Chapter 412 - 384 Kaneke Rosvald

"How did you track down Woolly Crowley?"

The news was broadcasting the mercenary’s final fate.

WNS gave a close-up shot directly: a screen full of mosaics.

Lille wasn’t sure what level of armor Hote had given Woolly, but he knew the force of Kaneke’s justice punch wasn’t small.

Blunt force striking the skull, even if the head didn’t explode, the impact would still transmit to the soft tissues like brain cells and blood vessels.

Many people seem fine after being hit with a blunt object, but in fact, they are near death, so protecting against such blunt force is actually quite difficult.

Woolly’s skull wasn’t just slightly open, he could even continue fighting, showing the strength of the monolithic skeleton on him.

But in the face of heavy machine guns and missiles, it didn’t matter; he wasn’t just facing one or two people or mecha.

Seeing this scene, Kaneke slightly lost focus and then returned to his conversation with Lille.

"I was the one who put him on the stretcher, during the emergency I intercepted his Prosthetic System, I knew he was working for Hote.

I saw on TV that the municipal government was having a meeting today, so I thought Hote would be mixing with Arasaka people after the meeting..."

Lille shook his head: "But he didn’t need to go to Huangshan Seaside, he could go to the Aoi Tower."

"They wouldn’t go there, Woolly was a dog that couldn’t see the light, Hote knew he would go mad sooner or later. If at Aoi Tower, the paparazzi would discover their meeting.

He would meet him discreetly on the road or somewhere.

As long as I could seize the Floating Car, the initiative would be in my hands..."

Lille did not comment, the reason was not sufficient.

But from Little Octopus’ analysis, and seeing Kaneke’s unwavering state after saying this, this was what he thought.

The plan had large loopholes, but it did look like something a cyberpsychotic would do: grabbing at a shred of hope and obsessively executing it.

Lille continued to question: "Do you know why Woolly got into a conflict with the previous mercenaries?"

When Woolly pulled out the Automatic Grenade Launcher and opened fire, Lille was already fully hacking into his Prosthetic System’s ICE.

This was actually extremely shocking because Woolly’s ICE was Arasaka military-grade equipment.

It could be broken through brute force, but the risk was high, and even if the Terrorist Mobile Team came, it would take at least ten to twenty seconds.

Lille could do this completely because of the powerful computing power from another world, and the literal brain-burning—

Half of the Lizard Potion had already been injected, normally it would last a month.

By directly loading the Yihara-Bragg algorithm into the Si Anweisitan accelerators, and combining it with vast server computing power, he accomplished this seemingly minor feat.

After breaking the ICE and connecting to Woolly’s Prosthetic System, Lille quickly caused a malfunction in Woolly’s arm, preventing them from being bombed.

However, there wasn’t much time and opportunity left to further dig for data in Woolly’s head.

He could only compare multiple sources to confirm the validity of the intelligence.

Kaneke shook his head: "I only know there was another special injured person at the scene, the director of the deputy mayor’s office of Night City’s municipal government."

"Still alive?"

"I don’t know, I’m not part of the medical team, I only handle rescuing people."

"Can you provide the deceased’s list from that time?"

"Yes." Kaneke nodded, "I... have a habit of giving even non-members a simple bandage at the scene."

After that, his mood turned somber.

Clearly, this was a habit left by his girlfriend.

In fact, the Trauma Team no longer resisted giving humanitarian aid to other injured people at the scene, but they did not mandate it.

So Trauma Team members with this habit probably hadn’t been completely crushed by the pressures of corporate work and still firmly believed they were lifesaving medical personnel.

But in Night City, the injured could sometimes be the culprits, and calling in the Trauma Team just meant having money.

Kaneke picked up the prepared tablet beside him—his Prosthetic System was already difficult to use normally, and he could only transmit information traditionally.

After writing the names, he looked at Lille again:

"Anything else?"

Kaneke didn’t have much more information to provide, so Lille was waiting for Little Octopus to complete the data analysis and collection.

[Little Octopus: Boss, I got it.]

