In a rush, Fang Chang and Li Zirong arrived at the laboratory Li Zirong had mentioned.
But they didn’t go straight in. Fang Chang had just endured a high-altitude sprint at 200 km/h without any protective gear, followed by who knew how many barrel rolls. His mortal body couldn’t take it. The first thing he did after landing was brace himself against the stone wall and throw up.
“Urk… I’m never flying again…”
Hearing him, Li Zirong murmured to herself, “Doesn’t like the sky? Cross wings off the list. But he still needs some way to control the airspace. We could transplant Manba limbs and let him manipulate gravity fields to deal with airborne enemies…”
Fang Chang staggered over, his eyes unfocused and his steps unsteady. “Senior, where’s the laboratory?”
“Come with me.”
Li Zirong took his hand without hesitation. Fang Chang didn’t feel anything romantic about it, either. Her hand was covered in a metal shell, and even he wasn’t so desperate that he’d get turned on by metal **.
After walking a few steps, they reached a cliff. Li Zirong raised her hand and pressed a finger against her left eye.
Fang Chang watched the horrifying scene unfold: Li Zirong’s finger sank straight into her left eye socket. A pale blue light then shone from her eye, and the cliff in front of them split open. With the quiet clatter of hidden mechanisms, a sci-fi-style passageway appeared.
Li Zirong led Fang Chang inside, then pressed her right eye. The cliff slowly closed behind them.
Fang Chang’s eyes were opened.
So you could use your eyes as keys.
The passage was about fifty meters long. At the end, Li Zirong opened another door with her eye, and the laboratory finally appeared before Fang Chang.
It was an enormous space, more than ten meters high and over ten meters long and wide. But that estimate didn’t tell the whole story. Cages and insect-egg-like culture vessels had replaced the walls all around them, making the space inside far larger than it appeared.
Fang Chang looked around the laboratory. A closer inspection revealed all kinds of things: bizarre organisms in culture vessels, test tubes filled with liquids of every color on the workbenches, and huge machines suspended from the ceiling. He even spotted several squid-like mechanical monsters with eight tentacles and four toes, rolling around nonstop. One of them, the one with a hole in its head, rolled over and tried to hug Li Zirong’s long mechanical leg. She sent it flying with a rising kick.
It really did have a hole in its head. There was a dent in the top of its head, right where Li Zirong had kicked it.
Looks like getting kicked there over and over had left its mark.
The eight-tentacled mechanical squid flew a long way before hitting the ground. It scanned its own body with one of its claws, then went right back to rolling around as if nothing had happened. Curious, Fang Chang asked, “What’s that thing?”
Back in the laboratory, Li Zirong seemed to feel at home, and she was much more at ease. Her earlier coldness vanished. At last, she seemed like a girl again, unable to hide her pride as she said, almost like a child, “Those are assistant robots I made. They’re not much good in a fight, but they’re very smart and can help me with all sorts of difficult research.”
As she spoke, one of the mechanical squids suddenly spun one of its tentacles. It drilled straight through a steel plate beside it. Then its other tentacles snapped out with cutting tools and got to work on the plate.
Seeing that, Fang Chang thought of what might be done to him and shuddered. “Those things aren’t going to be involved in modifying me too, are they?”
Li Zirong saw Fang Chang’s legs trembling and smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll be the lead surgeon. They’re just assisting,” she reassured him in her gentle mechanical voice.
“Assist how?”
“By opening your skull and things like that.”
Fang Chang’s scalp prickled. He could already picture it: the squid robot’s fingers joining together, drilling into his skull like a power drill and exposing his pale, glistening brain…
“Can I change my mind now?”
“Sure, but you’ve already accepted the mission, so you can’t hand it back.” Li Zirong replied with studied nonchalance. “With a body like yours, if you go pick the flower, one energy blast from an evolved zombie and you’re done.”
Fang Chang pulled a long face. “So I’ve boarded a pirate ship, then?”
“Relax.” Li Zirong proudly patted his shoulder. “My pirate ship is very steady.”
Even though the whole thing felt deeply unreliable, Fang Chang had no choice but to accept his fate. Looking at the advanced technology around him and the obviously powerful organisms in the culture vessels, he forced himself to take comfort in the thought: If he went through with the modification, he’d become powerful too, right?
In a world where people crossed through infinite worlds to complete missions, everyone pursued great power.
As for the suffering, Fang Chang decided to treat it as the ordeal he had to endure to gain that power.
“All right!” Fang Chang took a deep breath and said solemnly, “Go ahead and operate on me, Senior. Make me strong!”
Li Zirong put on a solemn expression. “Made by Zirong: guaranteed top quality. System-certified, fair to young and old alike.”
Fang Chang still didn’t trust her one bit. It was as if Li Zirong had completely let loose the moment she got home. She’d been so cold before—nothing but a mechanical woman—and now she was acting like a total gremlin with no limits.
Was it because she was home, so she didn’t have to keep up the act?
He gave a quiet cough and tried to hypnotize himself into forgetting how unreliable this all felt. Then he casually asked, “So, Senior, what do you need me to do now?”
“All you have to do is pass out!”
Li Zirong smiled and snapped her fingers. Fang Chang suddenly felt wave after wave of drowsiness wash over him. Before he could fight it, his legs gave way and he collapsed.
