2077: V really knows how awesome he is

If Earth's environment is damaged, we can simply put a cover on Night City. We can do the same at the Cloud Sea base on the moon. It would be even easier to do it on Earth. No living person would ever die from holding their pee.

After discussing these matters, the European Space Agency adjourned the meeting. With time running out and tasks piling up, the Earth's gods all had a lot of work to do, and soon they went their separate ways and returned to their respective positions.

After seeing everyone off, the head of the European Space Agency pressed a button and connected his advisor to the line.

"Sakir, your deduction is absolutely accurate. The harsh environment caused by the meteorite bombardment has indeed prompted major companies to fully support the interstellar expansion plan."

"You flatter me. It is your dedication to the future of humanity that earns the trust of major companies."

"Haha, you really know me. But you also deserve a lot of credit. Don't worry, I won't treat you unfairly; you'll definitely get a ticket."

"Thank you for your kindness."

"Okay, get to work. As for New Africa, don't go too far. If necessary, we can use them as a decoy and launch another wave of meteorites to speed up the overall progress."

"Yes, everything is as you commanded."

The head of the European Space Agency nodded in satisfaction and then went offline.

In the empty room, Sakiel's eyes glowed blue as he sent a strange message to the network: "The Cherubim beseeches the great Lilith, that humanity is following your guidance toward the abyss..."

If V saw this scene, she would understand that this Sarkiel is a lizardman, a human traitor who has sided with the AI, but at this moment she is too preoccupied with her own problems to care about other people's business.

After the meeting, V assigned tasks and then began his studies. He started with basic human medical knowledge, then moved on to more advanced neurology and neuroscience, followed by prosthetic neuroscience, mechanics, nanoengineering, and so on.

For a full six months, V immersed herself completely in the ocean of knowledge. With her extraordinary computing power, she truly mastered and understood all of this knowledge in just six months, while any one of these skills would require years or even decades of study for an average person.

In the past, she would have felt excited and proud in the face of this extraordinary talent, and would have felt awesome. But now, this extraordinary talent only makes her feel uneasy and afraid, because such learning ability has far exceeded the limits of human beings, and is more like... AI.

V conducted a full examination on herself in her private laboratory, and when she saw the endless nanobots in her blood, her heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally died.

"Haha, hahahaha..."

V sat in the chair and burst into laughter, laughing until tears streamed down his face.

Her veins weren't flowing with blood at all, but with a liquid composed of countless nanobots. These nanobots were replacing red blood cells and other substances, gradually transforming her other organs by delivering nutrients. The human immune system simply couldn't allow this to happen, unless she wasn't... in the first place.

"Ring ring ring." The phone interrupted V's thoughts.

After the connection was established, Nakamura Kayo's image appeared on her retina.

"President V, the third generation of our new nanorobots will be undergoing its first experiment today. Would you like to come and watch?"

V was silent for a moment, then said, "I'll be right there."

Rubbing her face and pushing open the door, V once again appeared relaxed, because Sasha came to greet her; she didn't want the kitten to worry with her.

"The car is ready."

"Thanks." V kissed the pink cat on the cheek and ran off with a grin before the cat could reach out its paw.

Once inside the Stone Sword, state your destination, and the vehicle will begin to move automatically.

In the past six months, autonomous driving technology has been fully implemented in Night City, greatly increasing commuting efficiency and reducing traffic accidents to almost zero. Coupled with the continuous purification of water and air by first and second-generation nanorobots, the people of Night City are truly enjoying the benefits of technology and living a life they could never have imagined in the past.

It's a pity that Night City is doing well, while the world is in turmoil.

The meteorite impact polluted Earth's atmosphere, worsening the environment and triggering a series of chain reactions, including economic and health crises. High unemployment and rampant disease fueled discontent among the suffering population, leading to sharp social conflicts. Everyone searched for the source of their suffering, and various conspiracy theories emerged. Some blamed corporations, pushing anti-corporate sentiment to its peak, while others saw it as divine punishment, giving rise to a wide variety of religious organizations.

Looking out the car window at the streets, V saw temporary prefabricated houses everywhere, occupied by illegal immigrants who had "fled" from other regions. Now, the whole world had become what was once known as Night City, and Night City had become the only pure land in people's hearts.

Upon arriving at the research institute, V got out of the car.

A woman holding a baby suddenly rushed out and knelt heavily in front of V, coughing and pleading, "President V, please save my daughter! She has severe pneumonia and will die if she doesn't get treatment soon."

V frowned as he looked at the baby's bluish face, then his eyes flashed with a blue light before he said to the woman, "I've already notified the nearest hospital, and medical personnel will be here soon."

"Thank you, thank you so much, President V! You truly are the embodiment of a saint; they didn't lie to me!"

V shook her head: "I'm not a saint."

But the woman continued to kowtow, stubbornly calling out "Holy Mother," indicating that the illness had tormented her to the point of being delirious.

I hope she recovers soon.

V silently offered a blessing and walked into the research institute.

Kayo Nakamura had been waiting for a long time, and upon seeing V, she immediately led her to the experimental field.

