2077: V really knows how awesome he is

“Great energy isn’t a person, but… never mind.” Misty rubbed her forehead, looking exasperated. “I remember you didn’t believe in these things before.”

“I don’t believe it, but you made the correct prediction. If I still don’t believe it, I would be too arrogant.”

What are you planning to do by establishing the Paranormal Applications and R&D Department?

"As the name suggests, it is about studying the great energy you speak of, applying the great energy you speak of, and making it useful to people to reveal more about the future and help us avoid some detours."

Misty frowned: "Great energy is a higher-dimensional existence, and you actually want to control it? V, and you still say you're not arrogant?"

“Perhaps it’s a bit arrogant, but now that I’ve confirmed its existence, I can no longer ignore it.” V shrugged. “Bowing to it isn’t in my nature, so I choose to analyze and apply it. Don’t say it’s impossible; after all, your precedent shows that great energy can be utilized. Of course, you also said that great energy is a higher-dimensional existence, and it could crush me as easily as crushing an insect, but since it hasn’t, it probably agrees. Even if my subsequent research offends it in any way, as long as it tells me personally, I will absolutely stop immediately. What do you think?”

Misty glared at V: "I think you're incredibly audacious!"

V grinned: "So, you've agreed to be my minister?"

“I refuse,” Misty said righteously. “This offends my faith, and the education I received from childhood does not allow me to do such a thing.”

"8000 euros a month."

"I can start work tomorrow!"

And so, Misty joined Arasaka 2077 and became the head of the Supernatural Applications and Research Department.

V's idea wasn't a sudden whim, and the Supernatural Applications and Research Department wasn't a cover she set up to repay Misty. V genuinely intended to conduct research in this area, to control the ethereal supernatural forces and serve the world like she controlled nuclear energy.

This sounds magical, but it's actually not magical at all.

Misty's ability to make accurate predictions proves the existence of supernatural forces in this world. Ordinary people might shy away from something as ethereal as "fate," become suspicious, or even have their worldview collapse. But in V's view, since it exists, it cannot be ignored. Rather than hiding it or burying one's head in the sand, it's better to conduct research openly and properly.

For something to exist, it must abide by the rules of the world. People may think it has no rules, but that's only because they haven't found its patterns.

Make bold hypotheses, carefully verify them, systematically observe and test, objectively record and compare, and thus summarize and generalize a set of practical and effective interaction methods. Science is never something unfathomable; science is simply about being down-to-earth and taking things one step at a time.

As for the minor dangers involved—there were 700 million prisoners.

As for the great danger involved—there is V-shaped shockwave.

V knew how awesome he was in the past, and he knows it even more now.

“Okay, then you can start work tomorrow.” V said to Misty with a smile, “Now, can you do a divination for me? I’ve recently hit a dead end in a research project and there’s been no progress. Can you tell me if there’s any chance of a turnaround?”

“Okay.” Misty took out an unopened tarot deck from under the counter. “20 euros, thank you for your patronage.”

V was shocked: "You charge money for telling the boss's fortune?"

"Starting tomorrow, you will be my boss."

Aren't you afraid I'll make things difficult for you in the future?

Misty smiled and said, "If you try to make things difficult for me, then I'm quitting."

V slapped her forehead. Damn it! Not only did she know how awesome she was, but Misty, that cyber shaman, seemed to know how awesome she was too!

Wasn't it only 10 euros before?

"I'll give you the cards, so it's 20 euros."

Goodness, Misty has finally learned how to do business.

The renowned V reluctantly transferred 20 euros, and only after the money arrived did Misty happily open the tarot cards.

"Concentrate, clear your mind, and draw five cards."

V asked in surprise, "Five cards? Isn't it three?"

"I recently learned a new trick, and I'll let you try it out for free."

"What do you mean free? I clearly paid 20 euros."

"The 10 euros is for the divination, and the 10 euros is for the tarot cards. Since you didn't pay for the new method, it's free."

"You really know how to do business!"

V took a deep breath, cleared his mind, and, without being serious, drew five tarot cards based solely on his intuition.

Misty placed them face down on the table and began to read them one by one.

"The first card, the central card, the core situation: The World, upright."

The gates of a new era have opened, and the end of the old cycle brings infinite possibilities. The globe surrounded by starlight heralds cross-dimensional connections; knowledge, resources, and networks will transcend spatial limitations, and troubles will be resolved.

"The second card, the left-wing card, the source of the challenge: The Tower, reversed."

The disruptive impact doesn't originate from the visible world; extradimensional energy is subtly infiltrating reality. Beware of ghosts, curses, or extreme cold—these are tests from a non-material enemy.

"The third card, the right-wing card, symbolizes opportunity: the Wheel of Fortune, upright."

The key to dimensional ascension lies hidden within chaos. Seize two signs: unconventional technological breakthroughs and sudden invitations for cross-disciplinary collaboration. This opportunity is fleeting; act before the storm sets in.

"The fourth card, the top card, the defensive guide: Seven of Swords, reversed."

