Corpo Age

Chapter 201: Adjusting to the New

Status

Level:

39

EXP:

320/3900

Musculoskeletal:

358

Neural Reflex:

191

Visuomotor Coordination:

207

Endurance:

132

Sensory Perception:

155

Upgrade Points:

0

Upgrades:

• Stealth +7
• Hacking +5
• Cybernetic Engineering +10
• Stealth Technology +12
• Software Engineering +12
• Electrical Engineering +10
• Aerospace Engineering + 10
• Particle Physics +11

Enhancements:

SAID: Halls Corp Grand Maestro Elite v1

Bio-Coprocessor: Halls Corp Flash Elite v1

Optics: Halls Corp Monocle Elite v1

Cyberarm (Left): Halls Corp Talos Elite v1n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Cyberarm (Right): Halls Corp Talos Elite v1

Cyberlegs: Halls Corp Hermes Elite v1

Vertebral Column: Halls Corp Theseus Elite v1

Auditory: SocialCorp Echo Custom

Vocal: SocialCorp Orator Custom

Cardiovascular: BioGen Lifepump Custom

Sensory: Halls Corp Argus Elite Custom

Additional Processing: Halls Corp Custom ST

Miscellaneous: Halls Corp HSU Custom Shade

“What? Come on, say something!” Claire cried out. “You can’t be wearing such an intense frown while staring at the screen so hard.”

Feeling her shaking me, I finally glanced up at her, giving her the attention she desired. There wasn’t any other choice as I was stuck in bed as I recovered from my latest installation of new cybernetics.

“Okay, okay. Calm down. I see that you’ve done a good job from what I’ve read so far. I can’t help but be thorough when it involves my very own body, so please give me a moment.”

“Maybe I was a little too harsh. It’s just hard when it seems like someone scrutinizes my work as if expecting me to make errors. I worked my butt off, you know?”

“And I thank you for that.”

Seeing how Claire’s attention was soon lost on something within her optics, I resumed going over the report on my terminal.

The new pieces I got were intrusive, to say the least. I had replaced my legs and spine. By some standards, I was practically a cyborg now. Much like Thorne, my entire torso was still organic. However, I didn’t have any reinforced platings embedded into the skin of my stomach or anything.

Following corpo norms, I ensured the outer layer of my new chrome was covered in a layer of synthetic skin instead. It took some time tuning it to make it indistinguishable from real skin, but I couldn’t afford to slack off on that. It was purely a cosmetic feature, but other corporations judged people from little things like that.

As I moved up the ladder, I couldn’t afford for such minor details to disadvantage me in negotiations. As an owner of a corporation, I had to conduct myself accordingly.

The clothes make the man, or so they used to say. In this case, it’s the skin that does it.

The recovery period from my installation wasn’t that long. It only took a day to ensure the nervous system from the spine had settled in properly. Everyone felt different, but not in a bad way. That may have been due to all the bones I had reinforced or replaced, throwing off my center of gravity.

I was pretty much like Thorne now. The only part that differed was how much of the biological functions I managed to retain. My waste system was still the same, along with my reproduction systems. Those were things that were one step too far for me. Becoming a complete cyborg wasn’t in my plans. I had settled on an optimal balance where I could attain the strength of a cyborg while retaining enough humanity to revert back to normal if I wished.

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Cloning biological parts was widespread within corporate society. It was much more expensive than cold metal cybernetics and required time. However, some people just felt more comfortable in their own skin once they had enough money to drown away the security problems.

If Thorne wanted to revert back to a baseline human, the procedure to be a massive undertaking. Like other cyborgs, his biological parts were too intertwined. It would be easier for him to be reduced to a brain in a jar before being transplanted into a new body.

In my case, I retained enough humanity to forgo that massive ordeal. It was still possible to unplug my chrome and reattach my limbs.

If only Thorne was in a more stable position back when I operated on him. I was a lot more inexperienced back then, and he was disabled from the waist down after our encounter with betrayal.

When I was fully discharged, I did as any other man in my position would do. Test out the new toys.

I had seen enough from my employees to understand the new parameters of the new cybernetics, but feeling it first-hand was another matter.

I ventured out of my lab zero base and returned to our official headquarters with Thorne. I watched as our body doubles each began to take appropriate actions to sync up with our arrival. We had to seamlessly swap places or our ruse would have been useless.

Our tech did most of the work, and our holographic projections seamlessly swapped our places. We uneventfully entered into the training facility of our company.

“I guess we should start the same way everyone else does. Basic fitness test,” I muttered.

“Want to use the vacant room or join the others?” Thorne asked.

“They’re with the trainees right now, right? Let’s leave them be for a bit first. The boring tests will get done much faster without any distractions.”

The two of us proceeded to run through the basic exercises all our recruits did. After calisthenics, we did some weight training.

Throughout the workout, it was easily noticeable how much my athleticism had improved.

I wasn’t even close to getting winded, and the weights I could lift were significantly heavier.

