Cyberpunk: Nirvana of Shoko Toyokawa

"——Are you in a hurry to sell the stolen goods?"

A hand reached out and grabbed the young man's other wrist.

Hai Ling stood behind him, shaking several rows of integrated chips that she had taken out of his trouser pocket at some point.

"The owner of this park said they've been losing things lately."

Hai Ling said.

"I think you have some idea about this, sir."

rustle.

Xiangzi's brain-computer communication signal became better at this time.

As he watched Hai Ling skillfully tie the man's hands behind his back and tie plastic bandages around his thumbs, Xiangzi noticed a message popping up in his brain.

[Basically done! ]

It was sent by Miao Meng.

[I said three days, so it’s just three days, right? ]

【Honest and reliable! 】

[I have started the third rough cut - just need to finish it! ]

【This is fast! 】

[You will be able to come in and see it in a few hours! ]

……

"I never thought that after working for a few days, the most valuable information would come from a thief."

After completing the last car theft mission, Xiangzi was riding in the Columbus Freight three-compartment van on the way to the delivery point. Sitting in the passenger seat, he slid the brain-computer interaction screen in front of him and said.

"This thief is a repeat offender. He made some money by stealing high-tech chips and lived near the Avex research base. He often saw Avex vehicles coming in and out."

"Oh? So you know the curfew hours at the research base?"

Miao Meng's voice came from the headphones.

"I know, but I don't know either."

Xiangzi said.

"He traded a few fingers for everything he knew. The research base has frequently changed its curfew hours in the past month or two. Now, there are no curfew hours at all."

"What do you mean?"

"Just a few days ago, the Avex Research Base abolished the access control system."

"The park has been completely closed off. Only a few vehicles that have been reported and approved are allowed to leave the park."

“They did not allow any outside vehicles to enter except for the returning vehicles.”

"The staff at the research base are not very happy about this decision. The thief has seen Avex employees gathering at the entrance of the research base several times, expressing their dissatisfaction to the guards."

"Ho."

Meow Meng whistled.

"But I have to be dissatisfied! I was locked in a cage just because of my boss's paranoid delusion... If I were there, I would be dissatisfied too!"

"What do you think this means?"

Xiangzi casually tapped his forehead with his knuckles, thinking and asking.

“An opportunity to incite.”

Holding the steering wheel, Hai Ling looked at the road stretching forward in the deep night and said.

“That’s kind of the same thing,” Xiangzi said, “but it’s not easy to do.”

"If it's physically closed, there's no way it could be open online. Avex must have set up the research base as a local area network."

"It is estimated that it will be difficult to contact the internal personnel from the outside and persuade them to defect."

Ok……

Miao Meng probably didn't have any good ideas for a while. The three of them fell into deep thought.

"…Let's take a look at Mewtwo first."

Finally, it was Xiangzi who spoke first. She asked:

"Amoris, how's the thing you pulled out of Watanabe's head?"

"Very good! I have tested it myself using spectator mode! It works!"

Miao Meng said in a brisk tone.

"Ah, but don't ask me to take you in as soon as you get back! It's tiring to lead people - I'm going to sleep first!"

"If you had used the time for chatting to sleep, you would have woken up by now."

"What~ My teammates are chatting, so you let me sleep alone? Are you trying to exclude me? I understand! Oblivionis, you want to spend time alone with Timoris - am I not good enough? I cry, I cry... We were clearly in a relationship where we lingered in the same bed, but you abandoned me and fell in love with another woman..."

After a long day of work, Xiangzi was very sleepy. Now, in addition to being sleepy, she also had a headache.

Xiangzi pressed his forehead and looked out the window to divert his attention.

Occasionally, vehicles passed by them.

[Quartz], [Wuwu], and [Galina].

That moon-white car looks a lot like the business car that used to pick up crychic to go to the rehearsal room...

"(That's enough. Stop thinking about the past.)"

Xiangzi closed his eyes tightly.

Chapter 3: Pass it on, only the boss can't get out of bed ( rewards plus more)

Before Miao Meng was about to describe the matter to the point that "Oblivionis had slept with countless women in the past and then cruelly abandoned them all", Xiangzi and Hailing returned to Miao Meng's apartment.

