John pissed off Oulos.

Not surprising.

The Legendary Middleman flew from Europe to Eden City to tackle the technical bottleneck of decreasing prosthetic integration for the Armored Behemoth, while also investigating some personal matters.

Oulos teamed up with John to investigate Black Light-related intel, uncovering the truth behind those "coincidences".

A little unexpected.

A little luck.

The relationship between the Legendary Middleman and street mercenaries wasn't as strong as imagined.

How long has John been in the game?

The people he's killed might not even outnumber his collection of knives; he's quite green compared to the career records of a Legendary Mercenary.

John has always wondered about this.

Why did Oulos choose him when she came to Eden City?

She doesn't lack connections.

Her upper-echelon ties are already in place.

If Oulos were planning something big in Eden City, surely mercenaries like "military knives" would be more efficient—swift, cold-blooded, experienced, and crucially, without sentimentality.

John owed Oulos.

The kind of debt that's hard to repay.

Understanding this, John threw caution to the wind.

"I'm going to die."

He spoke with a flat tone, his expression natural.

Oulos, lying on the surgical chair, answered instantly.

"So?"

"So I'm here to return the combat data of Idegras, as we agreed."

"You're quite a stickler for reputation."

Oulos waved her hand in the air.

The mechanical arms retracted, a long metal wire extracted from her eye sockets, and with a brief, clear ticking sound, the data on the wall went dark.

"You've gotten smarter, John. I'm a middleman; I'm naturally interested in business."

She walked barefoot on the floor, taking a sip from the glass of red wine, fixing a familiar teasing expression at John as she passed him, lightly patting his chest.

"That's really a hard reason to refuse."

The smile didn't linger on Oulos's face for even a second before she turned expressionless.

[Task Objective Updated]

[Follow Oulos. (Not Achieved)]

The elevator descended directly to the medical center downstairs.

John followed Oulos into the room and saw a massive ice pool.

Inside lay the Armored Behemoth.

Most of the time, he seemed unable to function normally. At least, during the few times John had seen him, there was no normal verbal communication, and medical aids were always on him.

It was the same now.

The Behemoth's head was entirely encased in a metal shell.

Numerous tubes were inserted all over his body.

The pool he soaked in was bubbling, and the wires like a spider web covered the entire room.

John stepped over the obstacles, glancing around.

Various prosthetics were hanging on the walls, ranging from alloy skeletons to ankle joints, even synthetic organs soaking in dialysis fluids.

"Don't be so surprised, you were lying here when undergoing surgery."

Oulos interrupted him, pulling out a data cable, indicating for John to turn around and sit down.

[Data Transmission Detected/Agreed]

Prosthetic data recovery usually has several methods.

One is real-time networking, capturing every change through online transmission and real-time monitoring during the real combat process.

Another is physical recovery.

Simply put, it waits until someone is dead to recover the body and dismantle the parts for adjustment based on the residual information inside.

Black Light blocked the networking function of prosthetics.

Oulos wanted the data, but only through direct connection, requiring John's authorization before Black Light would open prosthetic permissions.

John sat on the floor, letting her lift his clothes and search for a connection point on his spine.

Data started transmitting.

Black Light repeatedly prompted the possibility to hack the underground medical system.

John refused them all, instead releasing permissions to fully transfer combat data recorded in the prosthetic to Oulos.

This was what he owed her.

Suddenly, a glass of red wine was handed to John.

He turned his head, seeing Oulos sitting beside him on the counter, speaking in a flat tone after he refused to drink.

"Besides the data, anything else you want to tell me?"

"About a wandering AI named Serum..."

John placed his hand on his knee, leaning back against the counter, recounting recent encounters and intelligence during data transmission.

Including transactions involving Serum, and the relationship between Source Equation and Vacuum Tube.

"You think a wandering AI can save you? How, they're just stray lines of code, can they conjure a body out of thin air for you?"

"...Honestly, I don't know."

John didn't hide his worries.

Oulos laughed.

"So you accepted your fate, can survive if saved, wait for death if not?"

"I've already accepted this ending."

"You're lying, John."

Oulos suddenly released her grip, spilling the glass of red liquid above John's head.

Clink.

John instantly grasped the glass, his neural reflex was so quick, the almost empty liquid merely swirled around the rim and fell back inside.

Not a drop spilled.

Oulos patted John's face.

"You don't want to sit and wait for death, and have a really lousy idea, so bad that you think you'll definitely die, which is why you're so eager to say goodbye to friends, sort out affairs, even that little lover you sent out of town didn't know."

Her short hair fell down, blocking the light source, leaving only the glowing prosthetic eye.

The complex structures deep within the iris zoomed in.

John stared into her eyes, not denying it.

"...Do you count as my friend?"

"Middlemen don't have friends, John, our first lesson in the business was studying betrayal and exploiting others, so I'm certain that one day you'll die playing hero, those childish emotional games will get everyone you care about killed."

Oulos stood up, walked toward a wall.

She waved, a hidden cabinet opened to reveal a row of individually sealed clothes, then unabashedly began removing her casual wear.

"I'm the kind of absolutely rational businesswoman, negotiation and interest exchange are my familiar realms. If you got the illusion that I'm friendly and open to deep conversation, it's just my social habits acting up."

Long pants wrapped around her hips.

John noticed Oulos's waist and back.

Those exaggerated cooling slits formed symmetrical lines, converging on the metallic structure at her lumbar spine.

Who knows how many times she'd undergone such modifications.

Prosthetic transformation is cold.

Oulos can handle it because she has a mechanical heart.

"If you came to me with a glimmer of hope, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed, John, I won't save you this time, nor can I. Bodily collapse is a bottleneck in biotechnology, and I'm a middleman, only lending and recovering interests."

"Alright, pleasure seeing you, then I'm off."

John placed the red wine glass back on the table, but realized Oulos stood at the elevator with him.

"What's up?"

"It's obvious, debt collection, alloy skeleton data was part of the contract, what about the rest? Are you not planning to pay for saving your life and investigating accidents?"

"Fuck, you want me to pay?"

"You can't afford it, John. Based on our debt relationship, whatever I ask, you have to give; what can you do as a fool who keeps promises?"

Oulos's tone was teasing.

"How many days left on Martyr GTX's countdown?"

"Six... maybe five?"

"Alright, let's go, today's on me, remember this is paying off debt."

"Where are we going?"

Elevator door opened at the first floor.

Oulos pulled up her hood, hands in pockets asking.

"Did you drive here?"

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