"Here, play around with it. See what your personality integrity is. You look pretty normal to me, so it should be over 90%."
Lorna watched with interest. "This thing isn't for me. Staring at your personality integrity all day is annoying as hell. It'd drive you crazy even if you weren't already."
Gu He held the goggles doubtfully, turning them over in his hands. Though they had a classic design, the components were a mix of metal and electronics, and the thick lenses didn't seem to be made of glass.
In the gaps between those parts were faint traces of blood...
"Wondrous Item materials?" he asked, though he was more focused on her other phrase: "Personality integrity?"
"Hmm?" Lorna glared at Gu He, then rubbed her forehead in exasperation. "I guess Old Fan and Kumiko really haven't taught you anything yet. Well, since Old Fan let me book you, it doesn't matter if I'm the one to tell you. Alright, alright, I'll explain."
"Uh..." Gu He stared blankly, feeling like a heavy realization was about to hit him.
"Mutants are living things, and Wondrous Items are non-living things. Both possess supernatural powers. For a Mutant, just picture a meatball with hundreds of dicks on it. For a Wondrous Item, imagine a chair that can dance and kill people.
"Alchemists know how to use Wondrous Item and Mutant materials to craft equipment and Cyberware. These kinds of items carry various supernatural abilities. These goggles are a perfect example. They were likely crafted by an alchemist first, then modified by a junkman—scavenger-class transcendents have some skill in that area."
Lorna took a sip of her cocktail and, not caring whether he understood or not, continued:
"As for personality integrity, everyone's personality fluctuates, but a transcendent's fluctuations are especially violent.
"That's because everything transcendents do to their own bodies, and everything they come into contact with, has a massive impact on their personalities. Installing programs does it, modifying bodies does it, fighting does it...
"That personality integrity value reflects a person's mental state—how far away they are from going completely insane.
"Above 90% is the normal range. Within this range, your personality can recover naturally.
"From 90% to 80%, you get mild psychiatric symptoms. From 80% to 70% brings moderate psychiatric symptoms, like poor sleep, visual hallucinations, and auditory hallucinations. At that point, it's time to rest and get treatment. The higher your personality integrity, the easier it is to recover.
"From 70% to 60% brings severe psychiatric symptoms. Calling it a full-blown mental illness is completely accurate.
"If it drops below 60%, you lose yourself and become a complete lunatic. The official term for that is a Ghost Person."
"Don't think that becoming a Ghost Person makes you useless, though. Not necessarily. It's just like becoming another species. You know? Out of control, bloodthirsty, and completely insane, but you still have your original supernatural abilities. You might even be stronger once you go crazy."
Gu He understood Lorna's little lesson, but was this personality integrity thing just some sort of homebrew concept...
No, that wasn't quite right... His heart pounded wildly as past fragments of conversation from Lorna, Old Fan, and the others flashed chaotically through his mind.
They all shared this concept of "personality integrity." It wasn't just Lorna's crazy rambling.
There was also transcendent, transcendents, transcendent talents, Transcendent Programs, transcendent data, transcendent host...
"Before becoming a Ghost Person, you can theoretically recover your personality integrity. Rich people have plenty of ways, but street rats like us, well, you can see it for yourself. Just look at me."
Lorna laughed mockingly at herself, yet seemed rather proud. "My personality integrity was stuck around 65% for a long time. Recently, thanks to Granny Akin's therapy and all that nonsense you spouted, it's up to 69% now. Just a severe mental disorder."
"Personality integrity... Below 60% is a Ghost Person..." Gu He frowned, thinking about his own currently unknown personality status.
He looked at the goggles in his hands. "Wait, what exactly are these transcendents, programs, and data you're talking about?"
"Programs are what make ordinary people into transcendents, and data is what upgrades the programs.
"Are there no transcendents in the Voodoo Ruins? Did everyone in the Voodoo Religion die out?"
Lorna sounded a bit annoyed. "Talking is useless compared to seeing it for yourself. I'll show you."
Gu He watched as she raised her left palm toward him. Suddenly, the lifelines on her palm split open, and several bloody threads—whether nerves or blood vessels, he couldn't tell—darted out, floating in the air.
"..." He widened his eyes, absolutely certain that this was no fucking hallucination!
Before he could react, the bloody threads from Lorna's left hand shot out, latching onto his right hand and drilling right into his flesh.
