NOVEL SIMPLE I'm Just Browsing Mods
So I have come to one conclusion after scrolling through the catalogue…
If you have enough money, you would be able to buy power in this universe, both in the literal and metaphorical sense.
Like seriously, for a few hundred thousand Credits, you get to give yourself enough strength to punch through steel plates.
Sounds too good to be true? That's because it is.
That gene mod only enhances your muscles to be able to have the strength to punch through it but you would need to give yourself enhanced bones and skin in order to not take damage from the punch as well.
So if you want the full package of having super strength without hurting yourself, that would be at least a few million Credits.
The good thing is that this pretty much only applies to combat gene mods.
There's primarily two categories that gene mods are placed in. The first are the Combat Mods which I've been looking through so far. The second is known as Vanity Mods which are things like the one that gave me my dick.
Essentially, Vanity Mods are mostly mods that serve to change people's appearances like changing your hair colour for example.
Incidentally, gene mods that change your appearances drastically like making you a centaur is also classified as a Vanity Mod.
Then you have gene mods that let you grow things like spikes and such which Mara helpfully told me that it would depend on the length to decide if it was classified as a Vanity or Combat Mod where you might need some additional mods to make sure you don't kill yourself with it.
I asked Mara if this was actually done on purpose so that Gene Splicers, which is the term used to call doctors specialising in gene mods, could get as much money out of their patients as possible.
Her response was to give me a wry smile and told me that I could get a discount from her if I saw any mods I fancied.
I'll take that as a yes then…
I then wondered why wouldn't Gen Splicers use the gene mods on themselves to turn into unkillable superhumans?
Mara then went ahead to bring up some articles that have been published online where there were people who literally exploded for apparently no reason. Later articles even started reporting on how people suddenly went insane or even transformed into monsters and started attacking everyone and everything around them.
Then scrolling further, it was revealed that there was some kind of threshold for living things on how much they could mod themselves.
If one tries to mod themselves too much, you might just explode without warning, go insane, or get mutated into a mindless monster.
Ironically, because of this, there's more rich people who lose their lives because of their greed for power, according to her. Since there wasn't really a way to check what your threshold is.
And because of that, Mara admitted that she doesn't have any gene mods on her either.
Looking through the list, I asked Mara about any mods that I found interesting so that she could tell me more about them.
"What's this one?"
"This one basically allows you to generate bio-electricity on the surface of your body. The first dose would be more like a static electrical shock while subsequent doses would increase the charge of it."
"Can I shoot lightning out of my fingertips then?"
She smiled and scrolled down further, "That would be this mod over here. Though I have to say that most people can only handle two doses at maximum before their heads explode. And two doses of this is basically a stun gun."
Bleh… While I admit that might be useful in certain situations, it wouldn't really be something I would risk my head exploding over…
"Ok… What about this one?"
"Reinforced tendons. You'd be able to jump higher and also fall from a greater height safely. Increased doses let you jump higher and fall further."
That actually sounds useful so I'll keep that in mind I guess?
"What about this one?" I pointed at the next one.
"Ah… I don't recommend this one. It drastically enhances your body's hardness when you tense up to the point that a metal bar being slammed against your back might end up breaking the bar instead while you feel absolutely nothing."
"Err… That sounds nice too? So why don't you recommend it?"
"Some people have trouble turning back and there's cases of people who end up being permanently stuck in that position since… Fufu, if your body gets too hard, you can't move either."
Oh wow… Ok then…
I won't even ask why she would still list something as defective as that in her catalogue…
I looked through the rest of the catalogue but found nothing else that caught my attention.
Well, I've already noted down quite a number of gene mods that I found interesting on my Codex and I was planning to look through them and decide if I actually want to go through with modding myself like that tonight.
And by that, I meant talking to the girls about it so that I can get their opinions about it too.
Since Mara had told me there was a limit to how many mods a person could take, I don't want to just mod myself without considering my options.
What's more… They are still really expensive… Even with Mara's discount…
I handed the personal terminal back to Mara before letting out a sigh, "Seems like there's still so many things I don't know…"
Mara raised an eyebrow at me, "Have you not gone to an Archive? I'd think that you could quite easily find information like this there and have it inserted inside your head."
"Mmm… That's the problem… The Archive's capsules don't seem to work on me. So I can't use them and have to learn things the old fashioned way."
She paused and I could see her eyes widen considerably when she heard my words.
Wait… I didn't tell her about that? Guess I forgot.
"Does Amber know about this?" She asked.
"Yeah… She was there when I found out about this. Like she brought me to the Archives for me to test it out but all that happened was me lying down inside the pod, seeing a sort of movie play out in front of me and that was it. I had no new knowledge or information whatsoever."
Mara frowned, "And what was her reaction to this?"
"Err… She was just as confused as I was… And said that she doesn't know any other cases like mine…"
"Did she really say that?"
"Umm… I think her exact words were that there were no other cases within this station? I don't really remember…"
"I see…"
"Is it because I'm missing something? Like maybe… I dunno… Everyone in this universe getting some kind of implant or gene mod when they're born which I wasn't?"
She gave me an odd look.
Oh… Right… I haven't told her yet…
Well, I trust her enough to tell her so I guess let's just tell her about my real background of being someone from another universe.
…
It only took me a few minutes to tell her since this was my third time telling someone about my background and Mara listened to my entire story without interrupting.
When I was done, she nodded at me silently, "I see… This… Actually explains some things…"
I was just about to ask her what it explains when she gave me a serious look, "Tera… Have you experienced any weird things? Like weird feelings where you might feel dizzy for no reason or maybe even see things that don't actually exist?"
"Err… Are you asking if I'm possessed and see spirits or something?"
"Not exactly. But have you seen anything weird at all?"
"Umm… Not that I remember, no."
She leaned forward slightly, "Not even the dizziness?"
"No instances of that which I remember either…"
"Hmm… Interesting… Could you follow me for a moment, Tera?"
She stood up and beckoned to me which I agreed to so I followed after her.
Mara led me to the back and directed me to lie down on her medical chair.
Huh… Does she want to do a medical checkup on me or something? I guess I don't mind…
I laid down on the chair and she took out some kind of headgear to put on top of my head.
Mara then went out of my sight though I could hear her moving behind me.
I wanted to turn around to look but a stern "Don't move" made me stop.
She then came back in front of me and tapped on her personal terminal before taking out a weird handheld scanner that she used to scan me.
It made some beeping sounds which made Mara frown noticeably.
She looked at her terminal, then at me, before turning back to look at her personal terminal.
She switched off the scanner and raised a finger, "Wait here. Don't get out of that chair."
I watched as the doctor left the operating room and closed the door behind her.
Err… Should I be worried?