Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 351 Cyber ​​Psychosis: Greed
Under Lin Yue's instruction, Regina used Jack and Dorio, who worked for the NCPD, to track down Mann's leads. In fact, Emma had been keeping an eye on this matter all along.

The causes of cyberbullying were not Emma's main focus.

In fact, she herself was not in good mental condition, as the commander behind this investigation and rescue operation.

However, her informant in Night City's Animals Gang overheard several scavengers discussing how to dispose of the goods in a bar. She immediately passed this information on to Regina. To prevent Cyberpsychosis from being a key company in Night City, she also specifically assigned a company team to cover their retreat. It seems that her backup plan was very successful.

Furthermore, Emma deduced from the information shared by Regina that Mann was very likely to be here.

It's like a collection of cyberpsychotics. Whenever a major cyberpsychotic incident occurs in Night City and causes harm, the Terrorist Mobile Squad is the first to be hit. However, with the emergence of "high functionality," many people who can withstand military prosthetics are hiding in the population. After some speculation, Emma thinks that Mann is very likely trying to get something from these cyberpsychotics.

In order to prevent casualties in the squad, Emma had bribed her connections and "network administrators" in the NCPD in advance, and the city traffic quickly determined Mann's whereabouts.

If we can track Mann's whereabouts, Emma's contribution to this operation is indeed the most obvious.

If Emma had to choose between curing the rampant cyberpsychosis in the city and protecting Lin Yue's friends, past or present, she would definitely choose the latter.

Although Emma and her team's proactive attack was successful, the team's mood was definitely not good.

Especially the members of the original Mann squad: Rebecca, Sasha, and Dorio.

"Can you still walk, Dorio?"

Rebecca reached out and pulled up Dorio, who was wincing in pain. Heaven knows how hard Mann had hit her—

"That bastard, but it's okay!" Rebecca shook her fist triumphantly. "I'll pay him back in full. I hate guys who turn their backs on you the most!"

Dorio gave a bitter laugh, her gaze falling on Rebecca's hands. "Not bad."

Rebecca, who had once been the leader of the team, had suffered so much in the scumbag NCPD. Instead of continuing to boast about herself to Dorio, she closed her eyes and gave Dorio a hug. The sister-in-law who had taken care of them—the brother and sister who had wandered in Night City had all embarked on the path of the Outlaws because of her and Mann.

"Um…"

Dorio hadn't expected Rebecca to choose the most comforting gesture, so she gently patted Rebecca's head. "It's alright, at least... you came, and I bet you came prepared, right?"

Sasha jumped down from a distance, gun in hand, her eyes lighting up, and pulled Dorio closer to the call channel.

"Hello, I'm Emma Watson..."

Dorio nodded. "I knew your name back in Dogtown. Now you're the NCPD's most sought-after man in Dogtown, second only to Colonel Hansen—thank you for your help."

Emma's management skills are beyond question; no one would guess from her manner of speaking that she is the head of Dogtown who buried half of the Ghost Hounds with biological weapons in Badlands.

"No need to be so polite, Miss Dorio."

"I was just doing what Rin told me to do, while also taking some initiative myself—the key is you."

They got off to a topic too quickly.

Dorothy's expression immediately turned serious.

"Now I want to give you two choices."

"Judging from Mann's appearance, the danger of you staying in NPCD will increase dramatically. He might even be on the Terrorist Mobile Squad's blacklist—"

Dorothy pursed her lips, seemingly uninterested in the first option.

"You know, that guy's face will fall if anything happens to you."

With a helpless sigh, she felt that Rin was too sentimental, which wasn't exactly a "good personality," at least not in Night City.

"Secondly, I have some things here that our company's hackers dug up online."

The attachment was transmitted to Dorio's brain-computer interface. She first glanced at her companions around her. Perhaps because she received too little trust in Night City, she needed some encouragement and reassurance.

She only opened the attachment after Sasha and Rebecca nodded repeatedly.

As she watched... Dorio's face looked like she wanted to kill someone.

“Not everyone in the NCPD is heartless. Some people want to restore the system, and others want the law to take effect. But as you and I both know, if a corporation exists, it will always have power that is above others. Several of the NCPD officers here died in Westbrook, and their bodies are rotting in the trash.”

