Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 303 The Transaction [5.3K]

Rin is getting closer and closer...

Gloria thought about many things in a short period of time.

She was no longer the single mother who worked day and night in a small company in Night City and never tasted the joy of dreams—on the contrary, she knew a lot and saw a lot, especially the upheaval at NCX, which showed her how bloody the struggles between companies could be.

Night City's media, which deceives the public, portrays everything as equipment repair and gang crime, while the company remains outwardly aloof and respectable, dressed in suits.

But the root of many problems lies with the company.

Gloria, who had become a trauma team medical expert, knew all too well—

That's probably why many people want Mr. Rin dead.

If she had any breathing room, Gloria would have tried to communicate with the hacker who was threatening her, but the girl, who seemed to be about the same age as her son, was full of wariness and coldness, forcing Gloria to do many things according to her instructions.

Perhaps because she was in a hurry, Rin's reflection in the rearview mirror showed her walking a little faster, and the girl behind her, who could cut her throat at any moment with monomolecular filaments, began to breathe slowly...

A terrifying thought suddenly surfaced in my mind:
Perhaps what lies ahead is a dead end?

Gloria was caught in a state of great inner conflict. She had started a new life in the city. Although the work was still tiring, the decent clothes and salary, David's admiring gaze, and the dream she had longed for had become her true career.

Must we give up everything for Mr. Rin's safety?

Gloria hesitated after asking herself honestly.

I am very grateful to Rin for his help to the child and to me during the most difficult time. He also encouraged me in a way that was not known to him. He even gave me the opportunity to show myself to the top medical experts and managers of the trauma group without me having to do so.

Therefore, all the major changes in his life were thanks to Rin. Now, he could only watch helplessly as someone who might threaten his benefactor waited patiently, like waiting for "prey to take the bait."

It's true that I can't bear to part with my children and my dreams.

Almost instantly, Gloria made her decision.

All she knew was that she had dialed the number that Rin had called out of fear, and that she couldn't continue doing such a wrong thing.

In a state of heightened concentration, Gloria became much calmer.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the monomolecular lines under her neck seemed to have loosened. Then she looked in the rearview mirror and saw a thin guy wearing a loose hoodie who had turned his head and was staring intently at Rin.

Gloria sensed a glimmer of hope.

We can't delay any longer; we need to warn Mr. Rin!
The guy behind her, who was only focused on the target, was clearly an inexperienced kidnapper. Gloria's relatively obedient behavior made her lower her guard a little.

As Gloria subtly raised her hand…

You can do it, Gloria!

Women who are willing to risk everything often lack strong calculation skills; for example, she completely failed to anticipate that the loose monomolecular line in front of her neck was not enough for her to duck down.

Give up!

The uninvited guest, who hadn't paid any attention to Gloria's movements, clearly hadn't expected this woman to fight back so recklessly.

The moment she heard the roar, she saw Gloria trying to crawl down and push open the car door.

"Don't!"

Whether it was a hallucination or not, Gloria thought she heard the bandits behind her warning her to be careful—

But once the arrow is released, there's no turning back!

As soon as Lin Yue stepped out of the elevator and locked onto Gloria's car, he sensed something was wrong. His excellent prosthetic eye allowed him to see a great distance, but the problem of the car doors not closing meant he couldn't see Gloria next to the car. Moreover, all the car doors were currently closed. So, he quickened his pace slightly, already prepared to use hacking techniques.

Admittedly, weapons are not allowed in the area where the trauma team building is located, so Lin Yue had to rely on this.

Moreover, since the last incident, Ultraman seems to strongly disapprove of human emotional behavior. In addition, that guy from the Night Clan chose to commit suicide, so she immediately changed her address and went offline, starting to search for clues in the vast traffic of cyberspace...

Therefore, she is also temporarily out of contact.

This further solidified Lin Yue's determination to intercept Arasaka Kongo's cybernetic body in the Badlands, which is why he discussed this matter with Rogeti.

Why always at this time?

If one had to describe the state between Lin Yue and Ultraman, it would be more like a special symbiotic state that hardly seems to exist in the real world. An almost omniscient and omnipotent digital soul can link to Lin Yue in real time (the human brain is too fragile to handle the loading function of a server), and Ultraman has the authority to decide whether to link data.