[Little Octopus: This guy’s got some stuff, now I know why this Si Anweisitan improves in a cyberpsychotic state.]

[Little Octopus: Its hardware supports very high-power precise control that only unlocks during psychotic episodes because it burns out the nerves.

[Little Octopus: The burned-out nerves reconnect under specific conditions, providing new power and stimulus paths for the chip’s scheduling algorithm, essentially new possibilities.]

[Little Octopus: Simply put, in the cyberpsychotic state, the nerves burn out. Although biologically dead, they are still conductive and get activated by nanocontacts.]

[Little Octopus: The AI in the "Reality Distortion" essentially helps rebuild the damaged nerves.]

[Little Octopus: But this process is very painful, extremely painful.]

[Little Octopus: He accidentally activates Si Anweisitan now, but the scheduling algorithm and body can’t support high-speed movement, so it abruptly went into slow-mo.]

The direct pain in the nerves interferes with the brain’s control over the body; while it’s unlikely to die from pain alone, it could turn someone into a vegetative state collapsing on the ground.

Extreme functional prosthetics don’t consider user comfort, and not many people can withstand such pain.

So cyberpsychosis... is a very complex thing.

It’s not necessarily good news, as it implies the Chianti Type-5 "Reality Distortion" Si Anweisitan, though highly potential, is strongly linked to cyberpsychosis and nerve damage and is incredibly unstable.

Lille shook his head: "No more, someone will come to take you away soon, someone specialized in dealing with cyberpsychosis."

"No." Kaneke suddenly shook his head, looking directly at Lille, "I know who will come to get me, I know about that project, Nadia is involved.

The people coming are definitely from Kantao. The Trauma Team has an agreement with them; they want to use me as a guinea pig. I installed this thing to help Nadia better.

They will cut open my body, take all the data and prosthetics for research..."

Lille looked at him with his arms crossed, asking directly:

"But isn’t that what your girlfriend wanted? To save people, save cyberpsychotics, the people in the project might just want to lower the chance of prosthetics causing cyberpsychosis to sell more, but the result is almost the same, making the prosthetics safer."

"No, no, no!" Kaneke resolutely shook his head, "I know that’s her dream, but how can I forget how she died? Huh?!

Before meeting her, I just wanted to live well; after meeting her, I just wanted to help her fulfill her dream. Do you think I’m like them?

I’m not! I did this because I loved her! Now... now—

To hell with cyberpsychosis, I don’t care! I just want to see the company dogs scratch their heads! They’ll get nothing!"

He lay back on the hospital bed, looking at the ceiling, with a complex smile on his lips, like mocking, like self-destruction.

"My world was better because of Nadia, and I would do anything to make her happy.

But now, I’m just the street kid from Chicago from seven years ago. Think about how much they’ll lose without my data.

Worth it... haha, worth it."

Kaneke looked at the ceiling, after a brief silence, he looked at Lille again:

"Just like you guys, you understand, right? You understand.

Kill me, you can take the data from my prosthetics or even the prosthetics themselves, sell them to whoever you want, it’s my last asset.

But... don’t, send, me, back.

Damn company dogs, I won’t leave anything for them!"

Lille looked at this madman, feeling a thousand thoughts.

He wasn’t the kind of person who’d always tell others to keep living with hope.

Choosing how to die, in Night City, was a luxury.

"...Actually, I’ve already got the data from you, and as for the prosthetics... a burnt-out Si Anweisitan isn’t worth much to me."

Kaneke was stunned, then he saw Lille take a handgun and place it against his forehead.

"But... you’re lucky, I’m a soft-hearted person."

"Hehe." Kaneke laughed, showing no fear of death in his eyes, no hesitation or extra thoughts.

"Indeed, you’re right, I’m lucky."

Although, as Trauma Team member Kaneke Rosvald, he had undergone a fatal failure, even betraying his company and employer.

But as a mercenary and street kid, Kaneke Rosvald remained loyal to the most important employer of his life.

And fulfilled his revenge.

Bang.