I left the place rubbing at my new eye. My tear ducts woulnd't stop overflowing, which was quite unfortunate. They took the Advent Phantom, and by extension Blackout, out. It was a major hit to my stealthing capabilities.

In the future, I'd have to put Blackout back together. It was just too good to leave on a shelf, especially given my job. With great Tech comes great thieving. It'd be a while till that came around, though.

Did I feel a sad to lose Blackout? Yes, yes I did. I could respect the doctor not wanting to push it through thanks to his own moral compass. Morals were a thing sorely lacking in this day and age, and, while annoying, was respectable. Additionally, I got a cool new piece of chrome to mess around with, so it wasn't all bad.

My new cyber-eye was the Advent Ghost. It was arguably better than the Blackout in terms of sheer utility. It had a built-in feature scrubber, so I would hopefully never have to worry about a camera catching my face again. I lost the dual-zoom, which was unfortunate. It came with something the doctor was very excited to tell me about, though.

Doctor Fodisa called it the Genetic Optical Node Enhancer, or GONE. It apparently would allow me to look at DNA, and the eye would memorize said DNA as a Genetic Template. Then, with the memorized Genetic Template, it would automatically scan and attempt to match the DNA to other sources. Basically, I'd be able to track trails of DNA super easily.

It was still experimental, but a hundred percent safe according to the doc. At the moment it could only store one Genetic Template at a time, but they were looking at increasing the amount. GONE with the feature scrubber made the Advent Ghost a relatively easy decision compared to some of the other pieces of chrome offered.

Outside of making me cry non-stop, something I was assured would fix itself in a couple hours, it felt off in my head. My vision looked ever so slightly off. The feeling was a peculiar one. Desynchronization. I'd run into it before. Not pleasant.

Desync was… well, it was the dysphoria of cybernetics, to put it simply. That watered down a ton of very complicated medical jargon. In severe cases, it could cause Glitching. Glitching was not great. Complete psychological breakdown, usually resulting in death or homicidal rages.

The annoyance of my new eye thankfully wasn't at that level. It was just very… dissonant? The Desync should fix itself in a couple days. I should still run by Nael's for him to take a look at it, of course. I trusted him way more than the doctors of Advent.

The drive to Viceroy Street was about as fun as could be expected with only one eye. It was hard paying attention to the road and traffic with an eye that didn't want to work, to the point that I decided to just drive with my chrome eye closed. Going back to being a cyclops was always annoying.

I nudged open the door into Absolom Clinic, for once not immediately noticed by Nael. Another man, one that didn't feel quite like a customer, kept the Medek's attention. He wore a similar uniform to the ones I had seen the Medevac teams wear, though his seemed a little higher end. I slunk into the shadows, unseen by either.

"... told you, I'm not going back," Nael said, a bit of frustration entering his voice. It was the first time I'd heard him lose his relaxed edge.

"C'mon, doctor. It's not the same without you." Seeing that his tactics weren't working, the man shifted to a more business-centric tone. "Look, I've been authorized to grant you an incredibly competitive salary, at least sev-"

"Hey, kid. Just give me a moment." Nael cut off the other guy as soon as he spotted me. It was honestly impressive. My Stealth may not be the highest, but he always seemed to be able to pick me out with little effort. Maybe his years as a Medek had vastly improved his perception? "Dr. Carcinaten was just on his way out."

"Real subtle, old friend. Alright, I'll get out of your hair." The man stepped away, his eyes tracking to me. Eyes as in four, not two. The guy had what his two flesh eyes, but he also had two slightly glowing chrome ones just above his eyebrow. It was incredibly off-putting to try and meet four eyes over the usual two.

He walked past me, leaving the clinic. I watched him go for a moment before approaching. "Hey, Nael. Sorry for interrupting."

"Don't worry about it, kid. How'd your trip to Advent go?" He pulled out his usual smooth tone as if the previous annoyance had been a lie.

I motioned to my eye. "Preem. Got a free new piece of chrome. You- uh, mind checking it over? It feels a little sideways."

"Take a seat." He twirled the chair to me and went to grab some stuff. "How was Fodisa?"

I sat down and plugged my jack into the port preemptively. "He was an interesting guy."

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"Yeah?" Nael returned and tapped around on the terminal. The various scanners and machines around the chair whirled into action.

"He was a fan of Baseball. Kinda weird to see a doctor being a fan of a blood sport." I felt a slight buzz as the diagnostics started up.

He chuckled and met my eyes. I had a feeling he was more so checking out the Advent Ghost than anything. "He used to be the Slashers' Medek back in the day. That was long before we ever worked together though, so I couldn't tell you much."

"Wow." To think, I was just talking to someone who worked directly with my childhood idols. And he seemed to be a rather stand-up guy based on my short interactions with him. 'Course, it could've all been an act. For once, I wanted to be optimistic about someone. Maybe since Nael vouched for him?