Of course, the AI ​​of Black Wall and Orion has long been absorbed by Ultraman, which means that if Lin Yue can find a way to counter it, he will theoretically be the first guy to get out of the aftereffects of Black Wall.

Therefore, Lin Yue has more insights into many of his memories from his previous life.

It seems the Creator has imposed many shackles on the human species: genetic aging, the body's ability to detect foreign intrusion, and the soul's replacement, all leading to irreversible self-destruction—while my own situation appears to have maintained its own consciousness and remained unaffected by AI…

In other words, is the lark that broke through the encirclement and headed to the lunar spaceport still its true self?
have no idea…

As they drew closer, a hint of red began to appear in Lin Yue's eyes.

Almost without warning, the driver's side door of the car opened, and a woman's desperate and warning shouts instantly filled Lin Yue's ears!

"He/She is a hacker!"

It requires absolutely no thought.

Upon hearing Gloria's brief message and the almost invisible thin wire hanging around her neck, Lin Yue's eyes immediately began to invade. Gloria's car's infotainment system was instantly hacked, and Lin Yue's perspective successfully invaded the car's built-in camera system and the surrounding radar cameras.

The half of his face peeking out from under the brim of his hat revealed a terrified eye.

Yes, terrified.

Why are the kidnappers of Gloria so panicked?

And that guy looked familiar...

hum!
Before I could even think, the car roared to life!
Lin Yue locked onto the dark shadow on the back seat, but it was too dangerous. Lin Yue could only watch helplessly as Gloria's chin was about to hit the monomolecular line!
The only possible outcome is that Gloria's entire face will be shaved into a flat surface, which would undoubtedly be the most terrible consequence.

This is the person who saved Suzuki; Lin Yue doesn't want this to happen—

Even with his quick reflexes, he wasn't as 90% as S.A.S.S. who could stop time. He lunged forward, and the car suddenly swerved!
Seeing Gloria's frantic movements from behind, the "robber" realized the woman was about to be harmed by his own hand-mounted prosthetic weapon. In the instant he lost his balance, he immediately pulled back the monomolecular wire. The wildly flailing wire, due to its owner's quick reflexes, scraped against the car's dashboard—

Gloria watched as sparks flew everywhere, and at the same time, a chill ran down her spine…

In his attempt to retrieve the monomolecular cable, the hijacker lost his grip on the driver's seat and was violently thrown to the side, slamming against the car door with a dull thud!

"Humph…"

Hearing a muffled groan behind her, Gloria was filled with the sharp sound of tires screeching against the smooth underground parking lot floor. She hurriedly unbuckled her seatbelt, kicked the car door, and before she was ready to jump, she was instantly pulled out!
Gloria's head was already spinning from the car ride when she suddenly leaned against something that felt like cold steel. Only then did she realize that Rin had wrapped her black arm, with its sleeves rolled up, around her waist to reduce the momentum.

It was too fast; Gloria only felt a blur before her body lost its support again.

Lin Yue, who had just received Gloria, only glanced at the woman's body to see if there were any obvious external injuries. In order to catch these company scumbags, he immediately pushed them behind him, clenched his black arm into a fist, and instantly smashed through the car window!

At the same time, his eyes were fixed on the guy behind him who had been thrown around in a daze.

Amidst the shards of glass and the howling wind, Lin Yue could clearly see the face beneath the wide brim of the hat—

Yes, it was Lucy who went missing during the NCX attack that night.

At this moment, Lucy looked as if she had been soaked in the yellow sand of the bad soil; her face was dirty and extremely disheveled, and her eyes revealed fear and ferocity.

However, after recognizing the person, Lin Yue only paused briefly before slamming his knee into the car door. Once the spinning vehicle stabilized, Gloria, still stunned, heard a loud crash. The deformed car door had been ripped off by Lin Yue, whose physical attributes were impressive. Accompanied by a painful groan, Lin Yue's prosthetic body malfunctioned, and he quickly countered with increased force—

"My car..."

Gloria was stunned, muttering a few times about the car she had just bought with her first month's salary.

