Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 370 The Great Explosion of Taipingzhou (Part Two) [6.7K]

boom!
A red line of fire squeezed through the crack in the door, and then suddenly deformed under external pressure, bulging up rapidly like a potato chip bag before being torn open.

"Voodoo gang members, Mom's bringing you Easter presents—"

"By the way...you guys are supposed to celebrate Easter, right?"

The man in the flames, carrying a large machine gun, was about to be torn apart by the machine gun when he faced the unfortunate Voodoo gang members inside the building who had been stunned by the explosion and hadn't had time to fire back. Even the gun in his hand was reduced to dust.

"Rin! We've come to find you!"

Rebecca called several times on the channel, but did not hear a reply from Lin Yue.

Qiwei was sitting in the car with internet access at the entrance. "Go down underground, the traffic there seems to be exploding."

Sasha's eyes shone red as she detonated the grenades carried by a few stragglers who had slipped through Rebecca's gun, blasting the enemies and their cover into dust!
Falco looked at the time—

"Do we need to worry about someone who can take down a mech? Save your energy, listen to Miss Emma first, and find a way to disable the power facilities below!"

"To be honest, this is my first time dealing with a roaming AI! I just wonder if it's as good-looking as the hot girls in bars?"

After saying that, he raised his pistol and suppressed the few guys who were showing their faces again.

"You wouldn't want to know what those things look like."

Sasha's ripper prosthetic body, sculpted from obsidian, moved with the agility of a cat, tearing a gap in the heavily guarded front hall amidst the curses and wails of the Voodoo Gang.

"I should have let me touch the sword in the stone, tsk."

Rather than charging down the mountain with the mercenaries, Falco preferred the tasks Emma assigned to the other company soldiers, such as driving all the luxury cars that had lost AI control back to Dream Home—

However, despite saying that, he was actually unwilling to do things that were not rewarding.

Emma had been connected with officials from the Night City government five minutes earlier. The battlefield she was on now, though without the smoke of gunpowder, was far more terrifying than this place.

The reason our team is here is to nip any potential problems in the bud and prevent other companies from getting involved in Taipingzhou, which is just starting to gain momentum... The internet police are a heavyweight; their power doesn't lie in how strong they are or whether they can destroy a company, but in their absolute authority on the internet!

What Emma needs to do is prevent other companies from launching a coordinated attack on Dreamers in response to calls from internet regulators.

"Qiwei, what does 'explosive traffic' mean..."

Sasha could roughly guess what Qiwei didn't say next.

"Damn it, could those things be uploading to the network? Is Rin on the network?"

Qiwei didn't speak, but instead repeated the command Emma had given her—

"Turn off the power first."

Sasha's face turned ashen upon hearing this, but she didn't intend to disrupt Emma's plans. Instead, she prayed that Lin Yue, this adventurous rock 'n' roll kid, could avoid being dragged into the network and confronting the roving AI head-on. After all, in the eyes of a hacker like her, she had no idea how powerful the AI ​​outside the black wall really was. She only knew that if the black wall could be built, the things outside must be even more terrifying.

Rebecca, on the other hand, didn't say much.

After firing the gun, he used a brightly colored big gun that didn't match his cybernetic body at all to "light cigarettes" for those guys.

The most annoying thing about the Voodoo Gang is now truly revealed: they will use any member as a relay point for rapid cracking, or even as a small server. In other words, each squad member not only has to pay attention to the enemy's firepower movements, but also has to quickly find that point and kill it to prevent any mishaps to the cybernetic body.

No one wants their cybernetic prosthetic body to suddenly burst into flames while they're rushing out to wipe out a bunch of cyber extortionists...

Looking at the red lines crisscrossing in the air (invisible to the naked eye), the progress bar for the word "Enemy Tracking" in Rebecca's eyes was moving particularly fast. She, Qiwei, and Falco had not gone through the Black Wall Linking step. Although the prosthetics on their bodies were modeled after Lin Yue's, the ICE was not particularly advanced, so they were extra careful.

"Qiwei, just keep an eye on the internet and contact that brat again!"

Rebecca took the initiative.

Therefore, she prioritized dealing with the red line that was aimed at Qiwei outside the door.

"Rebecca, no—"

Qi Wei's face darkened, and her forehead was covered in cold sweat from anxiety.

