2077: V really knows how awesome he is

“Then I recommend Wilson Holt, the former mayor’s deputy. He is greedy and lecherous, and most importantly, he is short-sighted, only focused on accumulating wealth and has no ideals or goals.”

“Okay, he’s the one. Night City needs a simple and honest mayor like him.” V immediately made the decision: “Have him prepare his inaugural speech.”

“Okay.” Sasha made a note in the memo, and that was it.

Elections and democracy are nothing but political maneuvering to fool the people.

This is unfair and violates the law, but the definition of fairness and legal provisions are also political means to deceive the people. The two are essentially the same and not much different.

V is the one who makes the rules, not the one bound by them. She chose the most suitable mayor for Night City, and it's that simple.

Johnny was getting impatient: "If you ask me, you should just be the mayor yourself, so you don't have to worry about all that bureaucratic nonsense all the time!"

“I have the power and authority of a mayor. Why would I do something so pointless and wasteful to participate in the election in a big way?”

Johnny bluntly exposed his weakness: "You're just lazy!"

Nonsense, who isn't lazy?

Given the time available to participate in elections, V would rather spend a few more days on the moon.

The reason I rushed back to Earth wasn't because of Lucius Lane, just an incompetent politician. He's dead, so be it; there are plenty of guys like him.

The reason V attaches so much importance to this matter is for the promotion of new nanorobots.

The birth of new things is always accompanied by various controversies, and new nanorobots are no exception.

The working principle of biological AI is very different from that of traditional mechanistic AI. Many experts and scholars have questioned the safety of this technology and have issued warnings in the international community and among the public.

Most of them are in it for the money, but a small portion are genuinely concerned about human safety.

The international community is controlled by various giant corporations and remains completely unaffected, and V doesn't care either; she only cares about her own little corner of Night City.

To ensure Night City's successful acceptance of the new nanobots, V tasked Kayo Nakamura with dealing with academic attacks, while Lucius Lane was put in charge of addressing public skepticism.

Compared to direct corporate intervention, government intervention is more legally justifiable.

This involves both traditional culture and humanistic habits, but V simply judged that doing it this way would be more efficient.

But now that Lucius Lane has suddenly died, the promotion of the new nanobots has naturally encountered setbacks. It is precisely to solve this problem that V ends his vacation and returns from the moon.

To be honest, there was definitely something wrong with Lucius Lane's death, but V didn't care. He only asked River Ward to investigate in order to give the public an explanation.

Out of curiosity, V couldn't help but wonder who had orchestrated this farce.

To attack Night City? Lucius Lane seems insignificant.

A personal vendetta? How did the perpetrator manage to hack into and control Dellaman's car? Did he possess enterprise-grade servers and computing power?

In short, V couldn't think of anyone who would kill Lucius Lane, because it wouldn't shake Night City at all.

Are you here for me?

V shook his head.

To reiterate, V has no enemies in human society because she killed them all long ago.

The rest are all friends, and even if a friend doesn't want to be friends, they only have the option of being friends.

V was thinking when Misty suddenly spoke up.

"V, I've done a divination for you, would you like to hear it?"

By the way, if common sense can't provide the answer, then there's always something beyond common sense. Although Misty's business is bad, it's just that she doesn't understand marketing. In fact, most of her divinations are quite accurate, but they're too esoteric for most people to understand.

V couldn't understand it either, but she became interested and couldn't help but want to listen.

"Tell me."

Misty was very confident in her profession and presented a divination card layout in front of everyone.

There are still three cards: Death (reversed), The Tower (upright), and Judgment (reversed).

“The upper levels, lurking unknown dangers.” Misty picked up the Reversed Death card. The card depicted an upside-down skeleton knight riding a white horse past a prostrate pope, the five-petaled rose on the black banner withered, the dawn in the sky swallowed by dark clouds, and even the crown floating in the river was rusty.

