Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 447 The Dike Breaks (Part 7)

Gloria had no idea how she was walking; the entire world had turned into a shattered mirror filled with black and red data.

My head felt like it was filled with all sorts of sounds, some whispering, some shouting…

This feeling is similar to what I experienced before seeing a prosthetic doctor after my brain-computer interface infection...

Cyberattacks were everywhere, and the alarms on the brain-computer interface (ICE) kept ringing, like the tolling of a death knell.

"Team T0893 has suffered casualties..."

Gloria gave up after repeatedly calling out to the trauma team's emergency call system.

At that moment, the network... went down.

The whole world was filled with deathly energy, as if no living people existed. The air was filled with open flames caused by various overloads and short circuits.

Before long, this place will be filled with poisonous gas and thick smoke.

She could only rely on instinct to carry the customer on her back, and with one hand holding onto Yinglong, she swayed and walked towards the light.

puff.

Gloria knelt on the ground, and Sandra behind her sank down sharply as the woman knelt, her arms swaying unsteadily…

Gloria reached out with trembling hands and nudged the person lying on the ground.

She reached out and unfastened the man's trauma team helmet, and seeing the sticky liquid that was almost stuck to the material left by the helmet's burning, she bent over abruptly, ripped off the helmet, and vomited violently.

The team leader of this group has been killed in action.

Along with…

The trauma team uniforms, which should have been a clean, dark green, were blackened by the various short-circuited prosthetics, resembling scavenger outposts.

A rustling sound came from ahead. Gloria, on edge, raised her gun. In the air distorted by flames, the man staggered and collapsed in front of Gloria.

Gloria, who was retreating, tried to open her disturbed prosthetic eye wide before she could see that it was her teammate.

Among the teammates marked with an X on the helmet's holographic screen, one was indeed missing...

“McCourt?!”

Gloria hurriedly helped the woman lying on the ground to her feet, reaching out to loosen her collar. As the helmet fell off, the air filtration device on the side of the woman's neck completely burned out...

The wound, with its worm-like edges, looked as if some monster had bitten it out of thin air!

Gloria, trembling, reached out and pulled the damaged fastener from the woman's neck, temporarily replacing it with a filter from the trauma team...

Suddenly, a series of loud footsteps and moving sounds came from outside.

Gloria hurriedly dragged the two of them aside, covering her mouth and holding her breath...

"Damn it—what the hell?!"

The cleaners seemed to be affected by the earlier network outage as they kept rubbing their heads, trying to stay alert.

"What the hell have those bastards caused? Find that company dog!"

Gloria leaned tightly against the wall as she listened to the sounds, glancing instinctively at Sandra beside her. These cleaners definitely knew something... but now was not the time to think about that; Gloria just wanted to get out of there first.

The scavenger butcher, hunched over and carrying a gun, walked forward, wearing an oilcloth apron covered with fragments of human tissue. Two henchmen with spoilers on their faces followed closely behind, carefully searching for any trace of survivors in the room filled with black smoke.

"Brother, how the hell is that company dog ​​still alive? You have no idea that we brothers were basically all wiped out in that one go. You know, there's no such thing as a good job if you do it through unconventional means!"

"If I ever find out who attacked us, I'll definitely cut off their balls!"

The butcher muttered, "Idiot! That was a cyberattack, what do you know? The company dogs told us to kidnap the company dogs, why are you talking so much nonsense?! We've suffered so much loss, we have to get some of it back."

"That woman definitely has something on her, otherwise she wouldn't have let us spare her life... Let's search her body."

"yes, Sir!"

Listening to this inhuman scum's conversation, Gloria quickly covered her hands even tighter, gripping the gun handle with one hand, keeping Yinglong's connection active, and using her elbow to firmly hold the stock to prevent the recoil from causing her to slip out of her hand...

Closer…

These clueless cleaners had no idea that this wasn't the company messing with them; on the contrary... it was the biggest firewall in the network that was malfunctioning!
Gloria finally realized the gravity of the situation. She needed to get out of there as soon as possible. This woman definitely had something in her hands, and her connection to the Ye family was undeniable. Perhaps Mr. Rin could be of some help…

Gloria, who had originally planned to quietly slip away from the cleaners and leave, changed her mind.

She hesitated for a moment, then slowly got up…

"Ok?"

The intruding cleaner sensed a dark shadow flash by.

The increasingly cautious scavenger team began to walk extremely slowly. Behind an old iron cabinet ahead was the only place where someone could hide. They headed straight for that spot, one step, two steps…

The approaching cleaner suddenly accelerated, abruptly turning the corner and scanning the area inside with his gun—

"what?!"

