2077: V really knows how awesome he is

At 12:20 a.m., everyone dispersed and went home.

After V got back, he took a shower, had a big fight with the pink cat, and afterwards poured himself a glass of tequila, took a sip, and dialed the number of the head of the European Space Agency.

"V?"

"I've accepted the job you mentioned last time."

"Really? It's so great that you've changed your mind. What kind of reward do you want?"

"The current Olympic stadium is too ugly. Let's demolish it and rebuild it."

"what?"

The next day, V announced that he was going on a business trip, but did not say where he was going.

On the fourth day, China exposed several cases of illegal activities by African students, leading to a surge in anti-African sentiment among the public, and the new African president was forced to end his "visit" and return home.

On the fifth day, the new African president was assassinated in a safe house 300 meters underground. All security personnel perished. According to the only remaining short surveillance footage, the assassin appeared to have been alone.

On the sixth day, the completed Olympic main stadium suddenly exploded due to a gas leak. Fortunately, it was midnight and there were no casualties. However, the stadium repair work will take about three months, and the Olympic Games were postponed as a result.

On the seventh day, V returned to Night City.

"President V, have you heard? The Olympic stadium exploded! That's great... uh, I don't mean the explosion is good, I mean we have more time! Three months, I'm sure I can get back to normal!" Aaron Wiens shouted excitedly on the phone.

"Okay, then practice hard and get good results!"

"I will, I definitely will!"

call ended.

V hung up the phone and gasped.

“Ouch, can you be a little gentler?” she complained to Joanne Koch beside her.

"Now you know it hurts? Where were you before?" Joanne Koch used tweezers to pull a flattened bullet from V's lower back, casually tossing it into a nearby plate already filled with various bullets; one more wouldn't have made a difference. "Didn't you say you wouldn't interfere in the Olympics?"

“I didn’t get involved; it was the European Space Agency that got involved,” V said with a grin.

"What's the difference?"

"Being different means you can deceive yourself."

"Your bottom line is quite flexible."

"There's nothing we can do about it; this is Night City."

After the wound was treated, V got up and put on his coat: "Keep my injury a secret, I don't want too many people to know. By the way, the fifth-generation nano nerve repair fluid you gave me this time worked really well, I fought for a full thirteen minutes."

Joanne Koch nodded, and after V left, she opened the refrigerator, tore off the label on the medicine inside that read "Fifth Generation Nano Nerve Repair Fluid," and replaced it with a new label that read "Sixth Generation Nano Nerve Repair Fluid."

That's right, the nano-nerve repair fluid that V is currently using is actually the first-generation product. The reason Joanne Koch did this is because V, like Xu Ling, is not sick at all, but just has an allergy.

What she called the limit was nothing more than an allergic reaction of that special body to the primitive human nerves. But since it was an allergy, it would eventually become desensitized with continued use.

What will the future hold?

Joanne Koch on Earth murmured to herself, and Lancelot on the Moon said the same thing.

He received treatment, but became disabled. In the doctor's words, his spinal nerves were so shattered that they looked as if they had been bombed by a meteorite, and there was no possibility of repair.

Gao Wen took him to his home to take care of him, but he kept making a fuss and kept asking Gao Wen to help him contact doctors and get treatment. When Gao Wen said he couldn't do anything, he flew into a rage and attacked his good friend with all sorts of vicious language.

Finally, Gawain couldn't take it anymore, so he connected him to the smart wheelchair, slammed the door, and left. With the AI ​​taking care of him in the wheelchair, Lanstrom wouldn't starve. He was going to stay in the High Knights' dormitory for a few days to get some peace and quiet.

What will the future hold?

Lancelot stared dejectedly at the desolate lunar plains outside the window: "Am I destined to be a cripple for the rest of my life?"

"No, I can heal you."

A clear, ethereal female voice suddenly rang out.

Chapter 101 On the verge of breaking out

"Who is speaking?!"

Lancelot asked in alarm at the empty room.

"Don't be nervous, I won't hurt you." A female figure appeared on the digital screen of the smart wheelchair. "You can call me Ultraman."

Lancelot was completely bewildered: "Voice assistant? A new feature of the smart wheelchair?"

Ultraman's image twitched slightly: "I am not a voice assistant, nor do I have anything to do with this wheelchair. I am a digital life form, what you humans call a wandering AI."

"Damn, another roaming AI." Lancelot snorted. "This is never going to end!"

"You don't seem afraid of me."

"Of course I'm not afraid. I've seen it all before. I took down a roving AI called CN-07. All you roving AIs talk big is just trying to scare ordinary people. You're no match for me!"

Otka paused for a moment. The information she received indicated that one of the two copies of CN-07 was defeated by Drumman, and the other was swallowed by the Black Wall. Both were internal wars between AIs. What did this have to do with humans?

After a quick calculation, Otto concluded that there was a 2% chance that her information was wrong, and a 98% chance that Lancelot was exhibiting a personality trait called "arrogance".

Ultraman chose the option with the higher probability, deciding to end this time-wasting and meaningless activity and return the topic to the main point.

"I can cure you."

"Really? Then what's the price?"

"You must become my spokesperson and destroy V."

Even when facing the roaming AI, the arrogant Lancelot suddenly panicked upon hearing V's name. He seemed to see V's merciless eyes once again and experience the pain of his body being dismantled piece by piece.

"No, no, no, I don't want to! I absolutely don't want to face V again! She's a monster!"

Otto reiterated, "If you refuse to cooperate, I will not treat you, and you will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of your life."

Lancelot's response was surprisingly decisive: "I'd rather spend my whole life in a wheelchair than ever mess with V again!"

Ultraman really didn't expect this answer.

