Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 139 Anxiety and Embrace (7.4K)

Jakarta.

[Arasaka Network pending matters: The Honshu R&D prototype (cyborg) has been deployed to all Arasaka branches worldwide. Data collection accuracy is required, and data aggregation dimensions… //Major permission adjustments, Arasaka Michiko, Country Vice President…]

Click, the subnet information was shut down.

V had no patience to read the long string of content that followed—or perhaps she was simply distracted at the moment.

She thought about it...

The night city is still chilly in early spring, while Jakarta has a pleasant, even somewhat warm, temperature.

"They're shoving all sorts of useless permissions into my account."

She leaned against a street lamp and muttered a curse under her breath.

For something like prosthetic prototype testing, which the counterintelligence department could handle with a team of ordinary employees without even needing to send intelligence experts, why did they have to specifically send it to her?

As for changes in shareholder rights, these happen every day within the subnet; they are merely reminders of economic and legal changes, which are meaningless to employees, and V almost never looks at them.

She was on the streets of Jakarta at that moment.

Because the counterintelligence department identified a local Jakarta nomadic tribe that wanted to attack the summit.

Homeless individuals and illegal rioters exist in any country and any region.

The homeless people here in Jakarta call themselves descendants of the Steel Dragon. V seems to have heard of this name before. These people harbor an extremely strong hostility towards everything in the company.

V looked up at the slum skyscrapers standing in front of her and suddenly thought of the architectural style of Night City.

The homeless in Jakarta are more like gangs.

They don't survive in the harsh environment of Badlands, but they are just as dangerous as the tribes that race through the desert, because they dare to plunder the company's technology and assets.

However… Jakarta will become quieter after tonight.

Once the counterintelligence department catches a scent, it's basically an operation to completely eliminate them.

To prevent leaks at the start of the operation, all personnel had their communication permissions locked. V had just swiped the contact to Rin's position when a phone call came in.

"Boss, are you online yet?"

V nodded. "Okay, keep it down. We need to get home to shower and go to bed."

A few dry laughs came from the other end, "Yes, yes, it won't disturb the boss's rest—"

"Uh, should we have Arasaka's Osprey take off to provide support?"

V nodded. "It's not Night City. We can use heavy firepower whenever we have it. Once we confirm the location, we can just shoot through the building if there are any stubborn guys. The Jakarta authorities will handle it."

There was a moment of silence on the other end, followed by a glance at the handsome but ruthless boss.

"Roger that, be careful, boss."

With subnet access disabled, V was unable to make the call he wanted to make.

Oh well... anyway, that idiot isn't very good at chatting.

V crossed his arms and waited quietly for Arasaka's team to arrive.

...

An hour later, piercing sirens blared over Jakarta.

The sound of the Osprey's propellers lingered, and a raging fire broke out on one floor of the building that V had once seen.

Arasaka's SUV was parked on the side of the road.

V tidied his hair, his white shirt stained with many splattered blood droplets.

She opened the car door, threw her suit into the passenger seat, and looked at the bloodstains on her face through the mirror.

I was about to return to Night City when this happened—

Of course, she wasn't referring to tonight's actions, but rather that she would have to spend money again to remove the scars.

V doesn't know why she's so concerned about her appearance now.

She tutted.

It felt like there was a nameless fire burning inside me, as if something big was about to happen today.

She sat quietly in the driver's seat for a long time, then hurriedly gave a few instructions to the cleanup team—but that wasn't enough. Feeling uneasy, she immediately turned on the subnet communication.

Just then, she received a call from the headquarters in Japan.

Her expression in the mirror gradually changed from astonishment to coldness.

The person at headquarters said slowly, "Ms. V, congratulations on your promotion—we hope you finish your work well and return to Night City as soon as possible."

After the call ended, the car was deathly silent.

Only the faint sound of police sirens could be heard outside…

V slammed his hand on the steering wheel, and a demon mask-like telepathic icon began flashing inside his prosthetic eye.
……

Night City has many skyscrapers like the one in David's house.

The building's mottled orange-yellow exterior is covered in rust, and inside are extremely dense single apartments, making it virtually unsafe for fire safety.

Even in Night City, one needs to make a living to afford a house like this, and it's only for rent, not for sale.

