Elliot was really timid, yet inexplicably bold.
Just within these few minutes of interaction, Lille had already defined this kid: an incredibly ordinary person, he even has... an ordinary job that most people would consider standard.
It sounds strange, but Lille had never encountered anyone in this world whose survival depended on a job unrelated to boxing, knife fights, or gun battles.
Checking his system records, he doesn’t even have any experience of fighting or arguing due to loyalty, truly a model citizen...
Yet online, he frequently registers with different aliases to rant and curse at people, finding his biggest amusent in participating in discussions of significant events, comnting on the current affairs.
His job is to maintain the Anglo-French channel—
This channel was originally an underwater tunnel connecting the UK and France, but after the old net collapsed and the AI rebellion, nurous military units bombed the underwater tunnel, taking the EU a long ti to restore order. Now, the tunnel has been reduced to a small-scale supply and information transport channel, and it’s almost an unattended logistics tunnel.
His job is to follow procedures to inspect robots, equipnt, and the like, essentially just a company pawn:
A pawn of the European Tunnel Company.
But the corporate pawns in Europe are quite different from those in Night City; here, the company’s work signifies stability, especially in a governnt-controlled giant corporation like the European Tunnel Company.
In Europe, within the protective scope of the European Barrier, the cri rate is extrely low, and people with criminal records find it nearly impossible to get a job.
"...But bypassing the firewall... bypassing the firewall is quite common!"
[Lille: Stop with the nonsense! Why are you talking to yourself now!]
Elliot braced himself, hands trembling as he plugged his personal link into the port...
While working, he was so scared that he closed his eyes: illegal activities for profit/hacking are serious cris that attract not just ordinary police, but network supervision!
He even imagined that once he plugged in the link, the entire building’s blast doors would close, a group of network agents would rush to the building base, shouting "Network supervision! Shut down the equipnt!" and then drag him away to be executed!
Click—
But none of that happened, only the door opened.
Just as if he really was a maintenance worker.
[Johnny: Alas... I’ve seen timid people, but not soone so cowardly...]
[Johnny: I say, can’t we just rush onto the network? Murphy used to say runaway AIs are just like Arasaka Company’s ninja, everywhere, unpredictable, going wherever they want.]
[Lille: With your intelligence of only 3, just stop pointing fingers and talking nonsense.]
[Johnny: Alas... I just can’t stand cowardly people, cowardly yet playful, pretending to sneak into the maintenance room as if it’s costing him his life, with no need for him to think!]
Elliot’s body stiffly walked into the maintenance room, able to hear Johnny’s berating in his head, but he didn’t retort.
The feeling of illegality is quite peculiar; not every place in this world is like Night City, where street kids instinctively know how to practice their "craft" using public facilities.
[Lille: Put on the helt, then connect to the central control.]
According to Munemasa, Europe’s early twenty-first-century research aid to allow software and hardware to function together by design, maintaining only certain capabilities and preventing too many other actions.
Simply put, Elliot, his tiny apartnt, and the calculations of this entire building are just enough, the designed tolerance only sufficient for a few unexpected situations.
This "just enough" design allows the average person to operate very stably, but most of the ti, on a macro level, it doesn’t support the so-called creation of "hackers."
Accommodating two agile AIs Lille and Munemasa is already the limit. To hack in, additional facilities are needed to help...
The extra facility is the helt Elliot bought from the stall.
Although this helt looks very suspicious, there’s no other plan for now. The only thing they are sure about is that this helt is now under their control.
The helt’s chip is just suitable for hacking operations, sothing beyond this "just enough" design concept, essentially, a very old head-mounted access capsule.
Elliot plugged the helt into the central control console.
"What... what do you plan to do?"
[Lille: Create so disguise for you, fiddle with... the Black Wall is a very dangerous operation, ordinary people simply can’t repair it, but you’re lucky, I’m not ordinary.]
[Munemasa: I’ll open access to this apartnt and falsify so power outages, though my operation will attract the Black Wall’s attention.]
[Munemasa: I need you to use your... unique skills to help avoid the Black Wall’s scrutiny.]
The Black Wall is not just a wall; it’s a system, a defense sche, in the network supervision stronghold of Europe, this system is even more perfect.
Actually, if it weren’t for Lille, it would be only Munemasa who passed over that wall to reach Elliot’s system, daily system updates, data synchronization, and fault reconnections would detect abnormal existence.
As for Lille...
In Cyberspace, he now appears as a chanical octopus, the chanical octopus attached to Elliot’s prosthetic system, distorting his data form, producing a relatively complete and normal data image.
This disguise is entirely dependent on Lille’s ability to forge code recognized by the Black Wall as "emotions."
In human eyes, there is nothing unusual.
[Lille: Get to work.]
With his assistance, Munemasa, this AI familiar with European technology, is an AI capable of evading the Black Wall.
It’s the killer of European electronic devices.
...
Foxstone, Network Supervision Office.
This city is located at the border, near the sea, serving as a crucial transportation hub between the UK and France. The geographical peculiarity also mandates that a network supervision office be established here.
In the office, two staff mbers sat on hacker chairs, blue light flickering in their prosthetic eyes.
[Network Surveillance Agent A: Sothing is hitting the inner wall, seems like there’s a runaway AI coming over...]
[Network Surveillance Agent B: What bad luck, didn’t expect sothing to happen during our shift.]
[Network Surveillance Agent A: Location in Tunnel Array, that place has indicators of firewall helts; take it easy, maybe we’re completing an indicator, do this job well, and there’ll be no worries about performance for this quarter.]
[Network Surveillance Agent A: Headquarters will soon assign Dragon Hunter support to us; let’s go over first.]
[Network Surveillance Agent B: Alright, alright... What I wanted was to keep lying here watching these dimwits fooling around on the network.]
[Network Surveillance Agent A: Speaking of which, did you hear about the moron who took forever to correctly open that helt recently?]
[Network Surveillance Agent A: Once opened, imdiately searched for springs, really... dumb as a rock.]
[Network Surveillance Agent B: Haha! After all, these people, even have to take out loans just to buy a Super Dream, you have to empathize with them more.]
[Network Surveillance Agent B: Elliot Grove, hmm... this kid right?]
[Network Surveillance Agent B: Fat as a pig.]
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