Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 172 [A Like Supreme] (12)

[Incoming caller: Rin]

The Night City Communications Company's universal ringtone rang, and a demon-like image flickered indistinctly...

Wow!

A rather bony arm rose from the bathtub, with a few scattered pieces of ice still clinging to it—

"what's up?"

Qiwei rested her head on the edge of the bathtub, the thin cigarette on her mask swaying with ribbon-like smoke.

Rin's voice sounded tired on the other end, "Your Pathfinder program is too slow... I need an accurate network building map in six hours; if you can't handle it, don't be ashamed to ask my network expert for help."

Qiwei didn't quite understand why Rin, the middleman, always seemed to have a strange, harsh attitude towards her...

As the water rippled, Qi Wei, who was completely naked, stepped out of the bathtub, splashing water all over her body. She finally swallowed her anger.

Beneath the calm tone lay a hint of stubbornness:

"In an hour, I will send you the map of 'Heartfelt Thoughts' and 'Sapphire Blue,' along with detailed architectural information... Are you satisfied with this speed?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end.

"I hope you weren't just showing off."

"Notify Pila and Rebecca... to help me find someone in Dogtown. I've attached the details."

Qiwei's eyelids drooped, her gaze shifting upwards. Pila leaned against the wall, her hands behind her neck. Rebecca, wearing only a thin, form-fitting black bra, dangled her small feet from the sofa armrest, her legs slightly plump. The pink bubblegum in her mouth occasionally made soft popping sounds.

And there's that strong woman sitting with her back bent, Dorio.

The dark golden light in her eyes, indicating the call status, dimmed, and Qi Wei muttered the word "bastard" under her mask.

Rebecca looked at Qiwei, unsure if the woman was complaining about Lin Yue.

However… the team was about to disband, and as someone who could stay in Night City, she couldn’t be bothered to argue with a woman.

Hmm, just in a good mood.

Qi Wei, unburdened by her clothes, sat down on the sofa, her long, straight legs crossed. "Lin spoke... I need to get the surrounding network map in an hour, and—the three of you need to investigate someone."

"Now?"

Pila glanced at the impenetrable darkness outside the window. "Wandering around the streets in the middle of the night... are you sure the Ghost Hound won't deal with us? Also—the color on your clothes is a bit too kitschy, a bit flat."

Qiwei didn't even look at the person behind her, and gave the middle finger, "Speak up when your finger is longer than mine."

Rebecca sat up. It seemed that Lin Yue didn't intend to reveal his identity to Qiwei and Dorio... What did that mean?

In Rebecca's view, such choices and actions were somewhat complicated. Whether it was Rin or Lin Yue, although V had told her at the company that the prosthetic on Lin Yue's face would change his behavior and personality, Rebecca could "smell" what was in his bones...

Dorio and Mann were more like...benevolence?
Qiwei was simply being wary.

Of course, if Rebecca knew that Lin Yue had "higher-dimensional" memories of this world, she would understand why Lin Yue, who dared to mediate with the Arasaka forces and was growing rapidly, made this choice.

Since Lin Yue didn't want to talk about it, Rebecca wouldn't make the decision on her own.

"So, does that mean we're going to make a move?"

A feeling of excitement coursed through his entire body, and even his arms started to itch.

Qiwei added at this moment, "Don't make a fuss. Try to find out how many people this company dog ​​brought in. Lin will make a unified plan tomorrow morning."

Dorio asked, "I remember Rin said there was another mercenary with him, was it Lin Yue?"

Pila scratched his head. "No, supposedly it's some Haywood kid—"

"Hey! Why bother with all that? If Hanz's head explodes tomorrow, we'll just find a way to scramble to our feet and make a run for it."

Qiwei's narrow eyes turned to Dorio.

"And why did you come in? Rin should have someone in charge of your security. Once Mann finds you, you can leave this place... There's no need for you to come to Dogtown to work. You saw it yourself, Rin didn't even think about assigning you any tasks."

Dorothy silently smoked her cigarette.

