Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 364 Rabies Kit and Life's Performance (Part 2) [6.7K]

"Born in 1992, started reading about network science independently at the age of 4. His parents are senior researchers at the California Computer Institute. After receiving homeschooling at the age of 9, he completed his graduation exams at a local elite high school and passed the SAT (Standard Chemistry Test)... Uh, GPA 3.85—he completed his computer science studies at Yale at the age of 11 and successfully obtained his degree."

"You didn't get a perfect GPA because you don't really like literature?"

The person opposite seemed to be trying to read the entire life of the young man through the few lines of his resume.

He is only 12 years old.

These things seem so outrageous, as if they were made up.

A faint, uncertain laugh.

"It's like my grandma scribbled something when she was drunk. You're a genius... huh?"

The boy nodded.

Snapped!
The resume folder was slammed onto the smooth tabletop by the man's hand, which was adorned with a diamond ring.

“Okay, great genius—you’re fired, Ricky.”

"We hope you can respect the HR department's decision. If possible, please ask your parents to come over. The signing and termination of the employment contract require the consent of the guardian."

His disdainful gaze fell upon the boy.

That's absolute control.

So what if you're a genius?

He's still just a child... Adults keep numbing themselves like this.

But they seem to have forgotten that children can also accomplish many things that adults cannot.

The HR man sat by the window with his back to the sun, which was very bright, but his appearance was somewhat obscured. His tone seemed to be filled with the pleasure of discarding someone after they have served their purpose.

Of all the employees he had ever worked with, Bartmouth was the most talented, and also the youngest.

He shouldn't know how to resist.

The boy's eyes were somewhat vacant.

He just felt a little bored.

In fact, Bartmores never understood why some followers possessed the pride of those in power, as if the rights of a lackey were something they were born with, and he never seemed to have considered that one day he might become the person sitting on his side.

"sure?"

He wanted to give the company a chance.

However, paired with a childish voice, it sounded like a child's aggrieved accusation before they were about to cry.

"I wrote the [Demon Program], and now... are you sure you want to fire me?"

He asked twice.

Bartmore's eyes were as gloomy as when he was a child, and people often associated such a person with a useless, low-class boy.

However, it must be admitted that—[CCI considers him a genius, but with certain extreme tendencies], in short, that's what the HR department thinks; otherwise, Barthemos wouldn't have stuffed [a political film into the code of a demonic program]...

For a genius capable of developing software independently, this rhetorical question seems so threatening that even HR personnel started giving irrelevant answers.

"Are you threatening the CCI? Do you know how much trouble you've caused by embedding movies in the software? Kid, do you even know what 'ZBism' means? The company needs to operate and provide software support to the federal government, and this kind of thing is in there... How are you going to keep you?"

HR wanted Bartmos to show fear, hoping he would understand that the rules were set by them and that even the most talented person had to learn the rules.

however--

"Yes, I was indeed threatening you."

Bartmore slowly straightened his worn-out leather jacket, which he had been wearing for months, as if CCI hadn't been paying him his regular salary.

It seems these lackeys who spend all their time studying employee loyalty don't understand the whole process of the demon program. Bartmos decided to explain it to them, preferably with a technically savvy executive sitting across from him... He enjoys seeing the other person's pained expression of sudden repentance, even though he has now decided to completely eradicate CCI from North America.

"That's because I want these politicians who are making the world a worse place to know that they are using a software weapon designed by a freedom fighter."

Bartmores spoke in a calm tone.

The long and complex sentences left even adults speechless.

The HR man visibly stiffened and sat up straight, a sign that he was beginning to take the conversation seriously.

Another stupid guy.

Bartholomew thought so.

"Do you know how much effort your technical department put into designing, writing, testing, and running this 'demonic program'?"

The HR person must have looked terrible, but Bartmores has had face blindness since childhood, so to him he was just seeing a black screen, which was quite amusing.

"do not know."

