Cyberpunk: I didn't cheat.

It's clear that Vito can't stay there anymore. This incident shows that Vito has been targeted.

After leaving Vito with a heavy heart, Li Ying returned to Baoshiqing. She pretended that nothing had happened and naturally went back to her room to retrieve the incubator.

After bringing the incubator back to the safe house, Li Ying breathed a sigh of relief. She skillfully checked the incubator's power supply and internal temperature to make sure the behavioral chip was working properly.

Little Cha was kidnapped. That robot guy who loved watching movies was gone before he even drove a few laps on 911.

Liying checked the future bullets and magazines, wrapped a cloth around her face, and went to the room where the sniper position was set up. She wanted to see if there were any traces or clues left at the scene.

At this moment, the club's private room was filled with worries.

Tommasino, accompanied by a trusted aide, sat in the room waiting for Vito. He was also reviewing the whole incident, starting with the Vortex Gang thugs in the trunk of the car.

The job wasn't assigned by him; someone copied his terminal. Anyone who could access it must be one of his confidants in Zeta. The scope isn't large, but it's not easy to investigate.

His team of hackers read the petty thug's memories and said that the thug wanted to install a microwave eavesdropping device. That kind of device was a product of a few years after World War II. To obtain information, a signal receiving vehicle must be nearby. He himself did not often drive the Ghost, so there was no need for him to do such a thing.

The hacker said it was Thiago who did it, but what could he do about it? It didn't change the fact that he was kicked out. Later, the hacker said he had discovered something new, so he stopped caring that his hackers had ignored the order to "take out the other side".

Perhaps the ghost is hiding in its own security hacker.

"Enzo, take control of the hacker group, disable their cybernetic implants, read their behavior records one by one, and kill anyone who resists."

"Yes, sir."

Vito then went to the private room to meet Thomasino.

He walked into the private room with a Euro pistol in the dark, without the security guards outside sending a single signal.

Enzo quickly drew his gun and pointed it at Vito, activating his military-grade subcutaneous armor to shield Tommasino from potential bullets.

"Oh? Zeta has such loyal people?"

Thomasino pressed down on Enzo's gun and spoke slowly.

“Enzo is someone I brought from Europe, not from Zeta. Your stealth skills are quite good. If I were your enemy, I would be dead by now. Did you manage to leave a mess of corpses outside?”

Vito put away the euros and sat down.

"No, those blind fools didn't even notice me, so the order wasn't sent by you?"

Thomasinho also returned to his seat.

"No, but I marked a few suspicious people to check first, and asked them to tell me what happened."

Vito gave a brief explanation, and Tommasino's brow furrowed even more.

He hurried to a secluded private room and made a phone call.

A few minutes later, Thomasin came out.

"That guy named Leipzig got away. He had no grudge against Bennett and there was no such thing as killing Bennett and taking over. That bastard mobilized a squad of heavily armored Ghosthound sergeants to escort the goods. It was all his own doing. Kurt Hansen wants to see you."

Vito stared at Tommasino, trying to find traces of a lie in Tommasino's micro-expressions, but he ultimately failed to detect that Tommasino was lying.

"I don't have time to see that damn boss. My man is missing, and I'm going to find him, even if he's turned into a pile of scrap metal!"

Tommasino Afvoorto.

"This group has a lot of resources and has schemed a lot to successfully kidnap your people. We need to find clues slowly."

At this moment, Vito received several photos sent by Li Ying.

The photo shows some minor marks on the outer wall and balcony of the sniper's position room.

Do you have any new leads?

Thomasin asked.

Vito sent the photos to Tommasino so his men could study them.

“I’ve had it analyzed, Vito. You can doubt Zeta, you can doubt others, but you can’t doubt me.”

"Why?"

“Because you know, I’m the one who most wanted to bring you in. I admit that at first I only treated you as a secret agent for the company, but you are different from the others. You are more capable and intelligent than them.”

"In what capacity are you speaking to me now? Are you the Son of Gold? A Mafia Godfather? A high-ranking member of Zeta? Or some other weirdo?"

Thomasino gestured for Enzo to leave, and then he spoke slowly.