The Scavenger Butcher looked down at the ground. Two women were lying against the wall. One was wrapped in a blanket and was Sandra Dorset, whom they were looking for. The other, judging from her clothes, seemed to be a member of the trauma group.

The two underlings craned their necks to look inside, and were instantly thrilled.

"Someone!"

The Cleaner Butcher stopped two fanatical gang members behind him. His cunning eyes told him that these two hadn't gotten there on their own merit; someone else must have been lucky enough to escape the cyberattack, just like them…

The instant he turned around, more than a dozen miniature guided bullets, each leaving a dazzling trail of flame, pierced through his body!
A woman with scars on her face, her features blurred, held up the Yinglong gun and turned it around. Before one of her henchmen could even utter a sound, he was riddled with bullets by the smart bullets…

"You bitch! I'll fucking kill you!"

Before Gloria could even aim at her other underling, she was slammed into a group of tables and chairs by the charging Scavenger, the Yinglong making a screeching sound as it scraped against the ground.

The two, who were completely disoriented from the collision, both saw the smart weapon at the same time, and Gloria also caught a glimpse of the smart connection in the man's hand.

In the past, even street cleaners couldn't buy this kind of thing in eight lifetimes.

These have now become standard equipment for criminals!
Before Gloria could even touch the gun, she was struck on the shoulder with the butt of a rifle. To the Cleaner's surprise, the woman only staggered a few steps while clutching her shoulder.

Gloria let out a low growl. The combat prosthetic body the trauma team had given her was no pushover either—it's just that Gloria's forte wasn't combat.

The cleaner looked down and saw that his crotch had been kicked hard by a military boot.

Some things just break so easily.

"I...I'll fuck you—"

Immediately afterwards, Gloria grabbed Yinglong and roared as she pulled the trigger repeatedly until the creature staggered back several steps and fell backward onto the ground, its abdomen already a mangled mess of flesh.

Just as Gloria was panting heavily, trying to process the effects of the intense adrenaline rush, her body was suddenly pinned down by the massive body's arm!

Gloria felt as if her ribs were being crushed, and her feet began to lift off the ground.

The Scavenger Butcher, whose bulletproof skin on his face had been ripped off by Gloria's intelligent weapon, now had half his face exposed, revealing the prosthetic structure beneath. His eyes gleamed with malice as he tried to crush the woman in front of him to death with his arms. Having fallen for the diversionary tactic, his mind was filled with malice, and his strength increased with each blow.

Gloria's throat was violently squeezed by the thick arm, and the various data of her prosthetic body began to flash wildly. She could only pound on the guy's arm with all her might—

The tip of her nose was filled with a disgusting, sweaty smell, like rotting flesh, and Gloria felt her consciousness drifting further and further away.

call--

Boom!
The whistling sound of the steel pipe piercing the air was accompanied by a dull thud as it hit the scavenger's head!
Gloria was immediately thrown to the ground. Coughing violently, she greedily inhaled the scorching air filled with toxic substances, her vision blurred as the prosthetic body on the massive butcher creaked and groaned as it operated.

McCourt, whose size difference was enormous, was instantly sent flying. Enraged once more, the Butcher, his face covered in the milky-white biological fluid from his prosthetic body, kicked the woman in the stomach.

He twisted his toes, as if he wanted to crush McCourt's stomach!
Gloria, who was lying on the ground seemingly breathing, suddenly let out a low growl and slammed her military dagger into the guy's back with one hand!

hiss!
She immediately used the anti-slip military dagger specially designed for trauma teams to stomp hard on the side of the guy's ribs to prevent herself from being thrown off, and then roared as she recklessly shoved the military dagger into the butcher's neck!
The woman on the ground, her consciousness fading, watched this scene unfold. The medical experts in the team, who were usually focused on saving lives and rarely fired shots, now seemed more like soldiers fighting for their lives…

Gloria had no time to rest. After lying on the ground for a short rest, she wiped the blood off her face and rummaged through the scavenger's body to retrieve a few separation chips.

Gloria briefly glanced at the chip, then lowered her head and let out a laugh that was hard to tell if it was self-deprecating.

When Gloria climbed up to McCourt, she noticed that the woman's legs were wobbling softly as if they had no bones to support them.

"client…"

McCourt stared at the ceiling filled with thick smoke. "Let's go, Gloria."

"There are still cleaners left to clean up."

