Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 125 Little Beidou Facilities

The excavation of the Xiaobeidou facility took much faster than Mercer had anticipated. In less than fifteen days, Mercer had already used unmanned equipment to excavate a passage and also preliminarily unlocked the internal defense facilities.

However, before Mercer could remotely locate the server inside and insert the chip containing the program given to him by Ultraman, a series of strange events occurred.

First, the robot's AI malfunctioned. It wandered around the entrance building, seven meters underground, the most basic level of the underground facility, for two days, but still couldn't find the entrance to go down.

The true core computer room and laboratory of the Xiaobeidou facility are located tens of meters underground. Mercer had seen it in the game; it was a place that was accessed by a large sliding elevator, and it was very conspicuous. There was absolutely no way that it would be impossible to find.

After Mercer retrieved the robot, he carefully studied the other party's data report and came to an answer that made him frown.

Since the robot broke through the access control and entered the facility, it has been subjected to a very obvious signal interference. Mercer strongly suspects that this is not even interference, but a form of hacking.

He stopped exploring the Beidou system and instead carefully examined the robot's program, eventually discovering, as expected, traces of hacking.

It can silently and stealthily break through the ICE program he wrote for the robot, without the built-in intelligent AI even noticing.
Mercer was still not giving up. He replaced it with a high-end Minotaur robot, removed its weapon system, installed a large ICE device, rewrote a high-level ICE program, and then put it into the facility.

This time, they found the underground elevator very easily, and after connecting it to the power source, they sent the Minotaur robot deep into the underground facility.

But then something even more terrifying happened—the Minotaur robot soon experienced signal interference after entering the underground.

When the signal was restored, the Minotaur robot not only suddenly returned to the ground on its own, but also displayed extremely strong aggression, even indiscriminately attacking the Ghost Hound soldiers and robots that came to its aid.

Fortunately, Mercer had disarmed its weapon system beforehand, which prevented any casualties.

After carefully examining the subdued Minotaur robot, it was as expected that its AI had been corrupted by humans, and its entire core logic had been hacked and modified. Out of caution, Mercer deleted it all and rewrote it.

However, it is clear that continuously deploying drones underground under significant signal interference has become an almost impossible solution.

The other party first activated a signal to block the robot's external network connection before taking action, which means that if Mercer sent people down, those below would also lose contact.

Out of caution, Mercer did not immediately choose to personally investigate the Little Big Dipper facility. Instead, he had Mann recommend an elite and relatively trustworthy Ghost Hound squad, along with a technical expert, to conduct an in-depth investigation of the Little Big Dipper facility.

The result, however, was surprisingly smooth.

This group of guys not only found the sliding elevator and went deep underground, but also found the server host. However, they were unable to crack the permissions of the Xiaobeidou facility and had to return the way they came.

Mercer wrote the program left by Ultraman into a storage chip, and the Ghost Hound team entered again and inserted the chip into the computer—but the host refused to write the program and activated the automatic security lock, forcing the host into protection mode.

The Netherhound technical experts sent in spent several hours tinkering, but in the end they could only leave the underground in disappointment and report the situation to Mercer.

"The host controls the secure passage to the server room. The servers we can access have locked the program writing and prevented the chip from being read. As for the host's protection program, we can't crack it."

The tech expert looked somewhat embarrassed: "Even using your fast cracking program didn't work."

Beside Mercer, V slapped his forehead and said, "Why don't we just blow open the door? Get a few bombs for breaching doors, blow our way to the server room, and then insert the chip into the server, and that's it!"

"Theoretically it's feasible, but the problem is that the server has a security lock to prevent brute-force attacks, which could automatically delete data in case of special circumstances. There might even be some self-destruct programs within the base. These are all possibilities."

The technical expert said directly, "I think you should probably go down there and take a look yourself. There are military science logos everywhere there. I bet it's not something that an ordinary hacker or technical expert could crack."

The hounds were unaware that they were excavating a secret military facility; they only knew that Mercer had 'accidentally discovered' a mysterious underground facility and that they were required to keep it highly confidential.

It wasn't until they went inside and saw the military science logo on the wall that they realized whose territory this was.

"Understood, I'll go myself." Mercer nodded, not making things difficult for the group of ghost hounds.

After giving them a large bonus as a reward, Mercer personally began to formulate a plan to enter the Little Big Dipper facility.

What he needed to do was actually not complicated. He just needed to enter the server room, insert the program that Otto gave him, or crack the host's security lock and transfer the program to the server through the host.