She understood what Mr. Lin meant. Qiwei had come in later and didn't know how long they had been struggling in this muddy swamp of Dogtown... The most important thing in Night City was human relationships. Favors were hard to repay, and everyone relied on friends when they went out to do business.

The perceptive Dorio understood: this was Rin's way of repaying him for risking his life to save Lin Yue from those military soldiers...

Seeing that Dorio didn't answer, Qiwei finished her cigarette comfortably and then had to go back to the cold bathtub—she hated this feeling of being unable to control her own destiny.

Qiwei hardly sleeps. She usually just hangs up on the internet for a short time. When she gets tired, she asks a prosthetic doctor to clean the waste from her cerebrospinal fluid. Once she falls asleep, she can see a group of ugly-faced guys lewdly grinning at her without clothes on. She is so disgusted that she refuses to close her eyes no matter how sleepy she is.

"I envy you so much... Dorio."

A soft, distant voice drifted over…

Rebecca unzipped her jacket, hiding her fair skin inside.

She desperately wanted to tell Doriosa that she was still alive, hoping that this good news would temporarily dispel some of the gloom in her heart.

The girl, suppressing her impulse, glanced at Dorio, whose expression was unreadable, and whispered:

"everything will get better."

Dorio gave a wry smile. "What more could I ask for? The company helped me find someone, and Mr. Rin even let me stay in a safe location in Dogtown for the time being to avoid trouble... I'm just afraid of Mann. Oh well, that bastard is always like this."

"It's like a child. Even though there are so many prosthetic bodies, they just randomly inject inhibitors like they're nutrient solutions."

Although Qiwei stared blankly at the ceiling, she actually heard everything they said.

Dying in Night City amidst various commissions and missions felt like a release. No matter how life throws your curveballs, it's always good to have feelings—but losing your direction is truly terrible.

In fact, Qiwei did not think she had any talent, but her experiences in the sex club and factory forced her to clean herself up and use her rare rest time to learn about the internet.

That was the only way she could change herself.

Now, this woman, who has lost both her dignity and her jawline, feels that burying everything is the most ambitious goal.

Anyone who brings up her past, anyone who brings up her wretched body, will pay the price—she must live with dignity…no one has the right to interfere.

And only the company can make this wish come true.

Perhaps influenced by Mr. Rin's harshness, Qiwei felt a little regretful. She should have kept Dorio busy with something; maybe that would have been kinder to this poor woman.
then.

"Ah... there must be something wrong with my mailbox panel lately."

"Dorio, could you please mark the downloaded map for me? Rin asked me to."

Dorothy paused for a moment, then stubbed out her cigarette.

He patted Rebecca's head and said, "Be careful, stay with Pila..."

"okay."

Rebecca stared blankly at the short-haired woman whose emotional tolerance seemed as immense as her body, and nodded.

call…

Yes, nothing has changed, nothing has changed at all!
Seeing the woman walk towards Qiwei's personal PC with her hands in her pockets, Rebecca softly called out:
"Let's go, you idiot bro."

No one answered.

Then, she turned around and looked at the empty space behind her, her face changed, and she roared, "Pila, where the hell are you?"

A strange scream came from the toilet.

"Wait, I need to pee—Wuhu! Qiwei, you have so many styles of underwear! Hahaha! I've seen them in ads!"

Rebecca's face flushed red instantly!
Bang!
A loud gunshot rang out.

The bullet struck the dilapidated automatic door, sending sparks flying. Smoke billowed from the muzzle of Liz's pistol. Her eyes widened, she gritted her teeth, and gave him the middle finger. "Disgusting bastard! Get the hell out here—don't force me to open the door and I'll shoot you twice!"

"屮!"

Ashamed.

Inside, Pila, squatting on the toilet, was holding a lace bra between two fingers, looking quite interested. She waved her hand and said, "Okay, okay..."

Qi Wei, cigarette between her fingers, sneered, "Scumbag."

Dorothy shrugged helplessly, but she thought that if Mann were there, he would be very happy.

