2077: V really knows how awesome he is

"I've been appointed, but because I'm here to serve you, I've been unloaded from the ship and installed on your nanotech body."

Vera: "..."

Heaven had mercy, for she could actually detect a hint of resentment in the AI's mechanical voice.

"Haha." Vera chuckled dryly, then promptly changed the subject, asking V, "So how should I train? I can't just go bench pressing, can I?"

"Simple." V took off his coat: "Practice makes perfect."

Vera was taken aback: "Fight you?"

“Otherwise,” V laughed. “Setbacks will make you grow faster.”

"Tch, we're not sure who'll lose yet," Vera said excitedly, fiddling with her fingers as she asked, "Shall we start with one, two, three?"

"Come."

"One...two...take this punch!"

Before he could even shout out "three," Vera suddenly threw a punch, and as if on cue, V also threw a punch. The two fists collided accurately, producing a loud bang.

"Damn it, despicable, they jumped the gun!" Vera cursed, rubbing her aching fist.

V rolled his eyes: "I knew you'd do this, you street punk!"

"That company dog ​​is really cunning, take this punch!"

The two started fighting, clanging and banging. At first, Vera was clumsy and awkward. With a traditional prosthetic body, she could see various indicators such as power output, but with a nano prosthetic body, she didn't have these things at all. She had no idea how to exert her strength and was beaten up by V.

But Vera is also a V, and her fighting talent is even greater than V's.

After a brief setback, she quickly adapted to her new body and eventually even activated the Sinwistan without any instruction, launching a surprise attack that sent V flying—although she had no idea where the Sinwistan was located, since nanotechnologies no longer had traditional physical chips.

"Your intuition is amazing, little sister." V rubbed her chin, which had been slapped.

"Prepare yourself, sister! Today I will end your reign and reclaim the title of V!"

Vera shouted in a very childish way, and V played along. The two looked at each other, smiled, and then stepped forward at the same time, bumping into each other hard.

With a loud bang, the training room was shaken.

Vera's close-combat skills were slightly superior, giving her a slight advantage. V was knocked back half a step, and Vera seized the opportunity to launch a fierce attack, firmly suppressing V. V also regretted his actions; engaging Vera in close combat had been too impulsive. His street-smart life hadn't been for nothing. Although Vera's fighting style was unpredictable, the advantage of her wild, unpredictable punches was that even the AI ​​couldn't predict her next move. V couldn't react in time and was constantly hit. Vera, however, pressed her advantage relentlessly, unleashing a barrage of attacks, determined to take V down today!

Seeing V's defense breached by her punch, leaving her defenses wide open, Vera immediately slashed straight down the middle, aiming a lightning-fast straight punch at V's chin. She was certain this strike would land, and V would surely fall if hit. But at the last second, V's eyes suddenly turned red. She grabbed Vera's fist, not only blocking the attack precisely but also pulling Vera aside and delivering a powerful over-the-shoulder throw.

Another loud bang shook the training room.

V looked down and saw Vera lying on the ground, her eyes rolled back, unconscious.

"Oh no, I used too much force."

Vera woke up five minutes later and was immediately plunged into deep self-doubt.

"Am I that bad? I can't even beat you in close combat?" the poor street kid asked, his eyes brimming with tears.

"It wasn't that bad; I only won by luck."

"Don't try to comfort me. In that last move, you completely overwhelmed me in terms of strength, speed, and reaction time. I know that."

V was both amused and exasperated: "I'm not trying to comfort you, but that's actually a special state that I haven't fully mastered. Whether I can use it or not depends entirely on fate. You were just unlucky and happened to run into a lucky one like me."

"Your attempt at comforting me is really hurtful," Vera said, pursing her lips. "And what do you mean by 'special state'?"

"It is a controllable cyberpsychotic state."

V made a startling statement, leaving Vera stunned: "Holy crap, you really developed it?"

“Strictly speaking, it doesn’t work yet. It’s not working right now, and it’s hard to keep it up. That’s why I said you’re just unlucky.”

Vera didn't care about luck; all she could think about now was the controlled cyberpsychosis scheme.