She didn't have any deep knowledge of the internet and could only rely on her experience to avoid the surge of traffic. Moreover, the identity verification pop-ups from the internet surveillance system were popping up frequently, so she guessed that the internet cops had also come online.

After Rebecca smashed a camera used as a relay point for hacking into Qiwei into dust with her iron shard, she noticed the cable was still there. She then discovered a scumbag cat in a pit that might have been used as a roadbed; the concrete wall was too thick.

With Voodoo Gang members providing cover fire from the surrounding area, Rebecca simply activated Sianwistan.

The bullets whizzed past my ears with an eerie sound. In the time-stopped world below, the colors shifted due to bloodshot eyes. Afterimages quickly covered the enemies gathered there before dissipating...

Immediately afterwards, Rebecca, who was standing there panting heavily, was grabbed by Sasha.

This time stop lasted too long, and Rebecca wanted to take care of some of the guys as much as possible…

She chuckled and patted the pocket at her waist filled with Pila's specially made explosive gadgets. The next second, a fireball exploded from the center of the Voodoo Gang member who was torn apart by the gun muzzle, bringing the rapid decryption leading to Qiwei to an abrupt halt!

"Rebecca!"

Sasha looked down and saw a line outside Rebecca's little head. She quickly turned her gaze to the side, where the enemy was still firing fiercely. The two girls could only quickly duck their heads.

Falco rolled to his side where there was no cover, and as he stood up, holding his revolver, he saw the side of the voodoo gang woman with the afro hairstyle. At the same time, there was no cover in front of him either; the woman crouching down was the one who was sending Rebecca the quick hack.

"boom!"

The two gunshots rang out very close together!

Even Qiwei, who was carefully reading data online, heard a heart-wrenching "Falco"...

She suddenly opened her eyes wide, and her breathing became erratic.

Inside the building.

Rebecca closed her eyes. After all, experienced mercenaries could usually tell what type of cyberattack it was based on the speed at which the intrusion progress bar was being cracked. Rebecca's progress bar was quite long, which meant it was very likely any of the following: a detonating grenade, cyberpsychosis, or suicide.

Sasha pressed Rebecca's hand down; the scream was her voice—

The dust cleared.

A beeping sound came from Rebecca's brain-computer interface. The line flickered twice and quickly disappeared. Milky white prosthetic fluid gushed from the large hole in the woman's chest with the afro.

Falco, as if he had been sent flying by a powerful punch, lay in a pile of waste paper, his face buried in it.

Just as Sasha was about to rush over, Falco slowly raised his hand and gave her a thumbs up.

"This outfit... cough cough"

"That's fucking awesome!"

Sasa and Rebecca both breathed a sigh of relief.

The young hacker showed no sign of blame. "Don't worry, Xiao Bei, I'll keep an eye on the quick-break instructions for you while we're working on it, okay?"

Rebecca grinned, showing her teeth.

"When did the Voodoo Gang become so powerful?"

Rebecca was completely baffled. Putting aside the fact that Falco was taken down with a single shot, the way the other side played almost made Rebecca think she had broken into some company's cybersecurity department!

"It's not just the Voodoo Gang; the danger level of all gangs in Night City is much higher than before..."

Sasha didn't say anything more after that. Although the instigator didn't want to admit it, it seemed that no one in Night City could defeat Rin.

"As Miss Emma's briefing also mentioned, when Lin Yue comes into contact with AI, all of his physical functions, including combat skills, consciousness, pain perception, empathy, etc., will be greatly reduced!"

Rebecca's eyes widened.

When did that guy—

Sasha quickly covered the mouth of the girl who wasn't paying attention to the intelligence report.

"Be careful, it would be even more troublesome if the AI ​​got mixed up in this group of people. Don't rush so fast again."

"Alright, Miss Emma has given us less than ten minutes, hurry up!"

Upon hearing this, the squad members simply cleared out the remaining soldiers in the front hall they had just captured, and then blasted open the underground passage that had previously been used as a route to the abandoned intercity train in Atlanta!

At this moment, everyone noticed that the temperature inside the passage seemed a bit high, it was humid and stuffy, and there were also red rays.

"server!"

The squad, acting as the vanguard, successfully breached the defenses.