Nael slid up all of the devices surrounding me and shut everything down. "Alright, the installation is good. I can recalibrate it and that might help. Otherwise, I'll give you some eye drops. Twice a day for a week."

"Alright…"

I went through a series of calibrations and tests before he let me out of the chair. Nael was a miracle worker, as always. The Advent Ghost no longer felt quite as off in terms of vision, though there was still a certain level of dissonance with how it sat in my skull. Almost like a ghost sensation of another eye overlaying the chrome one? It made me feel uneasy.

Nael passed me a small bottle with a stopper at the end. "Drip it in your eye twice a day. It should just be a light case of Desynchronization, but immediately contact me if it worsens. Especially contact me if you start getting irrational feelings of fight-or-flight."

"Right." I grabbed the bottle and dropped some of the liquid onto the Advent Ghost. Almost immediately, a cooling sensation washed across my eye, dripping down under my skin. "How much?"

"Don't worry about it, kid. You're doing me a favor helping out my chum, so it's on the house." Nael waved me off without even giving me a chance.

"C'mon! You gotta let me pay you, old man." I tried a couple of times to at least give him something, but eventually was forced to leave. A couple and their kid came in.

I returned to my apartment to find it empty. Feras had left at some point, though it looked like he was planning on coming back since his stuff still sat around. I took the opportunity to shower and relax since I had nothing pressing left- rather, nothing immediately pressing. There was still the twenty mil bounty and the chance of a Fedra strike team coming after me…

After drying off, I laid down against the wall and took out my journal. I wasted no time copying down every schematic and blueprint in memory except for the Sentinel. While everything was kept in my memory, having a physical copy helped me process better.

The one for the Advent Phantom was incredibly important to me, and I spent quite a while just trying to figure out its inner workings. The best I could tell, it used some kind of unique radiation to mess with optical devices.

Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how exactly it worked thanks to the complicated mess of focusing lenses, some kind of radioactive core, and the micro batteries used to charge the whole thing. At least for now, it'd remain a mystery just like the Sentinel schematics until Tech was at a higher level.

My eye started to water, so I took a break. It stung, and droves of tears flooded down half my face. Should I just go back to flesh? Leave behind the whole chrome issue? But chrome was so useful! And… well, clone-flesh had its own issues.

I should do something else. How about- oh! Furniture! I had the Rayn now, so I could actually afford something. I flipped through my journal for the list I'd already made. Without a second though, I started buying stuff left and right.

A super fluffy bed, a nice only slightly stained couch, several metal tables to work on, and some other miscellaneous supplies and tools made their way into my cart. Most of the stuff, other than the bed, was cheap. Altogether I only spent a hundred and fifty on furniture, with most of that being on the bed. Not too bad all and all, though most of the stuff was of questionable quality from a junkyard.

I also looked around for a 3d printer to kickstart my techno empire. Unfortunately, I didn't have the required permits to even look at them, let alone buy one. They were explicitly out of civilian hands without a permit. Permits that only corporations could get… this was the kind of job for a Fixer.

I checked one last time on the open market. Nothing. Fixer it was. I could've called Ishimaru, but he was probably busy with the Savant Lab I dumped into his lap the other night. That just left old flame face.

"What do you need?" Carone's annoying voice came across the line.

I clicked through several pages on my deck, making sure I gathered the right kind of information. Although there were none on the open market, I could still find price 'speculations' on the Net. "I need a printer."

"What kind?"

"Three-dimensional one. Preferably multi-medium, but just a metal or plastic one will do."

He was silent for a couple minutes. "Alright… I can get you a multi-medium for forty thousand Rayn, a metal one for thirty-five… or an introduction to a Night Market. Someone might be willing to sell a… lower-grade one there."

Those price points stung, though they were within my expectations. Yet another way of corporate power consolidation. "This Night Market then… how much for info on where I could acquire a multi-medium?"

"Hmm… five thousand." So stealing one wasn't in the cards, then. "I'll send you the Constellation Night Market's info and entry pass. They're holding one this week. After a four hundred retainer fee, 'course."

Fixers- always reliable. I could always trust them to charge me more money than I wanted to spend. "Alright."

Saying that, I transferred the Rayn anyway. Getting access to a Night Market wasn't a bad idea, especially one with an official name. Never knew when I might need something that wasn't exactly legal.

'Course, I could buy the detes of the multi-medium one right now, but that would put me back in the red. I'd just make do with what I could find at the Night Market for the time being until I had a bigger backlog of Rayn. Maybe seven or eight thousand?

"I'll get you added to the list shortly." He hung up. At least he didn't hang up mid-sentence like the last couple times. Maybe because I was approaching him as a client and not a merc for once?

I sighed and looked around my apartment. Soon. So very soon, this place would feel more like home. And I could sleep on a bed. Sleeping on the ground was really doing a number on my back. At least Quick Healing kept me all good to go.

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