Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 939, Page 149: We Have a Common Language
Carl returned to Zalia Hughes's body.

Now that the NCPD has taken over the work he was doing, Carl, whose sleeves and clothes are now stained with blood, is preparing to take a slightly risky approach.

He plans to use NCPD's equipment to connect to Zalia Hughes.

Many cybernetic psychopaths have prosthetic bodies equipped with the ability to record Mewtwo, but this is not a built-in feature of the prosthetic body itself. Rather, it is a function secretly installed by the forces or companies that gave them the prosthetic body in order to ensure the testing effectiveness of the prosthetic body.

Carl is now wondering if Zalia Hughes might also have this device.

His first encounter with this type of person was with James Norris, a retired lieutenant in the New United States Armed Forces. Carl had taken on Blanca's job and, along with Jack and Oliver, took care of him.

Later, David told me that when they dealt with that lieutenant, the prosthetic body in the lieutenant's body completed the recording, and the process was leaked. It was then made into Mewtwo by Mewtwo's director, JK. That Mewtwo even topped the Night City underground black Mewtwo sales chart for a long time, and its sales efficiency was even several times higher than the publicly known number one Mewtwo.

If Zalia Hughes is a stray AI behind the scenes, and if that AI wants to know the outcome, then it's within her prosthetic body.
found it.

The NCPD device in Carl's hand lit up.

It detected the Super Dream recording program.

This kind of program is not hard to find because it needs to ensure the audience's all-round experience and needs to connect a series of senses such as sight and smell. You just need to follow the clues to find it. Carl just hadn't thought of it before.

With fewer opportunities to handle corpses, there is indeed a deficiency in this area.

Although NCPD personnel will definitely notice it when they come to inspect later, it might be handled and erased at that time.

Carl didn't distrust the NCPD; he was just more wary of the ability of the roaming AIs, since they were indeed experts in that area.

"Should I handle this, Mr. Carl?"

The NCPD, whose equipment had been borrowed, watched as the equipment lit up and asked Carl a question.

The bloodied corpse on the ground, Zalia-Hughes, was found to have a Mewtwo record located at the junction of the jaw and the back of the head, next to the temporomandibular joint. This location ensures that even if a person is shot in the head, the Mewtwo record can still be preserved.

Looking at Zalia Hughes's mangled, almost unrecognizable corpse, the NCPD, out of respect for Mr. Carl, felt it might be his turn to remove the Mewtwo Record Chip from the viscous flesh.

“Don’t worry.” Carl couldn’t help but laugh. “I’ve come up from the streets myself, after all.”

He felt that the NCPD was being a little too respectful to him, treating him like a porcelain doll, afraid that he would get hurt, and wishing they could do everything for him.

Not only the NCPD, but even his own subordinates have recently shown this tendency, which makes him somewhat helpless.

In Night City now, those who fear him are terrified, like the Whirlpool Gang, who run away at the mere mention of his name. Meanwhile, those who aren't afraid of him are incredibly worried about him, almost forgetting his abilities. This contrast is quite strange, to be honest.

In Carl's view, no one in this world is irreplaceable.

He never considered himself to be unique.

Because things are different now. Even without 'KK,' Night City still has Mr. Johnson, and people like Jefferson Peralres are fighting to change the city; and looking at the world, there is Lai Xuan brewing a huge transformation.

The world is not created by one person, but changed and advanced by a group of like-minded people.

Carl saw himself as merely a facilitator and fellow traveler in this process, never considering himself a savior.

Because Mr. Johnson and his group were there, and Sei-nobu and his group were there. Even without Karl, as long as the idea of ​​pursuing change is not completely stifled, there will always be people who step forward.

As long as that spark hasn't been extinguished, the times will never stop. But the people at the NCPD clearly don't think that way.

In response to Carl's words of "don't worry", the NCPD shook his head: "In case there is a possible virus in her chip, it might invade your body in reverse, Mr. Carl. Let me do it. I have a lot of experience in removing Mewtwo's recording chip."

"Then we absolutely cannot let you take any risks."

Karl had already reached out and probed into the flesh.

"After all, you're very important; you're experienced in this area, while I..."

Karl deftly retrieved the chip and inserted it into the reading device before the NCPD could react, completing the connection: "I have some contingency plans on my end, so if anything goes wrong, you can take a look."

—Experienced people should stay in a safe place to act as 'insurance' so that they can see clearly if there is a problem. We can't let a novice with backup plans do the preventative work, can we?
You need an instructor to watch you when you learn to drive.

After inserting the chip and checking the SuperDream chip, the AI ​​connected to Carl issued a warning almost instantly.

"Attempted intrusion detected by stored content, blocked. Do you want to eradicate it?"

'So there really was something inside. Good thing I came.'

Carl's mind raced, and he asked the AI, "Can you detect what content is being attempted to be hacked?"

"In addition to the Mewtwo record data stored internally, there is an independent information stream attached."

'The information...it's not a virus?'

Carl thought for a moment and asked the AI, "Is there any potential danger in this kind of information in your records?"

"The signal characteristics are highly similar to my underlying protocol."

The AI ​​promptly responded: "It's stored information. According to analysis, it's not dangerous; it's a message."

Are they based on the same underlying protocol?

Doesn't that mean this is information left behind by a wandering AI?
Carl understood almost immediately who the message was for.

Few people are qualified to have AI leave comments, and it's clear that you, who have already participated, are qualified.

This is not arrogance, but a reasonable speculation.

So, did the Flow AI anticipate that it would discover various traces during its calculations, and therefore leave messages for itself in advance?

Aren't you worried about damaging the chip when you fire the gun, or do you think the probability of chip damage is low?
After a moment's thought, Karl gave the AI ​​a clear instruction:

"Display the information on external devices and prevent it from accessing my nervous system in any form."

"Instruction executed".

The next second, a line of clear Chinese characters appeared on the screen of the reading device:

"Mayor, you are the mayor. We can cooperate. I hope you will refrain from further offensive investigations. We have common ground."

(End of this chapter)