Rebecca, who had secretly followed Lin Yue to the Voodoo Gang's lair and witnessed him enter, seemed to see that scene in a daze. The server standing at the core of the facility was like an electronic tree of condensed data, with each dense red light on it being a vicious puppet that could overload the implant.

"He's right ahead?!"

The team members felt they had finally helped Rin for the first time, and everyone was full of enthusiasm.

I expected to encounter many powerful enemies after entering the underground facility, but to my surprise, not a single member of the Voodoo Gang came to stop me for more than three minutes. The only thing I needed to watch out for was the indiscriminate cyberattacks emanating from the server...

"Rebecca?"

A sound echoed from underground.

The group was proceeding in silence when they suddenly heard someone speaking, which startled them so much that they almost fired their weapons.

"What the hell?!"

"Holy crap! You scared the hell out of me!"

Rebecca patted her chest and breathed a sigh of relief as she searched for the source of the sound.

Sasha was also craning her neck to find out where the sound was coming from, but Lin Yue seemed to be able to see their movements clearly. "Stop looking. You don't need to go any deeper. Install the explosive device you brought near the pile of rubble on the left. That's the cable node."

Upon hearing the sound, Falco tossed the explosive device in his hand to Rebecca.

"What about you?"

Sasha quickly asked.

"I... need to download data."

"Let's retreat first and get the Dreamers' reinforcements back to the company quickly. Those other company scum are very likely to come knocking on our door and cause trouble."

The voice instantly switched to the team's voice channel. Sasha checked the identity information carefully and only started to blow up the power facilities after confirming that it was correct.

"Qiwei said that the entire Night City's public network is in chaos, and that those AIs are uploading themselves to the network, right?"

Sasha was worried, after all, Lin Yue might be hiding something from her!

He's always been like this...

"Yes, the internet police have been drawn to them now, otherwise they would have already come to Taipingzhou to cause trouble here."

"What do you want to download? It's not data from the other side of the Great Firewall, is it?"

Lin Yue laughed easily.

"Of course, these are all good stuff."

For some reason, Sasha had a persistent feeling of unease... She always believed that she shouldn't rely on such irrational judgments, but this feeling not only didn't dissipate with Lin Yue's answer, but actually became stronger.

"Seriously, you really are—"

"Sasha."

For the first time, Lin Yue's voice revealed a hint of impatience.

"There are too many problems. You need to see how much time Emma gave you."

The sudden cold tone left Sasha somewhat at a loss.

After setting the bomb's program, Rebecca snapped, "Idiot! We're just worried about you—"

As she was speaking, Rebecca suddenly felt a tickle inside her nostrils.

She quickly covered her mouth and nostrils. Sasha was about to ask something when Falco spoke up.

"You're right. Let's do our job well and get going, young people."

Falco, with a cigar dangling from his fingertips, seemed completely unconcerned.

He wasn't even as tense as when he rushed in; his tone was so relaxed, as if he'd just come for a stroll...

Sasha looked back several times as she took a step, and seeing that the bomb had five minutes left, she hurriedly said, "It's going to explode in five minutes, you'd better get out of here right now."

Lin Yue seems to be busy with something.

"OK, all right."

Falco remained silent throughout the journey. Once inside the car and the doors were locked, Qiwei, sensing the team's return, quickly approached and asked, "Where's Rin?"

Rebecca and Sasha were both stunned.

However, before anyone could ask anything, the car suddenly started moving.

Falco seemed to have never stepped on the gas pedal in his life; everyone in the car was caught off guard and almost thrown out of their seats by the strong steering and acceleration.

"Hold!"

Qiwei's slender hands gripped the seat tightly.

She looked at Falco's tightly pursed lips and knew inwardly that something was wrong.

Everyone turned to look in the direction of the facility, and then—

A faint, almost imperceptible rumble rang in my ears, followed by a burst of intense white light rising from the ground. The area where the buildings had just stood was instantly engulfed by a spiraling fireball. Terrifying high pressure and shockwaves began to emanate from the ground, centered on the Voodoo Gang's facilities, destroying the surrounding vegetation and dilapidated buildings in ring after ring!

The car was still accelerating, and the air blast suddenly lifted the rear of the car up. Falco used all his strength to stabilize the car, which swerved like a snake for a great distance on the road before finally coming to a stop!

A silence.

The terrifying sound and shockwave shattered the glass, continuing to hum. Everyone's pupils shrank from the sudden turn of events, staring blankly...

