Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 508 Questionable ID
"Bonny Ivanov...have you ever heard of him?"

All the information about the man with the pointed mouth and monkey-like face was in front of Lin Yue.

It's not as amazing as he boasted.

A character who might work for the Scavengers in Night City is nowhere near as good as Mad Dwarf, who has mercenary resources like Makarov under his command.

But it's at least much better than it is now.

The other party has probably already figured out their background as newcomers, but the three hackers under Lin Yue's command are too formidable... They are unsure of what to do for the time being.

On the holographic screen, Lucy pursed her lips and shook her head, a hint of hesitation in her eyes as she looked at Lin Yue—

"never heard of that."

Lin Yue naturally noticed Lucy's unease, but he didn't say anything. He had already made all his plans in his mind.

First, we need to figure out whether this guy in District D who calls himself "Jesus" can actually control everything, and whether he has any connection with Arasaka and 404... After all, Ivanov is just a piglet whose prosthetic body has been removed, and Lin Yue would never put all his bets on him; second, does the mysterious virus that Ivanov mentioned really exist? Then why would Jesus hand over this information to Lin Yue?
This is the downside of sudden intervention. Lin Yue didn't want Arasaka to set his sights on him beforehand. What he wanted to do was to join forces with V and David to completely throw Takeda into disarray and make him the first European executive to be ousted from his management position.

"alright."

Lin Yue paused for a moment, then said, “Recently, you will replace Qi Wei and maintain the subnet of Mama’s Bar. If any unfamiliar situations arise that might cause unnecessary reactions, prioritize preserving your identity. After all, this is your father’s territory. It’s a pity that we haven’t mastered the personal behavior simulation module in the behavioral feature panel yet.”

Lucy's expression stiffened for a moment.

Just as Lin Yue was about to end the call to continue monitoring the man named Ivanov with his pointed face and monkey-like features, she quickly said, "Mr. Lin!"

Lin Yue frowned, wondering what this absent-minded girl was up to.

“Lucy…”

Lin Yue thought he had been patient enough with this child.

However, Lucy was clearly afraid that Lin Yue would misunderstand, so she widened her eyes and shook her head repeatedly, "It's not like that, Mr. Lin... I, I didn't mean to hide it from you, but that guy named Jesus, he... he has the exact same online name as my mother!"

So that's how it is...

Lin Yue immediately understood.

This is just normal hesitation.

Looking back on Lucy's life over the past twenty years, her father undoubtedly occupies an extremely opposing position in her mind, while her mother, as the "invisible killer" who destroyed her child's life, often leaves people confused.

Was it that this poor woman was powerless to stop her husband from pushing their child into the fire?

Or perhaps the mother has some unspeakable difficulties?
Lucy was unsure whether she should place her parents entirely on the opposite side, so she hesitated—which was precisely why she and David, both men of high moral character, were drawn to each other; fundamentally, both children were incredibly kind.

Lin Yue breathed a sigh of relief.

He felt it was time to let Lucy put her illusions to rest.

Looking at Ivanov's movements on the indicator, Lin Yue asked in a deep voice, "Are you sure this so-called Almighty Jesus is the online name your mother used?"

Looking at Lin Yue, who didn't criticize her at all, Lucy gritted her teeth and recounted a part of her life experience.

This part of his life experience was unknown to Lin Yue, who was like an encyclopedia of knowledge about most people and things in the world…

"Actually... I didn't stay at the Arasaka Youth Hacker Research Center until I escaped."

"The reason is actually because I once tried to be a cyberpunk."

Lucy felt a sharp pain in her head.

For a long time, Lucy was trying to figure out if she could lose this painful memory, and she even hoped that she could get a head injury during a street fight and completely give up the past.

"My father committed numerous war crimes for Saburo Arasaka during the company war. After I saw these things... he was no longer the father I admired."

It seems that every girl admires her father to some extent.

This is an indispensable part of a child's development, and this role is often the fundamental source of a child's sense of security.

Lin Yue said quietly, "So you chose to rebel and spent a cyberpunk life on the streets? But you don't look that old—"

Lucy's voice suddenly became agitated, "You have no idea how perfectly the ages of children are disguised in this area, especially when high-rise buildings dump garbage into the filthy pits below... Even eight- or nine-year-old children in Sector D—"

Lin Yue suddenly understood.

