Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 264 Career and Bonds [5.5K]

On the high walls of NID Logistics, the automated surveillance equipment installed by Arasaka's technical experts stood tall. The company's internal courtyard appeared extremely empty, with only him standing alone. His samurai-style hair was disheveled, and his eyes were somewhat red and tired. He stood there quietly with his arms crossed.

Like a long spear stubbornly refusing to fall.

Adam Hammer, how could it be him?
Suzuki Takeyoshi never imagined that the big shot would make the play so realistic. He kept trying to contact Mr. Rin, who was out of reach, in an attempt to get his location so he could come to his aid, but he never expected to get what Night City called the "Delaman Blind Box".

Dellaman's automated response system will inform the contact person of the current transportation project in progress.

Whether the person is dead or alive is not mentioned, which is a point of criticism for many cyberpunk teams that are planning to do great things. When picking up teammates, they open the car door and find that almost half of the car is filled with blood, and the person has bled to death.

Or he would receive a call from a prosthetic clinic and Delaman would take the person there.

Sometimes Suzuki felt that knowing too much was a painful thing. The reasons for following Rin were too complicated. Was his pursuit going to be in vain before it even officially started?
I'm not willing to accept this...

Suzuki's fists clenched so tightly they cracked, his face was ashen but he didn't show any sign of venting his anger; only his trembling hands betrayed him.

Rin is the pinnacle of Arakawa, the guy who made great contributions in the company war and led the Arakawa elite squad against the combined forces of the top lone wolves in Night City. Suzuki is absolutely confident that if Rin's cybernetic body were complete, it would be the seemingly hastily made technology that allowed Rin to create miracle after miracle.

He could have easily pinned his hopes on luck.

嗏

Can we still be so sure about luck now?

The rest of the team were still receiving treatment inside, and the support from Dogtown had quickly withdrawn to help Rin deal with the company ownership issue, fearing a sneak attack from that local tyrant—besides that, only he remained.

Suzuki couldn't see the road clearly, and he didn't even dare to think about what would happen if Rin failed...

No, we can't give up yet!

Suzuki had to consider what would happen next. Arasaka didn't seem to intend to escalate the situation in Watson District at the moment, but he had figured out the company's disadvantage in public opinion. Even if that smart woman from Dogtown was in charge, Suzuki couldn't imagine who would take charge of the situation.

The sound of a car engine approached, and Suzuki looked up abruptly.

The exterior is simple, with checkerboard-patterned graffiti on the sides…

The interior of the driverless vehicle was obscured by blackout windows, making it impossible to see what was inside.

Suzuki was at a loss.

He was glad that he came alone; if it had been someone else, knowing that the backbone of everything had been lost... what would have happened.

The car slowly came to a stop in front of him, and Suzuki's legs felt like they were filled with lead, and he couldn't move at all.

Suzuki had already prepared for the worst, considering what might happen after the battle with the heavy hammer.

However, the car door opened by itself, seemingly because Delaman did not believe that the person inside could open the door.

Caught off guard, Suzuki slowly caught a glimpse of the scene behind the door…

Stunned as if struck by lightning, his lips trembled, his eyes widened, and he kept muttering in his native language, "How is this possible?"

……

It's that dream again.

An inextinguishable wildfire, a legend of the Night City, the Aragaka Tower that stands firm even after disappearing into the gloomy clouds…

All the people he knew, or those with whom he had ties, were watching him quietly.

"Am I... trying to change something?"

Lin Yue was confused, his mind was hazy, his dreams were fragmented—his body felt numb, as if it had become ethereal. He just wanted to close his eyes tightly and empty his mind. This feeling was like lying down in a bathtub in the middle of nowhere, with hot water that was close to his body temperature being poured in, making him feel depressed.

When faced with an enemy that cannot be completely suppressed, one possesses the power to pay a price; the only countermeasures are good fortune and a thoughtful mind.

"Alive."

Dogtown sees this bizarre world with the eyes of a newborn infant; everything here is incredibly terrible, beyond comprehension. People use violence and filth to protect themselves; the moral compass that once existed between humanity and morality has long since been broken.

A never-ending struggle, a brainwashing that is sweet to be had.

In fact, Lin Yue knew that his injuries were not as severe as those he had suffered after his previous desperate attempts. At least in his hazy consciousness, his body was swaying slightly, which indicated that he was in the process of moving.

