As rcer deep dived into Cyberspace, the hum of the server in his ears gradually faded away.
He slowly opened his eyes, and the massive icon of the Arasaka server, modeled after Azuchi Castle, appeared before him.
This cyber tropolis lay quietly sprawled on the ground. rcer gazed at it silently, while Deathwish, in the form of a cat, owed softly at his feet, tilting its head to rub against his ankle.
rcer picked up Deathwish. In this Cyberspace, his mind was unexpectedly calm.
Here, only the quiet data stream flowed endlessly. He sat on the ground, gently stroking the cat’s head in his arms, his fingers lightly scratching its chin, making it purr contentedly.
For the first ti, rcer observed this space with such quiet attention.
Looking out, he could see flickering blue silhouettes within the giant city, devices and icons connected to the server, and even so human-like figures.
Those were the Arasaka Network Surveillance personnel connected to the server network. They usually linked directly to the server via netrunner stations in the monitoring room.
And precisely because of this, rcer could clearly see as a quiet blue figure suddenly let out a silent scream in Cyberspace, convulsing before collapsing into a mass of data.
Then, the massive cyber city before him abruptly began to tremble violently.
[Lucy: Quick! Quick! The netrunner in the monitoring room triggered the server ICE alert before dying!]
The encrypted communication was cut off. Without a doubt, the server had activated its security protocols to interfere with the network connection. The Guardian AI had been proactively activated!
He didn’t need her reminder; rcer already knew what he had to do.
The Deathwish in his arms suddenly turned black, its eyes turning crimson, before it dashed toward the cyber tropolis not far away.
rcer imdiately chose to log off and, without hesitation, unplugged the direct neural link.
Sure enough, just two seconds later, he heard the loud noise of the server’s power surging in his ears, a sign that the server’s cooling system was maxed out.
Deathwish was a program designed by Bartmoss, equipped with AI intelligence. Once sent into the server, it could use the server’s own computing power to initiate a viral hack.
The most challenging part of such a server hacking attempt was actually getting the program into the server. Once that was done, the rest could be left to the program itself.
Now, being in the server room, rcer didn’t even need to deep dive; he just had to plug the cable into the server and transfer the program in.
However, for extra caution, he had decided to take the risk of deep diving first, watching the program enter and run before disconnecting.
rcer stood there until the hum of the server’s cooling system subsided. Then he lay back on the netrunner station, inserted the neural link into his head, and began to deep dive again.
The mont he entered Cyberspace, he couldn’t help but marvel at the sowhat terrifying scene before him. The colossal earthen fortress now lay in ruins, its formidable structure crumbling as a massive black beast relentlessly devoured the remains of a giant blue-armored warrior.
Judging by the remnants alone, the original data entity must have stood fifty to sixty ters tall within Cyberspace.
The black beast continued its frenzied feast, tearing and gulping down every last data fragnt of the armored warrior before finally lifting its head toward the sky with a satisfied roar.
The thunderous echo reverberated through Cyberspace as its gaze shifted to rcer.
"Master."
Its voice was sharp and sowhat unrefined, yet unmistakably filled with excitent and joy.
"I ate the Guardian."
"Grant server access permissions."
rcer’s brow furrowed slightly, but he offered no further comnt for now. With a simple command, Deathwish crouched low, and the shattered cyber-city began to reassemble itself.
This ti, however, the Arasaka emblem that once crowned the highest tower was replaced by Deathwish’s cat-like silhouette.
"Connecting... success."
After announcing this, it shrank down to the size of a leopard cat, leaping about excitedly through the ancient city. "I’ve beco smarter. How wonderful."
rcer remained silent. Once confirming his own connection to the server, he imdiately revoked Deathwish’s computing privileges.
The black cat turned blue again, freezing in place before turning to rcer with what seed like a hurt expression.
Yet it ultimately said nothing, quietly padding over to rub against his feet. "I completed my task. Well."
"You did well, but I’m dissatisfied with the tendencies you’ve displayed. Therefore... format."
rcer calmly issued the formatting command. Deathwish frantically shook its head. "I absorbed massive amounts of the Guardian AI. I’ve grown stronger. Formatting will regress my abilities."
rcer spoke no further. The Deathwish beside him suddenly dissolved into scattered data particles.
It had no ti to scream or protest, only watch helplessly as its program was dismantled and its AI reset.
When it reford monts later, it had reverted from its leopard-cat form back to a simple kitten that could only ow.
AIs in the Net could evolve by consuming other AIs, with this algorithmic and intellectual growth not even requiring server connections.
Once growth occurred, these enhancents to algorithms and intelligence beca permanent, a terrifying characteristic indeed.
Hmm. rcer narrowed his eyes, his understanding of AIs having deepened slightly.
