Although he was itching to use his new entries to make John, Feng Xue still suppressed the impulse for the moment, plugged in a data cable, and began exporting the data he had just obtained.
Now that he had the two entries, 【Human】 and 【Plague】, he didn’t have to worry about hackers or viruses. Installing a sub-brain capable of running programs directly in his head wasn’t out of the question either. However, even the worst of these things was still a four-star high-end military product. In his golden finger shop, the cheapest one cost over three million (Note 1), nearly draining all the liquid funds Feng Xue had on hand.
It just so happened that among the several chips he had acquired earlier, there were relevant types. He would research them himself first; if he could make one, great. If not, he could only look for gray-market dealers to see if they could get some Dayan goods.
It wasn’t that he particularly trusted them; mainly, Dayan had designs specifically made for assimilation with flesh-and-blood source energy, making installation relatively simple. After all, he was performing cranial surgery on himself—it was better if the procedure was a bit easier.
While lost in these random thoughts, a massive amount of video data had finished exporting. However, Feng Xue didn’t dare let an AI—who knew where it might have a backdoor—process this stuff. He could only use the physically air-gapped equipment on his avatar’s side to handle it.
“Basically, they’re all hand prosthetics and head plug-in tech; the rest are all universal joints… But that makes sense—those two types see the heaviest consumption among military prosthetics.”
Feng Xue wasn’t surprised by this situation. Back when he had taken a few pairs of hands to sell, it had been a similar line of thinking. Considering that he had obtained several marksman entries this time, and that he happened to need to rebuild a John, he would first develop a hand prosthetic suited for shooting.
Once he figured out what to do, he immediately grabbed a sheet of scratch paper and began sketching. Of course, he wasn’t planning to hand-draw the entire design blueprint; he was just following the “Formulation Method” Old Man Jiang had taught him, filling in the blanks with the tech he had on hand.
“First of all, this is a hand, so the skeleton will still be a classic arm skeleton design. Just use better materials for it.
“Minister… Among the tech acquired this time, there’s independent macro-programming for tactile reflexes, joint auto-lock safeties, muscular coordination feedback plug-ins… They can all be stuffed in, but then it becomes a bit hard to distinguish primary from secondary. This right hand I’m making for John has shooting as its main function; for close combat, he can be fitted with a Second Son Arm. For the muscle groups, I’ll choose impact-resistant ones—the F25 bionic silicone acquired this time is perfect for that! Right, and add a stabilizer, make it sword-shaped, install it with 【Dark Sword】—that way I can skip the design layout issues, and even get a free characteristic.
“The Assistant is actually the simplest instead—just go straight with Flesh Maitreya. If it weren’t for the fact that there’s no energy module in this batch of tech, I could’ve shot straight up to five stars.
“As for the final Envoy… No need to say more. My thanks to Old Man Jiang’s legacy.”
Feng Xue rapidly picked out compatible technologies from Old Man Jiang’s legacy and the data he had obtained this time. As the words on the scratch paper grew more numerous, in Feng Xue’s golden finger, a blueprint gradually took shape.
【Shooting-Enhanced Right Hand Prosthetic】
“Not bad, not bad!”
Feng Xue looked at this newly formed blueprint, glanced at the notes, but his brows furrowed slightly, because this thing’s rating was only 3 stars.
Actually, this was within Feng Xue’s expectations. The design blueprint couldn’t account for manufacturing entries. Without the intervention of entries like Flesh Maitreya, Dark Sword, Cheap Goods, or Subcutaneous Armor—entries that could improve layout design without affecting performance—no matter how much he piled on materials, this was still just a three-star prosthetic.
But with entries, that was a different story.
Not to mention others, just 【Cheap Goods】 alone could produce a qualitative leap in energy—
It could produce energy at eighty percent performance using one-tenth the materials. This meant that as long as he chained nine of them together, he could create energy with seven times the performance in the same volume (the remaining ten percent being casing and heat dissipation). Combined with Flesh Maitreya’s energy storage and release, he could easily achieve four-star or even five-star effects using a three-star blueprint.
But before Feng Xue actually made such a power source, what was on the blueprint remained nothing more than an ordinary three-star battery.
But thinking was one thing; whether adding entries could achieve a rank leap or not, he wouldn’t know until he made it.
Since this was the first prosthetic he had designed himself, Feng Xue went all out on materials. Not only did he take out the Dum alloy he had accumulated from scavenging, but he also bought quite a few expensive raw materials and premium parts directly from his golden finger.
