Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 448 The Dike Breaks (Part 8)

The lark... is dead?
Lin Yue looked down at his hands in disbelief, simply sitting there quietly.

Things had come to this point as expected; the lark, herself, and her companions were simply fighting for their right to survive.

If they hadn't solved the problem of AI integration three years ago, and Sasha's surgery had failed, they might have faced the same fate as the lark: a strange intelligent entity with blurred self-awareness, whose self-identity would be completely eroded by AI.

Those memories, like a tidal wave, are still vivid in my mind.

A rocket, its engine ablaze with flames, rose from the ground, and Song Zhaomei encountered the kind-hearted V—

She gained her freedom, but extinguished the hope of others to live.

Lin Yue asked himself if he could do what V did. Deceiving kind people was shameful in itself, and the sadness in his heart quickly dissipated.

Song Zhaomei should be happy, at least she has been freed. Although the data is mixed, Lin Yue judged that the probability of the lark's self-awareness making a comeback was almost impossible, and the AI ​​itself had also been erased.

only…

It seems there are still some things that haven't been taken into account.

When Lin Yue was standing in the office of Arasaka Tower, he wanted to become the kind of person who could control his own destiny, but when he actually got to that point, he had to be careful at every turn.

When Lin Yue's intelligence exceeds 21 points, his abilities include, but are not limited to, constructing networks, ignoring some protocols, and being omniscient and omnipotent at the network level. Only the Black Wall gives him a sense of being more transcendent and alive than Ultraman within the network.

Although this description sounds a bit strange.

After all, all phenomena in the online world are data, and as long as Lin Yue dares to probe, he can analyze them—

Lin Yue, however, dared not analyze the black wall.

Despite its seemingly solid appearance, it is actually a super collection of Shit Mountain code, and many of its structures seem unbelievable to Lin Yue.

For example, a piece of code as thin as a hair has to drag along a skyscraper of subsequent code to run, yet it can maintain a delicate balance under attacks from AI outside the Great Firewall, as if everything is calculated...

Therefore, the line spoken by the cyber surveillance agent in the original story of this timeline became even more concrete in my memory:
The black wall looks like a tattered plastic bag pasted on a window. It's not as sturdy as people imagine.

On the other hand, it is also resisting the rampant AI outside the Great Firewall that can crush human hackers like cockroaches.

So many secrets.

Lin Yue decided that after this matter was over, he would go to the Deep Web with Ultraman again. The Black Wall's unique reaction was more like that of a confused human being. In addition, Lucy's statement that the Black Wall had said that he was just the spider Murphy was also very puzzling.

Based on this simple deduction, Lin Yue had revealed his true intentions to himself.

He judged that the Black Wall was very likely to contain a structure related to digital souls, but once the Black Wall was analyzed and invaded by external forces, it would have unpredictable effects. Otherwise, Lin Yue would have given the Black Wall an answer long ago.

Creating AI and exploring the meaning of its own existence seems to be what those transcendental AIs like to do most.

Just like people, they spend their whole lives pursuing questions like "What am I?", "Where did I come from?", and "What am I doing this for?"

A series of crisp footsteps sounded, and two people entered the hacker room one after the other: V and Emma.

V's eyes looked a little tired, and even with the earth-toned eyeshadow, her beautiful eyes didn't have the same vitality and spirit as usual.

"You guys are here?"

Lin Yue smiled, rubbed his facial nerves which had been frozen by the cooling device after being connected to the network, and jumped off the hacker chair.

V crossed her arms and looked Lin Yue up and down, while Emma picked up Lin Yue's clothes and examined him to see if there was anything wrong with him.

Both women breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Lin Yue hadn't experienced any computational overload, meaning the operation to suppress him online had failed.
V and Emma exchanged a subtle glance.

Emma, ​​understanding perfectly, prompted V to speak...

"The situation is under good control. Although Rebecca's data hasn't been released, it should be with Miles. Also, Arakasa's negotiations in Asia are progressing well, and Conto's attitude remains the same."

Lin Yue pondered carefully one of the world's strongest entities.

The giant corporation that could only have been born in the country before he transmigrated here, although some aspects of this world are similar, there is indeed something between Kangtao and Arasaka.

It's just that Lai Xuan's attitude towards Kang Tao was more moderate, while Sanlang's was more radical.

