The Initial Defective Batch
In other games, that is, in the orthodox fantasy world where mages carried wands or spellbooks, the mages in this mad Fusion Punk world first had their arms cut off and replaced with prosthetics.
Since the core part used to cast magic was the hand, it was only natural.
After all, I, who use radial magic, the mana ray, am already spraying magic from my hand?
Of course, mages who use wands or external gear like guns depending on the magic type still had to rely on prosthetic support.
After all, gamers who stubbornly insisted on using their own intact biological arms while leaving one perfectly good equipment slot empty, when everyone else was upgrading specs through equipment slots drilled into their arms, simply didn’t exist.
In that sense, the one piece of equipment every mage tech user in Fusion Punk had to go through was this.
The magic reinforcement prosthetic, the Ether Wing series, from Arcana Tech, a megacorp that produced a lot of products for mages.
The highest authority in the mage equipment industry was Synix, the absolute ruler of Gaon Mega City, but the price was as high as its reputation and the supply was desperately short.
Arcana Tech offered reasonable pricing with solid performance, making it the essential piece of equipment that most mage tech users went through.
And right now, the pristine white prosthetic in Vivian’s hand was the Arcana Tech masterpiece, the Silver Ether Wing Mk-3.
“Defective? What on earth do you mean…!”
Vivian’s expression, which had been greatly startled by the sudden physical contact, froze at the word “defective” that came out of my mouth.
Her face, a mixture of bewilderment and disgust, glared at me.
“That’s going too far, patient. This is a megacorp product trusted even by famous mages and researchers in the Upper Layer. A defect?”
“Ah, the Silver Ether Wing is a good item, right? It’s Arcana Tech’s steady seller and a savior for mages who can’t afford Synix products. Other mages are all using perfect ones.”
I tapped her prosthetic wrist casually while continuing my words.
“The problem is that the item the doctor is wearing is, of all things, the initial production batch, serial 301.”
Vivian checking her own serial number in response to my words.
“…What? How… so precisely?”
“Ah. I’ve had some interest in Arcana Tech products.”
Before I became a technician, I had used mage tech the most. The influence had carried over when I created the mage engineering technician tech.
Still, for an elite who’s doing well, that’s a rather meager choice. Mage-use prosthetics are expensive to begin with, after all.
The Silver Ether Wing Mk-3 was different from other prosthetics that replaced from the shoulder; it was one that only swapped the wrist, meaning only the hand part.
Of course, it was slightly cheaper than other prosthetics, but even so, the Silver Ether Wing Mk-3 had performance that could stand up to even top-tier equipment from mid-to-small brands.
That was why countless mage tech users in the Fusion Punk community had been using the Silver Ether Wing Mk-3.
And during that time, there was one famous incident that had heated up the community for a while.
The so-called “Silver Ether Wing Leak Replacements.”
The trigger had been a complaint post one user had uploaded.
Right after that post went up, countless users poured out laughter in the replies.
But one comment from a named mage in the community opened up a proper battlefield.
From there, users had fought day and night over “control issue” and “no, it’s really mana discharge.”
But the incident was settled with a post from a user who had been using technician tech.
An analysis post by a technician user who had bought dozens of Silver Ether Wings, completely dismantled them, and torn apart the internals had been uploaded to the community.
The truth the user revealed was shocking.
Among all the produced items, only a specific batch with serial 301 had a very slight defect in the internal mana insulation contact specifications.
Normally, when living daily life or using light magic, there was no problem, but the moment high-level magic concentrated dense mana on the wrist to cast, a tiny play occurred and the mana discharged into the air, a fatal flaw.
In the end, it wasn’t the users’ fingers that had been the problem for those claiming mana leakage, but the victims who had simply pulled the unlucky draw, and the replacement was over.
And the technician user who revealed that fact was me.
And the winner of that unlucky draw was sitting right in front of me, this mage doctor.
The dopamine and pleasure from revealing that fact had not faded even now.
It had been fun to learn that this game had that much immense detail, and experiencing the item’s wiki being completely updated because of me had been new.
So the moment I saw the prosthetic Vivian was using, I had immediately realized it.
After all, it was a product I had personally pulled out dozens of, looked inside, modified, torn apart, and played with happily.
I continued speaking calmly toward Vivian, who was staring at me blankly.
“By any chance, don’t you usually feel like you’re short on mana? On days when you use magic often, you must have felt your fingers throbbing or prickling a lot.”
“…Eh? How did you know that? Are you a mage doctor?”
“Unlike other mages, your skill level is stagnant and there’s that frustrating feeling of being blocked by an invisible wall right in front of you.”
“Or are you perhaps a fortune teller?”
I burst out laughing at Vivian’s words.
“No. I’m a technician.”
“A technician, you say? But what you just said is something only a technician could know….”
“No. As I said earlier, the phenomenon is because the prosthetic the doctor is wearing is a defective batch.”
“But the headquarters’ regular inspections showed no problems at all.”
“Of course the headquarters’ regular inspections would come back normal. When releasing daily mana or doing light scans, the contacts aren’t stressed, so it works normally. Mana leakage would only happen on days when you used magic continuously for a long time or used high-level magic.”
“……!”
I felt Vivian’s eyelashes trembling slightly. There had been parts of my guess that had been spot on.
“A picture is worth a thousand words. Why don’t you take a look?”
I was enormously excited at the prospect of seeing the actual version of an item with so many memories.
I didn’t wait for Vivian’s answer and pulled out a single thin strand of mana ray from the tip of my finger.
“…! Magic?”
Vivian seemed to say something, but because I was concentrating, it didn’t fully reach my ears and just flowed away.
Using the Demon Eye of Spell Breaking, I found the part where mana leakage was occurring and lightly poked the mana ray into it.
Chiiik—!
Instantly, blue mana particles burst out like steam from the wrist joint of the prosthetic and began scattering into the air.
“Hic… ma… mana…!”
As soon as I retracted the mana ray, the mana leakage stopped as if it were a lie.
“The feeling of mana deficiency in the doctor’s body wasn’t because the doctor’s skill was lacking, but because mana was constantly discharging into the air from the prosthetic contact every time magic was used. Other mages use this model perfectly fine, so the doctor probably blamed himself, thinking it must be because he was less skilled than the others. Does that match what I’m saying?”
***
Vivian’s lips trembled.
She stared blankly at her right hand.
To others, Vivian was an elite mage doctor who opened a clinic in the second special district of the Upper Layer at a young age, but Vivian had been suffering from anxiety that others didn’t know.
The anxiety about talent that couldn’t be raised in hierarchy anymore, that couldn’t grow.
The despair and fear that she had swallowed countless nights while studying and practicing magic endlessly, shattered by one word from the technician in front of her.
What was on Vivian’s face was emptiness and an indescribable relief.
“… Really, it wasn’t my body’s problem but the prosthetic’s defect…?”