Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 430 Framework [7K]

Relic failure

Rebecca's mind was filled with a black wall of data scrolling like cracks in the wall. She felt as if someone was drilling inside her head, and even Johnny Silverhand in the back seat was looking down at his own hands in disbelief...

"Hold!"

Johnny's face was filled with panic. In the lonely world of Rebecca's consciousness, the only person Johnny could talk to was this little girl. Now, suddenly, a purple-haired girl appeared, and Johnny could even see her with his silver hand...

This is certainly bizarre.

"The lark..."

Rebecca found herself unable to move, and everything around her was frozen in place. She knew this was only a matter of moments for her brain.

Rebecca knew about Song Zhaomei, of course. As a veteran member of Rin's squad, she knew all about Song Zhaomei's exploits, her work for New America, and her eventual "death" by Rin.

Therefore, Rebecca's tone when she uttered the other person's name sounded like a curse.

The lark looked behind her. "You're in a lot of pain, so... for the sake of our conversation, I'm afraid we should let him get some sleep first."

Johnny panicked a little, "Rebecca!"

The lark, sitting in the passenger seat, simply tapped her hand, and saw Johnny disappear with a low, pained growl.

"Johnny!"

Rebecca then stared at the lark with resentment.

Rin had never told her that the Lark had this ability... How could she be able to invade other people's brains at any time?
In this case…

Wasn't the lark coming for her? Rebecca felt her chances of survival were already slim.

"Rin always has a kind of...unpleasant feeling when she looks at people."

Song Zhaomei's black pupils gleamed with an eerie red light. "You can die anytime I want, so how about we discuss a collaboration?"

As the lark spoke, Rebecca felt the throbbing pain in her head intensify; it was the other bird putting pressure on her!

"Hold!"

"What the hell do you want to talk about? Your new American master is about to die in Pacific Ocean, are you getting anxious? Are you scared?!"

"Don't even think about it, Song Zhaomei!"

Rebecca clutched her head, her expression one of extreme pain, her entire body flashing with red and black data blocks.

Song Zhaomei curled her lips into a smile. "Why do people who don't cherish life live so long? You're probably being stubborn because you don't know that Rin has fooled all of us, right?"

"Alright, let's make a simple deal: trade your life for someone else's. Isn't that easy? Anyway... weren't your orders to find that old bastard in New America?"

Rebecca prepared to resist with silence, but the lark's pressure on the brain was a form of torture entirely different from that on the body—

"Depend on!"

"Why...why don't you go find your agent friend in New America? Let me tell you straight, if she's fallen into Pacific Island—then forget about her! Nightingale!"

A strange smile appeared on Song Zhaomei's face.

"So naive...it doesn't seem like the kind of person who should exist in this wretched place."

Just as Rebecca was about to speak, Johnny's voice came out like that of a distorted recording device...

"That crazy bitch's data stream is weird! She's scanning our memories in its entirety!"

However, Johnny's voice was completely cut off before he could finish speaking.

"Your outdated rock star head is still pretty hard-headed... Does Rin know that his 'little girl' is about to be devoured by Relic?"

At this point, the lark's voice sounded like that of a vengeful spirit.

"None of them are good people. They only know how to make you work for them with unbelievable lies like promising to keep you alive!"

Rebecca's expression froze.

"Don't lie to the lark!"

The lark growled, "What foolish thing are you doing? Only you can save yourself!"

As Rebecca stared at the ferocious woman, her premonition of her brain being burned through grew stronger. She could only shut her mouth and try to see if there were any other ways to temporarily escape her predicament.

"Okay, okay... let's all calm down."

Rebecca felt that this new American hacker was becoming increasingly strange…

“Miles is just a pawn. The real people who want to make this happen are the company and the person behind you! Your life doesn’t matter at all… Do you understand?”

“Reed is just a loyal dog trained by New America. What do you expect him to do to Miles? Don’t be foolish!”

Rebecca gritted her teeth. She had absolutely no intelligence base... Without the guidance of the Dreamer, she could only assume that every word the Lark said was a lie.

But the problem is...

Am I really going to die here?

In her hot-blooded rage, Rebecca was able to withstand the pressure from the lark just a minute ago and say something like, "The lark can do whatever it wants to me..."

but.

