CHAPTER 287: FULL RECOVERY.

Dante woke up on his term for the first time in who knows how long. No alarms blaring in his mind, no untimely messages, and no inexplicable pain coursing through his body. Only the satisfaction of having slept to his heart’s content, and the discontent of his empty stomach.

Things weren’t as bad as the previous day. He got up, showered, and brushed his teeth before sitting down to eat breakfast, or lunch, to be more accurate, since it was already noon. Yesterday, he had Nobara cook some gyoza for him, which he then kept in his Storage. Because of that, everything from the dumplings to the soup and rice remained fresh by the time he got to eat it.

"Ha~... that’s better."

Leaning back in his chair after a big meal, Dante wondered if he would still feel hungry once he went full cyborg. Most bionics are powered with high-grade batteries that take months to deplete and thus don’t require energy from food. With that being the case, would he still need to eat anything once he’s fully cyborg?

’Well, I guess my brain still needs it...’

That was the only part that couldn’t be exchanged.

Still focused on the matter, Dante got up and went about stretching his body. Just as he dropped to the floor and started doing some push-ups, a voice spoke in his head.

[Good morning.]

’Morning.’ Dante replied. ’You’re a bit late today. Did you sleep in?’

[I do not require sleep,] Volkan said. [And there is no specific reason for my tardiness. In fact, I do not believe I was late, since I have always been here.]

’Yeah yeah, I get it already.’

Doing a set of a hundred push-ups, Dante got up and stretched his body again. It felt like he had completely recovered, but just to make sure, he opened his Status screen and checked his stats.

[

Name: Dante

Species: Human

Threat Level: 1

Baseline Retention: Intermediate (82%)

Stats:

Strength: 6

Durability: 21

Agility: 6

Dexterity: 4

Computing Power: 7

Energy: 0

Implants:

Neural Interface Module (C)

Optic Augmentation Module (C)

Diamond Fist (D)

Kinetic Absorption Protective Sub-Layer Generation 15 (C)

RespiraCore Series V (D)

NephroCore Series X (D)

]

Noticing the debuffs were gone, he nodded to himself with a smile.

’Those new implants, ’

He thought. ’They added one point in durability and two in agility, huh?’

[That is the case.] Volcan replied. [Would you like to upgrade them?]

’Are you insane? I just recovered, you know.’

The last thing he wanted right now was to feel his internal organs burn. Besides-

’There is no way I’m surviving that.’

His hands were relatively safe, and the same went for a surface layer of his skin, but if he were to upgrade something like his kidneys and lungs, there is no way he wouldn’t drop dead from the damage.

’Does it have to burn every time you upgrade I upgrade something?’

[The extreme heat is a byproduct of the process. There is no way around it]

’Then I guess they will have to wait till I’m done replacing everything.’

Though he would love to get as many stat points as he could, the tradeoff was far too great. Right now, he couldn’t afford to get incapacitated.

’Let’s get something combat-oriented next.’ He thought. ’I’m thinking the Grim Reapers we saw a while back.’

[Purchasing those would consume most of your funds.] Volcan said.

’We don’t have to worry about funds, remember? Once I’m done selling all those relics, we can get all the Titan Forge bionics we want!’

Putting on some warm clothes, Dante walked out of his apartment. He took the elevator to the ground floor and headed for the exit, stopping to look at the entrance to the underground parking lot. His bike, the Raven, was sitting in the Storage. He was about to go down to take it out when a small screen appeared in the corner of his field of view. On it was a map with a blue dot and a few yellow ones, but in a certain corner, a red dot was lurking.

’Who is it now?’ he asked, feeling his mood take a dive.

[One of the four we tracked down yesterday.] Volcan said. [They were ordered to find you.]

’Really now...’

Taking care of Riot and his gang was high on his to-do list, but Dante didn’t want to deal with them at the moment. Right now, he planned to finish Lev’s request before going to Viktor to ask for new gigs.

Lightly annoyed, he decided against riding his bike today and headed for the nearest train station. Of course, his stalker followed right away.

’By the way, did you find anything in that terminal, you clones?’

[Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to find in there.] Said Volcan. [The most notable it contained was a series of emails with someone called the Vulture.]

’The Vulture?’ The name did ring a bell, but Dante couldn’t recall who it was. ’What were they talking about?’

[The Vulture seems to be sponsoring Riot, though they aren’t happy with the lack of progress. ]

’Is there anything about what the monster was asked to do?’

[Nothing. Though Red Rage’s revival seems to be a crucial component of achieving their goal.]

’I see... send everything to Finn and tell him to ask Viktor to look through them.’

[Understood.]

The first train ride of the day took them to the City Center. From there, Dante got on a different train, this one heading to Westpoint. The world seemed to undergo a subtle change as the ride went on. For starters, the stench in the air got stronger. Soon enough, the smog spewed by the factories got thick enough to block the view outside.

Westpoint Fabrication Ward didn’t look like the kind of place humans were meant to tread. Despite that, whenever the train stopped at one of the district’s stations, a great number got on and off. Most looked exhausted, their eyes hollow and lacking life.

Those were the factory workers. The slaves whose labor was so cheap that replacing them with machines wasn’t a viable option. Dante stood out like a sore thumb among them, but because he kept to himself, no one sought to bother him. He soon arrived at his destination, and just as he was about to get off the train, someone reached out and grabbed his arm.

Looking over his shoulder, Dante saw that it was a weathered old man wearing a grave expression.

"Son, I don’t think this is where you want to go." He said. "There is nothing at this stop."

Realizing what he was getting at, Dante yanked his arm from the man’s grip and continued walking.

"Not my first visit, old man."