2077: V really knows how awesome he is

David of the world of Vera is dead, so let him die forever. The one who is alive is merely the fleet commander of the future human expeditionary force.

“Perhaps the price to pay for time travel is not just an X,” Vera, whose intelligence was 3, suddenly said, a statement that was made by someone with intelligence 13.

“But just as time is unidirectional, we can’t stop it either. The only thing we can do is try to make up for the regrets,” V said. “Since I located X and planned to conduct time travel tests, David has sent me 56 applications in three weeks.”

Vera immediately understood: "He wants to go back to 2076?"

"That's right, he had been holding back a fire in his heart for ten years."

“Then let’s burn it.” Vera would throw the acting president of Comtau out of a window for a bag of cookies, and she would travel through time for a story. “So this time we’re going to 2076, right?”

V shook his head: "No, it's not 2076."

Vera asked curiously, "Why not?"

"Because another person submitted 232 applications to me in three weeks."

"Damn, which unlucky guy has such a big grudge?"

“Who else could it be?” V said the name: “Johnny Silverhand, of course.”

Vera was taken aback: "What's he doing here now?"

“Because he wanted to go back to 2013 to save his girlfriend.” V sighed, “David’s fire had been burning for 10 years, but his fire had been burning for 154 years.”

Vera was dumbfounded: "So we're going to 2013? What about David? Should we wait?"

V glanced at Vera sideways: "Mix them together and make pissing beef balls, you idiot."

"what?"

“What I mean is, the more experimental samples the better, so this wasn’t a multiple-choice question from the start. We’re both going,” V replied. “One widow is Luxina Kushinada, and the other is Johnny Silverhand. That’s where the mission name ‘Widow’s Little Tune’ comes from, you get it?”

"Tch, you should have said that earlier," Vera asked. "Which one should we go to first?"

"Save Ultraman first, then David, in chronological order. What tragedy? Screw it!"

Chapter 163 Extubation

AI-managed administrative departments are highly efficient; they do not need to take holidays or be absent from their posts.

With a single command issued, V completed all preparations for the first autonomous time travel within three days.

The destination this time is 2013, and as agreed, the first step is to save Ultraman.

Johnny armed himself fully for this purpose, even bringing out the long-sealed Malorian 3516. This gun was very cool, even having a flamethrower mechanism for close combat, but its power was really indescribable and could not be compared with the weapons of 2167. V could only upgrade it by increasing the magazine capacity and bullet power and adding an intelligent aiming system.

"What a damn busybody!" Johnny was heartbroken, his expression as if he'd had sex with his wife, and three times at that.

V retorted angrily, "I'm just afraid you'll get smashed in two by Adam Hammer again!"

According to Ultraman's description, Johnny didn't actually fight Adam Hammer for eight hundred rounds when he blew up Aragaka Tower, nor was he blown off the helicopter at the last moment. It was all because Johnny's consciousness lost packets during the upload process, and his brain automatically rendered and beautified the "false scene" to fill in the missing parts.

The truth is, Johnny was instantly killed by Adam Hammer in one move, literally cut in two. Johnny himself, of course, doesn't accept this account; this time he's going back not only to mend his mistake but also to prove himself!

V ignored Johnny. He was an arrogant maniac when he was young, and now that he's older, he's even more arrogant than before. Only the young Johnny in his mind can keep him in check. It's just that bad guys always have bad guys to deal with them. V has repeatedly praised himself for inserting the Relic chip into Johnny's brain.

Because it was an experiment, this time Time Travel V didn't send a large force. Instead, they opted for a small, streamlined operation, consisting of only herself, Vera, and Johnny. After all, a smaller boat is easier to maneuver, and if any unexpected accidents occurred, the losses could be minimized.

Seeing Vera pacing back and forth, V kindly reassured her, "Don't worry, I've made backups for you."

"What good is that! You said it yourself, digital backups are meaningful to everyone except the person involved. If I die, I'm really dead. The one who comes back to life isn't me!" Vera was indeed a little nervous, but not because she was worried about time travel, but because she was worried about V.

"Are you sure your memory backup is fine? It will definitely boot successfully, right?"

V replied irritably, "This is the 122nd time you've asked. I've already said that the memory backup program has only a 0.7% chance of failing."

Vera immediately looked miserable: "So the chance of me being killed by you is as high as 0.7%?"

V: ...

In short, everyone was ready. After a final check of the time travel program in Astraea and confirmation that everything was normal, humanity's first autonomous time travel began.

Vera saw Astraea take out a golden scale, and then heard the ticking of a clock. A flash of white light followed, and a wave of dizziness washed over her. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a narrow, cramped alleyway instead of a spacious, brightly lit laboratory.

"Did it work?" Vera rubbed her head.

