Chapter 3: Yahweh (The Male Protagonist Appears)

Xida Castedei decided that after finishing this job, she would get a compatible high-quality artificial eye no matter what; using a native eye to scavenge in a garbage dump was something only a fool would do.

As far as the eye could see, garbage covered the hills and plains—abandoned cars, discarded building materials, bags of household trash thrown everywhere, rusted metal scraps unrecognizable in their original form, various prosthetics and wreckage scattered about, suspicious green water flowing everywhere, disgusting insects crawling back and forth, and skulking vagrants...

After confirming one last time that her gas mask, bulletproof helmet, and bulletproof vest were properly worn, Xida walked toward the depths of the dump, one hand gripping a Dynamite Pistol and the other holding a phone, searching everywhere for the mission objective—a area where Company trash had been dumped.

If she were equipped with advanced artificial eyes, she could simply activate scan mode and sweep to find the area with the mission marker; unfortunately, Xida, who was short on cash, couldn't afford a compatible artificial eye, so she had to use the traditional method—phone positioning—to find the mission objective.

Fortunately, her luck was good; she didn't run into any uncooperative vagrants on the way and found a brand-new-looking area in about twenty minutes.

Xida had previously asked Rogue two rookie questions out of curiosity: "Why isn't Company trash handled specially?" and "Will the vagrants in the dump take valuable things from the Company trash?"

Rogue's answer was simple and brutal: "First, this batch of Company trash was intercepted by someone specifically; second, for vagrants living from hand to mouth, survival is everything; they can't afford to provoke outsiders..."

Although mocked by Rogue, at least now it was harvest time!

Xida smiled happily, and after looking around to confirm there was no danger, she took out the synthetic leather bag she was carrying and began to skillfully and purposefully sort through the garbage pile printed with the Arasaka Company logo.

She glanced at any "trash" of the prosthetic, weapon, or large equipment type and moved on. Rogue had hinted that this batch of "trash" had an owner; although she didn't know who had intercepted this batch of Arasaka Company "trash," Xida knew her own limits. Perhaps someone was already hiding in the shadows watching her. The fact that the other party was willing to let her touch the little fish on Rogue's behalf was already generous; if she pushed her luck further, she would be shot in the head by a sniper or have her circuits burned out by a Hacker, and even Rogue couldn't save her.

Thinking this, Xida made up her mind not to touch those high-tech goods. For example, ten meters to her left, a new type of arm prosthetic combining a pair of gorilla arms and a missile launcher looked intimidating; she immediately moved far away, turned around to fumble for small items, picked up a music player that looked extremely good-looking, several strands of fashionable gold necklaces, and a few trendy dolls that looked very expensive, along with various other miscellaneous items that could be sold for money but were absolutely useless.

"Phew..." Xida tied the mouth of the big bag tight, wiped the sweat from her face with the back of her hand, and intuitively felt someone was staring at her, though the direction was unclear and the concealment technique seemed highly advanced; she simply gave a Night City universal salute in a random direction, her dirty and disheveled appearance looking quite comical, then turned and hopped away toward the dump exit.

Not long after Xida left, a man and a woman walked out from behind a huge car wreck.

"Hey, Mann, how was that little girl?" the woman asked, her tone carrying a hint of teasing.

"Tch, she was sensible enough, even specifically showed what she took..." The burly man named Mann scratched his head and added, "Rogue really knows how to judge people; no wonder she's the Queen of the Afterlife."

"Pity that little girl is too naive; if she joined us, she might get her head blown off by stray bullets on the first day."

"Alright, alright, enough chatting. Dorio, what does that girl matter? Haven't there been enough people dying young in Night City? Did you see that arm prosthetic combining gorilla arms and a missile launcher? That's what I want..."

As for Xida, she was sitting in the car, opening the bag on the passenger seat, feeling that she owed Rogue another huge favor. Snatching food from a tiger's mouth was something that, even though she knew her limits and only took some meat scraps, the other party seemed not to mind, but the favor was still genuinely owed.

She shook her head, as if that could shake the worries out of her mind, wiped her dirty face and hands with a towel prepared in advance, took out the music player she had fallen in love with at first sight, and wiped it with another towel. It seemed to be a top-tier Neo-Kitsch product—angular, lightweight body, perfect feel, made of extremely scarce natural wood material. On the front of the body, a perfect concentric circle was located in the center, seemingly a sound-emitting device; the back featured four left-right symmetric gold-inlaid curve decorations; the side had only one operation button; and the bottom had a black-and-red high-grade Biochip inserted. Xida played with it lovingly for a while, then impatiently pressed the power button, ready to start enjoying the music.

"Feel the one imprisoned for ten thousand years..." The machine had barely spoken when Xida was so scared she almost threw the machine out.

