2077: V really knows how awesome he is

V looked at Ciri in surprise: "You're still a princess?"

Ciri proudly raised her chin.

Although she herself had no interest in princesses, she had to pretend in front of V and never bow down.

The meal was a pleasant one for both host and guests. Afterwards, Geralt told Yennefer about his plan to take V back to their world to completely destroy the Wild Hunt. Yennefer agreed wholeheartedly, but since the construction of the nanonet rules was at a critical juncture, she could not accompany him.

Ciri said there wasn't much of a problem and told Yennefer to focus on her work, and they would come back for her once they had dealt with the Wild Hunt.

Yennefer was very pleased and felt that having such a thoughtful adopted daughter was a blessing.

Then Ciri reminded Geralt as he went out that the sorceress's power was essential to open the portal. Geralt was about to go back and call Yennefer, but Ciri pulled him aside, winked at him, and said, "Don't be silly, Witcher. This is such a good opportunity, go find Triss."

Geralt's eyes widened; he never expected Ciri to be so...filial.

Very good!

It was so good that I saved Emhyr back then!

The Witcher was so excited that he tossed and turned all night before finally falling asleep.

V also fell asleep late at night, but not because she tossed and turned.

Since it was decided to go to the Witcher world, she informally informed the executives in the group chat first. That very night, Sasha pulled her aside and made her pay half a year's worth of wages in advance, saying that any overpayment would be refunded and any underpayment would be collected.

During a lull in the fierce battle, V asked curiously, "I can understand if you're short on supplies, but what does 'retreating more' mean?"

The pink cat climbed onto V and whispered seductively in her lover's ear, "The rest of the time I'll be on top, you just need to lie down and enjoy it."

This cat is burning up!

V felt a surge of heat in his heart, and with a quick flip, he pinned Sasha beneath him again: "No need to back down, I still prefer being on top."

That's why I didn't fall asleep until the second half of the night.

The reason they only stayed out until the latter half of the night was not because V's level dropped, but because they had to hold a meeting the next day for the "Otherworld Expedition".

V lay in bed watching Sasha go from being completely naked to being perfectly dressed, and then, with Sasha's help, he went from being completely naked to being perfectly dressed himself. Then, full of energy, he went to the conference room.

In the hallway, V bumped into Ciri. She greeted her cheerfully, but Ciri glared at her and strode away quickly.

V was completely bewildered: "What illness does she have?"

Sasha stepped forward, turned up the V-neck of her suit collar, and said irritably, "You complained that wearing a high-necked shirt was too tight, now you've made Ciri angry."

Did I make Ciri angry? What did I do?

V was about to retort when she saw the hickeys on her neck from the perspective of the surveillance camera.

She suddenly realized what was going on, and then thought Ciri was being ridiculous: "What business is it of hers if I sleep with my wife? A little chick is a little chick, don't be so fussy!"

Despite making grand and fearless statements, V still controlled the nanobots to remove the marks on the bionic skin before entering the conference room.

Sasha smiled without saying a word.

V said awkwardly, "Personal life shouldn't be brought into work. I'm just being professional!"

"Yes, yes, my V is the best!" Sasha coaxed V as if she were a child, and the two of them entered the conference room together.

Just as V said, she is very dedicated and professional. She enters work mode the moment she enters the meeting room, putting all her personal feelings behind her.

She formally informed everyone of the "Otherworld Expedition" plan, and everyone understood why Geralt and Ciri were attending the meeting today.

What followed was a natural progression: a group of talented individuals began brainstorming ideas on how to manipulate people.

First, Geralt explained the basic situation of the Witcher world, the location of the teleportation array, and his basic demand to completely eliminate the King of the Wild Hunt.

Then Ciri explained her teleportation capabilities, stating that with her current abilities, she could only teleport a maximum of 50 people at a time, and she would need to rest for a week before being able to teleport a second time, so the number of combat personnel would likely be limited to a very low level. As for tanks, she could teleport one or two, but aircraft carriers were out of the question due to their sheer size.