"Of course it was a success!" Johnny took a deep breath: "A filthy alley, the air reeking of urine, it was definitely 2013!"

Vera immediately tensed up. As someone born in 2053, she didn't know what 2013 should be like, but she knew that since the time travel had been successful, V must have lost his memory.

She looked at V nervously, and V indeed looked completely bewildered.

"Do you remember who you are?" Vera asked tentatively.

But V suddenly took a step back, adopting a defensive posture, and asked, "Who are you, and why do you look just like me?"

“Because she’s your mother,” Johnny said, dropping a bombshell. “I’m your father.”

V: ? ? ?

Vera: !!!

"Stop messing around, you son of a bitch!" Vera was furious with Johnny.

Johnny, however, didn't seem to care. While pinching his crotch, he said, "It's just taking advantage of her while she's dazed, what's the big deal?"

As soon as she finished speaking, V's eyes lit up with blue light.

"Solar particle activity level synchronized. Confirmed successful time reversal against deep space images. Memory backup program initiated. Memory recovery in progress... 1%... 2%... 3%..."

"Damn, they're starting to regain their memories so quickly?" Johnny said with a regretful look. "This is no fun."

Vera breathed a long sigh of relief; it seemed this memory backup program was quite reliable.

V was loading a message, which would take about ten minutes. Vera looked around and asked Johnny, "Can you tell the exact time? Is it after Ultra was captured or before?"

“It must have been after I was captured that V said our mission was clear: to rescue Ultraman and make him regret it. So the timing will be very precise.” Johnny said, smashing the window of a car parked on the street with his fist. He then turned on the car radio, and the announcer’s voice immediately came through.

"...Currently, we do not know the exact number of casualties in this riot, but our reporters have gone to the scene, right at Arasaka Tower. Countless fans, at Johnny Silverhand's call, gathered at the main entrance, denouncing the company's various misdeeds while singing and throwing glow sticks and Molotov cocktails at Arasaka's security team. Arasaka's experts issued a statement immediately, saying that the public has never had any complaints about the company, and that the spread of a psychotropic drug at the scene only affected those around them."

"Awesome, the timing is perfect, even more precise than simultaneous orgasms!" Johnny exclaimed, then turned off the radio.

"What do you mean?" Vera took out a pack of cigarettes from her pocket, lit one for herself, and tossed one to Johnny.

“Those fans are all scapegoats I summoned to distract Arasaka. Right now, Arasaka’s attention is focused on the front gate. If I’m not mistaken, at this moment, I’m sneaking in through the back gate with Roger and the others.”

Vera couldn't help but complain: "Is this how you fucking use your fans?"

Johnny shrugged: "Well, I was still an idiot in 2013."

“You’re not doing much better now!” Vera rolled her eyes. “So, should we follow them?”

"Of course, we have to rescue Ultraman before that idiot finds him."

"Why?" Vera asked, puzzled. "Shouldn't we join forces to rescue Ultraman together?"

Johnny choked for a moment, both Johnnies did, but the Ultraman inside him didn't choke and instead told the truth.

"To avoid being tortured by Arasaka, I uploaded my consciousness to cyberspace, but Johnny found me and instead of following the normal return procedure, he simply pulled out my cable."

"Huh?!" Vera exclaimed in surprise, "So you weren't killed by Arakasaka, but by Johnny?"

Ultraman: "Yes."

Vera looked at Johnny, whose lips twitched: "I've already told you, I'm an idiot right now."

"Hmm." Vera nodded. "Your judgment of people is as accurate as ever."

Johnny: "..."

"We have to race against time, before I pull the plug on Ultraman right now," the rock kid abruptly changed the subject.

Vera expressed her understanding, then pointed to the V sign next to her: "What about her? Should we hide her in this alley?"

“It’s best not to.” Johnny rubbed his crotch. “There aren’t that many pornographic videos to watch online in 2013. If you put V here, just wait for every hole in her body to be filled.”

"Is this some kind of exaggeration?!" Vera exclaimed in surprise.

“Don’t underestimate a man’s desires,” Johnny said with certainty.

"But V takes more than ten minutes to download and save, and now there are only 5 minutes left. What can you do in that little time?"

“That’s plenty of work.” Johnny said earnestly, “There were no super cannons in 2013, and humanity was still at a normal level.”

Vera's lips twitched: "Fine, I shouldn't have judged people with new eyes. To prevent V from destroying the world after she wakes up, let's take her with us."

"A wise choice."

Vera walked over to V, gently poked V's stomach, and asked with some concern, "Will carrying her affect the memory backup program?"

"Please, she's the most advanced bio-based AI prototype, not some old computer that otaku use to watch porn and masturbate. Don't worry about her, she's not that fragile."

Vera thought it made sense, so she hoisted V onto her shoulder with a "hey!"

"How do I get there?"

