My cyberpsychosis is a task prompt

Chapter 232: The Murderer

[In-vehicle system detected as off/default]

"Ok?"

John had just opened the car door when he looked up and saw Gino, who had been sitting in the supercar, pop out again.

She gestured for him to follow, then shrank back and walked away into the distance in the light rain.

John acquiesced to the permission granted.

The Silver Rider 577's system was completely shut down—anything that could be connected to the internet was under Blacklight's surveillance, and no one could remotely operate this supercar.

Gino stood beside a pile of rubble.

In the desolate suburbs at night, only the red traffic lights on the sand dunes can be seen in the distance, and the nearest light source is an advertising billboard erected at the entrance of the cemetery.

John caught up and wiped the rain off his coat.

"Don't you want to go back? Want me to take you for a drive?"

Do you think using sisal rope was suicide?

Gino suddenly said something.

John was about to speak, but then he pursed his lips.

He actually had similar doubts.

Yes, Sisal Rope was a flawed idiot, but his reaction in the half-day before he died was too strange, like he was high on drugs and his mind was one-track.

"You think he was murdered?"

John shrugged and asked in return.

Gino looked rather unwell.

"What if I let you guess?"

"Bismarck".

John answered without hesitation.

The sisal rope became strange after receiving treatment with the Source Equation.

Only Bismarck had ever touched the medical system, and he was even provided with a newly installed network access module.

"He had too many opportunities to tamper with things."

John thought his guess was quite reasonable.

He even began to consider—if Gino wanted to cause trouble for Bismarck, should he retaliate through the Wanderers' League, or should he help him, and what kind of help should he provide…

But John noticed that Gino's expression remained serious.

She gazed at the dark wasteland until a cross-regional transport vehicle disappeared at the edge of the dunes before she spoke.

"Before we get to the source equation, he wanted to talk to me privately, do you remember?"

John nodded.

He assumed the sisal rope was just a way of explaining that the serum was from a wandering AI, but judging from Gino's tone, the two of them had talked about other things as well.

"Sisal rope asked me to help him with the firmware part of the [Black Box Plugin], which is the cyberspace weapon I just gave you."

Gino crouched behind a collapsed wall.

She wasn't so much hiding from the rain as she was trying to avoid something else, something that needed to be far away from all electronic devices and connected objects before she dared to speak.

The members of the Wanderers' Alliance each possess unique talents.

Besides basic network skills, hackers also have their own areas of expertise.

Take, for example, the members that John has been in contact with so far.

Baseball Bat lives in Whistle Community.

The area is home to a large number of immigrants, and he himself had been working on compiling and cracking the company's firewall since he was a child.

Tin foil is skilled in hacking.

She can assist the main attackers and also achieve multi-threaded kills in cyberspace.

Sisal rope is a public network specialty.

He browses media and municipal networks as easily as if he were at home.

Gino, on the other hand, tends to focus on firmware modification.

She is skilled at modifying hacking products, which can double the performance of network devices.

John was very impressed with this.

"So you asked me to help with the sisal rope?"

“Help him improve his newly developed weapon…”

Not just anyone in the Wanderers' Alliance can contact the serum.

Sisal rope is one of them.

He discovered that the serum was a roving AI, created a miniature black box program, and asked Gino to help solve the hardware problems.

Even a fool could figure it out.

Sisal rope is afraid of serum!
He lacked a sense of security and even needed to make a weapon to protect himself.

"So the serum disposed of the sisal rope?"

John didn't disbelieve, he just had too many questions.

"Can this thing harm the serum?"

"What do you think? That thing inside your body is a super program. It was used once when the sisal rope was used to escape in the subway station. Do you think it worked?"

John was silent for a moment. He was terrified when the sisal rope was held down in the subway station, and now, looking back, he probably thought it was someone sent by the Serum to arrest him.

He did release something at that moment, which even paralyzed John's prosthetic body instantly.

If the black light hadn't forcibly broken free of control, the sword rope would have succeeded.

More details came to mind.

John finally understood why Gino and Sisal Rope were so terrified of the serum.

It turned out that the two men were secretly wary of their boss and were caught red-handed.

Gino noticed that John hadn't spoken for a long time and asked.

"What are you thinking?"

"The serum sent you two to the Source Equation with me, did they want you to die there?"

"..."

Gino squatted on the ground with a furrowed brow, and after a moment rubbed his shoulders, which were soaked by the drizzle.

John burst out laughing the next second.

"Heh, I don't think it was the serum that did it. Think about it, if she... sorry, it wanted to silence us, it could have just taken action when the three of us were sitting together, and none of us would have escaped! Isn't the ability of the roaming AI pretty amazing? If the Japanese airship was also taken down by the serum, it could have just used similar methods to kill us in an accident, and no one would care about the lives of a few fringe travelers."

Gino seemed to have been persuaded by John.

She hesitated.

Seeing this, John sighed and reached out to help her up.

"Bismarck, serum, it's all just our guesswork. If we have to say something..."

A flicker of hesitation crossed John's eyes.

"I might have killed him with the sisal rope."

"Ha, what a load of nonsense."

"uh-huh."

John draped his coat over Gino's shoulders and pulled her toward the car.

“Bismarck told me to choose someone to copy the key. If I chose Sisal, he wouldn’t have time to go to that damned lab.”

"...This is ridiculous! Who knows what will happen?"

Gino, on the other hand, comforted him.

John just smiled and looked at the red traffic light on the horizon.

"Yeah, who knows?"

The Silver Knight 577 started with a slight tremor, its engine roaring as it sped towards the city center's shimmering fog with an exhilarating sonic boom.

No accidents occurred on the return trip.

Eden City - Borago Club

John turned off the engine in the corner of the basement, saying this just before Gino left.

"When the serum contacts me, I will ask it in person whether the death of the sisal rope is related to it."

"...Is this how it should be?"

"You said it yourself, it's just a string of thinking code. Let's be direct, it'll benefit both of us. I can't help you with things in the online world. I don't understand the relationships in the Wanderer's Alliance, and I've never known a boss, but based on my experience, it's always hard to get by if you're suspicious of your superiors."

John looked relaxed.

"Besides, I'm about to die, so there's no reason for it to lie to me. What's most important for you right now is to rest, go have a drink, and find some pretty girls to have some fun."

"uh-huh."

Gino leaned against the car door, hands on his hips, laughing.

"Hahaha, I'm going to visit every shop in the mall on the ground floor of the club. None of those 'talkative' little trolls will escape me today. Let me think... there's also Gloria's handcrafted cocktails. Honestly, since Angelica left, only her cocktails have suited my taste..."

She leaned against the car door, speaking with great enthusiasm, occasionally squinting her eyes as if savoring something.

John listened silently, one hand on the steering wheel.

He seemed to share in Gino's joy, and in the indulgent life he described, he was inspired with an even stronger desire to live.

“John, John? Hey, buddy.”

"Ok?"

John snapped out of his daze.

"Take good care of yourself, okay? Remember to let me know if you hear anything."

"Row."

"I'm serious, John, could you at least give me an address to collect the body?"

"..."

John saw seriousness on her face and paused for a moment before speaking.

"Then I don't want to live next to the sisal rope."

"Ha, no problem."

boom.

The magnetic door closes.

Only the gentle hum of the engine starting up remained inside the Silver Rider supercar.

(End of this chapter)