Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 712: Chapter 237: Ethical Technology

Gao Gong left the weapon technology blueprints with Director Du.

Besides these, there were also blueprints for ’biomechanical technology’.

The latter was more numerous, with over a thousand sheets.

Once their camp completes the reverse engineering of ’biomechanical technology’, they can naturally create counter-rejection equipment.

As for manufacturing the ’Knight of Destruction’, that needs to be done personally.

Gao Gong thought for a moment and dismissed the idea of visiting Fat Xiang.

With the Nest Repairer as a ’repair-type Level 3 civilization architecture’, as long as he’s not dead on the spot, he can be saved.

Going there doesn’t make much sense.

Once Fat Xiang completes his body repair, then he’ll chat with him about the future.

’Off I go.’

After confirming there was nothing left behind, Gao Gong quickly left the Northern Hemisphere and arrived at a newly built mechanical city in the Southern Hemisphere.

The streets of this mechanical city were bustling with all kinds of Transformers walking around, various brain-machine interfaces visible on the back of their heads.

On both sides of the street, there were quite a few players sitting on small stools, shouting about brain-machine membrane services.

The number of players here was quite substantial.

”Membranes for sale, membranes for sale, regular transparent membrane 50 mechanical coins, LCD anti-wear membrane 150, electrostatic membrane 250, bulletproof membrane 600, hehehe, there’s also a special massage membrane, anyway, don’t miss it whether you’re passing by or not!”

”Weapon maintenance, weapon maintenance, Level 10 and above gun maintenance skills, spend over 20000, get a free gun plugin!”

”Team up, team up, priority for remote, spiritual attacks, melee get out!”

”Seeking a Tier 2 game husband to help level up, can voice chat, cosplay, and warm the bed.”

”Whoa, crossdressing powerhouse.”

Baozi was lazily walking down the street.

Currently, Baozi was fully upgraded; his brain-machine interface was attached to an automatic controller, and behind him were four Level 35 combat robots, two meters tall, equipped with Tier 2 mechanical plugins, each holding a ’Tier 2 - Fine’ level energy gun.

”Whoa, rich fat cat!”

”Whoa, black market dealer!”

”Whoa, pay-to-win player!”

”Let’s team up against Baozi!”

”Take him down!”

”Hack into his head, force him to swallow the blue pill, and make him watch Animal World in a loop day and night!”

Nowadays, players weren’t all newbies like when they first joined the game; the hierarchy was quite distinct.

Players who had completed their Second Transformation and risen to mid-level positions in major organizations.

Level 2 or 30 professional players.

And an even larger group of newbies.

During this time, Baozi’s reputation as a dishonest merchant spread widely, not just because he monopolized the prosthetic body market as the earliest Prosthetic Doctor, but also due to his various ’buy low sell high’, ’shameless money-making’ behaviors.

Successfully making players curse him in all sorts of ways.

”Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everyone.”

Baozi seemed to hear his friends’ friendly greetings, and with a smile, he said:

”Today’s weather is clear, cloudless, a perfect day for price hikes. I declare, all prosthetic bodies at Baozi Prosthetic Exclusive Store will go up by 10%!”

”Ah ah ah ah, Brother Baozi, Uncle Baozi, I was just about to repair my equipment, don’t raise the price!”

”This merchant is definitely doing it on purpose, taking advantage of another war ending to make a fortune from war profits!”

”Can I take him out? My ’Super Cat-Modified’ can kill with one shot from 5000 meters away.”

”Forget it, he has connections, didn’t you see he was grinding ’Research Association’ reputation right from the start? If you kill him, you’ll lose out on your previous task rewards.”

A player nodded toward the mechanical guards at the entrance, who were greeting Baozi.

”Whoa, how much reputation has this guy grinded, to be able to chat with guards!”

”Also, he’s a life player, what good would killing him do? He’d just hire an Assassin Organization to kill you down to level zero.”

”Hey, did you hear? Our players’ first ’Legendary Assassin’ has emerged, Rainy Night with a Knife and No Umbrella, Umbrella God!”

Players were always a group lacking attention span, soon after cursing Baozi to be hit by a car when he goes outside, the conversation shifted again.

Merchant Baozi strolled around the street and then headed to the Research Association, relying on his network to inquire about the lack of significant tasks before heading back.

But on the way, a message caught his attention.

’Baozi, are you busy?’ Rainy Night with a Knife and No Umbrella.

’Whoa, what kind of wind blew someone like you over here.’

’There’s a task that might need your help.’

’Tell me, you helped me a lot before, this time Baozi Store is free for you!’

’I previously did a Tier 2 camp task, remember?’

’Remember, Nine Swords Descending from Heaven Mountain, it’s about collecting those nine assassination blades of the Assassination Alliance, whoa, Brother Umbrella, you actually collected all of them!?’

Baozi sent a big shocked emoji.