"I'm sorry, that's how it is."

Lucy shook her head. "That's not what I meant. It's that the people who took me back weren't just people like Red Skull who sold my information..."

The images are interwoven.

Lucy still remembers that night when the sky was filled with acid rain.

A lucrative job.

Lucy is so rich that she can immediately save enough money to go to North America, the continent she envisions as truly free and where Arasaka cannot control everything.

Night City there is even more chaotic, making it an ideal place for someone like Lucy who wants to hide her identity.

The so-called lucrative job was just a trick concocted by Red Skull and Arasaka Hacker. When Lucy got lost in the internet, she witnessed online just how terrifying her seemingly weak and even cowardly daughter was.

Lucy wasn't exactly a brilliant genius, but she had a knack for it online, though she still lost to her mother.

It was a complete and utter one-sided crushing defeat with absolutely no room for resistance.

She tried her best to sift through the redundant reporting data to find the other party's information, but she first heard her mother's voice and that glaring ID: Almighty Jesus.

Despite being utterly exhausted as she crawled out of the hacker's underground fortress in an attempt to escape, she was still battered by acid rain and helplessly watched as Arasaka's hovercar descended from the sky...

Then came those nightmarish memories.

One by one, the children died tragically before young Lucy's eyes. If it weren't for the "mysterious person" who communicated with her online, Lucy would have become part of the congratulatory gift her father presented to Saburo Arasaka...

So when she heard the familiar ID "Almighty Jesus," her first reaction was to remain silent. Even when she thought Lin Yue wanted to abandon the Ivanov storyline, she chose to kill him at the Mama's Bar to silence him.

She knew it was wrong.

But all she wanted to do was stand before the men and women who were called parents and ask them if they truly considered her their child.

Obviously...

Lin Yue did not overlook this point.

Now he is ready to use the sharpest truth to shatter Lucy's still-developing illusions, and also to teach her the first thing: that strength speaks for itself.

"Lucy?"

Lucy was filled with shame when she heard that unfathomable man call her name.

She believed that Arasaka and her training, Ms. V's guidance, and Mr. Rin's conscious favoritism would enable her to let go of everything and choose complete revenge, but she still failed to do so.

Lin Yue let out a long breath. "Your parents don't love you at all, not even as much as your teammates in Night City. The guys who helped you when you were on the run—they don't even care about you as much as Gloria does. You know all this, right?"

Lucy was stunned.

She hadn't expected Mr. Rin to be so sharp. "I..."

Lin Yue always kept in mind that when fighting against the company, especially against guys who represented the corrupt side of Sanlang, any illusions were unnecessary.

They only care about whether they can control wealth and technology, turning the whole world into a relentlessly running machine.

"Takeda's war crimes were not forced upon you by anyone. You don't need to fantasize about whether he was kind or whether he was the father you respected. Your mother tried to eliminate you across regions, and you shouldn't try to compensate yourself with those almost completely erased childhood memories... They were the enemy, weren't they?"

Lucy's pupils trembled, and she could barely breathe.

"look at me."

Lin Yue's voice is beyond question.

Lucy looked up abruptly, her eyes already brimming with overwhelming emotions.

The person whose face was obscured spoke in the most peaceful tone online: "What you need to protect is the happy life you have now, your lover, the mother of your own child... and this world that has not completely collapsed."

Too many things overwhelmed Lucy in an instant.

She slumped down in despair.

Inside the bar's private room, only Sasha silently watched the girl kneeling on the ground, her eyes lifeless.

honestly……

Sasha also missed her mother a little. Fortunately, her mother was not such a bad person. She was a very good person and very strong.

"Lucy, do you really want me to spare her life online just to get an answer?"

"Then you should give up on this idea as soon as possible."

"I bet if your mother smells even a trace of Night City's stench on us, our entire carefully crafted plan will fall apart—"

"So I'm telling you here that no matter who's behind that ID or nickname, as soon as they go online, I will not hesitate to eliminate them."

