Avoiding the gangsters high out of their minds, Kong Wu made his way to the elevator. Having lived in the District for some time, he had certainly broadened his horizons. Before coming up here, he never would have imagined that this rundown place, aside from its factories, schools, and boutique communities, had public order even worse than the Trash Zone.
There was something rather counterintuitive: the people of the Trash Zone actually didn't touch psychotropic drugs. It wasn't that they couldn't afford them—many chemical agents were cheaper than black hyperdreams—but the Trash Zone denizens would rather gamble on black hyperdreams at the risk of frying their brains than touch this stuff.
After all, those wealthy buyers who shelled out money for biological organs wouldn't tolerate even the slightest flaw. And selling off limbs was already the last reserve of the Trash Zone poor, every one of whom possessed blood and flesh Source Energy.
But the District was different. Thanks to the breathing techniques leaked by the gangs, it was full of people who possessed energy-type Source Energy. With no chance of selling their organs, they naturally didn't care about such things.
Slapping away the hand of some punk reaching for his waist, Kong Wu forced open the elevator and pressed the button for the Tower Blocks.
The moment Kong Wu arrived at the Tower Blocks, everyone gave him a wide berth. Compared to his previous visits when he'd dressed like the corporate drones here, he was now incredibly conspicuous.
Yet no one voiced any objection to his presence. Even the patrolling security guards only gave him an extra glance or two before ignoring him.
Because this kind of person wasn't actually rare in the Tower Blocks.
Gang higher-ups coming up to make purchases, underground boxing fighters heading to the lawless zones, or mercenaries and bodyguards hired by some minor boss—whatever the case, they were all people the corporate drones needed to avoid.
Feng Xue, no longer a rookie, naturally understood this as well. He didn't exhaust himself trying to blend in like before. Instead, he maintained an air of absolute self-assurance, walking all the way to the commercial street and sweeping his gaze across the storefronts.
If one had to name the most eye-catching thing on this street, it would undoubtedly be the massive sign reading "Blacksteel International."
Black background, white characters. From the storefront to the sign, there wasn't a single embellishment, as though the name alone was enough to say everything.
And indeed it was. As one of the world's largest military-industrial complexes, its tentacles stretched across the globe. From basic firearms to special military sales, it was even rumored to control a Pre-Civilization Ruin. It had its fingers in Ge Lian's six-star mecha research and development as well—a true behemoth. Forget the founders; even becoming a shareholder qualified one to move into "Heaven"!
"Sir, would you like to see the latest 'Defender' series? Standard issue, optimized across twenty-seven ergonomic parameters..."
Seemingly having noticed Kong Wu's arrival, a shop assistant proactively approached. In this line of work, discernment was essential. With just one look, he understood that this guest was fundamentally different from those thugs who installed a muscle prosthetic and fancied themselves experts. This was the kind of person who truly had the money to spend and didn't care about prices—a premium customer!
Hearing this, Kong Wu walked up to the counter, picked up a few samples, and toyed with them. The assistant had just opened his mouth to begin his spiel when his expression froze, because the guest had already let go. Years of sales experience told him that this customer's desire to buy had vanished.
Still, for the sake of his commission, the assistant made one last effort—
"Sir, if you are unsatisfied, we have other..."
"No need." Kong Wu shook his head and left the store without hesitation. It wasn't that Blacksteel's goods were poor. In fact, the moment he took them in hand, he could feel that comfortable, well-balanced fit—the symbol of a deep-rooted foundation, the "perfection" achieved through countless fine-tunings. It was a solid quality that, even if you knew how it was done, absolutely could not be replicated without massive costs.
But that was precisely the problem.
"Too 'standard.'"
Kong Wu thought.
Blacksteel International's technical reserves were too powerful—so powerful that they needed no special designs whatsoever. By simply following procedure, they could manufacture top-tier equipment. But precisely because of this, Blacksteel International gear rarely carried any special entries.
And without entries, to him, they were meaningless.
Exiting Blacksteel, Kong Wu turned a corner and came upon another familiar name—
"Loken Biotanks."
A Saint Luotan-based biochemical company, relatively young and holding many patents. Its most distinctive feature was its various biological materials. The reason Feng Xue was familiar with it was that every Trash Day, there was no shortage of speculators bringing in supposedly Loken-produced biological materials to exchange for cash.
"Sir, want to try the newly arrived 'Living Armament'? 'Lasher' tendons, implanted in the forearm. Greatly improves arm performance and can eject outside the body to serve as tentacles. Tactile sensitivity is adjustable. Perfect for both combat and daily life..."
