Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 137 Healing and the Spirit Room (12)

Boom!

A deafening clap of thunder echoed through Watson District, and a blinding flash of white light illuminated the rain-washed, slippery buildings...

In the alley of Little Chinatown, a hairless cat hid outside the eaves of the basement door. The naturally sensitive little animal smelled blood and let out a furious growl. Under the flashes of lightning, a man covered in blood stood in the rain.

……

On Victor's computer screen was a tense and exciting boxing match, with the dull thuds of boxing gloves hitting flesh. The renowned "Ripper" of the underground world was somewhat absent-minded. He rested his chin on one hand, his peripheral vision catching sight of the electric guitar lying in the corner.

The image of that young man, like V, appeared in Victor's mind.

He sighed.

Night City has many casual acquaintances, but Victor has always been good at judging people. That guy's relationship with V is so close, he's probably been dragged into Arasaka's snake pit.

This man, who seemed like a wise man, only felt sorrow.

Night City has all sorts of ways to devour people: assassinations, failed deals... most often, stray bullets on the streets, and the rest are companies that leave no trace of human remains.

Victor felt that the kid had the same drive he had in his youth—unwilling to admit defeat, unafraid of losing, and his face radiated a determination to make something of himself.

But he would prefer his customers to return safely, especially the children V brought back; he hoped that would be even more so.

It was getting late, and the rain outside was too heavy, so Victor decided to spend the night in his small clinic.

Just as he was about to get up and lock the door, the automatic door opened.

"Dr. Victor..."

Misty patted the rain off her clothes, carrying some things in her hands.

She is a very meticulous girl who will carefully pronounce everyone's name and never make inappropriate jokes, always maintaining a rigorous way of thinking.

Victor's face wrinkled when he saw who it was. "It's you... What's wrong, child?"

"It's another winter rain... Victor, your knee has a hidden injury, and it tends to hurt when it rains cold... I saw your sign was on, so I brought you some hot drinks."

As they spoke, Misty took things out of the bag; she had even thoughtfully prepared a small blanket for him.

This girl, who was willing to rent her house to Victor at a low price and often acted as his temporary nurse, helped the neighbors and the lone wolves around her a lot.

Old Wei reached out and took the blanket, saying apologetically, "The team from Watson District came by, they changed their cybernetic bodies, the chairs are covered in blood... Sit here, make do."

Misty slowly sat down. "What's wrong?"

Her mind is so sensitive that she can always accurately capture anyone's emotional changes.

Victor paused the boxing match. "Sigh... I'm restless. I guess it's been too long since I've seen V and the others. I heard Jack's been busy with something big lately?"

Misty shook her head. "Jack's always been like that, always on the go... Last time I tried to make him a lucky charm, he said, 'Girl! What lucky charm do you need? Bullets bite your ears—money and guns will save my life.'"

Misty's unhurried voice, combined with her imitation of Jack's gruff tone, created a humorous effect.

Old Wei's mood immediately improved. Holding the hot cocoa that Misty had brought, he said, "You have to tell him to come here sometime to check if there's anything wrong with the prosthetic body and do a full scan. These mercenaries often stick all sorts of dirty things into the brain-computer interface."

Misty looked at the guitar at Old Vi's feet. "You can do this too?"

Old Wei shook his head. "It was a rock kid... shot him dead. A kid V brought came to me and survived, he was shot a few times."

Misty watched Victor quietly.

"So you're worried about the rock kid, or... V?"

Old Wei was taken aback, then suddenly laughed, “Nothing can be hidden from you… As you get older, you tend to overthink things. These young kids all want to make something of themselves, scrambling to get into companies and gangs… Sometimes it’s not that I’m worried. V values ​​that guy a lot, but I always feel like the two of them are risking their lives lately.”

Misty listened attentively to Old V's somewhat incoherent words. "You're too worried about Victor. Everyone has their own path and destiny, and they'll be grateful that you still remember them. But... V hasn't been here for a while."

Victor's mood suddenly lightened.

The girl, who runs a psychic shrine and is also a qualified psychologist, has achieved her goal on this trip.

"Get some rest, Dr. Victor—"

Misty hadn't finished speaking.

The automatic door made a sound like steel hitting something.

Lin Yue's vision was unsteady. He had traveled from the Aragaka Tower to the dark alleys of Night City in a stealthy hovercar... He had already begun to lose his strength while in the car.

At this moment, this guy, who had walked out of the desolate, blood-soaked path, carried his broken prosthetic arm and arrived at what he considered the safest treatment spot.

Inside the Arasaka Tower, he forced himself to stay calm and slowly shed all his disguise.

He was panting heavily, looking at the two people sitting in the room as if they were double, his ears ringing.

The aftereffects of AI being implanted in the brain, coupled with bleeding from a wound during a long meeting...

A normal person would have been unable to withstand it long ago.

