Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 367 Choosing the Most Dangerous Person (Part 2) [6.6K]

Flames erupted instantly on the dark asphalt road!
Immediately afterwards, a sleek sports car, engulfed in flames, nimbly darted out from the side!
It was incredibly audacious enough to swerve the steering wheel at such high speed and still manage to stay afloat, thus avoiding the incoming missile attack…

Some people were dumbfounded.

"Damn! How can it go crooked like that?"

Rebecca dropped the still-hot launcher, her face filled with doubt about her shooting skills.

"Is that an AI sitting in the car? Let me see."

She clung tightly to the roof railing, her other hand forming a strange shape as if she were using binoculars.

The team had initially planned to observe whether there were any gunmen or similar attackers inside these suddenly appearing luxury cars. However, when two hackers simultaneously issued warnings upon seeing a dense barrage of intrusion signals on the vehicles, Rebecca decided to use force...

After all, Lin Yue is still in the convoy. Whether the hacking will harm him is another matter, but if it forces Lin Yue to show up and fight, all the work done over the years will have been for nothing.

After all, this is no longer a remote place like Taipingzhou; there are many eyewitnesses here.

"Hey! The car is moving by itself!"

Rebecca popped her head back in and shouted her discovery to the rest of the team.

Both the Stone Sword and the Lake Maiden's Sword are enclosed cabins with a metallic exterior, and inside they utilize a near-delay-free holographic imaging system to protect the privacy of the occupants and enhance safety.

So Rebecca couldn't see who was inside, but she could clearly see one car through her prosthetic eye. The steering wheel was turning on its own, and the driver and passenger seats were empty!
"It's being controlled by a program—"

Sasha gripped the seatbelt tightly and said in a low voice, "Rin guessed right! Falco, move closer!"

Falco shrugged and squinted at the traffic in the opposite lane.

The traffic seemed to realize that this car was going the wrong way and quickly moved aside.

Add to that the deafening sound of the shells, the crashing sounds of vehicles braking sharply, and the screams of people in fear.

"Never mind the cars, ladies! The convoy seems to think we're attackers!"

While observing the oncoming lane, Falco also glanced at the information about the convoy.

Because they had been forced to fire their guns to stop the luxury cars from getting too close and intruding, Rebecca and her group were now seen as enemies by the convoy, and several bullets were quickly fired at them!

The glass shattered instantly!

Rebecca gritted her teeth. "What's this self-propelled sports car going to do?"

Surprisingly, the hot-tempered woman didn't bother to greet the indiscriminate gunmen in the convoy; she was more concerned about Lin Yue's whereabouts.

"wrong…"

Qiwei watched as the Lake Maiden's Sword, which had almost been engulfed by the heatwave, continued its approach, seemingly moving closer to the center of the convoy, and the red invasion line continued to appear...

The only difference is that the ends of these lines are no longer the brain-computer interfaces of each driver in the fleet, but modules of the in-vehicle intelligent control system!
"I need a black cab!"

Qiwei quickly got up, gripping the seatbelt tightly with one hand. Falco also seized the opportunity to slip through, executing an extremely smooth lateral drift to the lane where Lin Yue's team was located.

squeak-

"Depend on!"

Falco's maneuver almost resulted in a close encounter between everyone and the dump truck!
However, Falco's control of the vehicle was first-rate, and soon the Lake Maiden's Sword appeared in front of him.

The cars were already traveling at maximum speed, and the two hackers' network access points had entered the operational control interface, attempting to reclaim control of these recklessly speeding luxury cars…

soon.

These AI-controlled sports cars, seemingly harboring malicious intentions, quickly dodged aside, creating some distance, just as the gunmen who appeared from the convoy ahead locked onto the Dreamers' team's vehicles!
"These bastards!"

Immediately afterwards, a hail of bullets rained down on the windshield, forcing the squad to slow down temporarily and dangle behind the vehicle under pressure.

What...are they going to do?

