She had once sneaked into the room using hacker methods without leaving a trace, but this time she was blocked by Black Light, leaving a record of her visit, and John received the news in advance at the bar through the Atlanta Virtual Network.

"Heh."

John chuckled twice, packing away the delivery.

He had swept clean the windfall account inside, slightly alleviating his pressing financial situation.

The long-unused lights in the room of the Dan Street Apartment flickered on.

John even felt a bit dazed.

As a mercenary running around and risking his life outside, he wasn't quite used to the bright room and quiet atmosphere.

The temperature of the air conditioning was comforting, hidden speakers playing nighttime radio and emergency news, and the light strips switched to dark mode, maintaining the lowest visibility to gather sleepiness.

The colorful neon lights shone in, the glass curtain wall and distant siren sounds were all enveloped under a blue-black filter.

John withdrew his gaze and turned to walk into the workroom upstairs.

Two rows of equipment boxes flashed lights in order, the hacker dive chair only had the lowest configuration, lacking cooling devices, the equipment and maintenance hadn't reached usable standards.

John crafted the prosthetic body debris containing data into chips, storing them separately in the corner of the room, in the clothing lining, easy to retrieve.

Having completed all this.

He finally lay into the massage bathtub as he wished.

Warm water covered his muscles and scars, bringing buoyancy and a sense of pressure, the accumulated fatigue from the hail of bullets slowly releasing, the audio switched to nostalgic radio, playing old songs from before the AI era when one could still make out the words and melodies...

This was the reason John hadn't yet moved out of the Dan Street Apartment despite hating the Bone Shards.

[Shop - Bandage Boxing Gym]

"Planning to get back in the ring? Things are a bit tough, but mercenary work really doesn't make money as fast as fighting. If you really lack cash, maybe consider being a sex doll, provided you're confident enough about the experience and techniques to meet old women's needs..."

Gino wrapped bandages, standing behind a dummy adding weight, continuously speaking.

John's gray tank top was already soaked with sweat.

"Nothing fun at home, just right to adapt the chip, fighting moves are still not smooth, too reliant on Sianweistan, whew~ the body can't take it..."

Boom!

John swung a straight punch, denting the polyethylene mask, Igdrasir's arm strength was still too harsh.

"Oh, f*ck."

"Instead of fight training, you should be doing prosthetic body tests, know more about what you're dealing with."

Gino rubbed a shoulder, stepping out from behind the dummy.

"Can't fix it now, you have to pay, mate. Next time, don't hit anything below level 3 equipment, training machinery needs to match your prosthetic body's level, obviously, what you have is high-grade stuff."

She dismantled the half-broken equipment, shaking her head with a click of her tongue.

John paid the compensation, took a shower, and from the vending machine, bought a cheap tank top to put on, heading out to find other amusements to kill time.

He wandered around the mall, passing bar after club following the colorful advertisement signs.

The mall had become increasingly lively since being taken over by Bone Shards.

Ordinary citizens mixed with unsettling violent individuals, strange clothes visible on the streets became richer, many started pursuing transformations that could be recognized at a glance.

John bought a bottle of energy drink, noticing the mall's ceiling had already been repaired when he looked up to gulp it down, the leaky area had turned into a row of atmosphere-enhancing light control systems.

Down below was a holographic projection and rotating ads on three sides.

A girl with evenly proportioned muscles and a determined look stood in the ring, face marked with blood and sweat.

John's prosthetic eye, bonded through membership, immediately detected a new show advertisement.

He paid the subscription fee in the pop-up and the scene before him immediately changed, the billboards expanded into large-screen videos, live fight spectacles, and match information projected into his prosthetic eye.

The fight was indeed spectacular.

Those explosive-figured girls mostly wore sports vests or clothing convenient for movement, each had impressive muscle structures, and the prosthetic levels weren't low, paired with aesthetically pleasing Fighting Chips, fairly watchable, along with empathetic destiny scripts, and inevitable reasons to win, high viewership rates were well expected...

