My cyberpsychosis is a task prompt

Chapter 254: Serum Call

[Eden City - 013 Dani Street]

Silver Knight 577 slowly rotates on the maintenance platform in the garage, with its robotic arm performing vehicle evaluation and routine maintenance.

Borago Club collects customers' vehicle information and promotes membership packages in a similar way, but John had already hacked into the apartment system with Blacklight.

His user profile is still stuck in the previous version.

John returned to the familiar entrance hall.

A black and gold soundproof carpet, sharply angled walls, and an AI butler who always wears a smile.

"Welcome home..."

"Let me have some peace and quiet."

John gently pressed his palm down.

The apartment system controlled by Blacklight directly blocked the broadcast channel.

The AI ​​butler watched John arrive at the elevator without making a sound, which seemed extremely eerie.

You can block out the nonsense, but you can't block out the flavor.

The public areas have been re-scented with new air fresheners.

Inside the elevator car, an advertisement began promoting Gaia Cells, a new product that could improve anxiety. The advertisement claimed that by simply waving one's hand, the cost would be deducted from a Borago member's account, and the new aromatherapy would travel through the ventilation system directly into the room, with results visible within two minutes.

In the cyber age, the most abundant substance in the air is commercial advertising.

Ding--

The elevator car doors open.

A package awaiting signature was placed at the door.

John Ray glanced around casually, then immediately stopped, reaching for his weapon at his waist. His prosthetic eye flashed, and he had already connected to the apartment's surveillance system via black light.

He has a delivery route at his apartment on Dani Street.

The "valuable items" that the Black Spider digs up in the landfill will be delivered to you by the Captain. These items may include windfall gains that can be used to collect unclaimed funds or prosthetic data fragments used to make special inhibitors.

However, the black light lurks within the apartment system, so packages do not require signatures or scanning.

The package came from someone else, but what really made John nervous was that the box had a large "Internet Surveillance Office" logo printed on it.

Are the state troopers messing with them again?
John carefully inspected the interior of the apartment with his gun, then switched to the surveillance system inside and outside the building to observe the surrounding area.

No hovercars descended from the sky.

There were no ground vehicles to surround and intercept them.

No high-ranking soldiers broke in through the windows!

"These jerks have really given me a nightmare."

John muttered a curse.

There was nothing wrong with the package.

A standard electronic item sealed case, featuring impact-resistant hardened plastic and custom internal support.

It didn't contain a bomb or a locating device, but rather a "circular helmet" with a carbon fiber sheen.

[Item: Virtual Headband - Morps MS-8]

Manufacturer: Morps

[Description: Morps 8th Generation Smart Headband, featuring triple immersion modes, 0.5ms latency playback and deep encoding, IP68 waterproof and EMP electromagnetic barrier protection...]

John learned about this thing—after using the immersive equipment with Angelica to see the scenery, he also went to learn about rendering equipment himself.

Morps is a high-end brand.

Black market channels also have high demand for these products.

Who sent it?

The headband inside the box started flashing, and opening the box seemed to trigger some kind of scanning function.

next second.

[Unknown contact [unread message]]

Wear it.

John guessed the sender and was relieved that it had finally arrived. He just hadn't expected that the lifeline promised by the serum would be a media player.

He wasn't foolish enough to just put it on his head.

The opponent is a roaming AI; you don't have to be afraid, but don't treat them as good guys either.

John arrived at the studio, connected the headband to the terminal, and simultaneously scanned and accessed the device using black light while connecting to the player in the room.

"There is indeed a problem."

The built-in firewall of Morps did not trigger.

John didn't even need hacking knowledge; he knew from the feedback from Blacklight that someone had tampered with the headband before him.

The upgraded Blacklight is now more professional.

It brute-force overwrote the contents, but did not remove the backdoor or modify any code; it only left protective measures at some critical points.

John has the right to "stop at any time" if things don't go well.