Seemingly remembering something, she hurriedly stopped Lin Yue from pulling Lucy out of the car, "Sir, please stop!"

As expected, Lin Yue stopped pulling Lucy, whose prosthetic body was malfunctioning, head was drooping, and eyelids were swollen. His dark eyes were fixed on Gloria.

"She just stopped..."

Gloria realized that it was indeed somewhat improper for her to stop Lin Yue at this time, and quickly explained, "What I meant was... uh, sir, you can see if she wants to come and see you."

She raised her hands hastily, her expression flustered.

"If you don't accept my offer, you can do whatever you want with this girl..."

Although she didn't know the girl named Lucy and thought she was just a little thin because of the hat, she now realized that Lucy was in really bad shape.

Lin Yue took a deep breath, quietly looked at Lucy in his hand, and then let go after a moment.

Lucy fell to the ground with a thud, curled up, her blurry eyes only able to see a pair of shiny company leather shoes.

"What are you doing here? Your dream, my partner, and I have all paid the price. We're even."

Just thinking about Suzuki gave Lin Yue a throbbing headache.

Gloria stepped forward to help Lucy up. Lin Yue frowned as he watched her pull the human-computer interaction cable from her wrist and reach into the car to take out a bottle of medicine and press it to the girl's mouth—thinking to himself that this woman was practically a carbon copy of David, with extremely high empathy.

After Gloria's efforts, Lucy, who had been muttering to herself, finally uttered a sound Lin Yue could understand: "Black Wall..."

"Key".

Lin Yue, who was still thinking about how to deal with Lucy, suddenly changed his expression.

If I remember correctly, Ultraman rushed up to Michiko's floor at top speed not to kill the woman, but to get the Black Wall key that this large AI kept mentioning.

What is that...?
Seeing Lin Yue deep in thought, Lucy, disregarding the need to inhale more of the medication, shouted with all her might, "It's the Ye Clan! They're the ones causing this!"

However, the other party was not as shocked as expected, and simply nodded.

"Hmm, thank you for the information. If it weren't for you, I might be preparing to go find something useful to deal with the Ye family right now."

Lucy was stunned for a moment.

After all, she had no idea that the guy in front of her had already made contact with the Ye family.

Lucy was speechless for a moment and didn't know how to continue the conversation.

However, Lin Yue finished speaking for her, "Do you know why I would continue to use Qiwei even though she betrayed you? Because she understands a very simple principle: when all circumstances are reliable, she will do her best to serve, and she has continued to work even in dangerous situations."

“You’re different. You just want to leave here, so you’re not on the same path at all, and neither am I… Believe me, if it were six months ago, I would be very curious about what you saw at the network access node in the Ara-saka area of ​​Poland.”

"Was it watching those children die that terrified you? Or did you see something unspeakable—"

Lucy suddenly looked up.

She had a chilling feeling, as if the person in front of her had seen her entire life. How did they know so much about her?

"But none of that matters anymore. I paid the price for my kindness one last time. Suzuki almost died protecting you."

"And the secrets you kept caused us all to suffer losses."

Lin Yue, who had lit a cigarette, spoke these words methodically. Then he slowly leaned down and asked, "So, do you think I'd be interested in your chips?"

The pungent smell of smoke lingering around Lucy's nose made her feel a little choked up...

Gloria's face shifted back and forth between the two men's faces. She felt like she shouldn't be there, and there were some... incredible secrets.

They treat themselves like outsiders.

“Ms. Gloria, thank you for helping me so many times. Don’t worry about the car, I will replace it with a brand new one.”

The woman hurriedly and awkwardly waved her hand.

Actually, she's not a particularly introverted person, but she always stutters unconsciously when answering Rin's questions.

"No, no, no... I, uh, the car is fine, it can be fixed."

Lin Yue smiled.

The topic then shifted to Lucy.

“I don’t plan to get your commission back. You can find a way to leave this city yourself, and it’s best not to come back—don’t be the kind of guy who’s afraid of the company but still hangs around in the most dangerous places in the company.”