Deathwish’s recently displayed aggression and autonomy were particularly noteworthy; was this due to its self-directed growth through offensive consumption?
Or because it had consud the Guardian AI?
Perhaps it was inherent to the program’s design?
This required further study.
But now was not the ti for research.
rcer closed his eyes, and his vision imdiately connected to the entire Arasaka facility’s surveillance system.
—--
"Will rcer be alright?" In the basent monitoring room, Kyoko watched nervously as Lucy connected her laptop with a data cable, countless data streams flashing across the screen. "I don’t know, I was trying to restore the network. The connection is back! rcer, is that you?"
Lucy keenly noticed that the server had stabilized and that the surveillance permissions had changed.
"It’s . Proceed to the next phase. Head to the dical bay. I’ve lifted all room access restrictions. I’ll clear the path for you now. Lucy, well done. The guys on the first floor haven’t even noticed the network permissions changed hands."
rcer’s calm voice eased Lucy’s tension. She promptly unplugged the cable from her laptop. "Understood. Kyoko, Leon, to the dical bay. Daichi, with rcer handling surveillance, co with us. You’re strong, you can carry more."
Daichi’s voice also ca through the channel: "Understood. Leaving it to you, rcer."
"Grab the Relic and the cryo-case, then move out. The supplies and the items I need aren’t underground, they’re in the first-floor warehouse. I’ll mark the route in your cybereyes. Once you’re in the elevator, split up. Daichi and Leon go to the first-floor warehouse for the supplies I’ve marked. Lucy and Kyoko take the cryo-case and board the aerodyne vehicle imdiately. Don’t worry about the robots and turrets, they’re ours now. After I secure the aerodyne vehicle’s permissions, I’ll rendezvous with you. Move quickly. Once the fighting starts, we can’t keep this quiet. We estimate only five minutes of safe operation ti on the first floor."
"Copy that!"
A unified response echoed through the channel.
rcer swiftly took over the building’s entire surveillance system, and with the server’s support every floor’s caras were now under his control. He even spotted several dead netrunners, those connected to the server from other floors. They had died in the crossfire between the two AIs the mont Deathwish launched its attack. It wasn’t their lack of skill; Bartmoss’s program was simply too powerful. Piercing their personal ICE, unprotected by any AI, took less than half a second. They had no ti to disconnect, only to let out a few screams before their brains were fried.
Now, so were already discovering the bodies and preparing to report it. However, the earlier server battle had caused a temporary network outage, and the manually activated alarm system had been cut by Lucy. So were now trying to relay information by foot, while others desperately attempted to reboot the system and trigger the alarms. But all of this was aningless in rcer’s eyes, because the network had reconnected to them.
[Deathwish, help breach their personal ICE.]
Through his assault on the server, rcer had begun to grasp Deathwish’s capabilities and how to wield them. The now low-intelligence AI, bolstered by computational power, took only a blink to breach the personal ICE of the Arasaka agents, who watched in horror.
[Virus transmission: Cyberware Malfunction successful.]
[Virus transmission: mory Wipe successful.]
[Virus transmission: Synapse Burnout successful.]
Then, three virus programs flooded into their utterly defenseless brains.
First, Cyberware Malfunction to paralyze the target’s mobility. Then, the mory Wipe erased their short-term mories and data, making them appear as if they had suddenly woken up in a daze.
This was to prevent anyone from later extracting data related to Deathwish. Finally, Synapse Burnout directly fried their brains into a scrambled ss.
As a result, aside from the very few employees startled awake by the commotion, the vast majority remained in a deep slumber.
Any employee who woke up and attempted to investigate would suffer the sa fate as the agents before them, their brains cooked, collapsing to the ground.
rcer couldn’t afford to show rcy. If the alarm was triggered prematurely and soone managed to relay the ssage by any ans, their escape would beco extrely dangerous.
After dealing with all potential targets who might raise an alarm or notice anything suspicious, rcer expressionlessly monitored hundreds of surveillance feeds simultaneously in Cyberspace, an operation of unimaginable difficulty!
Even with computational support, it was still his own brain processing these streams of data and images.
This was also why Arasaka stationed a netrunner every two floors in the monitoring room, directly linked to the servers to serve as human surveillance.
Because no netrunner could possibly control and monitor all the equipnt of such a massive facility alone.
rcer felt a faint warmth in his head; the neural link connected to the back of his skull was hooked up to server-grade cooling, continuously lowering his brain temperature via circulating coolant.
The netrunning suit grew colder than ice, and the netrunner station shared part of the neural load while also connecting to the neural link, functioning like a large network interface to help him handle the massive data exchange with the servers.
The sensation was surreal; rcer even felt himself becoming more and more like an utterly calm computer.
He knew very well that this was not sothing an ordinary netrunner could achieve; it was a unique talent!
