Chương 39: The Surgery

Inside the dilapidated rental room, the familiar sour reek of the sewers, mixed with chemical exhaust, rushed into his nose. For some reason, that familiar stench actually gave Rowan a strange sense of relief. Thud. Rowan's boots landed steadily on the apartment's scratched metal floor. Behind him, the spatial rift opened by the Möbius Ring was rapidly collapsing, its faint blue glow on the verge of vanishing.

Just as the rift was about to close completely, the Crystal-Scaled Pangolin poking its head out from Rowan's arms suddenly stretched its neck. It opened its little mouth toward the last tiny remnant of the spatial crack— Crunch. It bit off a piece of that mysterious rift as if it were a biscuit and swallowed it down. Rowan lowered his head and glanced at it, raising an eyebrow.

Had this been the first time he had seen such a thing, he might have been shocked by the terrifying innate talent of a space-type mana-beast. But after traveling back and forth between Terra and the other world several times, he had already grown used to the pangolin taking a bite out of the spatial passage every single time. He swept his Mental Power over it and found that after swallowing that "spatial crumb," the pangolin did not even burp. The mana fluctuations around its body barely changed at all.

The effect was nowhere near as obvious as when it had eaten the Tier 2 deer meat earlier. What exactly does this spatial energy even do for you? You've eaten so much of it. At least show me some kind of change. The thought had barely crossed Rowan's mind when the pangolin suddenly jumped onto the floor and opened its mouth wide.

"Hack! Cough, cough, cough—blegh!" Terra's signature air, polluted and almost completely starved of mana, poured mercilessly into its lungs. Accustomed to the high-purity mana of the other world, the pangolin instantly took a brutal critical hit from reality itself. Tears welled up in its tiny bean-like eyes. Its two front claws clamped tightly over its nose as its whole body curled up on the floor, dry-heaving violently.

"Welcome to the Seventh Abyssal Hive, little guy. No fresh air for you here." Rowan chuckled and patted its head. This was something it had to adapt to on its own. It was uncomfortable, but adapting was a basic requirement for surviving here. After all, Rowan himself had been nearly tortured to death by Mana Intoxication the first time he entered the other world. He placed the retching pangolin onto the mattress and let it recover by itself.

Then he walked to the hidden compartment beside the bed, took out the terminal he had stashed there earlier, entered a long string of complex proxy commands, and connected to the Akashic Dark Web. He opened the backend and found the familiar chat box. [@plus_Hermit] Rowan spent some time packaging the transcribed preface of [Wellspring Step], along with the rubbings of several complex characters from the [Wind-Severing Squad] mercenary tag, and sent them over.

"New goods. Suspected fragment of an ancient mage family genealogy, plus a mercenary tag engraved with a wind-element totem. Same rules as before. Paid translation request." After sending the message, Rowan did not simply sit there and wait. On the Dark Web, deciphering and trading information both required patience. He opened Terra's official medical service platform, skillfully searched for "Black Snake Consortium Medical Node No. 74," and clicked to make an appointment.

Procedure: [Deep Retinal AR Terminal Implantation and Upgrade] Price: 300 Terra Credits. It was an absurdly low price. On Terra, even going to an unlicensed black-market doctor for the most basic implant surgery would cost around eight hundred credits. Yet this kind of advanced magitech implant surgery, involving direct connection to the optic nerve, was so cheap it was almost ridiculous. The reason was simple. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Mandatory advertisements.

In order to expand the lower-class AR advertising market, the Consortium had partnered with dozens of low-grade Nutrient Paste manufacturers, cheap cyberware factories, and various software providers, forcibly subsidizing the cost of the surgery. Once you underwent the procedure, your retina would be force-fed at least four hours of pop-up advertisements every day. People at the bottom generally did not have the clearance to install high-end AR implants.

Those were VIP models reserved for people who had reached a certain spending quota. Most ordinary poor bastards chose cybernetic eyes instead. Although they were less discreet than AR implants, they offered excellent value for money and comparable performance. More importantly, the ads came from the manufacturer and were not mandatory. If you refused cybernetic eyes, then you had no choice but to endure capital taking a dump directly inside your optic nerves. But Rowan did not care in the slightest.

Ad pop-ups required support from the Akashic Network. And once he crossed through the Möbius Ring, there were no Consortium base stations in the other world. That was one of the reasons Rowan chose an AR implant. In the other world, this implant would at most pop up a few pre-cached offline text ads when he used the corresponding software. To someone with his powerful Mental Power, that bit of visual interference was no different from a flying insect.

An opportunity to take advantage of the Consortium's premium magitech hardware for next to nothing was not something he would pass up. More importantly, this was far more discreet than a cybernetic eye. Cybernetic eyes were too conspicuous and could easily expose his identity. After the appointment was confirmed, Rowan switched to another communication channel and found the contact information for the peddler, "Syringe."