He didn't rush to put it on his head. Instead, he organized the prosthetic materials the captain had sent and made several special inhibitors, placing them where he could easily reach them. Blacklight triggering would cause damage to the body.

Those burdens need to be counteracted with [special inhibitors].

John meant no harm; he was simply trying to protect himself.

After making thorough preparations.

He took a deep breath, lay down on the deep-sea chair in the tool room that had never been used since it was moved in, and officially activated the headband.

[Neural sensing synchronization in progress, rendering initialization, calibrating device parameters, server connection invalid, LAN reconnection request, no data source detected...]

John didn't insert any film.

Therefore, his consciousness was not fully immersed, but remained on the interface.

The headband did not detect a playable hypersensing chip.

The device only has one game installed: Cyber ​​Age.

John had just connected when he received an access signal, and not in the headband, but throughout the entire apartment, or rather, in the dark light lurking in the system, which detected an extremely strong signal.

It spanned half the city's local area network, casting its shadow across different lines, repeatedly jumping between them, before finally landing on the apartment server, connecting to the corresponding room number, and searching for the deep-sea diving equipment connected to the headband.

The serum has arrived.

A ripple spread through the cyberspace.

The mosaic noise converges into a familiar human silhouette—a middle-aged woman covered by a long-sleeved hood.

This reminded John of his experience at Silver Harbor, where their first meeting was also a conversation in cyberspace.

"I've got the project key you wanted, but what happened to the life-saving help? I don't even have a few days left to live!"

"The way out is in Cyber ​​Age."

"What do you mean? My brain is about to melt, and you still want me to play games?"

Yes, do you accept that?

"Do I even have a choice?!"

John was somewhat annoyed, but also helpless—even in cyberspace, he could see the symbols dancing on his wrist through the data outlines.

Those are all death threats.

[Mission: If I Were Given Three Days of Sight]

[Reward: EUROPHASARK [Neural Ark]]

"Fine, I guess I'm out of luck. I'll gamble my life on you, but if you want me to work for you, you have to tell me the truth. I have a lot of things I want to ask you!"

“John, from the perspective of equivalent exchange, I have no obligation to answer your question.”

"Then don't expect me to work honestly. I'm disconnecting now, smashing the headband and calling it a day!"

"Your emotions fluctuate greatly."

"Nonsense, it's not you who's going to die!"

“Then we can make another exchange. For every question I answer, you have to answer mine. If you give me a perfunctory answer, I will also withhold some information.”

The serum seems to have been waiting for this step.

John felt a chill run down his spine.

[Inquire about vacuum tubes. (Optional)]

[Inquire about the cause of death of the sisal rope. (Optional)]

[Abandon the deal. (Optional)]

"You definitely know about vacuum tubes! Who exactly are these people, and why are they targeting me! Don't tell me you don't know anything; they've already schemed against you. Even if you didn't know anything before, you would definitely investigate!"

Some intelligence might be difficult for human intermediaries trapped in a local area network, but it might be different for a mobile AI like Serum that has almost no restrictions.

It paused for a moment, not so much out of hesitation, but more like it was retrieving data from some source.

“The vacuum tube [VT] came from Pompeii.”

"That city that was destroyed by the roaming AI?"

"That's right, but not entirely accurate. It has simply disappeared from human-controlled maps. In reality, Pompeii has been active in cyberspace all these years. It's just that it's very far away in the data world. Even for the most experienced hackers, getting to Pompeii is not much easier than crossing the Black Wall."

According to the serum.

Vacuum tubes have a deep connection with Pompeii.

That city had very few living people; it was an Eden entirely belonging to AI.

"The vacuum tubes are for mobile AI to work on; I don't know their specific operating methods."

"A roaming AI...what does that have to do with me?"

John felt only exhaustion.

"This question is beyond my ability to answer. If you have the chance, you can ask them."

The serum interrupted John.

"Now it's my turn to ask a question: What are your thoughts on AI?"

(End of this chapter)