Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 97 Idealism and Infiltration (3.2K)

"I, Farida, solemnly swear that I will remain faithful and dedicated to NUSA!"

……

"Falida Nazeri, a loyal soldier!"

In her memory, the awarding officer had only a blurry face. He pinned a medal on the medic's chest, and she still doesn't quite understand why she was so passionate back then.

The flowers of rationalists wither unexpectedly quickly.

The mutiny occurred in that squad, and Kurt Hansen's calm and powerful words still echoed in our ears:

"We have been abandoned. The new America, with its military technology, has abandoned us—"

"Now, we must fight for our freedom!"

Farida looked up at the colonel standing at the highest point, feeling fearful and lost, as if her spine had been ripped out, and she had no strength left in her body.

From a young age, her parents taught her loyalty and diligence, and Farida never imagined that one day she would become a member of the defector list.

She had assumed the colonel would fulfill his oath on this barren land surrounded by military technology, but she never expected that these people would die one by one in gang conflicts, or die repeatedly during arms transport... until a large number of criminals began to enter the team.

Farida was like a ruler, gradually bending in the flames of greed and desire.

In the end, she made up her mind to leave and give up the shackles that her ideals had imposed on her.

She went back to her old profession and made her own contributions to the city's medical cause. She was one of the few prosthetic doctors who did not care about the patient's identity. As long as he could afford the treatment fee, she would treat him even if he was a heinous criminal.

Night City, this relentlessly churning, decaying machine, has long since bound many people to its clutches, and Farida is no exception.

All she wanted was to do her job well, save money bit by bit, and return to the hometown that nurtured her.

When she escaped from the Hound of the Underworld, she vowed that one day she would leave this damned city and return to her own fertile land—but now she has to pay the price for her past vow.

Farida put down a group photo in her hand, a happy family portrait of three people hugging each other tightly.

There was a knock on the door.

He is the military technology officer in charge of security for the entire laboratory.

"Falida, we need to evacuate urgently tonight. The last surgery is postponed."

Farida adjusted her glasses. "I'll do it right away, but I don't want to evacuate with you."

The officer walked over somewhat helplessly, and a video was playing on the tablet.

"There's someone who stayed behind, and the person looking for you ripped the implant out alive. Do you think you can go back? Farida, serve the military sciences and forget everything from before."

Farida finished watching the video, then looked up and stared at the officer expressionlessly.

There aren't many old friends left in this city; that guy was one of them.

“I can tell you, it’s Arasaka.” The officer shrugged.

"Our hackers are currently locked in a fierce battle with hackers from other companies, with thousands of attacks underway right now. Someone is risking their life for you—Falida, how long are you going to hide? Hansen won't let you off easily, and there's someone among them—"

Farida shook her head, indicating to the officer that he didn't need to continue.

That's always been her personality; she refuses to listen to other people's secrets.

"Come in and perform this surgery!" The officer couldn't refuse Farida, a technically skilled soldier, so he could only wave for the last agent in the operation to come in.

Farida skillfully adjusted the equipment. The agent who had been called in lay down on the operating chair, while the officer stood to the side, glancing at his watch from time to time, his brows furrowed with anxiety.
-
"After my shift ended, I went to a bar in the Japanese district to cool off. Damn... it was dark inside, and I had no idea what those people were doing."

The sentry, a cigarette dangling from his lips, crushed the cockroaches that kept scurrying out from his feet with his military boots.

Another man, holding a gun, raised his chin and said, "Good duty buddy, do you expect those automated robots from Kangtao to guard the house?"

Two sentry robots stood there blankly in the distance. The sentry spat out a mouthful of spittle, "Stupid robots, sometimes they suddenly walk up and scare me!"

"Let's go, let's go—I need to pee."

After a brief struggle, the two sentries walked away side by side.

"Did you hear about the evacuation order tonight?" the guy boasted to his companion while releasing the floodwaters.

"Huh? Evacuate? Evacuate what? Don't tell me the internal patrols told you that; those idiots are full of nonsense—"

hum!
The sentry who was urinating tilted his head, his eyes filled with doubt. In the pitch-black night, he heard only a muffled sound and felt a warm sensation on his face.

My teammate's neck was empty, and he swayed like a roly-poly toy with an unstable center of gravity.

"Depend on!"

A hand gripped his neck, a sharp pain shot through his head, and his vision began to spin rapidly.

Lin Yue covered the man's mouth and nose until he stopped breathing before letting go. He then opened two stinking garbage cans next to him and threw the two military sentries inside.

"Get away from there, there are robots there, it's troublesome. They need to be more sensitive in detecting enemies than regular soldiers!"

Sasha spoke softly, and Lin Yue nodded and did as she was told, slipping through the gap between the containers.

"Do ghost hounds often do this kind of work? You seem to be quite adept at it."

Lin Yue shook his head, not answering Sasha's question, "Can you handle the automatic door in the factory building in front?"