However, Mercer was somewhat worried—what if this was a trap set for him by the AI ​​inside?
What if the other party deliberately let the scout hound pass and then lured him in personally?

It's not impossible.

But this only further proved the danger of the facility and its contents. After much deliberation, Mercer finally decided to take the risk and give it a try.

Since the facilities are still operational, it means that the power system and servers are still running. This also means that if a roving AI is currently controlling the Little Beidou facilities, it means that the other party can use Little Beidou's servers to enter Night City or even Dogtown's network at any time.

Is it really worthwhile to let a potentially extremely dangerous AI quietly cause trouble right under your feet? It would be much more reassuring to defuse the potential threats as soon as possible.

After devising a plan and equipping himself with a series of defensive gear specifically designed to counter AI, Mercer cautiously led a portion of the Fireseed Squad, fully armed, into the underground through the excavated entrance.

The core building of the Xiaobeidou facility is located 30 meters underground. After entering the building about 6 or 7 meters underground, you need to take an internal sliding elevator to go deeper into the interior before you can officially enter the core of the Xiaobeidou facility.

To be honest, looking at how complete the facility was, Mercer was a little greedy.

The main thing is that this place looks really good. The entire underground base has been abandoned for several years, but it still looks clean and tidy, and almost all the internal facilities are intact.

Although a lot of equipment was removed, a large amount of equipment is still temporarily placed here instead of being taken away, including a lot of advanced research equipment.

If you wanted to build such a magnificent underground base on your own, you wouldn't even be able to dream of it without at least a billion euros.

Unfortunately, Mercer didn't want the military science team to discover that he had tampered with the Little Beidou facility, so he had to suppress his greed and lead V and the others to the entrance of the core area of ​​the underground facility.

After pressing the elevator button, a huge elevator climbed up from below and stopped in front of Mercer and the others.

After checking the program, Mercer was the first to step onto the sliding elevator.

Fully armed Jack, V, and Rebecca followed closely behind.

The reason he didn't bring the remaining people was because Mercer had also made a backup plan—if everything went smoothly, Mercer believed that two hours would be enough for him to fully master the Little Beidou facility.

Mann left his two partners, along with a group of hackers and Pila, on the ground as a precaution.

However, if there are ambushes or traps, and he fails to evacuate safely within two hours, the people outside responsible for receiving him will need to activate security measures, such as cutting off the power and internet, and launching a strong attack on the facility with a large number of personnel and weapons.

At that point, even if the entire Beidou system were dismantled, Mercer wouldn't feel bad.

"This place looks really convoluted, and although it's clean, there's not a single person in this huge place. It's kind of scary."

Rebecca muttered to herself as she stood on the escalator, slowly descending into the deeper underground facility. Looking around curiously, she bombarded Mercer with questions:

"This is the secret base that the military science institute has been building for decades? You have to admit, it's quite impressive!"

They just threw away such a huge, prime location? Wow, how much money would that cost to rebuild?

V looked around warily: "Be careful. We've walked this far without any problems; I have a bad feeling about this."

"Damn it, don't jinx it," Rebecca said, but her expression turned serious. Everyone knew that V's premonitions were usually quite accurate.

Mercer, however, seemed quite calm: "Don't worry. The problems that occurred before were all underground. Considering that the Little Beidou facility doesn't have any powerful firepower, at most it just has some outdated robots, you don't need to be too nervous."

The real danger may lie in online clashes.

This is why Jack was carrying a large signal booster.

Even though he was wearing tank armor and his height had increased to over 1.9 meters, the signal amplifier still looked like a heavy backpack.

This signal booster is also connected to an optical fiber, which can be physically connected to the server. This is to avoid interference with network communication signals, allowing Mercer to mobilize the server's computing power to enhance his network combat capabilities at any time by plugging in the cable.

Mercer didn't dare send Morning Star. Faced with a place that might have the ability to corrupt AI, it was best to keep his precious AI at a distance. He would really be heartbroken if it got hacked.

The elevator quickly descended underground along the passage, and after the group emerged, they all turned to look at Mercer.

Because just after the elevator went deep underground, the previously brightly lit Beidou facility suddenly lost power.

Only a few red lights and the various colored lights emitted by the equipment when it was in standby mode remained, illuminating the dark underground space.

Even so, this mysterious underground base has suddenly become somewhat terrifying due to the sudden darkness.

Jack couldn't help but mutter, "Damn, this is like a horror movie! Mercer, what do we do? What's going on?"

"Don't worry about it. Either our enemy has noticed our arrival, or it's just a power shortage. Activate the low-light night vision goggles and continue forward to locate the main unit."