"Did you... understand?"

Lin Yue's words were already extremely impolite.

He knew all too well how fatal it could be to make an emotional blunder at certain crucial moments. He regretted everything Rebecca had gone through in the Azure Mansion and would nip any such tendency in the bud without hesitation.

Lucy felt like her throat was blocked.

She wanted to bury herself in the ground and stop thinking about anything.

"Or you can defeat me online and fight for yourself to spare the life of that person who is suspected to be your mother without exposing us. Then I will have nothing to say. But before that, I can only tell you that I regret to inform you."

Tick.

Not only Sasha, but even Qiwei, who had been listening to Lin Yue's words the whole time, couldn't help but speak up after a long silence.

"How heartless..."

Sasha blew bubbles, "Rin isn't like that... Maybe she was just too hasty?"

Qiwei wasn't being sarcastic towards Lucy; their relationship was like a broken rope that couldn't be repaired. That betrayal had left a deep impression on Lucy. "I rarely see Rin say such harsh words. Maybe you should stand up and wipe your tears. Let's see if there's anything we can do to help our dear and lovely boss. What do you say?"

Sasha, standing next to Lucy, had one foot on the sofa, and for some reason, she now had a touch of Rebecca's carefree spirit.

She reached out her hand to Lucy and said, "Hey, get up... We're all orphans, there's no difference. Dreamers is your home, isn't it?"

Lucy's head was still buzzing from Rin's words.

She lowered her head and reached out her hand, which Sasha helped to lift up—

"I'm sorry, I..."

Qiwei, who was online, had no intention of letting Lucy speak, because Lucy didn't need to be embarrassed right now.

"Oh my... we get paid so easily. I checked, and the network in Zone D used to collect signals. Those heavily fortified areas are all gone now."

Rin made her move?

Sasha stared wide-eyed at the cat-shaped glasses. "Holy crap, it's only been a few minutes?"

"This is really annoying. Four or five years ago, this guy didn't know anything about internet technology..."

Lucy was also taken aback.

"Where is Ivanov?"

Sasha shook her head. "Hey, hey, hey, Rin didn't tell us to move!"

Lucy then added confidently, "Even if Mr. Rin clears the obstacles online and kills those who control Ivanov, someone still needs to be offline to handle the offline devices—"

Qiwei replied, "Ivanov is now... um, let me see, the signal seems to be cut off. He should be in a facility with a strong magnetic field in Zone D. Do you have any clues?"

magnetic field?

Lucy frowned in thought.

She quickly added, "Before Zone D was formed, there were several military factories here, supposedly shipbuilding parts, armor, and ACPA assembly lines—remnants of the European Community and the Russian-Soviet oil war. Would the magnetic field there be very strong?"

Sasha nodded, her eyes fixed on the ceiling. "Hmm... if it's an electromagnetic crane, the large kind, or an induction melting furnace or something like that?"

Sasha quickly used holographic images to show the features of these places, and with Lucy's reminder, they were able to pinpoint these locations in the direction Ivanov was heading.

Lucy stood up. "There's no time. We need to get the information on District D and Arasaka as soon as possible. Even if... even if we're the big fish that Arasaka is catching, we have to take the bait."

Qiwei: "Hmm, it's a skill to bite the hook without letting people know where we're from—besides, I don't think it's very likely that the wife of the president of the Arasaka branch has full control over the D area. Maybe there's someone sent out to impersonate her—anyway, let's go check it out first."

Lucy glanced gratefully at the security camera in the corner.

However, what she received in return was Qiwei's harsh tone.

"Ah, those pitiful eyes again, just like when I found you in Night City."

Although Lucy's smile was gloomy, it was noticeably more relaxed. "As expected, you're still as annoying as ever."

For Sasha, all she could do was shake her head from side to side, "Huh? Nani? Nani?"

Why do I feel like it's a good thing these two didn't actually fight?

"So... we really shouldn't tell Mr. Rin?"

Lucy shook her head and said, "No need. Rin has her own plans. What we need to do is expand our gains and find out the full picture of the information that Almighty Jesus gave to the Mad Dwarf and his group..."

"must!"

……

……

(End of this chapter)