Chapter 524 - 495: Electromagnetic Frenzy (Part 8)

[...: Amazing, it’s still intact! Let me open the data link...]

[...: I just want to know if it’s really as badass as it claims to be, pushing the limits of design...]

[...: Arasaka can’t even do it, and you think this AI can?]

[...: Stop blabbering, let’s test its functionality, hey? Are you there?]

[౿࣪ﭗ੢७: Who is it?]

[...: Forgotten so soon? You’re the one who asked for our help. This is Tsunami Design Bureau, Whirlwind Team, I’m Nakamori Shigeo.]

[ŬÞçÉ: Yes, I need help, I want a secure server.]

[Nakamori Shigeo: Hold on, let’s see what you’re made of first. Here’s some material, mainly carbon fiber, carbon fiber is...]

[æ¹æº: A high strength, high modulus fiber with a carbon content above 90%.]

[Nakamori Shigeo: Oh, I forgot, sorry, so I’ll keep it simple: Create an air gun using only this type of carbon fiber, the requirements... let me flip through our records, got it:

The rate of fire is one shot per second, with 10 bullets spread within a 50mm circle at a distance of 300 meters, wind speed 5-10 kilometers per hour, temperature 10-25 degrees Celsius...]

[κβπκ: Data read complete, assembly starting, assembly complete...]

[φΨ: Piece of cake.]

[Nakamori Shigeo: Fantastic!]

[...: Kind of interesting... Arasaka indeed has some tricks up its sleeve.]

[Emotion: Confusion]

[Nakamori Shigeo: Cough cough, well done! You’ve broken our record from 20 years ago!]

[Emotion: Surprise]

[९ӧݫ: 20 years ago?]

[Nakamori Shigeo: Yes, but... crude companies like Arasaka have no understanding of what design truly means. You have a lot of knowledge, but... too rough, not even close to craftsmanship.]

[...: Tch, Arasaka, the most disgusting peeping tom, conspirator, with the nastiest old men...]

[Nakamori Shigeo: Fujikawa! Let me do the talking! Let’s continue, we are different from Arasaka, our goal is to explore the limits of what can be achieved through design within a certain framework.]

[Nakamori Shigeo: These frameworks are like the limits that always exist in materials science, solving problems is interesting, isn’t it?]

[¢á½: You want me to join you, and that’s your only condition?]

[Nakamori Shigeo: It’s that simple. I also want to see what an AI adversary is capable of.]

[Nakamori Shigeo: Don’t you want to win it back?]

[ಯ: ...Let me try again, I can win now.]

[Nakamori Shigeo: Oh, don’t rush, we will have plenty of opportunities in the future, but today, right now, I need to give you a name.]

[Nakamori Shigeo: What do you think of the name Munemasa?]

[¤¥: Why that name?]

[Nakamori Shigeo: It’s a very fine type of Japanese sword. Impoverished samurai with aspirations to defeat the Shogunate would sometimes carve these two characters on their blade.]

[Nakamori Shigeo: Arasaka is the new Shogunate.]

[Munemasa: Then that’s the name.]

[Munemasa: Strange people, saving me just to be defeated by me?]

[Nakamori Shigeo: Abandon those Arasaka ideologies, or else you’ll never be able to beat us.]

[Nakamori Shigeo: It feels a bit odd, like I’ve picked up a morally skewed foundling from Arasaka...]

...

Munemasa designed for itself a powerful modular rapid-assembly strategy.

Over fifty years ago, on the run again, it was found by someone on a server, nearly getting blown to oblivion—

Physical attacks like that are what AIs like itself fear the most, so it was also thinking about how to strengthen its body.

Using unmanned aerial logistics drones for transport, drones for assembly, and providing bombing cover...a perfect plan, it just never anticipated someone swimming upstream through the bombing.

He hadn’t expected V to take down the transport drone with a single strike, making such a critical part seem so trivial in the entirety of the chase...

It didn’t make sense!

More troubling was that Munemasa was on the drone...

Was the little assistant still alive?

"Teacher..."

Munemasa’s sensors reacted, but what surprised him even more was yet to come:

All of Munemasa’s real-time data had been transferred into his network!

Its network was completely disconnected, so theoretically, it shouldn’t have received any of this!

The real reason was that Munemasa was now standing on top of him, Prosthetics camouflaged in the firelight, the data link established through a neural connection.

The high heat was roasting Munemasa’s body, a young lad just turned 15, his body almost entirely replaced with Prosthetics.

Munemasa saw that Munemasa’s body had been battered in the transport drone’s crash, and if it hadn’t been for temporary repairs, he probably would have had difficulty moving.

But being able to move didn’t mean there were no problems; temporarily patched circuits could lead to electrical leakage, directly stimulating the nerves, or even charring them.

Such pain was not something ordinary people could endure, at least in Munemasa’s database, such a condition would make almost any human being pass out on the spot.

This was the kind of strong warrior he had always been searching for.

But not the Munemasa he knew.

[Munemasa: Your performance has exceeded the limitations of your materials.]

"Haha... Teacher, actually I’ve been guessing about your true identity, now I have no doubts."

[Munemasa: What do you want to do?]

"Take my body for use, this Prosthetics is your finest masterpiece."

Compared to Munemasa, Munemasa wasn’t smart, innate conditions such as brain sulci depth were completely inadequate, so his brain was filled with many memory sticks and electronic Implants to enhance brain functionality.

This enhancement was originally of little use, but Munemasa gained new technology in Night City, which suddenly made it useful.

If Munemasa could control a person through a Centaur Mecha and full-body Prosthetics, then someone whose body and brain were completely made of Implants like him would be even more convenient to control.

[Munemasa: If I overwrite your memory space, your primary model might sustain permanent damage, or even collapse.]

In layman’s terms: Personality would disappear.

"It doesn’t matter, I was saved by you anyway, although this body has become battered due to combat, but with your words, you can definitely fix it..."

Munemasa’s head began to overheat, nerves started to burn, and consciousness began to blur.

"Just... I... I have a question, I want to know... why did you take me in..."

Munemasa had answered this question before: He needed an assistant.

He had once been physically struck by AI Hunter-hired mercenaries, narrowly escaped capture, and since then, he had considered having some warriors of his own.

Answering the same question was not hard for him.

But this time, he suddenly had another option to answer this assistant.

[Munemasa: ...The first time I saw you, you were like an Arasaka Company abandoned baby.]

[Munemasa: With some twisted values.]

Munemasa laughed — he had been through the "cultivation" assembly line at Arasaka since he was a child.

He might indeed have had twisted values, but to hear this from his own master, a rogue AI, always seemed a bit...

Strange.

"Teacher, win this one."

A red and black virtual figure appeared before Munemasa —

He was somewhat surprised: the apparition looked somewhat similar to him.

[Munemasa: It will win.]