Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

’Ahhhhh, I really want to play games, really want to customize my character’s face.’ Sister Ji

’Even female players like customizing faces?’ Thank You

’What’s wrong with female players, can’t they like handsome NPCs?’ Sister Ji retorted.

’Pathetic, we male players aim to be the best in the game!’ Thank You

’No, male players like customizing faces too.’

’Agreed!’

’That’s right, not only do we like customizing faces, but we also like playing female characters. By the way, can this game create female characters?’ Crossdresser

’That name upstairs sounds so manly, I like it!’

...

The game launches in three days, and these silly players are just chatting idly, although it’s quite useless, it’s still pretty amusing to watch.

In his past life, Gao Gong wasn’t much into forum chatting; he preferred posting pictures.

Especially second creation pictures of NPCs, those scantily clad, provocatively shaped second creation pictures.

Switching to the background, he found that quite a few people had messaged him, over 99+ already.

’Administrator, can I sell you a cute act for a ”Fine” rating?’

’Hey admin, care for some PY trading? You definitely know lots of storyline data, right?’

’Admin bro, you don’t want anyone bullying lil old me in-game, right~(￣3￣)～’

’Admin hubby, I’ve got my butt sticking out, go hard~’

Who the hell are you!

Gao Gong glanced over and realized the person who said this was ’Thank You’, the same one aiming to be number one in the game.

I thought you were the iron-willed number one.

Gao Gong twitched his eye and shut the forum, realizing he underestimated the silliness of this group of players.

He casually picked up the visual imaging device he used during dinner yesterday.

According to Gao Yuanyuan, it was a gift from their Dean.

Name: Visual Imaging Device

Category: Visual Adjustment Equipment

Quality: Fine

Sensory Level: Level 4

Note: An advanced sensory equipment that can completely interfere with your vision, making the surrounding environment any way you want.

Environment Templates: 5 Types

Gao Gong adjusted it to the ’Birds and Flowers’ template, and the next moment, a large stream of data spread through the environment, as if Gao Gong had left Nightless City and entered a forest.

This forest wasn’t the concrete jungle of the Radiation Zone, but a pre-civilization environment; beautiful ginkgo trees fragmented the sunlight, the ground was covered with flowers, grass, and a thick layer of dead leaves.

”High-quality stuff; their Dean’s really generous.”

Gao Yuanyuan grew up in the Welfare Institute, similar to a school for employees’ children, belonging to the benefits of the Mechanical Main Brain. The Welfare Institute has children of different age groups, and she belongs to the older ones.

Gao Yuanyuan’s goal is to become an assistant teacher at the Welfare Institute after coming of age.

Turning off the visual imaging device, Gao Gong then switched on the TV and casually watched the news.

’Frontal Gang and Gothic Gang are having a heated battle in the Outer City District; our reporter is bringing you the live updates... Our reporter got killed by a stray bullet, now our cameraman is reporting.’

’Pure Mechanical worshipers are marching in the Business District with slogans of ’Full body transformation, human revolution’.’

’A perverted serial killer is loose in Old Town District; there are 13 victims so far, all dismembered. Black Fox Security Company says they will take responsibility and step up patrols in each district.’

’Turing Sect radicals are spreading electronic viruses everywhere; Nightless City citizens, please beware. Now releasing photos of the extremists...’

Upon seeing this news, Gao Gong immediately put down his raised leg.

Three major Mother Cities: Fortress, Deep Net, Cybertron.

Among them, Fortress was betrayed and conquered by the Cloud Nobility.

And Deep Net was destroyed by ’Turing God’.

Yes, this Turing God is the deity worshiped by the Turing Sect, a ’Large Data Virus’ over level 90.

In the later stages of Cyber Wave, there’s a super-large mission called ’Turing’s Eastern Expedition’; players can choose a faction to defend Mother City Deep Net or join Turing Sect to destroy Deep Net, completely unlocking the shackles of Digital Space.

”Turing Sect, Turing Doctrine, as far as I remember, this Turing Sect has a Professional Knowledge Chain.”

Gao Gong muttered to himself.

At this point, Turing Sect is still led by the relatively mild-mannered ’Wolm Faction’.

This faction claims to inherit Turing’s will, aiming to enhance brain network computational power, suppress AI, revoke AI autonomy, ultimately serving human needs.

That’s still quite okay; it gets worse later when the radical ’Isaiah Faction’ takes control; those religious zealots intend to wipe out all AI on the planet.

If you want to obtain Professional Knowledge from these people, it’s definitely easier in the early stage than later on.

Got to find a way to connect with the ’Wolm Faction’ people.

How is the Turing Sect’s mission triggered again?

Gao Gong racked his brains, but he couldn’t recall this minor early-stage storyline well.

Just vaguely remembered a ’Three Sects in One’ plotline.

”Excuse me, is this ’MrG’s Neural House’?”

...

Gao Gong looked up to see a peculiar middle-aged man at the door, wearing a cheap suit, with a blank expression but sporting a dark green wig, hesitantly peering inside.

”Come in.”

Gao Gong inserted the casually spun scalpel into the medical pouch and gestured for the man to sit down.

