As the gangster thug left the Prosthetic Clinic, Doctor Lin emerged from his underground workshop.
He looked at Lin Qi. "Is the installation finished? How's the performance of the H-L-023?"
'Of course the performance is great!'
"A product I design won't have poor performance," Lin Qi said, fully confident in his own work.
Data streams flowed through Doctor Lin's prosthetic eyes. He glanced at Lin Xin, then turned back to Lin Qi.
"Xiaoxin sent me a message saying you were looking for me? What's the matter, is your implant technique not up to snuff? Need your old man to help you out?"
Lin Qi was only pretending to be a cyber madman, but Doctor Lin was the real deal—his madness was just directed at others, not himself.
Doctor Lin thoroughly enjoyed the sensation of carving flesh and blood from others and replacing it with a Prosthetic Body.
As for Doctor Lin himself, his prosthetic modification rate was less than 30%, and he had a Suppressor installed in advance to strictly monitor his own mental state for any abnormalities.
But Doctor Lin had a wild, eccentric personality, and many people believed he suffered from a mild case of cyber psychosis.
Lin Qi shook his head. "I need a batch of scrap prosthetics with micro-nuclear power cores."
Running a Prosthetic Clinic meant they naturally had a large inventory of second-hand and scrap prosthetics.
Some low-level gangsters who couldn't afford new prosthetics would opt for those semi-defective products.
"What do you want with that junk for?" Doctor Lin looked at Lin Qi, confused.
"You don't need to concern yourself with that."
Lin Qi, of course, planned to use them to power products for the Doomsday World. The Doomsday World couldn't produce these things, so he had to transport them himself.
Doctor Lin looked Lin Qi up and down, frowning slightly. "The clinic's warehouse has plenty in stock. You can go pick them out yourself."
After a moment, Doctor Lin continued, "I suggest you take the ones marked for scrap. Or, if you take any second-hand prosthetics, file them as scrapped. It'll make it easier for me to log it in Red Fruit City's prosthetic management database."
"Besides that, with your current level of prosthetic modification, I think you need a Suppressor. Even if you don't want to use it, you should have one installed on your person."
Doctor Lin's expression was completely serious, as if his advice was coming purely from the perspective of a Prosthetic Doctor.
But Lin Qi read between the lines and sensed something more in his father's words.
'I get the feeling the old man has seen through something.'
To Lin Qi's surprise, Doctor Lin added, "That's a suggestion from a Prosthetic Doctor, and also the intuition of a top-tier Prosthetic Doctor."
Doctor Lin stressed the two words "top-tier."
"Understood," Lin Qi nodded.
Installing a Suppressor was already part of his plan.
Lin Qi's original plan was to install one after his apparent prosthetic modification level exceeded 50%, since he didn't actually need it.
But his old man's words were worth respecting. After all, the amount of flesh and blood Doctor Lin had carved from living people could probably make enough dumplings to feed someone for a lifetime.
Although he had his doubts about Doctor Lin's claim of being "top-tier," he knew his dad would never try to screw him over.
"A pair of cyber madmen."
Lin Xin muttered from the side, her timing completely off.
The father and son whipped their heads around in unison to look at Lin Xin.
"I think Lin Xin should be grounded at the Prosthetic Clinic to help out for six months," Lin Qi proposed.
"Six months?" Doctor Lin was taken aback.
According to the father and son's conversational customs, "grounding" meant something serious had happened involving Lin Xin, and the length of time indicated the magnitude of her transgression.
'Did Lin Xin kill someone or set a building on fire?'
"I think we need to have a serious talk," Doctor Lin said, looking at Lin Xin.
Lin Xin's expression froze instantly. Those words were all too familiar.
"I refuse!" Lin Xin turned to leave the Prosthetic Clinic. She couldn't stand being in this house for another second.
Lin Xin seemed to have forgotten that Doctor Lin had prosthetic implants—nominally a 30% modification with an L-Class Prosthetic Body, but in reality, his own modifications had boosted its strength to A-Class levels.
He caught up to Lin Xin in two strides and clamped his hand on the back of her neck.
Raising an eyebrow, Doctor Lin noticed Lin Xin's necklace. His Prosthetic Doctor's intuition told him it was no simple accessory.
"I hope my dear, sweet daughter can explain her recent adventures in detail to her humble old dad."
Grabbing Lin Xin by the scruff of her neck, Doctor Lin all but dragged her to the basement.
"This is false imprisonment! I'm going to rep—"
Before she could finish her sentence, the door to the underground workshop slammed shut.
There was no network access down there, beyond the reach of Red Fruit City's crime-monitoring network.
Lin Qi had faith in his father's abilities. Disciplining Lin Xin wasn't difficult; her so-called rebellion was only because their father hadn't brought out the big guns yet.
Lin Qi went to the entrance of the Prosthetic Clinic, changed its status to "Closed," locked the main door, and headed for the clinic's warehouse.
The warehouse of the No. 1 Prosthetic Clinic was huge. Various prosthetics were piled up, seemingly in disarray, but were actually sorted by category on shelves.
Lin Qi walked toward the scrap section.
He didn't need complete prosthetics; all Lin Qi needed was the power supply from their micro-nuclear reactors.
Prosthetics that used micro-nuclear reactors were at least L-Class. A single, fully charged reactor was enough to power the M-Class Mecha he was preparing to build for over 72 hours of combat.
The scrap prosthetics were mostly functionally obsolete, but their micro-nuclear reactors were still usable. Otherwise, Doctor Lin wouldn't have kept them in the warehouse; he would have sent them to the junkyard.
He took three prosthetics that had reactors, each with about half of its energy remaining.
'Greenfield City's regulations on prosthetics aren't as strict as Red Fruit City's. Besides, I can procure more through King Arthur. This is just a temporary stopgap.'
He wouldn't be using the M-Class Mecha for very long, anyway. Once the mecha in the Doomsday World were upgraded, these micro-nuclear power reactors would no longer be enough.
But by then, Lin Qi might just have the resources to manufacture reactors directly in the Doomsday World.
And even if he lacked resources, he could still get more from Greenfield City through King Arthur.
King Arthur was already in deep trouble, anyway; a little more wouldn't make a difference.
Taking the prosthetics back to his workshop, Lin Qi easily detached the reactors. He then removed some redundant parts from his own Exoskeleton and mounted the reactors in their place.
Once that was done, Lin Qi pulled out the blueprints he had taken from the company and began a secondary design phase.
The design needed to account for the material strength in the Doomsday World, as well as the maximum power output of various components.
As an L-level Researcher, a mere M-Class design was no challenge for Lin Qi.
He quickly sketched a brand-new design on paper and detailed the production process in writing.
The materials were so detailed that, even without Lin Qi present, the Doomsday World's existing industrial base would be able to complete the manufacturing.
He folded the blueprints and tucked them into a crevice in his Exoskeleton. Now all that was left was to wait for the Door's cooldown period to end.
While he waited, Lin Qi continued to think about the Mecha's weapon loadout.
A large Chainsaw Sword was a must-have; it was the last resort after all ranged firepower was exhausted.
Next came the most important part: the weapon combination.
Theoretically, a Mecha should be equipped with firearms and Energy Weapons.
But both of those required chemical fuel and vast amounts of energy.
He didn't have the right conditions for those, so his only choice was Electromagnetic Weapons.
A multi-barreled electromagnetic cannon. That was the optimal solution.
"Heat-dissipating materials are a major problem. The materials in the Doomsday World have terrible heat dissipation."
"But it's not an unsolvable one. It seems Xia Chu's Extraordinary Power might be of use."