After receiving this intelligence, the people of Night City studied it and quickly devised a comprehensive invasion...assistance plan.

The plan first ruled out using Ciri to transport troops, because that was too slow and could only transport a small amount of weaponry. What would be the point of sending a bunch of infantry to fight hand-to-hand in mud pits with medieval primitives? That would be too foolish.

What? You're saying that infantrymen are equipped with firearms and therefore don't engage in melee combat?

Sorry, but in modern warfare, any fight that takes place within one kilometer is called hand-to-hand combat, regardless of whether there are guns or not.

According to Xu Ling, a war should begin with remote ground control followed by infantry takeover; otherwise, it's just street gangs fighting for territory.

So, according to Night City's plan, there's no need to bother Ciri with the back-and-forth teleportation; they can just send V there alone. Once there, V can immediately deploy a base vehicle... no, I mean, release nanobots to collect C-particles. After collecting enough, Ciri can teleport him back so Night City can build its own teleporter.

Ciri was taken aback by the plan: "Didn't you all explode the last few times?"

“That’s just because there aren’t enough C particles,” Nakamura Kayo replied.

After all, the amount of C particles in Ciri's blood was not enough to maintain stable space folding, and the warp drive technology was not as complicated as humans imagined. It was just like launching a rocket – all about using force to make things go.

Seeing Nakamura Kayo's confidence, Ciri realized that the other party was probably not lying.

She was somewhat incredulous: "This is the power of 'science'—even ancient blood can be deciphered so quickly?"

Kayo Nakamura shook her head: "This has nothing to do with the ancient blood."

Ciri asked, puzzled, "What do you mean?"

V chimed in, "Silly girl, the powerful thing isn't the ancient blood, it's you. It's your uniqueness that makes your blood ancient, not the other way around."

“What’s special is…me?” Ciri was completely shocked by this theory.

Kayo Nakamura explained, "The ancient elves possessed a special gene that allowed them to directly absorb C particles from the environment, enabling them to travel through time and space. However, as they reproduced, this gene shut down for unknown reasons, only to be reactivated with your appearance. Because C particles must combine with red blood cells to avoid decaying in a low-gravity environment, your blood became the source of the most C particles. This is why the scholars of the elves believed that your blood gave you the ability to travel through time and called it 'Ancient Blood'."

V added, "So the real strength is you, not the blood in your veins. True strength comes from within. Just like Mr. Geralt, even though he was just an ordinary witcher, didn't he still thwart the Wild Hunt's plots time and time again and protect you from Eredin?"

Geralt: ...What do you mean by an ordinary Witcher? I'm the best swordsman in the North, okay?

Ciri was a little confused: "I don't know what kind of expression I should make right now?"

Geralt patted his daughter on the shoulder: "Be proud, be proud of yourself."

Ciri was taken aback, took a deep breath, and calmed down.

This is probably the power of family.

After this minor incident, Ciri had no further objections to the Night City plan. The group concluded that the "Otherworld Expedition" would be divided into two phases:

First, V, Ciri, and Geralt travel to the Witcher world. V releases nanobots to absorb C particles in the environment. Once a designated amount is reached, Ciri takes V back with her.

Second, Night City will immediately establish a teleporter and form an expeditionary force after the three leave. Once the C particles arrive, they will immediately launch a large-scale attack on the Witcher world, and then use the local teleportation array to travel to the Alder world where the Elf Empire is located to deliver warmth.

The plan was simple, clear, efficient, and direct, and both V and Ciri were very satisfied.

The Daughter of Time originally planned to set the departure time for tomorrow, but Night City demanded that she depart three days later.

"Why?" Ciri asked.

“Because it needs to be disinfected,” Joanne Koch replied. “The most common flu virus in our world could cause a global pandemic where you are. You’ve traveled through so many worlds, don’t you even know that?”