Rebecca's face was grim, the butt of her pistol tapping against her head. Although Qiwei wasn't looking at her, she still felt like she was being pricked by needles. "Uh... goodbye, everyone!"

Immediately afterwards, the toilet door opened, and Pila furtively tried to slip out.

Qiwei's eyes lit up—

A surge of electricity coursing through his body, concentrated in his buttocks, caused him to leap up like a startled mouse, clutching his backside as he ran outside.

"That old woman! She's really holding a grudge!"

……
-
Night City, Westbrook, Japan Street Apartments.

It's cold on the rooftop.

The girl's silver-white hair fluttered wildly in the fierce wind on the rooftop as she quietly gazed at the moon between the two super skyscrapers.

Smoke and dust began to fill the air…

An NCX space shuttle is rising, its exhaust plume seemingly the only hope for this glamorous yet corrupt world.

A fervent yet desperate gaze remained fixed on the "Noah's Ark," a vessel costing hundreds of thousands of euros to board, until it vanished completely...

Lucy's flickering gaze gradually calmed down, and she turned her gaze to the muscular man behind her, dressed in an Arasaka suit.

"It's really kind of you all... Ara-saka's senior executives are standing guard for me."

Suzuki Takeyoshi seemed oblivious to the sarcasm in his words and stood quietly.

"They can't talk, they have no temper, that's how office workers are."

"Including your boss, who treats us low-level cyberpunks like fools, manipulating us and using our lives to do dirty work for you."

Suzuki could ignore everything else, but not this one.

“Miss Lusina, I hope you can see the situation clearly. Lord Rin has already shown leniency... You know better than I what the consequences are for secretly using data mined by Arasaka’s equipment... Besides, you still have pursuers in Warsaw (Poland).

"If you want to die, continue to defy him... or I can kill you right now."

Lucy's expression stiffened for a moment, her teeth grinding together, but she ultimately said nothing more.

Suzuki, however, had no intention of letting this guy, who didn't know what was good, get away with it.

"There are only two places where Arasaka's enemies die: Night City and Arasaka's interrogation room—you are the first cyber hacker to violate corporate law and only be placed under house arrest. Don't take yourself too seriously, although I don't know why Lady Rin spared your life—"

"But I don't want to hear it a second time."

In a daze, the girl saw another blurry shadow overlapping with the man's body.

His father, a veteran of the "Corporate Wars," seemed like a reliable man, yet he willingly allowed his daughter to dig up data from the old network, saying it was a contribution to Arasaka—

Do you have children, Suzuki?

Suzuki pursed his lips and did not answer.

Counterintelligence training programs have explicit clauses prohibiting the disclosure of personal information to any suspicious individuals.

"The company has brainwashed you. One day they will take your family, your children, and finally your life... You are all enslaved machines, willingly sacrificing yourselves for this monster!"

“We were trained by Arasaka from a young age. My father knew that one child would die every day, yet he still left me next to the network server at the bottom of the tower—”

"One day, you will too!"

Suzuki suddenly leaped onto the rooftop.

He placed his hand on Lucy's shoulder, which was trembling slightly from her emotional outburst: "Your break time is here. Arasaka will send female employees to keep an eye on your daily life. Please go ahead."

Lucy lay listlessly on the bed, looking like a zombie. Before her was the Mewtwo headband, its chip adorned with a massive, beautiful moon…

There was a noise behind me, and the female employee from Arasaka, whose eyes had been modified to be red, walked in.

It's Kate from the counterintelligence department.

The woman felt that even if she was working overtime, she shouldn't be doing such boring work. She pulled over a chair, crossed her arms, yawned, and quietly stared at the girl's back.

Suzuki glanced at the time; it was time for shift change. The automatic door in front of him opened—

A sharp-eyed, tall woman stood quietly outside the door.

He quickly lowered his head, "Ms. V..."

V made a muffled sound from his nose, "Hmm... I've looked at the intelligence, it's a bit troublesome. Why is that mercenary hanging out with that group of people?"

Suzuki did not speak.

He found the person, but he wasn't authorized to do things that required his permission.

“I’m here to talk to this…former colleague.”