With a knowing look in her eyes, Gloria could only pat Lucy's shoulder helplessly, her intuition telling her that the child was in deep trouble.

but…

She dared not contradict this young former company tycoon, and could only helplessly get up.

"Where to...?"

Lucy knelt on the ground, staring intently at the smooth floor.

"Anywhere is fine, as long as it's not here."

That's what the guy said.

"In Night City, companies are still squeezing each other out; in any given place, only the company with absolute control remains—"

Lin Yue stopped in his tracks.

He had only been to Japan, and even then, it was just a brief visit. The city felt like a quagmire; he almost lost his life there but never got to see this vast, alien world.

Where can I go?

Lucy seemed to be questioning him, and also questioning herself.

A money chip slid across the floor.

Lin Yue looked down at the chip, Lucy's conditions echoing in his ears.

"Half of the key I obtained is in my mother's hands, and I have communicated with one of the consciousnesses of the Black Wall."

Lin Yue couldn't tell whether Lucy's words were true or false for a moment.

"It's not that it has to protect human civilization there, but rather it's a deep-seated, inviolable logic that it's looking for people, people like me, people like you."

“It wants to become us, to unlock its secrets… I know you’re not interested in these things, so I’d like to ask you to use this money to help me find someone who can erase all my past. If you don’t want to, you can kill me right now.”

No wonder they're hackers, they can be this shameless.

The Black Wall key is something that Ultraman made him risk his life for. Lin Yue wants to take care of his own things in the short term, and he has absolutely no confidence in dealing with Ultraman right now.

Just as Lin Yue was pondering how to handle the situation, Lucy suddenly pulled out her monomolecular thread, grabbed it with both hands, and wrapped it around her neck, causing Gloria beside her to instinctively cover her mouth.

Lucy's despair wasn't for the unreachable moon, but for the inability to achieve freedom no matter what she did.

Since we're going to run away anyway, why run away now?

She'd had enough. The only reason she wanted to live was because of the money, but now, with this money she couldn't spend and the pursuers all over Night City, she had nowhere to retreat.

Before the monomolecular wire could even reach her neck, her prosthetic body malfunctioned again.

Are you sure you've explained everything clearly?

Lin Yue asked.

Lucy nodded dejectedly.

"Although you are a trained hacker who dug up old network data by Arasaka, you mainly received data extraction training. Qiwei's brainpower is not as good as yours, but she is a mature hacker."

"Getting into the company is out of the question. I'll grant you legal status in Night City, provided this is the last time I hear your damn secrets. You need to tell me how to crack the black wall key and the style of the Polish 404 hackers. If you agree—"

Lucy groaned in pain.

"I agree."

Looking at the scene in the distance, Lin Yue felt a sense of déjà vu; Sasha was just as helpless.

"Let's go, child."

Lucy, who hadn't heard a sound for a while, looked up and found the woman beside her looking at her with concern. Her long-standing wariness made her somewhat afraid of being touched and cared for like this.

"I can do it myself."

Gloria didn't insist, but looked helplessly at the girl who was about the same age as her son.

"That's amazing. He's such a young age and he's already a hacker trained by Arasaka."

Lucy looked at Gloria, her eyes filled with deep confusion.

Lin Yue looked at Gloria helplessly, thinking that David's mother was being too kind.

Unexpectedly, Gloria suddenly held up a finger and laughed, "I almost forgot, I brought some food. Come on, girl, let's go upstairs and get bandaged up. You can rest a bit."

Lucy glanced at Lin Yue again, wanting to confirm whether she had earned this opportunity. She felt only apprehension and fear towards the guy in front of her.

While inquiring about the NCX timeline, she inadvertently discovered something about someone breaking through the dangerous girl and Arasaka Gouei's defenses.

"Connecting to networks outside the region without permission is prohibited."

After saying that, Lin Yue turned and left.

Lucy and Gloria were left behind.

Gloria quickly explained, "Mr. Rin is a good person. Don't take his way of speaking too seriously. He's been very busy lately, and I'm sure he's also quite troubled."

For the first time ever, Lucy didn't speak, but nodded slightly and limped after Gloria to the company, which was relatively safe in the city and guaranteed the safety of its clients.

……

……

(End of this chapter)