Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 896, Section 106: Here, he's in charge.

"Li De."

After regaining her senses, Song Zhaomei immediately saw Li De's dark face, which was very familiar to her.

After a few seconds of stunned silence and blinking, she gradually came to her senses and vaguely recalled fragments of her hazy consciousness.

Her last memory was of signaling to Li De and then being taken away by Kurt Hansen; after that, her memories were mostly fragmented.

Blood?

Single molecular line.

枪声
A jumble of sounds and incoherent images swirled in her head, but unlike usual, Song Zhaomei didn't experience headaches or physical discomfort from excessive thoughts.

Rather, it's incredible, even miraculous, that she can still recall things in her thinking, retain memories of the past, and contemplate them.

Has her condition improved?

After realizing that her mind and body seemed to feel much more comfortable than before, Song Zhaomei began to understand.

Could it be that Li De dealt with Kurt Hansen, and then brought me to the Neural Matrix to receive treatment?
This seems to be the only reason that can explain why I am in good condition now and do not feel any burden or pain.

The disappearance of the two hacker siblings was the work of the FBI, and Song Zhaomei knew about it.

Although she was in very poor condition at that time, and could not even perform the technical skills required for hacking, she still managed to stay conscious and pay attention to news about her life.

After the hacker siblings disappeared, and her chances of recovery vanished as well, she lost her last source of support. Like a building without its supporting pillars, she could no longer bear the weight of her consciousness and body, and began to lose consciousness as she collapsed.

Now that the building has been rebuilt, Song Zhaomei, who has begun to think rationally again, has realized her future fate.

In her final moments, as her consciousness faded, she pleaded for help from Li De, who did indeed come to her aid. He may have even used the access code he obtained from the hacker siblings to help her successfully remove the firewall's intrusion. However...
He had fallen back into the hands of the FBI.

In other words, he had fallen back into Rosalind Miles' hands.

This is perhaps even more unacceptable than dying.

Song Zhaomei thought of that possibility, and her body began to tremble involuntarily. Just thinking about everything she would have to carry out after returning to the new America made her instincts shudder.

Do we have to go through it all again? The danger of having our brains burned at any moment while crossing the black wall, the gradual erosion and blurring of consciousness, the gradual dissipation of memories—do we have to go through all of this again?
If I heal myself, will I have to return to the new America, back to Rosalind Myers, and start all over again?

Just when Song Zhaomei thought that all her resistance was just like a tool being used to resist, and that it was self-purifying, making it easier for its master to hold and use her, she caught a glimpse of someone out of the corner of her eye.

A person chewing on a long energy bar.

That person is
That person!
Noticed by Song Zhaomei out of the corner of her eye, the person who was staring intently at her suddenly widened their eyes after turning their prosthetic eye, realizing that Song Zhaomei had woken up and was watching them.

He stopped biting the energy bar, looked at the energy bar in his hand, looked at Song Zhaomei, and then naturally covered the exposed energy bar with his palm.

"I only brought two, you can't have them." Hearing these words that left no room for negotiation, Song Zhaomei was stunned for a moment.

She glanced at the young man who was eating an octopus-flavored energy bar—a brand she had only caught a glimpse of earlier, but who she could at least make out. She opened her mouth slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say.

Finally, after a few seconds of stunned silence, she whispered.

"I won't eat it, and I won't steal it."

"Well, you'd better be."

The young man nodded naturally: "Otherwise, I would definitely kick you against the wall."

His words were not at all joking; in fact, they were quite serious.

This reaction caused Li De, who was standing next to him, to twitch slightly at the corner of his eye.

"Karl, you sometimes seem pretty naive."

“I think it’s fine.” Carl said dismissively. “I was starving after all that work, and then I had to eat those awful ‘octopus pancake flavored energy bars’ that V bought, enough to fill half a room, and we had to finish them. I’d only taken two bites when she started staring at me with those bright green eyes like a hungry wolf—it’s only natural that I was wary.”

After saying that, Carl was really wary of Song Zhaomei. He finished his energy bar in a few bites, then naturally walked to Song Zhaomei's side and patted her shoulder: "Alright, you're fine now, it's about time you got up. I'm too lazy to explain much. In short, I saved you, remember to repay me later. And Li De has defected and isn't going to work for Miles anymore. You should run away with Li De. This place is about to be bombed by a nuclear bomb, and I have to go stop the nuclear explosion."

Song Zhaomei watched as Karl casually patted his hands, which were covered in crumbs, on her shoulder. She wanted to wonder if Karl was wiping his hands with her clothes, but Karl's words were so full of meaning that she didn't have time to pay attention to them at the moment.

Ah, Carl saved himself?

Li De defected and stopped working for Miles. What a patriotic madman!
What do you mean this place is about to be nuclear-bombed?
And Carl has to stop the nuclear explosion?

There were so many doubts and questions that they all came rushing at once, and Song Zhaomei couldn't process them all at once.

However, she still keenly noticed the most crucial thing.

That is.
It seems she can live, and no longer be used by Miles.

Although she didn't know why Carl saved her or why Li De defected, Song Zhaomei, having worked in the Joint Intelligence Bureau, quickly realized what she should do now.

"Li De, what should we do?"

That means we should ask the amazing Li De what to do.

After all, Song Zhaomei's experience in intelligence work, if not far surpassed by Li De, is at least comparable to that of someone from Santo Domingo to Watson District. With such an experienced person, one should naturally listen to their opinion.

As Li De listened to Song Zhaomei repeating the words he had often used when he was teaching her, he sighed slightly, feeling a mix of sadness at Song Zhaomei's lack of progress and a sense of familiarity, before looking at Karl.

"Ask Carl, after all, he's the one in charge here now."

(End of this chapter)