Rebecca's survival instinct grew stronger under the torment of the brain-computer interface; she wanted to live.

Just like the moment the Relic chip was activated, she was terrified as she lay on the ground.

With no reliable information, Rebecca gritted her teeth and asked, "Why do you say that?"

The lark's figure flickered and appeared on the back seat behind Rebecca, its head sticking out between the two seats.

"Then I'll make it short..."

"I know all about the new US President Myers' location, hideout, safe house, etc.; you know what? This is exactly what Rin's plan is missing."

"He's looking for me."

Rebecca's face turned extremely ugly, and her expression began to shift between light and dark.

Emma had just sent her to find Miles, but the woman in front of her knew Miles's hiding place. Out of a mercenary instinct, Rebecca decided to temporarily suppress her hostility towards the Lark, find Miles first, and then notify the Dreamers…

However, the lark's eerie eyes were fixed on Rebecca.

"Rebecca, you're still thinking about how to carry out the company's orders, aren't you?"

"The company not only holds your life in its hands, but now it wants to make you a sinner in the war. Are you sure Miles will survive in the hands of the Dreamers?"

Rebecca was speechless for a moment.

The president of the new America is controlled by corporations, and even Rebecca, a dim-witted girl, knows this is a provocation against the nation…

Pira often tells himself stories from the War of Unification.

If the president of the new United States were kidnapped, wouldn't war be inevitable?

“Darling, things have changed a long time ago.”

“Your relic, your body, has become utterly worthless in the face of certain things. Think about it carefully. You came here following me and Li De—to put it another way, I actually knew you were following me. Rin didn't kill Slito; I was the one who killed him.”

"I deliberately kept him alive so that you would know what the truth is."

the truth?

Rebecca carefully recalled each scene, from Lin Yue sending her to Dogtown to track down the agents, to Emma's urgent phone call urging her to find Miles before Ghosthound and Dreamer... She knew nothing, yet she had to do all this.

The seed seemed to sprout rapidly in her heart, and Rebecca swayed for a moment.

Do you know why the internet went down?

Rebecca shook her head with a gloomy face after hearing the lark's question.

The lark smiled slightly, "I was controlled by the Ye family. The evidence is very clear. I can tell you anything you want to know... In fact, there has only been one person who has been behind this from beginning to end, and that is Rin."

There was silence.

Only the sound of data surging around me could be heard.

“You never know what they’re going to do, you’re just forced to act; for two years, Relic has made your physical condition worse and worse, and no one is taking responsibility.”

"Do you know how many people are around Miles? Without me, you'd be going to your death! Do you really think this is child's play?"

The barrage of questions left Rebecca speechless.

Even now, she feels that everything about it is strange…

The ruthless glint in the lark's eyes, a hint of malice at the plan's failure, was impossible to conceal.

“Your relic… the abnormality is too severe. If it had been a little earlier, there might have been a chance to save it.”

“Rebecca, when Lin Yue was trapped by the Black Wall, I remember there was a hacker in the same situation as me, right? She was also forced to become a vessel for the Black Wall. My neural matrix was given to someone else, but don’t you care at all about how Lin Yue recovered?”

"His situation is probably much more complicated than yours, isn't it?"

Rebecca gritted her teeth: "What exactly are you trying to say?"

"Rebecca, you are the test subject."

"Test subjects chosen through collusion between companies, subjects for a potentially impending ultimate surgical experiment..."

Rebecca growled, "Say that again, you fucking bastard!"

The lark was too adept at controlling the heat; she didn't follow Rebecca's lead, but instead asked softly, "So how did he promise you that?"

"Didn't you notice that your relic had never had any problems before? So why is it the day the new US president's plane crashed?"

"Rebecca, have you ever thought about this?"

The network outage and problems with my own relic seem too closely related.

The lark's greatest skill is not deception.

She excels at twisting.

The starting point for any intelligence is real, but... she completely distorted the purpose and motivation.

This led to Rebecca not being able to tell the difference at all.

Seeing that the time was right, Bailing gently waved her hand.

Rebecca's mind went to the upload status, accompanied by the lifting of the gorilla arm ban and a military technology logo appearing on the panel...

relic panel?

The lark asked softly, "Is it much better now?"

Rebecca gasped for breath, feeling a sudden sense of relief as if the pressure in her head had been released. She watched with lingering fear as the Relic error message disappeared.