Traditional defenses have failed. Trusting intuition over logic allows the enemy to exploit blind spots in thinking; it will break through spatial barriers to attack.

"The fifth card, the bottom card, key action: The Lovers, upright."

The meeting of ice and fire will activate a spacetime anchor point. Three conditions must be met: the celestial spheres must converge, opposing attributes must be present, and the individual must be located at the point of an energy vortex. This meeting will rewrite all possibilities.

After the analysis, Misty did not perform a final interpretation of the energy loop of the card spread, but instead recited a cautionary poem:

"When the moonlight appears amidst the neon lights, the data wasteland welcomes the swallows. The black and white chessboard is shrouded in blue light, and the blooming white frost will wither in the night."

After Misty finished speaking, she let out a long sigh, snapping out of her rambling state. She took a big gulp of water and asked V, "Did you understand?"

“Not at all.” V crossed her arms in front of her and glanced at the Cyber ​​shaman: “I’m starting to regret making you the minister.”

"Hehe, it's too late to regret it."

"Alright." V sighed helplessly, stroking his chin. "Let's put everything else aside for now, but that phrase 'it will break through space' means enemies will be teleported here? Warp technology is still just on paper, right? What, has someone secretly developed it?"

"I don't know, I'm just relaying what the great energy told me."

V said irritably, "Yes, yes, it's all the fault of the Great Energy, even that poem was made by the Great Energy."

"No, that's not it. I had AI generate the poem to increase the immersive experience of the divination."

"Damn it, is this how you do fortune telling? Believe me or not, I'll sue you for deceiving consumers!"

“I didn’t. How can you be sure that the great energy isn’t using AI to transmit the truth? After all, I read over two hundred poems, and this is the only one I chose to read to you.”

V was speechless. Even though she was a super AI, she was helpless in the face of a cyber shaman's sophistry.

So V decided to return to the field he was best at.

"Remember to be on time tomorrow. If you're even a minute late, your entire morning's pay will be deducted!"

V snorted and walked away arrogantly.

"If they deduct my morning's wages, I'll just go this afternoon," Misty muttered under her breath, then called out to V, "Hey, you forgot your tarot cards."

"No more."

Misty shrugged, put the cards back in the card box, and put them into the machine next to her for resealing, waiting to sell them to the next customer.

After V left, she sat in Old Vie's clinic for a while, but when Old Vie had a guest, he sent her away.

After vehemently criticizing Old V for being greedy for money, V summoned his sword from the stone and set off to return to Arasaka Tower.

Autonomous driving has been fully implemented in Night City, so V doesn't need to worry about driving and can instead focus on contemplating the meaning of this divination.

Although it is still unclear what specific events will occur, V understood the words "cross-dimensional" and "breaking through space".

Just as she told Misty, humanity has been researching warp technology for a long time, and the fact that space can be warped and folded has long been proven. There are two difficulties that prevent warp technology from being realized: one is how to jump, and the other is where to jump to.

How to jump is essentially an energy problem, but by 2078, humanity had mastered controlled nuclear fusion, and the problem of how to jump had been solved.

The real dilemma is "where to jump?" Warp isn't like going to the Cloud Peak Girl, where you can just pick anywhere and it won't be too bad. Space itself is full of dangers. If Xia Ji's eight jumps landed her in a star system millions of light-years away—that's one small step for her, a giant leap for mankind—but if she jumps directly into a black hole, into the sun, or into the blast radius of a supernova, then she should be secretly happy; at least she'll die with a better smile.

The European Space Agency has been researching how to accurately locate and precisely jump between targets, but without much progress. However, divination predicts that an enemy will arrive "across space," leading V to believe that some force or organization has secretly mastered this technology and is taking advantage of the turmoil to cause trouble and attempt to dominate the world.

After all, that's how it's always done in Mewtwo. When the protagonist has no enemies, they just create another enemy out of thin air, one that's stronger, has higher technology, and has the most vulgar pursuits, completely disregarding whether it's reasonable or not. They even call it a side story or a movie. It's true that they've abandoned all shame in order to make money.

V has always firmly resisted such unscrupulous companies like Mewtwo. Even if there are side stories or theatrical versions, she will only watch pirated versions!

At this point, V suddenly remembered something and called Solomon Reed: "I Am the Black Wall, is there going to be a theatrical version of 'I Am the Black Wall'?"

"Correct."

"We must do a good job in preventing piracy."

Solomon Reed: "Huh?"

After hanging up the phone, V arrived at the foot of Arasaka Tower. She took the elevator back to her office, thought for a moment, and then called Song Zhaomei over.

This lark is now the head of the network department of Arasaka 2077. Although her combat power has been greatly reduced without the Black Wall, Song Zhaomei is a top hacker and is still outstanding in her own ability. The network of Night City is entirely under her control.

V told Song Zhaomei about the enemy predicted in the prophecy.

The little bird was a bit surprised: "An enemy teleported here? Are you sure this isn't some kind of science fiction plot?"

