210: Chapter 210 Discharge from the Hospital

The day Lin Yue was discharged from the hospital was a sunny day.

Standing at the main gate of the General Military Hospital, he looked down at his right leg.

The silver-gray prosthetic limb glinted coldly in the sunlight; as his sole stepped onto the concrete ground, the sensors on the bottom transmitted feedback about the ground's hardness.

Hard, flat, and a bit rough.

It was a marvelous feeling.

He hadn't had a right foot for two years, but now, he had one that was even more useful than his original foot.

"Try taking a few steps?" Zhao Guoqiang walked up from behind. His left arm prosthetic hung naturally at his side, the silver-gray shell forming a sharp contrast with his right arm.

He was also looking down at his own hand, his fingers clenching and unclenching with a fluid motion that didn't seem mechanical at all.

Lin Yue took a step. As his right foot hit the ground, the prosthetic's knee joint automatically adjusted its damping based on his gait, while the ankle joint provided a slight cushion the moment it touched the ground.

Every step was steady—steadier than his left foot, which still occasionally throbbed with pain from an old injury. But his right foot would never hurt.

"How is it?" Zhao Guoqiang asked.

"Steady," Lin Yue said. He stopped and performed a small hop on the spot.

The knee and ankle joints of the prosthetic exerted force simultaneously, lightly bouncing him up and catching him steadily; he didn't even wobble upon landing.

"Holy crap." Zhang Yong sat in his wheelchair, both pant legs empty, but his eyes lit up. "You can jump with that?"

"I can." Lin Yue jumped again, higher this time.

The prosthetic's response was much faster than he had anticipated; almost the instant the thought of "jumping" crossed his mind, the mechanical joints had already begun to move.

A fifteen-millisecond delay—Li Wei had mentioned that figure. He hadn't thought much of it then, but now he realized that fifteen milliseconds was faster than his own original neural reflexes.

"Stop showing off." Wang Lei walked over from behind, his right arm prosthetic hanging at his side.

He walked up to Lin Yue and also gave a little hop. His right arm swung naturally with the jump, its movement identical to his left arm.

The four of them stood at the hospital entrance, none of them moving to leave first.

"Once we're back," Zhao Guoqiang spoke up, "what's the first thing you want to do?"

"Run," Lin Yue said.

"Be serious."

"I am being serious." Lin Yue looked at him. "I haven't run in two years. I want to know what it feels like to run with this thing."

Zhao Guoqiang was stunned for a moment, then laughed. "Fair enough. I want to see if I can write with this hand. I've been a southpaw for over thirty years; suddenly switching to the right hand feels a bit strange."

"You can use both hands," Zhang Yong interjected. "They're both mechanical now anyway, so there's no difference between left and right."

"Shut up. You've lost your legs and you're still here bossing others around."

"So what if my legs are gone? Believe it or not, with these legs I have now, I can walk faster than you guys can run."

Wang Lei said nothing, merely raising his right arm to examine it against the sunlight.

The prosthetic's shell gleamed with a metallic luster under the light; there were extremely fine gaps at the finger joints, through which the precise transmission structure inside could be seen.

"Let's go back," he said.

"Not taking a car?" Lin Yue asked.

"No."

Wang Lei strode forward, his right arm swinging naturally, and the other three followed behind.

As they walked out of the hospital gates, the sentry at the entrance saluted. All four of them were momentarily stunned before Lin Yue reacted first and returned the salute.

Zhao Guoqiang and Wang Lei followed suit and saluted as well.

The sentry lowered his hand, his gaze lingering on them for a moment before shifting away.

They walked out of that long tree-lined path and onto the main road.

The sunlight was bright, making the road surface look white.

There were pedestrians, people on bicycles, and people waiting for buses on the road; some glanced at them, while others did not.

Lin Yue noticed that most of the people who looked at them had their eyes fixed on their prosthetics; the silver-gray shells were so conspicuous in the sunlight that it was hard not to notice them.

"That guy has been staring at you," Zhao Guoqiang whispered.

Lin Yue looked in the direction of his gaze. There was a young man on an electric scooter by the roadside, staring intently at his right leg while waiting for the red light.

The light turned green, but he didn't move; he was still watching.