Ciri: "Huh?"

Chapter 130 First Arrival in Your Precious Land

The virus removal process is not complicated for Night City; it only takes a few hours. The reason for delaying it for three days is to prepare various plugins for V.

This is a journey to another world; on a smaller scale, it's just a time travel; on a larger scale, it's humanity's first encounter with the third kind.

What is the air quality like on the other side? What is the soil composition like? What is the humidity like? Is the geomagnetic field and temperature stable? What is the gravity like and what are the starry sky like in the area? Is there a moon? If so, are the tides the same as on Earth? What do aliens eat? What do they excrete? These are all very valuable pieces of information that need to be collected and recorded as soon as possible.

To this end, the research team led by Kayo Nakamura prepared a bunch of detection software and analysis programs to stuff into V's brain.

At first, they were worried that V wouldn't be able to hold so many programs. After all, the human brain and storage space couldn't hold such a bunch of messy stuff. But V was neither ordinary nor human. Although she had a brain like a human, she had perfectly integrated with nanobots, becoming an existence that transcended both the physical and mechanical.

To put it simply, her brain and memory even simulated a solar system. Although anything further away would just be a texture, it's just like installing a few more apps. It's like someone who usually uses level 5 vibration now only uses level 2. When asked, they say they feel nothing and can't get wet at all.

This discovery greatly excited Nakamura Kayo, a middle-aged woman who had been divorced for many years. She installed a lot of detection software into V's brain, and the most outrageous thing was that she even installed a photo-taking software with all kinds of beauty and photo-editing functions.

V quickly stopped the installation, fearing that if it continued, these crazy scientists would install some junk software like junk cleaners.

"Let's install this many for now." Nakamura Kayo said, still somewhat unsatisfied, "President V, please open each software one by one for testing."

V followed the instructions, and a bunch of dense environmental data popped up on the prosthetic eye, including temperature, humidity, gravity, magnetic field, tidal force, air composition, magnetic field angle, and a whole bunch of other things.

"Everything is normal." Nakamura Kayo nodded in satisfaction.

But V was very dissatisfied: "It blocks the view too much."

"You can set these programs to run in the background."

How do I set it up?

"The three horizontal lines in the upper right corner contain the toggle option for running in the background."

"Oh, I see it!"

V set the program to run in the background, and the complex data disappeared instantly, making her understand what it felt like to be suddenly enlightened.

"Next, please test your combat prosthetic body to see if it causes any interference," Nakamura Kayo gave another instruction.

V nodded, activating Brain-Computer Overclocking, the Berserk Plugin, and Sianwistan in succession; everything was normal. She then took a starting stance, accelerating rapidly. The Leeroy Jenkins tendons granted her explosive power, propelling her to a speed of 27 meters per second, allowing her to run several laps against the wall using momentum. After landing, she squatted deeply, then leaped powerfully. Her ankle reinforcements allowed her to jump over 10 meters high. In mid-air, her reinforced tendons emitted high-pressure airflow, enabling her to perform several agile aerial maneuvers. Upon landing, the Lynx Claw prosthetics cushioned and silenced the impact, allowing her to land as silently as a cat.

"Leg prosthesis is normal, please test arm prosthesis."

V spreads his arms, and the mantis knife and electric projectile launching system open and close continuously, while simultaneously ejecting highly toxic monomolecular lines coated with chemical toxins from both wrists.

"Please hit the test target."

As Nakamura Kayo finished speaking, a Mizutani Moezuki family-style sports car was thrown from a corner of the test track toward V. V instantly switched to the Thermal Gorilla Arm, raised his hand and punched, smashing the car to pieces amidst a loud bang and a burst of fire.

"Hey, isn't this your car?" After typing the "V" sign, she belatedly realized and asked Nakamura Kayo.

Kayo Nakamura did not deny it: "It is indeed my car. Didn't you give me a raise recently? So I got a new car, Jun Mizutani MZ2."

