Chapter 260 - 241: Black Wall and Soul Killer (Sorry, my computer broke today)

In cyberspace, the network monitoring on the battleship captured a data link and took out the huge cannon behind it, firing at the sky!

The shell, as if drawn by a force, smashed toward the direction that seemed like the background noise of cyberspace to others!

Boom!

A certain phantom flickered, and a massive data block plummeted—

Inside Arasaka Tower, many hackers couldn’t withstand this kind of attack, and were forcibly logged out from the network, flipping over and crashing to the ground!

The lights throughout Company Square flickered imperceptibly, but this was just the beginning!

"Baka yarō (bastard)! Cut the link! The coordinates of the Divine Chariot cannot be exposed!"

"We’ve already been exposed! The target is still alive, and the acquisition of the digital persona information is very low!"

"Idiots, initiate data hideout! The Divine Chariot is more important!"

The suit-clad man in charge of giving orders gritted his teeth, "Completely cut off data communication for hideout, let the action department deal with that damn... moron!"

...

The network monitor Dragon Hunter, holding the data, fired a shot; the data stream in his hand began to dissipate uncontrollably, crashing to the ground and into the complex cyberspace of Night City—

A small aircraft flew out from the battleship, carrying the data block back to the ship in a way that defied reality.

He observed the complex terrain and sent a message to central control:

[Dragon Hunter: The Emperor’s evasion techniques are strong, requesting more computing power to implement wide-area lockdown before the target alters the feature code.]

[Dragon Hunter: Residual data has been obtained, currently uploading.]

[Network Monitor Night City Central Control: Request approved, computing power increased to 20000 CCUs.]

[Network Monitor Night City Central Control: Current computing power has reached mission limit, please be aware of the impact on the local network environment.]

"Be mindful of the impact?" The Dragon Hunter stepped on the deck of the battleship, plugging the data stream into it before it completely dissipated, "Mind this."

Suddenly, the battleship solidified, some sort of large sonar emerged from the bottom, and a sound reverberated—

Hum....

Exaggerated ripples spread through the digital Night City, shaking the entire cyberspace!

In his eyes, several bright red nodes were marked within the complex digital Night City!

The battleship’s missile bay opened in full, and sharp harpoons sprang forth!

Boom!

In the real world, a massive power outage occurred in numerous apartment buildings!

The entire street of Westbrook lit up with exploding lights, and even the running of prosthetics was affected, as many pedestrians found that their Prosthetic Eyes went temporarily blind for a moment!

Yet in those dark streets, some lights and televisions were unnaturally bright...

The harpoons impaled the nodes, and those fading red data streams became visible once again—

The network monitor slammed the cannon onto the battleship, and what was once a simple hand-held gun warped instantly into a ship-mounted missile bay!

Several missiles launched simultaneously!

Cyberspace thundered!

But this time, the missiles did not all smash in the same direction; a few even hit civilian data barriers!

Instantly, several companies and civilian buildings suffered collateral damage with flickering lights and dead machines—

[Network Monitor Night City Central Control: Dragon Hunter, please be aware of the network environment impact.]

"Tch... True to form, Arasaka, you’re really good at hiding and seeking."

The attack could not continue.

This operation used the H8 Skyscraper as a springboard to launch an assault, and to have inflicted actual damage to that never-fully-seen facility was already a tremendous success.

[Mission Report: The Emperor has retreated back to his palace, and the intercepted Data Block has been uploaded.]

[Now beginning to deal with the controlled AI weaponry.]

[Dragon Hunter: How’s the honey pot situation?]

[Blais: The Skyscraper is stable, the Emperor has abandoned that part of the program.]

[Dragon Hunter: That’s hard to say... According to what we just intercepted, they might implement a physical retrieval.]

[Dragon Hunter: Good job this time, this is our first capture of the Soul... this thing’s operational code.]

[Dragon Hunter: This is a significant achievement, and it gives us a chance to test some experimental technology.]

[Dragon Hunter: I hope that AI isn’t too much like him yet.]

[Blais: I have confidence in the people I’ve brought in.]

[Dragon Hunter: Speaking of which, before I go, I want to ask you, what do you think about the plan?]

[Blais: It’s great, with this, we won’t have to deal with those damn AIs messing things up again... wait, the Voodoo Gang is at it again.]

[Dragon Hunter: I’ll help you with the experiment.]

[Blais: Thanks.]

[Access Request: BW——TA-003]

[Type: Upgrade Module Function Test]

[Authorization Granted.]

[Sample Loaded.]

In cyberspace, the Dragon Hunter looked at the dilapidated appearance of the H8 skyscraper.

He knew that this was just an Arasaka facade, and in fact, the building had been completely hidden within a nearly independent space.

It was Arasaka’s unique cloaking ability that had conducted this kind of attack over the past few decades—

This very dangerous attack.

The victims would be locked in a space with the Soul Killer, and no one knew what they would experience, but the outcome was always the same: every person attacked had died.

That’s what they thought, until recently.

The Dragon Hunter pulled above cyberspace—

A simplistic black and red data block appeared before him.

His cyber form drastically shrank as a result, to the size of an ordinary person—

This program, it consumed an extraordinary amount of computational power.

According to current intelligence, Soul Killer would indiscriminately attack both the infrastructure in the subnet and hackers, and of course, the Dragon Hunter wouldn’t possibly go head-to-head with it.

Cyber surveillance had their own research.

"It’s all down to your luck now... what’s your name? Burger King?"

The black and red block smashed into the data ruins...

The whole space was instantaneously stained the same color.

...

In the space, Lille sat on Little Octopus’s head, the Soul Killer in front of him had gradually changed from a vortex to something that looked very much like Little Octopus...

An octopus, or more precisely, a human-faced octopus—should it be called Brother Octopus?

Lille found no way to deal with this Brother Octopus Soul Killer.

Because of the Soul Killer’s own learning speed, any attack by Lille led to a transformation of its form, rendering the attack lock ineffective.

There was a method that could attack it—

That was to lock onto the open ports on Lille’s own body.

But to be honest, Lille didn’t believe he could outlast an AI in cyberspace...

As Little Octopus crawled all over it, it actually started looking more like an octopus.

However, in the next moment, something unexpected happened!

Into the chaotic space created by the Soul Killer, a harsher, sharper, and more brutal color forced itself in...

As this black and red program flow squeezed in, the Soul Killer began to be attacked!

And Lille was very familiar with this color, very familiar with this sensation...

He had only ever experienced a similar color on one thing—

The Black Wall!

The Soul Killer stopped operating, disintegrating bit by bit under the encroachment of the Black Wall...

Lille felt a chill run down his spine!

Now he was trapped in the same subnet with the two most terrifying cyber weapons in the world!

As the space spiraled out of control, Lille received an incomplete message:

[...: sdgh..B./Don’t move...don’t panic...]

How could he dare to move!

As the Black Wall’s erosion intensified, Brother Octopus began to disintegrate, and Lille noticed the Black Wall’s tendrils starting to reach out towards him!

Little Octopus rapidly shrank, trembling in fear on Lille’s body...

[Little Octopus: Big brother...I’m so scared...]

[Lille: Don’t panic...]

Lille had a bad feeling—not about himself, but...

The Black Wall stopped in front of Lille, piercing into his arm and the tip of his nose...

A few seconds passed...

Bang!

Little Octopus in front of Lille was smashed to pieces by the Black Wall.

Crack.

The Wall ceased functioning and collapsed, leaving nothing but a wreck—absolutely unreadable data scattered around.

Lille was now able to exit cyberspace.

[Dragon Hunter: Welcome back to the real world.]