Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 509 Slaughter (Part 1)

Ivanov looked like a soulless zombie; he didn't understand why those guys didn't choose to kill him.

Perhaps every street mercenary who lives a life of idleness has imagined that one day he will be taken by a bullet on the street, or perhaps he will die for some kind of street code of honor... In short, this outcome of wanting to die but not being able to is too painful for Ivanov.

This means that he has involuntarily become a scout robot for those "shameless bastards," and he can hardly imagine what kind of fate awaits him when he returns.

To the east of Zone D is a metal waste disposal area stretching for nearly ten kilometers. Warsaw's urban structure is divided into two layers to isolate the land from nuclear contamination caused during the company's war. Initially, no one thought it was possible to live down there.

It wasn't until a group of criminals, driven to desperation by Arasaka, left the empty space that this land came alive... However, those who lived here were all guys who assumed they didn't have many years left to live. As for the nuclear-contaminated land?
Please help... nobody cares anymore.

Ivanov dodged the massive swarms of trash and debris plunging down from the sky, his ears filled with the clattering sound of deathly footsteps. Before this, Ivanov had thought the place was both smelly and long, but now, in the blink of an eye, he had arrived at the factory gate.

"Damn it...a bunch of scum!"

This is an abandoned former military factory. The first thing you see is an automatic gate made of a large magnetic crane and a pile of scrap metal. Inside the factory are the guys who coerced Ivanov.

Ivanov had no idea what the Almighty Jesus looked like, not even his voice, where he was, or whether he was male or female... He was facing a group of vicious men who were skilled at disassembling prosthetic bodies to create piglets for the Almighty Jesus.

Clearly, many eyes have been on Ivanov ever since he entered the park.

Peeking ahead, the person watching Ivanov enter the factory gates wondered incredulously, "Was he kicked out? Or did that new guy simply not want to see Ivanov at all—"

Then his voice began to fill with a hint of annoyance.

"This guy messed things up, bring him over."

A wall made up of cluttered large screens, with several hackers lying on hacker chairs below, a considerable number even among the scarce hackers in Zone D.

Soon, Ivanov, his face bruised and swollen, was dragged over, and within ten minutes he had vomited everything he could.

"That guy who was putting on airs at Mama's Bar...didn't you see him?"

The man, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, revealed his neat teeth in a chilling smile. His powerful prosthetic hand gripped Ivanov's hair, pulling so hard it hurt his scalp. Ivanov could only whimper through his narrowed eyes as he stared at the man whose smile was no different from that of a devil.

"Did I tell you that Anata's fate is tied to your performance?"

“You’re a complete waste—you killed a sex doll we sent out, someone that Mama Mimi hadn’t even identified… How are you going to make up for this loss?”

Ivanov's eyes subconsciously darted to the side, a subtle movement that the other guy noticed...

"Go outside and check, make sure no one follows us... If it's one of those hackers, report it immediately, and we'll handle it."

Upon hearing this, Ivanov turned ashen-faced and swayed uncontrollably. Soon, as if to demonstrate coercion, Anata, whom Ivanov cared about, appeared on the screen under everyone's gaze. Surprisingly, the so-called Anata was just a cute cat.

Europe has far more pets than Night City, which is a biodiversity extinction site, but it's not particularly rare; it's just a grimy lizard.

"Then let's leave it at that. We'll send someone to investigate that guy again. Before I send you away, can you tell me if you've seen him? Also—if you have, is what you said to him the one we told you beforehand?"

Ivanov sobbed and begged the group to spare his "Anata," but this clearly did not elicit any sympathy.

“I saw it!!”

Perhaps it was some subtle, coercive action he had taken online that made Ivanov feel he was about to lose his beloved, for he hurriedly shouted, "I...I saw him! Not only that, I also told him about that so-called virus, but he doesn't seem interested in it at all..."

Ivanov looked like a drowning wild dog, and it seemed his superiors enjoyed seeing his underlings looking like that.

"Furthermore, I have important information for the boss! Really! I know where these guys came from!"

Ivanov had no choice but to gamble. He knew that to keep himself and the lizard alive, he had to lure out the person behind the scenes as much as possible. However, whether such a trick would work depended on whether the other party was interested.