He coughed violently, his prosthetic hand gripping the doorframe. In his increasingly blurry vision, a woman whose face he couldn't make out got up and quickly came over to support him. Then, as he swayed, the woman was immediately pushed aside.

Misty's first reaction was: It's so heavy!
She felt as if she were holding up a machine, the dark "steel" radiating a chill.

Viktor frowned, spread his arms, and strode towards him.

"What happened?"

Victor and Misty worked together to help the heavy man to a chair that had been slightly wiped clean of blood.

Victor's expression was extremely grim; he knew something was going to happen tonight.

"How come he has so many prosthetic bodies?"

As they spoke, the doctor began to skillfully diagnose the symptoms, and casually shone his flashlight on the logo of the prosthetic body next to Lin Yue's neck, where the Arasaka logo was clearly visible.

Old Wei doesn't like to swear, but at this critical moment he still cursed, "Damn it."

The prosthetic bodies were all models he had never seen before.

But Victor quickly calmed down.

He connected the wire to Lin Yue's neck, his expression grim. "They want this child dead... Misty, please get some blood plasma of his type."

Misty held the blood bag, her gaze sweeping over Lin Yue's worn-out suit riddled with knife wounds and bullet holes.

On the display screen next to Lao Wei, Lin Yue's situation appeared one by one:

【Arasaka】

Data corruption detected

[Core Warning]

[Firmware: Warning]

[Neurology: Warning]

[Medical assistance required]

[Battle System Inspection: Error]

[Adrenaline release control: Error]

……

On the blood-red data reading panel, various error messages kept flashing. As Lao Wei looked at the extremely high response times, his heart sank to the bottom.

This guy's situation is a complete mess, both inside and out!

In his view, Lin Yue was like a carefully constructed but dilapidated house—on the verge of collapse at any moment.

The skilled prosthetic doctor even admired the guy who built Lin Yue's prosthetic body; he was too bold and too good at piecing things together.

It's like building blocks on a narrow bridge; it's a delicate balance, and the slightest mistake can lead to total defeat!
Old Wei shook his head and muttered to himself:
"The cybernetic enhancement actually saved his life. External injuries can be healed through medical intervention, but I don't know what happened in his brain? His vital signs and related systems were a complete mess, as if the virus and garbage hadn't been cleaned up for decades."

"What's in his head?"

It is not too late.

After much deliberation, Victor decided to first stop the bleeding and suture the wound, address the minor issues with the prosthetic body, stabilize his condition, and then observe any neurological problems.

He bent down and skillfully cleaned the wound, all the while keeping a close eye on the garbled code on the medical control panel next to him.

Misty didn't quite understand Old Vi's technical terms, but she very skillfully helped out.

……

The two worked together so diligently that the gauze and tourniquets piled up like a small mountain next to the operating chair before they finally finished treating all of Lin Yue's wounds.

It was already three or four in the morning.

Victor slumped in his chair. Lin Yue's hemoglobin and coagulation indicators were in good condition, and the intravenous access was established in a timely manner.

As for the mysterious prosthetic body on his body, Victor didn't study it much. Instead, he stared intently at the distribution of Lin Yue's nerves on the medical system.

There were dark foci in both hemispheres of his brain, as if the neurons had lost their activity. He had never seen such a strange condition before.

"Is it difficult, Dr. Victor?"

Misty thought that Old Vi was helpless against Lin Yue's empty arm.

Old Wei breathed a sigh of relief. "He has some problems with his brain—the hippocampus is the most severely damaged."

Misty didn't understand.

Old Wei twirled his hands and tried to explain in the simplest language possible, “Some things have affected his memory, including some low sensitivity that controls the location of hormone secretion… To put it simply, he is slowly losing his humanity and emotions, and his memory is severely damaged.”

At this point, Victor stood up. "We are born human beings, and on the surface, we are emotional. But in reality, this is all the result of rich brain activity and hormone action. Something is depriving these parts of their function. Although it may not be fatal in the short term, there is no guarantee that these parts will not continue to spread one day, or even cause him... death."

"The most troublesome thing is that I can't find out what the cause is... I can't read the data from his prosthetic body. These things are like viruses... The moment they connected, they immediately crashed my system and subnet."

Ugh…

Victor shook his head repeatedly.

In just a few short months, the young man who used to sit on his hospital bed playing guitar has become a guy with such advanced cybernetics and brain problems.

Victor: "V has a very close relationship with him... I'm more worried about V's situation now."

As a prosthetic doctor, Victor is always interested in high-strength and exquisite prosthetics, but at this critical juncture, he has no intention of studying Lin Yue's idea at all.

He lowered his head, rubbing his forehead repeatedly, listening to the pattering rain outside the door, dialing V's number again and again, but V could not get through.

Fortunately, the call was eventually connected.

