bucks, what kind of good stuff were you expecting? Make do with it for now. You can replace the rest later when you’ve got money!”
“I get the logic, but these materials of yours are...” Feng Xue stared in great conflict at those things that even a scrap yard might not necessarily want, always feeling that something was wrong somewhere.
At this bit of confliction from him, the old man sighed helplessly:
“You really don’t know how expensive firewood and rice are until you’re running a household! The materials for one-star cybernetics sell for more than the finished products. Only those idiots in school would buy them to practice on! Don’t look at how shabby these things are. They all flowed out from the core district. Things used by those big shots—even if they’re garbage, they’re high-grade garbage!”
“No... So one-star cybernetics cost more than two-star ones?” Feng Xue suddenly felt like he couldn’t understand this anymore. The old man, however, shook his head solemnly:
“It’s not that the cost is high. It’s that there’s no market, understand? No profit, so the factories don’t produce them! Honestly, do you think this is Da Yan next door? Over there, you’re born with medical insurance. All kinds of mainstream cybernetics are fully reimbursable, and replacing cybernetics comes with a fifty-percent subsidy. If you have a proper job, you can get another seventy percent reimbursed. What do we have here? Looking like you do right now, even the loan sharks wouldn’t give you a loan, all right?”
“No, Da Yan? Then where is this?” Feng Xue was slightly stunned. After all, when he woke up, the first person he saw was this old man, and whether it was his accent or appearance, he was a standard Yan person. Feng Xue had naturally assumed this was some capitalist alternate-world setting from another worldline...
“Where else could it be? The Ge Union, of course!” the old man said, though his eyes were darting around, as if many thoughts were passing through his mind. Only after a long while did he say, “Your amnesia really is thorough, kid. Judging by that look of someone who’s never suffered hardship, you probably didn’t sneak across the border either. No idea whether you’re an overseas student or came here to travel... Forget it. In any case, given your current situation, your passport and whatnot have probably all been destroyed. Getting back might be a bit difficult. First, get your body taken care of. When the time comes, I’ll see if I can find you some connections!”
With that, the old man wasted no more words. He went straight up to the workbench and began cutting into a piece of rebar with a lump of cement stuck to it.
Watching the sparks fly, Feng Xue couldn’t help feeling as if he were watching some Minister of Punishments invent a marvelous little tool.
But just as that thought surfaced, inspiration suddenly flashed through his mind like the back of his head had been hit by a laser sniper rifle—
His golden finger had a manufacturing system, but it required materials and blueprints. On top of that, he needed an excuse to take finished products out of it, so...
Thinking of this, he immediately said:
“Um, sir, I still haven’t asked. How should I address you?”
“Pretty polite, aren’t you? My surname’s Jiang. Just call me Old Man Jiang. What, you’ve got something to ask of me?”
The old man spoke bluntly, but given Feng Xue’s current state, there was no question of saving face or not. He simply put on a thick skin and said:
“From the sound of it, you know how to make cybernetics?”
“Nonsense! What else do you think I’m doing right now? Don’t look down on this place just because it’s crude. The cybernetics in the surrounding slums were all made by me! Impressive, right?”
The old man said this with careless bravado, even waving the piece of rebar with a chunk of concrete stuck to it as he continued:
“See this thing? What’s on it isn’t ordinary concrete. Based on my experience, this should be filler from the leg of a five-star mecha. Let me tell you, this stuff is worth real money. Add a little when heat-treating D19 steel, and it can raise the performance to nearly the level of D24.
“The rebar’s a treasure too. Heard of Dam alloy? That’s what this is. It’s just that ordinary workshops can’t process it. Otherwise, there’s no way you’d get it for a hundred credits! The person who picked it up had some eye for goods, but only some. He recognized the rebar, but not the precious lump stuck to it. That’s why you got it cheap!”
Although he couldn’t quite understand the technical terms, Feng Xue could roughly tell that the old man was a true technical expert. He no longer hesitated.
“Doctor Jiang, could you teach me? I want to learn how to make cybernetics too!”