"Are you aware that under California's new supplementary law, minors who provide mental labor can freely dispose of their earnings and decide whether to renew their contracts?"

"Section 1984 of the California Copyright Act is still fresh."

"Uh...yes, I'll have the legal department investigate."

Bartmores laughed.

I am bored.

He found it utterly ridiculous that this guy in front of him was deciding his fate.

He wasn't completely clueless about interpersonal relationships within the company; the political film wasn't the ultimate goal in firing him; the Devil Program would remain an unsurpassable masterpiece for the next decade or so, and the copyright was what they really wanted.

"According to copyright law... even if you provided me with the equipment, I decided the entire production process. So... let's be frank, how much of the revenue do you plan to give me?"

The HR person was lighting a cigarette with their head down when they heard this. Their expression changed from surprise to something interesting, and then they started to laugh out loud, showing their teeth.

"Hahaha! Revenue?"

"Wait... do you mean the company's overall revenue? Or just the profit from the Demon Program Suite?"

ugly.

Bartmore felt that the other person's smile could only be described with those two words.

"Everything I've been involved in—"

"Hahahaha!"

The jarring laughter interrupted his words, which annoyed Bartmos. He began to mentally simulate, during the brief moment of the other party's mockery, the process of breaching the vulnerabilities he had memorized in CCI, the risks of intrusion, the handling of emergencies, and so on... It all seemed very easy.

“Bartlemos…”

The other person had finished laughing.

"Go home and nurse! Let me tell you the truth, the right to use the demon program is in our hands. You handed it to us yourself... It's not a toy that you can just take away. The contract clearly states that the copyright belongs to CCI. If you're not satisfied, you can hire a lawyer. I believe the arbitration body will give a reasonable ruling, won't it?"

"But you need to understand, CCI can cost you your job, it can cost your parents' jobs, and even—"

"Your lawyer."

Bartholomew stood up.

He wasted a full eight minutes here; he had to go back to his private apartment to take revenge on the CCI for sending a pig to talk to him today.

I hope you sleep well tonight.

Bartmores nodded.

The HR's rude words still echoed from behind, "Of course! You ill-mannered brat with nothing but a brain!"

Barthes left everything behind at his messy workstation at CCI, the gilded lettering of CCI on the skyscraper almost blinding in the sunlight.

It's nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing as the firewall code in a CCI network.

So, three hours later…

[Access to CCI granted, command correct]

If you encounter any problems with the settings, please contact the administrator immediately.

Bartmouth believed that programs were sentient beings, not inanimate objects.

When he was five, his parents bought him a handheld computer and a puppy along with it. Bartmos hated the Schnauzer. When his parents came home, it would rush to the door as fast as it could, wagging its tail and jumping on their laps. When his parents left, it would lie on the sofa and bare its teeth if he got too close.

It does not obey its own commands and is not entirely its own.

Bartmore flipped through a science magazine article and learned that dogs are animals domesticated from wolves and have a hierarchical system.

It treated Bartmos as a subordinate, while its own parents were its masters.

then--

Bartmores did not stop the dog when he saw it putting its paws on the dining chair and trying to eat chocolate.

I just watched it the whole time.

Until the components in dark chocolate that have an extremely deadly effect on a dog's liver are released.

He had almost no empathy, so this was all he wanted to do.

[Demon] is different.

Even if CCI adds layer upon layer of collars to it, euphemistically called management keys, and even a whole host of firewalls and offline methods that are completely ineffective against the devil, it will still come back as long as Bartmouth blows its whistle.

This is much more obedient than a dog.

He overestimated CCI's cybersecurity experts; in just ten minutes, CCI's entire computer system was quickly breached by the demons.

Even if CCI asks him to come back, it's too late to turn things around. Tomorrow, they'll have no choice but to file for bankruptcy because they've seen CCI competing with several other companies, and those companies won't let CCI off the hook.

The devil is a vicious dog of the online world.

