Ten thousand I am across the heavens

Mo Chengzi looked at his body in the real world and nodded helplessly. His current body's ability to withstand risks was far too low. Let alone dealing with powerful enemies coming to his door offline, his current body might not even have a good solution when facing certain diseases.

Individual combat strength in this world can be enhanced to a considerable degree. Mechanization is one of the most common methods of enhancement. This is something the people of this world are quite familiar with: installing mechanical prosthetics on their bodies.

The maximum number of prosthetic bodies each person can install varies. It depends on an individual's education level and talent, but primarily on their mental fortitude. The rejection reaction to prosthetic bodies is actually suppressed to a fairly mild degree, at least at the physical level. Prosthetic bodies don't place a significant burden on the user; in fact, they are often much more convenient than original limbs. Otherwise, so many people wouldn't choose to have them installed.

The primary stress brought by prosthetics is on a psychological level. Over-implantation can negatively impact an individual's mental state. Limbs that are incompatible with one's original body can also affect the user, causing hallucinations and even mental breakdown. This is the origin of cybernetic psychosis; these individuals often develop madness after undergoing too many mechanical modifications and becoming unable to cope with the psychological pressure.

However, these issues are clearly not what they need to consider right now. For them, the biggest pressure isn't mental or physical; it's damn financial.

If you don't have the money, even if you want to get a prosthetic body, it's not an easy thing.

Of course, this society, in order to exploit the poor, has launched many so-called preferential programs for purchasing prosthetic bodies through loans. Installment payments can even be as long as 30 years, almost like student loans.

The purpose is to encourage people to overspend and buy expensive items, under the guise of promoting economic development.

However, this path is already blocked, because he is now a veritable debtor, with nearly a million in debt. If he works hard for a few more months, reaching a million in debt wouldn't be a problem.

With interest accruing like this, it's virtually impossible to pay off the debt in a short time, especially with so much debt already in place. Finding a loan to buy a new prosthetic body is practically impossible.

If it weren't for his own strong abilities and the fact that he inexplicably picked up a cheat code, an ordinary person would basically be on the verge of death if they ended up like him.

If things continue like this, there's always the possibility of dying silently in some slum due to debt and homelessness, accidents and poverty.

In due time, someone will receive his body, retrieve his prosthetic body, and recover the remaining active body organs.

Whether they were from a debt collection agency or a professional body collector from the neighborhood, that remains unknown.

"Ahem, I think we should hold off on replacing the mechanical prosthetic limb. Even if we find some cash that we can spend immediately, we won't save much. Even replacing just one hand would cost forty or fifty thousand yuan, and that would only get us the cheapest version. The surgery would likely only involve minimal anesthesia, and the medical conditions at shady clinics might not be good, potentially leading to infections. With my current fighting skills, dealing with ordinary thugs and thugs wouldn't be a problem. I've uploaded my information to your database. My fighting skills are basically at the pinnacle of human ability; in terms of sheer physical strength, almost no one can surpass me."

Norrell immediately searched online for a bunch of videos of powerful cybernetic bodies in action: "How can the strength of flesh and blood compare to that of machines? Look at them, your power and reaction speed are not even in the same league. How can technique make up for such a huge gap? The difference between you and the champion of a professional fighting tournament in all aspects of attributes is greater than the difference between an infant and an adult. Even if you have great technique, no matter how good you are, can you use an infant's body to defeat an adult?"

Mo Chengzi actually wanted to retort. After all, with his abilities, the things mentioned above might actually be achievable. If he were in a state of unlocked genetic potential and unleashed his full power, although an infant's body lacked explosive power and endurance, it still had a considerable possibility of killing an adult if he seized the right opportunity and utilized the environment.

However, these are all extreme cases. Even if he could do it, there's really no need for him to take that risk.

Just then, his cheat system started working again. He had named this system the "Cheat System," having long forgotten its original name, the "Fire Seed System." This system was utterly irresponsible, its functions mostly focused on cheating, practically tailor-made for homeless people. Compared to the cool and powerful systems in literary works, it was incredibly tacky.

This time, the system's cheat was also unreliable; a system loading window popped up in his field of vision. A moment later, a message appeared indicating successful loading.

"The Flesh and Blood Comeback System has been installed. Please go to the designated address to participate in the relevant competitions, win massive prizes, and reach the pinnacle of life."

Mo Chengzi thought to himself that it was just another unreliable and useless little function, but he did not ignore the prompts given by the system. On the one hand, it was too annoying not to click on the red dot in his field of vision, as if there were unread messages hanging there all the time.

On the other hand, the system's "Stylish Little Trash" feature, while not very useful most of the time, can still bring some convenience to his life.

But this time, after clicking the website link and seeing the event address and details, his eyes lit up.

"This damn system has finally given me some useful functions. Although I may not be able to get much benefit from it, it's at least much faster than picking up money every day. And winning this kind of competition probably isn't too difficult."

With that thought in mind, he opened the website and began trying to register for the competition. It was a boxing match registration form. All participants had to meet one condition: apart from basic prosthetics for their eyes, they could not have any other prosthetics installed on their bodies and had to participate in the competition using purely natural human bodies.