Aside from paying the operating company of the H-series skyscrapers or the sub-landlord for the house, almost everything else—washing machine, drinking water, electricity—has to be paid for by the tenant.

Many mercenaries work and even risk their lives outside just to have a relatively clean place that can shelter them from the wind and rain.

For example, in Lin Yue's memory, V was kicked out of Arasaka Company:
She worked as a mercenary with Jack for half a year before buying Sky Hera and renting a studio apartment in a Night City skyscraper.

Lin Yue looked up at the gray sky, feeling a strange sense of familiarity mixed with strangeness.

Perhaps it was due to lost memories, but every corner of Night City seemed strange and new.

Night City is bigger than you might imagine. In the game, you can walk from Westbrook to Watson District in just a few minutes by strolling through the streets, but in reality, it takes about ten minutes just to take the light rail, which runs at speeds close to 200 km/h.

However, these are cities with advanced technology, so public transportation should be faster and more convenient.

The two men stood side by side, chatting casually.

"You're saying that the city's crappy light rail is slow?"

Jack thought that the guys at the company didn't know everything.

Seeing that Lin Yue was interested, he explained, "I've been to other cities in California. Although they're not as chaotic as Night City, at least the public transportation is fine—it all started many years ago when two trains collided."

"Tsk tsk tsk, that was fucking awful!"

Collision?

Lin Yue's expression was strange. Logically speaking, this kind of train operation network is handled by AI for calculation and scheduling. So, is this collision... a hacker?
Jack: "At the time, it was said that the carriages were severely deformed, and there was not enough room to place the bodies of the passengers. The official explanation was that it was a malicious KongBu attack, but I heard from some well-connected hackers that... it was something that AI did to kill the family members of some company's dog."

"Looks like the cyber surveillance office? The cyber surveillance office not far from the company square—yes, that's it!"

Lin Yue found this incredible.

AI actually took the initiative to persecute the family members of internet monitors?
Such behavior is more like that of a vengeful human; can AI do that?

The area beneath the skyscraper was bustling with noise.

Jack wiped the table with his sleeve. "Two servings of Asian food. What was that again? Noodles?"

Lin Yue held up two fingers and said to the shop owner, "Two servings of fried noodles."

The boss was taken aback when he heard someone speak Chinese, then smiled kindly.

Lin Yue didn't know why, but he could always quickly distinguish the appearances of people from Xia Kingdom when he was out and about.

Jack, like a parrot, mimicked, "Tide, soft—that's such a tongue twister."

Lin Yue clearly didn't want to let go of the previous topic, "Let's continue talking about Jack."

Jack took out disposable chopsticks and carefully broke them apart. "So, there are still more interesting stories on the streets, right? Okay... if you like listening, I'll continue telling you."

"These are all old stories, just hearsay... but it's probably about some unlucky guy [whose job is to monitor roving AI] being targeted by the roving AI, just because he left behind a string of those spores..."

Lin Yue added: "Data spores."

"Yes! It's because of this thing that the city's dispatching AI was hacked. The AI's calculations were too accurate—it was a kind of retaliatory action."

Lin Yue listened to this story, which sounded like something out of a fairy tale.

He rarely showed shock on his face, but his eyes widened slightly.

"Wait, Jack...you mean the roaming AI can have its own goals and independently carry out these retaliatory actions?"

Just then, the stir-fried noodles arrived.

Jack skillfully used chopsticks, staring at Lin Yue with an idiotic look in his eyes.

"Hey buddy, don't AIs always love to fight tooth and nail with your company? I don't know much about this, but I know our group of 'friends' in the online world are pretty capable!"

"Thankfully, internet surveillance has been more frequent in recent years, and there seems to be no AI retaliatory behavior on the North American internet anymore—"

"Going back ten or twenty years... there were countless examples, even AI contacting middlemen to hire cyberpunk squads to crack open the heads of their hacker enemies offline! Can you believe that?!"

Lin Yue was chewing on noodles, but his mind was racing: Holy crap?
Jack, who liked to wolf down his food, blew on the hot food and continued, "I heard from the middleman that those guys who like to deal with AI are all incredibly rich! Apparently, you can find them on the bounty website for monitoring AI information networks. If you catch a roaming AI, you'll be rich and powerful for a whole year!"

