Even though cybernetic bodies were originally invented to help disabled people recover a normal life, as technology advanced, the functions of these bodies rapidly evolved and even surpassed those of the original flesh.
Mechanical eyes possess greater clarity, a wider and longer range of vision, and enhanced perception abilities...
Mechanical arms are much stronger and more skillful than human arms...
Therefore, when a disabled person acquires a good cybernetic body modification and runs faster and performs better than a physically intact person, who exactly is the disabled one?
Of course, some might say, "As long as I don't compare myself with others, just live life normally," but can anyone truly live without comparing themselves to others?
Even if you don't compare yourself with anyone, others will compare themselves to you or someone else will make the comparison, for example, at work...
You're both delivery drivers; you used to deliver 100 orders a day, reigning as the delivery king of your area. Apart from you, the others could only manage a maximum of 90 orders a day. Therefore, you often received praise from the boss and occasionally a little bonus.
But then, suddenly, the person who was second with 90 orders a day had a car accident and lost the use of their legs. After getting cybernetic leg prosthetics, they began to run beyond human limits. With the power of prosthetics, he easily handles 200 orders a day, and you've slipped from first to second place. How would you feel?
Well, being second isn't too bad; it's still pretty good. Life goes on as usual because you haven't lost anything. If someone else is doing better, you're happy for them.
But then, what if the person in third place decides to get tough, grit their teeth, and get their perfectly healthy legs replaced with cybernetic ones?
What would you feel like when you're surpassed again and now become third?
What will you do when eventually everyone switches to cybernetic limbs?
What will you do when the courier industry sets a hard requirement for implanting cybernetic leg prosthetics?
Internal competition is everywhere.
Fortunately, in the Magic Republic, because the Church of Machinery controls all the Mechanical Monks and Prosthetic Doctors, the scrutiny of cybernetic modification surgery is very strict, and so the situation has not deteriorated to that extent.
However, it's a completely different story in the Glorious Divine Kingdom, where cybernetic bodies are rampant, modifications run wild, and it is even necessary to take out loans for a full-body cybernetic modification to get a decent job, burdening oneself with astronomical debts that will take decades to repay before even starting to work.
Een worse, as your cybernetic body becomes outdated in a few years and you can't compete with your colleagues, you'll face the risk of being laid off and will have to take out another loan for a higher-level cybernetic body, thus incurring even greater debt.
There, countless people end up on the streets, disabled and begging for a living because they couldn't repay their loans and had their implanted cybernetic bodies repossessed to settle their debts.
What was once a technology invented to benefit humanity has now become a source of pain for these people.
Why are the people of the Glorious Divine Kingdom so fervently devoted to the Glory Sect, so hostile towards the Magic Republic? A large part of the reason is that the technology for cybernetic bodies originated from the Magic Republic; they created this "forbidden" technology, turning the Mortal Realm into a hell.
The people there don't hate the Nobility and companies that exploit them but despise the technology itself. Even though they can't live without it, this doesn't prevent them from loathing and even cursing the Church of Machinery and the Magic Republic for bringing technology into this world.
Indeed, they truly believe from the bottom of their hearts that technology is the work of demons, seductive arts that lead to human downfall and the burden of sin.
After all, the vast majority of Modified Humans who have undergone excessive cybernetic modification end up not faring well. Almost all of them go insane, as if possessed by demons, and become unrecognizable from their former selves. Some even indiscriminately kill people in the streets, causing destruction.
This syndrome is known as "Soul Eater Syndrome" in the Glorious Divine Kingdom, meaning that their souls have been devoured by demons.
Similarly, because of the existence of Soul Eater Syndrome, even more people believe that cyberization is the work of demons. The fear of Soul Eater Syndrome has made the people of the Glorious Divine Kingdom even more devout in their faith in the Glory Sect, which offers them "salvation" from it.
But what is the reality?
The so-called Soul Eater Syndrome is nothing more than those individuals who have gone overboard with competition, surpassing the "modification" safety threshold. They have forcibly undergone modifications that exceed the limits their consciousness can bear, leading to a collapse of self-identity.
After all, if only your hands and legs are cybernetic, you can still believe you're human. But what if your whole body, except your brain—even your brain itself, is modified? Can you still hold on to the belief that you're human?
By then, you're more like a robot than a human.
That's essentially turning into a robot.
So, under this accumulation of self-doubt, one day, your spirit will break, your human self-awareness will collapse, and you'll start to think you're a robot.
In this era, real robots exist and are plentiful, doing the toughest, most exhausting jobs no one else wants to do—in layman's terms, no different from slaves.
So, as a "awakened" robot, when you see your "brethren" enslaved by these "foreigners" on the streets, what will you do?