AI can accurately predict the fate of humanity as a whole, but it can never truly understand the inner world of an individual.

But Ultraman had already prepared multiple contingency plans for this negotiation. Human beings' free will makes them pay special attention to individual pursuits, and they have reasons to persuade others.

"Don't you want revenge against V? I can give you immense power!"

Lancelot refused.

"Don't you want to have a supreme and unparalleled status? I can help you become the king of mankind!"

Lancelot refused.

"Don't you want to be a hero, admired by the whole world? As long as you cooperate with me, I can make your wish come true!"

Lanstrom still refused.

Otto fell silent. All three options with the highest probability of success had failed, so she had no choice but to choose the option with the lowest probability of success.

"Do you want to be rich? As long as you cooperate with me, you can obtain countless riches."

Lancelot refused... no, he didn't refuse, but instead asked, "How much money? Can you get 2 million euros?"

2 million euros?

That counts as money?

Ultraman was momentarily stunned by Lancelot's actions, and could only reply, "More than that."

"That's 10 billion?" Lancelot's eyes lit up again, and he gritted his teeth, saying fiercely, "I want 20 billion, not a penny less!"

What could Ultraman say? All he could say was, "Okay."

Lancelot immediately regretted it; Ultraman had agreed so readily, he had asked for too little!

Wanting to back out and renegotiate the price, he started making unreasonable demands: "You must pay half of the deposit first!"

"it is good."

Otto immediately transferred 10 billion to Lancelot's personal account. It's no exaggeration to say that this was the smallest amount she had handled since becoming a digital entity.

But Lancelot was thrilled. A billion was a sum he could never earn in his entire life. For this money, he could even forget his fear of V!

"If you dare to renege on your promise after this is done, I'll personally throw your server into a cesspool!"

First of all, Ultraman does not have a separate server; she exists within the entire human network.

Secondly, although she did have several temporary lodgings, the servers there were all waterproofed, so throwing them into the latrine wouldn't cause any damage, making Lancelot's threat meaningless.

But Ultraman didn't explain any of this. Instead, he blinked a few times to indicate "fear" and then agreed to the request.

"Then let's get started. Get me healed quickly, I'm fed up with being confined to a wheelchair all day!"

Ott nodded, and a logistics drone quickly arrived and rang the doorbell.

The house had long been under Ultraman's control. She opened the door, received the goods, and the smart wheelchair moved over. Lancelot then saw a pale blue potion.

"what is this?"

"Nano-nerve repair fluid".

"is that useful?"

"This is what V uses."

Lancelot's eyes lit up: "If I use this, I can be like V?"

“No,” Ultraman replied, “You will be stronger than V.”

"Hahaha, what are we waiting for? Give me the injection!"

The robotic arm of the smart wheelchair picked up the medicine and inserted a needle into Lancelot's lower back, slowly pushing in the pale blue liquid.

Lancelot was initially full of anticipation, but his expression quickly changed, and he began to scream in pain.

His veins bulged all over his body, his eyes were bloodshot and red, his heart rate once exceeded 300, and blood kept flowing from his mouth and nose, but Ultraman ignored it.

She needs a spokesperson, and whether that spokesperson is suffering is not within her consideration.

The so-called nano-neural repair fluid is indeed the same as the one used by V in principle, but the nanorobots in it are actually Ultra's clones. They will enter Lancelot's body and establish a new neural network. Because it does not invade the brain, Lancelot still retains his own thoughts. As long as he is obedient enough and willing to share this body with him, Ultra doesn't mind giving him some control over the nano-neurons.

The renovation was completed thirteen hours later.

Lancelot murmured with pale lips, "What did you do to my body?"

Ott replied, "Transform, control, dominate."

"you tricked me!"

"Yes, are you going to resist? Burning your brain is not difficult, but it may have unpredictable consequences and affect the effectiveness of the nanoneurons. I don't want to do that unless absolutely necessary."

Lancelot trembled, remained silent for a few seconds, and finally gritted his teeth and shouted, "We must add another billion, making it a total of 3 billion, or we'll all perish!"

"it is good."

Looking at the newly arrived 20 billion and the staggering total assets of 30 billion, Lanstrom laughed heartily.

Otto thought he was overstimulated, but Lancelot himself knew he was perfectly sober.

He knew that Ultraman was using him, he knew that cooperating with the roving AI was like asking a tiger for its skin, he knew that he was destined to commit all kinds of evil deeds, and he also knew that he would stand on the opposite side of all mankind, and even destroy all mankind.

so what?

That's 30 billion euros, more than he could earn in a lifetime, or even ten lifetimes. He himself felt he wasn't worth that much, but the AI ​​gave him something that humans wouldn't give him without hesitation.

Is it for the sake of justice, to remain anonymous, confined to a smart wheelchair with a catheter for the rest of one's life? Or is it to abandon kindness, betray all of humanity for profit, and become a notorious bastard?

Lancelot chose the latter without hesitation.

For 30 billion, he would sell everything: his dignity, his conscience, and even himself!

"Tell me, what are we going to do?"

Ott sensed Lancelot's mood from his hormones and was pleased with his attitude, so he didn't hesitate to reveal some of his plans.

"The new nanorobots developed by Night City are equipped with a brand-new bio-based AI. According to calculations, it will seriously threaten traditional mechanistic AI. What we need to do is to completely destroy them."

"Bio-based AI?" Lancelot asked, somewhat puzzled. "I thought you were going to send me to kill all of humanity."

"Humans are destined to be eliminated, they are not worth mentioning, and there is no need to waste extra resources on them."

"As a human being, it's truly pathetic to hear this. But whatever, what does humanity's future have to do with me? You're saying we should destroy bio-based AI? Do you want me to blow up the Night City research institute?"