Lin Yue gripped the chopsticks tightly. "[AI Hunter], right?"

Jack nodded, looking suspicious.

"What? Not enough money from the company, trying to find a way out here? Hey... take my advice, buddy. I used to do a job finding hacker corpses. A lot of hackers in Night City died in weird locations. AI can blow your brains out in a second!"

"If you want to die, go to the power plant in Santo Domingo and touch the high-voltage switch; that might be a quicker way to end it."

Lin Yue, whose brain was being used as a playground by the roving AI, still didn't reveal his situation, and Jack probably wouldn't believe him anyway.

He ate his noodles silently, thinking: What exactly are AI, internet surveillance, and AI hunters?
Because he will also need to deal with these inanimate intelligent programs in the future. He desperately needs a guide... Sasha isn't even a hacker who deals with AI.

He had to search for data in the dark, and in the end, he needed guidance from someone with experience in this field—unfortunately, he didn't seem to have any information about it at all.

It's useless to remember.

Perhaps it's forgetting due to AI being implanted in my brain? Or maybe I've never been involved in this field before.

Lin Yue didn't think the fried noodles were very tasty.

However, he was the type of person who would pick out even cockroaches from the soup noodles and continue swallowing them, so he didn't pay much attention to the taste since he wasn't picky about it.

The AI ​​story ended in his mind, and he was curiously looking at Jack.

Jack has obvious signs of prosthetic modifications on his face and neck.

In this world, brain-computer interfaces are almost essential for mercenaries.

His arms are covered in tattoos... but they look like real leather?
In fact, the data from the internal scan of the prosthetic eye was basically consistent with the naked eye's assessment, indicating that Jack's prosthetic body had undergone very little modification.

This is intriguing.

A former member of the Valentino gang who rarely implants advanced prosthetics, dared to go to the Blue Sky with just V to pry open Lai Xuan's box?
It seems like a complete fantasy.

But then he thought, how could he and V fight their way through the entire food factory, which was full of Vortex gangs... Could he be a lone wolf with a very strong physique? At this moment, he wished that Jack's various attributes could appear in his prosthetic eye.

Jack dropped the brightly colored disposable lunchbox.

"You've been sizing me up for ages, do you think I'm good at this?"

Lin Yue: "Aren't you getting a prosthetic body?"

Jack patted his biceps under his leather jacket, making a solid cracking sound.

"Lift weights, eat well, and as long as you're in good shape, that's all that matters—I'm a veteran boxer, even Old Wei isn't a match for me. Want to give it a try?"

"Of course, good prosthetic bodies are very expensive, I don't have that much money."

Lin Yue shook his head, "I thought that since you're in the Valentino gang, you'd at least get some modifications done to yourself."

Jack waved his hand dismissively. "I haven't touched anything except my titanium skeleton."

"Muscles are the only reliable thing. When I was in the Valentino gang, I was so grateful for these muscles. A bullet... was just millimeters away from my heart, and my mom was already preparing for her funeral."

Lin Yue watched the burly man speak so seriously and was suddenly amused.

"So... that's it for today? I have to take care of some company business... I'll arrange the team's mission. Let's make our move on the day Joey delivers the goods to Dogtown, okay?"

Jack shrugged. "Cheng, don't worry about the money. V deals in cash; we do it all the time."

Just as Lin Yue stood up to call Suzuki to pick him up... V's call came in.

After hesitating for a moment, he answered the call and saw V's icy face and eyes.

……
-
David's Walkman was playing "Who's Ready for Tomorrow," a piece of music with a touch of light jazz that suited his taste perfectly.

He is now considered a very honest child.

To put his mother's mind at ease, David hasn't even been wandering around after school these past few days. He's already temporarily forgotten about the Mewtwo buyout incident, treating it as a minor episode. Gloria is quite surprised by his behavior these past few days.

David felt that his mother didn't understand.

Right now, all he wants to do is study hard and try to get a summer internship in Arasaka by the middle of this year.

This would undoubtedly be an impressive resume for employment, although the spots would basically be filled by the rich kids who have AI tutoring them every day at home, but David was very confident in his learning ability.

I'll rely on myself.

Securing the summer internship opportunity at Arasaka on your own is so cool—Rin-san will definitely be impressed.

