Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 297 Limit Breakthrough!

The torrential rain washed over the holographic billboards of the NCX spaceport, slamming against the exhaust pipes emitting white steam from the park, the light distorting into eerie patches of color in the puddles—

Lin Yue leaned against the concrete wall riddled with bullet holes, his right index finger gently stroking the hilt of the Jinzhong Maru. The intricate neural interfaces on it were proof that cold weapons were still prevalent in this era.

His chest heaved as he charged into the defense perimeter using his computing power, and his mind seemed to have entered a vacuum.

This is a side effect of Ultraman granting him power…

"Meaningless."

The woman's voice was calm, as if she were narrating something trivial.

"That woman isn't leaving now; she's making you lose your mind. She's probably already set her sights on you..."

This was accompanied by a cough caused by the irritation from the smell of acid rain.

Lin Yue managed to squeeze out a sentence, "I won't give up... I'll come back when I'm ready!"

The sticky spinal coolant made the knife handle feel like a block of ice, and the cold air had seeped into the bone marrow through the bulletproof leather.

Michiko revealed all of the dangerous girl's assets.

A sudden sound—

Swords clashed fiercely!
The samurai beside him used all his strength to stab the enemy in the neck!
His weak hands gripped the girl's blood-soaked wound tightly. As the neural data cable became clearly visible through the wound, dark red cerebrospinal fluid dripped from the metal connector, mixing with the mud on the ground…

"Rin... Lady Rin, damn Michiko, their drone swarm has entangled the people behind us."

"Let's charge in!"

Lin Yue turned his head away, his eyes dark and unfathomable.

As long as the guy Suzuki brought along doesn't give up, why should I be the first to give up?

Swish!
Lin Yue reacted quickly, but he was still a step too late.

The samurai behind him stared helplessly at the sky. Lin Yue's limp body could not be balanced with one hand, and he finally let him fall to the ground. The girl behind the sniper scope let out a playful whistle. She and all her teammates knew that the guy in front of them would not be able to keep moving at that speed forever.

"Do it!"

at the same time--

"High-speed prosthetic body, model unknown."

Ultraman's electronic voice came from Lin Yue's cochlear implant, and the Oracle Eye projected the vibrations of those afterimages stepping across the water onto his retina.

Ignoring the sniper's provocative gaze, the iris of his prosthetic eye once again glowed with dark red light. The six prosthetic bodies, covered with a layer of fine water droplets and marked with digital codes, were clearly visible in the fog and rain.

Ultraman is injecting computing power!

Lin Yue's heart raced. The moment the Loyalty Pill was drawn, the high-frequency hum of the blade and the sound of bullets piercing the air exploded simultaneously!
He lunged forward, his well-equipped combat boots flashing lightly on the ground. As the swordsman's first thrust grazed the surface of Lin Yue's shoulder implant, Jinzhongmaru's blade had already sliced ​​through the dangerous girl ninja's chitinous shell!
Ultraman knew that saying anything would be pointless.

Even someone as powerful as her, the largest entity outside the black wall, couldn't understand why that woman named Michiko was still hiding up there...

In her view, Michiko's target was most likely the girl named Lucy. Ultra's data processing had reached a terrifying level, so he realized that the dangerous girl had stopped searching for Lucy and was now frantically dealing with Lin Yue.

run.

This is the advice Ultra wanted to give Michiko.

As for the guy who continuously provides computing power, his nerves have long surpassed those of a normal person; any discomfort from having computing power taken away from him is of no burden to him.

It will only fuel his anger.

In a moment of thought, the blade slit open the throat of the agent in front of him, and the protruding bionic nerve wires, like springs, quickly wrapped around Lin Yue's blade along with the blood.

Wow!
A figure leaped up beside him, two eerie blades crossed above his arm, lunging forward—

"Mantis Knife..."

It must be said that melee ninjas equipped with this prosthetic body are faster.

Before the second enemy's blood could even splatter onto Lin Yue's face, the man arrived fiercely!

"Left arm hydraulic hose."

At this point, Ultraman had to use her physical computing power to help deduce the enemy's weaknesses. This was a feature only found in some high-end weapons in Night City, and Ultraman replaced the built-in weakness analysis programs of those weapons.

She didn't want Lin Yue to fall at this time, but an AI, very "morally" conscious, kept helping the slightly more complex "outdated code".

Ultraman's calm voice and the red square marked by his prosthetic eye flashed simultaneously—

Lin Yue spun around and took a step, the Jinzhong Pill drawing a perfect crescent-shaped arc. The metal joints of the gorilla's arm began to deform in an orderly manner, revealing the biological material wrapped in a black membrane inside, and then spraying out powerful heat.

