Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 910, Section 120: 'Inviting' Talents

"Get up, open your eyes, Johnny Silverhand."

The hazy words gradually awakened Johnny, whose body had been taken over and who had lost consciousness after the connection was established. He was in a daze when he heard strange noises and then felt his body being shaken.

Then, he did indeed open his eyes.

Then, I saw several faces close in front of me.

After a brief, half-second moment of stunned silence.

"V, Oliver, Jack, what are you doing?"

"Oh, it seems there's no problem."

Oliver first turned his head away and looked at T-BUG next to him: "Johnny's data is indeed the same as what you and Carl said, there are no problems. Have you figured out the core code inside?"

"It couldn't be clearer."

T-BUG's gaze was fixed on the torrent of data on the screen, his tone carrying an barely suppressed excitement.

“Otto Cunningham is a genius. Who would have thought that data could be used to carry consciousness like this? I used to think she was a hacker second only to Bartmouth and on par with Spider-Murphy, but I didn’t believe it—now, I’m convinced.”

"That's enough with the praise."

Carl, who was also checking the data, waved his data panel and looked at Johnny: "You're awake. Does anything feel wrong, Johnny?"

"Aside from hearing you praising my girlfriend and not immediately checking up on me, everything is fine."

Johnny Silver Hand shook his dog body, a projection appeared, and then immediately lit a cigarette.

"It felt like I just closed my eyes and woke up in the middle of the night, and that was it. I was so sure that even if I didn't die, I'd be left with a bunch of aftereffects, and this is what happened?"

"Because that's really it."

Karl turned his gaze back to the data panel: "I don't know why, but your Relic is particularly easy to crack. Although the most crucial core is impossible to crack without the data before the data crash, once you have it, the difficulty is as simple as unpacking an energy bar."

"Isn't that just as difficult as going out for a walk and finding a doll?"

"That's a very good description, you don't need to describe it anymore, Johnny."

Carl tapped the data panel lightly with his finger: "Simply put, your Relic doesn't have the kind of anti-theft program that would actively delete internal data when faced with external data intrusion. It really is open to you as long as you have data to send in, letting you in freely."

"so?"

"So all your previous emotional manipulation was for nothing. It really is just as you described, not much harder than taking off a sex doll's clothes."

Johnny blinked, unsure of what to say after hearing Carl's words.

Should I admit that I wasted my feelings?
That's unlikely. After all, who knew it would happen before the connection was actually established? If there were related procedures in place, Johnny would indeed be at risk of being erased.

But thinking about it carefully, what he had just done did sound like a poorly written line from a street movie, and Johnny himself was a little embarrassed by it.

Fortunately, Johnny had a knack for being carefree, and after realizing he was perfectly fine, he quickly turned his attention to other things: "So, will I be able to come back to normal soon?" "More or less."

Karl put away the data panel, thought for a moment, and said, "We've roughly figured it out, but debugging will take some time. Basically, we need to find a way to create your body, then insert this chip, and let it slowly and completely cover your consciousness onto the body. Once the transfer is complete, the chip can be discarded, but..."

"but?"

"We still need to consult experts. With Arasaka's research data on biotechnology, manufacturing and transmission are not major problems. However, if we want a complete and successful body, we need to hire professionals."

Carl and his group had resources at their disposal—thanks to his past identity, Carl knew the experimental equipment and locations left behind by the Arasaka 'Pheasant Faction' like the back of his hand.

After assisting Lai Xuan in the suppression, most of those things fell into Karl's hands, not to mention the location.

I also want to thank Mr. Kurt Hansen for his 'generous donation': his underground space is perfectly usable right now.

All we need to do is move Arasaka's equipment over and add some related equipment. With data support, we can quickly create an environment comparable in scale to the underground laboratory at the biotechnology construction site.

In fact, in terms of the sophistication and newness of the equipment, this place far surpasses that underground biotechnology laboratory.

After all, for biotechnology, it was just an internal research project; but for the Arasaka Chiki faction, it was a key project involving the resurrection plan of Arasaka Saburo, so its configuration in all aspects was naturally much higher.

"If that's the case, Carl, you must have already decided who to invite."

"I guess so, it left a deep impression on me."

Carl recalled the people he had encountered when he infiltrated the biotechnology warehouse. He had been quite impressed by the two researchers, and he had silently made a note of them, thinking that they might be of help to Johnny in the future. Now, they had indeed come in handy.

The two researchers were named Semill and Dawes. Carl planned to bring them over, and at the same time, he would also make use of the 'Pheasant Faction' talents he had taken over. With the help of two former professional research teams from the Biotechnology and Arasaka Pheasant Factions, this should not be difficult.

The only problem is, how should Carl 'invite' him?

In today's corporate struggles, there are instances of talent hijacking and forced hiring, which means binding people to work for one's own company. This is very common in corporate conflicts, and many employees of well-known companies have been kidnapped in this way to work for another company.

Aside from the fact that such behavior can easily lead to the death of company personnel during a kidnapping, it is actually a kind of behavior that those company personnel would welcome.

It's not that they're not afraid of death, but being kidnapped itself proves their value. Once they enter a new company, they can often get a higher position and better treatment—which is undoubtedly a good thing for most people who have little loyalty to their original company.

After all, this signifies an improvement in one's status and proof of being valued.

Sometimes, the original company will even try to win back this "talent". After such a struggle, the favored employee can often get promoted on the spot, and may even skip two levels.

There was once an elite member named Arasaka who was kidnapped several times in the open and covert struggle with military technology, but eventually rose all the way to the position of president and personally planned a legendary operation that caused heavy losses to military technology.

Although this elite Arasaka did not have a good ending, he did indeed sit in the position of president—a pinnacle that many company employees could never reach in their entire lives and dared not even dream of.

If you let me be the CEO, I'd be willing to accept anything, even being kidnapped a few times, being fought over like a spinning top, getting a high salary, and riding in luxury cars.

There have always been quite a few people in the industry who hold this kind of thinking.

What Karl doesn't know now is whether those two researchers actually want to be invited over.

(End of this chapter)