……
-
Lin Yue felt that just a second ago he was in excruciating pain all over his body, as if an electric drill was drilling into his brain.

After closing my eyes, it was pitch black.

The next second I opened my eyes to a blindingly bright, blurry light, and I could vaguely see someone busy beside me.

The surgical instruments for the cybernetic body made a soft, rustling sound, and Lin Yue felt incredibly thirsty. This was the first time he had ever felt a craving for water since his cybernetic body became so advanced.

"Ugh... damn it."

Lin Yue's head moved.

In his line of sight: Old Vie's figure gradually overlapped with his, his signature black-rimmed glasses and the earrings with the Valentino gang characteristics on his earlobes reminding him that he was still alive.

"Boss, you're awake."

Suzuki stood upright with his hands in front of him, looking like he had been guarding for a long time, and the fatigue on his face was almost impossible to hide.

"Suzuki... Hi, old Vision... Long time no see."

Lin Yue felt as if he had just emerged from a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, and his heart gradually calmed down.

A long-lost face.

I don't know if it's because of my memory, but Old Wei always seemed to be a reassuring doctor.

Old Wei stretched out his hand and waved it in front of Lin Yue. "Hmm, not bad."

Suzuki was extremely nervous, staring intently at Lin Yue.

Lin Yue's lips moved slightly.

"Anyone who didn't know better would think you were standing next to me in mourning."

Suzuki immediately lowered his head and said apologetically, "I'm sorry."

Old Wei chuckled, "You're a big shot now."

It seems that Lao Wei still has some reservations about the company... but he doesn't reject it.

He is very accepting of himself, probably because Lao Wei knows the company's V and therefore doesn't have much ill will towards him. On the other hand, Lao Wei himself is a person who saves people almost without thinking—and he will also dedicate all his knowledge to others.

Lin Yue glanced at the data panel and said reassuredly, "It looks like... Suzuki gave you the prototype blueprints and firmware... I knew you could handle it."

Old Wei shook his head, reaching out to help Lin Yue up as he said, "You just gave me Arasaka's secret like that? I'm old, I can't take it anymore... Why didn't you find Arasaka's doctor? When you first came here, I had no idea how to work on your prosthetic body, everything... was a mess."

Lin Yue let out a heavy sigh, "Isn't it because I'm afraid of those bastards from Arasaka, hiss... leaving a few backdoors in my prosthetic body that I don't know about?"

The fact that his gorilla arm was disabled by the enemy at the Gorilla Building still bothered him, so much so that when Lai Xuan asked him where he was going for treatment, Victor was the only person on his mind.

Old Wei glanced at Suzuki beside him and said half-jokingly, "Give me something like this, and I won't get silenced, will I?"

Lin Yue shook his head with a wry smile.

"Kill them... I'm afraid V will hold me accountable."

Old Wei: "Let's see how well I did it."

Under Lao Wei's guidance, Lin Yue moved his newly reattached arm a few times. Once all functions were normal, the conscientious doctor from Night City began the final stages of the procedure.

Victor rambled on, "I've never seen any of the blueprints, materials, or the company's official software for these prosthetics before... You know what? The company even sent me a lot of alternative options, all of them top-notch."

Then, he gestured for Lin Yue to look at the dozen or so boxes piled up in the corner of the clinic.

It almost completely filled the limited space behind the old Uyghur medical clinic.

Ok?
Lin Yue glanced at Suzuki.

“This Mr. Suzuki brought all his stuff… as if he was afraid I’d let you die on the operating table.”

“I tried to persuade him, but he wouldn’t listen.”

Listening to Lao Wei's words, Lin Yue felt helpless towards his subordinate.

Suzuki lowered his head. "I'm sorry, doctor, for causing you trouble."

For some reason, Lin Yue felt that this guy had a kind of Takemura Goro vibe, with his strange Japanese-accented English, his methodical approach to things, and his always upright posture.

"Moving it out is too much trouble... I might as well just leave it here with you."

Lin Yue said casually.

Old Wei stopped what he was doing, glanced at Lin Yue, and asked, "Are you serious?"

The priceless Arasaka materials, along with various prototypes, are so valuable that it's no exaggeration to say that if news of these things got out, Old Wei's clinic would be robbed every day.

For the cybernetic doctors of Night City, the price of this technology cannot be measured in euros.

These are all new materials that Arasaka developed inside the space station.

"Of course, Old Wei... piled the boxes from Arasaka inside and went to Suzuki."

Old Wei was very safety-conscious. "Sir, could you please help me move this to the basement?"

After receiving the order, Suzuki obediently began to move things.

Lin Yue then turned to Lao Wei and continued, "Thank you for your help, Lao Wei. If... I need to replace parts of my prosthetic body in the future, or update the firmware... I'd like to have it done here. You can keep the parts for research, including these materials—"

“I know this is a hot potato for you, but… I can’t trust anyone else.”