Mercer projected some map information that the Ghost Hound soldiers had previously collected when they came here, onto everyone's prosthetic eyes.

According to the underground map of the Xiaobeidou facility, it is divided into five areas. The server room is located at the deepest part, with the management office and security room on both sides. The engineering department occupies the largest area, followed by a dedicated living area.

Mercer and his group's goal was to reach either the management office or the server room—the former had already been scouted by the Ghost Hound soldiers, while the latter hadn't even found a way in.

Following the route given by the Ghost Hound soldiers, Mercer moved without hesitation through the complex underground base: "Follow me, we'll find the management area first." The dimly lit corridors were illuminated only by a few flickering blue emergency lights. While these lights provided some light, their shimmering blue glow only made the entire base appear more eerie.

It really does have a strong horror movie atmosphere.

Rebecca unconsciously walked over to Mercer's side: "Why is this place so winding and twisty?"

“Indeed.” Mercer agreed – just getting from the elevator to the management office requires walking through several corridors and turning several corners to reach the main entrance; the design is hardly reasonable.

The group unconsciously started chatting frequently, seemingly relaxed, but in reality, the quiet and oppressive atmosphere here was quite frightening. Unlike the tension of life-or-death crises on the battlefield or during missions, the feeling here was somewhat eerie.

Mercer led the group to the gate, following the route, and frowned: "It's locked."

"Can't hack it in?" Rebecca turned her head to look.

"No power, it's automatically locked. You need to turn it on first if you want to hack in."

After Mercer finished speaking, Jack looked around warily, a chill running down his spine: "Then we have to go back the way we came and go to the other side of the construction area?"

"Theoretically, that's how it should be. We need to go to the engineering area to activate the backup power supply, or check where the problem is and restart the power system, but..."

Mercer sneered, "I'll try something simpler."

The six octopus arms on his back, which had been in standby mode, suddenly moved nimbly, their metal claws gripping the edge of the door crack, and then they exerted force in unison.

The metal gate emitted a sharp cracking sound, followed by a flash of red light inside the base, a sign of danger.

Mercer ignored it and continued his actions until he forcibly tore a crack in the thick metal door, giving his octopus arms more room to exert force. Then he forcefully pried open a large gap in the entire door.

Seeing this, Rebecca and Jack immediately stepped forward to help. With their gorilla arms enhanced by armor, they used all their strength to finally open the door completely. The mechanical structure was probably also forcibly destroyed, so now it couldn't be closed even if they wanted to.

"Let's go, be careful. There are some things like hellhound robots in here. They're not dangerous, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

After Mercer finished speaking, he took the lead and walked in through the main gate.

However, as soon as they entered, a huge black shadow rushed down from the ceiling. Before Mercer could even lift a finger, V appeared beside him like a phantom. Her high-vibration samurai sword hummed, and without hesitation, she slashed at the newcomer.

The shadowy figure was a bipedal robot with four long, spider-like legs that assisted it in moving and attacking. Mercer knew its name well; it was the Hellhound robot that Mercer had just mentioned.

It has to be said that this thing is quite insidious. It was hidden above the ventilation duct at the entrance, and when Mercer opened the door, it would suddenly jump in and kill him.

However, against a fully powered V, this level of robot is not considered a formidable opponent.

V casually stabbed the robot in the head, piercing through its sensors and cameras. Before the robot could go berserk, Rebecca rushed over and knocked it to the side of the road.

At the same time, her shoulder cannon flashed and blasted the robot into a pile of scrap metal, sparking as it fired.

"Damn! You scared the hell out of me!" It was hard to tell whether Rebecca was dealing with an enemy or simply venting her anger. Mercer looked around warily, and then his gaze met that of a security camera.

He launched a rapid hacking attack on the camera without hesitation, but almost at the same time, the camera light flashed and then shut down, cutting off the network connection.

"A dying struggle." Mercer commented, then cautiously slowed his pace. At that moment, a female voice rang in his ears.

"Xiaobeidou Facilities reminds you: Please do not damage the base's property."

"Warning! Warning! Unauthorized intrusion detected."

V frowned: "What should we do? Is this godforsaken place some kind of warning to the military?"

Mercer said expressionlessly, "I don't know, but if that's the case, we'll blow this place up in a bit to prevent it from becoming a menace to the military."

After these words were spoken, the alarm sounded again and then suddenly stopped.

Mercer walked toward the main control room of the administration office without hesitation. Along the way, he violently opened all the closed doors, but the attack never happened again.

