Chapter 36: Mara's Gene Clinic

Amber turned to see me coming out from behind my cover, giving me a nod of acknowledgement before holstering her pistols.

She then went up to knock against the graille that was littered with bullets imprinted on the metal, most likely the source of the gunshots that we first heard.

I'm guessing those thugs tried to literally shoot their way in.

"Mara?! Mara!! Are you ok?!"

A feminine voice came from what I assume to be an intercom at the side, "Amber? Didn't think you're still around. Are those assholes dealt with?"

"No, they're holding me hostage and demanding you to open up or they'll shoot me in the head," Amber drawled sarcastically. "Of course I dealt with them. Who do you think I am?"

"Hmph… That attitude of yours is going to land you in trouble one day, you're always--"

"Yeah, yeah. How about you open up first before you lecture me instead of doing it over the intercom?"

A grunt came from the speaker before the metal graille started to retract back into the ceiling.

As the door opened, a young woman with long, brown hair and cherry red lips appeared wearing a doctor's coat.

I'm gonna guess that this woman is Mara.

She looked at Amber with an expressionless face, "So you're really still alive huh? I'd thought how you disappeared for so long without even sending me a message that you already died in a ditch somewhere."

Amber grinned, "Right, I'll remember to send a postcard next time I got pinned down by some fucker in a power armour shooting at me with a minigun."

"What are you… You're serious? Hmph… This is what you get for always rushing into things."

"Hey! It's different now, I have a partner!"

Amber gestured in my direction and the doctor turned to narrow her eyes at me.

I thought she would say something snarky too but surprisingly, her features softened, "Apologies, I did not see you there. I'm Mara, what's your name?"

"Umm… Hello, I'm Tera. Nice to meet you."

She nodded before turning back to Amber, "She's too good for you."

Instead of objecting, Amber actually laughed, "I know right?! I think I used up my entire life's worth of luck just to be able to meet her!"

Mara sighed, "Tera, if this woman is blackmailing or threatening you, just let me know, I'll deal with her."

"Hey, hey! I did no such thing! I can be charming if I want to!"

"Mmhmm… With how many people you used to beat up and--"

"Ahhhhh!! That did not happen!! You shut up, Mara!"

"Oh? Talking back to me now huh? Did you think you're some big shot now that you're a Gold ranked Merc?"

"Ugh… I just saved your ass back there didn't I?"

Mara shrugged, "Not really, I just didn't want their blood in my clinic, otherwise I'd just let them in and kill them here instead."

"Still did the job, you owe the both of us."

Mara rolled her eyes and brought up her personal terminal to give it a few taps.

A short while later, a notification appeared on my Codex and I tapped on it to display it in front of me.

'Hustle Complete. 5000 Credits Transferred.'

Oh wow, five thousand each just for that? All I did was shoot two guys though? I don't think I should receive that much since Amber did most of the work here…

Mara then returned back to scowling at Amber, "So what did you really come here for? I doubt you would run all the way here just because I sent out that job request."

"Ah yeah… We're looking for some gene mods."

Mara blinked, "You? But didn't you say that you never want to mod yourself again?"

Oh, that's something I didn't know about her. Perhaps I'll ask her about it later?

Amber jerked her thumb in my direction, "I'm not the one getting the mods."

"Ah, I see," Mara nodded in understanding. "So you're looking for some Gene mods, Tera? You're in luck because it seems like recent events have ensured that my schedule is free for the rest of the day."

And as if to make sure I knew exactly which event she was referring to, she even nodded at the dead bodies that now littered outside her store.

She then gestured inside her store and we followed her in.

Despite how it looked like from the outside, the interior of the clinic was actually clean and immaculate.

It definitely wasn't on the level of a high class hotel or even a first class hospital, but it was still a well furnished and clean clinic.

The place we stepped into should be the waiting room, seeing that there was a row of chairs and a counter with two chairs facing it. The door at the back should lead to the doctor's office or whatever they call it.

