Walking with a titanium spine was like learning to walk on stilts.
There was no flex. No rotation. Kieran couldn't twist his hips or roll his shoulders. Every step was a rigid, jarring thud that sent vibrations rattling up into the base of his skull. He didn't walk like a man anymore; he stalked like a rusted animatronic.
"Your gait is asymmetrical," Spam commented, hovering backward to watch Kieran limp through the darkness. "You look like a zombie with a rod up its... exhaust port."
"I feel surprisingly stable," Kieran grunted.
He ignored the agony in his right shoulder. His human right arm was a dead weight, swinging uselessly at his side. The bone was pulverized, the flesh turning a sickly shade of purple-black. It was necrotic. It was dying attached to him.
"Any signal?" Kieran asked, scanning the trash heaps with his glowing violet eye.
"I am detecting a high-grade energy signature ahead," Spam replied. "But Kieran, look at your Integrity. You are at 3%. If you stub your toe, you will crash to desktop."
"Then I won't stub my toe."
Kieran stepped over a pool of bubbling green acid. The Undercroft was getting denser. The piles of trash were replaced by the carcasses of industrial machinery—massive gears the size of houses, conveyor belts that stretched into the gloom, and hydraulic presses that had been discarded for being too violent.
CLANG. HISS. CLANG.
A rhythmic sound echoed from the darkness ahead.
Kieran stopped. He crouched—a stiff, awkward motion that required him to bend entirely at the knees.
In a clearing ahead, illuminated by the flickering light of a dying plasma lamp, was a machine.
[Entity: Compactor Unit (Model: Crush-40).] [Status: Glitched / Looping.] [Danger: High.]
It was a hulking, gorilla-like construct made of yellow industrial steel, rusted to a dull brown. It had no head, just a sensor array embedded in its chest. Its left arm was a flat steel plate.
But its right arm...
Kieran's eyes locked onto it.
The right arm was a massive, industrial Hydraulic Piston. It ended in a three-pronged claw capable of crushing diamonds. The hydraulics hissed with pressurized power, extending and retracting as the machine mindlessly picked up scraps of metal and crushed them into cubes.
Grab. Squeeze. Cube. Drop.
It was stuck in a logic loop, performing its task for no one.
"That's it," Kieran whispered. The hunger in his voice was terrifying. He wasn't looking at a monster. He was looking at a spare parts catalog.
"That piston is rated for 50 tons of pressure," Spam warned. "It is driven by a chaotic mana-engine. If you try to graft that onto your nervous system, the feedback alone will fry your brain."
"My brain is already fried," Kieran muttered. "Look at the hydraulics, Spam. Look at the reach."
He looked down at his own broken, purple arm.
"It's an upgrade."
Kieran stood up. He didn't bother stealth. With his titanium spine, he couldn't sneak if he wanted to.
He stepped into the light.
"Hey! Heavy Metal!"
The Compactor Unit paused mid-crush. Its chest sensor spun, focusing a red laser grid onto Kieran.
[Obstruction Detected.] [Material: Organic Waste.] [Protocol: COMPACT.]
The machine roared—a sound of grinding gears and venting steam. It turned, abandoning its pile of scrap, and charged.
It was fast for a bulldozer. The ground shook with every step.
"Dodge!" Spam shrieked.
Kieran tried. He really did. He mentally commanded his legs to sidestep.
But his spine didn't bend.
Instead of a smooth dodge, Kieran just... leaned. The lack of flexibility cost him a fraction of a second.
The Compactor's flat left arm swung like a wrecking ball.
WHAM.
It clipped Kieran's shoulder.
Even a glancing blow felt like getting hit by a car. Kieran was spun around, his metal feet skidding across the oil-slicked floor. He slammed into a rusted generator, denting the casing with his new metal back.
[Damage: 1.] [Integrity: 2%.]
"Okay," Kieran wheezed, spitting blood. "No dodging. Taking notes."
The Compactor raised its right arm—the Piston Claw. It primed the hydraulics. HISSSS.
It punched.
The piston shot forward with explosive speed.
Kieran didn't try to dodge this time. He raised his left arm—the Iron Skin graft he had taken from the crab.
He caught the claw.
CRUNCH.
Metal shrieked against metal. The Compactor's claw closed around Kieran's forearm, squeezing with 50 tons of pressure. Kieran's iron plating groaned, sparks showering down as the metal buckled but held.
Kieran was pushed back, his heels digging furrows into the concrete. He was locked in a test of strength with a machine ten times his weight.
"Deconstruct!" Kieran yelled, pumping violet light into his arm.
[Error.] [Target Too Complex.] [Insufficient Throughput.]
"Damn it!"
The Compactor lifted Kieran into the air and slammed him into the ground.
SMASH.
Kieran's vision blurred. The breath left his body.
The Compactor raised its flat arm to finish him off. It was going to flatten him like a pancake.
"Kieran! Do something!"
Kieran looked at his right arm. His broken, human arm. It was pinned under the Compactor's heavy tread.
He realized something.
He couldn't fight with one arm. He was unbalanced. And he couldn't get close enough to the Compactor's core while he was defending himself.
