Chapter 592 - 563: Divided Intelligence, Unsolved Mysteries

Twelve hours after the nuclear explosion occurred.

A small-yield tactical nuclear bomb was not much of a problem nowadays. The key issues were who used it and where it was deployed.

If military technology and Arasaka were representing their employers in a battle over a certain sea area and deployed nuclear missile heads, then it was a matter to be settled through routine procedures.

However, if a group of terrorists had magically pulled it out and detonated it in the city center, the issue became a bit more complex.

Although Night City was not exactly a tightly controlled developed city, it was still considered a developed city. If a nuclear bomb exploded in Night City today, it could very well happen in other cities tomorrow, especially in the New America Region close to Night City.

Therefore, as soon as this happened, companies began to adjust their intelligence networks.

[New File: Burger King’s Big-Time Idiot Criminal Gang Sales]

[Activity Location: Night City]

[Hereinafter referred to as the Hamburg Criminal Group]

[Identification: No specific marks, but vigilant about every Kitsch, Neo-Kitsch, and Entropism hamburger mark appearing in Night City]

[Main members (using codenames):]

[Big-Time: Also known as Desert Partner, Doomsday Iron Fist, Destruction Iron Fist, etc., height between 195-200 cm, extremely strong, adept at using various types of heavy weaponry, close and at a distance, suspected of carrying unknown biotic energy berserk components, numerous battlefield feeding records.]

[King: Also has codenames like V, Hell Iron Cavalry, about 175 cm tall, extremely fast reaction and movement speeds. According to the Terrorist Mobile Team feedback, has been able to stimulate speeds several times theirs in a cyber psychosis state, Si Anweisitan model unknown, proficient in combat with motor vehicles, the only female (suspected).]

[Hamburger (King?): No other codenames, about 170 cm tall, multiple intelligence channels confirmed to have a terminal illness, but uncertain (survived and won in many deadly cyberattacks);

suspected team leader, highly skilled (superbly skilled) in cyber warfare, electronic warfare, tactical planning, nuclear physics...and any possible technical field, approach with a sufficient technical team.]

[Prosthetics level suspected to exceed 100% (includes numerous high-function additional prosthetics - limb-expansion category), single prosthetic eye, numerous hacker prosthetic modifications...]

[Numerous unknown prosthetics, models, and categories undetermined.]

[Recent Activity: ...]

The recent activity is considered "highly meritorious," but there’s a huge inconsistency between companies’ intelligence.

While Lille openly hammers in from the east, from the west during honest moments, even gang leaders and agents like Stott openly declare they’re nearing death—in the dishonest places...

In the dishonest places, the details are too crucial, especially when the company tried to trace the remnants of data left by the entire criminal gang’s operations in Night City...

They discovered many anomalies; first off, the data chain in the cyber architecture of Night City was missing, or perhaps concealed by methods they had never seen before.

This phenomenon wasn’t just noticed during their chase after Burger King; it affected traffic lights, power grids...

Too many places had data missing, too many unrecoverable and untraceable data chains, making it easy to link these anomalies with the AI that just wreaked havoc in the city and... the recently attacked Ye Group.

The intelligence on Burger King seemed partially swallowed by a black hole, making it hard for the company to make more concrete judgments; but the issue was, other things disappeared into the black hole as well, making it impossible to directly identify: The data black hole was caused by Burger King.

Due to the team’s elusive style and the presence of a data black hole, along with the first-hand information-holding companies’ refusal to share or even their differing agendas, the intelligence and descriptions about Lille they possess will always be non-three-dimensional, distorted, and veiled.

For instance, Kantao, they knew the Si Anweisitan on V was theirs, but other companies didn’t know.

Like Military Technology, they knew Lille had absorbed a lot of technology from them, Centaur Mecha, drones...

But honestly, not even the high-ups at Military Technology were fully aware of these things, only Stott knew.

Then you have Arasaka and internet surveillance, they knew the battle at Tiger Claw Gang wasn’t just aimed at the legal Jotaro and the NCPD Deputy Commissioner. The two companies also clashed in cyberspace, Black Wall and Soul Killer were involved.

And from the beginning, Biotechnology, the big fool, nobody else ever knew exactly what Burger King had stolen, or that Lizard Man had absolutely no relation to Biotechnology.