"Has the time and location been decided for tomorrow's exploration of the Tier-D underground biological warehouse?" A few seconds later, Syringe's reply popped up.

"It's set, brother. Three o'clock tomorrow afternoon, at the Blue Note Stimulant Bar next to the Mage Association Branch. Look for the guy in the grey jacket. My brother's pioneer squad will be meeting there."

"Got it." Rowan closed the terminal and glanced at the mattress. After more than two hours of struggling, the pangolin had finally stopped dry-heaving. Although it still looked somewhat listless, a faint earth-yellow mana film had already formed around its nostrils, like a tiny gas mask, successfully filtering out the toxins in the air.

"Not bad adaptability." Rowan nodded in satisfaction and placed it on the bed. He warned it not to wander outside. He had no idea whether it understood him, but with its timid personality, it probably would not run around anyway. Combined with its powerful concealment talent, it was unlikely anyone would discover that there was now a Tier 1 mana-beast hiding in his room.

"Time to get myself a new eye." Black Snake Consortium Medical Node No. 74 was only two streets away from Scrap Iron Street. When Rowan pushed open the heavy blast-proof glass door, it felt as if he had stepped across the boundary between two worlds. Outside were rusted iron shacks, muddy streets, and slum alleys filled with neon signs. Inside were dazzling cold sterile lights, spotless silver-white walls, and the faint scent of magitech disinfectant lingering in the air.

Behind the reception desk sat a young female nurse wearing a well-tailored Consortium uniform. There were no mana fluctuations coming from her. She was an ordinary mortal through and through. However, a silver metal patch had been implanted into her right cheek for rapid data entry, and her eyes carried the dull fatigue of someone who had worked for far too long.

"Appointment code." The nurse did not even raise her head. Her voice sounded almost mechanically synthesized. Rowan scanned the terminal on his wrist over the sensor.

"Three hundred Terra Credits, basic implant package. Confirming terms of agreement: you agree to grant the Black Snake Consortium thirty percent advertising rights over your visual interface, and you are prohibited from using any illegal ad-blocking plug-ins. Violation may result in credit deductions and hardware lockout." The nurse finished reciting the script she had to repeat hundreds of times every day. Only then did she finally raise her eyes and glance at Rowan.

Seeing his patched, worn-out robe and mud-stained boots, her expression did not change at all. As a mortal, she naturally could not sense the mana fluctuations Rowan had deliberately restrained.

"Go in. Surgery Pod Two. Move quickly. There are people waiting behind you." Rowan knew very well that although this nurse wore a clean, polished uniform and drank purified water in an air-conditioned room, in essence, she was still nothing more than a cheap cog in the Consortium's machinery, replaceable at any moment. After all, mortals were the most suitable bottom-level components.

The Consortiums only needed to dangle the scarce quota of Mana Primordium in front of them, and that was enough to make them sell their lives. Most people like her had probably failed the National Entrance Exam. Schools were the easiest channel to obtain a Mana Primordium. The Consortiums and the Explorer's Association were far harder. If Rowan had no debt and had not become a mage, he might very well have ended up as one of them, working endlessly in pursuit of a Mana Primordium.

He walked into Surgery Pod Two and lay down on the cold surgical chair. Mechanical arms quickly locked his head in place.

"Old low-grade magitech implant detected. Beginning removal... New component connection in progress..." A faint sting came from deep inside his right eye socket, followed by the sore swelling sensation of mana nerves reconnecting to his retina. In less than ten minutes, the surgery was declared complete. Rowan skillfully established a connection between the new implant and the Citizen Personal Magitech Chip near his heart. Beep— Startup successful. Rowan opened his eyes.

His vision became incomparably sharp in an instant. He could even see the dust motes dancing in the corner with perfect clarity. This was the visual enhancement brought by a high-grade magitech chip. But in the very next second, an extremely bright red advertisement box suddenly popped up in the center of his retina, accompanied by a cheerful female voice forcefully ringing inside his mind. [Still troubled by cyberware rejection? Black Snake Painkillers, only 99 Terra Credits! Let your nerves enjoy baby-like sleep!] Rowan skillfully dragged the advertisement box to the farthest corner of his vision.

"Still the same old flavor." He stood up, pushed open the surgery pod door, and walked out. Outside, the sky had already gone completely dark. The acid rain continued to fall without end. Rowan pulled up his hood. He planned to head back and make use of the Mana Supply Pod to cultivate while he still had time. Next, all that remained was tomorrow's ruin exploration. It would also be his first time exploring a ruin in the world of Terra.