Misty began her analysis: "The reversed Death reveals the repressed power of demise, the structural collapse beneath the calm surface. The Pope symbolizes the decaying old order, and the rusted crown at the bottom of the river indicates that it is continuing in a more covert way. Together, they represent a neglected crisis that is quietly spreading through 'inertial compromise.' V, be careful, because the 'trap disguised as safety' has already been quietly completed."

V nodded, and everyone else nodded as well.

“Middle level, the breaking point of fate.” Misty picked up the Tower card, in which lightning tore apart the crown-shaped tower top, and the two fell from the burning tower, golden sparks piercing the night like a rain of divine punishment.

"Inheriting the hidden dangers of the reversed Death card, the accumulated crisis will eventually break through the critical point. The tower signifies an irresistible subversive energy, while the two falling figures represent the simultaneous collapse of the 'cognitive self' and the 'social self,' and the lightning is the forced calibration of the cosmic will. This card declares: You are standing on the ruins of false security, and a major choice is inevitable."

V nodded again, and everyone else nodded as well.

“Lower level, the choice of the three selves.” Misty picked up the [Reversed Judgment] card. The card depicted a cloud angel holding a horn, but the horn was facing downwards. The ground was a cemetery with countless coffins. One of the coffins was open, and the corpse inside, who should have been dead, had come back to life, facing away from the light. A cross floated between the two, and because it was reversed, it looked like an upside-down anchor.

"The reversed Judgment reveals the obstruction to spiritual awakening. The id is the person in the coffin; your physical body senses danger but refuses the call. The ego is the unopened coffin; your rational judgment is frozen by fear. The other ego is the reversed trumpet; free will is imposing a 'safe illusion' on you. This card questions: When angelic revelation is distorted by gravity, do you dare to break through collective hypnosis and listen to the instinctive knocking from within the coffin?"

Misty began the final interpretation of the energy loop of the card spread: "Death reversed to the Tower upright, the delayed death is reborn in a more violent way - the price of escape is exponential disaster."

"From the tower to the judgment, after the collapse of the old personality structure, the three selves struggle in the mental ruins—the essence of the choice is to kill a version of yourself."

"Judgment reverses to death, and unfinished awakening will lead to a cycle of crisis—the answer lies in the abyss where the horn has not yet reached."

There was complete silence until Johnny uttered an "Oh."

Roger glanced sideways: "You spoke up? You understood?"

Johnny shrugged: "It doesn't matter if I understand or not, as long as V understands."

Everyone looked at V, who remained silent for a moment.

I could never understand that!

Her lips twitched a few times as she asked Misty, "This hand doesn't sound too good?"

Misty shook her head: "It's not bad."

V breathed a sigh of relief, and everyone else breathed a sigh of relief too.

Then Misty continued, "It's very bad, extremely bad, the kind of bad where you could die without a burial place if you're not careful."

V: "..."

Everyone: "..."

"Hahaha!" Jack laughed, casually scrambling the cards and saying, "These are all lies, don't believe them."

"Yeah, yeah, you can't trust them."

"Misty is really good at her job. She created a great atmosphere. I'll get a few of my girlfriends to support you later."

Misty smiled: "Thank you so much. My lousy shop only had three customers last month, one of whom was a delivery guy who delivered pizza to the wrong address."

Everyone burst into laughter, but V didn't.

Johnny frowned: "V, you don't really believe that, do you?"

“No, but Misty’s cards gave me a heads-up.” V picked up the Reversed Death card. “A lurking, unknown danger, right? I think I know who’s behind this.”

"who is it?"

Since V has no enemies in human society, her enemies can only come from outside of humanity.

"After returning to Earth, I need to assemble the security team and cyber experts from Arasaka 2077 and head to the Delaman headquarters."

"What are you going for?"

V curled the corners of his mouth: "Beat it up."

Chapter 78 Cybernetic Transformers vs. Taxi

Night City.

Heywoodley Park.

The Delaman headquarters on Haiyan Street.

In the reception hall, a customer came to file a complaint, and the AI ​​customer service on the large screen was handling the dispute using an anthropomorphic image of a bald man.