Sasha was unaware of the AIs' true intentions under the current circumstances. As soon as she finished speaking, the dense red lines on the sports cars that were emitting fragments of data traces invaded the vehicles!
Those cars either slowed down suddenly or lost their braking ability—

Some even went into "mad dog mode," meaning that with the driver out of control, the accelerator pedal was repeatedly pressed hard, causing the vehicle to exceed its speed limit. The next result was easy to predict: the entire convoy was instantly scattered due to interference from the vehicle's infotainment system!
In one car, the mercenary's head was still sticking out of the passenger window. After the vehicle went out of control, he didn't have time to pull himself back in. The car swayed so violently that he crashed into a roadside utility pole. His mangled body was swept backward rapidly in the gale, instantly staining the windshield of the car that was following closely behind and could be brought under control with crimson blood.

The head, propelled by such great inertia, pierced through the glass like a cannonball, causing the car to roll over instantly and then explode with a deafening roar!
"careful!"

Qiwei's eyes gleamed with the light of a hacker intrusion. Sometime earlier, a vehicle lurking in the far corner had begun its "discarding the millstone after it had served its purpose," even targeting the team that had been drawing fire for them. Falco's van began to lose speed, and all mechanical devices were unable to provide effective control…

"Sit tight!"

He shouted, knowing he could no longer catch up with the car in front; as a driver, he had to make sure he had control over what he was holding.

The two hackers were under immense pressure because they hadn't expected that cracking a simple car infotainment system command would be as complex as hacking into a network access point set up by internet surveillance.

Almost without hesitation, Qiwei, who activated brain-computer interface overclocking, had an innate advantage in memorizing the characteristics of the data matrix. As for Sasha, the teenage hacker who dared to break through the firewall of the biotechnology data office in the biotechnology building, she was best at playing games with the strange data that resisted the intrusion.

This is the first time we've fought a rogue AI in the real world like this.

Having witnessed the cruelty of the Black Wall online, they still remember the rampaging data flow around Lin Yue and those terrifying AI representations. Fearlessness is the greatest ability.

The dreamer invested a considerable amount in the two hackers.

Qiwei, a sex doll hacker who escaped from the factory, buried her unbearable past in the bustling streets of Night City. She is now the head of the cybersecurity department at Dreamers, no longer the girl with a bruised and swollen face whose jaw was knocked off by thugs.

Sasha was even more decisive.

The Black Wall network access warehouse was a one-to-one replica of Lin Yue's structure. With the addition of Lost Island, the optimization of the network access warehouse became even more obvious. With her excellent data collaboration skills for Black Wall, she quickly completed the anti-intrusion crack with the information support of Qi Wei.

"Location confirmed!"

Sasha always remembered the mission requirements.

With Lin Yue unable to intervene, the team must proactively eliminate this biggest destabilizing factor in Taipingzhou!
The other party seemed somewhat unprepared for the two hackers to have pinpointed their location without their noticing… Soon, Qiwei noticed a sports car brake rapidly, completing a 180-degree drift, white smoke billowing from its rear tires on the ground. The meticulously designed headlights now appeared to everyone as if they were demons staring at them—

Immediately afterwards, it burned out its tires and accelerated towards the group of people who had not yet slowed down!

Two cars traveling at 100 miles per hour collided violently; even a cyborg mercenary would be pulverized...

"Oh shit!"

Rebecca suddenly stood up, and Falco gripped the steering wheel tightly, trying to screech to a stop by scraping against the concrete guardrail beside the road!
Rebecca raised the muzzle of the machine gun, slammed one foot on the back of the chair, and then flames exploded from the black machine gun in her hand!
Sparks flew from the streamlined body of the car, which began to sway wildly from side to side.

AI's sophisticated program can fully read all the data during vehicle operation, so it carefully controls any operation that might seem like a rollover to an experienced driver. Therefore, even if the car sways, it will never completely leave the ground. It's like an impeccable opponent showing off their skills to the enemy by licking blood off a knife's edge.

The program won't make mistakes, but it's destined to be unremarkable.

When Rebecca held the gun in her little hands, she knew she had hit the target.

On any battlefield, the hit rate of a machine gun can be as low as one in ten thousand bullets. It seems that only automatic turrets can maximize the power of a weapon like a heavy machine gun, whose trajectory is not very precise.

But as Rebecca often says:

Screw it, just don't shoot yourself.

The clanging of spent bullet casings nearly overwhelmed the back of the seat. The entire process took less than ten seconds. Rebecca accurately fired half of her bullets onto the hood of the car, and not only that, she followed the car's trajectory closely, causing the car body to crackle and pop like a thunderstorm under the power of the kinetic machine gun!