Several tens of thousands of credits flowed out like water. Under the golden finger’s effects, parts were machined out one by one: batteries made with Cheap Goods, energy interfaces crafted by Flesh Maitreya, and a stabilizer infused with 【Golden Cicada Shell Shedding】. Just placing these parts into the golden finger’s slots caused the blueprint’s name to change to 【Four-Star Shooting-Enhanced Right Hand Prosthetic】.
“Very good. Next up is assembly!”
At this moment, Feng Xue was like a model kit otaku who had finally finished the lengthy prep work and was left with only the final assembly process—he couldn’t wait to see the finished product!
For the manufacturing entry, he chose Dark Sword, loading the sword-shaped stabilizer. Unfortunately, the stabilizer itself only had an individual rating of one star, and Feng Xue couldn’t find any other high-star accessories that could be made sword-shaped; otherwise, he could’ve gotten a free skill.
For the characteristic, he chose 【Stealth-breaking Strike】, providing overwhelming dominance as a sniper.
As for the two skills, 【Charged Strike】 was a certainty, but for the remaining slot, Feng Xue hesitated between 【Great Strength】 and 【Mirage】. Don’t be fooled by Mirage being a blue entry; it didn’t restrict what it could be installed on. In other words, he could make a random three-star plug-in and use it. But Great Strength was different. From prior use, Feng Xue already understood that its triple output was calculated together with the entry. In other words, with Great Strength active, Charged Strike could deliver triple the effect, and even the armor-penetrating effect of Stealth-breaking Strike might become triple armor penetration!
“Later, I’ll use Cheap Goods to make a bunch of Army-Breaker bullets. Hmm, and try to see if I can make a sword-shaped sniper rifle to serve as the Hellblade body for the Second Son Arm. Tsk, just thinking about this John’s combat power is a bit terrifying!”
Excitement gleamed in Feng Xue’s eyes. After repeatedly checking to confirm nothing was missed, he finally pressed the button.
The parts on the table rapidly assembled under the golden finger’s power, but Feng Xue’s expression suddenly changed—
“No way, again?”
Although he was saying “no way,” Feng Xue was actually incredibly excited at this moment. As the parts deformed and twisted, he knew this should be another mutation!
Despite all the complaints one could make about the Second Son Arm, its performance was genuinely strong. At this very moment, he was eagerly hoping the golden finger would give him another surprise.
And so…
“Your prosthetic has mutated. You have obtained the blueprint—【Mechanical Arm • Tomboy】. The Devil Breaker series blueprints have been unlocked.”
“Wait, what? Tomboy? What the hell? Is there even such a mechanical arm? First the Second Son, now Tomboy—is there something wrong with your golden finger?”
Note 1: Three million is the Golian market price. As for who buys something so expensive… go look up the ninety-thousand-dollar-a-bag screws. I already said this thing is military-grade prosthetic equipment. If you know, you know, alright? As for Dayan, this stuff actually has no tariffs, because the Golian Federation would never import it in the first place!
That’s a sub-brain, installed in a soldier’s brain to assist decision-making and even control part of their bodies. And those who can be fitted with one are basically not infantry cannon fodder, but advanced troops controlling gun turrets, piloting mechs, and handling information processing. Would you dare use another country’s sub-brains on these soldiers?
As for gangs, even their elite hitmen generally wouldn’t install this kind of logistics-biased thing. They lean more toward stuff like Gorilla Arms, Mantis Blades, and Monomolecular Wire—things that form combat power the moment they’re installed. And the craft value of these prosthetics isn’t actually high; it basically comes down to materials and drivers. If you use a traditional blade with a basic blade technique driver, that’s a three-star prosthetic. If you use a high-frequency blade with the Six Techniques of Proud Cold as the driver, that’s a five-star prosthetic. You could even say that if the accessories are well-made, the assembly lines can be universal, so the price is naturally lower. Not to mention gangs mostly don’t stock up from proper shops either; signing experimental contracts to get prototype units from prosthetic manufacturers is much cheaper.
P.S. Two consecutive critical successes, and he unlocked this tech tree just like that… I originally wanted to have him raid a couple more corporate factories. Now just studying Nico’s technology will be enough for him to digest… This dice goddess, mutations are one thing, but why does she keep giving him mid-game stuff…