John shook his head, slumping onto a mall bench.

He disabled the projection, rubbed his eyes feeling slightly sore from prolonged viewing, looked around, noticing several others like him subscribed to the show watching outside.

"Maybe I should find something different for amusement."

John raised his head to glance at the billboard returning to its original state.

The West District was promoting robot fights.

He followed the address to the underground of Bolago Club, found the site, membership offered a free trial viewing coupon, the place was an old qualifying match charging iron cage.

In the ring stood two robots painted in bizarre colors, seemingly prototypes of household guardian robots, possibly models from the ECPD patrolling duty, anyway, stripped of shooting modules, leaving hydraulic fists to slug it out.

The atmosphere and commentary were rather hot-blooded.

"Damn, Bone Shards really is a money-making machine, is it trying to turn Black Gold Gang into an entertainment company to go public?"

John muttered his complaint.

He noticed besides the "must-write" and "pure mechanical" themes, weekends also had man-machine bouts, corner links with betting, promotional titles reading—who's stronger between biological reaction and algorithm?

Clang.

A can dropped beside the ad, leaving a water stain.

John traced back the trajectory of the throw.

Inside the venue, was a fallen boxer, clearly not level-headed, seeing the overwhelming advertising with indignation, venting to a fellow nearby.

"Heh, it's all the same crap, all prosthetic bodies!"

"Damn those flashy wonders... "

The can drew the attention of guards.

Bone Shards didn't completely abandon street governance, just more forceful and reckless compared to Mr. Vito, only caring about incidents affecting business and basic turf conflicts.

Near the ring, a Black Gold Gang muscleman glared fiercely.

He drew a kinetic handgun from his waist, even in such noisy surroundings, the metallic click could be heard, gun casing and Mantis Blade glinting cold in the smoky light and spotlight.

The muscleman issued a warning.

"Stay out of trouble, drunkard. If it wasn't for the thrilling matches now, I'd have shot you dead in your seat. Understand?"

The fallen boxer, amidst the cheer of betting dogs, sheepishly left the audience seat along with his companion.

John shifted his gaze once again to the stage:

A robot stepped in and threw a heavy punch, skillfully shifted its position to hit the opponent's radar sensor, taking advantage of the deprived field of vision to aggressively attack the other robot's power system, until it completely shut down.

"Whew~ that was a decent fight, even tin cans have their moments."

John sincerely admired.

The spotlight in the center began to converge, gambling losers and winners jawing and shoving in the audience, Black Gold Gang musclemen stubbed out cigarettes, took up loaded short shotguns and rifles entering the floor...

They were quite familiar with such scenarios.

Smoke and steam reached the ceiling, the victorious robot stood in the ring center waving its hand, even engaging with the audience.

"Oh wow, there's even a celebration move."

John shook his head with a smile, leaving before the situation turned chaotic.

The chaos in security was a downside of Bone Shards-style commercial development, even shop owners and ordinary citizens victimized have gradually adapted to such an atmosphere, as if that's the normal difficulty of life in Eden City, the previous order during Vito's management just a fleeting dream chip.

He walked out through a graffiti-covered passage, feeling the hot wind on the spacious steps outside, hesitant as leaving the air-conditioned cityscape during daytime made him feel resistance.

A whistle came from the shadow.

John followed the sound and looked over.

A guy donned in a shabby leather jacket, wearing wide-brimmed sunglasses, with gradually darkening green short hair atop his head approached.

He grinned, speaking like greeting an old friend.

"Hey, brother, your prosthetic body is truly badass, you must be a big name in the West District..."

John pulled out the unfinished energy drink, face expressionless listening to his flattery, silently initiating a scan.

[Name: Lapu [Ticket Holder]]

[Faction: Neutral]

[Bounty: Fraud, Electronic Fence, Cyber Fraud, etc.]

[Profile: West District scalper, nicknamed Ticket Holder, previously arrested for hacker intrusion incident, later escaped, once part of the New World America gang, the organization disbanded after Eden City Independence War...]

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