Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 537 The Vow [5.2K]

Darkness spread, the city's light pollution began to thin, and the hazy halo above began to disappear until the edge of this isolated city, where electricity was surging, shone like a pearl.

This is more like a stage under the spotlight...

Today, he was going to make Miles remember this fear in this remarkable way, and it was also a thorough act of revenge!

The eerie red data spread through the overloaded servers, and malware flowing from the depths of the cyber network began to entangle all the networked devices around it, even the traffic lights on the street that were flashing wildly were stained with this oil-like substance that was impossible to dissolve.

The Ultraman in the network continues to provide computing power, and Lin Yue is one of the few humans who can handle the data output from her.

Blackwall and Lin Yue had long since become separate entities, and today was a flood release using Ultra as a bridge... Countless malicious software, and even Blackwall itself, became the main attackers against these unknown devices.

The reason is that Lin Yue had already disguised these enemies as so-called malicious software.

Without the unbearable computing power of the Black Wall, and without any side effects that would cause the body to decay, this was a scene of extremely imaginative and ruthless massacre.

"Your president already knows who I am..."

Lin Yue watched as the hovercar continued its attempts to ascend and leave in several directions. Before everyone's eyes, the hand raised to release a concentrated electrical signal, palm down, was suddenly pulled—

The data came crashing down!

The prosthetic eye could see the data in the black wall and the traces of those wandering AIs. It was as if a huge, invisible hole had appeared in the sky, releasing red lightning like divine punishment that locked onto all the floating vehicles. That scene was perhaps because everyone's brains and computers were connected to the cyber network.

They watched helplessly as this happened!

The commander's狰狞 face on the airship, the panic of the other crew members, the short circuits and explosions of various devices, the blood-red light engulfing everyone and emitting a series of jerky and chilling screams, as if everyone was personally experiencing this death...

Wow…

Flames and black smoke billowed from the airship, and then, before everyone's eyes, it pierced the air and crashed into the glass curtain wall of the skyscraper with a deafening roar—after several explosions, the dark figure standing on ACPA, illuminated by the firelight, looked like Satan crawling out of hell.

Within seconds, all the aircraft attempting to escape had failed.

No one knows why those hovercraft chose to flee immediately, but now it seems... it was an attempt by the hovercraft to abandon the soldiers on the ground.

The scene fell silent for a second or two...

A man with one foot on ACPA's head looked down at them, seemingly patiently waiting for these guys to struggle...

The holographic red lines surrounding the dense crowd were the boundaries of Lin Yue's hunting circle. After several maneuvers, he had already encircled Miles's pursuing team.

In the silence, the soldiers, their defenses shattered by fear and this unbelievable scene, roared and ran backward. The crowd behind them also wavered, attempting to escape this death trap with the first mutinous soldier.

After all, a holographic image that only seems to have a warning function doesn't look like it could trap people at all.

Lin Yue simply watched silently, and thoughtfully hijacked a White House hotline after the airship he was in charge of directing exploded, even providing the untrustworthy Ms. Miles with a thrilling live broadcast—

Soon, someone ignored the cordon and rushed out.

Even if they are extremely scared and feel deep down that touching that line will have some bad consequences... some people still grit their teeth and rush out, running wildly!
"Get the fuck out of here!"

When an officer saw that the men who had rushed out were all unharmed, a hint of joy appeared on his face amidst the fear. After the officer's reminder, the shield wall and line of fire formed by the soldiers completely collapsed.

Trampling, crowding, desperately using their companions as stepping stones, some dragging heavy equipment were knocked down, pairs of shoes with steel plates trampled through their bulletproof clothing, crushing the flesh and prosthetics beneath...

Lin Yue frowned slightly.

Miles uses these people, spouting outrageous dreams, these inhuman beings talking about the future.

That's really...

ugly.

Will those who rush out of the cordon really be alright?

