Chapter 589 - 560: Strike from Space

The so-called "voodoo" of the Voodoo Boys was actually network capabilities that barely reached corporate business-level, surpassing the level of street punks.

Brigitte was an ambitious, skilled, and even lucky hacker.

Netwatch promoted itself as the last barrier between humans and AI, humanity’s last hope, but like all street kids, Brigitte remained skeptical and indeed found a group:

She learned techniques on some BBS forums and heard very credible rumors against Netwatch—

"Netwatch says the Old Net is full of roaming AIs, and hackers would get attacked, their brains fried, and they isolated the Old Net with the Black Wall.

But the truth is the Old Net is full of treasures, amazing AI technologies, and the Black Wall itself is an AI.

Netwatch uses AI to prevent others from obtaining AI technology from the Old Net, thereby maintaining an advantage in network technology."

So Brigitte’s ultimate goal as an AI was to pass through the Black Wall and obtain knowledge from the Old Net—

And she did it. Many of the Voodoo Boys’ technologies were dug out from the Old Net after breaking the Black Wall. This was the foundation of their survival and even dominance in Taiping State.

But all along, her contact with AI was filled with reverence: Just like the black people under the sea facing the so-called "voodoo," while coveting this power, she also revered it.

She actually had contact with some AIs, and they always interacted cautiously, probing each other, communicating, trading...

And she began trying to use the equipment obtained from Dexter to capture AIs...

But...

But...

Why could someone command an AI like a subordinate!

The Voodoo Boys developed these advanced military-grade devices for the first time in many years and witnessed a fully functional rogue AI. These should have been two happy coincidences, but why did it turn out like this...

Lille looked at Brigitte, already not very intact, beginning to blur. He immediately gave her a shot of brain activator, followed by electrode control to stimulate her.

[Lille: Let’s take this one step at a time: Dexter DeShawn, what did he have you do?]

Brigitte, as if awakening from a dream, asked another question:

[Brigitte: That was a dangerous critical point?]

It seemed she was in a trance; Lille had already answered this question.

[Lille: Answer my question first, and then I’ll consider answering yours.]

[Brigitte: He had me use the equipment to forge and cover foreign mercenaries entering Night City.]

[Lille: Good, second question: There’s a hacker named Dante, from the Watson District, does that ring a bell?]

[Brigitte:...Yes, he set up equipment in a building, equipment we hadn’t seen before.]

[Lille: Where? You didn’t observe him?]

[Brigitte: The tallest unfinished building, we cut his power meter and secretly monitored his equipment’s frequencies.]

[Brigitte: The data is in...]

[Lille: I found it.]

Because the Voodoo Boys were given a night to rest, the database recovered quite well.

Brigitte had many brain enhancements, among which hackers liked to use external storage to store super-complex keys. The advantage was that it increased decryption difficulty. The disadvantage was that when she was fully suspended in cyberspace, her vital signs fully controlled, each time she wanted to mobilize data, Lille could easily lock the database and keys.

Dante "rented" a plot in each area from local gangs, secretly setting up directional arrays, and no one knew what the one-way signal was for.

But in Taiping State...

The signal leak characteristics detected by the Voodoo Boys gave Lille a familiar feeling:

This signal characteristic was very similar to the signal induced by Munemasa, which triggered mercenary cyberpsychosis...

What was even more coincidental was that after Lille blew up the Watson District and dealt with the Vortex Gang, Perares, who he had been talking about, disappeared for a long time afterward.

During that disappearance, he even moved from a high-rise apartment facing the Watson District to one that faced Taiping State!

Lille immediately analyzed the signal characteristics using Munemasa—

[Munemasa: This is a signal targeting human brainwaves. The technique was given by that AI; this version is optimized by me.]

In other words, Dante was the outsourced personnel hired by Mr. Blue Eyes to protect the equipment, and that equipment was for brainwashing and controlling Perares! (Note 1)

With the identity matched, Lille quickly pinpointed Dante’s movement route:

He appeared in Westbrook, joined the Tiger Claw Gang, switched identities, jumped to the Vortex Gang, set up brainwashing equipment opposite Charter Hill, and after the Vortex Gang was attacked, moved to Taiping State to set up equipment.

If the information stopped here, Lille would think Dante truly was not simple, able to catch the eyes of Blue Eyes and work for rogue AIs.

But the problem was, Lille’s speculation about Dante’s identity was lacking a crucial piece of information:

There was another Dante initially active in Haywood, investigating the deputy mayor’s office with a Valentino kid and a group of mercenaries, investigating Hot, who ultimately got trapped in cyberspace by a Soul Killer, using a special method to send a message in cyberspace to Nanchang Xun, Wakako’s old lover, asking for help.

If this hacker Dante and the current mercenary Dante were the same person...

This would mean adding two events before this timeline: Dante investigating the deputy mayor’s office and being trapped in cyberspace by the Soul Killer...

But if he got trapped in cyberspace by the Soul Killer during his actions in Haywood, how did he miraculously appear in the Tiger Claw Gang’s territory?!

Lille suddenly had a terrifying suspicion...

[Munemasa: The signal antenna can be used, but you’d better move quickly. The circuits here are very unstable. If you want to conduct high-intensity communication, you’d better take it easy.]

[Signal searching...]

[Communication frequency set]

[Directional enhanced communication mode activated, bi-directional communication protocol activated, signal stealth enabled...]

[Lille: David, do you hear me?]

...

David’s team in the Evil Land had been driving the latest model, the authentic Mackinaw, rolling around in this uniquely experiencing Mackinaw "Mammoth" for a full 12 hours.

Strong horsepower, rugged appearance, wild driving experience...It was unstoppable.

Adkaduo and they were looking for Netwatch’s target: a mysterious agent of unknown origin, who, according to Blais, should have also participated in the investigation of the deputy mayor’s office.

But...

Nothing.

Except that night, when something very inconspicuous but quite bright fell from the sky, seemingly like it had dropped from the moon, something weird crashed down.

David scratched his head looking around, Adkaduo had already fully sealed the surrounding area, not far from Military Technology’s solar power distribution station, which seemed to lack defense because of the Arasaka aircraft carrier incident.

Looking for someone in the Evil Land was like searching for a needle in a haystack; they could only guess where there might be anomalies and head there.

But they didn’t find the target Peter at the landing site...

Only a pair of charred shoes remained here. (Note 2)

[Zzz...]

[Lille: David, do you hear me?]

[David: Bro, we didn’t find anyone, but near Military Technology’s power distribution communication station, we found some strange traces. [Image]]

Lille instantly recognized these markers as traces left by a high-power energy weapon strike.

Lille rarely used words like "high-power" to describe equipment and weapons—

Because he thought these striking marks resembled some high-power orbital weapons in his memory. These weapons, although they had the advantage of being outside the orbit, also had to rely on high power to penetrate the atmosphere for effective kills.

[Lille: Hack into the nearby Military Technology station and see if there’s anything left behind. I’ll take action. Lucy, Qi Wei, you set up the bridge.]