Lin Yue stopped, turned around, and lifted his right leg toward the young man.

The young man was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and gave a thumbs-up.

As the electric scooter rode past him, he shouted, "Hey man, is that real? That's so cool!"

Lin Yue smiled, recalling what Li Wei had said: prosthetics weren't meant to look real, they were meant to be useful.

Something useful didn't need to be disguised as a human body part.

"Let's go," he said.

The sound of their footsteps and the wheelchair echoed together along the tree-lined path.

"Do you think," Zhang Yong suddenly spoke up, "this stuff will become common in the future?"

"What?" Zhao Guoqiang asked.

"I mean this kind of prosthetic—ordinary people could get them too. If you want to run fast, you get a pair of running legs; if you want strength, you get a pair of arms. Just like changing a phone case, you swap them whenever you want."

Zhao Guoqiang thought for a moment. "That depends on the price. I heard a set like this costs hundreds of thousands."

"Hundreds of thousands?" Zhang Yong clicked his tongue. "Then my pair of legs is worth a car."

"Yours are prototypes, they're free," Zhao Guoqiang said. "Once they're actually on the market, ordinary people won't be able to afford them."

"Not necessarily," Lin Yue interjected.

"Technology is always expensive at first. Mobile phones used to be expensive, but now everyone can afford them."

"Phones are phones, and prosthetics are prosthetics. How can they be the same?"

"Why aren't they?" Lin Yue said. "They're both tools."

When they reached the intersection, Lin Yue stopped and looked back at the path they had come from.

...

Meanwhile, Liu Zhiyuan carried a thick report and knocked on the door to Academician Zheng's office.

"Old Zheng, the recovery data for the first batch of five volunteers has been completely compiled."

Academician Zheng took the report and flipped to the first page.

Beneath Lin Yue's name, several rows of dense data were listed: six months post-surgery, gait parameter variance from the healthy control group was 3.7%, maximum load test passed, daily activity ability score 98/100, and psychological assessment stable.

He flipped further. Zhao Guoqiang, left arm prosthetic: grip precision variance from a healthy hand was 2.1%, capable of fine motor tasks like tying shoelaces and using chopsticks.

Zhang Yong, bilateral lower limb prosthetics: independent walking distance exceeded five kilometers, capable of climbing stairs.

Wang Lei, right arm prosthetic: capable of weight-bearing training such as pull-ups.

Sun Jianguo, left leg prosthetic: capable of jogging at a speed of eight kilometers per hour.

With every page he turned, Academician Zheng's expression softened a bit more. When he reached the end, he closed the report, took off his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Comrade Liu Zhiyuan," he said, "what is the military's assessment?"

Liu Zhiyuan stood straight. "After a comprehensive evaluation by the expert group, the recovery data for all five volunteers met or exceeded the expected targets. Not a single case of severe rejection, interface failure, or functional impairment was observed."

He paused, his voice carrying a hint of suppressed excitement. "Old Zheng, this project has exceeded all of our expectations."

Academician Zheng nodded.

"What do you intend to do?"

"Expand the cooperation," Liu Zhiyuan said. "The success of the first batch of volunteers proves that this technology already possesses clinical application value. We hope to provide prosthetic fitting services for more soldiers disabled in the line of duty. At the same time..."

He hesitated for a moment. "Initiate enhancement research for healthy soldiers."

The office fell silent for a few seconds.

Academician Zheng turned around, his gaze sharp. "Enhancement?"

"Individual soldier load-bearing, reaction speed, and environmental adaptability." Liu Zhiyuan did not avoid his gaze.

"On the future battlefield, soldiers will need greater physical capabilities. If prosthetic technology is applied to healthy populations, it could theoretically break through human physiological limits."

"How do you plan to enhance them?" Academician Zheng's voice was calm, but Liu Zhiyuan could hear the underlying weight in it.

He explained, "Exoskeletons. Not replacing original limbs, but adding an enhancement system externally. Through Neural Interfaces, soldiers can control the Exoskeleton just as they would their own limbs. This way, the native limbs are preserved while gaining extra capabilities."

Academician Zheng was silent for a while.

"Regarding this matter," he said, "I will go and ask."