Only the faint scent of V's expensive perfume remained in front of Suzuki. He looked up, took a deep breath, and flipped his wrist; the screen of his watch gradually displayed his wife's image…

He glanced behind him, silently withdrew his hand, and disappeared into the graffiti-covered, slightly messy corridor.

Lucy noticed that the people in the room had changed, but she didn't intend to say a few words to the new company dog.

Unexpectedly, the woman behind him said, "V...the head of the counterintelligence department."

The words "counterintelligence" immediately stung Lucy's nerves.

If she didn't understand the internal job hierarchy of Arasaka, she naturally wouldn't understand the meaning of this term. But for anyone involved with the company—especially someone from Arasaka—hearing the head of this department sitting behind them would keep them up at night…

How could she be at such a high level?

Having seen V in her past life, Lucy knew perfectly well that this woman was a senior hacker from the company she couldn't possibly defeat.

So he was waiting for her to free her hands to question him...

Lucy, who had once thought she could withstand the investigation, suddenly lost her composure.

V was unusually relaxed; she was confident she could win over this girl from Night City.

Lucy said calmly, "What else is there to say? I've said what I needed to say... Since coming to Night City, no one else has seen these things. Perhaps you should find Qiwei—that untrustworthy liar. She might have made a backup of these things."

It's resentment...

V felt that the girl in front of him probably hadn't suffered any major losses. "In Night City, betrayal is all too easy... but this is your first time, so I can understand. I don't like to talk nonsense, so just answer my questions."

Lucy chuckled softly.

All company employees are the same.

"I've seen what's inside. It's worth three of your heads, but some parts have been tampered with. Were you aware of that?"

Lucy remained calm and slowly shook her head.

"Sure?"

V's lips curled into a smile. "What happened to what the AI ​​main program downloaded?"

Lucy stared intently into the eyes of the beautiful woman opposite her. "What main program? I don't know..."

Liars like to look directly into the eyes of the other person.

V was used to stubborn people. "Of course it's the key you left behind. Maybe he won't notice if you play dumb with Rin... but how do you think you're going to hide from my eyes?"

Lucy immediately clenched her hands behind her back.

"I do not understand what you are saying."

V didn't say much either.

Her style is that she won't listen to gentle persuasion and will resort to force without warning.

As the woman approached, Lucy had no way to resist. What quick cracking, what single-molecule line? If she took such measures, the company's executives would definitely not hesitate to take action.

V's hand, seemingly just a corporate-style prosthetic with gold trim and no real strength, squeezed Lucy's chin painfully...

The woman's faint scent of herbs and trees, along with fear, rushed into Lucy's senses. "A natural face, so pretty, sweetheart… But you can't keep Arasaka's assets for yourself. You certainly wouldn't leave these things stored in external memory, but the memories in your brain can't be accessed…" V's lips drew close to Lucy's ear, "Have you heard of the [Soul Killer]?"

“It seems that these things can be read from programmed data.”

Lucy froze, finally understanding what a counterintelligence agency was... The femme fatale stared into her colorful pupils, as if savoring the girl's fear.

"The key is with Poland [404], I don't have it—you can ask them if you don't believe me."

Lucy said the words with difficulty.

V's calm, serene gaze seemed to be weighing the girl's sincerity.

……
-
Lin Yue lay on the bed, one arm propped behind his head, deep in thought.

He just saw the message Emma sent, and the person in it looked familiar...

Lin Yue's first thought was: How could it be her?
Meredes, Operations Manager of the Night City Division of Military Technology, held a slightly higher rank than V remembered when he was kicked out.

According to Arasaka's intelligence, this woman was purged by the military.

If everything remained the same, Lin Yue would naturally have a way of guessing the other party's next move, but Meredith was kicked out of the company during this period and came to Dogtown... all of this seemed a bit strange.

Is the butterfly effect really that powerful?
In his memory, the old woman who was so anxious and angry because the Whirlpool Gang had intercepted "Short Hair" was struggling even with internal company politics.

