Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 512 Foreign Objects
The crimson liquid had condensed and now transformed into a blinding ball of light.

The pressure from the roaming AI made Lucy and Sasha feel like they couldn't breathe...

It was that piercing scream that made Lin Yue and Otto, who were already prepared to enter the arena, quickly appear at the node.

The roaming AI, as large as a mountain, was currently sweeping through all the data here with malicious programs. Just as the powerful data impact was about to touch the two girls, Ultraman's body blocked it in front of them, looking down at the tiny thing that had hardly aroused her interest from outside the wall.

Why is it called insignificant?
The roaming AI, large enough to annihilate all the data at this node, was only about the size of Ultraman's head. Yet, when the program issued its strange warning sound, Ultraman chose to let it go, ignoring even the hackers controlling the roaming AI...

At this moment, it's not just the roaming AI that's still feeling apprehensive, but also the hackers who control it from behind the scenes.

That level of data, the exquisite figure enveloped in dark red, the immense burst of data—

That's right, they all guessed what it was.

"Was that Ultraman... Ultraman Cunningham?"

"Damn it, tell the higher-ups—this thing has appeared in Europe!"

"Wait—why did that guy choose to ignore BC01???"

BC is the name of this program code.

Originally designed as a built-in game AI for a horror game NPC that responded to player behavior, it completely transformed into a bizarre AI that carried out intimidation and killing after the initial network crash. Moreover, this thing had been captured and used for the defense of this node decades ago.

At this moment, Otto thought to himself, "It seems the enemy is well prepared, but... he should know what to do."

Clearly, Otto's decision to let them go did not surprise the hackers.

The same applies to AI.

Just as the AI ​​revealed its cunning, intelligent gaze—

Lucy looked helplessly at the second wave of cyberattacks that could come at any moment, as red malicious data rushed towards them like smoke!

Taking advantage of the remaining processing power in her brain, Sasha unhesitatingly stood in front of Lucy, and the cat litter kit began to calculate and react at an astonishing speed.

Stop it!
That was her only thought...

Just when despair was at its worst, some data attacks, even more like roving AI than roving AI itself, appeared!

Data chains suddenly burst forth from the bottomless void of data!

Amidst the ravenous cries of the wandering AI, it was repeatedly driven into the body of the monster with the large, skeletal mouth that was howling—the AI's mournful cries at this moment represented its incomprehension and pain, and its body was dissolving at a visible speed.

It was curious to know why there were other creatures like it here.

However, this malware is not of the same kind; it is the most basic source code among all those roaming AIs—the rabids virus.

That's... a rabies kit!
As the data chains appeared, a bizarre-looking vicious dog was running wildly along those chains at an extremely fast speed!

In a few moments, it arrived in front of the giant skeleton firmly fixed by data chains, and with a perfect movement, it rushed out from the end of the data chains and opened its mouth full of fangs to pounce on the thing!
With that one bite, more than 10% of the data condensed on the roaming AI was torn apart!
A mournful howl accompanied by the vicious dog's frantic growls—

A glint of light appeared in Lucy's eyes.

"finally…"

Sasha's eyes were filled with a strange look.

This was, in fact, the first time she had witnessed Lin Yue's online attack methods.

This is completely different from the method Lucy described, where a giant phantom instantly disintegrates the enemy ICE.

I saw——

The creature that slowly emerged from the data rift wasn't a colossal figure like Ultraman; instead, it was just an ordinary cybernetic network like Sasha and Lucy... Yet, this cybernetic network was firmly restrained in a second or two by a terrifying program that could paralyze any city's network.

"What is that? Is it a roaming AI?"

Without any hesitation, these hackers quickly relinquished their program privileges to control the roaming AI and began logging out of the network as fast as possible.

joke…

At this moment, whoever runs the slowest will be the lamb that falls into the mouth of the mad dog.

In the online world, offense and defense can happen in the blink of an eye. Sasha stared blankly at the figure whose eyes emitted red and blue light, "Holy crap..."

Is this still the same novice who taught him how to conduct various hacking activities on the internet in the Arasaka Tower?

Lin Yue watched as the hackers from all directions began to slowly fade into illusion, and only let out a cold laugh.

"Seeing it and wanting to leave is not such a good thing."

Wow.

With a twang of a data chain, the vicious dog that was gnawing on the program suddenly raised its head, its mouth still dripping with bright red data "drool." At this moment, its scarlet eyes were locked onto the panicked hackers.