"Come with me."

Night City in 2013 was vastly different from Night City in 2077, and even more so from Night City in 2167. Although Vera was a native of Night City, she didn't recognize the current Night City at all and could only follow Johnny through various alleyways, like navigating a maze.

"The city looks terrible in 2013, worse than in 2077!" Vera complained as she ran.

“Of course, Night City right now is like a hodgepodge, with all sorts of companies trying to get involved, making any kind of urban planning impossible. The Night City you see is actually the post-nuclear Night City, which has been redesigned by the Night Corporation and is naturally much better. This is what they mean by destruction before construction.” Johnny answered as he ran.

Vera nodded, paused for a moment, and then asked, "Actually, you knew it too, didn't you?"

"Know what?"

"Time is unidirectional. Even if you save Ultraman now, you cannot change the future. The Vera world and the V world will not be changed by anything. The same goes for David. Even if he saves himself in 2076 and gives Lucy a happy ending, Lucy in the Vera world will still be all alone."

Johnny nodded: "I know."

"If you know it's all meaningless, why do it at all?"

Before Johnny could answer, V's voice suddenly rang out: "And why are you manually masturbating to those erotic novels written by literature enthusiasts?"

“Because it feels good,” Vera replied matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, because it’s fun. That’s why Johnny came back. Not everything in the world needs to have meaning.” V said, patting Vera on the shoulder. “Put me down. You’re making me want to throw up.”

Vera put V down: "Your memories have returned?"

"It's back. It was just copying a few files, no big deal."

Vera felt relieved and continued the previous topic: "I know that not everything has to be meaningful, but time travel is such a huge expense, it can't just be for a moment of fun, right?"

"Why not? Technology is meant to serve humanity. Our discovery of the C-particle and our location of X-particles are essentially aimed at improving productivity and better solving humanity's basic needs like food, drink, and excretion. Of course, time technology is primarily designed to target higher-dimensional demons, but demons will eventually be wiped out, and military technology will ultimately be used for civilian purposes. Do you think that if everyone could travel through time and go back to change their regrets, their online time would be extended significantly?"

Vera was shocked: "Holy crap, you're actually going to use time technology for this?"

V did not deny it: "Changing the past is indeed meaningless, but watching Mewtwo movies is also meaningless. Aren't there still countless movie lovers all over the world? So 'going back to the past' can also be developed into an entertainment activity. People can make up for their regrets, eliminate their lingering feelings, spend more time immersed in the internet, society becomes more stable, and the government gains more computing power. This is a win-win situation."

Vera was speechless with amazement at this grand plan, and praised her wholeheartedly, "V, you're really awesome."

Young Johnny and future Ultraman were also a little surprised, but older Johnny was already used to V's whimsical ideas and was not surprised at all.

“Look, that’s the back gate of Arasaka.” Johnny pointed ahead, frowning. “The guards have all been taken out. I’ve definitely already broken in.”

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go. We're already here, we can't let Johnny pull out Ultra's pipe again."

At V's command, Johnny led the way, and the three entered the Arasaka Tower in 2013.

Johnny had a vivid memory of this road. He forgot that even though he liked women, he would never forget this road. He moved quickly because there were corpses of Arasaka Guards everywhere on the road. In this world, he invited Rogue and Santiago, the boss of Adcardo, to be his teammates. He was extremely powerful and killed indiscriminately along the way. Of course, it was Rogue and Santiago who were responsible for killing indiscriminately. He spent most of his time killing indiscriminately.

For example, right now, V and the others suddenly heard a roar from ahead: "Damn it, what did you do to Ultraman!"

Then a gunshot rang out.

Johnny immediately panicked: "Quick, I'm about to pull out the Ultra tube!"

V and Vera tensed up and immediately sped up.

Meanwhile, Johnny, the idiot from 2013, has found Ultraman. He has killed the guard and is desperately calling out to his girlfriend, who is lying in the hacker chair, but Ultraman remains unresponsive.

Rogge, standing guard nearby, shouted, "You'd better hurry! Arasaka's main force will be here soon!"

"I'm fucking trying!" the idiot Johnny yelled in exasperation.

Santiago examined the control panel next to him for a moment and said, "Otto seems to be diving deep; her consciousness has been uploaded to cyberspace."

"Deep Dive? This must be the work of those bastards from Arasaka!" Johnny roared, reaching for the cable plugged into the back of Ultraman's head. Although he was just a rock kid who hadn't even finished junior high, he knew that all online activities would immediately stop if the network cable was unplugged.

But Santiago stopped him: "Wait, Silverhand, we have to go through the exit procedure."

But the idiot Johnny was completely unmoved, shoving Santiago's hand away and arrogantly saying, "What bullshit exit program? I don't care about this or that, just unplug it and that's it!"