The meeting wasn't a friendly one, but at least no murder occurred.

Not only that, in the end, the three of them slept in the same bed together.

"…Why is it that now that there's one more place to go, my place is even more crowded?"

Curled up in the corner of the sofa bed, Meow Meng complained.

"It's okay if it's just Xiangzi... but Haizi is here too! Three of us, squeezed into such a small place - I can't accept anything except the kind where they take off their clothes!"

"You said, take a rest for a night and watch it tomorrow." Xiangzi's face was dark, and he pulled away Miao Meng's hand that was making trouble on his waist, "Let Miss Hachiman go back and come back, it's a waste of time."

"Hey - sleep quality is also very important -"

"You can sleep here, right? Both of us sleep in smaller places than you do?"

"This is my home, so of course I have to sleep in the biggest place, right? After all, it's because you're too small, Boss—"

"If you fall asleep too late and can't get up tomorrow, I will directly connect the nerve electrodes to your neck and wake you up - take your feet off my legs."

"How horrible! Is this how you treat the precious hackers in your team? Haizi! Haizi, save me!"

"..."

No one answered.

In the other corner of the sofa bed, Hai Ling had fallen asleep.

……

Miao Meng did not suffer from "neural damage caused by sleeping too crowded" as she said. The next day, she got up from the bed, feeling refreshed and energetic.

On the contrary, when Xiangzi woke up, he felt hopeless and had only pain in his back and waist, as if he had been beaten up the whole night.

"…Ugh, damn."

Maybe it would be better to sleep on the floor.

Xiangzi took a deep breath and got off the sofa bed, facing Shanghai Ling's gaze.

It seemed that Hai Ling had adapted very well to this narrow sleeping environment. She was only wearing an inner lining, moving her body in the sunlight that leaked into the bathroom through the blinds, and she was in quite good condition.

"Ms. Toyokawa, are you okay?"

Hai Ling asked with concern.

"……I am fine."

Xiangzi took a deep breath and said.

"Watching Mewtwo now?"

Meow Dream had already opened the computer she used to edit Mew Dream. She turned around and asked.

Xiangzi took another deep breath.

"Look."

she says.

After a quick wash, everyone ate some foil-wrapped burritos.

The taste is slightly stronger than dog food.

With such thoughts in mind, Xiangzi and Hailing took the two tungsten steel Mewtwo headbands handed to them by Miaomeng and sat down on the sofa bed again.

"Are you ready?"

Miao Mengshen smiled mysteriously and said:

"This is very different from the super dream movies you have seen before~"

“That’s something I’m looking forward to.”

Hailing put on the Mewtwo headband, turned on the light reflector, and said:

"The last time I watched Mewtwo was when I was 13 years old."

"Eh? Then you've wasted the best years of your life! Wait, you haven't watched [Around the Universe]? What was the last thing you watched?"

"[Journey to the Center of the Earth 2003], a high-definition remake."

"Wow! Isn't that super bad?"

"Really? I think it's okay. Although I fell asleep before I finished reading it."

"Hey, no, your life is incomplete like this. Haizi, after we're done, I'll recommend you a few movies—"

"Not okay yet?"

Xiangzi couldn't help but ask, his brows furrowed more and more.

"Oh, okay! Don't be so anxious!" Meow Meng yelled.

"I didn't see you—"

I didn't see you operating it.

Xiangzi wanted to say this, but her words were interrupted by the halo reflector that suddenly flashed white in front of her eyes.

……

When he could see again, Xiangzi found himself standing outside the main gate of a huge research base.

On the side of the main entrance, there is a plaque with the words "Avex Brain Science Research Base".

The clean ground is spotless, and the bright sunlight shines on the pure white building, making it sparkle.

Quiet and clean.

In the distance, there were some human figures, but they were gray, unreal, and silent.

Just looking at all this in front of him made Xiangzi feel a strong sense of unreality.

"Is this the Mewtwo master tape?"

Hailing, who was standing to Xiangzi's left, looked around and said: