“You?” Old Man Jiang’s eyes rolled when he heard Feng Xue wanted to learn, as if weighing something. Only after a moment did he say in a slightly odd tone:
“I don’t teach apprentices. But my workshop’s right here, so watch if you want!”
That was what he said, but the old man shifted aside, revealing the workbench that his body had been blocking from Feng Xue’s view. As he worked, he muttered all sorts of terms under his breath—probably specialized jargon.
Feng Xue didn’t care whether he understood or not; he memorized everything. If he couldn’t remember, he asked the AI. The tablet was right there in front of him anyway—why not use it?
Only very soon, Feng Xue realized he had been thinking too simply, because Old Man Jiang’s methods, which were supposedly those of a cyberware engineer but looked more like an old fitter scavenging through a junkyard, had already made the AI crash!
“Uh, Doctor Jiang, your AI crashed!”
“That’s normal. This Ge Union isn’t like our old home. The corporations have a serious monopoly here—every tiny bit of tech costs money.” Old Man Jiang muttered disdainfully, then carefully set aside the “cement chunks” he had stripped from the steel rebar. Only then did he wave the rebar a couple of times and say, “Whew, as expected of Damm alloy. Next, we leave it to technology and the good hard stuff!”
Hearing this, Feng Xue stopped worrying about the crashed AI and immediately focused his attention over there. He saw Old Man Jiang reach out and take out a small bottle. Feng Xue looked closely, and his face instantly darkened—
“Uncle Jiang, isn’t this going too far? Why are you using White Elephant Divine Oil to make cyberware?”
“What are you thinking? I’m just using the bottle!” Old Man Jiang gave him a speechless look. From the glass bottle printed with the four Chinese characters “White Elephant Divine Oil,” he poured out a lump of pitch-black paste, spread it evenly over the rebar that had been stripped of all its “cement,” then stuffed it into a furnace that looked like a household oven from Feng Xue’s previous life.
“What are you staring for? Ever heard of heat treatment? Our conditions are limited, so we can only use this rustic method. Once Damm alloy takes shape, it’s a D26-grade alloy—good enough to serve as armor plating for a mobile fortress! We have to reduce its hardness first before we can process it into the shape we need! See that? The heat, the color…” Old Man Jiang pointed at the rebar inside the furnace, now glowing red with a hint of blue, his face full of pride.
Looking at the scene through the glass door of that “oven,” Feng Xue couldn’t help retorting, “Doctor Jiang, this ‘rustic method’ of yours… is it safe?”
“Safe? Of course it’s safe!” Old Man Jiang slapped the furnace. “I’ve used it for more than ten years. It’s only exploded… cough. Anyway, no one’s ever died! Cheap goods, you make do!”
“…”
Feng Xue really wanted to hide farther away, but unfortunately, he was currently hanging in a culture tank and had no room to move at all. He could only stare at that obviously dangerous “oven” and hope he wouldn’t run into that tiny probability this time.
Old Man Jiang, however, was clearly much more carefree. While processing the “aggregate,” he turned around and started fiddling with the cracked colloid of the “Purple Mood.”
Feng Xue watched helplessly as he held something like a multimeter and poked around at the break, muttering to himself, “Mm… the main control structure is actually intact. Just a few bionic muscle bundles snapped… As expected of something used by the big shots up above. What a damn waste!”
As he spoke, Old Man Jiang took out a small blade like a scalpel and, as if performing neurosurgery, extracted sections of components from the break. Finally, he carefully placed a chip onto a connector. Feng Xue clearly heard him mutter—
“Now we’ve got the main control chip!”
“Wait! Uncle Jiang! What did you just say? Main control chip?”
Feng Xue was utterly shocked. What the hell could this thing be the main control for?
“Of course, the main control chip for the cyberware! If we were to grade it as cyberware, this Purple Mood would count as five-star cyberware. The chip it uses is the famous Phantom Dragon Soul Type III. It contains over a thousand dynamic modules and is also compatible with braindance and remote neural interconnection. If we modify the modules a bit, it’s perfect as the control center for coordinating different cyberware.
“Honestly, I even think using it as the main control chip for a set of one-star cyberware is kind of wasting its talent. If the budget were a little more generous, using this thing as the core component to put together a set of four-star cyberware would be more than enough! Oh right, the remaining shell is good stuff too. I’ll modify it and install it for you. Guaranteed to be more useful than those so-called big steel cannons!”
Although Feng Xue still only half-understood cyberware, the moment he thought of the mission this chip had once shouldered and the responsibility it would bear in the future, he instantly felt deeply unwell. He immediately said:
“No, Doctor Jiang, this… isn’t this a bit too…”
“Young man, don’t let your thoughts be so filthy!” Old Man Jiang corrected him sternly, his expression grave. “In the eyes of a cyberware doctor, there are only materials and functions! This chip has stable output and powerful capabilities. As for the origin you mentioned… the most wonderful part is precisely its origin! It’s a perfect professional match!”
“A match… is it?” Feng Xue found it very difficult to understand how the chip of a Purple Mood could possibly be a match for a cyberware central control chip. Seeing his unenlightened look, Old Man Jiang sighed and said:
“Sigh, don’t look at the surface. Look at the essence. No matter how comprehensive its functions are or how complex its movements, the essence of this thing is coordinating bionic muscle bundles to complete all sorts of motion modules. And if you strip away all those flashy extras, isn’t the main function of a cyberware control chip to coordinate the movements of cyberware?
“And think about it. Since it was originally used in that kind of place, its precision and safety definitely had to meet standards! After all, ordinary people can’t afford this thing. Do you think the manufacturer would dare let even the slightest problem occur? Put it this way: in terms of safety alone, Blacksteel International’s professional-grade control chips can’t even catch up to this thing if they whipped their horses. Besides, once your flesh source assimilates it, it’ll be your own flesh. Why would you still care what it used to be?”
“What you said makes so much sense that I actually have no rebuttal…”
After listening to Old Man Jiang’s extremely professional analysis, Feng Xue suddenly felt that maybe, perhaps, possibly… there was a little bit of logic to it?
To avoid getting tangled up in it, he decisively shifted his attention in another direction—
“By the way, Doctor Jiang, you keep talking about one-star, five-star cyberware… how is this thing defined? Is there a specific standard? Who set it? Are Great Yan and the Ge Union using the same standard?”
Although he had been looking it up since Old Man Jiang returned, considering how intellectually challenged that AI was, he chose to ask this professional instead.
“Your amnesia’s reached even common knowledge, huh!” Old Man Jiang frowned, but still explained:
“The standard for cyberware wasn’t set by anyone. It’s simply how the pre-civilization technology we excavated was classified.”
“Pre-civilization?” Feng Xue was slightly stunned. So this was actually a post-apocalyptic civilization where technology depended on archaeology?
“That’s right. After the Second Energy Revolution, countries successively discovered pre-civilization ruins. The credit currency used worldwide today was inherited from a set of digital currency algorithms from the pre-civilization, and today’s mainstream cyberware technology also all comes from those ruins.”