"That's not something the boss cares about at all, but rather..."

The human brain does indeed work very fast in an emergency. Ivanov shouted, "I know they're not from the company, really! Please... give me a chance! I have to talk to the boss about this!"

He had been observing his online friend's expression, and when those words came out, he saw the guy hesitate.

company…?
The man who had coerced Ivanov recalled that just over an hour earlier, a guy he had to be careful with had told him this important advice: if he found out that the group of guys who had suddenly appeared on the streets of District D were from the company, he should find out if they were related to Arasaka.

Ivanov knew nothing. All he knew was that he had almost been shot by that smiling young man and had been turned against his side without any guarantee. He was just stalling for time because he also needed to earn enough points to perform well.

If those people could see a higher-level leader, maybe something would happen?

However, Ivanov believed that the probability of such a fantasy occurring was almost zero...

In the struggle for survival, it's not surprising to see people taking any actions that delay the inevitable.

"Alright, alright... you just want to die later, right? You'll never see the boss, but I can let you see someone, but remember... if you mess with me, I'll show you what's more painful than death."

The guy's face, which was sneer, was clouded with gloom. He was very unhappy about the feeling of being interrupted when he was about to control someone else's life and death.

Access boxes appeared on the screens in front of several hacker chairs. The guy operated the input device below, and then someone gained access to the network.

"I have something important to report to the boss."

Ivanov was dumbfounded when he heard voices coming from the other end of the call box.

Why are these people so cautious? He's completely out of options now.

"Come on... say it."

"We'll verify whether it's true or not soon. Besides, he didn't follow the script we gave him. Whether to deal with it or not is entirely up to you... We won't trouble you, boss."

Ivanov was dragged to the front, and the voice inside, filled with electronic interference, sounded utterly hollow. "You say they have ties to the company, then tell me, where did these people come from?"

"Please don't pay attention to what the people next to you are saying. As long as you speak, we will naturally spare your life. After all, you are all stray dogs that can be saved or abandoned at any time. If you want to get a chance, then do your job well."

Ivanov had heard this kind of brainwashing when he was first controlled by this organization under the Almighty Jesus. It was nothing more than being able to climb out of the cesspool of District D and into the tall, orderly buildings above Warsaw. No one in their right mind would believe such a thing.

There was a long silence.

The person on the other end wasn't in a hurry and didn't say anything; only the fluctuating noise sent shivers down Ivanov's spine.

With each passing second, Ivanov's expression grew darker, because he could tell that Ivanov wasn't very knowledgeable. "Are you fucking mute?"

The online player kicked Ivanov to the ground, and the already trembling poor guy shook like a leaf. He knew that those idiots, including Mommy, were just messing with him.

"Fuck you!"

"A guy like you who'd risk his life for a web crawler is definitely not in the right mind!"

Clearly, the man speaking on the screen was putting a lot of pressure on Ivanov's online presence. Soon, several people appeared in the room and picked up the lizard, whose condition was uncertain. Ivanov, disregarding the fight, struggled to his feet.

"Those bastards at Mama's Bar!"

He growled this in a low voice, his face hardening as he pondered the meaning of Ivanov's words. Suddenly, a machine groaned in the dimly lit equipment room, the lights went out, and gasps of surprise rippled through the room. Several hackers who were still connected to the internet suddenly jumped up in shock!

A burning smell, accompanied by the flashing fluorescent green emergency lights, caused widespread commotion.

"Holy crap! What did that bastard bring in?"

This time, it wasn't about cursing online, but rather about that guy on the screen, whose identity was unclear—someone was either human or ghost. Just then, a series of almost cracking sounds came from above the factory's dome, as if something was moving on it…

At the same time, the signal on the screen was lost, and even emergency power was of no use.

"what happened?"

Someone held up a flashlight and shone it upwards, their eyes filled with panic as they looked at the dome covered in wires...

Ivanov's superior pulled out a gun and roared for the others to come and check, but his gun was pointed at Ivanov without warning and fired.

call out!
The bullet pierced Ivanov's shoulder as he crouched, but before he could furiously fire a second shot, the floor suddenly shook violently, and the dome above, bearing the weight of the massive amount of debris, suddenly bulged and cracked open—

A figure, along with a hacker chair and various pipes, emerged from the gap, and large chunks of debris fell and killed many people.

