Chapter 370: Brain Surgery. (Part one)
"Right..."
Dante pressed his lips into a thin line. The problem had been on his mind ever since the last surgery, which is why he had yet to upgrade his bionic lung and kidneys. Upgrading his Iron Fist had given him a taste of what it feels like to have something inside you burn, but at least his hands could be replaced if they were damaged beyond repair. Things were different this time.
"I kinda thought of a solution, but it might be a little difficult to pull off."
Dante explained his plan, and Larry listened silently, his arms crossed with a frown on his face. Eliminating the anger completely was impossible, but they could mitigate it to a certain degree.
"I see..." With his gaze pinned to the ground, Larry seemed to give the matter some thought. He then heaved a long sigh. "Seriously, kid. First, you bring me an insane implant, then you tell me we have to do this?"
"Well, sorry about that."
Dante’s apology earned him a stern glare from the lanky doctor.
"... I got to see your subdermal armor last time, so I have an idea why you need to do this. Still..."
The only time they discussed the KAPSUL G15 subdermal armor was when the doctor informed him about the damage it received. The rabid white dog had left claw marks on it, which the doctor had noticed while treating his wounds from that battle. He obviously noticed that the subdermal armor was different from the one he implanted, but for whatever reason, he decided not to mention it until now.
"I will do as you suggested, but even that can’t guarantee that you won’t end up with brain damage. That’s if you survived in the first place."
"I... I’m prepared..."
Implants that involve the spine and brain were already dangerous, but adding the side effects of Volcan’s upgrades and they become life-threatening. Dante was aware of the danger, and he was determined to go through it. He had zero intention of backing down now. Still, that didn’t mean he didn’t experience the fear one would feel from being in his place.
"Alright." Nodding once, Larry pulled up his medical mask. "Let’s get started."
~[ ]~
Larry was an underground surgeon, as well as a reaper. Having spent years in this line of work, he had come across countless implants, from the cheapest made in some underground hole to the most expensive stuff meant for the upper class. He also dealt with military grade implants, which is why he recognized the ones the red-haired youth brought for him.
Overmind Systems was a world-renowned name, and their implants stood on a different level from the rest, so much so that no one cared about the company’s Orvakian origin. The MLPs and SREs are usually used by the pilots of heavy machines, and a lot of times, tanks and fighter jets. That wasn’t to say they weren’t suited for normal use, but the computational power they provide was far beyond what the average person would need. But the red-haired youth was far from the average person.
"... alright..."
Once he was done applying the anaesthetic, Larry began his work. The first step was to remove the old NIM and OAM. He used Daedalus’s mechanical arms to flip the youth on his belly before fastening the straps around him and restraining his head. He then had the overhead projector draw the section map on the back of the youth’s head.
Preferably, he would have had him shave his head entirely, but he was already used to working around such inconveniences. With a scalpel in hand, he studied the neon-green lines stretching over the back of the youth’s head, then he began cutting.
The MLP he was preparing to implant was somewhat different from the usual. For one, the shell designed to hold it in place was much larger, enough to replace the parietal bone and everything around it. It also came with a high-quality alloy plating, reinforcing the back of the head and making it bulletproof.
With that being the case, Larry began peeling the skin off Dante’s head like how one would peel an orange. He stopped only when he had enough area to work with. Once the periosteum was removed and the cleaning was done, he commanded one of DAEDALUS’s arms to come forward. At its end was the High-speed perforator, which he used to make several circular openings in the skull.
The next step was connecting the openings using a Craniotome. With that done, more mechanical arms came forward to remove the bone flap and trim the edges. The brain was now exposed.
Larry located the old implants right away, but after studying them for a couple of seconds, he drew his brows together in a frown. Cutting the Dura mater, he brought the mechanical arm with the Electrocautery and gave both implants a little shock on the right spot, turning both off completely, which loosened the mechanism holding them in place.
Since both worked with subdural grids, removing them was far from stressful. Larry still handled them with utmost caution, however. Not because he feared that he might harm Dante, but because the implants themselves were unlike anything he had seen before.
As far as he could remember, the kid had told him he received the Augmented Reality pack from Haloware Systems on his fifteenth birthday. Larry knew every detail concerning that particular implant, since it was one of the most common NIM models the public has access to, but even if he didn’t, one look at the one belonging to the kid would have been enough for him to realize it was not something that can be found on the market.
"Don’t tell me..."
Larry remembered what happened to the subdermal armor the kid got a while back, and a disturbing thought occurred to him. What if those implants had been altered as well?
He quickly checked on the areas where they had spent the last four to five years, and seeing that nothing was off, he heaved a sigh of relief. He was also disappointed. The kid’s brain was just fine, but if it had been damaged in some way, that would have explained all the insane things he had been doing as of late.