As she spoke, Emma added, "Nobody dares to do anything to Taipingzhou. These companies have suffered another huge loss, and they are now undecided. In their view, the probability of someone being both a top lone wolf and a top hacker is almost non-existent—they even see you as an AI weapon."

"What I didn't expect was that those cowards in military technology, thinking you were still alive, actually launched a cyberwar to keep Arasaka out of the war..."

Now it's V's turn to talk about this from a cyber hacker's perspective.

"Cyber ​​surveillance openly takes sides, giving military technology a huge backdoor; many attacks bypass the firewall."

"Night City is exposed to the Black Wall, these guys are really capable of doing this."

V felt somewhat resentful when this was mentioned.

They could have achieved a much greater victory, but instead, the result has turned out to be so tasteless and unappealing.

If nothing goes wrong, we're already within our control. Now we need to get Miles packed up and out of Night City as soon as possible.

After his ordeal in Night City, Miles will likely have to make the most of these nine months to see if he can keep his position.

The Dreamer and Arasaka's assessment of the situation is that Miles will control her supporter states to put up a last-ditch resistance. Brandon, Ultraman, and other AIs predict that there is an 80% chance her term will be extended as an exception, provided Rebecca can receive treatment...

Lin Yue has thus resolved this weakness.

These battles and deaths all originated with Miles…

"Hopefully Miles can make Rebecca better, otherwise..."

Lin Yue simply shrugged.

"In addition, the data fortress construction method mentioned earlier can be put on the agenda, and Sasha and Qiwei should be in charge."

V frowned, and Emma also looked puzzled.

"If the lark is hung on the wall, our data could be stolen at any time, and then—"

"The lark is dead."

When Lin Yue said this, V, who had been paying close attention to the situation between Dreamers and the Arasaka battlefield and continuously reading data, was somewhat confused.

The Black Wall fluctuated so frequently that few of the Arasaka people got close enough that they didn't notice the Lark being pulled out from inside the Black Wall and killed.

"Forget it, I really can't figure you out... whether you qualify as a human hacker or not?"

V seemed to have completely accepted Lin Yue's powerful abilities and said no more.

With that said, everyone felt a sense of relief.

With that major concern resolved, it's time to collect the interest.

"You previously envisioned separating the Taipingzhou network area, and the data transfer equipment was already prepared. The network would be under our independent control, and Night City would have no jurisdiction over it... Do you remember?"

When V brought this up, Lin Yue's eyebrows twitched.

Crossing into the European network to launch attacks, allowing Dreamers and Arasaka to join forces in Europe, was something that was agreed upon three years ago... However, it involves too many aspects, and the issue of internet surveillance alone cannot be avoided.

Admittedly, Night City's network surveillance has done many foolish things, but as long as the network surveillance capabilities and influence of other regions remain, Night City's network surveillance has only superficially lost its voice. The underlying code running on the network is still maintained by them, and no network movement can escape the scrutiny of network surveillance.

Emma looked at Lin Yue and sighed, "Although the hardware is ready and the power plant is running normally,... once we establish a private network, London will easily target us—"

V walked over slowly, leaned against Lin Yue, and continued Emma's words: "We're going to try. If we can secure evidence against the network monitoring team and several companies, including those in military technology, we might be able to fight for this right." Lin Yue hadn't spoken yet.

V interrupted, stating unequivocally, "Leave this to me. You're too tired, and it's not a good thing that you're constantly appearing online—most smart company decision-makers know that your interests and Lai Xuan's are complementary."

"We just can't find concrete evidence that you're alive, so keep your distance."

Emma nodded repeatedly.

"When the new America's nuclear weapons are destroyed, the companies will probably unite completely when they find out about it."

"The repeated setbacks in North America in recent years, especially in Night City, have made them want to go all out. Some companies with weak foundations have been unable to hold back for a long time - Zeta Technology, Qilu Company, etc."

"Tsk tsk tsk... Miles is probably going to go crazy."

Lin Yue could imagine how crazy politicians would be if they were willing to wage war to seize power.

When it comes to internet knowledge, Emma never interrupts. She stood up, smiled, and said, "I'll be going now. I have a lot of things to take care of. Ms. V has also worked very hard. You guys... take a short rest?"

Emma left before they could finish speaking.

"Sometimes she seems a little too cautious?"

V shrugged. "I never thought the Queen of Taipingzhou would have moments of insecurity."

Lin Yue felt helpless.