’Yes, after completing the task, I found the King of Assassins of the Assassination Alliance to submit the task, but after submission, there was a problem with my body.’

’Problem with your body, negative effects?’

’It’s hard to explain briefly; I heard you’re researching players, maybe you can help.’

’Okay, time, place, let’s meet and talk.’

...

After hanging up the communication, Baozi rubbed his chin, still puzzled.

What kind of debuff needs meeting to discuss?

Dying once, doesn’t it solve all the problems?

But when thinking of the terrifying experience bar after the Second Transformation, Baozi somewhat understood.

As a top-tier high-end player, maybe Brother Umbrella doesn’t want to die once.

’But, Brother Umbrella thinks I can solve his problem, does he need surgery?’

Baozi shook his head and walked into his temporary shop.

Soon, a pretty-looking bionic secretary knocked and entered, saying:

”Boss, the appointment guests have arrived.”

Four players walked in with stoic expressions, appearing quite tragic.

Baozi couldn’t help but roll his eyes:

”Hey hey hey, you signed the contract yourselves, and it was you who lost the equipment, don’t look at me with those wronged eyes.”

”I regret falling into your scheming trap!”

One player sighed deeply.

”If I had known, I wouldn’t have borrowed money for modifications, and now the gear’s gone too.”

”Do you think corporate warfare is easy to fight,” Baozi snorted coldly, ”You think just getting your level close to some elite npcs means you can mess around? Do you know, the strongest thing about those npcs isn’t their individual martial power, alright.”

”If you want to mess around, wait until you can shoulder a missile.”

Another player rubbed his teeth, saying:

”Baozi, we agreed, only the brain modification, don’t go after my rear-end.”

The last player shamelessly said:

”Even if you do, there has to be extra pay!”

Baozi rolled his eyes, ”Go, go, go, with my current worth, I could buy a bunch of pretty bionic secretaries, why would I be interested in you lot.”

”It’s only to research the ’Soul Loss Phenomenon’ that I bother with you guys.”

The so-called ’Soul Loss Phenomenon’ is the brainwashing technology used long ago in the ’PP Boss’, unless you die yourself, you’d be controlled continuously, becoming an unfeeling kpi machine, even forgetting who you are.

This type of player is becoming increasingly known.

A significant number of players have even proactively formed a ’Player Self-Help Association’, specifically to rescue these brainwashed players.

And as a Prosthetic Doctor, Baozi naturally had some curiosity about such phenomena.

He bought a set of ’Commercial Spiritual Control Technology’ from the Black Market, wanting to test whether, since this so-called ’Corporate Will’ can control players, could players themselves control players?

”Let’s get started, each of you strip down and lie on the table, remove all your brain-machine membranes!”

...

While Baozi was contemplating the surgery, on the highest building of this New Mechanic City, Gao Gong appeared on the rooftop.

A group of top members of the Research Association had been waiting for a long time.

”Mr. G.”

”Chairman.”

”Chairman.”

Gao Gong looked surprised at the distant skyscraper being printed with 3D technology and touched his chin.

”I must say, your initiative is quite strong.”

He couldn’t help but make a jab.

”Hehe, it’s mainly to serve the Research Association.”

”After all, the Mr. G Research Association needs a headquarters.”

”Technology development also needs such a place.”

A group of executives said with brazen faces.

You should know, companies can apply to the Mother City to establish a Mechanical City for ’artificial data experiments’.

But such approval is very complicated, and numerous qualifications are required.

Often, even a large company applying may not succeed.

However, if one company can’t make it, 30 big companies applying together makes it a lot easier.

At least during the ’Corporate War’, these participating companies were genuinely planning to properly manage this ’Mr. G Research Association’.

Gao Gong then went to see Professor Han, an elder who had followed him since the ’Cable Tribe’ days.

Initially, this guy had already chosen his tombstone because of aging parts.

But with Sister Rose’s help, this guy was rejuvenated, looking at least 30 years younger.

And after coming back to life, Professor Han was brought over by Gao Gong to oversee the work of the ’Research Association’.

Because he had said many ’final words’ previously, when they met again, Professor Han kept a straight face.

”...I’ve already reviewed the ’Basic Technology’ inside the Research Association, but I want to know, why did you transfer me here, what exactly am I supposed to do?”

Professor Han paused:

”Or, perhaps there’s something that can’t be developed inside the Du Gao Group.”

”Don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking you to hide anything from Director Du for any dark experiments, it’s just that the research direction here is indeed a bit different from within the group.”

Gao Gong, seeing the other seemed to misunderstand, quickly waved his hand.

”What I want you to research is Ethical Technology.”

”Ethical... Technology?”

Professor Han was taken aback, it was the first time he heard someone putting these two words together, he thought seriously for a moment.

”Is it things like ’Thought Steel Seal’, ’Personality Chip Infrastructure’?”

”More or less, but a bit more complex.”