But that wasn't the first thing I noticed though… The first thing I noticed were the three ceiling mounted machine gun turrets currently tracking me.

"Ah, sorry about that," Mara apologised, tapping on her personal terminal to return the turrets back into the ceiling to hide themselves from view.

"Having them out all the time would make customers nervous," She explained without me asking her about it.

She continued inside the clinic to take a seat behind the counter, gesturing at the two chairs in front of her.

"Since when do you work the counters?" Amber asked, taking a seat despite her question.

"As you can see, I had to give my receptionist the day off today or else I'd have to pay her for an entire day where no work is done."

"Wait, you expected this to happen already?"

"Of course, what do you think my second profession is?"

"Right… Information broker… Is that also the reason why you were targeted?"

"Hmph, if they didn't want people to know about where they kept their drugs, then maybe they shouldn't brag about it out in the streets. It didn't even need to be me who told others about it either, so they have no one to blame except for themselves."

Amber scoffed, "And you claim that I'm the rash one."

Mara pointed at the ceiling then at the door, "I am prepared. But you are not."

Amber grumbled but didn't say anything back. Instead, she simply leaned back in her chair and rested her feet on the table.

Mara ignored her as though she had seen her do that before and simply turned to address me, her demeanour already softening the moment she turned.

"Now, Tera, is there any specific mod you are looking for? I take it that you are a Merc so are you looking for something that would grant you an edge in combat? I have the latest EBD to enhance your bone density; the newly released MGE that allows you to possess a magnetic grip; or maybe you're looking for an SBO injection?"

I have absolutely no idea what those abbreviations meant but I at least know that they weren't anything I was looking for so I just went ahead and said it.

"I want a dick."

To her credit, Mara only blinked once before switching her sales pitch. In fact, she even went as far as to wave her hand over the counter to prompt several screens to pop up in front of me.

"I see. In that case, what type are you looking for? We have gene mods that can give you any kind of shape, size and colour you want. There's the human one, the horse one, there's also the Inucanis and Maochatte ones if you want them."

The screens in front of me were then filled with pictures and descriptions of various different shaped penises.

Each one even had a sensitivity and overall compatibility rating beside them, as though someone had gone ahead to test them out themselves.

"Err… The human one?" I told her, now feeling a little unsure because of all the options listed in front of me.

Heck, there was even one that could change it into a prehensile tentacle penis. Like… You can actually lengthen, shorten and wriggle it however you like kind of tentacle penis…

That honestly intrigued me for a moment but I decided that I should just go vanilla for now and maybe think about it later on if this ever comes up again.

For now, just get me a normal dick.

Mara nodded as though she had expected that choice, "Alright. Do you want a template or do you want a custom one?"

I raised an eyebrow, "What's the difference?"

"A template one would just make you grow the same penis as the one in the picture. If you want a custom one, you can make it however you like and I will splice the mod that would make you grow the exact same penis you have designed down to the last detail. The first option I could just give you a pill for it right now and you will get it immediately. The second one would be more expensive and it will take some time for me to splice together."

"Err… How much more expensive and how long will it take?"

"Depending on your choices, it could go from fifty thousand to five hundred thousand or more."

Ok… Still within my budget so this is fine. In fact, it's cheaper than I feared it would be but more expensive than I hoped.

"Are Gene mods like this usually this expensive?" I asked.

She smiled slightly, "Custom mods are usually five to ten times more expensive and what you want is more of a luxury item than a practical one, thus the price."

I see…

Oh well, since we're already here anyway, let's just place an order for one first.

I nodded at her to show that I would be fine with the custom choice and she waved her hand over the counter again.

The screens changed to show me even more options, even more than what you would normally see in a character creation screen.

This is going to take a while…

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Draekai

Captain's Log:

I wonder just how far you can go with Gene mods? It sounds like there's some rather crazy combinations out there if you really want to go all in on it.

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