Chapter 575 - 546: Maya’s Feelings

[Skye: Boss, the exhibition was a huge success! The network payload is jam-packed!]

Skye was over the moon, what does a dropout orphan like her, a street kid of the new era, a hacker who started out dabbling with shady websites, aspire for?

She aspired for a sense of identity and presence.

Just moments ago, Lille’s demonstration was watched in real-time by no less than 600 million viewers globally. Keep in mind that this was neither a World Cup nor an Olympic opening ceremony, but merely a company’s, or rather New York City’s individual showcase.

Compared to such official exhibitions, people preferred to watch competitive sports events, but Atlas managed it nonetheless.

The number of real-time viewers was 600 million, and the number of people who learned about it afterward through recorded broadcasts, pictures, and word of mouth would only grow larger. Not to mention, Atlas would continually introduce various products to the market, covering all fields, appearing in every corner revitalizing the economy.

The world was listening, and although Skye was just technical staff behind the scenes, she was already very content with this scenario.

After all, she was now the Chief Technology Officer of the Bloom Company.

After a busy day, Ms. Skye rose from her hacker chair; right outside her room was the Lee Financial Building, the first stop for all tourists visiting the New Future District, and the Osborne Building had already been dismantled to become a memorial museum.

When she remembered the first time she got caught by Lille, she thought all of this felt like a dream.

An alley-cat youth sneaking around on the streets, always dreaming of uncovering some earth-shattering conspiracy, saving the world, and gaining respect.

Now... while it was different from how she envisioned uncovering conspiracies, it was so much better than she had imagined.

The brain-computer interface, in conjunction with powerful computing equipment, allowed her to efficiently process large volumes of data. ctOS’ operations enabled her to profoundly understand the real data and criminal cases from around the world, providing constant upgrades to her brain.

The rise and fall of the Jinbing Criminal Group had been decrypted, which helped her understand why people previously turned a blind eye to the tragedies around them, why they would stay silent about the murders happening next door, why they would endure endless heavy labor, why they became indifferent...

It turns out that sometimes uncovering one or two conspiracies and so-called "saving the world" are still far from each other.

People need truth, hope, a standard to look up to... they also need food, clothing, shelter, always talking about justice while demanding others, is bound to be disappointing.

[Lille: Good news, but it’s not over yet, the follow-up network pressure won’t be much less than before.]

[Skye: Hey, boss, you’re underestimating me. Although I’m not as awesome as you, with such great conditions, even ten Tidal Organizations wouldn’t get the better of me!!!]

[Lille: Don’t get too complacent, you haven’t passed a single AI confrontation yet.]

[Skye: How about a day off today? I heard a lot of celebrities are going to come, please!!!!!!!!!]

[Lille: Leave granted, but control the number of exclamation marks in your messages from now on.]

[Martin: Lille, are you going to New York University?]

[Lille: Yes, they have a... well, an honorary doctorate to bestow, which feels weird since I’ve never even attended a day of school.]

The memorial mainly featured the tombstones of the victims of the Osborne Group’s illegal human experiments as its façade, and upon entering the building, various biotechnologies were on display.

Lille was now sitting in the car, ready to head to New York University and also take a look at the reactions of these... foreigners.

At the former site of the Osborne Building, people would find that Osborne’s past technological path could also reach the same experimental results as the current international gene cooperative companies but it was clear that they chose to steer their experiments towards military use first.

Martin was very satisfied with this building: as a victim, he indeed wanted revenge, and he wanted to personally take down Osborne.

However, to achieve this, he’d been through the wringer in New York for decades, experienced darkness, and received benefits from strangers; hence, even though the base energy made part of him cruel, he was actually a good person.

Being a philanthropist and the owner of Lee Financial, making life better for immigrants who faced the same difficulties was also a part of his life’s achievements.

Revenge was certainly justified, but to discard the possibilities of life for the sake of revenge was the tragedy that avengers had to accept—

This balance was fragile and hard to catch, weakness or impulsiveness could lead to lifelong regret.

