Cyberpunk: Nirvana of Shoko Toyokawa

Chapter 2: Orient Express (3k Blade Plus)

The two bodyguards walking in front nodded.

They recognized Miao Meng's face because it was Miao Meng who confirmed their entry just now.

As for the fact that Miao Meng had just been checking people entering the second underground floor and was now giving instructions on the fourth underground floor, this actually confirmed the authenticity of her identity.

Because in this day and age, in large companies and venues, you can often see receptionists with exactly the same faces.

This is because some companies, for the sake of so-called "corporate employee culture," will reshape the faces of their dispatched workers into a similar appearance to facilitate statistics, identification, and management.

The appearance of two or more receptionists with the same face in the same venue actually indicates that these people are assigned by the same labor dispatch company and entered in the same batch. They are safe and reliable employees.

The leading bodyguards followed Miao Meng's instructions and walked in one direction.

They walked along the paths and turned one corner after another.

The road is a little narrow.

However, they did not have too many suspicions.

Because on the road they saw a venue security guard standing at regular intervals.

They saw a blond armed guard and a black-haired armed guard, both wearing bulletproof uniforms made of carbon nanotubes with special markings issued by Poppin'Party.

These are standard Guard configurations.

The visitors from the Toyokawa family walked past them and entered a small room deep inside.

From the outside, it doesn't look impressive, but once you enter, you can see the interior decoration in gentle colors and soft sofas.

A manager with golden green hair stood in a semi-transparent room nearby. In that room, there was a computer workbench that could communicate with the security center of the entire building.

In the semi-open tea room on the other side, there was a receptionist with blond-blue hair and wearing a blue and white waiter uniform.

Both personnel wore half-face armor.

This kind of face armor is not affected by the will of the wearer and will automatically refract and remove sound. Almost all staff working in confidential places will wear this kind of face armor.

The configuration here is also very standard.

The bodyguards entered the room. They automatically stood near the doors, windows and electronic circuits to ensure everything was safe.

The middle-aged man who was being protected in the middle also sat on the sofa at this time.

The indicator lights on the back of the brain-computer interface of this middle-aged man and all the bodyguards present lit up.

It was a personnel authentication-call access request from the house computer workstation.

The identity and geographic location of the person concerned need to be confirmed so that the person being interviewed can be informed.

The visitors followed the procedure and agreed one by one.

In the translucent room, the manager operates the house software system interface on the computer workbench, confirms and enters the information of each person present, and uploads notifications.

This is also the normal process...

However, there are also some unconventional aspects.

A green light flashed at the computer slot under the computer workbench.

In a place where no one can see, a detailed code entry is completed.

The sending code that Miao Meng had previously implanted was erased.

Next, another detailed code entry was performed.

"..."

Looking at the green text popping up in front of him, the manager pulled out a USB flash drive from the lower socket of the computer workbench and hid it in his palm.

……

【Mortis: Completed.】

“(Everything went as planned.)”

When Xiangzi lowered his head and brought tea, she thought.

Aoba Moka told them about this mission plan when they met 13 hours ago.

According to Moka's information, today, Poppin'Party will show a virus to the guests of the Toyokawa family.

"Viruses are not common retail products. You can't understand them by showing someone a chip or scanning the chip data volume."

That's what Mocha said at the time.

Of course Xiangzi agreed with this view.

To display the virus most intuitively, you need to connect the virus to a virtual system.

"If my guess is correct~" Mocha said at the time, "In order to demonstrate its lethality, ordinary virtual systems are not enough~ So~ the demonstration of this virus will be carried out in the opponent's brain-computer virtual system~"

Detonate the virus in the brain-computer virtual system to observe the effect and status of the virus.

It sounds a bit scary, but it is an order from the Toyokawa family.

"I want this virus' 'display' to become a real display~"

Besides, Mocha's instructions sounded even scarier.

However, having come this far, Xiangzi would not be scared by such a small matter.

The instructions are simple.

Let the [Viral Display] event be unexpected.

At present, it seems that the guarantee for the [Virus Display] activity to go smoothly is the virtual system in the brain-computer of the handover personnel of the Toyokawa family.