He needed to trade.
Kieran looked at the Compactor. He looked at the Piston Arm.
"Spam," Kieran said, his voice eerily calm amidst the violence. "Ready the Patch script."
"What? Now?!"
"Now."
The Compactor brought its flat arm down.
Kieran didn't block. He rolled.
But he didn't roll completely. He left his broken right arm behind.
SQUELCH.
The Compactor's arm slammed down, crushing Kieran's right forearm into paste against the concrete.
Kieran didn't scream. The arm was already numb. It was just meat.
He activated [Deconstruct].
[Target: Self (Right Humerus).]
He didn't deconstruct the enemy. He deconstructed his own bone.
With a sickening pop, his arm detached just above the elbow. A spray of dark blood painted the Compactor's chassis.
Kieran was free.
He rolled underneath the Compactor's guard, leaving his crushed arm trapped under the machine's fist.
He stood up—rigid, bloody, and one-armed.
"Surprise," Kieran hissed.
He was inside the Compactor's reach. The machine was confused; its sensors registered that it had pinned the target, but the target was moving.
Kieran jammed his left metal hand directly into the Compactor's "armpit"—the joint where the Piston Arm connected to the torso.
[Scavenger's Eye: Active.] [Weak Point Detected: Hydraulic Coupler.]
"Mine."
Kieran didn't try to destroy the arm. He tried to disconnect it.
He ripped the code.
[Skill: Deconstruct (Sever Connection).]
A massive spray of hydraulic fluid erupted from the joint, coating Kieran in hot, oily slime. The Piston Arm went limp, dangling by a few wires.
The Compactor roared in mechanical agony, spinning around, flailing its remaining arm.
Kieran didn't back off. He jumped.
He grabbed the dangling Piston Arm with his legs, wrapping them around the heavy metal cylinder. He grabbed the severed wires with his left hand.
"Spam! Run the Patch!"
"You're going to graft a 200-pound industrial piston to a raw stump?!" Spam screamed. "You'll die of shock!"
"DO IT!"
Kieran shoved the jagged, severed end of the Piston Arm directly into the bloody stump of his right shoulder.
[Script: PATCH (v.1.1)] [Target: Right Brachial Plexus.] [Material: Crush-40 Hydraulic Actuator.] [Compatibility: 12%.] [Forcing Integration...]
The pain was not of this world.
If the spine felt like fire, this felt like a supernova.
The violet light exploded from Kieran's shoulder. The System forced the massive machine part to bond with Kieran's flesh. Nerves lashed out, seeking purchase in the cold steel. Veins spliced themselves into fuel lines. Bone fused with titanium bolts.
Kieran's vision went white.
[Integrity: 1%... 0.5%... 0.1%...]
The Compactor grabbed Kieran—who was currently stapled to its own severed arm—and threw him.
Kieran flew across the room, the heavy Piston Arm now dragging him down. He slammed into a pile of scrap.
Silence.
The Compactor loomed over him, raising its remaining flat arm for the final kill.
Kieran lay in the trash. Smoke rose from his shoulder. The smell of ozone and cooked meat was overpowering.
[Integration Complete.] [New Limb Acquired: Hydraulic Piston Arm.] [Strength +25.]
The Compactor brought its fist down.
CLANG.
It stopped.
The Compactor's fist didn't hit Kieran. It hit a three-pronged metal claw.
Kieran lay on his back. His new right arm—a massive, yellow-and-rust industrial piston that was longer than his entire body—was extended upward. He had caught the attack.
Steam hissed from the vents in Kieran's new shoulder.
Kieran opened his eyes. The violet rim was brighter now.
"Compatibility 12%?" Kieran rasped. He grinned, and blood leaked between his teeth. "Good enough."
He triggered the hydraulics.
KA-CHUNK.
The piston retracted and then fired.
It wasn't a punch. It was a pile driver.
Kieran's new fist shot upward, shattering the Compactor's flat arm. It continued upward, smashing into the Compactor's chest sensor.
CRUNCH.
The machine was lifted off its feet. The force of the blow caved in its entire chassis. It flew backward, crashing into the acid pool.
[Target Neutralized.] [Data Absorbed: 50 Bytes.] [Integrity Restored: 0.1% -> 15%.]
Kieran lay there for a moment, listening to the hiss of his new arm. It was heavy. It was ugly. It was magnificent.
He sat up. The piston arm dragged on the ground, scraping sparks. It was too big for him. He looked like a fiddler crab made of nightmares.
"You look..." Spam floated down, his blue light scanning the monstrous limb. "Like a construction vehicle had a baby with a corpse."
Kieran stood up. He flexed his right shoulder. The piston hissed, the claw opening and closing with a menacing click-clack.
"I look like the future," Kieran said.
He walked over to the acid pool where the Compactor was dissolving. He didn't care about the loot. He cared about the fuel.
He plunged his new claw into the wreckage and ripped out the chaotic mana-engine.
"Time to eat," Kieran said.
[Objective Updated: Survive Layer 0.] [Current Status: 15% Cyborg.] [Weapon Acquired: The Crusher.]