"I know that car. Its top speed and acceleration are both excellent, and the price is reasonable. By the way, you really are a die-hard fan of the Mizutani series. The Rayfield is clearly better, and you could easily afford to support it with your salary."

"I'm used to driving Mizutani, so I didn't originally plan to change cars. The main reason is that my Mizutani Moezuki is a bit too old. I bought it when I first started working, and it was paid for in installments over 138 months."

"Issue 138?! When will that be?"

"I'll keep paying until I die. If I don't finish paying it off, the debt will automatically be transferred to Shengnan, and he can continue paying it off on my behalf."

"You really know how to ruin your son's life."

"There was nothing I could do. I was too young and naive back then, and I fell for consumerism."

The two chatted about everyday things while working, and finished the test.

"The newly installed software is working normally, and the prosthetic body is working normally," Nakamura Kayo said. "Thank you for your hard work, President V. The virus scan will be conducted at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. Please be on time at the C-Particle Research Center on the third basement level."

V nodded: "I will. You've worked hard too, do you want to come along?"

Kayo Nakamura didn't even look up: "No need, I have some other work to do."

V glanced at her watch; it was already past 9 p.m. She had nothing to say to such a dedicated employee. She simply made a call to Rayfield after leaving: "Order a Sword in the Stone for Ms. Nakamura Kayo. The cost will be paid from my personal account."

Actually, it wouldn't matter if they didn't pay, because the entire Reifeld company belongs to V, not to mention the sports car that Reifeld produces. The reason V pays is simply to make the books look better.

V did become one of Earth's gods before, but more so because of his immense fighting power; he was a nouveau riche. Now that Earth's ruling class has fled to Mars, V has taken over this mess and is finally experiencing what it's like to be a true god.

One of her most unique insights was that she realized those bigwigs didn't care at all whether their companies were profitable or their products were selling well, because finance and currency were meaningless to them; all they really cared about was material wealth.

For example, if V wants to drink tequila, in the past she could only buy it, but now she owns a winery, a winery, a bottle blowing plant, a label printing plant, a packaging plant and a dedicated cold chain transportation fleet, she doesn't need to buy anything at all, she just needs to give the order "I want to drink tequila".

Money has truly become a pile of worthless paper, and even currency has become a tool for corporate bosses to manipulate people's hearts and minds.

Some might argue that V also needs to pay workers' wages.

But in reality, V doesn't actually need to be paid a salary.

Of course, she can pay when she's in a good mood, and she can choose not to pay when she's in a bad mood.

Just like farmers don't have to pay wages to the land, they can fertilize or not, the only difference is a lower yield. But it's not easy for farmers to change land, while it's incredibly easy for V to change a batch of workers.

Anyway, if you don't do it, there are plenty of people who will. If you cause trouble, I will suppress you with armed force. If I can't suppress you, I will abandon the factory and build a new one, and then replace humans with robots, making you all unemployed.

It's outrageous, but that's what the previous company bosses did, which is why the world is so chaotic and Night City is such a piece of trash.

Some people can't even afford to turn on the air conditioner in the summer, but the rich in the Middle East can build giant parasols covering more than 2000 square kilometers in the desert, each of which is equipped with the function of spraying water to humidify and release cool air, so that they can run the air conditioner outdoors.

In fact, the current productivity of mankind is already sufficient to meet the needs of all mankind. The big shots only need to squeeze a little bit out of their fingers to enable the poor to live a life of wealth that they can only dream of. However, people's hearts are always blinded by selfish desires, which eventually leads to the wrath of heaven and the resentment of the people.

Bartmos believed this was a drawback of human self-awareness, and Ultraman also strongly agreed. V agreed with this view, but disagreed with their methods of solving the problem.

If we completely eliminate human self-awareness, then what's the difference between humans and machines?

V doesn't know where the future lies either. Will humans be completely replaced by AI, or will they fight their way out?