Chapter 533 - 504 Ether Grid System (Part 1)

[Ryan, "Ten years ago, Night City was a free city, with all companies pretty much on an equal footing, and there weren’t the big five giants you see today."]

[Ryan, "If you had to say, Ye Group was the local tyrant, but without any industry on the land, how much is land worth anyway?"]

[Ryan, "In 2069, Military Technology launched the Unification War, and in just one year, their metal flood completely breached the Free State Federation’s defenses and made it to Night City."]

[Ryan, "So, I turned to Arasaka again. Some people called me Arasaka’s lapdog because of that, but it’s not true."]

[Ryan, "Because I also brought in Military Technology. To balance Military Technology, I brought in Zeta Technology and Peizhuo Petrochemical. To balance Arasaka, I brought in Kantao and Adachi-Kenneth..."]

[Ryan, "As a city, Night City is quite insignificant. To be independent, you need to be like a whore and swallow a few more."]

[Ryan, "Swallow one and you’re a slave, keep fighting, and maybe one day you’ll kill it; swallow several... they start fighting each other."]

[Ryan, "And then you get today’s Night City, an international metropolis!"]

[Ryan, "If you’ve been to other cities, you’ll understand what I mean, a place that’s truly free must inevitably be poor. If it looks prosperous, it certainly... won’t give birth to someone like you."]

In Night City, corporate battles are fierce yet restrained, complex yet straightforward.

Fierce enough that every minute there’s a threat to employees’ lives, restrained until things go haywire at Burger King, the heaviest unit here was a Lone Wolf carrying a heavy machine gun.

Complex means there are AIs, laws, and even somewhat meaningful "democratic elections." After all, in a place like Atlanta, there wouldn’t be any elections at all.

Picking from ten companies is more democratic than always picking from one company.

From the companies’ struggles, a few scraps fall off their plates, and just those scraps have turned Night City into an international metropolis...

Giving mercenaries and street kids a real shot at becoming "big bosses."

[Ryan, "I don’t know if you can understand what I’m saying, but..."]

[Ryan, "Help!"]

"Tsk, he talks like we owe him everything we have today... Why does he sound so down-to-earth, unlike on TV?"

This statement caused strong dissatisfaction in V.

In this cesspool called Night City, Ryan actually dared to take credit.

As soon as the alarm went off, Blais immediately left The Afterlife—

Lille still had a lot of questions for him, but now was clearly not the time.

This recording seemed to be pre-prepared, and Ryan’s tone was vastly different from on TV. He might be using a particularly colloquial style on purpose.

Lille was not unfamiliar with this kind of "political technique" directed at small individuals. Small characters feel close to familiar tones; people are often quite emotional.

But Ryan indeed had once been such a "small character."

"I heard he used to be from Haywood. I always thought that was a lie. Now it kinda sounds like it could be true."

At the bar, Jack held a burger in one hand and a high-energy drink in the other. Both were synthetic gourmet foods with 90% additives.

The food was broken down by stomach acid, and nutrients and energy were transmitted to every cell.

These cells, infused with Lizard Serum, began to divide rapidly, body temperature soared, and waste products released through the sweat glands evaporated, cloaking the body in a layer of white mist.

V replaced her tattered clothes and swapped out worn parts among her prosthetics—

Paired with a good prosthetic doctor and a technical expert, the advantages of high-intensity prosthetic modifications were fully showcased. On the surface, she and Jack looked just fine, showing no signs of having gone through a full night of intense combat.

V shrugged, "So we’re going to save this fat guy now, and I’m a bit annoyed."

Lille frowned, staring at the huge electric control system hardware in front of him, "Being annoyed is normal."

In the entertainment room, originally meant for a pool table, but now occupied by Little Octopus.

Three mechanical arms made minor repairs. Although the surface scratches and blackening caused by explosions, high voltage, and collisions couldn’t be fixed, the overall functions were still normal.

The trickiest part was Da Mai.

As a vehicle AI, its main body had retracted into a black server box no larger than a meter, encompassing processors, running memory, external storage, input devices, and mechanical output arms.

But it was supposed to be paired with a powerful electronic control panel and a complete electric control system.

Mackinaw’s power was based on AI-level precision control, but now that control panel was completely destroyed.

Little Octopus’ three arms dragged the damaged circuit board, making Lille frown—

Ryan’s whereabouts were currently unknown. Blais was still investigating, but it was certainly not somewhere their underground group could openly access.

It took everything just to catch Munemasa, an AI with some underground resources and mercenaries at hand...

Now they faced Ye Group, a genuine giant corporation’s AI!

Charging in now would be suicidal.

But this circuit board’s origin was quite complex, using proper military-grade technology, and not just any military grade. It was jointly designed by Thunder Company and Netherworld Dog engineers for the next-generation military armored vehicle control platform, balancing reliability and functionality.

Without this system, many of Da Mai’s functions couldn’t be used. The legendary Mackinaw would just be an insanely powerful, heavily armored iron box.

Relying on a few bodies to storm through a company’s defense force only happens in video games, and even then, only in the entertainment section.

Lille rubbed his brow—

What to do? Fully repairing it was almost impossible, producing multi-dimensional stacked military-grade circuit boards would take days at the fastest.

Da Mai’s black server was kept running on the side.

In cyberspace, it appeared as an armored vehicle, modeled exactly as it was in reality.

One had to admit, it really liked being a vehicle.

In Lille’s vision, this data stream-formed armored vehicle lay quietly above the black server, waiting for Lille to drive it away.

As an AI separated from Little Octopus’ body, Lille understood part of its framework, so its form appeared mostly blue.

But the battle caused the data in the server to blend with the original model, mixing in a part he couldn’t understand, those anti-human logic red data structures.

Human data seemed so logical in this space, but AI data appeared very... natural.

Naturally connected to Da Mai’s data structure.

Looking at these connection points, Lille suddenly thought of something:

Munemasa being here had a technology naturally suited to his massive data as support.

Current flowed orderly through processors and circuit boards, transmitting information, controlling electronics, a logic designed by humans, but essentially...

If signals could be transmitted directly through the air...

For an AI, that would be liberation.

In cyberspace, Lille woke Munemasa.

[Lille, "I have a job for you, do it now. I want to transfer the vehicle’s AI to a transmitter."]

Lille spoke quite vaguely. If a proper engineer heard, they’d probably be dumbfounded, maybe even internally cursing him for not understanding technology.

Because this kind of technology doesn’t exist in reality.

But Munemasa immediately understood.

[Munemasa, "I need a complete server for calculations, and..."]

[Lille, "The payment is, I can set you free, of course, with conditions."]

Munemasa was an AI; money didn’t mean much to him as it did to humans.

But he did need money, money for materials, equipment, servers...

Conditions allowing him to create freely.

An AI’s primary objective is survival; once that’s met, it pursues meaning.

The first step in pursuing meaning is freedom, a concept certain to tempt any AI.

But something unexpected happened to Lille:

[Munemasa, "I don’t need that. I only need to compete with you a second time."]

[Munemasa, "I’ll help you design it, on the condition that you will compete with me again in the future."]

Such a good deal?

Lille silently marveled, AI sure are easy to fool.

Little Octopus saw Lille’s expression and suddenly made a funny face, its tentacles retracting from Munemasa’s data body.