A shop assistant with quite a few inhuman features spoke in a slightly sticky, cloying voice. Hearing this, Kong Wu refused decisively. Old Jiang had warned him about the dangers of living biological materials. If it had been an established outfit like Laiyang Biochemical or Rhine Life, that would be one thing. But Loken—a company whose mechanical prosthetics were limited to gorilla arms—attempting to "overtake on a curve"? Even with blood and flesh Source Energy, Feng Xue wouldn't dare use it!
After browsing several stores in a row, Kong Wu had only come across two three-star prosthetics with entries. Judging by their performance, they were probably just white dog food. But he had money now, so he didn't care about that.
As he wandered about, a rather unfamiliar name appeared before Kong Wu: "Numbered Heavy Industries"?
Seeing that the prosthetics in the display window had some sense of design, Kong Wu stepped inside. Meanwhile, Feng Xue's main body had already connected to the net to search for information on Numbered Heavy Industries. Probably because they were somewhat well-known, it didn't take long for him to find quite a bit of free intel—
"Numbered Heavy Industries, a national enterprise of a certain island nation. Capable of independently producing several types of four-star prosthetics... Oh, then outside of the two poles, it should be considered strong. But looking at the descriptions, the performance of these four-star prosthetics is pretty mediocre... Is their specialty three-star prosthetics with unique design sensibilities?"
While Feng Xue muttered to himself, Kong Wu had already entered the shop. Compared to the native Ge Lian company storefronts he'd visited before, this small shop was much more cramped. The shelves were densely packed with packaging boxes for all kinds of prosthetics, and the modest counter pushed space efficiency to its absolute limit.
"What would the customer like?"
Seemingly unaccustomed to having customers, the assistant immediately perked up and spoke in Ge Lian with a slight accent:
"Our prosthetics can't compare to the major manufacturers, but they have many special features. If you buy now, there's a ten percent discount. Look at this [Spider Cutter], modeled after the classic [Monomolecular Wire] prosthetic. While not as sharp, it has a built-in spinneret that can produce high-strength, high-sharpness protein filaments at any time. Even if the cutting line breaks, it won't affect combat capability. It also has a unique tethering technique that can produce different varieties of protein filaments according to need. If you have blood and flesh Source Energy, you don't even need to buy extra wire cartridges! And this, Kamaitachi, vacuum-blade patent, mid-range lethality..."
With this naming convention... the little devils of this world, huh? Still, the prosthetics are pretty interesting.
Feng Xue thought to himself. He successively handled the prosthetics the assistant had displayed, his brows rising slightly. A moment later, he pointed at three prosthetics and said:
"I'll take these three. Spider Cutter, Shiranui, and this blade..."
"Onikiri, this blade is called Onikiri. Twenty-one thousand for all three. Ten percent off makes it eighteen thousand nine hundred. I'll round it down for you—eighteen thousand flat!"
The assistant said with some excitement. Although this shop was essentially a vanity project declaring to the homeland, "We have the capability to open a store in Ge Lian," with no real intention of selling much, she didn't want to live on a fixed salary if there was a chance to earn commission! As for the discount... if it meant making a sale, she could go even lower!
PS: Just to mention, the protagonist possesses blood and flesh Source Energy at the level of an innate Sacred Flesh Body. The quality of Source Energy awakened by ordinary people through manual labor or hard work is far inferior to his. Healing a wound in a few breaths, assimilating an organ in a few minutes, or assimilating his entire body in half an hour—none of that is possible. (Creating avatars is faster, but that's the effect of his cheat.)
Under normal circumstances, an ordinary person assimilating a prosthetic first needs to undergo surgery to ensure the prosthetic and their body are joined as one. Then they spend several hours using Source Energy to envelop that organ or limb before entering the assimilation process. The duration depends on the size of the prosthetic and the quality of one's blood and flesh Source Energy. Taking a kidney as an example, an ordinary person would need roughly three days to a week to complete assimilation. During this time, they must endure the pain of the mechanical and biological mixing together—similar to the feeling of a foreign object lodged in one's flesh, and not just one but many. They also have to bear the effects of the missing organ (after all, neither the flesh nor the machine can maintain function during the process; if selling a heart, one needs to hook up a pump during assimilation).
And the organ converted this way only fetches a few hundred points (of course, that's different if one can afford high-grade prosthetics, but ordinary people can't meet that starting capital requirement). After deducting the prosthetic and surgery fees, what remains is only slightly higher than construction wages.
As for why they don't use clones—clones have low production costs, but directly manufacturing adult clones and teaching them blood and flesh Source Energy and how to assimilate prosthetics isn't cheap in terms of time (without blood and flesh Source Energy, there will be rejection issues). Plus, they still have to be maintained when not producing. For capitalists, the cost-performance ratio is too low; it doesn't pay.