Lin Yue immediately stopped thinking; using preconceived notions to guess about the other side, or to make guesses about an unfamiliar person, seemed to be a case of preconceived notions.

This is a dynamic and ever-changing world, filled only with unknown risks.

Unfortunately, Nitta Heya's biased stance, coupled with his father Hinode's tight-lipped nature, prevented them from finding out who was behind it all or who gave the orders to the military science team.

But I always felt that I had some connection with this woman.

Even with their backsides, the military science department is still unwilling to give up, searching for a so-called non-existent list of agents. Having already harassed the military science department several times, they're probably the number one on the other side's purge list, and military technology is likely the most active in carrying out retaliatory actions…

Just then, Lin Yue was about to call Sasha and ask her to check the network traffic in Dogtown to analyze the woman's location.

Surprisingly, a communication icon was hanging above the prosthetic eye...

When was it hung up?
Lin Yue felt a bead of sweat appear on his forehead.

"Sasha, are you there?"

Sasha's voice was sweet, "Mmm... I'm here!"

Lin Yue was speechless for a moment.

Why...is there no call notification?

He was certain that when he met Emma, ​​there was no notification in his prosthetic eye indicating that Sasha was on a call.

But what Sasha said next made Lin Yue feel like the sky had fallen...

"It's probably because you and I have linked our brains, and with the AI ​​main program taking over, I can contact you without your authentication. Don't worry, I will keep an eye on the network around you."

Lin Yue sat up straight.

Is now the time to say this?

Unexpectedly, Sasha's call bar flashed, and her image appeared on the holographic screen. She said with an extremely serious expression, "There is a high possibility that there are hackers in Dogtown trying to obtain your information. This is a plan we made in Arasaka. I also paid close attention to that woman just now."

“She initiated a protocol for the behavioral chip and even made a dangerous armed maneuver in front of you... but I judged it to be low-risk behavior and did not attack her with the subnet.”

"During your three-hour meeting, you spoke a total of 151 times, with 14 instances posing a risk of leaking company secrets—"

Lin Yue, who had developed a thick skin at the company, was starting to lose his composure.

"Wait, stop talking."

Sasha nodded. "Okay."

Lin Yuezhen felt that sometimes it would be better to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it.

"I'm sending you a message about someone. Check the traffic data for the next few days... It would be best if you could find her location. Get me some information as soon as possible."

Sasha was about to get to work.

Lin Yue said, "There's one more thing. Try to remind me before the call—don't you think that's... presumptuous? I mean, regarding privacy."

Sasha's expression darkened slightly.

"Because I couldn't contact you, it led to dangerous situations many times..."

The way this girl speaks now is very similar to Lin Yue's when he was in Honshu, with that cold and indifferent air... Lin Yue knows exactly what's going on.

"Of course, I don't feel anything, and I understand what you're doing... This is how men and women express their feelings, and I promise I won't say anything—nor will I tell Ms. V."

All right.

Even more embarrassing.

Before Lin Yue knew what to say, Sasha's call window went dark.

The life mentor had seen Sasha and couldn't understand why people who joined the security department would develop such high-functioning cyberpsychotic conditions... Apart from medication, Lin Yue could only plan to let Sasha rest for a while after this trip.

He slowly lay down, playing with the small knife Emma had left behind.

Having lived two lives, Lin Yue knows exactly what this feeling is like... Sometimes, feelings can't be severed just like that.

Many times when he was in danger, Lin Yue would have a kind of intuition.

Emma's subtle movements were somewhat illogical, more like a reluctance to part.

But considering this woman's psychological issues... she seems relatively normal.

Thinking about many things is not as good as asking detailed questions.

[Rin]: Are you alright?

Emma replied to the message quite a while later.

[Emma]: That depends on what aspect you're asking about. You've already seen all the places that have problems, so a little pain is okay, because I really like it :P
[Emma]: And I've started missing you again... Does that count as something happening?

Lin Yue didn't know what to say about this woman.

[Rin]: What I mean is, are you hiding something from me?
Emma: No, darling.

Just as Lin Yue sent the message, Sasha called.