Now he felt content, his enemy wasn’t taken down by his own hands, but was disabled; Osborne’s name would forever be tied to evil deeds, and he could protect people from suffering the same fate...

And to live good days, the kind of good days that come from everyone working hard together.

According to his plan, initially, he only wanted to finance the young genius Lille to counteract Osborne and grow the industry, but Lille taught him many things—

He had built this gray Lee Financial Empire with his superpower, but now the industry had grown beyond his expectations, and he hadn’t used the base energy for a long time.

"I really didn’t trust you for nothing."

Martin felt a pang of emotion and began to get ready to leave—

He hadn’t trusted the wrong person, so now it was time to be more candid.

...

"That outfit looks nice, it adds some pep to your appearance."

Maya was adjusting Lille’s clothes in the car.

Lille’s expression was a bit stiff, as was his body—because his main consciousness was not here anymore.

Of course, compared to before, his movements were definitely much smoother.

Within the realm of extreme metal, Lille tried controlling the Octopus Arm directly with the brain-machine interface, which turned out to be quite stiff.

However, he also discovered that he could now attempt purely using the brain-machine interface and Si Anweisitan to control his body, an operation previously thought to be possible only for AIs.

After all, Jack and V were still resting, no harm in trying.

In the Cyberpunk World, Lille directly manipulated his physical body here through the operation of the brain-machine interface, and it seemed quite normal.

"Mom, it’s not like it’s a graduation ceremony..."

"Isn’t a Ph.D. ceremony a graduation ceremony?" Maya shook her head, "Mom knows you have a status now, but this... this is still meaningful.

Your dad always wanted you to study well and get into a good university before he passed away, not to end up doing menial labor like him."

Familiar words made Lille pause for a moment, and then he suddenly asked, "Mom, have you ever thought, since it was so hard, why have a child at all?"

"What kind of question is that?" Maya quickly withdrew her hand, pretending to be angry as she looked at Lille, "Who would treat their child like a burden?"

"Uh..."

Maya pondered for a moment, seemingly considering other aspects, and then sighed, "If I had to say, it’s my fault, we really didn’t have the best conditions.

We... Lille, I hope you won’t blame me and your father, we just... just thought that even if life was tough, it was also happy.

We would wake up at six o’clock every morning, I would cook breakfast, and after he ate, he would go to work at six-thirty. I would clean up then leave for the hospital at seven o’clock.

We’d set up a little table by the nearby river at noon. He was really good at telling jokes, and he’d always start laughing uncontrollably before finishing them, his face covered in grime but laughing heartily, looking like a fool—truth be told, they weren’t always that funny, but it was hard for him to think of a new one every day.

At six o’clock in the evening, we’d get off work, have dinner, and then find a spot to take a walk...

It was simple, but you know your dad was the kind of man who could be happy with no money, and he was completely clueless about romance, scratching his head and still unable to think of anything. But who else would persist in telling a different joke every day for a whole year, just to make a girl happy?

Then one day, he finally said to me: Maya, when I save enough money to buy a farm in the countryside, let’s get married.

But I said: You might even earn less than I do, but if we get married now, we can save up money together."

With him, I started to feel that the streets weren’t so dangerous, and I wasn’t so afraid of people’s malicious stares. I no longer worried about someone robbing or attacking me because I’m a Latovian,

because I knew he would always stand in front of me—even though I’m not some frail woman, having such a person... it’s really comforting."

After saying that, she gently hugged Lille: "When you were born, your dad stayed outside the delivery room for days, anxious as a monkey, and I told him he didn’t need to wait like that.

He said he had to stay with me, had to be there to see you when you were born... What I’m saying isn’t to claim how good we were to you, just...

You’re right, we were somewhat selfish, but after seeing how harsh this world can be, we also began to feel that the world could be gentle and beautiful.

I don’t know if this answer puts pressure on you, but we truly love you, and that’s something you should never doubt."

Lille felt his eyes moisten.

"I love you too, Mom."

"Alright." Maya grabbed Lille’s shoulders and wiped his eyes, "You’re a big shot now, Mom doesn’t understand all this, but I hope you can be safe, and have a home to come back to."