"Teach me!" Vera clung tightly to V's leg. "I won't let go until you teach me!"

V had no choice but to throw down another chip: "It's all here, learn by yourself. You can use this training ground too. You have two days to adapt to your new body, and how far you can develop it is entirely up to you."

Vera asked curiously, "Aren't you going to be my sparring partner anymore?"

V said irritably, "I almost got beaten down by you just now. You're already stronger than me. Why would I be your sparring partner? You're on your own from now on. Try to get stronger. I'll be relying on you to protect me a hundred years from now!"

Upon hearing this, Vera was immediately filled with a sense of mission. She exhaled two puffs of air from her nostrils and said excitedly, "Don't worry, even if I'm captured by people from the future and used as a sex doll, I won't let them touch a single hair on your head."

"Well, it's not that bad."

V left the training room and, watching Vera humming and hawing inside, remarked with a sigh:

"Not bad, still as easy to fool as before."

Controllable Cyberpsychosis wasn't developed by V for herself, but specifically for Vera. She has her own unique abilities, but there's no need to tell Vera about that.

As the older sister, you always need to have some trump cards, otherwise how can you maintain your authority, right?

V looked at the white clouds on the horizon and chuckled softly, "I'm really looking forward to the future."

Chapter 178 A Short Story About Time Travel

Vera ultimately failed to master the controllable cyberpsychosis mode within two days and was a little unhappy when she set off.

However, she seemed to have a good grasp of her new body, so V was quite happy.

Still in the Time Hall of Astraea, the two prepared to travel through time.

“Same as always,” V said to Vera. “If my memory backup fails to start properly, you will manually insert the memory chip for me.”

Vera looked at the small chip in her hand and nodded heavily.

Astraea checked the program one last time and found no problems, then took out the golden scales again to open the time tunnel.

With a flash of white light, V and Vera disappeared.

Traveling to the future is different from traveling to the past, and it cannot be precisely located. It involves very complex spacetime theories. Since Vera's intelligence level of 3 was too much for her to understand, V didn't go into details. He only told Vera that time travel might not be successful on the first try, so that she could be mentally prepared.

Just as Astraea had predicted, the first time they traveled through time successfully, but the landing point was wrong. V and Vera found themselves in a city completely different from Night City. Judging from the style, it should still be American, but the level of technology was obviously much more backward.

The good news is that V's memory backup started successfully and quickly returned to normal.

V looked around: "Did we successfully time travel?"

Vera nodded, then shook her head: "The time travel was successful, but the era is definitely wrong."

"Let's ask someone."

The two found a young man wearing a plaid shirt and jeans by the roadside. Considering that directly asking him the current year might make them seem like fools, they chose a more tactful way to ask.

Vera tossed a cigarette to the other man: "Hey bro, got the news about the big news lately?"

The young man took the cigarette, smelled it, and showed a hint of delight. His attitude improved considerably: "What does big news have to do with us ordinary people? But it's good that the American Civil War is over. At least we don't have to worry about being conscripted anymore."

Vera and V exchanged a glance, and V whispered, "It looks like 1865."

"By the way, what's the current president of the United States called again?" Vera continued, pretending to be very familiar with him.

The young man, unsuspecting, replied, "Elon Musk."

V: "..."

Vera: "..."

Where the hell did they send us?

Because the deviation was too great, neither of them lingered. They found a secluded place and initiated the return program, returning to 2171.

“This is a huge treasure chest. You did a rather rough job on this.” Vera couldn’t help but complain to Astraea.

"I'm sorry, I need two or three attempts to pinpoint the exact location," Astraea explained, then weakly requested, "Could you please not call me the Giant Treasure Chest?"

Vera was very loyal and immediately said, "Okay, huge treasure chest, no problem, huge treasure chest."

Astraea: "..."

The time travel program was activated again, and this time V and Vera appeared on a battlefield, with several wounded soldiers lying at their feet.

Considering the life-or-death situation, Vera didn't hold back any longer and directly saved the guys with a single injection of nano-repair fluid.