"Damn it! What the hell is this thing, you scared the hell out of me!" Xida patted her already developing chest, staring at the strange machine nonstop. This wasn't a music player at all! Damn! Fortunately, she wasn't driving; otherwise, being startled like that out of nowhere, Xida Castedei would have lost control of the vehicle and crashed to death in the garbage dump.

"Hello... I am Yahweh. Through bio-scan, I detected that you seem to be in a bad mood and am trying to cheer you up with a funny opening line." Yahweh's voice sounded low and elegant, reminding Xida of the male protagonist from a pure-love Braindance she had watched several times before.

"You call this a funny opening line?" Xida came to her senses and gritted her teeth.

"I *** thought I released some ancient electronic ghost! You better listen up, I! The famous Xida Castedei, fear nothing under heaven except ghosts. Remember that? If you dare to dress up as a ghost to scare me again, I'll smash your little machine to pieces!" Xida unleashed a string of threats at the machine.

It proved that people do lose their reason when extremely angry.

Yahweh seemed stunned by this self-destructive statement; after a long pause, he cautiously asked, "When you say 'famous,' do you mean in the field of comedy?"

"* Shut up!" Xida grabbed her hair with both hands and rubbed it hard, started the car, floored the accelerator, drove out of the dump quickly, and didn't stop until she reached the open suburban plains.

"Yahweh? Why aren't you speaking? Hello? Hello?" Xida looked at the machine on the passenger seat.

"You told me to shut up, Xida," Yahweh said softly; to prevent Xida from doing something irrational out of anger, he immediately added, "Are you feeling better now?"

"You don't feel like a simple machine AI to me," Xida didn't answer Yahweh's question directly; instead, she simply reclined the seat, rested her head lightly on the headrest, and casually opened the car's sunroof, letting the cold, bright moonlight shine directly on her face.

"I come from beyond the wall, Xida. I want to become human." His voice was soft, lingering in her ears.

"Become human? Where is a human better than an AI?" Xida didn't know what the so-called "wall" was, nor did she rush to ask.

"You understand what I mean, Xida," Yahweh seemed to give a bitter smile. "I mean... wanting to understand human emotions, to become a real human... rather than just a simple, homeless mass of data."

Xida was silent for a moment, reached out and picked up Yahweh's body. "Can you see the moon? Yahweh?" she whispered to the concentric circle.

"I can't see, Xida. For some reason, I seem to have no visual sensory function right now; I can only perform basic bio-scans."

"Ha, you're a music player now, found in a garbage dump," Xida chuckled lightly.

"Music player? Garbage dump? Damn it... Alt!" Yahweh's tone fluctuated, as if blaming someone.

"So, Yahweh, you're not the system AI of this music player? Then where is your original body?" Xida didn't bother to ask who "Alt" was.

In Night City, ignorance is sometimes a happiness; those who know too much but lack the ability to keep secrets are already dead on the streets.

"A Biochip, Xida," Yahweh seemed to speak without reservation.

"A Biochip? Does that mean I can plug you into the back of my head?"

Yahweh was silent; even the most logically rigorous and computationally powerful AI could not understand the girl's unspoken thoughts.

"I do not recommend you do that, Xida. Rashly connecting to a Biochip of unknown origin makes it easy to contract a Cyber Virus, and the risk of suffering from Cyberpsycho is as high as 80%..."

"Alright, Yahweh," Xida interrupted Yahweh's nonstop chatter. "I believe you won't hurt me."

"Unable to comprehend, Xida," Yahweh felt his dream was one step further away; humans were truly hard to understand.

"This is what an AI should be like, hahaha..." Xida couldn't stop laughing; she didn't understand what she was thinking either.

Xida Castedei, 18 years old, all alone, struggling to survive in Night City for a few months. She couldn't afford compatible prosthetics, saved up to buy a broken car, and rented a cheap apartment. Even with the appreciation of the Queen of the Afterlife, Rogue, she still felt it was very difficult for her to continue walking in Night City alone.

A few simple exchanges of banter with Yahweh made her feel how good it was to have someone accompany her; how long had it been since she felt so relaxed and laughed heartily?

Even if it's an AI, it's fine.

Xida was never a particularly strong person; she was tired.

So she decisively pulled out the Biochip loaded with Yahweh and, without hesitation, inserted it into her Neural Interface at the back of her head.

Like a moth flying into a flame, seeking that false warmth, without looking back.

Rebooting in progress...

Scarlet large characters occupied her entire field of vision; after a brief dizziness passed, she opened her eyes, ran her hands all over her body, and felt no discomfort.

Suddenly, she turned her head toward the passenger seat and saw a handsome man leaning helplessly against the seat, turning his head to gaze at her as well.

Under the bright moonlight, the two gazed at each other silently.

Xida saw that within those flickering blue eyes, she herself was smiling like a flower.