Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 763, Section 177: The Twin Hackers

“Emerick Cassell, Aurol Cassell, those two have some free time, still hanging around the gambling table at a time like this.”

V's pupils contracted slightly. The hacker brother and sister had been glued to the roulette table for almost half an hour ever since he locked onto their target.

“That’s enough observation, V. Do you remember what I just said?” Li De’s voice came from the side. V was just noticing Aurora’s sudden turn of her head to scan the crowd. “Your gaze has exceeded the safety threshold. Hackers of their level are as sensitive to bioelectric signals as spiders.”

V turned his face away casually, but felt Li De put something cold into his palm.

They were two tiny, matte-finish discs, less than a third the thickness of a fingernail.

At the same time, a notification popped up in V's personal account, flashing in the corner of his vision—100,000 euros, a number that made his eyes light up.

“The access code to the neural matrix cannot be obtained by hacking.” Li De lowered his voice: “The Emeric siblings’ ICE protection has at least three layers of anti-tracking protocols. A regular scan will have its tentacles chopped off as soon as it touches the surface, even the Kirito’s artificial eye.”

He carefully pointed to the disc in V's hand: "These two trackers are products of the FIA's reverse engineering of the Comtau protection system. Even hackers would have a hard time finding them."

V took the two miniature trackers and gently weighed them in his palm. The two discs were so small that they were like two grains of dust, and he could not feel any weight at all.

You'd have to admit they're secret agents; they always manage to come up with some weird and special gadgets.

V, a user of "Kantau's technology replica," picked up one of the trackers with his fingertips and examined it closely. The tracker's surface was covered with nanoscale textures that refracted iridescence at certain angles.

"Is this thing reliable? I've never heard of such a thing before. What if you guys developed it recently and haven't actually used it yet? If it crashes halfway through, we'll be exposed."

Li De nodded: "I've tried it before, and there were no problems. During internal testing, it could maintain a signal for 72 hours under a 3mm lead plate. The key is that it uses a passive scanning reflection architecture, which is not as easily detected by anti-reconnaissance protocols as an active transmitter."

He gestured for V to look towards the gambling table, where the hacker siblings were intently staring at the holographic roulette wheel, while Aurora had already looked away.

"Did you see the slight difference in Aurora's ear? According to the information, Aurora was born with an abnormal inner ear due to a genetic problem. She suffered from a heterozygous mutation in the gjb2 gene. Although she was later cured through gene surgery, she still had some physical differences. That place is a good spot."

"Then there's Emory. He has a habit of transferring his memories to an external hard drive every now and then to prevent them from being leaked. That's why his neural interface protection always has a slot specifically for connecting to the hard drive, which is also an excellent location."

After explaining to V the extra parts of the twin hackers' bodies compared to ordinary people due to their respective flaws and habits, Li De handed over a tube of conductive gel:
"Use this, and an optical camouflage coating will form within 0.5 seconds of adhesion. Remember, they will unconsciously check the implant status every 25 minutes, and you must complete the adhesion within one round of checks, otherwise leaving it on may allow them to detect your facial disguise. You only have 25 minutes."

"So what is this 100,000 euros for?"

"At the gambling table, it's naturally easier for gamblers to get close to each other."

"I see. So you want me to use this money to buy chips so I can get closer to them, right? 100,000 euros. I guess I'll have to be careful with it. Otherwise, if I spend it all and then stay, it'll arouse suspicion." V embedded the tracker into the gel capsule and laughed. "But you're not going to take this 100,000 euros back later, are you? I remember you were pretty short of money. You still owe Karl and Old V money, don't you?"

Upon hearing V say this, even Li De's face stiffened slightly, revealing a hint of guilt: "This is the president's personal money, which he said was given to us as funding. We don't need to pay it back; you can keep whatever we win or lose. As for the money I owe, I'll pay it back when my salary from these past few years is paid after this mission is over."

Seeing Li De's embarrassed look, V smiled and said, "Just kidding, Li De. Don't worry about it. I don't think Karl and Old V will be in a big hurry to collect the debt. I just hope that you really have that much salary from the FBI. After all, you used to work in Dainau's bar in the city center. I guess you're having some trouble with that."

As he spoke, V noticed that the security guards belonging to the Ghost Hounds were scanning the crowd with infrared sensors next to the gambling table, so he naturally put his hands in his pockets and let the tracker slide into his pockets.

"Alright, Li De, enough joking. I'll take the 100,000 euros and wait for my good news. That's quite a sum of money."

"Be careful, V," Li De reminded him one last time. "Those siblings might be as skilled at hacking as T-BUG in your team, so don't be careless."

“How could that be? T-BUG is the best hacker. They are not qualified to compare with T-BUG.” In this regard, as a friend and companion, V was always as confident in T-BUG as the others in the team.

Everyone in the KK team says this, except for T-BUG, because the other members of the KK team probably have more confidence in T-BUG than T-BUG himself does.

"If this were T-BUG, it would have been solved long ago, instead of causing so much trouble."

With that said, V quickly arrived at the cashier for the gambling chips.

For V at this point, 100,000 euros is neither a lot nor a little, and V plans to exchange it for more chips as a backup in case he loses it all at once.

V has some experience with gambling, but he can't compare to seasoned professionals. At most, he used to gamble among his tribe members, and the stakes were always low, maybe half a can of pork made from worm meat or a piece of fruit from a can of real fruit. Even when he got carried away, he would gamble with whatever weapons he had captured.

After all, the tribe was poor back then. A weapon that could be repaired and still be used was basically the greatest wealth. As for vehicles and the like, those were their life and fortune, and no one would gamble with them. Even if someone was out of their mind and dared to do so, the tribal chief would rush over and give them a good whack on the head to clear their head.
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150,000 euros.

Watching his money slip away and be converted into virtual chips stored in specialized equipment, V felt a sense of unease, realizing that money really wasn't money.

While exchanging chips, V glanced at the person next to him and noticed a black-haired youth exchanging chips, just like him. What the young man was exchanging was...
40 euros.

So rich.

V couldn't help but take another look at the black-haired youth, and felt a sense of familiarity from him. Then, he saw the black-haired youth wink at him.

In just a moment, despite the unfamiliar face, V recognized the black-haired youth.

It's Karl.
(End of this chapter)