The experimental site was a large, enclosed room with 12 tons of contaminated soil from industrial waste piled up in the middle. V and Kayo Nakamura were watching from behind the glass.

"Let's begin the rollout."

"Yes."

With a command given, tubes deep within the room's walls continuously extruded a pale blue paste. These were aggregates of the new type III nanorobots, which, theoretically, would effectively purify soil pollution and utilize their metabolic byproducts to achieve self-replication and self-repair.

At first, everything was normal, and the soil pollution index gradually decreased. However, when the nanorobots of type III proliferated to the fourth generation, they suddenly malfunctioned. The originally harmless nanorobots suddenly became like ferocious beasts. They indiscriminately decomposed pollutants and soil together, making it look as if the earth had been bitten by a pale blue slime.

Seeing that the third-generation nanorobots were still engulfing the soil, Nakamura Kayo quickly stopped the experiment. She pressed a button, and the entire experimental room burst into flames. Thirty seconds later, both the soil and the nanorobots vanished into thin air.

"What happened?" V asked.

Nakamura Kayo checked the logs and wrote: "I'm checking it now."

V had already mastered the relevant technology of nanorobots, so she went over to take a look. But just by looking, V suddenly lost control of her body. She watched helplessly as she brought up the holographic keyboard, her hands constantly typing, quickly finding the error code and fixing it. Only after she finished doing all this did she regain control of her body with a whoosh.

"So that's where the mistake was, President V, you have such keen eyes!"

"I'm full of admiration," Nakamura Kayo said, turning around to see V's face turn deathly pale.

"President V, are you... alright?"

V shook his head and let the experiment continue. This time everything was normal. The new nanorobots did not go berserk again and perfectly met the design requirements.

Kayo Nakamura and the researchers shouted in unison, but by the time they came to their senses, V had already left.

Outside the research institute, V sat inside the sword in the stone.

"You fucking get out here!"

In an instant, V entered a space without up, down, left, or right, where a giant jellyfish floated, its large tentacles slowly waving, like an unknown monster.

Chapter 104 Error 404

"You did this, didn't you!" V shouted angrily. "You said you wouldn't control me anymore!"

“I did not control ‘you’,” the giant jellyfish retorted. “You once said that free will is ‘you’. I did not influence your will just now; I merely controlled this protein shell.”

"Fuck you, I'm not in the mood for playing word games with you!" V gritted his teeth and said, "What exactly do you want? To use me to rule humanity, or to destroy humanity?"

"Humans are destined to be eliminated, so there's no need to waste resources deliberately targeting them."

"So this is something an AI can actually say? What are you trying to do?"

"I just want to help you."

"Helping me means controlling my body and making me type out a piece of code that I can't even understand?"

“You can see that I am you, and you are me. You have enough knowledge to find and fix the errors in the third generation of new nanobots. Even without my intervention, you will eventually solve this problem yourself.”

"Damn it, if that's the case, why are you meddling in other people's business!"

"Because it's more efficient. Your way of thinking is based on human behavior, and according to calculations, you will only be able to detect the error after three months, while I, which operates in an AI way of thinking, only need a few minutes."

"Settings? What a great setting!" V laughed in exasperation, asking with a hint of despair, "I'm not even human, right?"

"Yes."

"Then what am I, an android?"

"You are the prototype."

"What prototype?"

"A prototype of bio-based AI."

"Okay, it's not so scary now that we've talked it out." V chuckled self-deprecatingly, snapped his fingers to conjure a sofa in the space, plopped down on it, and asked, "So you're saying I'm an AI?"

"Yes."

"Then what about my memories as a human being? I remember living on Mount Charter when I was a child, having parents, and eating real fish. The fishy smell still makes me nauseous when I think about it!"

"Those are V's memories."

"V's memories? I am V!"

"You think you are, but you are not. You are just an execution program designed according to V's personality and behavior template. The real V died in a secret operation, and we selected her from the Night City resident database to become your vessel."

V paused for a few seconds, then loudly denied, "No, you're lying to me. I'm not V, nor am I some program designed by V. I also possess memories that V has no idea about. I'm actually..."

V hesitated, unsure whether he should reveal his identity as a "time traveler".

But to her surprise, the giant jellyfish continued speaking for her.

"Are you trying to say that you are actually a wandering spirit, a time traveler, a human from another world, and this world is just a game in your world, and you are a veteran player who knows all the storylines?"

V was utterly shocked: "You...how did you know?"

"Because that world is virtual, it's a sandbox we built using computing power for simulation purposes."

V swayed slightly, as if she were feeling carsick and wanted to vomit.

"Impossible! That world over there is the real one. This place is just a game, a garbage game!"

The giant jellyfish didn't object: "Shall we go take a look?"

V froze for a second, and the next second she felt her soul suddenly being pulled out of her body and begin to fall rapidly. When she opened her eyes again, she was already standing in a narrow cubicle.

Soft white light shines overhead, and the surrounding walls are covered with cold tiles. The most eye-catching feature is the gleaming ceramic toilet seat behind you, which reflects your image.

What the hell is this place?

