33: Chapter 33 Unlock

The roar of the speeding galena echoed as it wove frantically through the dilapidated streets of Watson; Jackie had the accelerator pushed almost to the floor.

Lin Yi held V tightly in his arms, clearly feeling her vital signs fading bit by bit as her corporate cyberware gradually locked up.

The maintenance signal simulated by "Bai Ze" was like a candle in the wind, flickering unsteadily.

"Viktor! We've got a job! Emergency! It's life or death!" Jackie yanked open the clinic's security gate, his roar causing the sparse dust on the ceiling to rain down.

Viktor dropped his tools the instant they burst in.

Seeing V in Lin Yi's arms—her face deathly pale, her breathing faint—and the corporate cyberware on her body flashing obvious warning alerts due to the permission freeze, his brow instantly furrowed into a deep knot.

"Put her on the surgical chair! Hurry!" Viktor's voice was steady but carried an undeniable sense of urgency.

He quickly connected V to various monitoring devices while assessing her condition.

"Permission freeze... systemic cyberware rejection... Absurd! How did a girl like V get herself into this kind of mess?!"

"No time to explain now, Viktor! Just save her life." Lin Yi carefully placed V on the surgical chair. "Save her life first! Can you swap out these deadly things on her?"

Viktor's movements didn't falter for a second; his experienced hands were already working rapidly at the interface points on V's neck and spine.

"I'm doing it! But this is high-end gear with physical locks and logout protocols; forced removal could cause irreversible nerve damage... Damn it, her respiratory circulatory system is about to fail!"

The atmosphere in the clinic was so heavy it felt like it could drip water.

The piercing, intermittent alarms from the instruments sounded like a death knell.

Jackie paced anxiously, his fists clenched white.

Lin Yi kept his eyes fixed on Viktor's movements and the data on the screens, [Insight] fully activated, assisting in analyzing the optimal removal paths and risk points, occasionally calling out key parameters to help Viktor avoid the most dangerous maneuvers.

This was a race against death.

Beads of sweat formed on Viktor's forehead. His cybernetic hands performed micro-operations with astonishing precision and stability, severing deadly connections one by one and bypassing self-destruct traps.

Every spark that flew made everyone's heart leap into their throats.

Finally, after what felt like a century—a grueling half-hour—the most critical and threatening corporate cyberware, including the failing respiratory assist and the erratic bio-monitor, were successfully forcibly removed and replaced.

Although V's breathing was still weak, it gradually stabilized and improved, and a hint of color returned to her face.

"Her life... is temporarily saved." Viktor let out a long sigh and wiped the sweat away with a towel. "But the remaining corporate cyberware on her, like the reinforced joints and optical scanner, have become scrap metal, and leaving them in is a liability. It's best to remove them all at once and use temporary replacements for now."

"Take them out!" Lin Yi said without hesitation. "I'll give you everything removed at ten percent of market value, or I can buy them from you at full price."

Viktor glanced at Lin Yi, didn't ask questions, and simply nodded. "Alright. Give me a hand, let's get this done."

The subsequent surgery was relatively smooth, though still delicate and time-consuming.

When the last bio-monitor, bearing the Arasaka logo, was placed into the tray, the sky outside the security gate was already beginning to brighten.

V lay on the surgical chair, like a doll stripped of all its fancy packaging—fragile, yet real.

"That's it." Viktor's voice was deeply weary. "She needs at least a week of quiet recovery to let her body adapt to these 'new guests.' Keep an eye on her during this time, and make sure she doesn't think about installing any new cyberware; her body won't be able to handle it. Do you understand?" His gaze swept sternly over Lin Yi and Jackie.

Both of them nodded heavily.

Lin Yi paid the surgical and cyberware-related fees, which were cheap compared to what Trauma Team would charge, and then carefully packed away the corporate cyberware removed from V, which now looked like exquisite pieces of scrap metal.

The next afternoon, V finally woke from her long, unconscious slumber.

She felt as if she had been run over from head to toe by a steamroller; her whole body was weak, and her mind was a blank slate.

After a while, memories flooded back like a tide: Lizzies Bar, the agents, the permission freeze, and... Lin Yi's embrace and Jackie's words, "Welcome back."

She struggled to sit up but felt a wave of exhaustion.

"Don't move around." Lin Yi's voice came from nearby.

He was sitting on a chair, the workbench in front of him covered with various precision tools brought from his workshop and the cyberware removed from her body.

He looked a bit weary, but his eyes remained focused.

"How are you feeling?" Lin Yi finished his work, put down his tools, and walked over.

"Like... I've died once." V's voice was hoarse. She looked at Lin Yi with complicated eyes. "Thank you, for saving me again."

"It's no big deal." Lin Yi smiled and handed her a glass of water. "Oh, right, your 'treasures,' I've managed to fix them up."

V froze for a moment, then followed Lin Yi's gaze toward the workbench.

She saw that the corporate cyberware, which should have been dull and lifeless like scrap metal, was now flickering with the faint light of standby mode!

"You... how did you do that?" V's eyes widened in disbelief.

She knew very well how these high-end items had lock-and-destroy mechanisms; without core authorization from Arasaka servers, they were nothing more than expensive lumps of metal.

"I studied them a bit," Lin Yi said nonchalantly, not mentioning the key roles of "Bai Ze" and his own engineering abilities. "Their underlying structure is quite interesting. It took some time to bypass those unnecessary 'shackles,' but it wasn't too hard."

A huge wave of surprise instantly washed away all of V's worries and weakness!

These pieces of cyberware were not just tools; they were symbols of her past strength and identity!

Losing them meant she would have to start from scratch.

And now, Lin Yi had actually "saved" them!

In her excitement, V found strength from somewhere, suddenly wrapping her arms around Lin Yi's neck and giving him a hard kiss!

"That's amazing! Lin Yi! You're a genius!"

This sudden "attack" left Lin Yi frozen stiff. The lingering warmth on his cheek and the soft sensation felt like an electric current, leaving his mind completely blank.

A bachelor for two lifetimes, how could he have ever experienced something like this?

Just then, Viktor walked in carrying a tray of nutritious food made by Misty, happening to see the scene unfold.

He paused for a moment, then snorted with annoyance: "Wow, wow, wow, young lady over there! Have you forgotten that you just crawled back from the gates of hell yesterday? Your internal neural interfaces haven't healed yet, and your artificial organs need an adjustment period! You aren't thinking about stuffing these iron lumps back in right now, are you? Do you think you're a robot, and installing cyberware is as simple as changing a screw? Do you not want to live anymore?!"

V shrank her neck under Viktor's scolding, only then realizing how rash and impulsive her actions and thoughts had been.

She sheepishly let go of Lin Yi, a blush rising to her cheeks, but her eyes sparkled with the excitement of surviving a disaster and the relief of breaking free from shackles.

"Sorry, Viktor... I was just too happy." V stuck out her tongue like a child who had done something wrong, but she couldn't hide the smile on her lips.

Lin Yi also came back to his senses, awkwardly touching the spot where she had kissed him, feeling it still burning slightly.

He looked at V's face, still pale but now radiant with a unique spirit, and felt a sense of relief in his heart.

He knew that the V bound by the corporation was fading away; a V who belonged to the streets, a V who belonged to herself, was being reborn.

Although the road ahead was currently unknown and confusing, at least for this moment, the clinic was no longer filled with despair, but with a complex scent mixed with medicine, machine oil, and a faint hint of hope.

V picked up the post-op meal Viktor handed her and ate it in small bites, her eyes occasionally glancing at the cyberware on the workbench that had regained its "new life," filled with anticipation for the future.