It may temporarily submit to an organization, but only Bartmos is its master. Bartmos is only out of control when it tears apart enemy firewalls, computer systems, and servers.

But that's a good thing.

People all hope that their dogs are obedient, ruthless towards strangers, and willing to bare their teeth.

sleepless nights.

Bartmores saw the news on the morning news.

CCI's executive director declared bankruptcy and actively cooperated with the federal government, with all assets finding their own disposal.

Very hungry.

This is the current predicament.

He also wants to have his own team.

This is my dream for the future.

For Barthes, who is not good at managing personal assets, things are getting difficult. All the money he spent was used to rent servers across the ocean, buy the latest network accessories, and purchase network equipment, including access warehouses, from Zeta Technology…

He wants more money.

So he turned his attention to the demon program.

An independent internet service provider named Ricky Bartommos has appeared online. His company is called BN, and everything about him seems genuine, including his business license, bank-verifiable assets, and even a listed stock...

Five internet software companies simultaneously contacted Bartmos.

In the eyes of the heads of these five project departments, the person on the other end of the email was a calm and composed middle-aged manager who was wise, articulate, knowledgeable in business negotiations, and even occasionally humorous.

A typical American gentleman.

They reached an agreement without even meeting in person.

After packaging and mailing the software for testing, Barthemos presented the illusion that they could obtain "independent copyright."

With each acquisition costing as much as $2000 million, Bartmore achieved complete financial freedom in just one week.

When the five software vendors realized there were too many competing products, BN, a company that had been deeply involved in software for more than ten years, seemed to have never existed. The hacked bank asset clearing system also erased BN's traces.

The money, however, could not be found anywhere.

……

Bartmores thought this was how his life should be.

Using the latest and most complete network equipment and a whole set of software, Bartmouth has been running rampant in cyberspace ever since he achieved financial freedom.

His life has become a data-driven world.

Here, there is no glaring sunlight, nor the need for facial expressions required in interpersonal communication; characters alone can convey meaning.

He was adept at exposing data that the company was trying to conceal, allowing the political drama that had once been played out within the demon program suite to repeat itself. This process, though tedious, was something Bartmore never tired of.

Life doesn't seem to change much before certain people appear in it.

But the online world has changed.

The most important aspect of the IGTA algorithm in the online world is sensory experience. This is a major revolution in the online world. In the future, people can almost be considered to live in the online world and complete survival and social interactions, etc. The premise for ensuring all of this is to keep the body from decaying in huge cryogenic chambers and to provide normal nutrition.

On the night of IGTA's reconstruction, watching this three-dimensional world being built bit by bit, Barthemos felt an impulse: to fully live in this world and enjoy a life far more wonderful than the painful reality.

Strangely enough, once people whose faces are not clearly visible in the real world have their own virtual avatars, Barthemos can easily observe those features (data traces), and each person's image becomes richer and more three-dimensional.

Until 2009.

Bartmos meets a girl who can change his mind about destroying his physical body and becoming a complete part of the cybernetic world.

【Murphy the Spider】

A girl with soft red hair and a sweet face.

She is very smart.

Sometimes he displays talents that Barthemos never expected, especially in operations such as attacking company databases.

Loneliness is the norm for Barthes Moss.

The girl's intelligence became her ticket to fight alongside Barthemos.

She is also the only girl who has seen herself in the real world since she turned twelve.

In each dangerous cyber operation, Barthemos deliberately held back, allowing the girl to gradually become a powerful net runner on the brink of death—a form of indirect training.

only…

Today he faces a very serious challenge.

Something even more terrifying than ICE, which can pinpoint your location in a second by hacking into a network company:

Meeting in person.

After disconnecting from the internet, Barthemos always felt empty and powerless.

Everything felt so real, so real that I felt a little inferior.

The reflection in the mirror showed a somewhat withered appearance due to spending so much time online, with pimples typical of a seventeen-year-old, making her seem rather unattractive.

There was a knock on the door.