"Hold on……"

With a click, the automatic door opened, and Lin Yue stealthily made his way through the mosquito-infested streetlights. The guards on the edge of the street were completely unaware that someone had slipped through the door behind them.

One of them sensed something was wrong and turned around. The entire group collapsed like harvested wheat. A slender man emerged from the darkness, his high-fiber bulletproof uniform taut over his body. Several soldiers behind him, carrying smart weapons, moved forward in a vertical formation, their hands on the shoulders of the soldiers in front of them, the streetlights slicing across their shoulders.

Above it was a head of a vicious dog encased in fluorescent green spray paint; it was the Ghost Hound.

The factory layout inside resembles the Chinese character "回" (hui), with some abandoned machines below, suggesting it was a steel mill or similar facility. Lin Yue, following the hacker's directions, made his way through the corridor toward the core area that led to the internal database.

"Lin Yue, someone's coming from behind."

Just as Lin Yue had dealt with a soldier in the monitoring room, Sasha brought bad news.

He glanced at the passageway behind him, and there was nothing else but some low rumbling sounds coming from the factory.

"I can insert the encryption chip into the subnet. I have a network access module. [It violates the protocol], but I can do it. Hurry up!"

With the encryption chip inserted into the external port, Sasha had completely taken over the subnet's permissions. Next, Lin Yue began to review the records on the computer.

He had to find the researcher known as "Face" accurately and kill him with a single blow, bringing Arasaka's operation to a perfect end.

Lin Yue nervously scanned every possible source of information until he found the emails they had exchanged.

From: [Smith]

Recipient: [Security Office]

[Operation Authorization Code: Face Swap - Authorizer: Farida Nazeri, Security Level: A]

Lin Yue frowned and leaned forward to take a look, making sure he wasn't seeing things.

"Ok?"

Lin Yue's expression changed, and he immediately drew his pistol and walked down to the lower level of the facility.

Sasha, noticing something was off about the lone wolf during the operation, quickly asked, "What's wrong?"

"Tell me the shortest route, and hurry up!"

Sasha paused for a moment, "Oh, okay, turn left—but be careful, there are Zeta Technology turrets and mines in the military facility, don't step on the wrong road."

One by one, the red lines on the tunnel were being deactivated, and Sasha was pushing the limits of what a web crawler could do.

"I'll take care of that turret up ahead."

The encryption chip granted Sasha high privileges, and she quickly used the subnet to shut down the turret.

Just as Lin Yue crept past the office area, the squad of Netherhound scouts following closely behind arrived at this spot.

"Let the hackers continue. Subnet permissions have been modified. Take over quickly!"

They already knew that someone had infiltrated ahead of them. The team leader gave a signal, and the hacker in the team who was quickly cracking the code peeked out slightly. The camera pointed at them from a distance instantly went out.

Sasha stared at the information from each camera and noticed that many devices had lost access, realizing something was wrong. She quickly activated the turret and switched it to attack mode.

As the squad passed under the turret, a beep sounded, and the first member to react raised his gun. Although the smart weapon made little noise, it was enough to activate the alarm inside the facility.

An explosion was heard, and parts from the turret, mixed with concrete blocks, fell to the ground.

The leader of the hounds immediately gave the order.

"Force your way in!"

The scouts remained calm and began to advance in an orderly manner, while Lin Yue, who was running in the innermost passage, felt a chill run down his spine after hearing the gunshot.

He hurriedly ran towards the automatic door in the distance!

"Sasha, open the door!"

Behind that automatic door was the core area of ​​the facility. After Sasha opened the door, Lin Yue quickly rushed in and entered.

The soldiers of the Ghost Hound behind the passage raised their guns and aimed them at the figure behind the automatic door, and gunfire instantly erupted!

The bullets, seemingly with eyes, whizzed past Lin Yue, who, unable to dodge in time, took several hits.

Just as he got up from the ground, a tall figure pounced on him. Lin Yue raised his arm to block the falling force, and the military technology soldier in black combat uniform was now firmly pressing down on him!

"Falida!"

The woman by the operating table in the distance raised her gun without hesitation. The camera turned, and Sasha swayed from side to side, considering which one to hack.

Damn it, they were all military-grade personal ICEs. With no other options, Sasha opened the automatic door.

The hounds that had been blocked saw the door open again and raised their guns to fire at the military soldiers whose backs were turned to them.

A bullet went through the guy's back, and he lunged forward. Lin Yue seized the opportunity and punched him in the stomach.

The automatic door closed, and Sasha, panting heavily, came through the channel, "Someone's taking over access, Lin Yue. Do you remember the route? Remember starting from..."

The sound stopped suddenly.

Lin Yue had no time to worry about Sasha's condition. He changed his posture and immediately used his legs to tightly wrap around the injured officer.

Farida raised her gun and pulled the trigger. The bullet ricocheted and immediately burrowed into the flesh of Lin Yue's shoulder!

Depend on!
Lin Yue punched the guy in the forehead, leaving a dent, then immediately released him and rushed towards Farida!

Farida saw a fist hurtling straight down at her.

……

(End of this chapter)