Before his terrified flinch could even finish, he saw a few bloody threads squirming under his skin, seemingly merging with his nerves.
Suddenly, from his right wrist down, he felt a fierce, burning pain, as though he had been injected with a searing anesthetic.
"Fu—"
"Nerve invasion," Lorna said casually. All the bloody threads instantly retracted, and her left palm showed no signs of the abnormality from a moment ago. "That's one of my Transcendent Programs. I was just giving you a hot kiss.
"If I wanted to, I could make you wish for death, or turn you into a drooling idiot. That's what it means to be a transcendent."
Gu He was left speechless, pressing down on the back of his right hand, which still burned and throbbed with pain.
He slumped back against the small sofa. What exactly had he been misunderstanding these past few days since he transmigrated?
If Lorna could give him a "hot kiss," then that vicious ghost every night...
"Uh, it's like this. I have a friend who, recently, every night, gets pestered by some ghost-like thing that looks exactly like him. Whatever he does, the thing does..."
Before Gu He could finish, Lorna laughed out loud. "You don't even need to ask. It's a transcendent Actor messing with you."
She shook her head. "I probably know who it is. Sakai Huaqing, right? Old Fan and the others only have one Actor for training purposes."
Gu He's heart felt like it had been violently hammered again as messy, hazy memories churned in his mind...
These past few days, Miss Sakai had come over every night, and when she closed up the shop to leave, she would always say, "He-san must work hard tonight too." Only now did he seem to understand what she meant by that...
"Miss Sakai Huaqing..." he asked, "is also a transcendent?"
"Yeah, an Actor Series transcendent. I'm from the Hunter Series," Lorna said casually while snacking on the fruit from the tray.
Miss Sakai was that ghost? Gu He's head throbbed with a splitting pain as memories surfaced unexpectedly.
Like a wild beast breaking free after days of captivity, everything that happened before his two "blackouts" wantonly flashed before his eyes.
A crooked shop, the Fishpond was a crooked shop... Old Fan, please no...
"Old Fan is a transcendent too?"
"Of course. He's a Food Crafter. Pretty formidable, too, with a lot of connections."
"And Miss Ayane?"
"Kumiko is a DOLL, but the kind that's not much use anymore. Her nerves are ruined."
"Then... Brother Zhuang from the Game Gang?"
"I guess you could say that, but he's from the unorthodox branch. Just a reckless dickhead who calls himself a Muscle Fanatic. He's only really good at scaring people."
"Then... Old Dog Jackson?"
"No, Old Dog is just a normal guy. He likes wearing women's clothes and calling people his daddy. Everyone has their quirks."
Gu He numbly picked up the Thermos Cup resting on the coffee table and began drinking his goji berry water.
He needed to sort this out first... Sort out my ass! There were transcendents everywhere, and Miss Ayane was planning to turn him into one too.
There was no need to doubt it anymore. The facts were right in front of him; he had already been severely beaten by two women using different supernatural abilities.
Then, then, then who was the "sub-personality" from last time...
Gu He's gaze returned to the goggles. He asked Lorna, "How accurate is the testing on these glasses?"
"The margin of error isn't large. I'd guess the lower the level of the transcendent, the more accurate the reading. For a normal person like you, it'll be completely accurate."
"How do you use it? Is it safe?" Gu He wanted to consider everything thoroughly.
Lorna was too lazy to humor his nagging. She snatched the goggles back with one hand and swiftly shoved them onto his head. The lenses instantly covered his eyes as she pressed a red button on the frame. "It's on."
Just as Gu He caught a sudden, inexplicable whiff of foul blood, he felt the straps on both sides of the goggles tighten, clamping down on his forehead.
Bzz, bzz, bzz. He heard the faint whirring of moving parts; evidently, the thick frame contained intricate mechanisms.
His gaze could pierce through the thick lenses, allowing him to see the private booth perfectly clearly, without any blind spots caused by the frame.
Suddenly, a bright light flashed. Rows upon rows of neatly arranged 0s and 1s appeared before his eyes. Some sort of program really was booting up.
His eyes felt slightly swollen and warm, as if they had physically linked with the goggles.
When the 0s and 1s finally settled, Gu He saw a glowing progress bar appear at the top of his field of vision:
[Personality Integrity: 99%]