Cyberpunk: Nirvana of Shoko Toyokawa

The pianist told the bartender and the guests in the bar what she had seen and heard.

"There was fighting everywhere. I leaned out and saw that the electric barrier had been blown up."

"Strategic weapons were whistling overhead. The food factory was about to be destroyed by stray bullets. I had only one thought in my mind: 'Run, get out of here.'"

"I kept running towards Complex 1. On the way, I was caught in the detonation of a high-energy mine. One of my eyes was blown out and my face was burned, but I still managed to escape here."

"I begged the guards to let me in with the little food I had. The guards agreed. Here, I used the food and water I brought from the food factory to exchange for medical services and treated myself... But my food supply has run out... So I came here to find a job..."

"I used to work as an ambient sound distributor at Honeycomb's company. I have a chip that can handle electronic music. This includes electronic keyboard technology."

The pianist's experience is legendary.

However, compared to the other drunk people in the bar who boasted about things like "they once defeated 100 BCPD police officers by themselves", "they once hijacked the Hello, Happy World!" hovercraft", "they once chatted and laughed with the big shots of [Seven Bands]", and "they have connections with the Toyokawa family", the pianist's words were not eye-catching enough.

There is no shortage of stories in the bar.

However, there is a lack of people who can do things.

The bartender, the only employee in the bar and also the owner, asked the pianist to try the keyboard.

The level is pretty good.

So, she was hired.

It was about this time that the bar business began to stabilize and bring in extra income. People with means began to live a somewhat controllable and stable life and began to want more entertainment.

Music can satisfy these growing needs.

The pianist played well. Or in the ordinary sense. But then again, most people here can't tell the difference between "bad", "good" and "not ordinary good".

It's enough for them to have music to listen to.

They are all from the city of music. Since childhood, they have been accustomed to the overly noisy environment and the high saturation of auditory information brought by high-power amplifiers.

I can barely survive without food, drink, hands, feet, or frontal lobe, but I can't stand the days without music.

There were more customers in the bar, and some faces that had not been there before appeared.

The bartender received "equal value" goods from more customers, but in return only provided food, water and shelter to the pianist.

A very worthwhile deal.

The bartender, the pianist and the guests were all very satisfied.

After the order of the bar was fixed, it underwent another change, and the new order replaced the old one.

Maybe this doesn't mean anything.

Maybe, that explains a lot.

……

thump.

After playing the last note of "The Rebel Path (electronic adaptation.ver)", Xiangzi lifted his fingers from the keys and turned off the effects synthesizer.

Behind me, there was a lot of noise.

"..."

Fearing that his playing would attract unnecessary attention if he played too well, Xiangzi had been careful to keep his playing at a "chip level" since he started working in the bar.

but……

"(Is the song you just played okay?)"

No one really applauded—no one even looked over.

This still made Xiangzi feel a little lost in his heart.

"(……)"

Don't think about boring things.

Do serious work.

In the interval between changing the music scores, Xiangzi played a soothing chord progression with one hand and quietly turned on the sound pressure analyzer in his ear.

Behind him, the voices of the drinkers' conversation reached Xiangzi's ears.

Chapter 396: Picking Someone Up After get off work

"I haven't seen Tiger Head's nails for several days. Where did they go?"

"I'm swimming at the bar."

The drinkers drank and talked about these things.

The words were captured by Xiangzi's sound pressure processor, amplified, and then entered into the brain-computer.

The brain machine made a slight humming sound.

Words are transformed into text, and the text gradually changes.

Finally, the new results are output.

……

Customer A: "I haven't seen [Tiger Head (name - highly concerned - suspected regional leader)]'s thugs for several days. Where have they gone?"

Drinker B: "In the shopping mall five kilometers to the north, they are attacking the refugees who have not been incorporated."

……

After translation, the jargon became two understandable sentences.

This is the result of Xiangzi's long-term observation.

In the Internet age, due to the existence of fast networks, once a slang becomes popular, it will spread rapidly at a viral speed within minutes, hours, or even days.

However, this kind of transmission has long disappeared due to the high virus content of local area networks.

Slang is no longer transmitted through brain-computer communication, but only through face-to-face communication.

This means that even the most frequent customers of the bar do not have a comprehensive understanding of all the jargon.

As a secondary language system separated from the Internet environment, the jargon system of the Small Center Area has just started after 4 months.