"Rin's problem has never been solved. Your Relic is a product from beyond the Black Wall, so you are just an experiment. Isn't it clear to yourself that you can think about this clearly?"

This time, Rebecca didn't resort to silence.

"What do you want?"

The lark lowered its head and tapped its finger, as if operating something. "Hmm, let's take a look... Dreamer, Arasaka... Ghost Dog?"

The messages that had spread throughout Night City immediately echoed in Rebecca's mind.

First of all, Arasaka's act of surrounding the Badlands was undoubtedly a catastrophic signal to Rebecca, who was overly suspicious at the time.

The lark paused in her work. "War. That's all they want. You're just a bonus."

Then, the lark sneered, "Your information, Li De's information, we've all been sold to the Netherhound."

"The Dreamer can protect you, but how do you plan to get out of Dogtown?"

"Li De has me to help him, what about you?"

Rebecca: "Why? Why are you looking for me... Aren't you hindering Li De by doing this?"

The lark's hand gradually clenched into a fist. "Li De will make our plan fail. Our goal has never been war, but simply to live well, isn't it?"

The Joint Logistics Agency's intelligence experts consistently focused on Rebecca's intense will to survive.

This desire was already very clear when the lark scanned her memories.

"Rebecca, the program I just implanted in you has only one purpose: to help you improve your abilities. The next step is to prevent this war."

Rebecca's heart skipped a beat...

"How to do it?"

“New America can heal you, Rebecca. I was once pronounced dead... It was Miles who brought me back.”

“I’m busy fighting the hackers from Dogtown and the Dreamers right now, so you’ll have to be my legs and hands—I’ll help you, and we’ll find Miles all the way.”

Rebecca pondered for a moment.

Something seems off...

But soon, the panic in Rebecca's eyes disappeared, replaced by a forced calm.

"Okay, hacker from New America, I accept your protection."

The lark smiled slightly as Libe agreed, then lowered her head to continue operating the machine. "Hmm... it seems that the lady who called you earlier is not simple either."

"Do you know what the hounds of Dogtown do besides purging outsiders?"

Rebecca shook her head, indicating that she did not know.

"Hansen is cleaning up the Long Beach stockpile area that Emma once occupied... She gave up. The Dreamers have now not only blocked the way into Night City, but also, together with Arasaka, blocked Dogtown!"

"Oh shit!"

"You need to reconsider. The Dreamer might not protect you, and Dogtown has already been abandoned by that woman..."

Rebecca's eyes widened in surprise.

"what?!"

"Don't believe me...?"

Seeing Rebecca's suspicious expression, Lark simply showed her the CCTV footage from the Long Beach stockpile.

The hound encountered almost no resistance and simply charged into the Long Beach stockpile, where it cleared out any remaining animal gangs!
"Damn it!" Rebecca's eyes immediately turned ferocious.

The lark's expression immediately became more satisfied as it watched Rebecca curse.

Rebecca's lack of information allowed the Nightingale, a master of information manipulation, to take advantage of her vulnerability.

"so--"

The lark seemed to have finished what it was doing and was now waiting for news from Rebecca.

If Rebecca were more sensible, the matter would become clearer and simpler. Li De's side is not safe; he could become uncontrollable again at any time for his loyalty to the new America.

"I just want to know how the Ye family is controlling you?"

Rebecca didn't know how the lark would present this evidence, so she could only tentatively mention it.

Even though the lark didn't answer, Rebecca had made her choice.

betray?

Or... are we just copying the same tricks and fooling each other?
No one knows what this "silly" girl is thinking.

"Rin has completely destroyed the Ye family's data. I'm sending you my evidence and conversation logs from cyberspace now."

"The Night Clan thought they had reached a cooperation agreement with Rin... but look at how he communicated with the Night Clan?"

"Rin... is no longer the Rin she used to be."

When the lark told Rebecca about Rin's miraculous existence in cyberspace, her mouth gaped open.

"This is AI... not some human."

"You invest so much emotion in a program, do you think it will appreciate it?"

"The Night Clan helped Rin manipulate evidence, and now they're trying to silence him. I almost fell for their trick too. Even if you don't want to betray them, you could at least have prevented the war from starting. New America can give you a chance to get treatment. Who do you think suffered the loss?"

