Chapter 522 - 493: Electromagnetic Frenzy (Part 6)

[Arasaka Group Encrypted Channel: Target is advancing on the elevated highway at the edge of Westbrook, suspected to be the rogue AI Munemasa.]

[Military Technology Military Channel: Rogue AI confirmed, assembling dangerous weapons.]

[Peizhuo Petrochemical Security Channel: Recommend dispatching security agents for a safety inspection.]

[Kantao Company Security Department: Rogue AI.]

[Biotechnology Security Department: ...]

A rogue AI can roam freely across the network, but the network in Night City is a local area network, and nearly every LAN of considerable scale is connected to the Black Wall.

So if a rogue AI really starts to cause chaos on the network, it would face immense pressure from the Black Wall.

But some AIs, like Munemasa, are still highly skilled technical experts, weapon designers, and mechanical structure specialists.

The micro high-frequency transmitters buried in Night City became its vanguard for hacking and sabotage. These tiny devices easily overwhelmed the city’s non-corporate electrical grid from a physical level, gathered enormous amounts of energy, and occupied most of the wireless bandwidth.

It took the initiative, and the companies could only scratch their heads for a while:

First, wireless positioning heavily relies on the durability of devices and the strength of signal transmission and reception equipment, which in turn rely on the energy strength of power lines.

Munemasa’s equipment had already seized a vast amount of energy, stored it in small devices hidden throughout the city, with a large total quantity, strong durability, and hard-to-locate positions, making physical attacks difficult to initiate.

Moreover, the frequency bands and encoding methods used by AI are almost impossible for humans to decode, and if we consider short-term decoding, we can confidently remove the word "almost."

Humans couldn’t decode AI’s wireless encoding methods in a short time because even if given a cable to connect, most hackers would be burned out.

So now the companies were quite lively, especially Arasaka Company—

Munemasa had been captured by them many years ago!

But here’s where things get coincidental:

When the company noticed this mysterious AI with unknown technology appeared in Night City and seized control of most of the city’s power, disabling those civilian networks, they immediately used the highest-level information channels to report the changes in Night City to their headquarters.

Just as the situation was about to escalate into a struggle over the rogue AI, Arasaka’s flagship, the Kujira, quietly shed all disguises and suddenly appeared less than fifty kilometers from the coast of Night City!

Though Night City’s municipal government had started drafting documents to briefly allow this behemoth to dock, the process had just begun!

Many companies’ information and security troops hadn’t even taken their positions yet!

Two matters clashed together, should they investigate Arasaka’s sudden arrival or pursue the AI?

They had to make a certain balance.

People were silently cursing: Arasaka Saburo, you old dog, your timing is too precise!

But some who had lived a long time and had long been opposed to Arasaka felt differently:

The Arasaka Group, Arasaka Saburo always had an astonishing grasp of timing in major events.

But unfortunately, there were too few such people, so few that they almost didn’t exist at all.

Amidst the chaos, the carrier arrived at the coast, and at Arasaka Tower, the high-level executive, Arasaka Nobu, the unfilial son of Arasaka Saburo, felt increasingly suffocated as he looked at the information on his HUD...

His father must be planning something, but he knew nothing about it.

The Extreme Metal Unrestricted Speed Race had reached the fastest section of the city, bypassing the Geisha Market and now entering the Watson District, the final part of the race.

The convoy and gigantic robots raced madly on the roads, while the unseen electromagnetic waves drove people in the darkness to extremes.

Explosions followed one after another, gunfire erupted in waves, and the rogue AI almost crushed the Burger King it had pinned its hopes on.

Arasaka Nobu collapsed into his chair, his limbs limp.

When the race began, he found this familiar scene so vibrant; people were expressing their emotions in their limited ways, asserting their sovereignty, winning their future...

But now, he felt that perhaps not only the beginning was the same, but even the ending might be:

These speeding racers would ultimately be transient, swept away once the company got what it wanted.

He thought he had become more stable, but his father’s sudden appearance shattered all his confidence, even shaking his faith in those three miraculous guys.

He was so afraid of Arasaka Saburo that this fear interfered with all his judgments.

Lai Xuan’s eyes stared vacantly at the ground, a glaring flash pulling his fading focus back!

The shoulder cannon of a giant robot was hit!

The rogue AI’s reaction speed was slower than a human?

Lai Xuan looked carefully and found that in the factory ruins of the Watson District, the Vortex Gang had somehow obtained power armor, carrying various heavy weapons to disrupt Munemasa’s assembly!

"Can... we win?"

...

The last leg of the race in the nearly paralyzed Watson North District due to the Vortex Gang’s infighting.

Munemasa was so confident it would win this gun assembly race!

It was amazed that Lille could assemble a high-power electromagnetic gun using a damaged electronic control board and a raccoon dog on the spot, but that was already a motherboard burnt out by an electromagnetic pulse.

How could humans possibly fix this complex three-dimensional stacked electronic control board faster than AI on the spot?

The fact was that Lille was indeed a bit slower!

Inside Munemasa, the assembly drones carrying components underwent dramatic changes. Some heat-collecting parts without cooling melted during full-speed operation, perfectly connecting the cables and components needing soldering.

The machines and components worked as if they were human limbs, perfectly combining under the control of the current.

When the last cable was connected, feeling the thrill of the power line coming online, Munemasa began charging before the fixed structural components were fully welded. The EMG-85 electromagnetic magazine was loaded into the gun body, with the freezing agent quickly released, expected to lower the temperature of the conductive lines to critical levels within one second—

When the conductive lines entered a superconducting state, it would take less than a millisecond for the current to fill, and the bullet would be fired, piercing through the already scarred Mackinaw.

Lille, its enemy, its opponent, the only other human it had ever encountered who dared to compete with it in this field...

Would be defeated just like the last human.

Only...

Unlike the last human, it would lose this opponent forever.

An indescribable feeling.

0.7 seconds, the freezing agent began to spread, the material properties started changing, resistance dropped suddenly, and current surged in.

0.8 seconds, Munemasa found its influence weakening.

0.9 seconds, it finally detected someone had appeared beside it in the air—

It hadn’t noticed anyone?

"Ha ha! Steel chunk, I, Brick, have got you!"

Encased in power armor, Brick delivered a kick that dislodged the cockpit of the Centaur Mecha, crushing the person inside completely, while the powerful hand of the power armor smashed through the coil barrel of the electromagnetic gun!

Munemasa stared at Brick and then at Lille, whose octopus arm popped out a claw...

A middle finger.

As for the former, Munemasa only had one thing to say:

"ばかやろ (Baka yarou)!"

Punching there would cause an explosion!