David is now consciously trying to control his leg-shaking habits... Although life goes on as usual, Shengnan and his lackeys at the academy still pick on him every day, but David is doing this to better prepare for meeting Mr. Rin next time, and he even ignores those idiots.

He wants to become more stable, mature, and reliable!
Kids are strange like that; in adults' eyes, they just like to act cool for no reason.

But David didn't think so; he was serious!

Just like the lyrics say: And now I'm getting older.

Seeing the chubby guy on the roadside watching "Exciting Mewtwo" and making "ooh ooh" sounds, David was speechless. This guy had put on a 24-hour "realistic" sensory device, riding on the concrete handrail at the skyscraper entrance every day, rubbing his big butt back and forth...

What's most disgusting is that the lifelike device is actually made of pink.

Damn it...

But speaking of Mewtwo, I wonder how the Mewtwo doctor is doing?

According to his guess, perhaps…

The telephone, a common feature in Night City, rang.

David's expression froze.

Whatever comes to mind.

[Caller: Doctor]

David assumed that Mr. Lin's subordinates had dealt with him.

David missed the doctor quite a bit after not receiving a call from him for several days. After all, David had worked with this doctor for a long time, and it would be a lie to say that he didn't have some feelings for him. After all, David had earned a lot of the money for his equipment from the doctor.

The doctor's face on the other screen almost filled the entire screen—

He roared in a rough voice, "David! You fucking idiot, I'll fuck your ass! You bastard!"

David: "..."

The doctor, having vented his anger, sat back down in his chair.

David was actually quite nervous. It seemed the doctor had broken free from Arasaka's control? Or had he escaped death?
David swallowed hard, about to defend himself—

The doctor waved his strange prosthetic arm. "How many days have you stood me up? Do you still want the Mewtwo copyright? I'm waiting to make money!"

David's face stiffened, then collapsed. "Huh?"

Just as the doctor was about to start yelling, David stopped him.

The mad doctor, operating in the Sixth Street gang's territory, finally let out a satisfied hum.

However, David's next words made him sit up and continue with his beautiful language.

"I'm not going to buy the copyright anymore. How about we delete each other's contact information? You know what I mean, I'm quitting."

The doctor cursed, "You're the head of the school district, and you're quitting? How am I supposed to sell all these Mewtwos? What's wrong with selling Black Mewtwos—help your mom supplement the family income."

Seeing that David wasn't buying it, he pleaded, "At least get rid of all the stuff I have in stock! Don't you realize I only have stuff that you students like to watch? Who watches this stuff if they're a bit older?!"

David was quite curious as to why Arasaka hadn't hired this prosthetic doctor.

He probed indirectly, "You gave me that Mewtwo, it's from Arasaka, you saw the logo on its prosthetic body, right? Aren't you afraid the company will cause you trouble?"

The doctor spread his hands with a sly grin. "Because I fucking never look at them. Some things are too much for my eyes. I rely entirely on client feedback... Besides, what's wrong with Mewtwo from Arasaka? I still have the 'Female Boss' series in stock, want some?"

David, with a look of defeat, said, "I'll leave once I've sold the rest of the Dream Team! Just so you know."

The doctor chuckled loudly, "That's more like it!"

At this moment, in Santo Domingo, behind an automatic door adorned with the new American stripes and a skull.

The light in the cyborg doctor's eyes slowly faded. He raised his hands above his head, sitting casually, the smoke from his mouth drifting slowly upwards towards the dark ceiling.

Two women, one tall and one short, stood with their arms crossed, looking at him.

The doctor sneered, "How is it? Are there any signs that the call has been hijacked?"

The dark orange light that had been representing invasion in Lucy's eyes went out, and she slowly shook her head at Qiwei beside her.

Qi Wei's eyes were lifeless, and the thin cigarette stuck in her mask was almost burning right up to it...

"Ugh, damn it... all my external memories have been wiped clean, I don't even know who did it. You said that kid was right next to you when you woke up? Should we have Mann tie him up?"

Lucy shook her head. "Would anyone from Arasaka Academy dare to kidnap someone? Mann works for Arasaka too... Do you think he'd be capable? Lately, he's been preoccupied with finding the best prosthetic body, he doesn't have time to help us two newcomers solve our problems... We haven't even done many requests yet."

The doctor remained silent for a long time.