No, that's a wall. Perhaps there's a chance to live a little longer on this side of the wall, but if you go out, the torrent of data from the cyber network, capable of severing consciousness, will flood in instantly without any warning.

boom!
Black and blood-red data streams, edged with black, pierced through their skulls, and the man's face on ACPA kept flashing red light.

Even from several hundred meters away, Lin Yue could still hear those painful, agonizing cries, their bodies covered in black and red data, struggling like puppets on strings, their brains burned to ashes in the high temperature.

This is the ruthlessness of malicious data.

The barrage of data attacks froze the soldiers who had managed to squeeze out. Many were caught in the throng before they could stop, some even managing to stop at the edge of the cordon only to be pushed aside by their comrades a second later.

As he turned his head, his helpless gaze beneath the tactical mask fixed on his teammates, his various implants were consumed by the massive stream of data!

"Stop it all!"

"屮——"

"What is this?!"

"God... God help me, I don't want to die here!"

After paying the price, the soldiers, each with a different expression, turned around in terror. They discovered that only the insurmountable black shadow on the central ACPA had disappeared; otherwise, none of them would have been able to get out—even if they took some kind of aircraft, it would have been futile.

Is a fight to the death the only chance of survival?
That's just "maybe".

Lin Yue was surprised that these soldiers, fully armed by the company and fighting for either the distorted corporate hegemony or the selfish system, could organize their ranks so quickly. The weapons they carried were no ordinary weapons.

"1098..."

Lin Yue counted them carefully.

The imagined battlefield is a bloody battle of tens of thousands, like a meat grinder.

Judging from the scene, the number of lives lost is considerable.

The mere thousand-plus men on paper were like a black tide, equipped with military-technological weapons, armor, and exoskeletons. Their sheer numbers were something that cyberpunk mercenaries who only knew how to race cars on the street could not withstand…

Fortunately, I am indeed strong enough.

If his physical strength were 20, Lin Yue would want to finish off these insects one punch at a time; if his composure were 20, he would want to use his katana to deal with them—but if his intelligence were 21, he would use the fastest, most precise, and least likely way to leave them alive!

"This...this is fucking evil!"

Behind the hastily assembled shield wall, the soldiers all looked in unison towards their highest-ranking superiors. Some, their hands trembling, struck their shields against their teammates' weapons with a clattering sound like rain...

The soldiers on both sides were waiting for someone who could save their lives—

Lin Yue watched silently.

He looked at the soldiers in the distance, not at any particular individual, but wanted to use the footage from those individual soldier recorders to let Miles see the enemy's face clearly.

Free state or federal state.

Lin Yue only wanted this person, whom Johnny called "a machine," to do his best to protect the people he cared about, and then go on to change the world...

But this is undoubtedly a child's naive dream.

What angered Lin Yue the most was precisely what he feared the most.

Because Rebecca almost died…

"rush out!"

The officer hissed.
"That's a hacker attack; we can't stop."

"That woman, and the person in her arms—they must be under our control. Don't be afraid to die. If anyone chickens out now, we're all finished! Understand?!"

Hearing their voices, V, who had been staring blankly at Lin Yue's bloody actions in the distance, also came to her senses. She hesitated whether to go inside the building first to reduce the pressure on Lin Yue, but when the soldier said those words—

This guy, who was hard to tell if he was a hacker, a powerhouse lone wolf, or... a ninja, silenced the officer's voice with a gravity field.

Fragments of the prosthetic body and bits of flesh splattered out, and in a small, neatly shaped crater about three meters in diameter on the ground, only a human-shaped, twisted exoskeleton remained!
Following the gaze, Lin Yue slowly lowered his hand.

The feeling of being utterly devastated was not limited to the soldiers of the new America; Miles, who was on the verge of collapse at that moment, also felt the same way.

In the deathly silent White House, only the resounding gravitational field and the sound of flesh being torn apart could be heard…

"Is he even human anymore?"

Xu Rujun frowned as she looked at the bloody scene, silently praying that the situation would not spiral out of control.

Miles's withdrawal from Night City was actually a setup...

