Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Old Town of Nightless City, the second floor of an unfinished building.

With a ’click,’ a coffin-sized network implantation chamber suddenly opened, and a pale, naked teenager sat up.

The teenager looked as if he hadn’t moved for a long time, with obvious signs of muscle atrophy in his hands and legs. He panted heavily, his face full of excitement.

”I did it, I really did it!”

”We did it, you little idiot!”

The cracked version of ’Virtual Companion’ suddenly lit up, and the pink-haired Aidoru stood with hands on her hips, blushing as she looked at his naked body.

”Idiot, hurry up and put on some clothes!”

”Hehe, Duoduo, it’s great, it’s so great having you,” the teenager said longingly, ”We can climb mountains together, go shopping together, do many things we couldn’t do before.”

”Things we couldn’t do before?”

The teenager said seriously, ”I want to create a virtual mating module for you.”

”Go to hell!!!”

The pink-haired Aidoru was furious, kicking at him, but as the electronic light flickered, her tender foot went through his head, revealing her bear-print underwear instead.

The old version didn’t have this kind of treatment!

The teenager Ahong happily had a nosebleed.

”Hey, hey, are you okay,” Aidoru exclaimed.

”I’m fine, I’m fine, the old-fashioned access chamber puts too much pressure on the neural system.”

Ahong staggered as he climbed out.

This old network access chamber was at his feet. In the Civilization Era, it was called a game chamber, used to log into large-scale online games. Ahong had modified it, giving it a ’signal amplification’ function.

Ahong was thrilled, with countless things he wanted to say to this true Aidoru, but suddenly the doorbell rang in the darkness.

Ahong’s expression changed, and he quickly turned his head, turning the wall into a virtual screen.

’Outside the door,’ a grown man looked at the hidden camera and grinned at him.

In his hand, he held a bionic man.

This bionic man was one of his ’avatars.’

”Impossible, I set up so many network isolations. How could they find my real body!”

While network hackers can indeed create virtual personalities, turning into AIs and abandoning their physical bodies, not every hacker is willing to do so.

Old-school hackers see this kind of behavior as heretical.

Though Ahong was young, his hacker mentor was an old hacker from the Civilization Era.

This current body, it was his real body.

”Hide quickly, Ahong!” the pink-haired Aidoru urged nervously.

”There’s no time.”

Ahong smiled wryly. Sure enough, the door was soon opened by the other party.

Gao Gong walked up to Ahong.

In the teenager’s eyes, countless codes flashed suddenly.

Smoke started to fume from Gao Gong’s body.

”Think carefully, do you want to use ’prosthetic body overheating’ on me? I’ll only give you one chance.”

Ahong dejectedly gave up the idea. The strength of the other party’s mechanical body wasn’t something that a couple of hacker skills could break through.

”You could escape into the network now; I don’t believe you don’t have a backup personality.”

Gao Gong glanced at the pink-haired Aidoru.

”It’s just that you probably haven’t had the chance to back up her code yet, right.”

Threats, blatant threats!

”You can’t bully Ahong!”

The pink-haired Aidoru stood in front of Ahong, baring her teeth at him, looking fierce.

’She’s acting so real... oh, she’s not acting. Aidoru erased that part of her memory data, so this pink-haired Aidoru really believes she’s the new Aidoru.’

Gao Gong’s eyes passed over the girl idol, looking at this young hacker.

”What’s your choice?”

Ahong sighed, ”I surrender!”

...

The next day, Hanging Street was as lively as usual.

I Love Eating Buns arrived at the Neural House on time, opening the door.

He was in a fairly good mood because the boss said that if he kept performing well for a while, he’d be taught the skill of ’prosthetic maintenance.’

A skill, this was definitely a skill!

Thinking further ahead, this was the pace of becoming an apprentice.

Baozi never thought that an NPC would also paint a picture for him.

However, as he just opened the door, a sharply dressed player rushed up to him.

”Brother, you’re a player, right!?”

Baozi was stunned for a moment, not particularly happy. Instead, he cautiously stepped back two steps.

”Who are you?”

”Me, it’s me, don’t you remember, I’m Red Flower Demon, from the same starting point as you.”

Baozi was dazed for a moment, then remembered that poor guy whose head got smashed in.

”How did you end up here, and how did you recognize me?”

Red Flower Demon was just about to speak when his stomach let out a ’gurgle,’ and he said nothing, just stared at him with wide, innocent eyes.

Baozi couldn’t stand the look any longer and let out a deep sigh.

”I’ll treat you to a meal.”

”You’re really great, brother!”

In front of Jack K’s noodle stall, Red Flower Demon ate four whole bowls of noodles before letting out a satisfied burp.

”Awesome!”

The Red Flower Demon glanced at the noodle stall boss and exclaimed, ”I can’t see through this NPC’s level, does he have a quest?”

Baozi was taken aback and quickly said, ”How can you see their level, do you also have ’Insight’?”

”What’s Insight? I don’t have that, my talent skill is ’Environmental Exploration,’ which allows me to sense the danger level of surrounding creatures.”

”Explain more!”

The Red Flower Demon didn’t hide anything and recounted the experience of logging back in.