If these pieces of information were pieced together, it would make intelligence work progress much better, but how could these companies ever share intelligence?

So at this point, these high and mighty companies discovered...

It was somewhat troublesome.

Each company that had ever come into contact with Burger King, each that had once thought they were just some flash-in-the-pan mercenaries, had changed their minds:

This criminal gang had a solid information security strategy from the start, each seemingly brutal crime likely involved meticulous planning, from the beginning, they were concealing something.

And today, after pulling off an outrageous, large-scale operation and exerting some sort of influence on Night City, the company could no longer track them, and the mystery could not be unveiled.

Twelve hours past the nuclear explosion, Military Technology was the first to dispatch a squad to follow up, but all they found was a first-floor corpse—

Susan Frist was driving the floating car, leading an entire team of military technology operatives. Guided by drones, they reached the signal epicenter, the Batti Hotel.

They now understood why the Voodoo Gang had not stopped them from entering Taiping State:

It turns out all these people were dead.

Brigitte was sitting in the hacker chair, trembling nonstop, a tremor that was quickly diminishing—

Unstable strong currents cause intermittent muscle contractions, creating epilepsy-like tremors, but high-intensity currents kill muscle cells, causing the muscle fibers to gradually lose activity and stop moving.

The current also accumulates heat in the human body, eventually turning... turning this Black individual into charred remains.

Yes, the upper part above the neck of the hacker chair’s Voodoo occupant had turned into a charred, paste-like substance.

Susan reached out and unplugged the cables on Brigitte’s body, scanning all the interfaces at the scene.

But her prosthetic eye kept showing strange black and red mosaics.

[Lark: If I were you, I wouldn’t try to touch those interfaces.]

[Lark: It’s traces of a rogue AI, I’ve heard that the Voodoo Gang likes to fiddle with the Black Wall, it seems they successfully breached it.]

[Lark: Or... or our three internationally wanted criminals sold the captured AI over here, it seems they found a buyer beyond network surveillance?]

[Lark: If that’s the case, then the AI has probably returned to its rogue state.]

Lark’s tone was filled with uncertainty, but it was indeed a possibility.

Burger King had definitely captured an AI; it was obvious to anyone who could see, appearing in the latter half of the Extreme Metal Race, it was the rogue AI, and this AI lost.

This was also easy to confirm: Ryan had personally confirmed that it was the work of the rogue AI.

So, in the eyes of military technology and other uninformed companies, Burger King’s activity must have had another purpose: capturing rogue AI, and such tasks are usually commissioned by network surveillance.

However, after the race ended, Burger King suddenly violently kidnapped Mrs. Perares and attacked Ryan and Senator Perares.

Looking at this... if he didn’t want to keep the hot potato of the rogue AI, finding a buyer seems quite reasonable.

The buyer being the Voodoo Gang getting burnt by the rogue AI also seems quite reasonable.

It’s just...

It’s just too reasonable, inevitably making one suspicious.

This is why intelligence agents suffer headaches: Burger King’s modus operandi is both cunning and reckless, presenting them with two extremes in their conjectures.

One extreme is: the motive is solid, the evidence chain is complete, that’s it.

The other extreme is: This is an illusion; what are they covering up?

Susan heeded the advice of Lark, let go of the cables in her hands, and also stopped the network agents from preparing to check the interfaces.

[Lark: Headache, right? I think it’s a headache too, those three guys have probably already entered Dog Town by now.]

[Susan: I need an experienced hacker to assist in the investigation on-site.]

[Lark: Don’t worry, there will be. I will join you in entering Dog Town.]

[Susan: You?]

[Lark: Hmm... My schedule has changed a bit lately, and... I think you also need to know, I feel like Arasaka Saburo might have contacted President Miles.]

[Lark: That old immortal pervert seems to have some words to say—not just to President Miles.]

[Susan: I’m not interested in this.]

[Lark: You’re not curious about this? Arasaka, military technology, maybe even Kantao, Peizhuo Petrochemical, and biotechnology...]

[Susan: When will you arrive?]

[Lark: I find you really quite unsentimental—my schedule is confidential, and so it is for you.]

[Lark: But it’s in the next few days.]