Comprehensive network wizard, magic emperor.

Chapter 178 Hongdu Bird, Reverberation Advanced

Lin Bo let the Demon-Eye Seagull wander around Hongdu. He would take time every day to see what this bird flying across the ocean was doing, or use its senses to cast spells remotely and interfere with some things in Hongdu.

After a period of time, he needs to appoint a new Magic Eye Seagull to take over the shift, otherwise the brain nerves and body tissues differentiated from the primary mycelium in the body will collapse due to long-term separation from the fungal mat for replenishment.

Tonight, Lin Bo continued to work on the map, building the seawater filtration system for the underground workshop and the computer server array for the cave.

The evil-eyed seagull just wandered around, following the group of drunken homeless people to the extensive sewers of Hongdu. City patrols did not allow homeless people to spend the night on the streets, and there were never any empty houses in the slums, so the sewers were their final destination.

When someone is forced into the sewers, their life begins to count down. Germs and sewage harm their health, while insects, ants, snakes, rats, and other vagrants directly attack their bodies. A healthy person can often be tortured to death within a few weeks. Yet, some people manage to survive in such conditions, sometimes even for years.

The seagull continued its flight deeper into the sewers, entering abandoned pipes and underground caverns, where it discovered a large number of shacks clustered together. This was an underground city comprised of gangs, black marketeers, criminals, and homeless people. This area, beyond the reach of the law, was the greatest source of instability in the city's security.

The birds gazed at the cluster of huts stuck together, like a moldy old carpet. The flames of grease and candles were like golden threads on the carpet, representing the signs of life. There was even a whale oil generator here, shining with pure white light brought by electric lights.

Several homeless people tried to hunt seagulls. The stones shot from their slingshots were swatted away by a seagull's wings. It opened its eyes between its eyebrows and stared at everyone, scaring the homeless people so much that they screamed and ran away.

The bird spread its wings and left the sewer, arriving at the scenic upper city area.

A towering wall separates the two worlds.

The carriages of the nobles within the walls gathered at the banquet manor, and the hall was filled with charming sounds and scenes. The streets were jammed with freight wagons, and the towering cargo boxes that overturned on their sides smashed hundreds of wine bottles, gushing out bright red wine into the sewer.

Outside the wall, middle-class citizens from the emerging neighborhood gathered at the amusement park to attend a holiday party. The crowds gathered in the lighted area laughed like waves, respectable men and women walked arm in arm, and beautifully dressed children ran and chased each other.

In the dimly lit areas of the old city, there is only the noise of the night wind between the apartment buildings, and low coughs and snoring can be heard in the dark corridors.

The lights in the textile factory are on day and night. The factory buildings and dormitories are connected, and the beds are next to the humming machines. Hundreds of migrant workers change shifts and huddle among the piles of raw materials and finished products, sleeping in an area of ​​less than one square meter.

The six universities scattered across the city had all gone to sleep, though a few nightlights remained on in the libraries and dormitories, the shadows of young students lingering on the windows. Scholars in the laboratories stared at the writing on the blackboards, lost in thought.

In the heart of Upper Town, the Emperor's palace, Corwin Ewen, sat in his study, reviewing documents with a red-ink fountain pen, the tip of the pen dancing across the words with a rustling sound. A child, clutching a stuffed doll, knocked on the door and entered, begging to sit on his lap and work with him. The old emperor patted her back gently.

Guards armed with swords and guns patrolled between the walls and the palace. The sentry looked up at the night sky, which was as desolate as usual tonight, and saw a white bird flying across the sky.

It finally came to the pier, where there were flocks of city birds, common gulls of various species, and they all made sounds of surprise and fear at this pure white fellow who had come from afar.

After dawn, Lin Bo looked at the communication crystal again and found that the Magic Eye Seagull was accepting offerings from a group of flying birds. They brought city food, fruits found in the garbage dump, and bread and potato cakes stolen from the dock.

The Fungus-Talking Seagull looked down on all this, criticizing the city gulls for living in such comfortable conditions that they had lost their ability to conquer the ocean. Then, it went to the docks to catch fish, tearing off fresh meat and swallowing it, its bloody beak revealing the grace and demeanor of a predator. The gulls exclaimed in amazement.

Lin Bo used the spell of shared senses and heard the magic-eyed seagull shouting that the sky here belonged to the seagulls and all birds must obey. The gulls echoed excitedly.

The Lighthouse Wizard smiled and casually covered it with a cloth.

He was going to perform an eye transplant surgery today. Yesterday, he had invited three blind patients from Shita Town to come for a physical examination. There was an old woman, a middle-aged man, and a young girl. He took some cell tissues from each of them and used camouflaged fungal mats to cultivate mimic eyeballs.

Direct transplantation of these eyeballs is feasible, but to avoid appearing too skilled in medicine and making outsiders think he can regenerate flesh and blood, Lin Bo still carried out mechanical transformation.

The signal conversion structures such as the retina are retained, the lens is replaced by a camera, and the frame is made of human-friendly titanium alloy. The internal neural structure is replaced with neurons differentiated from metal hyphae.

The internal structure of the mechanical prosthetic eye he designed is very delicate. It is a nested structure with a metal shell wrapping the camera core. This core can rotate flexibly under the control of metal nerves, and will never have problems with myopia or hyperopia. The resolution is much higher than that of the human eye, and the image can be magnified.

The only drawback is that the pupil aperture adjusts slowly. Once stimulated by strong light or suddenly enters a dark environment, the pupil of the mechanical prosthetic eye needs several seconds to respond.