The girl's fate ultimately couldn't outmaneuver Miles's conscience.

V silently closed her eyes.

There will come a day when there is no solution to this world, and only pure violence can turn things upside down. Rin and Yoriyuki both think this way.

The girl in his arms was still warm.

V knew the final moment was approaching.

"Remember, you died for Miles."

Lin Yue only had this one sentence to say.

The power pushed the server's computing power to its limit. The drones that barely recovered from the state of control, and the armored vehicles that could be operated by gunners, were nothing more than the last bit of mercy before the death and slaughter.

Half of the city was now shrouded in crimson, where the wronged souls and the consciousness of those wandering AIs would be permanently housed.

This half of the "ghost town" that Lin Yue personally created was his grand gift to Miles.

The torrent swept through the entire street, and data surged in V's half-closed eyes. She heard the chilling roar in cyberspace, and the screams had never been so clear. The wails of all souls seemed to echo in her brain, the lives taken by the black wall of data... One by one, figures fell in the flames and overload.

In a world where computing power is overloaded, even a single spark from a soldier's body is clearly visible...

This one-sided, all-encompassing massacre gradually came to an end.

"Miles".

"I will find you."

Lin Yue's voice reached the White House via the internet, and only a stunned Miles remained in his seat after the Joint Logistics Command security personnel took the device away, citing its hijacking as the reason.

That's what other people heard.

The sound Miles heard was from his auditory system after it had been hacked…

There were a few more sentences than those two: "Rebecca will not be the second lark, and you will not make America great again."

Is this considered a declaration of war?

"Your Excellency the President."

It happened so fast, it felt like an instant. Even now, Miles doesn't know if he should have the brilliant Washington hacking team completely destroy his prosthetic system...

After a flash of crimson light, a city resembling a port city or Busan appeared on the land of the North American federal state. It was a place that humans could not invade, where digital souls, cybernetic life forms, and wandering AIs resided in some still-functioning servers.

"Ultraman".

"This is the Shangri-La you requested."

Lin Yue's voice sounded very tired.

Ultraman's voice then echoed endlessly in the empty world, "Our world continues to expand. Thank you for your generous contribution, Rin."

……
-
The constant, soft sound of running water made it impossible to get a good night's sleep, like someone fiddling with a candy wrapper.

"There's a reaction, but judging from the habits and movements... it should be that horror camera?"

Yajima?

Rebecca opened her eyes, but they were blurry... and then she closed them again.

"Johnny Silverhand? How far have they gotten?"

Another hoarse yet youthful voice.

"To achieve complete separation, a complex dissection surgery might be necessary, at least at the neurological level..."

"What happened to the agreement we discussed earlier?"

Yajima said with deep concern.

Rin's voice rang out, but what she said was a bit unclear. It seemed she ended with, "This space can't be left unattended..."

The crashing sound was still ringing in my ears.

Rebecca opened her eyes and saw Johnny sitting by the bedside, arms crossed, listlessly playing with a candy wrapper. A surge of energy rushed through her, and she instantly became much more alert.

"Johnny, you bastard! Can you please shut me up!"

Rebecca suddenly opened her eyes and sat up abruptly. A man in a white shirt and trousers came into view beside the bed. Professor Yajima, who was round and plump, shrugged, as if he wanted to say something but stopped himself, and finally let out a sigh.

Lin Yue's smile was calm. "Back again? Night City's number one gunsmith, the fearless cyber female assault soldier?"

"Lin Yue?"

Rebecca's face lit up with joy, and she lunged forward, clinging to Lin Yue.

Johnny shook his head and clicked his tongue repeatedly, seemingly jealous. His words, well, naturally, were anything but pleasant: "You two really haven't done it?"

Too lazy to pay attention to Johnny, Rebecca carefully examined the guy in front of her. In her amnesiac state, she had no idea what had happened. All she knew was that she was still here, unharmed... Nothing could be more reassuring than that.

Of course, it would be better without Johnny.

