101: Chapter 100 You two both possess extraordinary skills

"Cough, cough," Lin Yi felt his back go cold from the almost tangible daggers in V's eyes. He quickly coughed twice, trying to divert everyone's attention. "Viktor, this… this situation is a bit special. I'll explain it to you clearly in a moment. Can you first check if there are any other abnormal indicators elsewhere?"

Viktor—this experienced, veteran ripperdoc—gave Lin Yi a deep look upon hearing this, his gaze through his lenses sharp and steady.

He didn't press for answers immediately but followed instructions, turning his attention back to the console. His fingers tapped rapidly on the virtual keyboard, pulling up the subsequent physiological data reports, and he read them out methodically in his unique, steady voice with a metallic tinge:

"Cortisol levels—normal, within the healthy fluctuation range."

"Neural interface compatibility between native joints and prosthetic bones… running normally; signal transmission efficiency is even slightly improved compared to the last record."

"Hmm? The real-time data stream of the biological monitoring system…" Viktor's tone rose slightly, carrying a hint of inquiry. He turned his head to look at Lin Yi.

"You kid, you changed the log packet forwarding address yourself, didn't you? You bypassed my local server."

Lin Yi had long anticipated this question and explained calmly, "Ah, er. After all… some data and records aren't convenient to leave in external systems. Don't worry, the destination address for the diagnostic program is a private server I built myself. I've deployed a diagnostic system with identical functionality that I ported over; the data security and integrity are guaranteed."

Viktor stared at him for two seconds, seemingly wanting to find more flaws on his face, but ultimately just gave an "Hmm," accepting the explanation.

He quickly browsed through the remaining reports, confirmed there were no obvious abnormalities in other basic physiological indicators, and then turned his gaze to V, who was still frowning and staring at that strange neural network diagram from before.

"The basic physiological indicators look fine for now," Viktor summarized, then reminded V, "It's your turn, V. Don't just stand there, sit up."

"Ah? Oh… coming, coming." V was pulled out of her chaotic thoughts by Viktor's voice. She shook her head hard, as if wanting to shake off those horrifying images about the "drift cyberdeck" and "neural networks," and walked over to the diagnostic chair, replacing Lin Yi and sitting down.

"Don't rush, Viktor," Lin Yi stood up from the diagnostic chair but didn't walk away immediately. Instead, he fished another data chip from his pocket and handed it to Viktor. "Use this scanning program to diagnose her."

Viktor took the chip and looked at Lin Yi with some confusion. "What is this?"

"Consider it a 'patch' for your top-tier medical system," Lin Yi smiled, his tone carrying a hint of mystery. "It's specifically targeted at some… 'deep information' that conventional scans might miss. Install it, and you might get a surprise." He raised an eyebrow after saying this.

Viktor raised an eyebrow. Although full of doubts, he still had some trust in Lin Yi's technical capabilities.

He didn't ask further, directly inserting the chip into the console's interface and quickly running the compatibility and security check program.

[Unknown medical enhancement protocol loading...] [Protocol verification passed...] [Compatibility with current medical diagnostic system V4.7: Excellent.] [Enhancement module ready.]

"Alright." After confirming there were no errors, Viktor began to operate the instrument, starting a deep scan of V with the same process just used on Lin Yi.

The cold probe buzzed again, and a pale blue scanning light enveloped V's body.

Taking advantage of this gap, Lin Yi walked aside and gathered with Jackie and Misty.

Jackie immediately hooked his arm around Lin Yi's shoulder, lowering his voice with a sneaky smile on his face: "Hey, mano, spill it to your buddy. You and V are doing deck drifting, and now you're patching Viktor's equipment—what the hell are you up to? Did you ditch your good brother and take another gig from a big corp, modifying yourself until you don't look human anymore?"

Lin Yi smiled helplessly, glossing over the details and chatting with Jackie about recent trivialities, like the new drink menu at the Afterlife Bar or some bizarre contract released by a fixer, trying to divert the topic.

Misty also chimed in occasionally, and the atmosphere seemed to ease temporarily.

However, this deliberately created relaxation didn't last long.

"What the—this?!"

An incredulous exclamation suddenly came from in front of the console, like a thunderclap on a clear day, instantly shattering the temporary peace in the clinic!