Ivanov scrambled and stumbled, trying to break free of the crowd.

However, upon getting up and seeing the menacing guards around him, he chose the opposite direction, naturally for "Anata"—

The crashing debris claimed several lives. Ivanov's superior kicked aside his subordinate who was in the way, raised his gun, and aimed it at the man's back amidst the chaos. With a cold laugh, the man's body was suddenly pierced by a powerful electric current as Ivanov stared wide-eyed at him.

Everyone was watching the eerie red lightning as if it were a punishment or a reward from the Bible, and some were even shouting for Jesus Almighty to save them.

Three slender figures descended from above at the site of the collapse. The one in the middle, a robust figure resembling a mecha warrior clad in heavy black armor, slammed into the ground, creating spiderweb-like cracks.

The two hackers, whose gravity had been partially neutralized by Sasha, remained silent as their gunfire and monomolecular wires relentlessly reaped lives.

The online world is no more peaceful than the real world.

The factory subnet of the organization where Ivanov works has been firmly held in the arms of a woman with a huge presence. This means that a super-intelligent entity with immeasurable value in Europe is currently being used as a firewall to ensure that no information is leaked.

The guy who just fell through the gap was Ivanov's superior. Lin Yue detonated the life signature link bomb that the guy had placed around the hacker chair as easily as crushing an ant. These people were more cautious than Lin Yue had imagined; their usernames and access channels were one-time use only.

"What's going on, Ultraman?"

Looking at the advanced database within the subnet—a place that should never appear in this godforsaken place—Lin Yue was almost certain that this was the work of the 404 organization!

Ott shook his head as he looked at the data chains on the network representing various attempts to access the data. "They can't get in. The most important thing is to find the information you need. We have to go—the faster and cleaner, the less they'll notice anything."

In addition, Ultraman casually deleted the log of an attack Lin Yue had just launched using the Black Wall.

"It's an offline server; my people have gone there."

What would take other hackers an unknown amount of time to crack was almost no challenge for Lin Yue; three hackers were enough to access and download the offline storage device.

What Lin Yue was doing at that moment was the second thing Otto had said: to force all the equipment in the facility that was resisting to "shut down".

Anyone alive could potentially have their information leaked. He and Ultraman shared the same idea: to accomplish this, there was no time to discern whether or not they should all be killed.

Therefore, at this moment, the facility has become a living hell.

Anyone whose body and brain are watched by the emotionless data eyes behind the network will burn up in a crazy overload, emitting the acrid smell of burning prosthetic materials and flesh. Ivanov, who staggered as he ran inside, watched helplessly as the guys who tried to stop him along the way turned into fireballs with burning heads.

It was no longer fear, but a loss of function for all senses and the brain, a rush in driven by instinct, with all sorts of life burning wildly in the eyeballs.

Huff, huff...

Ivanov's perspective swayed as he retched and gasped for breath like a ventilation fan, leaning against the corner of the wall to see the cell he had imagined approaching in countless ways.

almost.

Ivanov's limp muscles inexplicably gained a sliver of power, but the joy on his face didn't last long before a gaunt woman appeared opposite him, her body covered in shimmering liquid and various prosthetic solutions. Her black mask and strange golden pupils immediately froze Ivanov's expression.

His intuition told him that this was the subordinate of the young man in the bar.

"It was actually..."

Qiwei, holding a pistol, stared at the gate blocking Ivanov's way. "A damn lizard."

After saying that, she ignored him and headed straight for the offline server with her two companions who had also finished cleaning the hall, following the map's instructions. However, as Qiwei turned to leave, the cell door that Ivanov couldn't open even with his broken fingers opened automatically, and then the electronic combination lock emitted a burst of sparks from a short circuit.

Ivanov paused for a moment before rushing inside.

The cell, filled with a stench of malice, was filled with withered, emaciated faces. They were the predecessors of those who died outside. Ivanov had also spent some time here.

Amidst the terrified gazes of these people, Ivanov only saw his beloved Anata kneeling on the ground, embracing this cold-blooded animal and howling inconsolably.

……

……

(End of this chapter)