I hadn’t replaced every single piece of cybernetic within me with my own version. That was simply too much work, and I wasn’t confident I could do a better job than what I had bought. These included my auditory, vocal, and cardiovascular implants.

Instead, I customized them. I thoroughly rebuilt sensitive electronics to ensure there were no hidden overrides. The improvements I made to them were negligible, with the exception of enhancing its stealth capabilities to be in line with the rest of my new chrome. After all, the weakest link would be the undoing of my covert activities.

The most important tests of the day consisted of navigating through an obstacle course. It puts the synergy I had aimed for to the test. My body had to properly support the load of rapid movement. My bio-processor chip had to give me the necessary reaction time to make use of these new speeds.

The human eyes would start perceiving things as a blur when they moved upwards of forty-five meters per second. For cybernetic optics, that didn’t go up as drastically as one would think. The retina and visual processing systems in the brain had set limits.

So far, not even the mad scientists who could rampantly do as they wish could invent cybernetics to replace these parts. The brain was just too complicated and sensitive for them to figure out.

That was why I smiled when I saw the top speed I had reached during the test.

Sixty-two meters per second.

It was in short bursts, but I could move at such speeds while maintaining stealth. The only new drawback was having to manage the stress and heat generated by such fast movements. One couldn’t infinitely be at full sprint for that reason, and why power armor was still superior. The extra room afforded extra heat sinks for prolonged use.

Now that my body wouldn’t get wrangled up if the power armor was too fast, the limiter could be adjusted.

We spent the entire day at the training facility. We performed every sort of test, from shooting, swimming, or even hand-to-hand combat. Our new parameters met those of the other security members who had taken the upgrade. We would have similar abilities until I could source those exotic materials necessary for our unique versions of the implants.

We ended the session by sitting down together with my security personnel for dinner. They had gone through the same grueling exercises, and I wanted to show my face.

“Did you see the picture of Charles tumbling into the walls? That shit was hilarious!”

“Shh, shh. Boss is here.”

My auditory implant easily picked up on their conversations as I walked in. They sat around large rectangular tables as if they were on a picnic.

“Thank you for your hard work, everyone,” I declared. “I ordered something special for us tonight. I hope you enjoy it.”

I had always heard food was the most important part of working out. Muscles were built in the kitchen. While protein supplements were enough, I had to provide everyone with real food. It wasn’t only because I would feel awkward eating a different menu alone.

I took a seat at a smaller table off to the side as we watched the robots prepare our tables. Just as everyone had neatly set up, the doors opened again, revealing half a dozen newcomers. Thorne immediately gestured for the leading two men to come over. They sat down across from us and bowed respectfully.

“How may I help you, sir?” He directed his words to Thorne, as he was too afraid to meet my eyes.

“Our CEO was just making the rounds around here, so it’s perfect timing. Your squadron will be responsible for the test flights tomorrow, correct?”

“You are, sir. Are there any special instructions you have for us?”

I exchanged a brief look with Thorne before he answered.

“No, we’re here to clarify any points you may have questions about. Now is the time to ask them, as the creator himself is sitting here.”

The man finally turned to me and swallowed hard. It was strange how there were always one or two guys who were scared of me for no reason. I was amiable to every one of them, and they usually returned the gesture in kind. However, I knew there was no changing the minds of these people. Some of them were just conditioned to fear figures of authority.

“Well,” He stretched his word as he looked around, searching for help from his peers. “I guess we have a few.”

He didn’t say anything for a few moments, so I peeked into his SAID to see what he was up to. My new SAID could keep track of multiple things at once, and layer my sight with things like heat vision, infrared vision, etc. It was also smart enough to automatically pull up everything I needed at a simple thought.

I spied on his messages to his friends, convincing them to come over. They all came up with excuses, and he steeled himself to handle me alone.

“I wanted to ask about the new automated system highlighted in the manuals. During today’s simulations, we—”

I listened to him carefully while my optics showed me a recording of those simulations in question. It made it easy to understand. It was made possible as the man before me used our new SAID model as well. It picked up on his thoughts and transmitted what he wanted to show me with ease.

It allowed me to get a clear picture from their perspective or enabled me to give them commands via the same method. It complemented our old system of synchronizing vision well. It allowed us to not only highlight human targets to each other, but point at precise locations to each other as well. It was basically an advanced pinging system often seen in video games.

As I conversed with the captain of the flight squadron, a call from a close ally came in.

“Hello, Joey?” I internalized into my new implant.

“Yes, Rollo. It’s been a while, but we’ll finally be meeting face-to-face soon once more.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow. Was there anything you needed?”

“There is one issue. I just received a request to join our little celebration tomorrow. It’s from a man by the name of Kai.”

There was a brief pause in our call, as we both stayed silent.

“And?” I finally urged as I continued to search through my memory for the familiar-sounding name.

“He’s from an A-Class corporation we’re familiar with. Ferrumus Corp.”

Just great. More powerful corporations to get involved with. Just what I needed…