Chapter 235 - 217 Little Little Octopus

Watching Lille construct his own digital image, Blais couldn’t help feeling surprised in his heart.

Computational power is the cornerstone of activities in Cyberspace.

It’s a comprehensive indicator, determined by factors such as a hacker’s equipment, prosthetics, brain functions, and so on, which then constitute an individual’s image in Cyberspace.

In Cyberspace, hackers face fewer restrictions, and although physical laws still apply here, they’re not as direct.

Computational power builds programs, or images, which as extensions, influence everything in Cyberspace, affecting the real world.

You could be human, or a lamp god, or a Spider Queen, wielding a web of data fortifications...

You can become anyone you wish to be, provided your computational power is strong enough and your skills refined enough.

As for Lille... to the Network Supervision Committee, his skills were that of a decent street hacker, but his computational power...

Was immense.

His image was very solid, built brick by brick with sincerity, without trying different structures on a whim because of that sensation of mastering and creating everything, and not adorning himself with things that are flashy but useless.

The less you understand and the more impulsive you are, the more likely you are to leave vulnerabilities in the program, which seasoned hackers can exploit.

And that is a mistake almost all hackers make at the novice stage.

"...Access pod neural chip model... Military Technology Parallel Line, no memory expansion components, no traces of cerebral matter enhancement, no symptoms of prosthetic stimulation...

Almost pure computation, brainpower around 12... that’s too exaggerated...

Have you really not considered working for the network monitor? The Network Supervision Committee would provide you with better resources."

Blais appeared composed, but observing the foundation Lille revealed, he was becoming less so—

What does a brainpower of 12 imply?

Ordinarily, the human brainpower limit is 10 for purely physical humans who rely solely on their hand and eye movements to operate on a computer panel.

In fact, even for those who have prosthetics installed, the brainpower of the vast majority of hackers typically doesn’t break past this number.

A brainpower of 12 would be enough for Lille to apply for a core hacker position at a large company, and the company would be more than willing to equip them with expensive prosthetics—

Of course, assuming he’s willing to sign his name on a "contract."

"Not interested—why don’t you mention the catch?"

"Work in exchange for compensation, you consider that a catch?"

"I find it’s not worth it, so yes, it’s a catch."

"Whatever you say. Your idea is kind of retro, sounds like those brain-dead hackers from the old net era, controlling themselves and killing freedom all day long."

"Brain-dead? The hackers of the old net era caused companies headaches and even brought down the old net. If they were brain-dead, what does that make you..."

"Stop!"

Blais interrupted Lille’s stinging remarks; just as Lille’s image was fully constructed.

A very standard human appearance, but only enough to tell at a glance that this is a humanoid.

Lille didn’t even outline his facial features. Most hackers wouldn’t sketch features in Cyberspace either, but they typically would wear masks or helmets to showcase their individuality.

But Lille didn’t; his image looked like... a person entirely made of digital light flow, without distinctive features.

Blais’s mouth twitched: "Don’t you think your image lacks even more features?"

Lille: "If I’m the only one in Cyberspace lacking features, then that itself becomes a feature."

"...All right, try loading your Magic Doll."

Magic Dolls, their names make sense only when you see them in Virtual Space.

The most common and basic type of Magic Doll for hackers: "Ice Cone (ICE Breaker)," which looks like a sharp blade upon loading in Cyberspace.

The sole function of the Ice Cone is to break through the enemy’s ICE, a typical example of an extremely specialized program.

Because of its malleability, it can be combined with other software to pave the way and set the foundation for humanoid-type programs.

The blade crafted from computational power flows with the luster of data, sharp and beautiful.

Blais nodded in approval:

"Good choice. If you chose those programs that street hackers love like prosthetic malfunctions and Prosthetic Eye reboots, I would’ve had to spend more time explaining Cyberspace programs to you.

I guess you already grasp what I’m trying to say."

Lille nodded.

The logic within Cyberspace is vastly different from reality, but overall, many aspects still make sense.

After all, the principal aim of developing Cyberspace is to make people "feel" those signals.

Lille experimented with combining the Ice Cone onto a prosthetic malfunction, turning the blade into a short dagger.

This sensation was indeed fascinating; a hacker is like a creator in Cyberspace, with data and electric currents coordinated by nerves visibly transforming in their hands...

It’s an experience that no virtual reality technology can match.

Facing this scene, Blais was surprised again: This was Lille’s first time entering Cyberspace, yet he had already learned to combine different programs to create a new Magic Doll.

Lille dissolved the Ice Cone, the short dagger shattered into light particles that returned into his body: "Got any powerful Magic Dolls for me to try?"

Blais sneered: "Little brother, you’re just a contract worker. Making it this far is already exceptional, and you haven’t even started working!

However, since we’re now somewhat superior and subordinate, I advise you to continue perfecting your digital image.

In battles within Cyberspace, the initiator has a massive advantage. A hacker with weak computational power, with the right program, plus a surprise attack, can completely take down a hacker with several times their computational power.

If the opportunity is right, taking down a hacker with multiple times their computational power is not impossible.