Upon arriving at an office, Mercer stopped and said, "This is the mainframe, connected to the server room. I'll give it a try. If everything goes smoothly, we won't need to look for the server room."

Rebecca watched as he pulled out a very retro wrist-mounted network access bay, which was about the size of a forearm, and connected it to the computer in the room. She couldn't help but ask curiously, "Is this old relic any good? I see you rarely even use a keyboard."

"The only difference is efficiency. Before brain network access modules existed, hackers used this."

Mercer was multitasking, rapidly typing on the small keyboard on the screen while casually replying, "I have to be careful dealing with this guy who's been hiding his true intentions and hasn't said a word until now."

This network access silo isn't afraid of harboring viruses.

Seeing that Mercer had gotten into work mode, everyone tacitly began to keep watch on their surroundings.

This time, however, Mercer worked for an unexpectedly long time, a full ten minutes, before finally stopping his fingers to stretch them out: "It's quite difficult."

"No way, even you can't handle this?" Rebecca said incredulously.

“Typing code by hand is too inefficient, and it certainly can’t compare to brain-computer interfaces. But hacking is never just about programming speed, it’s about skill.”

Mercer said confidently, watching the progress bar slowly climb, "The ICE vulnerability has been found. Now, it either has to obediently open its network connection and fight me head-on."

Otherwise, I'll just have to hack the host machine and then go to the server to find it.

V, however, pointed to the dialog box that popped up on the computer screen and said, "Doesn't this show that administrator privileges have been locked?"

"Let him lock it. Once I upload the software, he won't have any say in it," Mercer said. At that moment, a brand new dialog box suddenly lit up on the computer screen.

[Xiaobeidou Facility: Who exactly are you? I have requested assistance from headquarters. Please immediately cease your illegal occupation and intrusion into military science facilities.]

Mercer sneered: "Stop pretending. If you really are the AI ​​of the Little Beidou facility, I'll eat the computer—what the hell are you anyway? Hiding like a coward, aren't you?"

After flashing for a moment, the dialog box on the computer suddenly turned into a pale scarlet dialog box.

[Little Beidou Facility: Please stop immediately! This is not in your interest! Please state your purpose!]

Mercer simply said coldly, "You think you're in charge here?"

The hacking process continued to proceed methodically, while the red lights flashing inside the base and the alarms sounding grew increasingly urgent. V, standing nearby, frowned: "There are many footsteps approaching!"

"Organize a defensive position." Without saying a word, Rebecca took the lead and walked towards the door, raising her right hand to reveal the barrel of the heavy machine gun that came with her armor.

V then took out his katana—a katana that could cut through metal, much more effective than bullets, against a robot made of steel.

Jack stood obediently in front of Mercer, acting as a shield.

"You don't actually think those remaining scrap metal in the base are of any use to us, do you?" Mercer said, while manually increasing the hacking speed.

At this moment, the unknown roaming AI finally couldn't hold back any longer. The instant it restarted the network, it immediately launched a hacking attack on Mercer and the others.

However, to the surprise of the roaming AI, the moment it made its move, the group of people who had not communicated with each other simultaneously and in perfect unison opened fire, destroying several of the surrounding cameras.

Without its network transmission device, hacking became impossible, like a rootless duckweed. It could only begin to support the host's ICE, pushing Mercer's hacking progress back a significant distance.

But at that very moment, Mercer swiftly inserted a chip and simultaneously picked up the fiber optic cable connected to the signal booster on Jack's back, plugging it into the host's network interface.

The moment the network connection was established, although the computer refused to write data, the chip entered network mode, and a massive data stream poured in from the fiber optic cable, and a series of attack programs automatically began to crack the computer.

At first, the AI ​​seemed unconcerned about Mercer's internet access and even excitedly began trying to hack into it. In its view, Mercer daring to let it connect to the external network was simply a fool's errand, and it had to immediately storm Mercer's server and teach him a lesson.

But then it was shocked to discover that the chip inserted into the host was just a positioning program, and as it actively connected to the network, a terrifying entity immediately followed the positioning and broke in.

The computer visibly froze; numerous dialog boxes and program codes flickered a few times before the computer completely crashed and then automatically restarted.

After restarting, the computer screen only displayed the image of a red woman.

Ultraman: I'm here.

"They've taken over the server?"

[Ultraman: Just as that guy was trying to erase the traces, it turns out it's related to Lilith, huh? And also to the Night Corporation?]

"Ye Corporation?"

Mercer's brow furrowed sharply.

(End of this chapter)