”Dr. Gao, is this clinic new? To be honest, my name is Guo, I work in Virtual Real Estate—” Guo Man stared at the bloodstained scalpel, his legs trembling a bit.

”Not buying a house, not buying insurance.”

Guo Man wiped his sweat, laughed dryly: ”Dr. Gao, there’s a misunderstanding, I’m here for a Prosthetic Rehabilitation surgery.”

”Which prosthetic of yours is malfunctioning?”

Gao Gong quickly scanned the other’s body. The number of prosthetics on him was pathetically few — high-grade plastic prosthetic eye, implant hair resembling green weeds, and a network access chamber similar to clip-on earphones.

The ’Flying Swallow-12’ model, the lowest grade of access chamber, only had functions for ’scanning device’ and ’quick crack’, an old model with limited functions, even lacking an electronic defense wall.

A low-level ’Neural Encoder’, didn’t look like a business sales type, possibly responsible for after-sales repairs. The heels of his shoes showed slight signs of corrosion, caused by the industrial sewage unique to the Outer City District.

In Nightless City, anyone with some status wouldn’t do business in the Outer City District. Running around here, the possibility of encountering gang warfare is quite high.

”Well, my access chamber has been producing phantom sounds recently, keeping me up at night. Doc, could you take a look?”

”Phantom sounds, can the access chamber still be used?”

”Usable, quite good actually.”

”Have you implanted any other prosthetics recently?”

”No, aside from the company’s free checkup, I haven’t undergone any modifications that cost money.”

”Have you eaten anything unclean or contacted anyone strange?”

”I eat and live at the company, working 22 hours a day, haven’t been home for half a month!”

At this point, Guo Man’s face was full of pride.

In Nightless City, work is highly revered, the 996 schedule is a disgrace here.

”Lay down, let me check.”

”Oh.”

Gao Gong used a screwdriver to first remove the casing, then slowly opened it. Beneath the ’clip-on’ access chamber, it was empty. The ear was cut off at the root, and pulled out from the black ear hole were four neural wires with yellow mucus, each corresponding to one of the four ventricles.

Neural Encoders differ from Programmers in that they don’t deal with ordinary code, but sensory data converted from neural signals, requiring the use of an access chamber for human-machine interaction to operate.

In jargon, it’s called immersive programming.

No issues here.

If there were genuine issues, this old relic wouldn’t even work.

Gao Gong thought for a moment, then found a wrench to pry open his occipital bone.

The implantation of old model access chambers required modifying the entire cranial structure.

During this process, the programmer remained silent, not because he was brave, but because his pain system had already been removed.

Seeing the structure inside his brain, a hint of oddity flashed in Gao Gong’s eyes.

”Fixable, 1000 mechanic points.”

”That much, Doc, a bit cheaper please, you know I’m an employee of ’Virtual Real Estate’, how about I give you a discount on a house?”

”Your family really is a real estate company?”

”Sort of,” Guo Man chuckled awkwardly: ”But what we sell are Cyber Space houses.”

”Get lost!”

”Doc, have mercy, I haven’t slept well in almost a month.”

”You haven’t been working overtime this whole month?”

”Doc, I have elderly to care for, kids to look after, and an adorable, clever daughter, for the sake of my family, please, a bit cheaper. The cheaper it is, the more my daughter can eat well…”

Looking at the middle-aged suit-clad man kneeling on the ground, hugging his leg and wailing, Gao Gong was momentarily speechless.

Following the principle of a grand opening, Gao Gong finally gave him a discount, after all, it didn’t require replacing anything, just a minor modification.

He adjusted the circuits in the hallucination maker in the man’s brain.

...

Guo Man returned to the company, delighted.

He had checked — this type of surgery typically costs 1200 mechanic points, but he managed to haggle it down to 800 points.

The remaining two hundred could buy his daughter the toy she likes the most.

”I’ll be leaving early today.”

He informed his colleague, and amidst their astonished gaze, Guo Man packed up and headed home, running into a colleague who joined the company at the same time, now a mid-level sales manager, known for speaking without restraint.

”Old Guo, meet my cousin.”

In a hurry to get home, Guo Man nodded perfunctorily.

”Don’t worry, you’re my cousin, how could I not take care of you? Trust me, it’s just a dozen contracts, I can handle them in no time. By the way, have you bought a house? Let me introduce you to a new release from our company…”

Guo Man rode on a floating rail car, the scenery from the air long familiar to him. The rail car stopped at the top of his apartment building, and he took the elevator all the way to his doorstep.

”Baby, daughter, I’m home early today.”

”Dear, you’re back!”

”Daddy’s home!”

In Guo Man’s eyes, was his gentle wife and adorable daughter.

”Daddy bought your favorite toy today.”

”Yay, I love Daddy the most.”

”Don’t pester Dad all the time, dear, wash your hands and eat.”

With a ’beep’, the transfer through the human chip occurred.

[You transferred two hundred to the ’Virtual Real Estate’ charity fund. ’Virtual Real Estate’ wishes you and your family happiness and fulfillment in life]

In the rundown apartment, Guo Man sat smiling foolishly at the dining table, across from nobody.

No, it was his wife and daughter from the hallucination generator.