Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 432 Black Dream (Part 1) (Take a day off)
Evenly matched?

No… Miles always thought he had the victory in his grasp.

If she died, everything would be gone. The company in Pacific Island, Arasaka, Dogville, and everyone else wanted her to be alive—this was Miles's clearest understanding. She knew that all the White House's emergency plans were to avoid this war…

War is another synonym for interests, but it depends on which side initiates the war.

Clearly, Miles's next concern wasn't how to protect himself, or avoid falling into the company's hands or being beheaded by a high-ranking lone wolf—

She was thinking about how to start a war.

Miles trusted Lucas so much that even after he died, she still believed that the Black Dream was the last card Lucas left for her.

So you've chosen to agree?

Miles' smile had a hint of smugness; perhaps it was a very fulfilling thing for her to be able to easily manage the people below her in her position.

Morgan Blackhand neither agreed nor refused, but silently watched the progress bar of "[FLOPS is transmitting]" load inside his prosthetic eye...

Black Hand secured a secure job during the war.

To be honest, two years ago Morgan would have done everything in his power to keep this promise, but now…

“Hmm, Your Excellency, I’d like to know—now that you know that guy in Pacific Island is still alive, I think the safe house might need to be changed urgently.”

Although I don't want to say it, it would be very troublesome if Miles got into trouble in Pacific Island.

To be honest——

This woman is insane.

Morgan knew about Song Zhaomei's situation. When the news of Arasaka Relic broke, it caused a huge uproar around the world. Lone Wolf Morgan was ordered by the Military Technology Headquarters to obtain Relic at that time...

In hindsight, letting Relic go was an absolutely correct decision.

Morgan could always sense a connection to his own fate in the girl imprisoned in the birdcage—a life without a life, without anyone remembering her, as if she didn't exist at all in the world.

Morgan Blackhand couldn't imagine what it felt like to lose his physical body, but he had spoken with the girl called Lark and knew what she looked like.

It's too awful.

Morgan couldn't imagine himself lying in a coffin-like place, covered in tubes and wires.

Nowadays…

Thinking he had the game in the bag, Miles had already begun planning to include the relic recipient girl named Rebecca in his future vision.

To be honest, Morgan Blackhand could easily see through many things, including his own life, but he just couldn't see through that guy.

Morgan was the first to know that Rin was still alive.

He had countless opportunities to escape from the Azure Tower with the Relic, but... a premonition always stopped him. Perhaps the best way to prevent the rich from coming back to life was for the Relic to fall into that guy's hands.

Years later, Morgan Blackhand often regretted this decision.

People change.

Such important technology... can that guy really be the same as before?

When news of Relic seemed to die on the surface, and even an intelligence expert as skilled as Morgan couldn't get a single clue... he finally felt relieved.

Morgan the Black Hand seems to have gleaned some insight from certain actions Rin has taken…

Intuition told him that Miles was courting death... and a really big one.

"You look like you've lost your soul, Morgan?"

Miles noticed that the clone of the former Lone Wolf was standing to the side with a gloomy expression, and the smile on his face was even more obvious. It seems that the glory of the old era is indeed hard to replicate.

The advanced technology of cloning, from its inception to the present, owes much to Francis Young's work and the ability to simulate the life trajectory and growth of the subjects to be replicated.

In other words…

Cloned life inherently has unavoidable genetic flaws. Although the current Morgan Black Hand has undergone memory implantation optimized from the Soul Killer through biotechnology, it's important to remember how terrible the fate of the first generation of clones was.

[After Francis Young's (biotechnology) daughter successfully grew from a clone, she was merely a clone that resembled her deceased daughter.]

How crazy can a scientist be after losing a loved one?

Thus, his daughter inherited the memories edited from the first Soul Slayer, the daughter Francis envisioned.

The consequence was that he created a short-lived life form with significant problems in all dimensions of behavioral and social survival abilities…

Although six or seven decades have passed and the methods of implanting memories have become much more sophisticated, the success rate of this secret technology, which combines military technology and biotechnology, is shockingly low.

It is now common for less than one in a hundred to survive.

Perhaps in this respect, Morgan was lucky; at least he wasn't one of those discarded individuals.

Although his mind was constantly battling between experiences he wasn't sure if they were real and certain urges that seemed to be breaking free of his conscious control, Morgan could only survive by pretending to be the legendary lone wolf who obeyed the company.