This defect requires subsequent improvement.

The young girl was brought here by her family early in the morning. She was born with impaired vision and her eyes can only sense light and dark, and she cannot see any color of the scenery.

Lin Bo greeted the patient's parents with a smile.

The little patient held her mother's hand and heard the adults talking about her eyes and the surgery that would allow her to see everything in the world. She thought about it all night, not knowing whether it was good or bad. The darkness that had accompanied her since birth was very warm. She didn't understand what color was. She only heard that color was a large group of things, more than her family.

Lin Bo looked at the little girl who was as quiet as a puppet and seemed to be obedient.

"Brave girl, you will soon be able to feel the world without using your hands. What is something you have always been curious about?"

"Needles," the patient whispered. "They always prick me when I'm sewing or stringing beads. And the flowers, they smell sweet, my sister says they're beautiful. And the miracle walker, it's scary. The night it rained heavily, Mom and Dad were both screaming about ghosts."

"Don't you want to look at yourself?" Lin Bo asked softly.

"Me?" the patient asked in surprise. The night watchman and the family members all laughed.

The girl's mother held out her hand, and the patient could feel her mother's rough hand loosen, and then another broad, dry, and warm hand took hers.

"Follow me. There are no steps ahead, so feel free to walk boldly."

Lin Bo put on the wizard's face. The next operation required magic to calm his mind, otherwise the pain would be too much for the child.

"(Exclamation) I command you to find peace, and no pain shall come upon you. Sweet dreams, sleep, sleep."

After the patient relaxed, Lin Bo removed her eyeballs, connected metal neurons, and then inserted the prosthetic eye into the eye socket.

He acted quickly and woke the patient up in a moment.

The girl opened her eyelids. The bright light of the surgical lamp made her uncomfortable. The colors of the world rushed towards her. For the first time, her brain received such a huge amount of visual signals, causing severe discomfort. Her tear glands kept oozing out drops of water to moisten her dry and cold metal eyeballs.

"I saw a lot of things." The patient curled up on the bed.

"Alright, alright." Lin Bo patted her back and took out a mirror. "Here, take a look at yourself."

In the mirror was a crying girl with tears streaming down her face and a pair of silver-gray eyes.

The girl was taken away by her parents. She still cried uncontrollably along the way, but she had learned to smile.

The second patient who came was a middle-aged worker who had his eyeball burned in an accident and had it removed in the hospital. He was also disfigured, with some degree of damage to his facial skin, leaving unsightly scars.

He had a silly smile on his face. Although he was accompanied by his family, he had to do everything by himself and looked flustered. He used a crutch to knock around and had to light his own cigarette.

"No smoking for the next two days," the night watchman warned him.

"Okay, okay, I'll listen to the doctor." The worker nodded, took the unlit cigarette from his mouth, fumbled up and down in his pocket but couldn't find it, so he put it on his ear.

Lin Bo had removed the polyps from the patient's eyes yesterday and installed a prosthesis in his empty eye socket today.

"Oh!" He lay on the operating table with his eyes open and said nothing. Suddenly he turned over and sat up, jumped off the bed, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed to the night watchman.

Lin Bo waited for him to calm down, picked up the cigarette he had dropped, and reminded him again, "Don't smoke for the next two days."

"Okay, okay... listen to the doctor..." He sobbed.

"Remember to pay attention to the news in the newspaper. In a couple of days, I will heal the scar on your face."

The workers threw away their crutches and strode away, chatting about whether there was any news of job openings in the city recently.

The last visitor was an elderly woman, who arrived towards evening, accompanied by a woman of similar age.

Her eyes were blinded by crying when she was young. First, one eye felt uncomfortable, and after a while, the vision in both eyes was gone. Now, they are like gray glass beads embedded in her face.

After entering the house, she awkwardly apologized to the night watchman, saying that she came too late. She explained that she didn't dare to go out too far alone, so she hid at home for a whole day and waited for the neighbor to be free before asking her to help bring her over.

"Doctor, how much will it cost to see an eye doctor?" she said, pulling a cloth bag from her bosom. Inside the cloth bag was a paper bag containing neatly stacked banknotes and coins.

"No charge." Lin Bo smiled and helped her into the operating room.

The lighthouse visitor didn't have to wait long before the night watchman led the old woman out. She was very quiet, staring at the setting sun for a while, then looking at the neighbor who had brought her there. After a moment's hesitation, she said softly, "You've aged so much. I can hardly recognize you."

"We are all old, all old."

The neighbor came forward and held the old woman's hand. They nodded to the night watchman and chatted for a while about how deserted the lighthouse was when old Tim was still there. Finally, they walked side by side and slowly left the cape.

By now, nearly all disabled residents of Shita Town have received metal prosthetic limbs, leaving only the deaf and disfigured still waiting. Dozens have already regained their ability to work and their health.

Lin Bo returned to the third floor and heard a faint whisper coming from a box. It was the prototype of the metal prosthesis. Its resonant sound was advancing and had begun to interfere with the real world.

Far away in Hongdu, the Cifu Pharmaceuticals billboard was even more complete. Besides the slogan, several brilliant metal arms were displayed on the screen. The newspaper's second-page headline was the news that Viscount Willen Pearl led the Stone Tower Town prosthetic limb transplant workers to exhibit at the Hongdu Benevolent Mother Church Hospital.

The city was ready to be shocked by this magical viscount again.

(End of this chapter)