This time she was very polite and chose to inform Lin Yue.

So vengeful...it's like she took her own personality from this state.

"I used a black wall, and the investigation was very quick... She's currently in a house somewhere in the Long Beach stockpile that's listed as a shell company. Should we take her into custody?"

Black wall…

Lin Yue didn't try to dissuade Sasha. "No need... Send me what you found and have the team keep an eye on them. If they're targeting Hanz tomorrow, you're in charge of stopping them."

"If we make a move tonight, Hans will easily notice."

Then Sasha added, "I secretly checked the 'Heartfelt' subnet... someone temporarily released the internet monitoring program."

"It should have been re-downloaded into the firmware (Emma's brain-computer interface); but it has nothing to do with us. You never connected to the subnet; it was someone with a heavy heart who connected to it."

Internet monitoring procedures?

Lin Yue frowned slightly.

As Sasha looked it up, she said, "Uh... let me see this startup key, it looks a bit like... um, [icebreaker]?"

Lin Yue said helplessly, "Sasha... you're using the black wall to quickly gather data again."

Sasha blinked, looking somewhat innocent.

"This seems to have something to do with Black Ice... uh, no, the underlying logic of this thing is controlling... AI?"

Icebreaker program controls AI?

Lin Yue pondered deeply…

Everything is in complete chaos.

This thing was given to V by Li De to counter the lark... so the target should be himself.

Lin Yue asked, "Can you find out which firmware it is...?"

Sasha shook her head. "Using a subnet to infiltrate a private data fortress is easy to detect... We can do some tricks and set up a system in the subnet beforehand. No matter what, the program has an upload process. If there's no connection, nothing will happen... Just to be on the safe side, we should take precautions."

"Either the other side made a mistake, or the other side's target was not you; the latter is unlikely."

Lin Yue deeply agreed. In his memory, the lark had almost been killed by this thing... It was something to be wary of.

After everything was settled, all that was left was for Qiwei to provide the blueprints.

The plan is finalized tomorrow; it's a decapitation strike with almost no time to breathe.

However, Sasha felt conflicted after saying all this.

"what happened?"

Lin Yue had a vague idea of ​​what was going on.

The girl finally looked up. "Boss Rin, your brain-computer interface likely has some kind of firmware installed. That thing can be hacked through the Blackwall protocol. I suggest you unplug it."

No wonder the lark can link to V through Relic…

"This thing is from the other side of the wall... do you understand?"

Looking at Sasha, who rarely showed any other emotions since the AI ​​entered her brain, Lin Yue smiled helplessly and said, "Do you really want me to control the AI ​​and let it crawl around in your brain... watching you fight to the death?"

"My body is having problems, and this thing is temporarily repairing me."

Sasha was a little anxious and didn't even want to explain the complex technical principles, saying, "It's not good."

Lin Yue looked intently at the girl through her holographic glasses.

"If your body is ruined, it's truly ruined... Rather than clinging to life as a cripple waiting for someone to save me, I should take control of myself and rely on myself when problems arise. That's how we all got through it... There are things in Dogtown that can save us, Sasha, whatever you do, don't bring them—"

Dogtown...is there anything that can save me and Rin?

Sasha listened quietly.

The speaker meant it, and the listener meant it too.

Lin Yue knew that there was only one neural matrix. Relic's sample core could still deceive him into continuing to fight. Sasha had no panel or favorability rating; she was just a pitiful girl from Night City who wanted revenge. If he really couldn't replicate Little Beidou...

He hoped that Sasha could use a selfish act to erase the brave decision she made last time to rush out and share the burden of AI with him.

So Lin Yue continued, "The resources to survive are hard to come by. There's no other way but to fight with all your might. You and I are no different."

as predicted.

Sasha's intelligence allowed her to immediately pinpoint the crux of the problem.

"That thing... will it save us both?"

Under the girl's slightly eager gaze, "Mr. Rin" lied.

Those preordained destinies were perfectly intertwined, just like the lark in my memory.

He laughed and said, "Yes, we can all be saved."

