Chapter 157: Implants

On the wall of a quiet alley, a multicolored spider with thick but well-proportioned limbs skittered forward smoothly. It stopped occasionally, as if it were wary of its surroundings, before continuing forward.

Chen Chuan followed behind at a walking pace.

The spider was Tayana’s bio-weapon. It was supposed to be used for ambushes and assassinations, so it had a good smell-recognition system. The crossbowman’s scent had been left behind on the crossbow bolt and the note, so the combat spider could track him with ease.

The reason the spider wasn’t moving quickly was because it would use up a lot of energy. The spider only had whatever remained from the last time Chen Chuan had woken it up.

That “whatever remained” was actually quite a lot, since Chen Chuan hadn’t used it for anything other than training it with command words. The energy slowly drained away while the combat spider was sleeping, but it was in a constantly restless state, which was why it would be better to use up all of its energy so it could enter true sleep.

Soon, they arrived in front of a building. The Tayana Combat Spider stopped there and started going around in circles.

Chen Chuan didn’t scout out the place. He went straight up to the door and started eavesdropping but heard nothing. So, he pushed the door, and the door lock was forced open. Then, he walked inside.

When he arrived, he wasn’t surprised to find that the people had already left. They had even sprayed some sort of chemical in the room. It smelled like scent-masking agents.

This was probably just a temporary base, since the table was covered in dust, and the items were scattered all over the place. It looked like more than one person lived there for a while, but they had left in a hurry, because some food was left unfinished.

Did they leave because they suspected him following them?

Chen Chuan tapped his knuckles twice. The spider circled the room once before crawling out. Soon, they arrived at the entrance of an alley, where the spider stopped at a place with obvious tire tracks.

Chen Chuan gazed in the direction of the traffic. It seemed like this group of people had gotten into a vehicle and left. Someone must have picked them up. If that were the case, there was no longer any need to chase them.

He would send someone to check the building later to see whether they left any clues. Even if nothing was found, they were bound to approach him again if Chen Chuan accepted the mission.

Chen Chuan placed the briefcase down and curled his fingers before tapping the back of his hand twice. The combat spider obediently climbed back into the box and stopped moving.

***

At that moment, a truck was moving down the main road. The group of young adults was sitting inside the container. This time, though, they had a new addition—a man in his forties with a goatee.

It was stuffy in the container, and they couldn’t see anything outside. Unable to help himself, Su Xin asked the man, “Mr. Ling, did we really have to leave in such a hurry?”

“Yes. You shouldn’t have threatened that expert,” Mr. Ling answered with absolute certainty.

“He’s just a supernatural-extermination expert, isn’t he?” another one asked.

“That expert has ties with the Constabulary. After that attack, he’s most likely going to ask the Constabulary to check the residential areas around our base. You’ve been staying there for a few days, and you passed by so many places on your way back, Su Xin. Can you really say that you left no trace behind?” He crossed his arms. “It’s going to be very easy for him to find you.”

“Can he track us down, then?” Su Xin asked.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be fine after leaving. That building has been unoccupied for a long time, and the owner has nothing to do with us. He won’t find us,” Mr. Ling said.

“Is that expert that troublesome?” the young man huffed and glared at Su Xin. “You should have killed him, Su Xin.”

“If you did, things would have blown way out of proportion, not that you would have even been able to kill him. He’s a student from Martial Valor University, so he’s an outstanding martial artist,” Mr. Ling said with a shake of his head.

“That’s right. He caught my crossbow bolt with his bare hands.”

Su Xin’s expression was grim. Even though he hadn’t been planning to shoot the expert, the man caught the bolt before it even reached him despite it being a surprise attack. The expert’s reaction speed was truly frightening. If he hadn’t been in a car back then, Su Xin might have been unable to run away.

“A student from Martial Valor University?”

When the young adults heard this, some were terrified, while others felt a sense of longing, but those emotions quickly morphed to hatred. If it hadn’t been for the Blood Scars Gang, they might have joined Martial Valor University too.

The truck left the city and entered the wilderness. At midnight, they entered a campsite. It was a smuggling gang’s base.

The group of young adults walked in behind Mr. Ling. The gang regarded them with disinterest, as if they were just looking at goods, not people, and that feeling made the young adults squirm.

Mr. Ling brought them into a large tent and motioned at the shelf in front of them. “The weapons you wanted are here.”

“What do we have?”

The young adults expected some really powerful guns, but only found a few sealed boxes. They didn’t look like they contained bombs, so the group was quite curious.

Mr. Ling smiled and walked over to open the boxes to reveal their contents. The young adults were stunned when they saw them. “What are these?”

The boxes contained something resembling a silkworm chrysalis, except with limbs extending outward, squirming faintly. It made all of them feel uneasy.

If Chen Chuan or his team from before were here, they would have said that this thing was similar to the one they found in the wilderness, but the silkworm chrysalis wasn’t the only implant here. There were others that complemented it.

One of the young adults recognized it and blurted out, “A bio-implant?”

“Yes. It’s the newest implant, part of the hunter series. It’s a powerful weapon. Does anyone among you wish to get an implant? We have an implant specialist here, and he could operate on you right now. With this, you’ll possess strength equal to that of a martial artist.”