After the virtual system is enabled, it will create an identical environment on the existing operating system and run all programs in the virtual environment. All activities to access and change the system will be limited to this environment, which means that the virtual system is isolated from the physical system, and activities in the virtual system will not cause changes to the physical system.

Therefore, although the brain-computer of the handover personnel of the Toyokawa family is definitely connected to the channel leading to the Toyokawa family's main system, this channel only exists in the real system and will not be attacked by viruses, let alone allow the virus to be sent along this channel into the Toyokawa family's information service center.

Therefore, it is very obvious what Xiangzi and others have to do.

It just ruins the virtual system.

Mocha, who assigned the task of "making the [virus display] event go awry", gave Xiangzi two things.

One is a bracelet that can be adapted to Poppin'Party's editing code and contains DNA-like coding.

The other one was a USB flash drive that contained the virus Manticore, which could penetrate virtual systems.

[Sneak into CiRCLE and make contact with the Toyokawa staff before the secret meeting.]

This is only the first half of the task assigned by Mocha.

There is also a second half.

[Contact the Toyokawa personnel, and then place the [Scorpion Tail] into the other party's brain. ]

[Scorpiontail] is a very small virus.

It only takes a moment to contact and upload. Moreover, it is highly concealed, and after penetrating the virtual system, it can cover up the loopholes and prevent the other party's integrity query software from detecting them.

The question is how to put the Scorpion Tail into the opponent's brain.

Mocha's solution to this is:

"Before the meeting, there is a step of calling the other party's personnel~"

"That link will have brain-computer access~"

"Although there are usually a lot of people in that session, as long as everyone is one of us, isn't that fine?"

"Staff, security guards, waiters, managers..."

"All the personnel are our own people, isn't that good enough?"

"Through contact, you can mislead them into believing you and make them relax their vigilance against the 'brain-computer access command'."

"I'll leave this matter up to you guys~"

"After all, you are the only ones who dare to act out such content~"

……

Haha.

Thinking back to what Mocha said, "Only you dare to perform such content," Xiangzi laughed dryly in his heart.

So it was because they were impressed by Ave Mujica's performance that they went through so much trouble to find them?

Has the reputation of Ave Mujica become a bit strange?

"(But it's a good reputation...right?)"

Xiangzi held the tea and walked up to the guest.

"Use it slowly."

Xiangzi put the tea on the table.

Everything is done.

The process was a bit difficult, but Mocha had actually figured out many of the necessary joints. Xiangzi just perfected the structure in the framework. This made the actual operation not difficult.

The Manticore has already crawled into the brain of the Toyokawa guest. Now, all they have to do is leave with the excuse that the meeting is about to start.

"(Leave and wait for everything to happen.)"

Thinking of this, Xiangzi raised his head.

at this time.

Xiangzi, who was standing right opposite the guest, saw the guest's face.

"—"

Xiangzi's pupils contracted slightly.

She now understood what Miao Meng meant by "silver".

Because the entire facial skin of the guest from the Toyokawa family in front of him had been removed through cyber transformation surgery.

The original facial skin was replaced by a silver, mask-like face.

Chapter 256 Path Dependence

Silver face?

what happened?

The face skin was removed and the cyber modification was made into a metal face. Xiangzi had heard of such people.

In some parts of the United States and Europe, large companies require all employees providing reception services to change into this kind of metal facial skin.

Because of this, the main control console can monitor and control employees' visual signals, auditory signals, language signals and even facial expressions through data instructions to ensure that the reception process is foolproof.

However, the Toyokawa family, who managed the City of Joy, did not introduce such a requirement.

...At least, when Shoko was still at the Toyokawa family, the Toyokawa family did not introduce such a requirement.

Xiangzi didn't remember that there was anyone in Toyokawa's family with metal skin implanted on his face.

No. After being cleansed, she doesn't remember much.

Xiangzi tried to recall. However, her memories were already riddled with holes and black areas.

“Who is this person?”

Xiangzi could not find the answer in his own memories.

The Toyokawa family is now beginning to imitate the Arasaka family in Night City?

No... the Arasaka family only replaced the metal skins for the hospitality staff.

The negotiators will not be replaced.

Shoko glanced at the throat of the visitor from Toyokawa intentionally or unintentionally.