It's all chaos!
When the explosions and machine gun fire began, residents of the border area between Taipingzhou and Santo Domingo scattered and fled!
The NCPD dispatch center, which usually doesn't care about this area, clearly noticed the incident. Instead of ending it as a gang fight in Taiping Island as usual, they dispatched a large number of police officers to the scene.

These guys, seeing that Taipingzhou no longer has the Cleaners, the Voodoo Gang, and the Animal Gang that used to cause trouble on the streets, seem to think that the Dreamers' credit is going to be theirs again, and they're even planning to interfere today...

Rebecca's machine gun ammunition was rapidly running out.

The sports car sent to ram them was still charging forward, and Rebecca knew she only had one or two bullets left—

"hateful!"

She clenched her teeth unconsciously, her expression extremely unpleasant.

Thud… The faint sound seemed insignificant in the noisy environment, and Rebecca's expression suddenly relaxed…

Signs that something is about to explode.

The sports car, bathed in the gale, was actually emitting faint black smoke from under its hood, indicating that there were already unlit flames.

They were just one chance away from igniting!
then…

Rebecca roared and gave it her last bullet. The hood suddenly loosened under the force and lifted up violently in the wind!
As air entered the hood, the car was quickly engulfed in flames. Rebecca dropped her gun and Da Xingxing grabbed the backrest to protect herself from the impact!

laugh! ! !
Falco slung his car tightly against the concrete guardrail, grinding forward as the engulfed sports car, now out of control, hurtled past, its reflection gleaming in the crowd's eyes.

Boom boom boom!
It churned and splashed out a large patch of burning alcohol, instantly spreading the burning liquid across the road…

"cold!"

Rebecca discovered that, because they were being deliberately targeted, the car Lin Yue was driving had been hacked by three sports cars, which had already entered from the overpass and would soon disappear from sight...

Before they could decide whether to continue the pursuit, a series of alarms began to echo rapidly around them!
The team members quickly turned their heads—

"This is DRAR's operating area. Please cease all armed resistance. We will provide humanitarian assistance!"

More than a dozen drones suddenly flew down from above, repeatedly broadcasting alarms that were only used when dealing with company assets and investigating problems.

One after another, armed soldiers disembarked from vehicles bearing the Dreamers logo!

"Every single one of them, fucking push them up! Let those NCPD bastards stand over there in Santo Domingo and watch them like this!"

Dressed in the uniform of an ordinary soldier, Leiden gave the order, and his squad of several dozen men quickly rushed to the rear, attempting to check whether the people still inside the AI-controlled vehicles that had been hit were alive.

The remaining soldiers lined up along the roadside under the sign that read Santo Domingo, holding riot shields, with riflemen behind them raising their guns through the gaps in the shields. They quickly formed a tight defensive line for the urban riot control operation!

A series of piercing sirens blared, and a sea of ​​red and blue lights flashed around the corner; the NCPD seemed determined to push forward.

Rebecca's figure appeared at some point next to the automatic machine gun on the Dreamer vehicle.

Boom boom boom!
A gunshot even more exaggerated than a handheld machine gun rang out, and bullets quickly kicked up a cloud of dust in front of the NCPD traffic, forcing those vehicles to brake suddenly!
Leiden, with his back to the traffic, confidently let Rebecca shield his back as he shouted:
"Ready to fire at any time!"

No one answered Leiden—

All that could be heard was the sound of a gun safety being released!
This marks the first time in Taiping Island's history that a company has made a grand entrance into the public eye, and it is also the only company in Night City to directly confront the NCPD in the city center!

Falco's voice came through the earpiece, "Let's go, we need to find those good friends hiding there. Maybe we can get some fighting experience before something gets over?"

Seemingly remembering something, the girls overheard the seasoned driver complaining:

"That guy's been taken somewhere no one can see him; someone's probably in for it!" (referring to Lin Yue being taken away)

……
-
Lin Yue sat in the car, helplessly spreading his hands as he looked at the dashboard filled with red, torn data.

He could no longer control the steering wheel; the pedals, clutch, and so on were all useless.