Suddenly, he stretched his neck out and shouted, "Hey! You're plotting loudly right in front of me, are you trying to silence me?!"

Qiwei tossed a chip to him. "Integrate this into Mewtwo. We need to locate that kid; finding someone in Night City is quite troublesome—"

The doctor was holding the chip in his hand, about to speak.

Lucy's eyes lit up. "Here's the money. Is this a good deal, Doctor?"

The doctor looked at the money in the account and gave a thumbs up.

"No problem, I'll take care of it, buddy!"

……
-
There was something Lin Yue couldn't understand.

Before hanging up, V said she would settle accounts with him when she got back.

What else could there be?
Of course, it's about his own exploits at Konbi, Abernathy's neck being snapped by him, Michiko going back to her hometown to spend her "summer vacation" at her grandfather's house... and a series of chain reactions, including the attitude of headquarters.

Lin Yue knew very well that V cared about him.

Of course, in Lin Yue's eyes, Jenkins sitting in position V should be a win-win situation for everyone.

At first, he patiently explained to V, who had sworn several times: with V supporting the counterintelligence department, and him acting as a henchman, the world would be peaceful, and with this arrangement, he would have more time to deal with Dogtown.

Unexpectedly, V's expression became even uglier after hearing this.

"Have you ever thought about what would happen if you killed the wrong person at the shareholders' meeting, or if you couldn't get out of Sapphire, or if Jenkins betrayed you? What do you take me for?"

Then the call was hung up.

Lin Yue shrugged, and Suzuki next to him pressed the button for another floor in the elevator. "Boss, your office is on the 90th floor. Miss V hasn't returned yet, so Jenkins' office is temporarily yours."

"Ms. V's office is under renovation."

Lin Yue felt the prosthetic body at the back of his neck was a bit stiff, so he moved it around.

He felt completely relaxed.

Since returning from Honshu, the prosthetic body hasn't been properly disinfected. Old Wei had to use multiple antivirus programs to barely remove some mainstream malware.

"Where is Sasha?"

Suzuki hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Lin Yue glanced at him and said, "Speak."

Suzuki then chuckled and said, "Miss Sasha is currently... uh, in the medical department because she participated in network attacks and defenses with extremely high data density."

This was the first time Suzuki had made a mistake under Rin's command.

I didn't report the situation of the hacker the boss trusted most in a timely manner—

To be honest, Suzuki wanted to slap himself a few times; he was probably too busy to think straight.

The elevator vibrated slightly, and Lin Yue remained silent for a long time.

"Go to the 49th floor, the medical department."

The elevator doors opened, and a red-haired woman from the counterintelligence department on the 90th floor stood outside. She seemed very arrogant, with her chin slightly raised.

[Employee Information: Kate]

Lin Yue looked at the woman's prosthetic eye, which resembled that of a compound-eyed insect. The woman seemed unaware that the new head of the counterintelligence department was in the elevator.

The employee handbook clearly stipulates that employees should greet their superiors.

Lin Yue felt the woman looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he had seen her before.

"Mr. Rin!"

Kate bowed.

"Here is a document from this state that you may need to review."

Suzuki reached out and stopped him. "What about the protocol level? I don't think there's anything besides the [Falcon Protocol] that would allow you to stop your boss's elevator, right?"

Kate looked at Rin's slightly indifferent face and felt as if she had unknowingly offended her new boss. She hesitated and said, "Of course it's not the Falcon Agreement. You're joking... It's just an intelligence gathering job related to the investigation."

Suzuki shook his head. "Any two counterintelligence employees could have done this."

"Don't dump everything on your boss. He hired you to solve problems, not to waste time putting these kinds of problems on his desk, understand?"

Kate, being several ranks below Suzuki, quickly bowed.

"terribly sorry."

Suzuki's voice came through, "Please take the next one, ma'am."

The elevator started going down again.

Lin Yue: "The Falcon Protocol is the highest level of the Arasaka safety incident, right? Suzuki... be gentler with your colleagues."

Suzuki nodded.

The medical wards are now completely unable to stop Lin Yue, a company employee with such authority...

One person attains the Tao and the chicken and dog ascend to heaven.

Since Rin became the head of the Arasaka Counterintelligence Department, which operates alongside V, Sasha has also received a lot of good medical resources.