After all, he had no idea how to mediate the discord between the two girls... The two girls had different sharp personalities; Emma was gentle on the outside but sharp on the inside, and when she went crazy, she didn't care about the consequences.

The other V is even more taciturn and cunning, a person who dares to go all out.

"How is it? The Black Wall... will there be any problems?"

Although the companies were all making holes in the black wall, most of them were small, clandestine openings, bypassing the agreements. Countless people died trying to sneak out.

This time, Rin attacked directly on the black wall in the blocked area, and V was still worried about the potential consequences.

Lin Yue didn't presume to be arrogant, but honestly said, "I can't reach into the black wall to read it yet. There's a lot of data, and there are some wandering AIs trapped inside. It's too difficult."

"This mountain of code took decades to form. If I could find the way the Great Firewall maintains it, I might be able to read some of the logic, but I'm blocked from accessing it by the Great Firewall."

"As you know, strictly speaking, I attacked the black wall to pull the lark out."

V, who had no prior acquaintance with the lark in this timeline, frowned. "Could a girl really survive for over a decade hanging on a black wall?"

Others may not understand how terrible it is, but V knows... with prolonged data corruption, even a lark might have trouble walking.

Lin Yue nodded, "Of course, that girl's body is less than one percent flesh, or rather, her brain is still her own."

"Besides the fact that the military is willing to spend money on technology, she herself is quite special... and Nightingale was already a very skilled teenage hacker in Canada. If Li De hadn't found her—"

V's hands are resting on the armrests of the chair.

"Where did you learn all this? Are you very familiar with her?"

Lin Yue then realized that the trust between him and V had been built up so well that he had ignored the context when he spoke.

"V, do you understand that we're in the same boat?"

Lin Yue smiled helplessly, grabbed V's fair wrist that was trying to press down on his shoulder, and continued, "If Song Zhaomei wasn't lying to us, I would actually be very willing to have a hacker of Blackwall caliber join us, but now... the fact that she hasn't become someone else's weapon is already the greatest help we can receive."

"Humans have weaknesses and flaws, but AI does not."

"However... the pain is real."

V stared blankly into Lin Yue's eyes.

“You know, when I found Song Zhaomei’s personality consciousness, she couldn’t even tell who she was anymore. You could say she was trapped in her past.”

"Miles deceived her."

After Lin Yue recounted everything, V's tone was somewhat melancholy, "I never imagined that Miles could make a grown man risk his life for the chair under her butt."

"It seems there's no difference between it and a company."

V stood up and clapped his hands. "I thought you let this person off the hook and sent Emma away to tell me."

"However, you have to promise me one thing today, and Lai Xuan has agreed to it."

Lin Yue thought about it carefully—

“From now on, you must have me when you go to the European network. Although I know there’s nothing in Europe that can stop you, the network monitoring headquarters is in the European Community. I can help you avoid a lot of trouble. Besides, I’ve never failed in my offensive operations in the European network.”

Have you ever heard of the catfish effect?

Management terminology.

Lin Yue's presence caused Night City to fall out of control in just a few years, the price of cybernetic bodies began to depreciate, and the lethality of weapons became stronger and stronger.

Once in Europe, companies or organizations that have been attacked and are unaware of the truth will only become more cautious about cyber matters.

Furthermore, the European Community network is data-intensive, and its network development is at least ten years ahead of other places, which V is well aware of.

“I can accept large-scale operations elsewhere, but cyber projection cannot be allowed to expand like this any longer.”

V's car really just ran over Lin Yue's face at will.

She tapped Lin Yue's chest. "European companies have much closer relationships than you think, far beyond the kind of partnership we have in Night City. They prioritize eliminating destabilizing factors that could affect the European Community's status as the world's largest economy. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Don't show yourself unless absolutely necessary. I'll pick a few people from Arasaka. Your people are good enough too. We'll do whatever you say, okay?"

No matter what, V's concern was never fake.

Once a girl like that opens her heart, she is 100% trusted.

Lin Yue was deeply enamored with this feeling of security.

"I…"

Just as he was about to say something, V suddenly stood up, his eyes lighting up.

"There's a phone call."

Lin Yue spread his hands to indicate that he didn't care, but when V turned around, Lin Yue's expression suddenly turned somewhat ugly.

"what happened?!"

The feeling of brain overload instantly overwhelmed me!
Lin Yue hurriedly looked down to check the system inspection results—

Topology prediction

[Second Simulation]

……

……

(End of this chapter)