"We know exactly where the officers are on patrol and whether they are accompanied by anyone else, so you should know what I mean, right?"

The NCPD director is currently riding high, and his relationship with the Cleaners is already ambiguous. It's unknown how many other "ghosts" are above Dorio.

"You mean: someone is tipping off these guys who create cyberpsychosis."

Dorothy smiled nonchalantly.

“Then I can also say that I have my own allies in the NCPD. If you want to get rid of me, you have to be prepared to be disgraced. I will investigate and implicate those in our ranks. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with the NCPD. At least I’ve wasted my life on something I think is meaningful.”

Moreover, Emma's little secrets didn't escape Dorio's notice, the newly recruited police officer.

"Don't worry, Ms. Emma. I will provide details as long as the information does not harm my colleagues or the citizens. Let's cooperate."

Emma nodded.

"I like the word 'cooperation'."

“We’ve pinpointed the approximate area where Mann will be staying; Dreamers will keep an eye on it for you.”

The phone hangs up.

"or…"

"No, Rebecca."

Rebecca was cut off by Sasha before she could finish speaking.

The little girl jumped up in anger, "Hey! I haven't even said anything yet!"

Sasha pulled out a healing elixir from her bosom and pressed it firmly against Jack's face, who was lying on the ground, and denied it with a serious expression.

"Who doesn't know what you're thinking? Going around the people Miss Emma arranged to talk to Mann? Don't you even know..."

Sasha still couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence.

"Even if we find Mann, he won't listen to what we're saying... We need to know what made him like this before we can take action, right?"

Even Dorio, who was nearly driven mad by this matter, never thought of it that way. Emma had already helped, and she couldn't be the one to cause trouble.

The team fell silent for a moment.

Jack below weakly raised his hand.

"What's wrong, lady? Are you planning to suffocate the Heywood guys like Arasaka with breathing masks?"

Sasha blushed, only then realizing that all the drugs had been inhaled, and Jack almost rolled his eyes because of the mask.

"Alright, thankfully everyone's alright..."

"But you've been gone for so long, are you sure you don't want to contact Stella?"

Dorio also made sure Sasha gave her sister a definite message. Stella's main purpose in joining the NCPD was twofold: to find a compelling lead that would make biotechnology pay the price, and to find her sister's whereabouts.

Sasha sighed.

“I almost thought I was going to die from the Black Wall technology. I only came back from the brink of death thanks to the company and Rin’s investment. I’m scared… You know, Stella has always been a coward, so please don’t tell her that I work at the company; to be precise, Dreamers isn’t like the company, we’re just doing what we’re supposed to do.”

Dorio wholeheartedly agreed. "Rin is truly terrifying."

“But we were indeed taken care of a lot by him, even though he always felt that he owed us something.”

Jack, for the second time, tactlessly interrupted the group's pleasantries.

"Seriously, shouldn't we go check on that guy in the container who was just yelling and screaming?" Duoliou almost got a solid hit from that grab from inside the container just now, his hand even pierced through the metal sheet. He wondered what kind of guy that was.

"Stop your fuss, he's dead."

Qi Wei's voice came coldly through the channel.

At this moment, she was squatting inside what looked like a container that had exploded like a tomato can, quietly looking at the headless corpse on the ground.

The group staggered to the container entrance, where a nauseating stench made them all turn pale.

Qiwei was grateful that her oral and nasal systems had been replaced, at least she didn't react as strongly as the people outside. But after all, they were mercenaries who had fought their way through battles. After a short period of adjustment, the group avoided the blood clots and tissues on the ground, trying to find some clues.

No wonder that cyber psychopath couldn't break free.

The headless corpse's other arm was hanging from a chair made of a strange, specially designed material. The group roughly deduced the cyber-psychotic's movement pattern: hearing the fighting outside, he first ripped off his left arm, which he couldn't remove no matter what he did, then punched a hole in a shipping container, and then his head exploded…

But this was definitely not Mann's doing. Even if Swannstein were a psychopath, he couldn't possibly kill a cyber lunatic inside and then close the door behind him.

This is more like the reaction of a hacker experiencing excessive mental stress.

Sure enough, Qiwei found a dark chip among a bunch of sticky tissue, probably implanted in her brain.

"Backdoor chip, this thing is a time bomb in the brain, basically implanted in prisoners. It seems that even if they can't make this deal, they will still damage the 'goods'."