Even if he does nothing, Ultraman will accurately calculate the subsequent route.

He just felt that all of this seemed to have lost its meaning.

Standing beneath the pyramid, burdened with worries, and warming himself by the campfire with his team, Lin Yue only wanted to survive the oppression from above. However, when he became entangled with, bound to, and gained benefits from the highest interests of this planet, Lin Yue felt a deep sense of terror.

Especially when the heads of enemies within the company fell, the excitement of power and the pleasure of climbing the ladder felt terrifying and foreign to him.

"Can we take a break now?"

"We've done enough. We have a company's territory, which gives us the leverage to establish ourselves in this complex city..."

However, in his dazed state as he tried to banish his consciousness, he was completely unaware of the symptoms he was experiencing due to the shrapnel from the explosion and the blood loss caused by the breakage of his prosthetic body.

Even though the vital signs detection system responded multiple times and the puppet responsible for locking down the trauma team's program was repeatedly destroyed, Lin Yue still could not be awakened.

"Lin Yue?"

In his dazed state, his teammates were locked in a fierce battle when the edge of a metal plate on the ground severed his arm.

Sasha's virtual avatar displays an extremely realistic expression of hatred as she attempts to fight her enemies in cyberspace.

Jack Wells ripped the network cable off with his thick arm, cradled Lin Yue's head, and mumbled as if panting, "Hey buddy... wake up—ugh, you're fucking heavy! It'll be over soon, you look like a filthy dead man."

and also--

V?

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hold out any longer."

A deep sorrow lingered on the woman's pale face; Lin Yue had never seen such an expression on V's face before. She leaned against the threshold not far away, as if utterly helpless, the Arasaka brooch on her chest gleaming brightly…

"I've kept my job."

Lin Yue thought the result was pretty good.

My mind grew increasingly foggy, and with a slight tinnitus, I was on the verge of losing consciousness…

"Mr. Rin!"

The piercing scream sent a shiver down Lin Yue's spine. Emma's hands were covered in blood, and behind her lay a jumble of corpses. Her grip was so tight it looked like she was trying to crush her own hand against Lin Yue's sturdy prosthetic body.

"Ah!"

Lin Yue suddenly opened his eyes!

In the car's rear seat, where black patterns formed a honeycomb-like pattern in the interlayered structure, he leaned back, the cushion beneath him soaked with fluids and blood seeping from his prosthetic body. His chest was sunken, his left arm was empty, and there was a voice repeatedly calling out to him…

That is?

"stern?"

Dellaman's voice was gentle, as if he were not trying to wake a seriously injured man, but rather providing a wake-up call to a sleeping man.

Lin Yue sat up. The entire system was a mess. He could only forcefully extend his still-present right arm and wed his hand tightly into the gap between the seats in front of him.

"I almost...lost my life."

Lin Yue was panting heavily, his eyes wide open. He groped behind the passenger seat with one hand, found the emergency medication, and injected a stimulant directly into his chest. As his heartbeat returned to a strong beat due to the drug, the terrifying cardiac arrest warning in the system temporarily disappeared.

“屮…”

"Adam Hammer".

Lin Yue felt that the thing couldn't even be called a human. Even if Ultraman used that frequency of attacks because Lin Yue's brain-computer interface couldn't handle it, any other guy should have died on the spot. Heavy Hammer only paralyzed part of the Dragon Knight's prosthetic body, and Lin Yue couldn't even determine whether he had suffered a fatal injury when he last looked at him...

That probably won't work either. Even if the prosthetic body is completely ruined, Arasaka can still salvage a guy who only has one head left.

"Your health was once in danger, perhaps thanks to your prosthetic body. It's so good to be able to hear you speak."

"We are currently proceeding from Japan Street in circles towards Watson District, as you instructed. If you feel that the instructions were given while you were not in a conscious state, you can change them at any time. You have purchased an online payment package with an additional 30% surcharge, and I will do my best to meet all your needs."

Delaman talked a lot in one breath. Lin Yue rubbed his forehead, trying to make himself more comfortable, and then complained breathlessly, "He talked too much. My brain hasn't processed it yet—I'm fine for now, I'm not going to die."

"Well, let's keep going, old man."