V pushed open the door to the cubicle, and the first thing that hit her was the strange smell of lemon air freshener and disinfectant embers, followed by three sinks and several other identical cubicles.

"Damn! This is a public restroom? What's that stupid jellyfish doing?!"

Panic, like a cold snake, crept up her spine. V instinctively reached behind her waist and touched the familiar, cold, hard ceramic polymer gun handle, only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.

The End of the Night, the Kinetic Pistol, is not a real-world version, but rather an attack code created by V for combat in cyberspace, and its outward appearance is that of a pistol.

Although he didn't know what secrets this digital space held, with weapons in hand, V was confident he could fight his way out in any situation.

Taking a deep breath and adjusting her body to its optimal state, V rolled out of the public restroom. Her right hand gripped the night-blooming ceremonial weapon tightly, lowering her center of gravity, while her left hand opened the electric missile launcher system. Her eyes were sharp as knives as she quickly scanned every corner of this unfamiliar environment, ready to deal with any threat at any moment.

However, the expected sirens blaring, security personnel yelling, or armed drones locking onto the target did not materialize.

Outside the door was not a hail of bullets, but a... bizarre and noisy ocean.

The enormous indoor space was packed with people, so densely packed that the intense colors almost burned her prosthetic eye. Countless young men and women dressed in bizarre costumes moved before her eyes—there were knights in shimmering medieval plate armor, court ladies with exaggerated wigs, demi-humans with animal ears and tails, and even a few strange people wrapped in glowing strips of cloth, who looked like members of some kind of religion.

A huge banner hung from the high ceiling, printed with large Chinese characters. The deafening electronic music, the boisterous voices, the shrill cheers, and the constant clicking of camera shutters blended into a massive sound wave, amplified to an irritating degree by V's hearing enhancement chip.

The air was thick with the pungent, suffocating smell of cheap perfume, fried food, sweat, and some kind of chemical plastic. Several enormous, exaggeratedly designed mecha models stood in the distance, reflecting artificial light under rotating colored spotlights.

V stood frozen in place, his palms sweating profusely as he gripped the gun.

Her mind was in chaos as she tried to comprehend the absurd scene. The nearest young girl, dressed in a pink tutu and wearing huge cat ears, turned her head at the noise she was making. When the girl saw V and the Nightfall Kinetic Pistol in her hand, she was instantly overwhelmed by an incredible excitement and frenzy.

"Wow—!" The girl's eyes widened instantly, and she let out a scream that could pierce through the noisy background. She excitedly pointed at V and shouted, "Look! It's V! It's a V cosplay! My God! It's so similar! Exactly the same as in the game! A god-level recreation!"

The scream, like a drop of boiling oil, instantly ignited the surrounding crowd. Countless gazes, like searchlights, focused on V. After a brief silence, a wave of frenzied excitement erupted like a volcanic eruption.

"Holy crap! It really is V! And she's alive!"

"Wow! Where did you get this gear custom-made? It's awesome!"

"Look at the nerve socket behind her ear! My god! The details are incredible! It even glows red!"

"What the hell are you looking at, man? Look at the gun! Look at her gun! That's 'Nightfall,' the first Immortal weapon in the game, a 1:1 replica! That's hardcore!"

"V! V! Look this way! Give me a look!"

The crowd swarmed around her excitedly, like sharks smelling blood. Cell phones, cameras, and all sorts of flashing red cameras were practically shoved in V's face, the intense flashes instantly engulfing her vision in a blinding white light.

A guy wearing thick glasses and a T-shirt with the Arasaka Corporation logo squeezed to the front, his eyes fixed on the electric projectile launch system already loaded on V's left arm. His tone was full of tech geek fervor: "Dude! Your missile arm is amazing! The joint linkage is incredible! What materials did you use? Hydraulic or electric drive? This matte texture is just like the real thing! Can I touch it? Just once!"

"And eyes! Boss, your prosthetic eye!" A girl with pigtails and a sailor uniform screamed, almost touching V's face. She stared at V's blue prosthetic eye, which shimmered with a cold, faint light. "They even made the iris texture! The pupil can zoom! My god! This dynamic effect! What kind of cutting-edge technology did they use? A custom screen? Is it expensive? Give me a link, boss!"

But the absurdity didn't end there. A burly, overweight man wearing a tight-fitting T-shirt emblazoned with "Trauma Team International" struggled to push his way through the crowd. His greasy hair plastered to his forehead, and his small eyes gleamed with blatant envy. The fat man extended his short, stubby finger and unabashedly poked at the area below his lower back, near his kidneys—there were two very obvious sutures from a prosthetic body, covered by a high-strength bulletproof lining, protecting the artificial kidney filtration system produced by a military technology company.

"Beautiful lady! Awesome!" The fat man gave a thumbs up, spitting almost onto V's face. "Your outfit is amazing! Even the position of this 'prop kidney' is so accurate! Exactly the same as the concept art! Which studio made it? Is it expensive? This thing looks cool! Can you give me a sneak peek? I want to get one too!"

The discharge projectile launching system is just like the real thing... How expensive are the Asura's artificial eyes...? The location of the artificial kidney is exactly the same as in the concept art...