Qiwei shook her head.

When I logged in, there were only two spam emails in my computer's inbox.

What exactly are they afraid outsiders will find out?
The doubts in everyone's minds grew heavier, and there was a feeling that the answer was about to be revealed.

Just then, Rebecca, who had set off to help Qiwei look for her, accidentally stepped on something soft. "Ouch!"

She felt like she didn't want to wear her limited edition sneakers anymore. A hard rubbing sound came from the soles of her feet, and everyone saw Rebecca pick up the object with a look of disgust on her face.

"Separate chip?"

Sasha thought Rebecca was really lucky. She scanned the corpse in front of her, and the citizen information and bounty of Night City immediately appeared in her eyes.

Marco Lloyd

No information found, content has been deleted or you do not have permission.

【unknown】

The two hackers in the team were both stunned for a moment.

"A simultaneous interpretation editor behind the ear? There's such a thing..."

Jack scratched his head. "I think I heard V mention these two prosthetic bodies before. She was quite happy when she first joined the company and got them."

"company?"

Dorothy frowned.

Would someone from the company treat me like this?

The separate chip was quickly passed around and examined by everyone.

[Marco]: Does the job you mentioned still count?
[Milo]: Of course, bro, anytime! Seriously, you're really okay with keeping both sides? Damn, you really are the person I think is most suitable to take this money, but I'm surprised you contacted me first.

[Milo]: Same rules as always. Come to me and I'll install your prosthetic body for free. You just need to provide feedback on the user experience.

[Marco]: Sigh, to be honest, I haven't been able to sleep lately. It feels like someone is talking in my head, and when I wake up in the morning, I feel like I've banged my head against a wall—I don't know if it's because I've been spending too much time in bars. I think I should see a doctor... My luck with gambling hasn't been good lately. I've lost everything to those sluts from Las Vegas, but I don't want to get angry.

[Milo]: You drank quite a lot yesterday, but what a coincidence, buddy! I just got a chip that's specifically designed to regulate mental stress. It's amazing, but there are some risks involved... But it's okay, these prototypes have been tested multiple times. Just give me the data, as usual!
[Milo]: I transferred the money to you in advance. We've been working together for so long, you can trust me.

[Marco]: Holy crap, that's awesome! Coming right now…

The contents of the chip are practically public knowledge.

"Isn't this a scam? Seriously, this guy is way too greedy..."

Rebecca thought this guy was incredibly stupid—a free prosthetic body, plus money…

"We still can't be sure what's inside proves he's definitely a company employee..." Dorio transmitted the contents of the separated chip to Regina—

"Look here!"

Sasha suddenly noticed that the transformer inside the container was responding.

Qi Wei reacted quickly, unplugging the laptop from the port. Instantly, the container went dark, and a burning smell emanated from the transformer…

The fact that the enemy is monitoring the situation here indicates that some files on the computer were not completely deleted.

Sasha and Qiwei easily breached the offline storage device.

[Milo]: I got that guy some alcohol and sent him to the test site. The data upload was complete, and there was no loss of control. The remote control is working normally.

[Milo]: Sleepwalking murder, hahaha!

(appendix)
[Location of record: Haywood //…]

[Time: 5:34:02 AM]

[Prosthetic Body: "Sentinel Type I" Usage Record]

[Video recording]

……

[Cleared]: You know what to do if something goes wrong with the test subject, right? If the data is leaked, your whole family is doomed.

[Milo]: Don't worry, there's a time bomb in my head!
The sequence of events became clear instantly.

Milo tricked this guy, whose identity was suspected to be a company employee or soldier, into installing a large number of experimental prosthetics on him to obtain data, taking advantage of his gambling addiction and lack of money. The most urgent task is to find this Milo. The words "not out of control" particularly attracted everyone's attention.

In other words, Marco unknowingly became a cybernetic madman, committing murders in Night City at night, and having his cybernetic data obtained by Milo, all without Marco's knowledge...

The team felt a chill run down their spines.

Milo orchestrated a truly wicked deal, yet spoke with the ease and confidence of someone who knew it all too well.

In the barren and impoverished spiritual world of Night City, the allure of easy gains, power, and other tempting things is devouring hopeless people alive.

……

……

(End of this chapter)