"If you bring a nuclear bomb into Arasaka Tower, you will be the culprit who starts a corporate war. The corporation has been itching for a long time and is just waiting for a fuse. You are just Princip in 2076."

But you did it another way, which is great. I know you can do more, I can help you, and Zeta can help you. Destroy the other corporations, Zeta can bring a new order, wipe gangs and crime out of Night City, replace the corrupt NCPD with Zeta, and everyone can live a good life.

Vito, I can see what kind of person you are. I was just like you when I was young, but you can't always think of fighting the whole world alone. Learning to leverage the power of others is the smart thing to do.

Tommasino's words were very persuasive; he seemed to be subtly enticing Vito.

Vito nodded slightly.

"Prepare me a full set of hacking equipment, including chairs and power supplies. No need for big data interfaces. Just in Dogtown. Give me the materials I've asked for before, just like before. I'll meet with Kurt Hansen. Also, I need two sets of grasshopper armor. I'll give you a location for your people to set up there."

Tommasino smiled and nodded. Vito had finally agreed to join, and he would slowly assimilate Vito into the coldest decision-maker.

Vito couldn't wait any longer. Being a mercenary for a lifetime would never allow him to truly fight against these giant vampires. Since Zeta was foolish and rich, he would play with Zeta for now. Vito wanted to continue combining the prosthetic capacity chip and the behavioral chip, and finally create the optimal version without side effects.

Tommasino poured Vito a glass of wine and handed it to him with a smile.

Vito smiled and accepted the cup.

They both chuckled inwardly, realizing the other had fallen for their trick.

With smiles on their faces, they clinked their glasses together, having achieved their respective goals.

Tommasino would first let Vito taste the sweetness of power and privilege, and then let him sink deeper and deeper into it.

Vito, on the other hand, wanted to test his skills against T-bug for a while before finally using Zeta's company secrets.

My acceptance does not equate to my agreement; the formula is instantly correct.

"Vito, believe me, you will see a different world."

Vito's smile was somewhat strange.

"I believe, Old Tangtou, that I will see a different world."

Tommasino's team analyzed the photos and concluded that there was a 42 percent chance that the traces were caused by monomolecular lines, which was the highest among all the evaluation analyses.

A single-molecule line? It also instantly controlled Little Cha, preventing it from issuing an alarm.

The image of Scapullo flashed through Vito's mind.

“Old Tom, help me find someone named Scarpo, with blue eyes. He was with Thiago at the youth camp that day. He might be involved in your business.”

Chapter 142 Afterlife

Thomasino put in a lot of effort, and no one discovered that several meticulously decorated luxury rooms were hidden in the basement of an abandoned building.

In just three days, everything was set up: a bedroom, a living room, a hacker room, a modification room equipped with many robotic arms, a small armory, and several escape doors.

This was Tommasino's deliberate attempt to showcase Zeta's corporate strength. He was continuously sending a signal that as long as Vito was valuable to Zeta, Zeta was willing to use its resources to build a Tower of Babel for him.

Everything is top-of-the-line, and Thomasin guarantees there are absolutely no hidden surveillance cameras or company backdoors; everything is genuine and meets Vito's requirements.

Vito would be a complete fool to believe such a thing.

After sending Thomasino away, Vito disassembled and reinstalled everything, which truly meant leaving no backdoors.

It took quite a while to finish all that. A few days later, Joe, who was recuperating at home, sent a message to express his gratitude and also gave Vito's medical plan a thumbs down.

In an effort to build a positive new doctor-patient relationship and create a harmonious dog town, Dr. Vito gave Joe the middle finger and demanded payment for Joe's outstanding surgery fees.

Joe is stubborn and inflexible, a die-hard. He pointed out that Dr. Vito had made several irregularities during the surgery, which seriously damaged the patient's physical and mental health. At the same time, Dr. Vito's rough handling almost caused a medical accident. Joe believes that Dr. Vito should compensate the patient.

"Compensation? I'll give you a few slaps to teach you a lesson!"

"I suspect you're using the pretext of digging out the bullet to interrogate me! Otherwise, why are you keeping poking at my gun hole?"

"Don't doubt it, that's what I think. Have you ever seen a shameless bastard? I didn't stick my fingers in because we have some connection. In short, are you going to pay or not? This is the first time I've encountered a patient who refuses to pay."