Only a faint ember remained, reflected in the eyeball!
"Holy shit..."

Rebecca murmured something to herself.

Sasha, who was the first to react, immediately turned red in the eyes, baring her teeth like a wolf whose food had been stolen.

"Falco!"

Qiwei cursed several times—

"What the fuck is going on?!"

Falco's collar was being tugged at repeatedly by his teammates, so he could only clench his cigar tightly...

"Look ahead, then look behind."

On the sweltering highway ahead, the Dreamers' corporate army, which should have been blocking the NCPD and other Night City forces at the border of Pacifica, was now rapidly advancing. Turning back, below them stretched a vast convoy of corporate vehicles, including hovercars, that had bypassed the Badlands to enter Pacifica.

"Oh shit!"

Falco cursed in this way.

……
-
Ten minutes ago, the Voodoo Gang's server core...

Lin Yue quickly eliminated the remaining enemies with his sword, while the Ultraman in the network also began attacking the roaming AI.

He simply stood in front of the computer at the heart of the facility, watching the scenes unfold on the monitoring equipment, seemingly waiting patiently for something.

A series of hurried footsteps...

Lin Yue turned his head to the side and looked at the server with its red glowing light, seemingly unconcerned about who was behind him.

"Internet surveillance!"

Lin Yue didn't even glance at the dozen or so fully armed agents who rushed in.

When it comes to killing, he could eliminate all of them in a matter of seconds, leaving no one alive. He was waiting for that very important person, someone who misunderstood him…

Lin Yue wasn't some philanthropist waiting for a guy who was digging into his past to patiently explain things and then shake hands and make peace. He wanted that guy here to bury him and the Voodoo Gang together.

The discrete chip in his hand kept spinning; it contained intelligence provided by V.

After leaving the rock bar that day, and after a crazy night with V, the girl left this thing next to Lin Yue's phone. It contained the network surveillance's intelligence gathering on Arasaka, records retrieved by the agents, including the entire operation process of V using spies to infiltrate the network surveillance.

"Damn it, hands up!"

Behind Lin Yue, a blond, square-faced man in a well-tailored suit, exuding the refined air characteristic of a cybercrime agent, held a pistol and roared loudly—

Anyone could see that he was all bark and no bite.

"call out!"

A piercing whistling sound followed by someone's painful wails.

The agent who had just roared had his chest pierced by a samurai sword, like a doll being stabbed through. The immense force sent him staggering backward, pinning him to the wall.

Lin Yue turned around and waved his hand helplessly. He seemed to be taking another serious look around at the people and realized that the guy he was hoping for hadn't come.

That junior cyber police agent who seemed to be trying to investigate him in the company square bar…

"Where is Bridir?"

The cyber police agents' gun-wielding hands nearly went limp; they looked at each other, none daring to utter a word.

Just as Lin Yue was about to launch a sudden attack to eliminate all these guys and bring this imperfect AI elimination to a close, there was a sound of guns falling to the ground, and a guy standing there began to convulse—Lin Yue was all too familiar with this situation. In his memory, when Hua Zi was being chased by Arasaka Yorinobu, she used the consciousness of the sex doll to remotely exchange information with the protagonist V.

Lin Yue glanced at the time, a strange smile appearing on his lips.

"Lin, Lin Yue, K...which name should I call you?"

The surrounding cyber police agents were dumbfounded; they couldn't understand how their colleague had suddenly become a completely different person.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that you are standing in front of a dreamer."

Lin Yue didn't seem afraid of having his identity exposed.

"You killed Wendy!"

That guy suddenly went berserk.

Lin Yue frowned slightly; he had absolutely no idea who Wendy was.

but--

"Maybe so, after all, quite a few people have died because of me, but I don't know who Wendy is, so I can only apologize to you."

This kind of response is tantamount to further angering the other party.

Lin Yue admitted that the curses he used were quite vicious, but they were far inferior to the "verbal" culture of Night City.

The older women on the streets of Dogtown might be more aggressive in their approach.

"Alright, the newly appointed director of the Internet Supervision Bureau, Bridil, you were already at the top of your game as an operations manager, but you insisted on investigating things that you shouldn't have been investigating."

The cyber police agent on the other end retorted loudly, "Huh? Undermining the Great Firewall? In cahoots with Arasaka? Don't fucking think I don't know you've been in contact with Tokyo!"