Bartmores' face was still wet with water droplets; he would rather the company's armed squad unpacking boxes offline was outside the door.

What are those sweet girls on the internet like in the real world?
Bartmores would rather she wasn't so pretty; at least... he would feel a little better.

What if I have face blindness and can't see the girl's expression? But the knocking continues, and a young girl's voice comes from outside the door—

"Hey?!"

"Open the door, Ricky! It's me—Coward Ricky."

Barthes couldn't even remember how he opened the door, but he could see every detail on the face of the girl who was half a head shorter than him, even the tiny, shiny hairs on her soft skin were visible to the naked eye…

"Wow! You look like you're 25!"

The girl strode in, muttering to herself, and kept smiling at Bartmouth.

"[The little bird flies into the new forest]...[Are the flowers still fragrant?][Is the water still clear?]"

The eccentric spider Murphy always likes to mutter cute little phrases, which is especially noticeable when she's working on hacking into the ICE path. When Bartmore asked her about it, she said it was a little trick to relieve tension.

So she was also uneasy?

"Why do not you speak?"

Spider-Murphy, hands on his hips, had a cunning look in his eyes, and the smile on his lips stunned Bartmouth.

"I think I can see your expression..."

Bartmores, whose throat hadn't been used to speaking for a long time, was somewhat rusty.

Murphy rolled his eyes.

This was the worst greeting she had ever heard.

Wow! This equipment is something I've been dreaming of for so long, it's awesome!

Clearly, the girl was better at starting conversations than Barthemos. She stroked the latest hacker chair and various brand-new devices, saying, "You look like you haven't left the house in a long time. How did you get all this?"

Bartmore was happy to have the topic changed.

"Online orders are definitely the way to go. I... will keep an eye on the new products these companies are launching."

"This one is very helpful for protocol optimization. It's a bit pricey, but it's acceptable."

The girl pouted, "You're really bad at chatting with girls."

Bartholomew remained silent.

"How about I give you a set?"

Spider Murphy flicked her ponytail. "No way! I've already gotten the latest network access warehouse for making fake orders myself. That stuff suits me better. I don't need such advanced equipment."

God knows why there are things in the world that are more complex than the principles of networks.

In short, the date eventually took place online. Perhaps because they were so close to each other, lying on two hacker chairs less than a meter apart, Bartmore felt happier than usual.

What the teenagers did was quite simple: they found a company, compromised the data on shady transactions, and published it online.

I don't seek wealth or life; I just want to have fun.

The girl's laughter online was exceptionally clear, and Bartmore's memory of it was exceptionally vivid.

People always seem to speed up the progress bar in pursuit of the ending, as if this performance of life is about to reach a turning point—

[Download complete]

[Rabies detection suite //... Loading...]

[Data retrieval complete]

"Buzz!"

Lin Yue, who had completely lost consciousness, seemed to have suddenly awoke from a deep sleep at the critical moment of death.

The last time I had this feeling was when I was studying for exams late into the night, and I suddenly fell asleep during some big exams and then woke up with a start.

My whole body was ice cold…

Lin Yue, panting heavily, looked like a dying man who had just been pulled from the river, trying to take some defensive measures to reassure himself.

"cold."

A sudden sound came.

Before Lin Yue could react, the massive, suspended entity swiftly enveloped him—

Is that Ultraman?!

Everything around them seemed unchanged; they had always been in this environment, still at the address of Ultra IBS. What they had just experienced seemed like an illusion.

Only Ultraman knew that she was trapped by the program.

Lin Yue felt the surrounding ICE being reinforced once again—

"What's going on, Ultraman?"

However, Ultraman's answer made him feel even more uneasy, as if he were being watched.

"A procedure, similar to an arrest procedure for online surveillance, has trapped you and me."

Lin Yue's Adam's apple bobbed as he pondered how to express what he had just witnessed.

Ricky Bartommos.

The true god of the cyber world.