……

Lin Yue breathed a long sigh of relief after confirming that the call had ended.

The sensation of relic in my body grew stronger, and the faint tingling in my legs had disappeared.

Looking at the normal skin tone on his thigh, he couldn't help but be amazed by the technology used to repair the outer layer of the sample core.

Even a gunshot wound to the head can be saved, and it seems that the decay of flesh can also be—

It seems like everything related to black walls is like this.

At first, it will make you feel good, but later it will make blood squeeze out of your mouth and make you cough incessantly.

Lin Yue couldn't help but recall the day he intercepted Rebecca from Old Man Sunrise...

In the past, I would be very happy to gain attribute points, as it would at least significantly improve my combat power and physical strength...

Lin Yue once had a naive idea.

If I reach 20 points in physical strength, will I be able to completely resist decay?
However, the physical points given by Rebecca are still there.

These points are unusable—Lin Yue tried, and his idea was destroyed along with them.

Perhaps tomorrow's events require some confidence... Lin Yue tried to use those specialty points.

It's a very strange situation:
[Physical Attributes]: 14
With a flash, it will turn into 11 again...

The four points in the Physical Proficiency skill are also in an unused state.

Lin Yue had intended to exit the program-like device inside his prosthetic eye, but as if possessed, he paused…

A few seconds passed.

The numbers seemed frozen in place, showing no sign of changing at all.

So Lin Yue, as a last resort, started adding the four unallocated points to his prosthetic body specialty.

【Rejuvenation Step】: During a sprint, blood flow is controlled to slow down bleeding from injuries and slowly coagulate small wounds (the slow recovery and display are too disjointed, so this has been modified).

[Unearned Gains]: During high-intensity combat, it stimulates precise control of the prosthetic body related to internal circulation, restores a large amount of physical energy (reference value 20%), and alleviates some nerve pain.

At this point, Lin Yue had completed all the skill points for his physical specialization.

The remaining two points…

Lin Yue looked at the cube on [Big Gun!] that resembled Rebecca's cute appearance, and then looked at the blunt weapon-related skills on the right.

Without a second thought, Lin Yue threw one point at the two big guns.

Dogtown has no shortage of heavy weapons. The first level of ability granted by [Big Gun!] is like precise recoil control, which allows you to maintain bullet density after suppressing high-recoil weapons for a long time.

The second level allows you to hold the trigger all the way down, taking recoil control to a whole new level.

The familiar system maintenance module popped up, and Lin Yue waited quietly.

Through the dark and secluded corridor, heavy with unspoken thoughts, his gaze was fixed on a certain direction.

There, he, an outsider, naively believed in the world's simplicity, was treated as a dispensable pawn to pay the price for the power struggles of the upper echelons, and died only to preserve the secret…

Perhaps the rock kid with the silver-white prosthetic body in his memory would occasionally spout some nonsense, but there was one thing Lin Yue was beginning to slowly come to agree with.

In this world, the struggle has never ceased.

Whoever doesn't allow themselves to live will perish.

The right to survive is often the first act of resistance.

……

　【A Like Supreme】: A rock single performed live by the Warrior Band in 2077.

　　【Pathfinder Program】: A cyberpunk board game concept, referring to a program used by cyber hackers that can read the structure of a simulated network building within a subnet, as well as the building's base map.

　　[Corporate Wars]: Lucy's father participated in the Fourth Corporate War and was later stationed at the Arasaka branch in Warsaw, Poland.

　　【Kate】: A counterintelligence employee of the Edgewalker Arasaka Company.

　　【Soul Killer】: A program developed by legendary hacker Otto Cunningham that converts human thought into code and uploads it to the network.

　　[404]: After Lucy's escape, Lucy's mother returned to this Polish hacker group to track down her daughter's whereabouts.

　　【Flat Top】: An experimental military-grade unit in the 2077 main mission, the MT0D12 robot, used for reconnaissance and other tasks.

　　[Icebreaker]: In the 2077 DLC Shadows of the Past, it is software created by Washington hackers to attack AI programs, which needs to be uploaded to a carrier or network.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)