Su Xin stepped forward and said, “I’ll—”

Before he could finish, the young man who had been arguing with him before interrupted. “I’ll do it!”

Su Xin looked at him and hesitated for a bit before he asked, “Xiao Xiao, have you thought this through?”

“I have. You’re really skilled with a crossbow, Su Xin. If you get a melee-based implant, it’ll be a waste of your skills. It’s better for me to do it. Then, we’ll have two people who can fight in our team. I’m also stronger than you are and learned martial arts when I was younger. I should be able to master this thing,” Xiao Xiao said.

Su Xin was still uncertain about this, so Xiao Xiao took another step forward. “Let me do it, Su Xin. I’m sure I can handle it.”

His insistence and reasoning persuaded Su Xin. He agreed to it. “Alright, Xiao Xiao. I’ll let you have it, but think about it carefully. After you get it, you’ll need to take anti-mutation medicine for the rest of your life.”

Xiao Xiao only hesitated for a moment before he nodded and hissed with determination, “I’ve made up my mind.”

Ruthlessness flashed in his eyes. Without brute strength, no one could protect themselves in this world, much less their friends and family.

They needed strength to do whatever they wanted.

“Honestly, you don’t have anything to worry about. Even though you will need to take anti-mutation medicine, I can provide a batch for you first. The Blood Scars Gang has plenty of those things too. They built their business through smuggling forbidden medicine. I’ll give you information about their warehouses, so all you’ll have to do is steal their stuff and use it. That’s killing two birds with one stone, isn’t it?”

“That settles it!” Xiao Xiao said eagerly. “Mr. Ling, please call the specialist so he can operate on me right now. I’m ready!”

“Wait here, then,” Mr. Ling said with a smile.

He went out to another tent and found a man in his thirties wearing a white lab coat. “I found a test subject. He’s willing to accept the implant.”

“Is he doing it willingly?”

“Sure is.”

“Good. If he’s doing this willingly, then he won’t have a lot of intense emotions. His chances of survival will be higher. I should be able to put thirty percent of the implant in him,” the implant specialist said.

“Only thirty percent?”

“If he were a martial artist, thirty percent would indeed be low, but he’s just a normal person, right? Then, thirty percent is the maximum. Any more than that, and he’ll die,” the implant specialist stated.

“How long can he live with thirty percent?”

“That depends on his luck. If he’s lucky, he’ll live up to two years. If he’s unlucky, then around two to three months. We haven’t performed that many tests for this model yet, so that’s the number we have right now.”

“Two to three months? That’s enough. Give him the implant. He’s in that tent right now,” Mr. Ling declared.

“Let me get my things ready.”

After a while, the implant specialist walked out of his tent with a surgery kit. Mr. Ling led him to the large tent and asked all the other young adults to leave.

After Xiao Xiao washed himself with disinfectant, he went to a separate area in the tent, where his limbs were fastened with metal buckles. Then, with a mask on, the implant specialist walked in and started putting on gloves.

Xiao Xiao was jittery with nerves. “Doctor, the surgery is bound to be successful, right?”

The implant specialist gave him a look before walking over and sticking a long, thin tube into his nose. “It tickles, Doctor.”

The doctor said nothing and just watched him. After a while, Xiao Xiao twitched a little, and his eyes rolled back. He lost consciousness.

The doctor extended his hand and pulled down a shower curtain before starting to spray all sorts of medicine he had prepared beforehand.

If they were in Central City, he would have been able to perform the surgery in an appropriate implant operating room, but they were in the wilderness. Such conditions didn’t exist here. Besides, this was just a test subject and not a major client, so he didn’t have to care about all the details.

The implant specialist carefully retrieved the moving implant from the box and set it aside before walking up to Xiao Xiao, picking up a scalpel, and cutting into his back.

***

The group of young adults waited outside the tent. The night went by, and some of them fell asleep, unable to stay awake. When morning arrived, they heard the curtain being pulled aside, followed by footsteps coming from within. They snapped awake and looked over.

Xiao Xiao walked out, but he had been shaved entirely bald. His eyes were sunken in, and his body was so thin he was practically skin and bones, as if all moisture and fat had been extracted from his body. They could see a dark-gray implant embedded in his neck.

Su Xin was really anxious and asked the implant specialist, “What happened to him?

Why

did this happen to him?”

The implant specialist replied calmly, “It’s the normal energy expenditure that happens during an implant surgery. He’ll be fine after getting two shots of nutrients.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve never felt better before!” Xiao Xiao looked to the side and borrowed a sharpened steel pipe. Then, with just a slight yank, he bent the steel pipe.

Mr. Ling came over with a smile. “Looks like you’re really suited for the implant. The hunter series doesn’t put an emphasis on strength, but you need sufficient tissue strength to sustain the speed it can give you.

“You’ll have another implant surgery tomorrow. It’s a defense membrane that complements the hunter series. It can block normal, small-caliber bullets. On the day after tomorrow, you’ll receive another implant that amplifies your senses.”

Xiao Xiao grinned and spread his arms. He said confidently, “I can already hear those bastards’ cries. Once I go through all the surgeries, I’ll kill them all, and if that stupid expert stands in our way, I’ll kill him too!”