Perhaps because his memories of his past life were so familiar, Lin Yue, who casually called out "Old De," felt that such a way of addressing him might be a bit too presumptuous.

“Uh, I mean, keep going, Delaman.”

It's no wonder Lin Yue thought that way. Dellaman is not the rigid kind of artificial intelligence at all. Sometimes, you have to talk to him in a way that you would deal with a human.

"It's a lovely name, but you don't have to feel burdened by it; your package includes this right."

Lin Yue shook his head helplessly.

The gloomy rain outside the window cast a gray hue over the entire city. Lin Yue glanced at the time and estimated that he would arrive at the company in about half an hour.

He couldn't be absent at this point in time. Lai Xuan's choice and Arasaka's methods increasingly made Lin Yue wonder if he should rashly carry out this plan. Lai Xuan was willing to continue even if some attempts would lead to the failure of the entire scheme in order to ensure the smooth progress of his career—but Lin Yue began to waver.

Are you really prepared to confront such a behemoth head-on?

Perhaps I shouldn't have given that stimulant injection; passing out would definitely be much more comfortable than this agonizing state.

You seem uneasy; are you troubled?

The somber atmosphere was somewhat alleviated by Delaman's constant chatter, at least giving Lin Yue someone to talk to for the time being.

"As you can see, I almost died. Have any people who died in your car been like me?"

Lin Yue wanted to hear Delaman's story in the city, which was quite ironic that he was having a conversation with an artificial intelligence after the war.

The image of Delaman's bald head, a deep blue with a hint of deathly white, appeared on the screen behind the driver's seat.

"Of course, there are customers whose brains are evenly spilled out... It took me a long time to wash the tissue out of the crevices, and there are also customers who are about to die and hurriedly get into the car while holding onto other customers who have already died—even worse, because they died in some corner, I was unable to pick up the customers at the designated location."

Lin Yue lifted his buttocks slightly as a sign of respect.

"That's really quite tragic."

Delaman is like a good old friend to chat with, never letting the conversation die down: "Sacrifices are inevitable in any career."

He knows how to spark an interest in conversation.

Lin Yue found this thing—or rather, this guy—quite interesting. "Career? You know about this?"

Thinking about it carefully, it makes sense. Artificial intelligence votes out human shareholders one by one and makes the business extremely successful. The key is that there is no legal fault to be found. It can be considered a great undertaking.

"Of course, if I may be frank, when your heartbeat becomes stronger and stronger—and stands in stark contrast to your trauma, I know you've made another significant step forward in your career. We also target potential clients, and I know most of what's going on in Night City."

"To obtain benefits that only you know about from a recognized and invincible force, that is what constitutes a career."

"By the way, your partner has made several calls to your communication system. I have automatically answered them and transported you as requested. The destination they set for the body transport is also where you are going."

A corpse...?
Lin Yue was speechless.

However, given that the enemy was Adam Hammer, it was understandable that Suzuki and his squad felt their chances of survival were slim.

When Ultraman's computing power was exhausted, he chose to use public opinion to slow down the enemy's progress... It seems like his own move no matter how you look at it.

"If I could, I just want to live. As for career—I can't use that as an excuse to work myself to the bone."

"But that's how the world is. If you choose not to move, there are a million reasons to force you to move forward. Moving might kill you, and not moving might also kill you. Maybe after this trip I can finally get a good rest, the kind of rest I've always imagined."

Lin Yue shrugged, which was a way of expressing all his conflicted feelings.

"The will to survive is inexhaustible. When conditions are harsh, animals will fight desperately, and so will humans... The most exciting part is often not the ending, but the process."

"The scenery before reaching the finish line, Rin, that's the most important thing."

"However, you do need rest, but only temporarily. Human connections are constantly being formed, and sometimes they are not for your own benefit."

Lin Yue listened quietly without replying.

Why choose such a risky method? Even though she contacted Ultraman in cyberspace and didn't know the odds of winning, she protected V not only because of the series of events V experienced after leaving the company in Arasaka, but also because of the woman's proud and confident expression in Arasaka Tower, and even more so because of her fighting spirit for her career.

and so…

What am I doing this for?
V might blame himself for being too hasty, for attacking the heavy hammer instead of retreating at that critical juncture.

