"You'd better stay in bed for a while."

"It's fine. Can you give me a cane? ”

The prosthetic doctor handed her crutches and lifted Zhuang Hee up from the ground.

"These removed prostheses are sent to your home?"

"Send to this address. Thank you. ”

Zhuang Xi registered his address on the interface, took his clothes, and walked out of the operating room on crutches against the wall.

"How long will it take to return the hospital gown and crutches?"

"The gown is disposable, and the crutches can be returned at any time when you recover."

"Hmm."

She didn't have much strength to speak, and quietly walked through the corridor to leave the clinic.

The next day, the debt collection agency received a box of beautiful prosthetics with blood stains.

————————

Dancer Hikora is the target product of the project project in which Zhuang Xi participated, and is a third-generation bionic dancer.

The core business goal of Muse Media is to be an artificial muse. "Thephikola", the muse of dance and chorus, is also the name of the project she is involved in.

There are more than 60 people in the entire project team, and a third of them are dancers like her.

She signed a non-disclosure agreement not to divulge project information.

When he signed the contract four years ago, he didn't look too closely and didn't quite understand the actual meaning of some of the terms.

Anyway, you have to sign anyway, and refusing to cooperate is tantamount to giving up resource allocation.

The contract allows the company to send a technician to collect all the data on her body for the research and development of the bionic dancer Hicora, and the collected data is in the possession of the company.

The technician fitted a monitoring chip into her prosthetic body and implanted a tiny motion-capping machine under the skin to collect various body samples of her.

Zhuang Xi endured for nearly a year in a state of no privacy to speak of, and had to receive psychological counseling on schedule because of physical and mental discomfort.

The same goes for the other dancers involved in the project.

But that's just the beginning. After being tested, Hikora was a great success after her official debut, easily winning the first place in the dance audition.

The audience simply didn't discern the nature of her android. Hikora's training was so perfect that she could even mimic innocuous mistakes.

Designed after world-class dancers, she used thousands of dancers' movements and millions of audience feedbacks, and the model was trained using massive data from more than 20 talented dancers.

Zhuang Xi is the heart of Hikola's model, and the two are similar in appearance and movement, but Hikola's technique is much more detailed than hers.

The project team is working overtime to develop B, C, D, and more versions of the model, i.e., the Hicola with different tendencies.

And new dancers are constantly joining the Tepsikola program to provide more training data.

Zhuang Xi often dreamed of Hikora, dozens or hundreds of Hikora.

She could see the similarities between them and her friends and colleagues, but she couldn't tell them apart.

Those delicate and immaculate faces were indistinguishable from humans, but they woke her up in fear.

She dreamed of the bionic dancer pounced on her, tearing at her skin and eating her flesh.

After the nightmare lasted for a while, when Zhuang Xi practiced in front of the mirror, he recognized the person in the mirror as Hikora and smashed the mirror in horror. That was her first panic attack.

Two months ago, the agent handed her a new contract to work on another product project.

This time she looked closely. It is also to collect data and authorize companies to use the data to develop several other products, including games, dream shadows, virtual girlfriends, adult toys, and so on.

Zhuang Xi finally broke out. Instead of signing the contract, she stabbed the project director in the shoulder with a fruit knife and smashed the bridge of the nose with her fist.

The price was two weeks in prison at the Sheriff's Office, and 150,000 yuan in compensation for medical and cosmetic surgery expenses.

It was the people of Muse Media who fished her out in advance, hoping that she would realize her mistakes and continue to play a role for the company.

Zhuang Xi didn't realize it, so he ate another half a month in prison. He left a criminal record, added a three-month probationary period, and was kicked out of the company.

Therefore, now is really not a good time for classmates to meet and catch up.

After leaving the clinic, it took her two days to regain her basic mobility and she could walk upright on crutches.

I don't know when this body will be able to dance again. It may never be recovered.

Zhuang Xi struggled to change into dark trousers and a long-sleeved shirt, then put on a long trench coat, and took a cane to prepare to go out.

She really hates no-shows. I've already missed an appointment once, and this time I'll have to go anyway. I knew I should have said no in the first place.

On what grounds... Let's just say I was hit by a car.

Zhuang Xi got off at the corner of the street not far from the café. A bunch of warning messages pop up in the account, the limit is overdrawn, and if you don't repay within 24 hours, it will be frozen.

She walked to the café on crutches, and saw Bai Zhe waiting from a few tens of meters away, and saw him with a bandage on his left arm.

She later heard from her classmates that Bai Zhe was a NEIR patient and went to the border area shortly after graduation. He must have been tired of living a long life.

Hell, what the hell are you doing, and what are you hoping for......

She couldn't dance at all. Even if she can recover, as long as the company does not allow it, it is almost impossible for her to perform in public.

Almost all the performance data has been handed over to the company, and now it all belongs to Cicora, and if she adopts a similar performance method, it will be infringed.

Zhuang Xi felt that these contract terms were absolutely unreasonable, but she did not have the capital to sue the former company.

What to talk to him about? Ask him for help and drag him into the water with him? Pray for a miracle?

She paused. His gaze seemed to meet him for a moment.

Zhuang Xi turned to the right and stepped into another street, his back against the wall, his wound stinging.

Bai Zhe did see her. Tall and with ocean-blue hair. But on crutches.

He stood up and walked briskly towards the intersection where the other man's figure had disappeared.

After Zhuang Xi missed the appointment last time, he felt that something was wrong. After learning that the other party had a falling out with the company, the sense of unease became even stronger.

Sure enough, something went wrong.

Walking around the corner, Bai Zhe saw a special shadow.

It was broken, as if it had been cut by a knife blade, and it was shrinking and wilting.

At the same time, it splits into spikes of different lengths, both inward and outward.

He looked out of the street, casually throwing the Eye of the Black Tide into the shadows. Is that you, what happened to you?

Bai Zhe stood on the street for a while, then turned to leave.

Zhuang Xi stood up from the wall and slowly walked away from the place where he went to the appointment.

[Sorry, I can't come today.] After leaving the company, there are a lot of chores to deal with, and I have no intention of participating in new projects for the time being.

[If you have any good ideas, I'll tell you online]

What a carelessness, she thought.

The prosthesis shouldn't have been dismantled so early. She still had a chance to kill the beasts that tried to devour her, but now she couldn't.

I really regret it. Should have died with them.