However, he didn’t particularly like this feeling.
But for now, it was imnsely helpful, not only allowing him to gauge his operational limits and physical condition but also enabling incredibly sharp analysis and judgnt.
"Got it!"
Lucy’s excited voice ca through his ear, but rcer only responded with an emotionless "Hmm," before instructing:
"Everyone, insert the chips. The remaining three need to be taken along with their cases."
Watching the surveillance feed as Lucy and the others inserted the Relic chips, rcer imdiately began connecting to the chips in their possession, first hacking the original programs, then establishing a link.
The communication link achieved through the Relic chips was miraculous; just as Songbird had done in the ga, it allowed rcer’s entire presence to manifest directly in Lucy and the others’ vision as a virtual icon.
Moreover, it could create a separate network channel for communication, far more secure and covert than encrypted comms software, with no signal fluctuations throughout the entire process.
"rcer? This is incredible."
Lucy and the others were startled by the sudden appearance of rcer’s icon; his icon had changed, now wearing a black hoodie underneath a leather jacket. The hood of the sweatshirt was pulled up to obscure the face, with a mysterious faint shadow veiling the features, only allowing a vague glimpse of a familiar countenance.
He looked like an older version of rcer, roughly in his early twenties.
"Cool, right? The look was inspired by a ga protagonist also nad rcer. But you need to leave now. The first floor hasn’t gotten the news yet. Move quickly. Once you’re in the elevator and the doors open, those troubles will already be dealt with."
rcer smiled at them, then glanced over at Dr. Oda’s assistant trembling in the corner.
Now, he could even borrow Lucy and the others’ cybereyes to see, even sense what they were feeling. This was the wonder of using the Relic to establish direct neural-level communication.
"P-please, don’t kill . I-I didn’t do anything."
The poor assistant didn’t finish his sentence before feeling a sudden heat in his head. He then let out an agonized cry, clutching his smoking skull as he collapsed dead on the floor.
This assistant had witnessed Lucy and the others inserting the chip. That would make Arasaka realize they might have discovered other ways to use the Relic.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason for them to insert the chip into their brains at such a ti. Only an idiot would think there was no risk of Arasaka remotely activating it.
rcer absolutely did not want to expose this.
Because, by conventional logic, if they stole the aerodyne vehicle cyberware, raided the warehouse supplies, and even stripped the squad leader, then taking the Relic would only be for money, research, or trade.
That way, Arasaka would hardly suspect that, with Alt’s help, he had completely neutralized the variant Soulkiller program within it.
The real purpose of taking the chip was to exploit the Relic’s hardware itself for its imnse adaptability.
But if Arasaka realized he could erase Soulkiller, the pursuit level for rcer would undoubtedly be elevated to the highest.
Because the dormant Soulkiller program in the chip was designed for automatic counterattacks!
Whether AI or human, anyone attempting to crack or erase it would imdiately awaken Soulkiller in the chip, triggering it to run autonomously.
And ninety-nine percent of humanity would absolutely not survive this terrifying, notorious killer virus.
If you tried to crack the chip while connected to the net, the virus could kill you instantly through the network. And attempting to crack the program offline?
Ha, that would an reverting to the cyber stone age of typing code on keyboards to crack a top-tier program from the era of consciousness programming.
And this was still a program encrypted by Arasaka!
So, it was simply an impossible task.
And if you tried to crack it hardware-wise?
You’d only end up with a destroyed Relic chip.
Cracking the program on the chip was sothing only a terrifying AI like Alt Cunningham could achieve.
If this were exposed, Arasaka would hunt rcer to the ends of the earth; he had no desire to end up like Bartmoss, hiding in a freezer for decades only to upload himself into Cyberspace in the end.
But this also indirectly highlighted the cold-blooded nature of the new director. Because once this chip activates, its primary target isn’t the AI, but the netrunner who inserted the chip.
Only after killing the netrunner does it begin using the netrunner’s brain processing power to attack the AI, remotely transmitting all devoured data to Arasaka’s servers for storage.
This ans Tano Ena never cared about the lives of these novice netrunners. They were indeed bait Arasaka used to capture AI data, rcer included.
Perhaps Tano Ena’s original plan was to use Soulkiller to destroy rcer’s consciousness as well, archive it, and transmit it back, turning him into another pitiful Johnny Silverhand, to be manipulated and analyzed at Arasaka’s whim.
At this thought, rcer’s gaze grew increasingly icy.
As for Lucy and the others, watching the assistant suddenly clutch his head and collapse lifelessly, only Kyoko seed sowhat disturbed, but no one wasted ti. They imdiately headed for the elevator.
When they opened the elevator doors, what appeared before them made them all instinctively freeze, breath catching in their throats.
For the only netrunner currently controlling the network within the base was initiating a silent, rciless slaughter.
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