However, the benefits of doing so are high. Arasaka will reassess his strange trump card, since even the heavy hammer couldn't take him down. But this also means that they will use all the technology they used on themselves to train their descendants, thus creating a competition.

This puts NID Logistics on an unfair starting line, competing with Arasaka.

Lai Xuan would never do a business that loses money.

Rin made everything believable, and the eagle would make his power more stable internally. Only after the rough jade has been cleansed will it truly shine.

He himself became a steel knife used to clear away Saburo's suspicions and the wavering faction within the hawkish camp.

That's really... hilarious.

This was the second time Lin Yue had cursed this guy, but as Delaman said, the bond had already been formed. In the early stages of Arasaka, Lai Xuan contributed a lot, and most of it was even non-compliant. Lin Yue's independent actions and the company's minimal constraints were already Lai Xuan's greatest act of goodwill.

The situation is... completely unclear.

……

The ticking sound of the instrument accompanied the smooth, slippery sound of the implanted prosthetic skin.

Lin Yue quickly regained consciousness.

The imagined feeling of impending death did not occur.

She is just a little weak.

How did Ultraman increase his computing power? Why did using the Black Wall cause such significant side effects? Does Ultraman have a way to absorb AI and stop its iteration?

Lin Yue felt that many things were like looking through a layer of fog, and he couldn't see them clearly no matter what.

But I am now…

"Ok?"

Lin Yue saw a figure in the blur and thought he was seeing things. He squinted hard and then realized that the man, wearing black-rimmed glasses and with his sleeves rolled up, was carefully tending to his wound.

"Holy crap... Old Wei? What are you doing here?"

Had he fallen asleep in Delaman's taxi again?

Although Old Wei laughed, there was no smile on his face. "Because no one will treat your wounds anymore, Mr. Company. You are guarding a huge piece of industrial land in Night City, where every inch of land is precious, but everyone has run away, leaving behind a bunch of soldiers who don't know medicine or can't even read materials."

"You should be glad you handed the materials over to me for research. Hmm... they look pretty good now."

"Try to sit up."

With Lao Wei's help, Lin Yue sat up and looked at his broken arm, which was still empty. The rest of the arm had been repaired. Lao Wei always pursued perfection in his work, and he would take good care of even the smallest wound.

"I came in a hurry and the prosthetic arm wasn't adjusted properly. Eating with one arm won't affect anything. I'll continue tomorrow."

Lin Yue remained silent for a long time.

"You've gotten yourself into this state again."

Old Wei shook his head, retracted the prosthetic wires connected to his chest, and began to detach the prosthetic used for surgery to the side.

He packed up slowly, saying, "Compared to what you did, I'm lucky to be alive."

"That's Adam Hammer!"

After Old Wei finished winding the coil in his hand, he reached out and pressed the instrument next to him, staring at the guy in front of him.

“We old bones who have lived most of our lives in Night City know his fearsome reputation—I thought that Japanese man was joking, but what’s been coming out of the Arasaka Industrial Park…makes me believe it.”

"You have to believe that fear can be a good thing sometimes. Most boxers have a fear of their opponents because fear forces you to make rational choices. But look... I don't know how you managed to launch this powerful attack, but what about next time?"

Lin Yue suddenly felt like he had let others down.

Old Wei didn't say much more, just sighed, "That Japanese man said a lot, and I learned a lot too... It's always good to be careful, kid."

Every time he felt a lingering fear, Lin Yue felt like he was a machine suited for battle; as long as he could win, he didn't care about fear.

However, after Old Wei finished his lecture, he still gave a thumbs up.

"That's amazing, no one would believe it if I told them, and I also heard that V kept his job... That's good."

There was both concern and praise.

Lin Yue felt much better, but just as the two men were chatting idly, the automatic door opened.

After recognizing the person, Old Wei smiled warmly and picked up the medical kit beside him.

All he heard was someone saying, "Send the other arm back on, old Vivi..."

Lin Yue hadn't expected that V would dare to loiter around here at this critical juncture.

However, when Lao Wei went out, that figure quickly pounced on him, causing Lin Yue to lose all the words he had prepared for the day.

Only a suffocating kiss.

……

……

　[Artificial intelligence votes out human shareholders one by one]: This is how Drumman Combat Taxi got its start. AI used human rules to expel human shareholders from the company, which led to the Drumman we know today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)