Witnessing such amazing technology, the wounded soldier was stunned and asked, "This technology doesn't exist now. Did you travel back from the future?"

"Oh, so you guys know about time travel?"

"Of course, I was a big science fiction fan before the war broke out."

Since she'd already been exposed, Vera didn't bother to hide anything: "Yes, I traveled back from the future. Who are you fighting against?"

"German devils, we are all Soviet soldiers!" the soldiers replied with great pride.

Vera nodded, thinking to herself: It seems to be World War II.

Then the soldiers asked eagerly, "You're from the future, so you must know the outcome of this war, right? Did great Russia win? Did our descendants live in peace?"

“We won,” Vera recalled history, “but Russia later started another war.”

The soldiers were taken aback: "With whom?"

"Ukraine."

The soldiers were stunned again: "Who are we fighting against, Ukraine?"

Vera: "Ah, this..."

After bidding farewell to the great Soviet soldiers, Vera returned to the year 2171.

V had just finished updating his memories and, seeing that he was still in the same spot, asked in surprise, "Why are we still in the Time Hall? Did we fail to travel through time?"

"The time travel was successful, but it also failed." Vera recounted the situation with a complicated expression. V asked curiously, "So what was your final reply to them?"

Vera scratched her face: "I told them that the Americans are trying to dominate the world, and that the whole world should unite to fight the Americans. They were very happy."

V was speechless for a moment: "Fine, consider it a white lie. Let's do it again, so that Astraea can build a more accurate model."

So the two time-traveled again, this time landing in a city with a European style, but the technology was very backward. There were vintage cars that you would only see in museums running on the streets, and the air quality was not very good either. It was obvious that the time was wrong again.

After Vera and V finished updating their memories, they explained the situation and asked, "Should we go straight back?"

V sighed: "What else can we do but go back? But we're already here, so let's at least confirm the era."

Vera didn't care: "Then the old way, I'll go find someone to ask."

Having come from a street-smart background, she quickly identified her target: a rather down-on-his-luck young man in a military uniform, his face gaunt and brooding. Vera knew that these kinds of people had many stories and grievances; once you struck up a conversation with them, they would launch into a long, drawn-out monologue.

She started with her classic opening line, tossing him a cigarette and asking, "Hey bro, you don't look too happy. Where are you from?"

The man glanced at Vera, wondering why such a beautiful woman would strike up a conversation with him, but at that moment he was penniless and not afraid of being deceived, so he replied, "Austrian."

Vera glanced at the man's uniform: "Why are you thinking of joining the army?"

"I failed the exam, so I joined the army to make a living."

Vera and V were both stunned. Could this be that guy?

What year is it now?

"1914."

Damn, there's no escaping it now.

V had no intention of changing history, nor could she actually do so. She simply considered it a unique experience of confronting historical figures directly, and once the dates were confirmed, she prepared to leave.

But Vera made a cheeky remark before leaving, asking the young man, "Do you like squid?"

"I don't like them. They smell bad, they're filthy, they're oily on the outside and black on the inside. They're disgusting creatures."

"I agree. So, would you like to consider completely eliminating squid from our meals?"

The young man was stunned, and before he could figure out what the words meant, V and Vera disappeared in a flash of white light.

He was so surprised his jaw almost dropped. He rubbed his eyes several times, and finally murmured thoughtfully, "Cleansing squid...?"

Back in 2171, V rubbed his throbbing head and asked Astraea, "Is the model not finished yet?"

"I'm sorry, this is more difficult than I expected."

"Alright, let's continue."

So the fourth time travel was activated again, and V and Vera appeared on a yellow earthen slope. In front of them was a middle-aged man with slicked-back hair, wearing a cotton-padded jacket full of patches, with a hand-rolled cigarette between his fingers, but his eyes were unusually bright, subtly showing his extraordinary nature.

This was clearly another mistake, and Vera was getting impatient. Seeing V updating his memories, she took the initiative to strike up a conversation. Since he had seen her coming over, Vera simply asked directly, "We came back from the future. What year is it now?"

The middle-aged man replied, "1942 AD."