Gloria leaned on her arm and stayed beside McCourt for half a minute before swaying away...

McCourt's eyes darkened slightly.

Before long, Gloria, carrying Sandra, returned. McCourt, who was lying on the ground, turned his head. Only her eyes were bright and shiny on the woman's dirty face.

"Give me your hand."

McCourt remained unmoved. "Can you carry two people? Get lost."

Gloria didn't say anything, but pulled over a piece of oilcloth, rolled it up with a steel pipe, and pushed McCourt up with all her might.

"Are you crazy?"

Gloria handed the Yinglong to her, saying, "Take good care of my weapon. It's... very important. Someone gave it to me. Please be quick when you fire it. I'm entrusting my back to you."

And so, the woman carried Sandra on her back, dragging another woman behind her as she walked outside.

The surviving scavengers emerging from the building were all annihilated by Yinglong, a high-level weapon with power comparable to kinetic energy weapons but with extremely high accuracy, while the slightly slender woman kept her head down and charged forward.

Accompanied by the explosion of the Scavenger grenade—

The three of them collapsed onto the platform, the warm sunlight making Gloria feel as if she had returned from hell.

McCourt lay on the ground and shook the dirt off his head. His expression froze when he saw the city. Gloria, who was kneeling beside him, had the same expression.

Thick smoke filled the air, accompanied by the sirens of the NCFD (Night City Fire Department), while the hovercraft of the Terrorist Mobile Force and the NCPD roared overhead.

Whether it was due to a malfunction in the prosthetic eye or not, they saw complex colored data streams wrapped around the tops of many skyscrapers, flowing downwards like lava…

The sky was also torn apart by this strange data, and everything looked like the end of the world!
"Why...why did it turn out like this?"

Perhaps because the three people had come out of the building, the radio signal seemed much better, and the trauma team's emergency channel kept repeating:

"Company members who can take action should immediately disconnect from the data coordinator, shut down cyber implants if possible, cancel online banking account services, publish coordinates according to procedures, and protect their personal safety!"

"The network is at risk of crashing at any time. Do not attempt to access the network or use any mobile communication devices!"

"Employees currently online must immediately disconnect. This is another warning!"

A strange noise came from the sky, and a heavy transport vehicle above immediately malfunctioned and roared straight toward a small company building!

"Hold!"

The deafening roar made McCourt's terrified roar almost inaudible.

The building crumbled into pieces as if made of powder, flames shooting straight into the sky. The consequence of the floating vehicle's fuel tank explosion was that the entire building began to collapse and explode from top to bottom like a burning stick!

"Rin, children..."

Gloria watched as the company logo was engulfed in flames, then slumped to the ground in a daze, her mind completely blank.

In a panic, she instinctively tried to find the location of the Arasaka Tower, but the thick smoke that blotted out the sky and the annoying data fragments made it impossible for her to find her way.

"What happened decades ago is repeating itself."

“Gloria…”

After a while, McCourt sat up with Gloria's help, the stinging pain contorting her expression.

"Fifty years ago, there was also a network crash, and the Great Firewall saved us. Who do you think will save us this time?"

"That woman said the black wall is broken, and it seems to be true!"

Gloria finally remembered.

Classic case studies in trauma group training include those involving the treatment of cyber hackers after prosthetic overload. The Black Wall is the firewall of the cyber world. Now that it has been breached, does it mean that... roving AI is coming?

The unknown is what's frightening.

"They're all dead..."

McCourt stared wide-eyed at the ground. "They're all dead."

Gloria looked at the woman, who was terrified, and gently placed her head on the side of her shoulder.

Her eyes were fixed on the chaotic streets where gangsters were fighting with NCPD police, and on the waves of thugs storming into stores. They greeted the world with the most genuine malice, yet repeatedly shouted that they were free…

The deaths of her teammates in the trauma group and the terrifying destructive power of the online world shattered Gloria's understanding of the world.

Listening to McCourt's feeble murmurs, Gloria ignored the trauma group's warnings and quickly packed up the information she had gathered, her phone growing increasingly hot—

She sent the prepared content to Rin.

The sound of the phone exploding made McCourt's eyes flicker. Gloria, brushing the burning embers off her body, forced a pale smile.

"For children? As long as they've undergone brain-computer interface modifications, we'll—"

Gloria's hand on McCourt's shoulder suddenly tightened. She watched patiently as the trauma team's hovercar approached in the distance, then interrupted, "We will all live."

"Will."

……

……

(End of this chapter)