Solus selected a pair of cybernetic hands and a single cybernetic eye. These would only advance him to Type 0.5, which was only halfway through Type 1. However, he was not impatient about it. He could not simply buy an entire set of cybernetic limbs with someone else's money and avoid getting caught.
When he took the parts to the checkout, the middle-aged owner behind the table smiled.
"Howdy, son. Are you looking for spare parts?"
"Yes, but I do not have enough money. That is why I am buying a few."
"Don't worry, the shop isn't flying anywhere. Now let's see... a pair of hands and an eye. A fantastic choice for a small purchase. People only chose the—"
"Could you scan it quickly?"
"Oh, yes..."
The man took the parts one by one and waved them in front of a camera. After finishing, the amount was displayed on the small screen in front of Solus.
Pair of hands = 30 X 2 = 60 Lins
Eye = 40 Lins
Total: 100 Lins
Below the display, there were ten small metallic holes for fingerprint scanning. To confirm the payment, one must scan all of their fingers. Solus had reshaped his fingerprints specifically for that reason. He pressed down with his fingers into each metallic hole.
Beep!
The scanners did not recognize the prints and displayed a red light. He removed his finger and re-entered them, but the prints were still not recognized.
"That's strange. It never happened before." the owner muttered.
"I think the scanner has a problem."
"It is quite old, so you might be right. Let me check,"
The owner lowered himself behind the table to inspect for faulty wires or other issues.
In truth, the scanners all worked properly. The rejection occurred because Solus did not press one finger earlier. He knew a drone was about to inspect him in a few seconds, and he needed something to keep the owner distracted while he dealt with the issues.
[You Are Suspected of Being Disguised. Please Turn Around]
Just as Solus had expected, a surveillance drone appeared behind him. But he had made plans ahead of time. He raised his hand, slowly removing the pair of glasses before turning around.
The surveillance drone scanned his face, but it no longer matched the second face it had suspected. The eye position, nose shape, and many other characteristics were different. It did not scan his face for a matching person because its goal was to determine whether or not the target was the culprit. Because the details no longer matched, it dismissed the task.
[Sorry For The Inconvenience. Have A Good Day]
Solus stared at the slab-shaped drone as it flew outside before becoming invisible. He then turned around and waited for the owner to stand up again. When the man finally emerged from under the table, he looked a little worried since he could not find any problem.
"Can you try again?"
"Sure."
Solus pressed all ten of his fingers together. The machine found that the fingerprints matched with the stored samples and identified them as the owners.
When the payment was successful, the owner sighed with relief and packed the cybernetic components before handing them over to Solus.
"Sorry for the delay. Come again."
The owner waved his hand as Solus exited the store. Now that his work was finished, he had to return home quickly. He could have purchased two arms, but any payment of more than 100 Lins required additional biometric verification. It was also difficult to use someone else's money because if the owner or the bank wanted, they could find him in less than a second based on the previous transaction.
He clutched the box in his hands and walked fast without making himself look suspicious to the surveillance cameras. He quickly got out of the crowded area and reached the empty street.
The sky had darkened further, with a slight yellow hue. Because of the distance between the buildings and the wide road, the neighborhood appeared to be peaceful. It was still empty as before, but he could see one person approaching him in the distance.
"I need to get back as soon as I can. By now, the surveillance drone had labeled me a terrorist, and it is searching for me."
The person approaching from the opposite direction appeared to be in his late teens and dressed in black. They walked past one another without exchanging glances.
"So that is Teon Tau's face."
Solus stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening slightly. The person behind him was only a meter away and facing his back.
"There was one culprit this noon, and now you too. Why did everyone suddenly start using someone's face as a disguise who died thousands of years ago?"
The end was in sight for Solus. Although he managed to avoid being seen by the security cameras, he never thought he would run into a policeman on his way back. His house was only a hundred meters away, but he was unable to get there.
The officer's cybernetic hand sprang up and beheaded Solus in a single motion.
He had only that one body left. He would not wake up in the robotic frame because the microchip was in his brain.
"I should have purchased additional microchips."
He felt no sadness; all he saw was a white space, unlike the previous black void. Unlike the other, the white space brought back memories for him. He quietly observed his life's work over the past 3,000 years. People screaming while being burned alive, being crushed like insects, having a laser cut a crowd of millions in half and many other heinous acts.
He suddenly noticed a woman without a face. Standing in the endless white space, he gazed at her. Her face was too hazy, and after giving him a quick glance, she turned away and moved farther away.
"A corrupted memory. I think it is from when I was younger, but who was that woman? I do not remember anyone I was close to."
As he was thinking, he felt a touch on his back. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw the faceless woman from before. After they stood silently for a moment, Solus turned to face her. He was aware that it was merely a glitch and not the real thing. So, if he asked questions, he would not receive any answers.
Slowly, the woman lifted her arms and put her hands to his face. A soft smile appeared on her lips, and other features began to emerge.
Solus waited, staring at her face expressionlessly. He was curious about the mysterious woman from his memories. Before he could see her eyes, everything vanished, leaving him with a blurry vision of his lab. It quickly cleared and he realized he was in that fragile robotic frame.
He should not have awoken because there was no microchip, but the processing was done elsewhere. The monitor on the table beside him caught his attention. The black screen flashed thousands of lines of code every second.
"Took it long enough."
Unlike the first two, his computer did not have a powerful microchip capable of endless calculations, but rather a standard processor. But he had programmed it as a failsafe so that if everything else failed, his memories would be transferred there as a last resort.
Now, his consciousness was contained within that simple chip inside the computer. A wireless link connected him to the robotic frame, which he could move as if it were his own body.
However, he could not stay in that state for long because his processor was overheating from simple thoughts. He needed to get a physical body as quickly as possible.
The robotic frame stood up and climbed the ladder into the basement. It walked toward the living room door, where Julius was sound asleep on the couch, the television playing in the background.
Julius's eyelids moved as he continued to hear a mechanical sound. His eyebrows furrowed in rage and he rose from the couch with drowsy eyes.
"Grandpa, can you make less..."
The words faded as he looked up at the terrifying figure standing in front of him. It was late afternoon, and the room was dark, so the robotic frame looked like it stepped out of hell.
"Fear not. I only need your body," the words came out of the broken speakers, echoing throughout the room.