However, it turned its head and let out a few pleading howls towards Lin Yue, like a fierce dog begging its master to tie up its prey so it could feast on its prey.

"What a lazy and stupid dog."

What should I do?
Sasha couldn't think of a way to simultaneously stop these hackers from logging out of the network. She could barely try it if it were just one or two, but if one or two of them did, Lin Yue's identity would be exposed prematurely. No, she had to go help Lin.

However, Lucy reached out and tugged at Sasha, shaking her head slightly. Under Sasha's anxious gaze, she whispered, "Not one of them will run away."

His gleaming eyes saw through every set of data in the node subnet. He simply stood there calmly, and the entire network instantly came to a standstill.

All that remains is the buzzing sound of data...

Sasha was taken aback and tried to move, only to find that the easy-to-use program panel was filled with garbled code.

Indiscriminate network shutdown is Lin Yue's core network tactic.

"They arrested a wandering AI outside the Black Wall so early. The Polish branch is really ahead of the curve when it comes to the internet."

The more this happened, the more interesting Lin Yue found it.

This at least proves that Warsaw was the right choice.

After thinking about it, Lin Yue realized that 404 had played a crucial role in this process, and he began to look forward to the performance of these European hackers.

"Damn, what's going on?"

"Is the network frozen...? What about my permissions?!"

The hackers stared in panic at the almost invisible figure in the distance, their bodies turning ice-cold…

These hackers were all adept at surfing the internet and had access to a wide range of information; almost instantly, they connected the current situation with the global internet outage that was happening in Night City…

"It's that guy!"

The more accurate and faster they guess, the closer they are to death.

Lin Yue's manipulation style was like that of the highest authority in this network area, and he simultaneously completed the shutdown of the network area and the demotion of the hacker on the other side!

With a mere reach, the data chains that had been tearing the roaming AI half to death pierced through the hackers' bodies as if by teleportation. The network outage had prevented these guys from realizing that the network intrusion had already locked onto their brains.

As Sasha stumbled, the grid area returned to its previous state of stagnation.

Lin Yue forcefully pulled all the guys in front of him, while the vicious dog growled beside him. Lin Yue pinned down the first hacker he captured, and while reading the data, he also took their external hard drives, external memory storage, and other data.

The information we obtained was extremely limited.

These hackers are all based in Zone D. The same name appears in all their data records: Almighty Jesus. However, Almighty Jesus's online activities are very secretive. Without a large-scale search, Lin Yue can only probe forward one by one by disconnecting network endpoints. But this time, with the node compromised, they should become suspicious.

Sasha and Lucy were no longer able to shoulder the responsibility at the next stage and had to take a short break...

"Ultraman, we have to retreat for now."

By this time, Ultraman had finished checking all the remaining information and then nodded.

The hacker, his hand trembling, shouted, "You're from Night City—"

Lin Yue didn't say anything, but simply tossed it like a dead dog in front of the drooling, vicious dog. The last thing he saw was the vicious dog tearing his cybernetic image to shreds, ending his hacking career amidst the gradually rising temperature of his brain and the warnings of program loss.

Lin Yue, employing the same method, spared no one.

However, a simple email record appeared on one of the guys, which piqued Lin Yue's interest.

Judging from its appearance alone, it was an email that used almost universal encryption, filled with incomprehensible symbols and messages.

After only a brief examination, Lin Yue immediately translated it.

【###-021】

[Damn it, we haven't even finished the dirty work and another one's already happened. Keep an eye on that big guy; a bunch of people recently arrived in District D, seem to be someone important! But the higher-ups aren't assigning us to deal with those idiots in District D; they say they'll be sending us something even scarier than the roving AI! We'll have to get a few people from the company involved, see the attachment for details.]

Seeing Lin Yue translating the emails on his body, the guy, who was suffering from a brain-piercing pain, wanted to exchange information for his survival. However, instead of speaking up, Lin Yue unhesitatingly bound him with data chains and sent him away.

The guy screamed repeatedly as he saw the terrifying program bouncing around his feet, trying to bite him.

Several times the vicious dog's fangs almost touched me!
"Damn it! Don't do that!"

The large creature was naturally the stray AI that Lin Yue had already rendered half-dead nearby. So what was that thing even more difficult to deal with than the AI?
"What is that thing?"