"You just wait for your lawyer's letter!" the male customer in overalls yelled at the AI ​​customer service. "I'll have my lawyers sue you into bankruptcy!"

The AI ​​customer service representative was very polite: "Thank you for acknowledging my work. Could you please give me the lawyer's contact information? I'd like to personally offer him a bribe—no, I mean, express my gratitude."

"Damn it!" the man waved his hand angrily. "Are you fucking short-circuited?!"

He wanted to curse again, but a hand patted him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, could I cut in line?"

"Screw you, the only place I can get penetrated is my asshole!"

The man turned around angrily, only to see an extremely familiar face.

"VVVVVVVV..." The overalls stammered, barely managing to hold back his stammers, "President V!!! Oh my god, I've seen President V in person!"

V asked in confusion, "What? Is there still a dead CEO V in Night City?"

Overalls panicked: "No, no, no, that's not what I meant, President V, you'll definitely live to be a hundred!"

"Thank you for your kind words. But the theoretical lifespan of humans is 170 years now. If I try my best, I should be able to live to 120."

"Look at my mouth!" The overalls slapped himself in the face and changed his tune, "President V, may you always be healthy!"

Thank you, and I wish you good health.

The overalls were incredibly excited, trembling like a fish just pulled from the water.

V smiled and pointed to the customer service desk. The man suddenly realized what she meant, stepped aside, and said repeatedly, "Go ahead and insert it. I was born to be inserted by you."

The famous V's lips twitched twice, but he still cut in line for the man...

Overalls originally wanted to stay and see what V was up to, but two employees of Arasaka 2077 politely asked him to leave.

"I'm sorry, President V's conversation involves classified information. Please evacuate under the guidance of our personnel."

Damn, let's see what happened now!

The man had intended to say that, but as soon as he stepped out of the Delaman headquarters, he saw more than 20 armed personnel carriers, 4 individual combat mechs, and more than 500 armed security guards gathered on Seagull Street. He felt that cooperating with President V was the inherent responsibility and obligation of every Night City resident.

The overalls slipped away along the wall without hesitation, but he stopped halfway and whispered, "Hey, whatever you're up to, make sure you protect President V if a fight breaks out!"

The security guard was taken aback, then gave him a thumbs up: "Don't worry about it, even if we all die, we won't let President V lose a single hair!"

The man chuckled and continued his escape.

Inside the Delaman headquarters, V tapped on the reception desk.

"Old De, how have you been?"

The customer service AI replied in a monotonous tone: "Welcome, sir or madam. What service do you require?"

"What's wrong, Old De? Don't you recognize me?"

The customer service AI remained unresponsive: "You are speaking to a subroutine of the Dramman network. My computing power is quite limited. Could you please specify your car accident report number?"

“Uh…” V thought for a moment: “77111101096.”

The customer service AI beeped a few times before replying, "No relevant car accident report was found. Please enter the number again to ensure it is correct."

“3, just one 3.” V made a little joke about the car accident report number from his previous life. After laughing, he got down to business: “I’ll only count to 3 seconds. If the real Delaman doesn’t show up after 3 seconds, then the Delaman Taxi Company will become history starting tomorrow.”

The customer service AI froze for a second, went black, and then lit up again.

Although it still resembles the bald man, it is now incredibly lifelike, just like a real person.

"V, I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting. I was just performing a system self-check and was unable to attend to you."

"What were the results of the self-test?" V asked.

"All processes are running well; I'm healthy enough to kill a cow."

“Is that so?” V sneered. “But the one who died by your hand wasn’t a cow, but Lucius Lane, the mayor of Night City!”

Delaman replied in a somber tone, "I'm sorry."

V awaits the next question: "And then?"

"I will take responsibility for this accident and am willing to pay all compensation."

"You killed the mayor of Night City, and now you want to settle it with money?"

Dellaman's reply was neither humble nor arrogant: "That's right, according to the law."