V shrugged: "This is a prophecy made by Misty."

Upon hearing this, Song Zhaomei immediately became serious.

With V's deeds as a precedent, the higher-ups in Night City now generally know that Misty is a true sorceress and dare not neglect her.

"I'll write a program and upload it to the network so that all the cameras in Night City can detect spatial fluctuations and notify us immediately if there are any anomalies."

V nodded, then, feeling a bit uneasy, added, "I'll have Alex patrol the streets too."

Song Zhaomei immediately shook her head: "That damned old hag is now obsessed with being the director's wife, she definitely won't take this job."

“I know, so I plan to send Rivers on patrol.”

Song Zhaomei was taken aback, then suddenly realized what was going on and couldn't help but laugh. When she laughed, V also started to laugh, and the two of them started shaking their shoulders together with a "hehehehe".

With each arrangement and deployment made, the streets of Night City were thoroughly monitored.

Just as V predicted, Alex definitely wouldn't do any work if asked directly, but since River Ward went on patrol, Alex, the retired agent, like a retired magical girl, put on a combat suit and quietly followed him, secretly protecting her husband who was an ordinary person.

V was very satisfied with the result, and she kept a close eye on the network. As the prototype of the bio-based AI, V had the highest level of access to the nanocluster and nanonetwork; if she wanted, she could be informed of any activity in the traditional network immediately. If you asked why she wasn't willing to participate, it was simply because it was too noisy.

Every second, the internet is filled with all sorts of demands, venting and expressing dissatisfaction, praising and asking for help. It's as noisy as a vortex gang's event, like heavy metal rock that can never be paused. V tried it once and immediately turned off the function.

Now that Misty's divination has given V a hint, he has no choice but to activate the function again. After all, the divination said that there is a key to dimensional ascension hidden in chaos. He should seize two signs: one is an unconventional technological breakthrough, and the other is a sudden invitation to cross-border cooperation.

The awakening of superpowers brought about by nano-fusion is undoubtedly an "unconventional technological breakthrough." Since one has already happened, the second one is probably not far off, and we must not miss it.

The divination also indicated that this opportunity was short-lived and action should be taken before the storm formed.

Therefore, V's main task now is to guard against enemies coming from across space while also keeping an eye on friends coming from across space—simple and straightforward.

But half a month has passed, and Night City remains calm; there are no enemies or friends around.

Poor V even imagined a whole novel, where a mysterious organization originally intended to use warp technology to benefit humanity, but ultimately became corrupted by greed and desire, turning into a major villain seeking to conquer the world. However, this organization also had some members with a conscience, leading to various open and covert struggles between the two sides. Eventually, Night City was drawn into the conflict, and the infamous V-Giant intervened, subduing both sides and saving the world once again.

"Sigh, looks like I've been really bored lately," V muttered to himself, then, annoyed by the noise online, simply turned off the listening function.

The monitoring function was turned off in the morning, and problems arose in the evening.

V was debating whether to call Sasha or Michiko tonight when Song Zhaomei called:

"V, violent spatial fluctuations detected!"

"Damn, we're finally here! Where's the seat?"

“Alex and the NCPD have surrounded an abandoned biotechnology lab in Pacific State!”

Chapter 117 Experimental Materials

Taiping Prefecture was destroyed during the Aragaka invasion, but after reconstruction, it became the main center for various research and development centers in Night City.

Major corporations have research institutes here, but as the top human leaders fled to Mars and the Supreme Council wreaked havoc around the world, the corporate system collapsed, and these research institutes and laboratories were shut down and abandoned. The biotechnology laboratory that discovered space activity was one of them.

The abandoned data center was dimly lit. Suddenly, without warning, the central space tore open, and a dazzling vortex of silver light appeared out of thin air. Accompanied by a sharp sound of spacetime tearing, a figure was violently "spit out" and crashed into a row of already shut-down server arrays with a bang. Even the metal casing was dented and sparks flew.

It was a young woman, dressed in leather armor, smelling of the sea, with her long, frost-colored hair casually tied up, her emerald eyes scanning her surroundings warily, a conspicuous scar on her right cheek, and a long sword with an ancient design but a chilling gleam in her hand.

She looked around and saw the cold, metallic environment, realizing she had returned to the world of "Steel Wizardry," and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

She and the elven sage leaped and traversed from world to world, evading the Wild Hunt's pursuit, and once lived in this world for half a year. For some reason, the Wild Hunt Queen could not find this "Iron Wizard" world, and she once thought she had escaped the Wild Hunt's sight. Unable to suppress her longing for her family, she returned to her own world, only to be immediately targeted by the Wild Hunt Queen again as soon as she appeared.

On the shores of Skellige, the elven sage, cursed by the Wild Hunt King, desperately opened a portal, but failed to enter himself; only the white-haired woman crossed the world once more.

Although worried about the other person's safety, the white-haired woman knew that returning would only lead to her death. What she needed to do now was to recuperate, gather her strength, and then wait for an opportunity to rescue those who had helped her.