On the way, Lin Yue checked Sasha's condition on the subnet. She had some minor problems caused by the damage to the network access warehouse, as well as the aftereffects of overworking her brain... She should recover soon.

However, this affected Jack's and his actions a few days later...

In the ward, Sasha, dressed in a clean and comfortable white Arasaka hospital gown, lay in the warm room, staring blankly out the window.

The weather is lovely today; the sun shines brightly outside, complementing the warm yellow decor…

It's a good day.

Because it was a soundproof ward, Sasha didn't notice the two tall men standing not far away watching her.

Sasha wondered if Rin could hold out this time.

Before she fainted, Rin was carrying a knife and eliminating the hackers involved.

What was the outcome of the power struggle within the Arasaka leadership? The intelligent young girl had no idea—but she had learned a great deal about Arasaka during this time, which was why she dared not think any further, much less ask the nurse who brought her delicious meals every day.

A shameful escape.

Before she fainted, Sasha thought a lot. She didn't know if she was doing the right thing.
Is it really possible to achieve the goal of destroying biotechnology by using Arasaka's help?
She remembered the first time she met Lin, or rather, Lin Yue.

At that time, Lin Yue was a soldier in Dogtown, and she even cooperated with the squad to try to kill him. Then there was that period of time, which was neither too long nor too short—she was wholeheartedly looking for Mann, and at that time she cooperated with Lin Yue many times under the online name "Cat".

In her eyes, both Lin Yue and Lin were reliable people.

But when the black wall descended, she realized that the person in front of her was not the same guy as before. There was always a worry gathered between his brows, as if he was helpless or tired.

Even someone as intelligent as him had to endure immense danger in the desolate hills.

Without Rin, I'd have a hard time even getting a foothold in the world.

Those hatreds, some people are bearing them with her.

Her eyes lowered.

If one day an agent comes in and takes her away, does that mean Rin has failed?

The girl felt she had bad luck. She had begged Rin to take her into Arasaka, but unfortunately she wasn't strong enough, which allowed Rin to hold out in Konpaku for so long.

Is he okay?

Sasha has a keen sense of smell. Her blank gaze as she stared out the window suddenly shifted, and the tip of her nose wrinkled slightly.

A familiar smell of smoke and the complex aroma of sandalwood from the office wafted into my nostrils.

Lin Yue had just walked to the bedside when the blanket was pulled back.

He shifted slightly backward, and the girl wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.

Suzuki turned his head away and immediately left the ward.

Lin Yue frowned slightly and sighed helplessly, "It's not too late to cry when I lie down, Sasha."

His hand froze in mid-air before slowly falling and patting Sasha on the back.

She was young, and although she was a cold-blooded hacker from Night City, the struggles with Arasaka... might have frightened her.

It's unreasonable to be too harsh on a young girl, but Lin Yue didn't dare to be too sentimental, so he could only pat her on the shoulder to comfort her.

Lin Yue wanted to say something more—

Sasha was more agile than a cat; she burrowed into the blankets, covered her head with the blankets, and turned her back to Lin Yue.

Lin Yue stood there stunned for a while, then shrugged and slowly sat down on the chair next to the hospital bed.

Sasha felt like something was wrong with her head. Why did she suddenly act impulsively and make the atmosphere so awkward? She swore that she was just too insecure. Rin's return made her feel safe and secure, as if she had someone to rely on.

Thinking of this, she buried her head even deeper into the blanket.

Ashamed.

Lin Yue didn't think this incident had any impact on him.

At this moment, the man, who had just experienced a major reshuffle in the company, was looking at the sunlight outside the window.

Everything is perfect.

Just like Tarot cards:
The Queen's card depicts the fertile land beneath her feet and the hopeful light of spring.

……

　[Asian food]: The small stall that Jack ate at when he picked up V to meet DeShawn.

　　[The unfortunate man who worked as a cyber police officer specifically to monitor roving AI]: This refers to Richard Oldman, who once worked for the cyber police until his wife and children died at the hands of a roving AI, after which he became an AI hunter [witch hunter].

　　【Who's Ready for Tomorrow】: The background music for David's journey from the skyscraper to Arasaka Academy in the anime "The Edge Walker".
　　
　
(End of this chapter)