There are still people who mix slang with standard language, and some who have just started to change their way of speaking.

Xiangzi has been working as a pianist in the bar for a week.

She listened to the conversations of these "unskilled people" and then inferred the connection between the slang they mentioned and the standard language.

In the end, only a little bit of computing power is needed to perform AI calculations, and the complex knot will be naturally untied.

……

Customer A: "Hasn't that thing finished testing yet?"

Drinker B: "I don't know. Maybe they just want to have more fun."

Drinker A: "Fuck, let's talk about it after we have a good time? It's always like this."

Drinker B: "Thank goodness they wanted to have a good fight! If they don't come back, we can have a good life! Look, in the past ten days, the [Inner District] has never been so quiet as it is now, and we don't have to worry..."

Drinker A: "Yeah, yeah, I'm really envious... Damn, why do all the good things end up in Tiger Head's hands?"

Drinker A: "Forget about the rest, but what's in the backpack? I touched a blueprint... I was the first one to touch it, but before I could even warm it up in my hands, I was asked to 'surrender' it——"

Drinker B: "Shh! You've had too much to drink! Watch out for the bartender!"

Drinker B: "Do you think that without paying tribute to Tiger Head, this bar can be run safely? Be careful that he will tell Tiger Head about your affairs! They will rip people's fingers off alive..."

Customer A: "XXX's..."

……

The high psychedelic feeling brought by taking alcohol always makes people talk more.

During the days when he sat here and played the electronic organ, Xiangzi learned some things.

First, there is geographical intelligence.

The local refugees divided the [Comprehensive Area 1], which was renamed the [Small Central Area], into the [Inner Area] and the [Outer Area].

The [Inner Area] is an area protected by guards, with basic order and slightly better public security, and it is home to merchants and service facilities.

The [Inner District] is located in the south of the [Small Central District] and occupies only about 1/10 of the entire [Small Central District].

After a long period of monitoring, Xiangzi found out that there was a leader called "Tiger Head" who was in charge of the [inner area].

He was not like Xiangzi who led Ave Mujica, who was eager to expand his territory and climb to a higher position.

It was just because he had the highest level of cyber transformation that he naturally gained an advantage in strength during the initial chaos and plundered more resources.

In order to manage these resources, he hired some refugees to protect them, which led to the formation of the "Inner Area".

Of course, judging from the intelligence currently available, Tiger Head’s management style is quite primitive, authoritarian and brutal.

A large number of refugees who have no money to spend and cannot provide value are still living in the [outer areas], leading a dangerous life with no food to eat.

Then, there is the BCPD's "secret weapon"...

Sure enough, ordinary refugees could not hide those weapons at all.

"(He was eventually captured by Tiger Head.)"

Xiangzi listened to the conversation of the drinkers and thought.

In fact, it’s not just these two drinkers who came today.

A few days ago, Xiangzi had heard from other drinkers that "Tiger Head" had obtained the BCPD's "secret weapon".

"Tiger Head" gave some of these secret weapons to his thugs - Xiangzi had heard about this before.

However, this was the first time Xiangzi heard where the thugs holding the "secret weapon" were.

A comprehensive shopping mall five kilometers to the north.

"(Is there a 'secret weapon' there...)"

There's a clue.

Xiangzi thought.

……

The drinkers who had drunk too much alcohol started talking nonsense about opening the chest, bottle caps and [Ingram MAC-10] in the back.

Xiangzi looked at his artificial eye and organized and filed the information he had just heard in his brain computer.

When the words [Data entry completed] popped up, Xiangzi took a look at his mailbox.

Among the highlighted contacts, the name of [Hiromachi Nanamika] is still gray.

Morfonica never contacted me.

"(You said you would contact me later, but more than a week has passed and there is still no news?)"

Take the initiative to contact...

...Let's wait a moment.

Xiangzi slid down the interface.

Below, there are request emails from several important believers, led by [Rika Ashida].

The content includes stage reports, "local tax" tax situation, personnel adjustment requests, etc.

Xiangzi took a quick look at it. She had dealt with a few urgent requests—about the flow of funds and the distribution of materials—and planned to take her time to read the rest.

"..."

Ding dong.

At this time, the artificial eye popped up an incoming message from a highlighted contact.

【Mortis】.

It is harmony.

Mu came to contact me.