Lin Yue was receiving hundreds of rapid cracking messages per minute, all uploaded by vehicles accompanying him or, in other words, those that had been hijacked by him…

"It's very itchy, rub harder."

Lin Yue thought to himself.

He didn't retaliate verbally because he knew that words wouldn't provoke those roaming AIs; their purpose was so simple that even Lin Yue knew it.

The richest source of data in Taipingzhou is the Dreamers' data fortress. AI needs to iterate, almost instinctively guiding them; they won't give up until they achieve their goal, and data is the foundation of all their actions. This is the characteristic of any mobile AI, without exception.

The quick cracking has stopped.

Lin Yue paused for a moment, then smiled.

He saw the Dreamers' team's performance in the rearview mirror; the timely arrival of the company soldiers meant that the Dreamers and the Queen of Dogtown could only discuss the matter in Taipingzhou... Lin Yue was very satisfied.

"Please give us the key."

Suddenly, a strange sound came from the car's radio system. The sound was extremely similar to Erebus, seemingly muffled, with a smooth quality as if no living person was speaking. At the same time, Lin Yue found it somewhat familiar... like, like a memory from a past life.

Before Lin Yue could speak, the car window was suddenly shrouded in darkness, and Lin Yue was at a loss for words.

These AIs actually believed that the modified wolves could prevent him from escaping.

Even if Lin Yue were to kick open the car door and jump out of the speeding car right now, he could withstand it.

only…

No need.

"What you care about most is nothing more than repeating actions within a limited lifespan, engaging in meaningless behavior, expressing yourself in a confused manner, taking bad measures against yourself, and so on—you call that thing life."

"Now... (a piercing, noisy sound)"

"We will trade with you fairly in a human way."

In Lin Yue's opinion, AI speech always has a mechanical feel, and the Delaman taxi also has this feeling—

But this doesn't happen with Otto and Brandon...

"You learn quickly."

Lin Yue chuckled and simply lay there waiting for the AI ​​to spout its "AI farts"...

These bastards almost tricked him out of the dark wall, but Lin Yue didn't believe a word they said.

"We've been studying this low-tech, unbearable behavior for a while now; for your sake, give us the key and you can leave now."

There was silence.

Lin Yue pondered carefully.

Behind the in-car camera, the bloodshot-eyed Voodoo Gang "masters" stared at this tiny "cockroach" in their eyes.

What are you going to do with the car?

The response from the other end was also silence.

“Your storage devices can’t be moved, this network is too desolate, we need fast and easy tools to observe this world.”

“Your currency is essentially a medium of exchange, and cars also have this attribute. We need currency to accomplish many things.”

In short, your bodies are too rotten for us to stay in; I'm just using the car, and I'll sell it for money after I've used it.

what!
Lin Yue felt that the roving AI should be called a rogue AI, and the old captain really cried.

"Just the data, no money?"

Lin Yue took a deep breath. The AI ​​thought this guy was stalling for time, but little did it know that Lin Yue was stalling for them.

AI must have a base of operations, and they cannot exist in Taipingzhou!

"You want to cooperate with us?"

Lin Yue clicked his tongue.

"Cooperation is based on equality. What can you offer me?"

The AI ​​answered very quickly this time.

"Technology beyond your imagination, the possibility of achieving immortality, providing answers to what you've spent your lives pursuing, anything..."

This…

Lin Yue thought about it carefully and then smiled.

I feel so bad, I have to eat and take some with me.

"My second question is, do you... know anything else about me?"

The AI ​​on the other end replied: "Too simplistic, too little information. We are temporarily unable to enter or leave the current network area due to coercion from the regulators (the black wall), but that doesn't mean we don't know..."

A whole string of news related to Dreamers.

However, the information is limited to Rin's identity; it seems that the AI ​​hasn't received some data and is completely unaware of it.

The AI ​​assumed the "prisoner" sitting in the car was afraid, because people are always afraid of their secrets being exposed.

But Lin Yue said something completely unrelated.

"Looks like quite a lot."

"So, you're so awesome... are you afraid of the Great Firewall and internet censorship?"

The mocking smile made the AI ​​realize that the simple code in front of it was courting death; it was toying with them…

Lin Yue said, "The key is in my offline storage device. If you burn it, you'll have nothing."