She wouldn't mind giving Lin Yue a few kisses upon meeting.

"Hmm, it seems Yajima's cooking is quite good." Lin Yue let Rebecca's bold behavior go, gently placing her on the edge of the bed to sit up. "Is there anything wrong with your head? Or... do you feel uncomfortable somewhere?"

Rebecca slapped her forehead; the Relic error messages had temporarily disappeared, clearly indicating her confusion.

"We have to thank Kangtao, and we got the technology chips from Kangtao..."

Rebecca's excited face suddenly turned sickly. "Lowell."

Lowell?
Lin Yue was surprised to find that the artificial clone created by the New America cloned by the Black Hand had his name on it. "Oh right, Lowell, I've already thanked him properly."

Although Lin Yue's voice was gentle, Rebecca felt that such a statement was a bit too cold.

He's all turned to ashes, how are we supposed to thank him? Turn his ashes into a vase?
Of course, Rebecca wasn't blaming Lin Yue; she was just feeling guilty... This was something that could never be undone.

"what happened again?"

Lin Yue was still rubbing her head at this moment.

Rebecca turned her head away. "I...I'm feeling a little unwell."

She didn't want anyone to see her crying like that.

Lin Yue was exceptionally intelligent; he could almost indiscriminately read people's thoughts and expose them "mercilessly."

"Hmm? It seems that Lowell has already heroically sacrificed himself in your mind?"

"I want you to take care of it!"

The man's laughter rang out along with the sound of him slowly sitting down.

“I think V mentioned it to you... didn’t he? But it’s nothing serious. Guess why V was on those hovercars that the ninjas used to transport Relic?”

Rebecca was still holding back tears, but Lin Yue's tone didn't sound like Lowell was dead at all...

"Someone is selling information."

Lin Yue succinctly stated, "Takemura Goro seems to be quite bothered by the matter of Saburo's reincarnation."

"V never said he bailed out Lowell!"

Rebecca "hates" the riddle-solving couple; V only mentioned the name of Bamboo Village...

Then the girl started acting spoiled and making a fuss, demanding to see if the Black Hand was really dead or not—

But Morgan Blackhand was a free man, and Lin Yue couldn't just approach him casually, so he decisively refused.

Amidst the laughter and banter, Rebecca recounted her experiences in Dogtown, her tone exaggerated. Heaven knows how nervous she was, facing the living, breathing president of the new America for the first time, all while remembering Lin Yue's instructions and trying to guess his thoughts—

They did things they didn't want to do.

This was nothing short of a torment for Rebecca, who was naturally fond of freedom.

"The stupidest part is the oath-taking ceremony."

Rebecca also vividly described Miles's serious demeanor...

She would never admit that she was fooled by Miles's performance; she would just keep saying that she had seen through Miles's hypocrisy long ago.

The beaming girl didn't notice the hint of self-reproach on Lin Yue's smiling face.

"Oh my god, here we go again."

Johnny covered his forehead. This was the kind of thing he hated most, but Rebecca insisted on putting on this act for Lin Yue... She didn't care whether Johnny lived or died.

Seeing that Rebecca was talking until her throat was dry, Lin Yue handed her a glass of water, simply stopping her from continuing her "firepower output".

Oaths can be true or false.

False vows are fine as long as they don't take effect, but some vows...

"Rebecca?"

The girl blinked as she gulped down a large glass of water, a trail of water still around her mouth.

"No one will touch that chip around your neck again, except when they need to save you."

Rebecca stared blankly at Lin Yue, who had suddenly said those words. For a moment, she held her cup, not knowing what to do. She just kept saying, "Oh my god, I'm so dizzy, like I've been drinking."

Johnny, hands in his pockets, gazed out the window at the sun-drenched city at night and the rising wisps of industrial fumes in the distance.

"Hmph, those words are more sincere than the oath that pretty girl made you swear."

"The temporary workers in New America should be taken offline."

"We, the people of Night City, have returned to survive."

……

……

(End of this chapter)