Turns out, ever since he was killed by the Newbie Village chief, which is that slum version of the Winter Soldier, after logging back in, he found himself not in the Black Workshop, but in the hideout of the Little Claw Gang.

After the ’Black Workshop Bionics’ runaway incident, the defense force of the Little Claw Gang was noticeably stronger. Every patrol now had a level 10 elite leading the team.

”So how did you escape?”

Baozi was astonished, ”You couldn’t handle a level 5 Winter Soldier, but you managed to escape from level 10 elites?”

”I didn’t escape on my own,” the Red Flower Demon replied proudly. ”The Little Claw Gang was taken down, did you know?”

”It’s gone!?”

According to the Red Flower Demon, he learned his lesson this time, realizing that not every village chief in the Newbie Village is a good person, so this time he decided to honestly follow the storyline.

”To be honest, I almost thought I would be sold to Mars to mine.”

”Mars?”

”It’s that satellite in the sky, I don’t know its name,” the Red Flower Demon took a sip of water. ”This batch of bionics wasn’t sold to factories, but to outer space.”

”This time I’ve learned my lesson and decided to observe the storyline without intervening.”

”And the Little Claw Gang was taken down?”

”Exactly. I told you, the storyline can’t have bugs, I hadn’t even completed my Newbie Village quest yet, and they sent me to the big map, that’s not scientific.”

”Who did it?”

”A faction called ’Mad Executioners,’ it was a scene where a bunch of muscle-bound guys in exoskeletons stormed in, went on a killing spree, I was stunned. The boss of the Little Claw Gang, a gigantic mechanical dog, was completely disabled by the firepower, and I took the opportunity to escape.”

Baozi quickly looked at the task bar, stunned to discover that the ’Little Claw Gang Pursuit’ task was slowly disappearing from the player panel.

’So in Cyber Realm, if you don’t do quests, they’ll disappear?’

”I heard the Little Claw Gang saying while at their hideout that they’ve pinpointed your location in the Outer City, so I came to find you.”

”What’s up with your skill?”

”Hehe,” the Red Flower Demon said proudly, ”Let me show you a magic trick.”

In the next moment, he lightly twisted his forearm and unscrewed it.

”Holy shit, your arm—” seeing the smooth forearm surface, Baozi was shocked, ”Are you a real bionic man?”

”Pretty interesting, right? Why don’t I swap my arms and legs, and show you an exotic variant?”

”Hold on, man, just wait,” Baozi restrained the overly eager performer, ”So you’re saying, this ’Environmental Exploration’ skill comes with the bionic man template?”

”Yeah.”

Baozi immediately felt like deleting his account to start over, considering the real bionic man’s five attributes are all 5, essentially gaining five extra levels compared to others.

But thinking about the identity he painstakingly established and the high death penalty, Baozi dismissed the idea.

Since his fate was so fortunate, he must be worth recruiting.

”Have you had enough to eat? I’ll take you to meet my teammates.”

”They’re players too? Great, I can finally meet some real people!”

After the two left, Jack, the old soldier, came over to clean the dishes, muttering to himself.

”Is the bionic man immigration wave starting again?”

...

Baozi found the Big Muscle Dominator, who was moving goods for the gang, and introduced Red Flower Demon to him.

Being all players, they quickly got acquainted.

Big Muscle Dominator suddenly said mysteriously, ”Bro, there’s a quest, do you want to take it?”

Baozi was taken aback, ”Quest, aren’t you still working on your street reputation?”

”It’s not a gang initiation task, it’s from Sister Ji, haven’t you checked the forum?”

Sister Ji is something of a small celebrity on the forum, popular in an unexpected way, in short, by posting suggestive pictures.

It’s well known that the Red Dream Club is a very wholesome club with lots of uplifting content.

Sister Ji, who transferred to being a bartender, was bored and would occasionally sneakily take photos of long-legged waitress girls and post them online.

These bionic mannequins are meticulously curated templates, any of them would be a carefully chosen beauty, and they are all dressed very sexily.

And then she became famous.

People nicknamed her, Sister Horny Picture.

Today, Sister Ji unusually didn’t post any pictures but put up a very strange post.

’Level 3 and above, in the Outer City, brothers and sisters with firearms contact me, there are great benefits!’

’OMG, Sister Ji didn’t post a picture today, my childhood is over.’

’What’s going on, is Sister Ji gathering guys to raid Red Dream Club? No, I haven’t seen enough of the pictures yet.’

’A mission, it’s definitely a mission! Sister Ji, can you share more details?’

’Anyone who meets the criteria, @ me, and I’ll add you to a small group.’ Sister Ji

”I told Sister Ji about your situation, and she agreed,” Big Muscle Dominator dragged the two avatars into the chat group.

Baozi took a glance at this small group and found out that including the three of them, there were already nine people in the group.

Sister Ji ’Welcome, two new friends, @ILoveEatingBuns, @RedFlowerDemon’

’Welcome, new big shots!’

’Noob, show a photo’

’Big Muscle Dominator, are these your friends?’

’Alright, everyone, be quiet.’ Sister Ji

’We have enough people, so I’ll explain the mission content, simply put, I took an assassin mission.’