The AI ​​maintained a consistent tone, even after being tricked by Lin Yue, it still slowly said, "Even with your worldly body, you are no match for us. I don't want you before us. We've learned how to extract useful information from you—"

"what?"

AI: "Create pain. Don't think that your disconnected devices can't be attacked and compromised by us. We acknowledge that we need to swallow your firewall before we can break in, but that doesn't mean we only use this method."

It seems like he's preparing to torture himself!

She learned threatening rhetoric quite quickly…

The roaming AI did pick a good spot; it learned all the "gang essence" of the Voodoo Gang.

But when it comes to offline interactions, Lin Yue gets excited. If the server is unplugged, the AI ​​won't be able to function, and even if it's a physical body... Lin Yue doesn't think these guys can do anything about it.

So Lin Yue stopped talking, only glancing at the time in his prosthetic eye. He clearly felt the car speeding up; the AIs had given up on the stubborn Lin Yue and were now trying to get him to the vicinity of their physical location…

The car first turned left.

Immediately afterward, Lin Yue's ears twitched; he heard the echoing sound from the tunnel…

The road surface was very uneven, but Lin Yue relaxed his body and swayed freely. Soon the car came to a stop.

Lin Yue didn't rush to open the car door, but listened carefully to the sounds outside.

A series of sudden footsteps approached, the roar of car engines around them abruptly ceased, and someone began pulling on the door handles.

So Lin Yue pushed open the car door—

In the pitch-black alley, the Oracle's Eyes spotted three or four men dressed in black, their bodies covered in wounds and festering sores, and reeking of a nauseating stench.

My body and emotions are practically rotting away...

The crudely modified bodies and prosthetic eyes were arranged in a rather bizarre manner.

It definitely smells worse than shit.

Lin Yue looked up at the "ghosts" that were gathering around him. It might be understandable for someone with a weak heart to urinate here, but Lin Yue lit a cigarette to clear the smell from his nose.

He stepped out of the driver's seat, and the guys around him were all watching him with a sinister gaze.

"Do you want to continue with your story?"

"cold?"

Listening to the echoing sounds in the tunnel, Lin Yue guessed that the speaker was the strange woman behind him with a radio-like sound system installed in her throat. If it weren't for his Oracle Eye, Lin Yue would have almost failed to see clearly who this humanoid monster with a bunch of rough things around its head was…

Priests of the Voodoo Cult.

Maman Bridget…

"hiss…"

Lin Yue squinted as he enjoyed the last puff of smoke before the event, sparks flying onto the ground.

He held up his finger. "I'm here for two things. First, I'm very interested in the technology you mentioned, and I really enjoy using it."

"Secondly, you can go back to where you came from, or you can choose not to go—I accept that completely."

"Ping An Island and Dogtown do not welcome you, you AI idiots!"

The woman's eyes rolled around, looking as strange as a frog.

She tried to understand why the man in front of her was courting death. He knew perfectly well that once the AI ​​saw someone, the location of the key didn't matter; there were plenty of ways to make him confess. And what made this guy think that the AI ​​wasn't good at controlling physical combat?

ACO2239 doesn't understand.

Even with prosthetics, the limits of the human body cannot be surpassed; this is both contempt and confidence.

In their minds, AI wouldn't produce anything in human hands, and no one would ever cross paths with Xiaoqiang...

But the truth is-

Boom boom boom!
Sianwistan's furious roar erupted, smoke still escaping from his mouth, a chilling smile playing on his lips. His jet-black fists and the red-and-blue eyes that shone through his body after the light faded caused ACO to momentarily freeze…

Are they of the same kind?!

Maman Bridget, who seemed completely unable to react, suddenly turned her head to look at Lin Yue—

Its face seemed to mimic human anger, strange and terrifying.

"what!"

Her roar was like that of a monster.

However, a fist quickly caused this face to begin to disintegrate, eyeballs to bulge out of their sockets, and the vocal system in the throat to shatter, like a strange toy piled up by a child being carelessly pushed over and collapsing...

The echo of S. A.S. Steinstein's voice, accompanied by a "jade-like" sound, resounded throughout the passageway of the "friends outside the wall's" new home.

"Call me your mother, go ahead and call me..."

……

……

(End of this chapter)