Chapter 192 - Cybernetic Implants

Lionel gagged as the metal gauntlet of the Version 1 exosuit drove deep into his guts, his innards squashed while his body lifted a few centimetres above the ground. Yet Lionel immediately threw a counterattack, somehow not flustered nor affected by the pain at all.

Kyle looked at him curiously, recognizing the symptoms. This man, has he gone cybernetic? But how? There’s nothing in the area. Lionel was now similar to Rayner, a Warden Drone that he had fought in the Keru Forest.

Lionel took his chance, exploiting Kyle’s moment of curiosity to kick the Version 1 exosuit backwards, causing Kyle to stumble slightly while Lionel created some distance between the two of them, the firefight raging between the two sides.

“The great Kyle – no, Alvin Teras has finally graced us with his presence! Please, don’t mind the mess in my humble abode.” Lionel taunted, cracking his neck and hands as he circled Kyle.

“Do I know you?”

Lionel faltered for a moment, an expression of shock slowly changing to pure rage and anger. “You, you don’t remember me? After all the drug experiments you’ve done on me? The addiction inflicted? Do you know the shame I felt in the Red Lions? The disappointment and disgrace I’ve suffered over the last few months!” Lionel was shouting at the top of his lungs, his eyes furious.

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Then I’ll make sure to knock it into you!”

Lionel lunged at Kyle without hesitation, throwing punches and kicks while weaving in handgun shots where possible. Kyle parried all the attacks with ease, Lionel’s strength nothing much to speak of. Sasha is stronger than this.

Kyle did not counterattack immediately, carefully watching Lionel. He knew he was far stronger in terms of speed and strength, but for Lionel to be able to infiltrate his gang to this extent meant that his own abilities had been exposed. He did not doubt that Lionel must have some trap or trick up his sleeve, so Kyle remained on the defensive, examining Lionel’s attack pattern as though he was watching one of Mari’s training sessions.

As the bandaged left hand shot past Kyle’s helmet, Kyle quickly grabbed the chance and latched onto Lionel’s wrist, twisting it violently and grappling Lionel to the ground, ready to activate This is My Turf and Negation Field at a moment’s notice should anything funky happen. Although I don’t expect the negation field to work on cybernetics.

Yet nothing happen, only with Lionel’s arm twisting in place and allowing Lionel to break free of the hold, an advantage of having neutered nerves and no pain receptors. He slammed his metallic fist into Kyle’s exosuit, but it barely dented the armour, instead only marginally activating the Reactive Armour engraving and even healing Kyle.

Lionel’s eyes widened, before his face was punched in by Kyle, blood spurting out of his nose and moth as the metal gauntlet crushed the bones in his head with sheer brutality, slammed into the cold hard ground of the power station.

“Looks like you’re not a full cyborg yet.” Kyle scoffed, lifting his fist again to punch Lionel when suddenly a brilliant idea entered his head. But before Kyle could act on it, a sudden high voltage shock rippled through his body, causing his muscle to spasm uncontrollably and the arcian engravings to malfunction.

“Nevah expated tis di yah!” Lionel blurted out through a bloodied jaw and broken teeth, grinning widely as both of his arms made contact with Kyle’s exosuit, the electric voltage surging continuously.

This is My Turf!

As strong as Kyle was, his control of his body muscles still relied on electronic nerve signals – a high voltage shock was nearly impossible to defend against unless he could redirect it, something that his exosuit was not designed for. So that’s the trick he has. But where is the energy coming from?

The invisible forcefield from the This is My Turf Skill immediately crushed Lionel even further, his arms slammed back into the ground and pinned by the weight of Kyle’s body and the exosuit, Lionel’s lower body creaking and sparking as the cybernetic replacements were torn and wasted.

“RAGGGHHH!” Lionel roared incoherently in defiance, but Kyle delivered yet another punch to Lionel, aiming for his cerebral spine and disconnecting it. Lionel’s body immediately lost control, slumping apart while Lionel’s eyes darted around with surprise and fear. “You! Wat hav u done!”

“Cybernetic or not, you all rely on a central network. Pedestrian upgrades, if you ask me.” Kyle cancelled the skill, knowing Lionel could not fight back any longer with the spine connection crushed, his body paralyzed. “And I still don’t know who you are. For you it might have been the turning point of your life, but for me it was just a small pebble in my path. I don’t count nor remember every ant my boot squashes.”

Before Lionel could even retort, Kyle delivered a hard reboot to Lionel in the form of a brutal kick, the sudden shock acceleration causing the cybernetics in Lionel’s head to shutdown. The upgrades are terrible in terms of redundancies and fallback, but I must admit the construction is sturdy. Naturally, Kyle had big plans for Lionel.

With Lionel subdued, Kyle immediately went over to Damian, who was badly bruised and hurt from Lionel’s attack. “Shit, boss, you actually came.” Damian weakly grinned as he grabbed Kyle’s hand, lifting himself up. “We still got enemies, lets clear them out.”

“No need. Take Niko and head back to base with one of the elite squads. A wagon is already waiting outside. I’ll meet you back once you’re done. Enter via the basement and wait till further notice.”

Damian was confused, until he followed Kyle’s gaze to a smaller Seven Snakes soldier fighting tooth and nail with two thugs, while the elite squad soldiers continued to fight against the other thugs.

“Go!” Kyle ordered, with Damian quickly following Niko and five other elite soldiers out of the exit, while Kyle continued to watch the armoured Mari duel with the two thugs.