Miles now believes Lucas's words.

Morgan's personality is vastly different from the real legendary lone wolf of the past, almost like two different people—Miles looked somewhat disappointed. If his team were strong enough, perhaps he wouldn't be so constrained in the White House.

Why would someone not want to live?

Why did the lark want to die?
Miles believed that simply living was a luxury, and he was filled with incomprehension.

"Your Excellency, we cannot stay here."

After thinking about it, even if Morgan knew that Rin's possible intentions and plans were focused on Rebecca, and that Miles was here plotting something against Rebecca—

He could only offer Miles advice, albeit reluctantly.

Morgan's expression was inscrutable. "You seem to have overlooked an important issue. If Relic is so important, why would he rush to you alone? The lark is also hanging on that guy... You need to be careful of that Rin."

That's all for this.

Morgan Blackhand had no interest in war; all he wanted was to keep this crazy woman away from courting disaster, though he knew he probably couldn't change anything.

When Miles raised his hand, Morgan didn't intend to try to persuade him any further.

He just wanted to know how Black Dream's knock-offs could compete with that company's lone wolves...

It's hard to believe that Morgan has never seen such a cohesive team.

The night has grown dark.

The nightmare has begun.

Miles strode over to a spot piled with paint buckets on the side, and after a scanner beneath the trash cans verified her identity, she and Morgan entered the "safe house."

This is what she was doing in the birdcage... preparing before this incident happened.

The entire underground safe house led directly to Dogtown, which Miles considered flawless.

"Rebecca?!"

The lark's voice is urgent and shrill.

Meanwhile, in the floor filled with dilapidated building materials, Rebecca's eyes were ferocious, her gorilla arms were moving at full speed, and the soldier firing in front of her had good aim...

Unfortunately, Rebecca held one hand to her forehead, growling as Sianwistan streaked across the air, leaving a trail of afterimages accompanied by sparks like electrical wires being cleaved—

boom!
The heavily armored soldiers, fully armed, were immediately slammed into the wall by the powerful force of the punches. The standard-thickness steel wall was now riddled with terrifying holes, and spiderweb-like cracks immediately spread along the edges!

"Damn it, Song Zhaomei, if you're not going to help, fine, but why are you constantly putting pressure on me?!"

Rebecca gasped for breath, glancing at the soldiers around her, their bodies twisted and mangled by the gorilla's arm, her temples throbbing.

"Miles is running away!"

"run?"

Rebecca whispered, "Isn't it a good thing she ran away?"

The girl was quite fast; who knows how many people Miles actually brought on SpaceX?

"Rin is tracking! Only I can lead Miles to the right route!" As he spoke, a piercing explosion came from behind.

Rebecca reacted extremely quickly, instantly moving away in a blur.

The projectile launch system was dodged, but Rebecca's tough exterior, hidden beneath her leather jacket, showed no mercy; the immense recoil caused her hands to rise significantly.

The last remaining soldiers, still trying to fire a second shot, were smothered in a shotgun blast against the wall...

Rebecca, head down, charged forward without a care in the world.

now.

Their teammates stood firm on the battlefield in Pacific Island, facing Colonel Hansen's vicious dogs from Dogtown. They all shared the ultimate goal: to remove Dogtown, this scourge, from the map of Pacific Island.

Suzuki's tall figure lowered slightly, his long sword still gripped tightly in his hand. Half of the elite squad that had been forcibly divided into two parts had already been wiped out.

"Oh!"

Suzuki gasped for breath, his face covered in blood and abrasions. Without even glancing at the long sword in his hand, he swung it to the side…

Accompanied by the prosthetic body and a splash of milky white liquid—

"What a bunch of contemptuous bastards."

online.

The hackers, their faces contorted with malice, unleashed a deluge of data trails, like a meteor shower, raining down on the walls of Taipingzhou. The network surveillance, which had always touted itself as the protector of the internet, had vanished without a trace.

Sasha and Qiwei watched as the dense attacks were blocked by the outer wall of the company's data fortress. With each data attack, fluorescent dust-like fragments fell, which were Brandon's data spores.

On the black wall, a woman dressed in dark red, resembling a deity, moved swiftly... The wandering AIs that could not enter the black wall due to its two-way algorithm avoided it like the plague.

The data transfer nodes are very clear.

Even though Washington's remaining troops had learned their lesson, Otto still managed to find a clue.