Why would I see his life memories?
Is it an illusion?

"This program throws internet runners into a repetitive loop of instructions. I keep repeating the scenario of losing your signal. What about you?"

Since Ultraman doesn't have human emotions, he didn't panic. Instead, he simply stated the facts.

"Can internet surveillance trap you?"

After pondering for a while, Lin Yue felt that the suspicion that the panel was the culprit was rising sharply.

really…

"The internet surveillance program is completely useless to me, but the program I just saw was clearly not made by the internet surveillance team."

Ott looked at Lin Yue and asked, "What happened to you?"

Lin Yue didn't answer, but instead spread his hands and started the program.

Ultraman, who had never shown any interest in human network programs, suddenly began to observe the program that Lin Yue had opened.

This is indeed the [Rabies Kit] that has been downloaded to the control panel.

Lin Yue's deep voice came through, "I don't know if you believe in Ultraman... uh, damn... my head hurts a little; I think, I think I saw Bartmos's memories."

Now it was Ultraman's turn to be dumbfounded.

After hearing Lin Yue's story, she recounted the entire incident of the online download based on basic logic.

As the download progress began, to avoid being tracked, Ultraman and Lin Yue, two different individuals in the cyber network world, were subjected to targeted program loops. At the same time, an IP address started updating and downloading program packages to Lin Yue's panel, which is why the network package he had not designed himself appeared in his hand at this moment.

If it could trap Ultraman, could it really be Bartholomew?

"he died."

Ultraman only believes in facts.

From any perspective, Barthes was in a state of complete physical and mental death.

"The company launched an attack against him; that is an indisputable fact."

"Your panel is a complexly designed program containing the ideas of a Soul Killer, which is why it can be applied to a natural human being like you. This ingenuity is beyond my comprehension."

Lin Yue was dumbfounded.

The only certainty was that he knew the panel was a program.

"The more you talk, the more it sounds like it's Barthemos's doing."

Ultraman, who was able to read Lin Yue's memories in their entirety, eventually had no choice but to give up. Many details about this memory were not actually from Bartmos himself; the only certainty was that the experience between Spider Murphy and Bartmos was highly authentic.

"Never mind, let's see what the program suite has."

Thinking too much is pointless. If the person who created this loop program had malicious intent, then not only Lin Yue, this "simple code," but even Ultraman would perish...

What's the use of panicking?
This was the most terrifying reward Lin Yue could ever imagine.

Roughly speaking, the rabies test procedure mainly consists of four parts:

[User Interface], [Disruption], [Counter-Intrusion], [Rabies Mode]

Their respective functions are: to allow users to issue commands more easily, rather than using the extremely energy-consuming method of inputting code in network attacks.

Disruption is an attack measure targeting both programs and human hackers. It can disable and dismantle the opponent's program suite, rendering their ICE ineffective. That's what the description says, but its effectiveness is still unknown...

Countering intrusion is easier to understand. If the user has already been compromised by enemy hacking programs after losing the initiative, this component will automatically take action without the user issuing any commands. It can proactively track the enemy's address and provide attack suggestions.

Automatic hardening of ICE is truly a crazy trick.

Lin Yue was pleasantly surprised.

The rabies mode is also the origin of this program suite.

It's a completely self-destructive act.

A small-scale network outage could be fatal, and so could our fates...

Even a fool could tell that this thing is practically a clone of the Rabids virus!
"Ultraman!"

Ultraman, who was observing the process, naturally noticed the unusual nature of the [Rabies Kit].

She didn't hesitate to push Lin Yue off the internet.

"what you do?!"

Lin Yue was startled!
"It's too dangerous, Rin. Log out of the network first. Come find me at this address after you finish what you need to do in the real world. If I'm there, then we'll continue with the plan we agreed on."

"If I weren't there..."

"Never go online."

Lin Yue's heart sank to the bottom.

This is the first time such a powerful AI has issued such a serious warning!

……

……

(End of this chapter)