The hacker, who hadn't expected the other side to translate the content so quickly, immediately fell silent.

Just as he hesitated, Lin Yue pushed him down a bit, and the vicious dog instantly bit the leg of the creature's image. The intense pain in his brain made the hacker more alert!

"I'll talk! I'll talk! It's a virus—"

"They came from outside the Black Wall!"

Lin Yue immediately understood.

"You'll let me go, right?!"

Having obtained the consent of the executioner on the other side, the hacker grasped at a straw and expressed his willingness to cooperate with the other party on any issue.

He then inquired about the specific online name of the 021 who had added the code. Lin Yue, who had memorized the name, slowly moved the hacker away from the vicious dog program.

"That's true..."

"I can let you go, but this dog isn't so willing."

Sasha and Lucy, who had intended to stop Lin Yue's actions, exchanged a glance and felt a chill run down their spines.

Amidst the hackers' cries of agony, he was casually thrown out. The entire process, from discovering that the hackers were trying to escape to using network stagnation and locking techniques to interrogate them, took only a few minutes.

Unable to voluntarily exit the massive data surge, the two stared blankly as Lin Yue walked to their side.

Sasha increasingly regretted not witnessing Lin Yue's battle against the roaming AI online that day because she was on the Heywood mission...

What a spectacular scene that must have been!

As the data cache was cleared, the two felt the temperature of their prosthetic bodies and brain-computer interfaces drop sharply. Lin Yue glanced at the two girls again; their teamwork was astonishing.

"Good job. Next, we need to find Ivanov and get some intelligence. What if the data he finds happens to be the source of these hackers' information..."

"I'm afraid Takeda will use this thing against David and V."

Lucy and Sasha both became serious.

Viruses from outside the Great Firewall can be used inside. To the two hackers in Night City, Takeda must be absolutely insane... Didn't the internet censors notice anything at all?

It's important to know that the horrific incidents caused by roving AI often result in the deaths of hundreds or even thousands of people. The most terrifying incident was the collision of the Night City Railroad trains, which was caused by the fact that cyber surveillance agents mistakenly overlooked a cluster of data spores originating from the roving AI.

"The things that Arasaka in Europe did are truly terrifying."

Sasha let out a sigh of relief.

She supported Lucy, seemingly suppressing the urge to curse Takeda.

However, Lucy frankly stated, "My father... hasn't been a person for a long time."

“In his eyes, he would give up anything for the benefit of Arasaka, even if it meant bearing the infamy or sacrificing his own child.”

"That's something he's capable of doing."

Lin Yue nodded, stared at Lucy, and then tentatively asked, "How much do you know about your mother, Polish 404?"

Lucy made no attempt to hide anything.

The deeper she delved into the network of this land, the more she realized the company's utter lack of principles; the Polish branch's Arasaka was already recklessly heading down the path of abandoning humanity.

She hesitated for a moment, then said quietly, "The ICE structure is very similar to what my mother designed."

This is also why Lucy was somewhat distracted when she first entered this point.

"After all, this isn't the first time you've heard the name Jesus Almighty, is it?"

Lin Yue's eyes seemed capable of piercing through all of Lucy's secrets, but distant memories constantly tore at Lucy, and the reason for her uncertainty was simple.

Those are things I forgot some details about when I was a child.

"Whether it is or not, we have to pause today."

Seeing that the two hackers still wanted to show off, Lin Yue's tone left no room for doubt.

"I need to go back to Night City to discuss this with V, and also deal with the recent issues in Night City."

"Also, Ultraman and I will try our best to restore everything here. She will pretend that this place is still functioning, only that some parts have been physically damaged by you..."

Sasha quickly asked, "Are you planning to have Miss Ultra lure the enemy into revealing information?"

"Sort of, but not entirely."

“Ultraman can impersonate a human hacker; we're just temporarily holding this node. If Ivanov's intelligence matches perfectly…”

No further explanation is needed.

The two hackers naturally understood what they needed to do next.

When only Otto and Lin Yue remained in the network area, Lin Yue suddenly said, "Otto, I feel like we're getting closer and closer to the secret of the Black Wall... You must be getting impatient, right?"

Ultraman didn't speak, he just silently looked at the other person.

Lin Yue's gaze seemed to penetrate the depths of the data fragment world, and he saw a pair of eyes slowly opening in the deepest part of the network.

……

……

(End of this chapter)