Chapter 396 - 368: Commission: The Dream Continues

The matter of Blais’s official business was next.

The Interferer ceased operating, and everything returned to normal.

"I don’t have authentic information in my database, and identities of several mercenaries are quite suspicious," he said.

As time arrived, Blais smoothly transitioned into work mode, even exhaling the smoke he’d drawn without it reaching his lungs.

In this way, the biometric Prosthetics wouldn’t detect any significant change in nicotine levels, any slight variation could be explained by the gang areas where everyone smokes, attributing it all to secondhand smoke exposure.

Lille cooperated, "How suspicious exactly?"

"Cyber surveillance has its own intelligence network, some people shouldn’t have passed through the European Union borders, which is not normal," Blais replied.

Putting aside the fact he was a killer of the Gold scion, this sniper was still an internationally wanted criminal with an exceedingly high internal threat level.

Officially, Blais could still reveal some basic information: "This person couldn’t possibly have been allowed by the European Union."

Most of these batches of mercenaries had been sent from companies outside of Night City to serve as pioneers, but why would they choose to send someone like him?

If not a European Company, not a common criminal or mercenary, who else would have the capacity to smuggle a criminal across states?

Thus, this involved an official commission.

"Cyber surveillance unusual event code AIA-1: suspicious unintended data anomalies, possibly involving roaming AI activity, requires further resources for verification.

"I believe this incident most likely involves AI. Given your previous assistance with ’Soul Killer’ AI weaponry, we wish to formally employ you to help the Night City division of cyber surveillance with this investigation," Blais said.

Unintended activity—some mercenaries were documented arrivals, others were not.

The fact that these individuals were smuggled in indicates someone’s weakening control over the surveillance network, thus it was an unintended occurrence, an anomaly.

Clearly, the AI involvement somewhat invigorated Blais’s spirit.

No excessive contemplation needed, after all, AI simply denoted external conflict, the enemy of mankind, just work conscientiously.

Lille stroked his chin, "The compensation?"

"According to market rates, successfully eliminating a roaming AI will yield a reward of one million euros, in addition, you’ll gain some knowledge on countering AI," Blais suggested.

As he spoke, Blais pulled out a soft screen from his pocket, foldable or rollable like paper, but its content was electronic.

Lille looked it over and noticed some details Blais hadn’t explicitly mentioned:

The hiring agency was the cyber surveillance division in Night City, directly responsible was Blais, and there was also a guarantor...

Luxius Lane?

Was this necessary to write down?

Of course not, considering what Blais had said earlier, rather than saying this commission was from cyber surveillance, it was more accurate to say that under Lane’s recommendation and instigation, the Night City division of cyber surveillance decided to engage a mercenary for assistance.

Although only temporarily hired, this time the employment was considerably more formal—

Burger King became part of the regular army?

So, should he take this commission?

Overall, after obtaining this information, handling AI was not unexpected.

The issue was that this was clearly not part of the scripted events.

Even in the original story of the game, there weren’t any impressive mercenaries involved in Night City, their presence being negligible.

This butterfly of his had already stirred up a storm, blowing the original plot to pieces.

Therefore...

Lille shook his head slightly, "... I’ll take the job, but I don’t want to sign any contract. It feels like signing a pact with a demon."

He chose to accept the commission, not just for the money. Dealing with AI would provide him more cyber technology knowledge, enhancing his arsenal of weapons.

Not understanding the technology, in such a world, one is always just a pawn being played.

"It’s up to you," Blais shrugged and put away the flexible screen. "After all, this bounty business has been around since the old net era."

Now talk about where you plan to start, and I will provide necessary help based on your plan."

The bounty for rogue AI had existed since the early 21st century when hacker activities were much more frequent than now, and the number of AIs on the internet was several magnitudes higher than the AIs in these networks.

The top business for mercenaries was to blow up another company under the direction of their employer, or to influence the outcome of an entire war.

The top business for hackers included one more item: hunting these highly dangerous rogue AIs.

According to the brochure Blais had provided earlier, "On the Dangers and History of Rogue AI," the bounty for hunting a rogue AI started at 500,000 Euros at the time.

It only shows that inflation has really hit hard over the years—and now, network surveillance pays even more attention to AI than ever before.

The help offered is linked to rewards other than cash, typical corporate-style rewards; the only things you can receive are those that will benefit the completion of the task.

"I guess I need to first prove whether this matter is definitively related to AI, or definitively not related to AI, but right now, my last lead is this one."

Lille took out the last bullet from the stamped sniper rifle, also the last one the sniper didn’t fire.

As mentioned earlier, the stamped bullet itself is actually a type of stamping engine, where the bullet’s high speed draws high-temperature, high-pressure air into the bullet, igniting the fuel inside.

Creating such a structure in a 20mm caliber bullet is not easy to process and what’s more significant is the bullet’s structural design and gunpowder formula.

Lille would naturally choose to dismantle it for a good scan, saving it for future study.

Upon dismantling, he found some interesting things.

The dismantled bullet was now in a disassembled state, and Lille pointed to the structure of the casing, "Look."

Blais’s prosthetic eye was equipped with a large amount of information components and was essentially a scanner with good performance and compatibility.

Although it was not like some extreme magnifying prosthetic eyes that could magnify images by dozens of times, it did have AI-enhanced and cue-enabled functionality for some special details.

He immediately saw a line of small characters inside the casing.

"Munemasa."

"Another Japanese name..." Blais squinted at this line of characters.

"What do you guys think about this name?"

"Maybe there is... If this is a name left by an AI, it could become a very important clue. AI’s way of thinking is always strange," he said.

"Then, the probability that this Munemasa is an AI has increased significantly. The place where the name is engraved is very subtle.

Under normal circumstances, once the bullet is fired, the prepared fuel would continue to burn, the high temperature and pressure would completely blur the characters on the inner wall, thus leaving no trace."

This would make leaving the name pointless.

Engraving a meaningless message on a bullet is indeed a very peculiar way of thinking, like a compulsive need to engrave a name, but considering one’s own safety, not wanting to leave any trace."

Blais uploaded the name to the network surveillance database, and soon received a suggestion for the next step.

His expression flickered slightly, then he looked at Lille, "The anomaly level has been upgraded to AIA-2. It’s almost certain that this is an AI."

Lille shrugged, "Then, do you guys have any other constructive suggestions or help? By the way, why would the Black Wall let AI through? What’s the principle behind that? "

Two Japanese names, superior weapon-making capabilities, bizarre behaviors, and mysteriously sourced regulated weapons and other components.

These were all the clues now.

"Well... there are indeed suggestions, as for your latter question..." Blais rose from the table, his prosthetic eye flickered slightly.

"I called for a Delamain, let’s talk in the car.

While waiting for the car, you can decide how to deal with these mercenaries—oh right, I remember you have a prisoner?"

Network surveillance chatting in an AI taxi?

Lille’s expression was subtle, he opened the door and walked out first.