WeTried Translations

Translator: [IncomeElastic]

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became a Genius Engineer That Mega Corporations Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 011

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Early-Batch Defect

If the wizards in other games, the ones from proper fantasy worlds, carried staves and grimoires, then the mages in this fusion-punk madhouse started by cutting off their arms and bolting on prosthetics.

It was the natural progression, since the key part for casting magic was none other than the hand.

Take me, a user of the radial-type Mana Thread: wasn't magic already spraying out of my hands?

Sure, depending on the school, some mages used external gear like staves or guns, but even those mages couldn't avoid relying on a prosthetic's support.

That made sense, since everyone else raised their stats through the equipment slots built into their arms, and no gamer would stubbornly keep a pure biological arm and play with a perfectly good slot closed off.

In that sense, there was one piece of gear every Fupunkalypse mage build passed through.

The Aether Wing series, mana-enhancing prosthetic hands from Arcana Tech, a megacorp that made plenty of products for mages.

The industry's top authority on mage gear belonged to Synix, the de facto ruler of Gaon Mega City, but the prices were as lofty as the reputation, and supply was woefully short.

Arcana Tech's gear came at a more reasonable price than Synix's with respectable performance, which made it the must-have most mage-tech users passed through.

And the snow-white prosthetic hand of Vivian's that I was holding right now was exactly that: Arcana Tech's masterpiece, the Silver Aether Wing Mk-3.

"A defective unit? What on earth do you mean by...!"

Vivian had been thrown by the sudden physical contact, but at the word defective her expression froze.

Bewilderment mixed with offense, she glared at me.

"This joke has gone too far, patient. This is a megacorp product, trusted even by renowned mages and researchers in the upper tiers. A defect?"

"Ah, the Silver Aether Wing is a good product, no doubt. It's an Arcana Tech steady seller, practically salvation for mages who can't afford Synix. The ones other mages wear are probably perfect."

I tapped the wrist of the prosthetic hand I was holding and went on calmly.

"The problem is that the one you're wearing, doc, happens to be from the early production run, the 301 serial range."

At my words, Vivian checked her own serial.

"...What? How did you know that? So precisely?"

"Ah. I've always been interested in Arcana Tech's products."

Before becoming an engineer, the mage build had been my most-played, after all. Part of why I'd made the magitech engineer build, too.

'Though for a high-flying elite, it's a modest pick. Mage prosthetics are expensive by nature, sure.'

Unlike most prosthetic hands, which replace the arm from the shoulder, the Silver Aether Wing Mk-3 swapped out only the part below the wrist, the hand itself.

Naturally it was a bit cheaper than other prosthetics, yet the Silver Aether Wing Mk-3 still boasted performance that held up against the top-end prosthetics of most small and mid-sized brands.

That was why countless mage-tech users in the Fupunkalypse community had used the Silver Aether Wing Mk-3.

And back then, there had been one famous incident that set the community on fire for a while.

The so-called 'Silver Aether Wing Leak Debacle'.

It started with a complaint post from one user.

[ Hey, isn't this Silver Aether Wing leaking mana like crazy a bug? I barely cast any spells and my mana pool's wrecked;; ]

The moment the post went up, users poured out jeers in the comments.

┗Mine works fucking great though? Maybe your fingers are the problem?

┗Built your skills wrong, stuffed in mana-wasting spells, and now you're blaming the gear ㅋㅋㅋ

┗Stop the bullshit. Best value, god-tier prosthetic, and you're whining about bugs?

Then one comment from a named mage in the community lit the real firestorm.

┗'Leaving Only Ashes': This is real. I sold mine fast and switched to other gear for that exact reason.

From there the users fought for days and nights over 'it's a control problem' versus 'no, the mana really does discharge'.

In the end, the matter was settled by a post from a user on the engineer build.

An engineer had bought dozens of Silver Aether Wings, torn them apart, gutted their insides, and posted the analysis to the community.

[ Cracked open the Silver Aether Wing Mk-3's internal circuits. ]

The truth that user uncovered was astonishing.

Only in one specific batch, the units that happened to carry 301-range serials, was there a very slight flaw in the specification of the internal mana insulation contacts.

Nothing was wrong during daily life or light spellcasting, but the moment high-density mana was concentrated in the wrist to cast a high-tier spell, a minute gap opened and the mana discharged into thin air, a fatal defect.

So the users who'd claimed their mana was leaking hadn't had a finger problem after all. They'd simply drawn the dud, victims through no fault of their own, and with that proven the Debacle came to an end.

And the engineer who uncovered it was me.

'And the winner of that dud lottery is the mage-physician sitting right in front of me.'

The dopamine and thrill of that discovery still hadn't faded.

It had been fun to learn this game had this kind of staggering detail, and new to have an item's wiki completely overhauled because of me.

So the moment Vivian's hand came into view, there was no way to miss it.

After all, it was a product I'd bought dozens of by myself, peered into, modded, torn apart, and played with to my heart's content.

Vivian was staring at me in a daze. I continued flatly.

"Do you often feel like you don't have enough mana in daily life? On days you cast a lot of magic, I'd guess your fingers often sting or throb, too."

"...Huh? How did you? Are you a mage-physician, by any chance?"

"And unlike other mages, your skill's been stuck in place, and you've felt that frustration of being walled off by something invisible."

"If not, then are you a fortune-teller?"

A snort of laughter finally escaped me.

"No. I'm an engineer."

"An engineer? But what you just described isn't something an engineer could know..."

"No. Like I said earlier, it's a phenomenon caused by the prosthetic hand you wear being defective, doc."

"But there was no problem at all in the headquarters' regular inspection."

"Of course the headquarters inspection came back normal. Channeling everyday mana or running a light scan puts no strain on the contacts, so it works fine. The mana leak would have happened on days you used magic continuously for long hours, or when you cast a high-tier spell."

"......!"

A faint tremor ran through the corners of Vivian's eyes. She seemed to have a few guesses of her own.

"Seeing is believing. Why don't you take a look?"

Seeing the real version of an item so rich in memories had me fired up beyond measure.

Without waiting for Vivian's answer, I drew a single, very fine strand of Mana Thread from my fingertip.

"...! Magic?"

Vivian seemed to say something, but with my focus locked in, it never fully reached my ears and slipped past.

Through the Spellbreaker's Magic Eye, I found the spot where the mana was leaking and slipped the thread in with a light prod.

Pssshhh!

At that instant, blue mana particles hissed out of the prosthetic's wrist seam like steam and began to scatter into the air.

"Eek... M... Mana!"

When I withdrew the thread, the leak stopped dead, as if it had never been.

"The reason you felt short on mana wasn't a lack of skill, doc. It's that mana was draining out of the contacts in your prosthetic hand every time you cast. Other mages use this model just fine, so you must have blamed yourself, thinking you were simply less capable than everyone else. Am I right?"

* * *

Vivian's lips trembled.

She stared blankly down at her right hand.

To others, she was an elite mage-physician, young enough to have opened a clinic in Sky Nexus, Upper District 2, but Vivian had been tormented by an anxiety no one knew about.

The anxiety of a talent that couldn't climb any higher in tier, couldn't grow.

The despair of skill that wouldn't improve no matter how much magic she studied or practiced.

The despair and fear she'd swallowed through countless sleepless nights were shattered by a single sentence from the engineer in front of her.

What settled over her face was a hollow slackness, and a relief she couldn't put into words.

"...Really? It wasn't my body that was the problem, it was a defect in the prosthetic...?"

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