In other words, it's a very retro boxing match. Generally, matches like this aren't very popular because they lack sufficient violence and visual stimulation. The most popular matches are those featuring top-tier modified warriors who rely on their incredibly strong bodies in bloody battles.

But there are always exceptions, and this is one of them. The prize money for the competition he's signing up for is quite high. Because fighting with pure flesh and blood is an expensive sport that only nobles can afford. This is because daily life in this world is almost inseparable from cybernetic bodies; almost no one can live without some form of physical modification. Not buying any cybernetic body is essentially equivalent to being disabled in this society.

Once a prosthetic body is replaced, it is very difficult to retain one's own flesh and blood body. It will either be sold to people who need organ and limb transplants, or it will be discarded because it has no value.

Even if you wanted to keep it as a memento, you could only put it in the refrigerator at home. Under such conditions, even if the limbs appear to be well-preserved, the internal tissues would have already decomposed due to freezing, making transplantation impossible.

Only by paying an extremely expensive storage fee can a hospital be commissioned to place a limb into a life support device, simulating the living environment inside the human body to maintain the limb's activity. Electrical signals are used to stimulate the limb to move regularly, ensuring that it can adapt quickly after re-transplantation and reinstallation.

This is a surgery that only truly wealthy people are qualified to undergo; even the average rich person cannot afford it.

That is why this sport is called an aristocratic sport. Only true nobles are entitled to replace their own flesh and blood bodies when they need to, and have the time to train their bodies to make them strong and powerful.

This is similar to the early 21st century, where many poor people were obese, while the rich were relatively thin or had better physiques. It's not like before, when the poor were thin due to hunger, and only the wealthy could afford to gain weight.

That's because in that era, poor people could only be busy with work and had no time or money to spend on fitness and body control.

Wealthy people actually have more time and energy to manage their physique, making themselves healthier and more attractive.

The same is true in this era. The price to pay for possessing a powerful physical body is not something ordinary people can afford.

It's simply impossible for them to exercise with their own bodies. Without prosthetics, they can't participate in work, compete with colleagues, or earn money. They'd struggle to even make ends meet, let alone have the time, money, or energy to exercise their own flesh and blood.

This is precisely why participating in fighting tournaments using only one's own flesh and blood is a game that only the truly wealthy can afford to enjoy.

However, it wasn't entirely devoid of ordinary people who participated. This competition is quite famous; historically, a poor boy from the city center, through sheer grit and determination, along with his naturally excellent physical abilities, broke into the top 10 and won a million-dollar prize. His inspiring story was even made into a movie, earning him many tears.

But those in the know are well aware that the poor kid's entry into the top 10 was entirely due to the organizers' manipulation, deliberately giving him a good result for marketing purposes. The real goal was to use this true story to make a movie and rake in box office revenue.

This is also one of the collaborative projects with the event organizers. The film attracted a steady stream of ordinary people to sign up for the competition, significantly increasing its popularity. As for the real winners in the competition, they are still the top billionaires. For the entertainment of the wealthy, there naturally needs to be enough ordinary people to participate as mere spectators.

As for professional athletes specifically trained for competitions, they do exist. Not everyone is willing to personally step into the ring and experience the visceral feeling of hand-to-hand combat. Some people simply retain their own flesh and blood bodies as a backup, while most use more convenient mechanical prosthetics. Watching competitions is their entertainment. They train professional athletes, much like racehorses on a racetrack. Each racehorse is worth millions, and the bets placed on them in each race are also in the tens of thousands, but they themselves are nothing more than racehorses.

Those painstakingly honed muscles can only be effective on the field. In real life, their abilities are probably inferior to those of ordinary people. After all, anyone with a prosthetic body can easily unleash lasers from their fingers capable of cutting through steel. No matter how well-trained their bodies are, they are meaningless in this world where there are almost no supernatural factors.

However, the future of these professional players is not necessarily bright. If they have a smooth journey and keep winning matches, then everything is fine. Wealth and glory are within their grasp, and they can easily become stars in the public eye.

But losing a match often means serious physical damage. These fighting competitions don't adhere to the Olympic spirit; they don't restrict striking certain parts of the body or using certain techniques. Injuries are often severe and difficult to treat.

If an injury impacts their career and causes their performance to decline, they'll be like a horse that twists its ankle on the track, instantly transforming from a multi-million dollar treasure into worthless trash. After all, their only remaining value in life is winning the game.

Mo Chengzi estimated his own weight. Based on his height and weight, he would need to compete in the 70kg category. Looking at the contestants' muscular and streamlined physiques, he knew that they were more agile and powerful than him.

However, after watching a few matches, he breathed a sigh of relief: "The level of competitive fighting in this world is still far behind. Let alone mastering the techniques of using human electrical energy to directly output electric shocks, or advanced techniques like shield parrying, they can't even simply mobilize the utilization rate of their muscles to over 95%."

If professional players are only this good, then I might actually make it to the finals. But knowing how this world works, there will definitely be rich guys in the finals, and their skill level is far beyond that of ordinary professional players. And nobody said biotechnology was banned in the competition; these guys are all possessed by the power of nine dragons.

His advanced technology and ruthless skills would make him a formidable opponent, even if one lacked athletic prowess. The biggest problem, however, is that if he were to seriously injure someone, even if he won the match, the rich man's vengeance would be a serious concern.

[To be continued]

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