You need to learn to be always battle-ready, maintaining the operation of protective, detection/alarm type programs.

Of course, it’s even better to have a massive data fortification on hand—"

Showboating, Blais shifted to the side, unveiling to Lille the enormous data fortification.

Streams of data branched into the high walls, and the mechanically textured digital walls continued to mesh slowly, moving...

In the physical world, people feel intimidated by skyscrapers hundreds of meters tall, but in Cyberspace, a powerful data fortification can give the illusion of being kilometers high.

If you use the right concealment techniques, it could be endless—

And these massive beings seemed to come to life, ready to attack you at any moment.

Human discomfort and helplessness when facing gigantic objects is exponentially or even infinitely magnified in cyberspace.

"Join the Network Supervision Committee and you’ll be able to move around in cyberspace using these data barriers—and oh, there are also these Advanced Demon Dolls."

As Blais said this, he reached out his hand—

An image looking much like a little demon descended shakily from the air, holding a burning bow and arrow in one hand and a chain in the other, attached to the other end of the chain was...

A vicious bulldog.

The bulldog came over to Lille, sniffing around as if it were a real dog, identifying the newcomer.

The lifelike quality of the image was astonishing.

"When you have control over powerful programs, you can combine them as you wish.

And to integrate complex programs, there’s another type of high-level program that is actually closer to what you’d call a Magic Doll than the garbage software sold on the streets.

We refer to these programs as: Demon Program Sets (Note).

They have a degree of autonomy and, in a sense, could be considered AI, but with very low intelligence, so you don’t have to worry about them burning out your brain.

The framework used by this program is called Little Octopus, just like its name suggests, it has the appearance of a little demon."

"This Little Octopus is mainly in charge of managing the bulldog and Hell’s Arrow, specifically designed to defend against attacks in cyberspace.

"When your hacking skills are on par with ours, you can also try to write your own..."

Before he could finish, Blais suddenly saw Lille’s digital image begin to undulate and tremble...

A small octopus... it seemed like an octopus; he had seen this species on the Science Channel.

A small octopus crawled over Lille’s digital form, settled on his shoulder, and looked around, bobbing its head to survey its surroundings.

Cyberspace suddenly fell into silence.

Lille was panicking inside, but he couldn’t show it, and he couldn’t even talk to the Little Octopus.

So he played it cool:

"This is my Demon Program Set, loaded with... several target location systems to help me sense cyberspace."

No sooner had he spoken, the Little Octopus lifted its tentacles, its limp arms elongating and reaching towards the bulldog’s head, even the suckers pulsating...

Blais lost his composure at this sight—

Why was this happening!

It had taken him two full years of study at the academy to build his first stable Demon Program Set!

Lille, as if nothing was out of the ordinary, grabbed the octopus’s arm and pressed it back down: "Hmm... there’s still some trouble with recognition, I’ll adjust it a bit more."

Blais started to speak slowly: "You..."

Before he could finish, the octopus suddenly scurried in fear into Lille’s body, and Blais’s expression drastically changed!

The active mechanical walls of the data barrier began to spin rapidly as if engines were starting up!

In the pitch-black cyberspace, some terrifyingly large weapon was materializing out of nothingness, piercing through the darkness, a red and black trident flickering as it struck toward the data barrier!

The red trident seemed to carry some program as well, the black background of cyberspace being rendered in red, as if about to envelop the area—

"Damn it, it must have happened during the short-range jump a while ago—cut your link now!"

No sooner had Blais finished speaking than Lille found himself being pushed away, completely removed from the battlefield—

And in the last scene he saw, the active mechanical walls, not to be outdone, revealed an equally large Ion Cannon!

Boom!

Cyberspace trembled.

...

"Ha!"

Lille exited cyberspace, taking a breath as if he had just surfaced from water!

His access pod burst into sparks and Lille quickly jumped out, grabbing the fire extinguisher provided in the room before his butt caught fire!

[Use fire extinguisher: Pay 10 euros.]

[Please control the fire, contact NCPD if necessary, any damage to the apartment will...]

Bang!

The payment panel also exploded.

All the room’s circuits were fried, and if you looked from the outside of the skyscraper, you could see that several rooms around Lille also went dark abruptly.

And if you shifted your gaze to Taiping State...

You would see that the already sparse lights there had started to flicker.

Fighting in cyberspace can cause extreme instability in electrical circuits, and if the combatants deliberately involve the participants, this can happen, like it did to Lille.

Just like Lille now owed the landlord a large sum of money.

[You have caused damage to the wiring; estimated compensation for economic losses: 5669 euros.]

[Please pay the fine within 24 hours, failure to do so will...]

[Zzt.]

The sound of electrical circuits dying out overlapped with the sound of the fire extinguisher, and finally, the fire was extinguished.

[Contact: V]

[V: Lille, did your room lose power? I was just watching TV! It suddenly blew up, damn the property management, they don’t even know what’s happening.]

Lille sat down on his bed with a thump.

[Lille: I know.]

[Lille: Can I borrow two thousand bucks?]