Rebecca quickly shook her head.

"Okay...uh, I understand."

Everyone in the world has their own strong purpose, and the lark is no exception.

It was understandable that the project was ruined, but she couldn't let Miles die because she needed to know if the new America could truly utilize the Relic chip.

Rebecca is now her only lifeline, and only she can be.

Extracting the relic technology from this girl is currently the best solution.

The lark weaves lies using three dimensions: intelligence trading, consciousness healing, and crisis transfer, leaving Rebecca "completely unable to defend herself."

"Now…"

Rebecca asked tentatively, seemingly considering what to do now.

The lark quickly composed herself.

“I know a way to sneak into Dog Town from Taiping Island. Li De came in through that way... We have to get to Taiping Island before him.”

"The longer it drags on, the more dangerous it becomes for Miles."

As for what will happen if Miles falls into the hands of the Lark...

The lark whispered, "She has a monitoring program on her, which has become Rin's backdoor program. I have a cracking program here."

"She will have a good talk with us after we find her."

moment!

Rebecca's vehicle bounced off the ground and immediately crashed.

She had been stunned for a moment, but quickly gripped the steering wheel, watching the car surge forward.

"Don't be afraid on the right, just charge forward!"

At that moment, the lark canceled its intrusion into Relic. Rebecca looked at the lark's communication bar in the upper left corner of her prosthetic eye and quickly moved in the direction the lark was pointing.

When they reached the Long Beach stockpile, the vehicle was riddled with bullet holes. If it weren't for the Lark's several precise instructions, Rebecca would have been sent to heaven by the Ghost Hound mech's machine gun!
Rebecca, after getting out of the car, huffed and puffed as she squeezed through a small hole piled with construction waste on the side of the Peizhuo Petrochemical Stadium…

As the alarms from the Ghost Hounds behind her grew fainter, Rebecca, covered in sweat and with soot and abrasions on her face, finally let out a heavy sigh and slumped to the ground.

[Incoming caller: Rin]

Rebecca reacted as if she had immediately panicked.

At this moment, the lark in the channel snorted coldly, "Take the call and see if what I said is right!"

Rebecca swallowed hard and quickly answered the call.

"Are you okay?"

Lin Yue looked anxious, but he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Rebecca answer the phone.

“I…uh, I’m fine, but I didn’t keep up with the New America agents.”

Lin Yue shook his head on the other end. "It doesn't matter anymore. Get out of Dogtown, find the people on that plane, and your condition can be cured."

Rebecca's expression immediately froze.

At this moment, the lark's malicious laughter rang out again, as if to say something like, "See, I was right..."

"Really?"

Lin Yue nodded emphatically.

“Sasha and the others are tracking this guy by traffic, so… they'll find him soon. Get out of Pacifica as soon as possible. I have a route here; once you're out, help them chase Miles—”

"no need!"

Rebecca immediately refused.

Lin Yue's expression immediately turned suspicious.

Rebecca stammered, "I...I found a secret passage from before, and I came out quickly. Have you found the people on the plane?"

The lark quickly added, "Ask him why he would do something as risky as shooting down the president's plane?"

Rebecca: "Seriously... is that really Miles? Why all this fuss?"

Lin Yue sighed and said, "The president of the new America, this is the only way to save you using the technology of the new America."

This…

After hearing what the lark said, this reason seemed rather far-fetched.

The lark thought that no one with a sound mind would believe that.

However, a faint smile appeared on Rebecca's lips—

Rebecca wanted to show shock, but found she couldn't seem to...

"Uh, okay."

"Okay, I'll do it as soon as possible."

Rebecca hung up the phone as if fleeing, leaving only herself gasping for breath.

"Why did you do this... Rin?"

She murmured, as if she couldn't accept reality.

When the lark's voice rang out, Rebecca's brows furrowed involuntarily, and she listened expressionlessly to what nonsense the lark was about to spout.

"How about it?"

"We need to hurry, while there's still time... Miles won't be found anytime soon. The vanguard of the Ghost Hounds has already rushed out of Dogtown and started fighting the Dreamers. It's a chaotic scene."

"There's a chance!"

Rebecca gritted her teeth and quickly got up, ignoring the scrapes on her body and hurried forward.

These are all abandoned underground infrastructure facilities from former high-rise buildings.