“Uh, hey guys? I thought you were supposed to help me?!” Mari yelled at the nearby elite squad soldiers, but they barely listened to her, instead fighting the stragglers who still fought back persistently. Those who tried to run were shot down mercilessly, so many decided to stay and fight.

Instead of answering Mari’s plea for help, Kyle squatted and examined Lionel’s cybernetic upgrades, trying to trace where they came from and if he could recognize the manufacturers. The last cyborg he had fought had blown up in his face, so having a live specimen here was great.

“I know you can hear me!” Mari roared towards Kyle, but failed to get a response.

Kyle inspected Lionel’s metallic left hand, checking the make. He noticed that the hand’s metal was far superior to anything Raktor had in the vicinity, meaning that it must have been a Galactic Era relic. Yet for some reason the hand looked brand new, as though it had been recently manufactured. The wiring and traces all looked freshly made as well, at least made within the last few years with minimal signs of degradation. Where did this guy find it?

Despite his close inspection, Kyle could not find any obvious signs of a manufacturer. Weird. Under Council Law, every cybernetic implant must have the manufacturer’s code at the millimetre scale. Kyle did not have a nano or a pico-scope with him to see such detail. Looks like I’ll have to throw him into the Oracle Chambers and do a deep scan.

He switched to Arcian eyes, realizing that Lionel hardly had any arcia energy flowing through save for a minute amount. Good, that would make the deep body scan easier. Arcia energy interfered with generic Galactic Era level scans, which is why Kyle had been unable to scan his own body and find out what the System had been doing to his body.

Kyle continued his examination of Lionel, checking his legs, waist, hips and even feet, noticing it had been a total replacement. He can’t have done this himself – someone else must have done it for him, but who? Kyle’s mind returned to the Wardens, the people apparently behind Soren and Rayner that were still lurking out there.

He was still unsure of the Warden’s overall power level, and the appearance of Lionel’s cybernetic replacements only made him far more afraid. We’ll need to ramp up our production of arctech and my training.

Just as he turned to check in on Mari’s progress, a screaming thug was sent flying towards him, hurled by an angry Mari, obviously infuriated despite the armoured helmet covering her face. “This is the exact same as the training!”

“Don’t get too caught up; you still got five more areas to clear.” Kyle had already corroborated with Adrian on the aerial observations, marking the other suspicious buildings where he suspected Lionel had other members congregating.

“UGH!” Mari groaned audibly, though alarm bells in her head immediately rang as a thug swung a heavy metal pipe right at her head from behind, nearly knocking her out. Kyle did not say a word, simply standing at the side while he watched Mari fight for her life against a far larger thug. The idea that Mari was still young did not bother him at all – his Dynasty training was far, far worse than this. As much as he resented certain parts of the training back then, he still agreed with many elements, putting Mari through the exact same life-and-death situation as much as possible in order to steel her.

Naturally, Mari was far from steeled: up to this point, it had only been a week since she started training, and she had not killed anyone save for the mercenary leader in the Oracle Chambers. Her heart palpitated again as the thought of killing the thug surfaced in her mind while she gritted her teeth, her arcia-infused arms forcing the pipe backwards.

Yet Mari found the thought easier to entertain, her body somehow providing less resistance to the concept of killing the opponent. Its either me or him! With that notion seared into her mind, Mari roared as her hands burned hot, melting the metal pipe like a cake before she slammed her fist into the thug’s face.

The high temperatures of the arcia layer coating Mari’s hands scorched the thug’s skin, immediately cauterizing the flesh on his cheek as he screamed, collapsing to the ground. Mari did not hesitate this time, following up and punching repeatedly until the screaming stopped.

The moment Mari defeated a few more thugs in a similar fashion, with each successive kill being easier and easier, Kyle ordered the elite squad soldiers to round up the remaining thugs and capture them.

He was planning to interrogate them to determine just how deep the corruption had spread in the Seven Snakes. Even if they did not have any information, there was always a use for live human bodies, and Kyle planned to make the best of them. Better than trying to go against me.

Mari huffed and panted as she stood over the carnage, having defeated more than six thugs on her own. She kept her armoured helmet on, though it was clear that she had shot the unhelpful elite squad soldiers a scathing look. The elite soldiers merely chuckled in response, though some were clearly dejected, handing over a sack of rakels to grinning comrades. “That’s what you fucking get for not trusting in Kyle’s protégé, newbies.”

Mari obviously caught that, knowing the soldiers were betting on her success or failure. She stomped her way back to Kyle, dragging a dead thug who’s face had been melted in half to the skull and tossing it at his feet. “There, happy now?”

Kyle nodded, slightly impressed at Mari’s fast adaptability, despite it being her very first mission. He now had lost all qualms about Mari being able to handle herself, his mind beginning to treat Mari as a competent soldier rather than just a naïve kid. However, he did not reveal it, knowing Mari still had a long way to go. “You wasted precious time hesitating between each kill. Time in which your friends or comrades could have died. If you plan on protecting others in the future, such a flaw can be deadly.”

“Yea, yea, spare me the lessons.” Mari glanced around the surroundings, finally taking in the environment. She had barely had the time to feel anything fully due to the high tensions of the mission, the rancid smell of the place finally hitting her. As she recoiled, she glanced down at her armour coated in blood and grime while the bodies of dead thugs littered the area, her face irked under the helmet. Yep, not the field trip I was expecting.