Lin Yue's expression remained calm.

"how about you?"

"The Black Wall's protocol is two-way. Those who want to enter will only repeat the process of entering, and those who want to leave will do the same. Who loosened the protocol, causing the Black Wall to fail to identify the AI? And who allowed these AIs, who once managed the underground military technology facilities of Night City, to come to Taipingzhou so accurately according to their IP addresses?"

"Aren't you doing a pretty good job as a dog of military technology?"

The agent's face looked as if someone had ripped off his skin.

The guy behind him probably had a similar expression.

"You think you can fool me into your hands by sending some scumbag from Arakazama? Dream on!"

Bridil was indeed a good thinker.

His growth was equally impressive; he actually managed to extract information from Lin Yue using this technology. Naturally, the expressions of the other agents present changed. Wasn't their superior implying that this was a suicide mission, and they weren't going to do it?

"I'm not dead. I know all about your dirty deeds. Don't think that military technology isn't targeting you because they can't take down your so-called Dream Company. It's because I want to keep track of your dirty secrets and keep you on your toes—"

Lin Yue stretched out his hand and made a pause gesture.

"and many more…"

"Scared?"

Lin Yue shook his head and laughed, "They're terrible. The director of the internet monitoring department is worlds apart from the managers and department heads in the company. They seem to be more suited to cooperating with military technology. Their middle management isn't very bright either."

"Let me tell you a secret. The Blackwall incident in Dogtown involves New America. Your Wendy and your companions can investigate who killed them themselves... instead of acting like a mad dog, blindly biting and lashing out at people with the thought of revenge, getting the company involved, and turning the Blackwall, which is supposed to be protected by network surveillance, into a privileged institution that allows any AI to come and go at will... Is this your justice, Bridil?!"

"what?!"

A surprised sound.

The surrounding agents were dumbfounded...

Lin Yue held up one finger.

"This place will be blown up in a minute. The server will decode the information and leave no trace for you."

"Aren't you leaving yet? Are you waiting to be used as a tool for your boss's revenge? To die in this sewer?"

"Don't believe him!"

Bridil roared loudly.

Lin Yue retorted without backing down, "Then appear before me openly and honestly, and explain it to them!"

Meanwhile, Otto, who was watching online as internet monitors entered the heart of the cyber battlefield to arrest AI and waited for the right moment to strike, heard Lin Yue's question—

"Have you located it?"

Otto: "Hmm... the system time has also been adjusted to be one minute off, just as you requested."

"cold…"

Lin Yuegang wanted to continue to negotiate with Bridil.

Otto actually called out to Lin Yue.

"Your thinking is comparable to that of a program."

Lin Yue was only stunned for a moment by this seemingly compliment, and then logged out of the network without saying a word.

"By crossing the black wall, illegally accessing the black wall, and establishing contact with entities outside the wall."

"Lin Yue [NC01344], you are under arrest."

"If you don't want your company to become the public enemy of the entire Night City, then you'd better put your hands behind your head and enjoy the rest of your life in jail."

Lin Yue shook his head.

"not enough."

"Selling weapons, attacking company facilities, erasing data from the Blackwall, and illegally producing cyber implants."

"in other words--"

"Do I want to become the company's public enemy?"

A cryptic smile appeared on his face.

"Mr. Bridil, you should hear me in a minute. Everything here will be destroyed. Watch how the companies tear each other apart at the negotiating table."

"The trouble you've caused me, the obstacles you've hindered my career, and the spying you've put into my partners' information."

"I will find you."

Bridil was startled awake from his hacker chair.

【紧急提示：太平洲发生流窜AI暴走事件，距离上次AI暴走23年8个月7小时23分钟…目前疑存设施及服务器所处地址已因不知名原因发生爆炸，爆炸时间2077年8月6日下午15时08分12秒】

[Managers and above are requested to attend an online meeting at XX location.]

Your system has detected a suspected intrusion record.

Risk Level: Low

The malicious software caused inaccurate system time synchronization; the error has now been corrected.

boom!
Bridil's head felt like it was about to explode.

Was I just... having a conversation with a carefully orchestrated illusion of data?
"I will find you."

That guy's voice was as chilling as a venomous snake.

dong dong dong-

There was a knock on the door next to Bridil.

……

……

(End of this chapter)