Malfunctioning Utopia

Chapter 48: Modifications

"Jack, can I ask you something?" AA seemed a little nervous.

"I like women. Definitely the pure kind," Jack said immediately.

"No, no, that's not it!" AA waved her hands in embarrassment. "I just wanted to ask—how much do you usually earn for a job like this?"

"Tapai and I each get 10@ per mission."

Hearing this, AA's eyes widened in shock. "That much?! No wonder you can afford organic food for breakfast!"

Noticing the envy in her tone, Jack smiled faintly and continued eating. But as he chewed, he started piecing together the deeper meaning behind her question. "Wait... are you thinking of becoming a mercenary? Don’t even think about it."

"All you see is the wolf eating meat—you don’t see the wolf getting beaten. This job’s no joke; you’re always one step away from death," Jack warned.

"I’m not planning on doing this forever. Once Tapai and I save up enough, we’re out of here."

"You’ve got those 3@ from today. Use this chance to find a more stable job," Jack suggested sincerely.

AA stopped eating, her head drooping low. "But... do you really think I can find another job? I’ve been looking for so long… and nobody will hire me…"

Jack reached out and gave her a light hug. Honestly, he didn’t know what advice to give her—he couldn’t even find a job himself.

AA lifted her head, looking at Jack earnestly. "I’m not useless, you know. I’ve got a master’s degree in engineering!"

"I was always the top of my class!" she added proudly.

"With grades like that, how come you can’t find work?" Jack asked, genuinely puzzled.

The light in AA’s eyes dimmed almost instantly. "I don’t know. I mean, isn’t studying supposed to help you find a job?"

Talking about this seemed to hit a sore spot. AA’s mood dropped sharply, and Jack decided to change the subject.

"A master’s in engineering, huh? So, can you whip up a nuke by hand?" Jack teased, taking a sip of water.

"Sure!" AA replied cheerfully, almost making Jack choke.

"Give me enough nuclear material, and I can calculate the critical point for nuclear fission. I even did it as a project back in school."

"Times have really changed, man," Tapai quipped sarcastically from the wall.

Jack quickly understood. Back in his day, nukes were the pinnacle of weaponry. But now, in this high-tech era, making nukes had become just another student assignment.

Of course, knowing how to make a nuke didn’t mean much—nuclear materials were tightly controlled by corporations.

"Even so, you can’t become a mercenary. At most, we kill one or two people. We don’t exactly need a nuke for that," Jack said dryly.

Hearing this, AA seemed to finally give up on the idea. She sighed deeply, her head hanging low again.

Looking at her dejected figure, Jack suddenly had an idea. "If you’re an engineer, can you modify my prosthetics to work offline and only respond manually?"

AA’s eyes lit up instantly. "Turn it into a purely mechanical system? Of course I can! That’s super easy!"

"Really? Then help me out, and I’ll pay you by the hour." After today’s experience, Jack realized that smarter wasn’t always better. If someone hacked into his prosthetics, even the best ones would become useless scrap.

Sure, he could upgrade his neural system’s firewall to make hacking harder. But how much would he need to spend on an endless arms race? It made more sense to just ditch the whole networked system.

"Deal! I’ll head home to grab my tools!" AA said, practically leaping to her feet.

"In the middle of the night? Are you trying to get yourself killed? Get some sleep first; we’ll deal with it tomorrow." Jack burped and started packing up the leftovers to put back in the fridge.

As Jack headed to his room, he noticed AA lying under a blanket, quietly giggling to herself. She seemed genuinely thrilled at the chance to use her skills.

Jack had a fantastic second sleep that night. By the time he woke up, it was already 9 a.m.

When he opened his bedroom door, he found the couch neatly made, but AA was gone.

"Tapai, where is she?" Jack asked.

"She left early. Said she was going to grab her tools to modify your prosthetics."

Before Jack could respond, there was a knock at the door. "Jack! Tapai! I’m back!"

When Jack opened the door, he saw AA standing there with a giant bag of tools slung over her shoulder. She wore a battered old pair of goggles perched crookedly on her head.

She smiled brightly, her eyes sparkling. Jack thought she looked far more vibrant than the first time he’d met her.

"How can someone with that kink look so pretty?" Jack muttered to himself as he let her in.

AA eagerly dumped her bag on the table, revealing a chaotic assortment of metal tools. "Jack, take off your prosthetics! Let me get started!"

Looking at her youthful face, Jack hesitated. "Are you sure you can handle this? Don’t wreck it."

"Of course I can! Besides, this isn’t even that hard," AA said confidently.

Grabbing Jack’s prosthetic arm, AA’s demeanor shifted instantly. Her face grew serious, intensely focused. She pulled out various tools from her pockets and started dismantling the prosthetic with lightning speed.

Watching her skilled hands at work, Jack couldn’t help but believe her. "Where’d you learn all this?"

"At school."

"You were broke, but you still managed to afford school?" Jack asked, genuinely curious.

"I took out student loans. I’ve been paying them back ever since I graduated," AA explained as she worked.

Hearing this, something clicked for Jack. "When you mentioned your debt before, was that the student loan?"

"No. It’s also the birth and upbringing loan—principal and interest. I wasn’t born naturally; I came from a birthing factory. That’s why I told you I don’t have a family."

"A birthing… factory?" Jack was stunned.

His neural system immediately pulled up the official website for "Birthing Factory, Inc.," plastering the screen with smiling baby faces.

According to the website, advancements in technology had led people to prioritize personal entertainment over the expense of raising children, resulting in plummeting birth rates in the Metropolis.

To combat this decline and relieve women of the "burden" of childbirth, birthing factories used artificial womb technology to produce children, ensuring a steady labor supply for corporations.

Jack couldn’t stop laughing at the site’s self-righteous slogans.

"They’ve taken exploiting the masses to the next level. If people won’t have kids, they’ll just grow their own workforce," Jack said, shaking his head.

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