"I have no money, but I don't care about my life. I've already been on the brink of death several times!"

"Oh ho, so you're someone who's been through thick and thin? You just wait, I'll smash your brains out today!"

[900 Euros transferred into Euro account]

"Don't come over, I'll treat you and Liying to dumplings."

Big Joe is now truly afraid of Vito; that guy really does what he says.

After finishing his conversation with Joe, Vito inserted a prosthetic volume chip into his brain. Little Chase lost it, and he started using the prosthetic volume chip to suppress some things in his brain.

Now you need to stay calm; the more panicked you are, the more likely you are to make mistakes.

The mole within Tommasino's inner circle has been caught; it is indeed a hacker. However, Scarporo's background remains unknown. Tommasino assures Vito that he will personally oversee the matter.

Having been out in the world for so long, and having experienced a lot of life and death, I've learned that some things can't be rushed.

Since things have come to this, let's go to an internet cafe first.

[Hey bug, are you done with your work over there? Shall we go online?]

[I just finished decorating the new house, come on over.]

Vito lay down in the hacker chair and connected to his personal line.

Upon entering cyberspace, Vito discovered that it was quite different from what he had imagined.

This place is like another world. Unpacking ICE is like playing a stealth game. You have to break down walls in a maze made of cyber data, hide from or kill the guards. If you get discovered, the other side might burn your brain through the network cable.

The upstart, brilliant hackers in this area who want to make a name for themselves always like to do some performance art, like causing a big power outage or something.

Hackers sitting in chairs or lying in ice pools don't face much gunfire, but cyberspace battles can sometimes be more deadly than bullets, and if you lose, you won't even have a chance to be saved.

Vito's network entity met T-bug.

Vito wanted to greet T-bug properly, but he found that T-bug's network was like it was naked.

"Girl, is it really that hot in Tahiti? Even though we're online, at least be a little more presentable."

T-bug rolled his eyes.

"You talk like you're wearing pants. This is cyberspace; nobody cares about your crazy ideas."

Vito looked down at himself. It looked like he wasn't wearing any clothes, but his most intimate parts were still blurred. Thank goodness, it wasn't like when he first arrived in Night City.

"Alright, we're all from the underworld, it's good to be carefree. What are we going to do now? Go and access some company's database."

T-bug shook his head and waved his hand, and a blueprint of an old power plant appeared in front of the two of them.

"Bartlemos also learned to walk before he could run. Let's practice with the power plant first. You go and hack into the power plant, clear the anti-hacking units set up, and then simulate the layout of the surrounding houses by measuring the power supply."

I'll be behind you. If there are any problems, I'll shut down the power plant. Go ahead and try; there's no danger in this operation.

Vito memorized the power plant blueprints and then, guided by T-bug, began his first network intrusion.

Vito was playing a game where he could use data-constructed weapons to deal with the anti-hacking units, which appeared as spider-like robots in cyberspace, patrolling the maze.

“Those anti-hacking units are old-fashioned; you can try to hack them or destroy them directly.”

Vito pointed forward, and a hacker unit immediately convulsed and became paralyzed.

“Not bad, you are indeed talented. Keep going, follow the route on the blueprints and you will reach the core of the power plant.”

Since it was a practice session, Vito didn't need to slowly search for the maze's exit. He followed the map's route all the way to the power plant's core, which resembled a giant safe.

Vito's network access was connected to a personal network, and he was performing ICE decryption, breaking down the tortoise-shell-like barriers layer by layer until the data was extracted.

Vito smashed the last barrier, and the unpacking was complete.

"So fast? Have you practiced before?"

T-bug was shocked by the speed at which Vito broke through the walls; she watched as Vito's network of objects effortlessly shattered everything with punch after punch.

Vito began to simulate the interior layout of the surrounding buildings based on the power plant's power supply situation. His fingers flew across the screen, and one room after another was built.

Vito even had the leisure to talk to T-bug.

"I haven't practiced. Maybe it's because I'm strong, but I shattered these thin pieces in one go."

Once all the preset goals were completed, T-bug checked the time and found it had only taken a little over a minute.