Phew…

The mantis knife wielder heard the terrifying sound and tried to cut the man's arm holding the knife with his double blades.

How weird!

Even though this guy's speed and reaction time would noticeably decrease after a while, they initially thought it was some kind of effective technology and assumed the time was ripe, even hoping to behead him and curry favor with Lady Michiko—

After all, the order to continue defense has not been lifted.

However, this seemingly limitless guy will only add fuel to the enemy's panic!

It's...broken?!

Unbeknownst to them, the blade had somehow slipped through the Z-shaped structure of the Mantis Blade prosthetic body. Under the enemy's terrified gaze, the blade suddenly spun, and highly heated coolant gushed from the broken metal joints.

Lin Yue's cold yet furious eyes took in every subtle change in the man's expression.

"This is not human!"

"Make Lady Michiko retreat!"

The moment the screams were swallowed up by Yu Sheng, Lin Yue activated the Oneness of Heaven and Man!

With his agile movements, he flipped in mid-air to dodge the crossfire from snipers and gunmen. As the sky turned gray, Lin Yue released the Jinzhong Pill from his hand and it spun away!

In that instant—

With their prosthetic eyes well-modified, the gunmen could only see that white blade spinning in the air.

The fourth melee ninja, blinded by fear, was completely unaware that the deadly weapon tracing a bizarre arc in the air was aimed at him…

When the body was easily moved, the whole person was nailed to the bulletproof glass of the NCX spaceport shuttle bus like a lifeless lump of dead flesh!

[Combat system self-check... //Perfectly running]

[Program collaboration detected]

Lin Yue's prosthetic eye became increasingly clear, and the traces of ballistic prediction appeared instantly, something that had never happened in previous battles.

What the hell?

When did the Oracle Eye of the Crossroads Bureau acquire this function?

"Ultraman, would you say our teamwork is getting better and better?"

Ultraman knew better than anyone that she had made many adaptive changes to this guy's prosthetic body. In the data stream behind the young man's pupils, there was a woman like a god looking down at the malicious data in cyberspace.

She simply answered truthfully.

"I will do my best to fulfill any request you make for what I need."

“But you can’t die. If Michiko is really stupid enough to wait for you to kill her, I will do as she says.”

Lin Yue understood; Otto Cunningham was truly fickle.

They coldly say that this behavior is meaningless, yet they keep pouring computing power into it.

Lin Yue certainly didn't think he was so charismatic that he could make a super AI, stripped of its humanity decades ago, help him at all costs; rather, Ultraman's ambitions were far too costly…

His gaze darkened.

He had no idea just how difficult it was to obtain the answer that this entity was seeking.

However, now is not the time to talk about these things.

The so-called combat coordination is basically equivalent to Ultraman being able to mobilize the movement capabilities of his prosthetic body to complete mechanically agile movements even when human calculations are not thorough.

Ultraman is like powerful but incompatible software; unless she takes the time to adapt, it's impossible. But Lin Yue's habit of asking questions never changes.

"When did you start researching my prosthetic body that you look down on?"

Otto's answer, however, was extremely rock and roll.

"Because you're not very good at risk management, and this time you were even controlled by your emotions, I had to consider your survival rate—"

“There used to be an unknown rock star in Night City who said you were courting death.”

Depend on…

They even have a roundabout way of cursing.

"But that's just how humans are, which is why I strip away their humanity."

"it is good!"

In Lin Yue's mind, Suzuki had become an irreparable wound. Even in the future, he wanted to tell Suzuki's child that he had killed many enemies for her father.

On the day he had that long talk with V, he had only one thought—

It's about making a decision you won't regret!
After dodging the barrage of bullets, Lin Yue ripped open his black jacket, which was covered in wounds, and the kinetic pistol at his waist emitted a deafening shriek. At the same time, his eyes gleamed with a terrifying light.

Two gunmen from the guard force were blown away by bullets, while the prosthetic eyes of the remaining soldiers who were still firing emitted sparks.

Every action is a perfect collaboration between humans and programs, flexible yet rigorous, with not a single detail wasted.

"Charge in."

Even when Ultraman says something so inspiring, it's still in a flat tone.

A cruel, sinister laugh appeared on Lin Yue's lips. As Jinzhongwan tore through the last enemy blocking his path, his eyes were fixed on the door leading to the top of the control tower.

The enemies on both sides were still firing desperately, but they couldn't change anything.

boom!
Lin Yue dodged to the side.

"The weakness is at the top."

"You've faced plenty of mechs like this already, haven't you?"