The one who let out this exclamation was none other than our doctor, Viktor!

This old doctor, who was always known for being calm and steady, now had his eyes wide open, his fingers trembling slightly as he pointed at the full-body scan results of V that had just been generated on the holographic screen. The expression on his face was a mixture of shock, confusion, and a hint of… fanaticism, as if he had just seen a medical miracle?

"V, you… you little lunatic!" Viktor turned his head sharply to look at V, who was also looking bewildered on the diagnostic chair, his voice cracking from excitement. "You tell me! What the hell is this?!"

As he spoke, he swiped hard on the console, turning the scanning result interface that made him lose his composure directly toward V, exposing it to Lin Yi, Jackie, and Misty, who had looked over at the sound.

Jackie and Misty curiously leaned in, and when they saw the contents on the screen, they couldn't help but gasp.

On the screen, V's cyberware configuration list was clearly displayed, and in the operating system column, two items that were absolutely impossible to coexist according to common sense were listed side by side:

[Sandevistan Neural Driver System - Model 'Apogee' - Status: Active]

[Arasaka MK.4 Cyberdeck - Status: Active]

"You two…" Viktor's gaze swept back and forth between V and Lin Yi, his tone filled with disbelief. "You really are more outrageous than the other; you're both full of tricks, aren't you?! How the hell did you manage this?! The Sandevistan and a cyberdeck, simultaneously adapted and compatible, and able to withstand full-power operation—theoretically, your brain should have been fried into a pulp from the overload long ago!"

Jackie looked at the configuration on the screen that violated the iron laws of cyberware compatibility, scratching his head in confusion. Although he didn't understand too many technical details, he knew this stuff wasn't normal.

And the culprit, Lin Yi, seeing Viktor's shocked appearance, felt that this fire didn't seem to be burning hot enough. He actually added, with a cheeky, "helpful" reminder:

"Viktor, don't just look at the configuration list. Scroll down and look at her real-time neural load and… the theoretical cyberware tolerance limit analysis."

Hearing this, Viktor subconsciously operated the console according to Lin Yi's instructions.

When the estimated value of V's neural tolerance limit, derived after analysis by the "patched" program, was clearly displayed on the screen—

"¡Dios mío! (My God!)"

This time, it was Jackie who exclaimed! Although he wasn't a ripperdoc, the name Adam Smasher and the terrifying power it represented were something everyone living in Night City had heard of.

The bright data on the screen, marked with [Estimated Neural Tolerance Limit: Approximately 250% of known individual data (Adam Smasher)], intuitively told him what a perverted monster his good buddy's woman was in terms of hardware! (Data reference provided by Yorinobu)

Viktor didn't speak; he just stared fixedly at that number, then suddenly pulled up Lin Yi's previous scan image showing "deck drift" and "neural network."

Two equally shocking diagnostic results were displayed side by side on the screen, silently telling the story of the bizarre changes happening to these two young people, which completely exceeded his decades of medical experience.

Finally, Viktor took a slow, deep breath, then exhaled it forcefully.

He reached out and closed all the scanning interfaces and diagnostic reports.

The entire clinic fell into an eerie silence.

Viktor turned around, his arms tightly crossed over his chest. The face that usually wore a gentle or helpless expression was now terrifyingly gloomy, as dark as the night sky before a storm.

His gaze, like two cold scalpels, first lingered for a moment on the face of V, who appeared innocent (and even a bit smug?), and then nailed itself fiercely onto Lin Yi, who was trying to play dumb and muddle through.

The air in the clinic seemed to solidify, and the pressure was so low that it was suffocating.

Viktor finally spoke, his voice low, carrying unquestionable interrogation, each word squeezed out from between his teeth:

"You two…"

"Better, right now, immediately, explain it to me clearly!"

His gaze finally locked onto Lin Yi, his tone intensifying:

"With V, I can barely fool myself with reasons like 'gifted talent' or 'genetic mutation.' What about you, kid Lin?"

He raised a hand to point at the image of Lin Yi's strange scan still remaining on the screen.

"What is this ghostly state of yours, and all these messes you two have gotten into?!"

"What—the—hell—is—going—on?!"