The terrain was riddled with broken bridges, and the dilapidated steel frames nearly caused Rebecca to fall into the bottomless abyss several times…

Even so, Rebecca didn't utter a single complaint; her eyes were filled only with a burning desire, like sparkling flames.

A manhole in front of a broken wall in Dogtown.

As the manhole cover was lifted.

As soon as Rebecca emerged, she heard a dense barrage of gunfire, followed closely by air raid sirens echoing throughout Night City…

"in front of!"

I glanced at the map inside the prosthetic eye.

Rebecca gritted her teeth, hesitating whether to crawl into the fierce armed conflict that was breaking out in the bunker ahead, her iron gun loaded.

Are you going to shoot your own people?

Rebecca didn't know...

Fortunately, the lark quickly provided the information.

"Don't go forward, everyone on the plane has already gotten out... Miles brought quite a few people with him, not all of them died."

Rebecca gave a cold laugh.

"Judging from what you're saying, it seems you have a lot of issues with Miles? And you still want to save her? You don't mean you want me to kill her, do you?"

The lark showed no sign of panic.

"Hmph, you'll know how disgusting she is once you've done her dirty work for a few years, but the worst part is she can't die—"

Rebecca quickly slipped under the side overpass and disappeared beneath the complex architecture of Taiping Island...

As dusk fell, wisps of black smoke made the area even darker.

……

"I didn't expect Miles to be so well-hidden. What kind of technology could you possibly have that you couldn't catch?"

Emma rushed over to ask what was wrong after Lin Yue hung up the phone.

Lin Yue stood in the network monitoring room, watching the flowing data, his brows furrowed slightly, his expression shifting between light and shadow.

"Rebecca has been found by the lark."

"I…"

Emma gently placed her hand on Lin Yue's chest. "Hey! Look at my darling."

Lin Yue's flustered eyes met Emma's—

Emma looked quietly into Lin Yue's eyes, her brows furrowing slightly, a hint of reproach mixed with a faint smile.

"This is the first time I've seen you so flustered. Wasn't it intentional that the lark found her? You think the lark has a way of finding Miles, don't you…?"

"As for that little girl, she just looks stupid."

Lin Yue still didn't feel any improvement.

It seemed too cruel to let Rebecca face all of this alone; in Lin Yue's heart, she shouldn't have to go through all of this.

“That’s right, Rin…”

V walked slowly forward from behind, arms crossed.

Emma withdrew her hand.

"You underestimated the girl's trust in you."

V sighed, "She's probably thinking... that you'd be willing to shoot the new US president's car down from the sky just to save her."

Emma covered her mouth and smiled.

"Don't worry, don't rush to show your face. You should know that once you go out, the companies will immediately turn their attention to us and Arasaka."

"It's not too late to take action once we have a clue."

V still found it somewhat unbelievable.

"It's hard to believe that you're the one who made the internet like this. Those companies have gone crazy, and the Ye family... is almost completely wiped out."

"The upper management is laying off employees via email..."

Emma added, "So stop randomly logging onto the internet. Leave it to Brandon, and that guy named... Ultraman?"

Lin Yue clasped his hands together in front of his nose and looked at the data.

"As long as Miles stays in Night City, once we've secured our rights..."

The whole plan is now very clear:

By shooting down the Night Clan's plane first, we can prevent the Night Clan and the Nightingale from conspiring together, thus seizing control of the event and delaying the Night Clan's plot.

As for letting Miles' plane crash in Taipingzhou, it was to prevent Miles from falling into Dogtown, so that Arasaka and the Dreamers could surround the entire Taipingzhou and achieve the effect of "indirectly imprisoning" Miles.

Rebecca can easily send Miles away once she finds her... All Lin Yue needs to do is be wary of the lark suddenly killing Miles.

However, if Miles does not offer the corresponding conditions, Arakasaka and the Dreamers are already prepared for war.

As for the end…

Hansen's failure has enraged him, and he's now storming out of Dogtown to try and snatch someone away. New America is determined to hold him accountable. The so-called alliance will cease to exist, Dogtown's position will be weakened once again, and Emma will gain control of the situation.

"Lai Xuan is right..."

"Offense is your style, Rin."

V said softly, his eyes calm.

……

……

(End of this chapter)