Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 933. Paradox
The AI's reminder made Karl stop in his tracks instantly.

Carl didn't sense any scanning or data intrusion, but he took the AI's words seriously.

"Can you locate the scanning source?"

He deftly pulled out the AI ​​chip from his phone and connected it to his neural port—a stream of cold data immediately flowed down his spine, and the AI's consciousness had entered his body.

Without the core source code and instructions of this AI, Karl would never have allowed the AI ​​to enter his body. After gaining control, Karl still had the thought that it might get out of control, but he had to admit that as long as they could get along stably, AI was indeed the best partner for humans, and he was gradually getting used to using it.

After being connected to Karl's body, the AI ​​quickly completed the calculations by mobilizing computing power.

"Based on the signal characteristics, there is an 84.6% probability that the scanning source is from the target vehicle."

"The target vehicle?"

Sure enough, the other party couldn't have left the car unattended; they must have something to rely on.

Can it block interference?

"The scanning method used by the target is the same as my underlying protocol, but its hardware has a performance bottleneck, resulting in extremely unstable signals. As long as you perform deep access, you can achieve complete shielding."

Deep access, in other words, is a single-wire connection where data is transmitted over?
"Can you estimate the other party's scanning frequency?"

"Please wait."

The AI ​​fell silent briefly, and after half a minute, it responded: "The scanning interval is ten seconds. The next scan will begin in four seconds."

"understood."

Karl's eyes sharpened, and he waited quietly for four seconds. Just as the AI's scan finished, he moved with lightning speed.

His figure swept across the open space, moving from start to stop in the blink of an eye. The next second after the scan ended, he was already quietly standing next to the black vehicle.

One of the doors of the black vehicle was open, and a data recording device was faintly lit. The person Carl had seen on the surveillance footage earlier had copied a data file before leaving, and the records were still intact inside.

Karl popped out a section of single-molecule wire, completing the connection.

With the help of AI, Carl completed the scanning and shielding the device the moment he connected, and then quickly browsed through the data records.

With the help of Carl's specially made monomolecular line, which was unparalleled in the world for data transmission, Carl quickly found the data he wanted. Not only that, he also saw a series of data from other people.

That was detailed data that even Carl couldn't find by looking through the NCPD.

Photos, medical records, even brain scans, biological casts, neural remodeling, and all the most core and secret parts of a 'human being' are laid bare before Karl's eyes, leaving him nowhere to hide.

The level of detail in this data is chilling; even a complete dissection of a person would likely not yield such meticulous information.

Carl quickly browsed through the list, his gaze soon drawn to a neural map marked in blue. He clicked on the details, and the sight before him made him raise an eyebrow slightly—

That turned out to be a diagram of newly formed neural connections.

As he perused the historical records, a clear evolutionary process emerged: these blue areas were initially just scattered red dots in the hippocampus, but under external intervention, they expanded like a spreading colony, eventually covering and reconstructing the original neural pathways.

Those red dots are physiological imprints of primal memories; while the invading blue represents a forced, systematic overwriting of memories.

Carl instantly understood why Jefferson-Perales was experiencing memory confusion. It was far more serious than simple 'amnesia'—as they later confirmed, someone had indeed tampered with his brain, not only erasing old memories but also systematically implanting new ones, intending to fundamentally transform him into someone else.

As Karl stared at the blue image on the screen that was constantly eroding and covering Jefferson Perales's brain, his scalp didn't tingle, but his expression became serious.

It must be said that it is truly remarkable that Mr. Jefferson, under such circumstances, would still risk everything to find Carl out of love for his daughter Zechi. Given the extent of his corruption, it is already quite incredible that he can still remember his daughter.

However, a closer look at these neural connection diagrams reveals that the situation is not as hopeless as it seems.

At least, all the altered paths were clearly marked in blue, which means that although he could not help Mr. Jefferson regain his lost memories, Carl was confident that he could stop the subsequent erosion and save him from the fate of being completely transformed.

That's the method.
Karl realized something.

He said it felt strangely familiar.

Isn't this just like the black wall eroding things?

He personally assisted Song Zhaomei in fighting against and clearing away the erosion of the Black Wall, gaining a deep understanding of the way that foreign consciousness invaded during the process.

The blue area in Jefferson-Perales' brain recording, with its erosion path and neural overwriting pattern, is almost identical to what he saw in Song Zhaomei, as if it came from the same technical template.

No, it shouldn't be said that it comes from a technical template, but rather that it is exactly the same.

黑墙
AI.

Was any AI from the other side of the black wall involved in this?
It turned out to be the case.

In this way, all the contradictions were explained, and everything made sense.

Why is it that the organization capable of targeting mayoral candidates and operating with such secrecy has such unprofessional and inefficient personnel (SSI)? And why is its brain-modifying technology so sophisticated and covert?

Because the mastermind behind it is a roving AI.

It can infiltrate and manipulate things without anyone noticing because it is an invisible data ghost.

The reason its ranks are so poor is that truly capable and insightful humans either already realized the 'inhuman' nature of those above and chose to escape, or they were eliminated before they even realized the truth.

In the end, all that will remain are those ignorant and mediocre people who only work for money; they naturally will not, and are incapable of, pursuing anything 'outstanding'.

Thus, the situation reached a deadlock: the talented would notice and could only be corrupted, and once corrupted, they would become like Song Zhaomei later, unable to even carry out basic tasks.

If they don't erode the truth, they've already figured it out or are about to figure it out, so they can't keep them either. In the end, they can only hire some incompetent people, but those incompetent people who are safe and harmless are just not up to the task—they're unreliable and can't fill the gap.

So this is another recruitment paradox.

Why don't you have capable subordinates? Because they'll notice things are going on. So how do you do your tasks? You can only let incompetent people do them. But what if incompetent people can't do them well? Recruit capable people to do them, but capable people will notice things, so you can't recruit them.
It's looping.

With a sigh, Carl completed the rapid download of the data.

The documented targets are far more than just Jefferson Perales; the list is unexpectedly long. This AI invasion is far larger and more ambitious than Karl had anticipated.

But at this moment, all of these were in Karl's hands.

(End of this chapter)