Old Wei always remained calm and composed, as if these things, which were more valuable than gold, meant nothing to him.

He removed the soft wire from behind Lin Yue's neck and said seriously, "Child, do you know that there are lesions in your brain? I think they are spreading... The prosthetic body may accelerate the progression of the disease."

"I suggest you remove the prosthetic body and let your body regress a bit."

Looking at Lao Wei, who was still giving him advice, Lin Yue felt a warmth in his heart and realized that fate was too magical.

It would be one thing if her illness were the same as the lark's, but it would also be like V, who was on her deathbed, receiving treatment from an elder she trusted...

According to the old saying in Lin Yue's hometown: "Damn it, God!"

A closed-loop destiny, sometimes you can't escape it even if you want to.

He smiled wryly and said, "Old Wei, do you know what a roving AI is? That's right... that thing is wandering around in my brain."

Old Wei was stunned when Lin Yue said this.

Old Wei said helplessly, "I've heard of it... You mean those things are affecting your brain? Listen... Although I don't understand hacking stuff, technically speaking... it has little to do with reverting to the prosthetic body."

Lin Yue remained silent for a long time.

"Without a cybernetic body, what do you think I would be like?"

Old Vie, who knew how difficult it was to beg for food in Night City, understood this situation.

They're in a bind, just like V.

He sighed helplessly, “I can hardly express how I feel right now. I have a whole bunch of experimental prototypes here… I should be as happy as if I’ve found a treasure, but I’m currently helpless in your situation—give me some time, kid, let me check on the condition of Arasaka’s prototype first, maybe it’s not so bad.”

"There will always be a way."

"And...do you have any medications for brain nerves? I can prescribe some formulas to slow down brain lesions for you, free of charge."

Lin Yue refused the offer of free medication and even wanted to give the surgery fee to Lao Wei as well.

"Old Wei, these prosthetics are a hot potato for you."

"Although you can use the materials as you please, it would be too much of a safety threat for you if they were to leak onto the market. It's not necessary to waive my fees; Arasaka would have to pay for them. I just hope that these things can satisfy your curiosity and let you get a feel for the Arasaka technology that I'm using."

Ugh…

Old Wei waved his hand calmly; he couldn't persuade Lin Yue otherwise.

He slid the chair under him and sat down next to the computer, starting to type and record medical records.

"Take a rest or walk around the neighborhood. If there are any problems, come back immediately. I'm worried that some things might not be done well."

Just as Lin Yue was about to take a short break, he discovered that his call logs and email inbox were practically overflowing.

There were many missed calls, but none from V.

Feeling a little disappointed, he sat up straight.

He scrolled through the missed calls from those companies until he saw Jack Wells' name.

Oops!

He paused for a moment, then suddenly remembered that he had broken his promise.

Jack felt rather helpless the moment the call connected.

"Dude...you finally called back. I was drinking all night at Lizhi and couldn't get through to you. What happened? Did Wild Wolf upset you?"

“I can’t get in touch with V either. I said… did you guys agree to leave me hanging?”

Lin Yue glanced at the time. He had fought his way out of Ganbi yesterday and had been lying at Victor's place for a day and a night.

Thinking about it, it really is a bit excessive.

Life is full of surprises.

"I'm in Little Chinatown... uh, I've run into some trouble, so I came to see Dr. Victor to get it checked out. How about we meet here?"

Jack's eyes widened in surprise after hearing this.

"Are you kidding me? You know Dr. Victor? Damn, you should have said so earlier, I wouldn't have bothered beating around the bush—"

"Night City, you know, it's easy to bump into someone you know... By the way, how's your health these days?"

Lin Yue nodded. "No problem."

Jack breathed a sigh of relief, almost thinking the deal was going to fall through.

"Okay, okay, then you wait for me at the psychic shack next to that strip club on the street. My sweetheart Misty is there. I'll drop her off somewhere. Shall we meet there? Hmm?"

"See you."

The phone hangs up.

Lin Yue glanced at Lao Wei. Suzuki was still struggling to move boxes. The automatic door opened, and the pungent smell of chemical raw materials in Night City after the rain, along with the sunlight, made him squint.

It felt like a lifetime ago.

He took steps, climbing the stairs one by one, and entered through the back door of Misty's psychic house with a habit he knew almost to the bone.

The girl, leaning on the counter, had an unusual hairstyle and heavy smoky makeup. She turned her head to look at the man in the blood-stained shirt.

A gentle breeze rustled the hard, colorful plastic curtain behind me, as if playing a symphony of destiny...

……

　Saturday, allow me to be lazy for a bit, so I'll just write a short 6,000 words~
　　I've just finished filming a major storyline, so I'm taking a break to rest and recuperate (poor thing).

　　
　
(End of this chapter)