Offense is the most successful strategy of the Ultra Academy, and in this respect she is becoming more and more like Rin.

As the woman appeared on the data node, watching the orders below generating a dense barrage of "data bullets," she slowly extended one hand, her palm facing down towards the ball of light.

The cyberattack seemed to have been paused instantly.

The beam of light piercing through cyberspace instantly disintegrated the ICE outside the sphere of light, leaving the hackers inside, who were still responsible for ICE operations and data attacks, somewhat bewildered...

"what happened?!"

"Damn it, those guys in Washington changed the agreement without notifying us?!"

The three hackers could only quickly search the program suite panel for a way to reorganize their attack, but one of them keenly noticed an unusual piece of data…

Was the agreement forcibly dissolved?
The hacker, sweating profusely and focused solely on the data issue, only then realized what was happening and looked up in a daze!

Above, a woman, seemingly looking down with an air of dominance, appeared to be the only colossal entity that could exist within cyberspace. Her hands hung limply, and her face was devoid of features…

"Gudong..."

"A mobile, roaming AI...?"

Ultraman's fingers twitched slightly, and the three tiny humanoid figures seemed to be having their souls extracted. Fine rays of light drew something from the three cybernetic images into Ultraman's body.

Data integration is a standard feature of AI.

As Ultraman slowly turned around, the perspective quickly receded, revealing a dense array of stars before her, resembling a galaxy of stars in the universe.

The guys in Washington are undoubtedly geniuses, but the guys here are geniuses too—and they're geniuses of the old era.

……

"We can't stop..."

Rebecca's punches grew increasingly fierce, and the mechanical guards surrounding the dilapidated indoor garden in the center of the high-rise were now fully activated!
"We can't stop!"

A roar accompanied the terrifying sound of mechanical components being smashed to pieces. The lark's blood-red eyes, observing Rebecca in the cybernetic network, were somewhat vacant…

It was as if something had been remembered.

That urge to live—

"The lark!"

"Lark! Damn! Help!"

Soon Rebecca's urgent shouts came, instantly interrupting the lark's thoughts!

"You hacker, are you even here?!"

The lark's eyes turned even bloodshot again, completely unaware that the bright blue data in cyberspace was spreading into her consciousness prison like blood vessels...

Rebecca was now facing a dense array of red lines. Her ICE and prosthetic body had automatically neutralized several effects, such as prosthetic body overload and prosthetic eye reboot.

If we get distracted dealing with these metal-clad guys...

Whoosh! Thump!
Just as Rebecca was making her hasty response, the ground shook violently, and a blinding flash of light appeared outside the windows of the indoor garden, which had long since lost their glass panes.

“That guy is crazy!”

Only Rebecca knew that this decision definitely wasn't made by Lin Yue; Emma… it's exactly like her style.

The Dreamers want to speed up their advance... This indiscriminate attack is designed to allow the Dreamers' outer forces to quickly enter the battlefield. Rin has already paved the way completely.

"Hold…"

Rebecca's expression shifted.

She now wanted to grab Rin by the collar and ask him why, whether it was worth it for her to do this.

To know…

This is a war that will cost people their lives!
Urged on by Rebecca, Lark finally unleashed its power, temporarily slowing down the hackers hiding in other buildings (who also needed to focus on dealing with Washington).

That was enough for Rebecca.

“If Miles gets into Dogtown from the Pacific Underground, the Colonel and Rin might win, but it will definitely not be us.”

Rebecca nodded, gripped the Iron Bullet tightly under her arm with one hand, and with the other hand, she grabbed her favorite smart submachine gun, Shingen, and fired a burst of shots at the machine.

Ironclad courage breaks through defenses, Shingen delivers a precise strike.

Rebecca's handling of firearms is incredibly skillful.

"That was a great play!"

Whether it was a realization or not, the lark couldn't help but chirp.

Rebecca put away the scorching hot weapon and casually revealed an expression that said, "I'm invincible."

She waited quietly for the smoke and dust to clear, and breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the convulsing robot soldiers on the ground…

"Let's go."

Rebecca muttered something.

As soon as she lifted her foot, she felt an imperceptible ripple seem to run through her brain…

EMP Threat Detection

Rebecca instantly collapsed to the ground as if her system had been shut down.

From the shadows, a bizarre, pale face, dressed in a style perfectly suited to kitsch, emerged, like a sex doll from the street…

……

……

(End of this chapter)