Lin Yue knew what Ultraman was talking about.

He was so relieved that he didn't even look up to see that the spot where he had just been standing had collapsed!

The bulky yet cold mech wanted to put up a last stand for Michiko's safety. The agile aerial ability of the combat targeting system caused a slight lag in the machine's movement prediction.

But it still bent its knees suddenly, trying to use its powerful body to physically push Lin Yue away!

After dodging, Lin Yue leaped up again. He looked quietly at the mecha below, which was two meters lower than him. He held the knife in both hands and locked his gaze on the transparent bulletproof shield that appeared above the mecha's main control core in his prosthetic eye!

boom!
A truck riddled with bullet holes was parked in front of the gate. Two shadows fell down, and the truck shed suddenly exploded!

The knife in Lin Yue's hand continued to penetrate deeper as the machine twitched. The two-meter-tall Arasaka mecha suddenly lost all means of resistance, and the red monocular inside the main control core locked onto Lin Yue's figure.

The chassis structure beneath my feet, already a mass of crushed waste, sank again. The short-circuited core, emitting black smoke, was flung aside by the blade and crashed onto the damp ground, bursting into a pile of tiny parts.

"There are so many dangerous girls, it's fucking disgusting."

As he ran, Lin Yue shook off the Jinzhong Pill and the biological tubing wrapped around it.

"Wait a moment."

Ultraman suddenly said something.

Just as Lin Yue was marveling at finally breaking through the obstacle, he was caught off guard—

A sharp, stinging pain shot through the neural interface, and the holographic interface began to flicker wildly.

"Hold!"

"Is that you, Ultraman?"

Otto didn't answer. The instant Lin Yue's head throbbed with pain, he had already rushed into the building...

The holographic interface was flashing wildly, and countless chaotic thoughts poured out like shattered prisms.

Lin Yue staggered and grabbed the railing, his retina flashing with garbled text and unfamiliar images—

Cyberspace?!
Floating silently in the middle of the bidirectional algorithm of the black wall, Otto looked at the data that was drilling into the black wall beneath her feet. She reached out and touched a part of the data, gently picking up a portion that was being analyzed.

[Warning: Abnormal brain-computer interface data recursion detected]

[Temperature Control Warning]

"Oh shit."

Lin Yue knew that Ultraman was using images to replace words; something was entering the black wall!

But why isn't the black wall reacting?
Lin Yue abruptly increased the operating speed of the temperature control system. As the hot air surged from the network access chamber, the computing power provided by Aote began to decrease gradually.

"There's a loophole in the Black Wall; something has already infiltrated among you."

Ott looked at the data and said, "The price is that a portion of the data must be stripped away by the Black Wall. This may be the underlying logic of the source code that was originally intended to be used to establish it."

Lin Yue was in excruciating pain; he couldn't think straight except to kill Michiko.

"speak English."

Ultraman: "The black wall is maintaining balance. The technology outside the black wall doesn't belong to you. There's AI trying to 'become one of you'—"

Lin Yue: "Who else could it be besides the Ye family?"

Ultraman suddenly fell silent.

Lin Yue gritted his teeth and said, "You don't need to delve into how I know this. The main reason you can't analyze me, understand me, and that I haven't been turned into an idiot by the Black Wall is because I know these things."

"The AI ​​outside the wall saw me, saw the link between me and you, and caused damage. That's why your brain-computer interface and prosthetic body are showing garbled characters."

"Let's go."

Ultraman suddenly said something.

Lin Yue was stunned.

Michiko was about to be caught by him, what was going on?

"The purpose of those AIs is unclear. I have not seen these entities on the other side of the black wall. Please do not go any further. Michiko has probably not left for a long time because of these AIs."

"I tried to access the NCX subnet, but found that most of the hardware devices were already at full capacity..."

"Lin Yue, you have to give up your desire for revenge."

Lin Yue slowly lowered his hand from his forehead, and with Ultraman's words, the pain lessened considerably.

Seeing that Lin Yue was still not moving, Ott thought that this guy was going to continue. Just as he was about to speak, the link was cut off.

Ultraman floated silently between the black walls, and with the transformation of the two-way algorithm, Ultraman had already entered the black walls!
at the same time--

[Unknown caller ID]

In the quiet first floor, a call box appeared in Lin Yue's prosthetic eye. The classic ringtone sounded eerie at this moment.

The call is connected.

The person's voice sounded somewhat distorted, as if it were coming through a thin membrane.

"The famous Mr. Rin."

"It was really difficult to get in touch with you..."

"Michiko is under control and awaits your arrival at any time to console your fallen comrades."

……

……

(End of this chapter)