Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 699, Section 113: The Phone Call
As Carl wisely stirred up trouble in Night City, V opened his eyes.

The time was 8:35 a.m., which was later than V's usual wake-up time.

The main reason is that V went to take a job in the middle of the night yesterday. The job wasn't difficult; it was just to deal with a group of cleaners. The difficult part was that the employer had some requirements that V didn't read carefully. The requirements were that he had to bring that damn cleaner back, even if it was just his corpse. But V was looking at the task and doing it at the same time. He was too fast and finished the job as soon as he saw it.

Fortunately, the employer didn't require it to be alive, so V worked hard to assemble it, spending half an hour diligently putting it back together and delivering it to the employer.

It has to be said that this took a long time, enough for V to handle other tasks normally. However, the employer still gave V a good evaluation of his attitude. He was very satisfied with the cleaner that V reassembled and even gave him an extra fee for his hard work.

Paying more money is certainly a good thing, but as a result, V's other jobs, which were originally scheduled to finish at 12 o'clock, were delayed, and he didn't finish all his work until after 1 o'clock.

Working late and sleeping late naturally leads to waking up later.

Of course, part of the reason is that there was more than one bizarre order yesterday, and the last order was also a bit outrageous.

There was a guy who installed a giant cannon on himself and made modifications to its length and size without following the instructions. As a result, he almost became a bomb kid. Fortunately, he called for help as soon as he noticed that thing was getting hot and twitching. V happened to be passing by and took the job. Otherwise, that guy might have really ended up in Danganronpa.

V thought about how that guy was screaming in pain while clutching his genitals, and then about how he said he wouldn't modify so much next time when he was being pushed in. He felt that he would probably see that guy again sometime in the near future.

Not making so many changes means they still plan to make changes, right? With this kind of reckless guy around, V really doesn't need to worry too much about not getting any work. He can have a lot of fun just by taking on these kinds of odd jobs every day.

However, after doing so many odd jobs, I sometimes want to take on something more challenging.

Wearing the samurai band jacket he'd casually bought while accompanying Johnny a few days ago—a rare find indeed—V donned his thermal samurai sword and golden sassy hat, yawning as he walked out of the room.

Carl said he would be staying out these past two days and wouldn't be going home, which conveniently allowed him to skip breakfast, which was supposed to be his turn. Although it's unclear whether he did it intentionally, Jack happened to be the breakfast maker today, and V was actually quite looking forward to seeing what Jack would make this morning.

open the door.

?

Am I still half asleep?

V stared wide-eyed at the sight before him in disbelief—Johnny was standing upright, completely upside down, his hind legs raised high into the sky, supporting his body only on his forelegs, his whole body standing there like a straight flagpole.

Even more bizarrely, Johnny's three companions were standing in a circle around him, each with a different expression on their face. This absurd scene made V wonder if he was still dreaming.

What did he see? Jack, Oliver, and T-BUG were actually watching Johnny doing a handstand?
While Johnny's antics are nothing new, something is clearly off about the current situation.

V noticed that Johnny's holographic projection was also upside down, his mouth opening and closing incessantly as he cursed, but no sound came out. T-BUG's wary gaze, along with Jack and Oliver's solemn expressions, all indicated that this was no joke.

"what happened?"

Standing on the second floor, V's expression gradually turned serious: "What's wrong with Johnny?"

Oliver, who had already noticed the commotion, explained without turning his head, "Someone is remotely infiltrating Johnny's system. According to T-BUG, the other party is a top expert who is currently trying to take control. Fortunately, Johnny has a firewall set up by T-BUG in his body, and the two sides are in a stalemate, which has caused Johnny to lose control of his body."

"Remotely controlling Johnny?!" "T-BUG, can you track the signal source? Where are the enemies?"

"I am investigating this with all my might."

T-BUG frowned.

As the team's hacking expert, her skill level is among the best in Night City; ordinary hackers don't even have the qualifications to be compared to her.

But this intrusion against Johnny was unusual—the attacker not only easily breached the ICE security system but also perfectly bypassed all alarm procedures. By the time she noticed the anomaly, the intruder was almost ready to complete the connection.

Such a smooth and seamless intrusion method, such ingenious exploitation of system vulnerabilities, and such skillful technique in bypassing layers of defense are beyond the reach of ordinary hackers!
Moreover, where exactly did the other party's connection signal come from? T-BUG had just thoroughly inspected Johnny's body yesterday to ensure that he hadn't been infected with any malicious programs due to randomly inserting neural interfaces everywhere.

But how exactly did this intruder hack in?

T-BUG was certain that if she could directly access Johnny's system, she could immediately analyze the other party's intrusion methods and even deduce the other party's control protocol.

The problem is—she can't connect at all right now.

The reason is that the firewall inside Johnny's body is now reacting abnormally to the Relic chip, making it impossible for T-BUG to connect easily anymore.

T-BUG even suspected that the other party was forcibly establishing a connection through Relic's underlying protocol.

Although she had studied Relic, she had never dared to delve into its internal structure.

After all, she dared not take the risk of accidentally erasing Johnny's consciousness.

The situation is terrible—she can only rely on the pre-installed firewall for passive defense, and cannot actively access the system to fight back.

Worse still, the hacker on the other side was clearly a top expert as well. T-BUG had to admit that, without a direct connection method, even with the advantage of a firewall, it would be difficult for her to completely stop the intrusion.

She could only watch helplessly as the other party gradually eroded her defenses and seized control of Johnny's body.

Cold sweat trickled down T-BUG's forehead. She was filled with conflicting emotions, hesitating whether to take a gamble—risking damaging Johnny's consciousness—by forcibly connecting to Relic and attempting to sever the connection.

But what if she fails? What if her intervention actually accelerates the other side's intrusion? Or... something even worse.
Johnny is undoubtedly now a member of their team and a friend of T-BUG. In this situation, if he were to erase Johnny's consciousness, wouldn't that mean he had killed Johnny with his own hands?
But we have no choice but to make a decision!
Just as T-BUG gritted his teeth, preparing to make a decision—

The hacker who made the intrusion gave in, and the other party also felt that continuing the struggle would threaten Johnny. In the end, they simply concentrated the data and took over the language system.

“I have no hostility.”

This was the first thing the hacker said through Johnny's voice.

(End of this chapter)