Two a.m. by the time the core was done.
Jax set the soldering iron down. Cracked his stiff neck. That thing was more complicated than he thought—Demon Heavy's craftsmanship was no joke. Beat to hell and still fixable.
He dropped the finished core in a drawer. Was about to hit the Back Room—
**Thump. Thump. Thump.**
Three knocks.
Jax looked up.
Not the little girl.
A man.
Forties. Wrinkled work jacket. Face smeared with grease and sweat. Left hand clamped on his right shoulder. Red dripping through his fingers. Hitting the floor.
Face pale as hell.
"Doc... doctor... help..."
[Ding! Quest triggered: Emergency Treatment. Objective: Treat the mechanic's severed arm. Rewards: New Coins +50, Basic EXP +50.]
Jax stood up. Walked over. Helped him inside.
The man hit the chair. Took his hand off his shoulder.
Jax saw it clear.
From the shoulder down to the upper arm—something tore him open. Muscle pushed out. Bone showing white underneath. Blood still pumping. Not stopping.
"What happened?"
The man shook. Lips trembling.
"Overtime... conveyor jammed... went to fix it... that mechanical arm just..."
Couldn't finish.
Jax didn't push.
Turned around. Grabbed hemostatic and healing agents off the shelf. Scalpel. Forceps.
"Hold still."
The man clenched his teeth. Nodded.
Jax started cutting away the dead tissue.
[Ding! Surgery EXP +1]
[Ding! Surgery EXP +1]
The man was sweating buckets. But didn't make a sound.
Jax cleaned the wound slow. Noticed something—it wasn't a clean cut. The edges had burn marks. Irregular.
Like something hot bit him.
He didn't ask.
Ten minutes passed.
Wound clean. Jax poured healing agent on. Started stitching.
[Ding! Suturing EXP +1]
[Ding! Suturing EXP +1]
The man's color came back. A little.
Stitches done. Jax wrapped it.
"Three days no work. Week no water. Half month no right arm."
The man nodded, shaky. Pulled crumpled bills from his pocket. Handful.
Jax counted. Fifty-three.
Took fifty. Gave three back.
The man blinked.
Jax didn't explain.
He stood up. Thanked him a dozen times on the way out.
Door closed. Footsteps faded down the hall.
Jax stood there. Silent.
Those burn marks on the wound...
Looked like electrothermal cutters. The kind Demon Heavy Industries put on their experimental arms.
He let it go.
Walked back to the bench. Sat down—
**Thump.**
Soft.
Jax looked up.
Little girl at the door.
Holding that doll with the broken arm. Standing outside the threshold. Not coming in.
Jax looked at her.
She looked back.
A few seconds. She whispered:
"Uncle... you're still awake..."
Jax said nothing.
She looked down at the doll.
"It... it broke again..."
Jax's eyes went to the doll.
The broken arm was wrapped with some wires. Messy. The connection point was burnt black.
[Ding! System auto-diagnosis in progress... Doll malfunction cause: Target attempted self-repair. Positive and negative leads reversed. Main control chip shorted.]
Jax was quiet for two seconds.
"Come in."
She ran in. Doll in her arms. Sat in her usual spot.
Jax picked up the doll. Opened the chest panel.
Chip inside was fried. Black.
He dug through the parts pile. Found a spare. Swapped it.
[Ding! Repair EXP +5]
Picked up the soldering iron. Re-soldered the wires she messed up.
[Ding! Repair EXP +5]
Pulled off the broken arm. Grabbed a new one—dug it out of Old Joe's "scrap" pile. Fit perfect.
[Ding! Repair EXP +10]
Ten minutes. Tops.
Jax handed the doll back.
"Done."
She took it. Looked at the new arm careful.
Eyes lit up. Just for a second.
Then looked down. Whispered:
"Th... thank you, uncle..."
Jax said nothing.
She stood up. Doll in her arms. Took two steps toward the door.
Stopped.
Looked back at him.
"Uncle... you... can you fix people?"
Jax's eyebrow twitched.
She bit her lip. Voice even softer:
"My mom... she... she's broken..."
[Ding! Hidden quest triggered: The Mechanical Blood Infant's Request. Objective: Help the little girl "repair" her mother. Current completion: 20%.]
[Quest description: The little girl's mother is not human—she's a failed creation from some lab. Started "malfunctioning" three years ago. Now she's barely holding on. Fix her, and you might learn the child's true origins...]
Jax was quiet. Long time.
The little girl stood there. Holding her doll. Waiting.
Her eyes were big.
Bright.
Not like those dead eyes on the mechanical corpses.
Jax looked away.
"Tomorrow night."
He said.
She blinked. Then nodded hard.
"Mm-hmm!"
Hugged her doll. Ran out. Disappeared down the hall.
Jax sat there. Long time.
[Ding! Mechanical Blood Infant's Favorability toward you +30.]
[Ding! Mechanical Blood Infant's Trust in you +20.]
He didn't look at the text.
After a while, he looked down. Kept working on the part.
Wind outside the window.
Mixed with faint crying.
Like something was weeping.