[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer":3,"chapter-cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-chapter-533":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Cyberpunk: Cross-dimensional Science and Engineering",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},1152374,1495,"Chapter 533 - 504 Ether Grid System (Part 1)","cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-chapter-533",533,"\u003Cp>[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.\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[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?\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[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.\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Ryan, \"So, I turned to Arasaka again. Some people called me Arasaka’s lapdog because of that, but it’s not true.\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[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...\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Ryan, \"As a city, Night City is quite insignificant. To be independent, you need to be like a whore and swallow a few more.\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[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.\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Ryan, \"And then you get today’s Night City, an international metropolis!\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[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.\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Night City, corporate battles are fierce yet restrained, complex yet straightforward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Picking from ten companies is more democratic than always picking from one company.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the companies’ struggles, a few scraps fall off their plates, and just those scraps have turned Night City into an international metropolis...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Giving mercenaries and street kids a real shot at becoming \"big bosses.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Ryan, \"I don’t know if you can understand what I’m saying, but...\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Ryan, \"Help!\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Tsk, he talks like we owe him everything we have today... Why does he sound so down-to-earth, unlike on TV?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This statement caused strong dissatisfaction in V.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this cesspool called Night City, Ryan actually dared to take credit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As soon as the alarm went off, Blais immediately left The Afterlife—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lille still had a lot of questions for him, but now was clearly not the time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Ryan indeed had once been such a \"small character.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I heard he used to be from Haywood. I always thought that was a lie. Now it kinda sounds like it could be true.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The food was broken down by stomach acid, and nutrients and energy were transmitted to every cell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>V replaced her tattered clothes and swapped out worn parts among her prosthetics—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>V shrugged, \"So we’re going to save this fat guy now, and I’m a bit annoyed.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lille frowned, staring at the huge electric control system hardware in front of him, \"Being annoyed is normal.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the entertainment room, originally meant for a pool table, but now occupied by Little Octopus.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The trickiest part was Da Mai.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it was supposed to be paired with a powerful electronic control panel and a complete electric control system.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mackinaw’s power was based on AI-level precision control, but now that control panel was completely destroyed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Little Octopus’ three arms dragged the damaged circuit board, making Lille frown—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ryan’s whereabouts were currently unknown. Blais was still investigating, but it was certainly not somewhere their underground group could openly access.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It took everything just to catch Munemasa, an AI with some underground resources and mercenaries at hand...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now they faced Ye Group, a genuine giant corporation’s AI!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Charging in now would be suicidal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lille rubbed his brow—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What to do? Fully repairing it was almost impossible, producing multi-dimensional stacked military-grade circuit boards would take days at the fastest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Da Mai’s black server was kept running on the side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In cyberspace, it appeared as an armored vehicle, modeled exactly as it was in reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One had to admit, it really liked being a vehicle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Lille’s vision, this data stream-formed armored vehicle lay quietly above the black server, waiting for Lille to drive it away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As an AI separated from Little Octopus’ body, Lille understood part of its framework, so its form appeared mostly blue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Human data seemed so logical in this space, but AI data appeared very... natural.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Naturally connected to Da Mai’s data structure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at these connection points, Lille suddenly thought of something:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Munemasa being here had a technology naturally suited to his massive data as support.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Current flowed orderly through processors and circuit boards, transmitting information, controlling electronics, a logic designed by humans, but essentially...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If signals could be transmitted directly through the air...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For an AI, that would be liberation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In cyberspace, Lille woke Munemasa.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Lille, \"I have a job for you, do it now. I want to transfer the vehicle’s AI to a transmitter.\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lille spoke quite vaguely. If a proper engineer heard, they’d probably be dumbfounded, maybe even internally cursing him for not understanding technology.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because this kind of technology doesn’t exist in reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Munemasa immediately understood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Munemasa, \"I need a complete server for calculations, and...\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Lille, \"The payment is, I can set you free, of course, with conditions.\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Munemasa was an AI; money didn’t mean much to him as it did to humans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he did need money, money for materials, equipment, servers...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Conditions allowing him to create freely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An AI’s primary objective is survival; once that’s met, it pursues meaning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first step in pursuing meaning is freedom, a concept certain to tempt any AI.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But something unexpected happened to Lille:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Munemasa, \"I don’t need that. I only need to compete with you a second time.\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Munemasa, \"I’ll help you design it, on the condition that you will compete with me again in the future.\"]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such a good deal?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lille silently marveled, AI sure are easy to fool.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Little Octopus saw Lille’s expression and suddenly made a funny face, its tentacles retracting from Munemasa’s data body.\u003C\u002Fp>",1362,"2026-06-03T12:33:29.771Z","2026-06-03T12:33:38.261Z",1,"novelbin.me","6f78ba0867bd638eda3e33d828741c9df10dd66bd91c7a70d1bbc01d0bbe357a","cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-chapter-534","cyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-chapter-532",1068,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fcyberpunk-cross-dimensional-science-and-engineer-cover.jpg"]