Chapter 687 - 658: Breaking Through the Siege (3)

New York, Bloom Company.

Martin pushed open the door of Skye’s studio, anxiously shouting: "Skye, the city..."

"I know!"

A brusque voice resonated from all corners of the room—

After all, she was the chief operations engineer of ctOS; if something happened, she would be the first to know!

Lille’s removal of Cross-Dimensional Encryption caused almost all the production lines to halt, and the network encryption methods were rendered entirely obsolete, forcing a switch to alternative methods...

It was just such an adjustment that caused network chaos of an alarming magnitude!

Almost simultaneously, unknown cyber attacks from all over the world, direct attacks on information devices beyond internet protocols, brought the entire network to a standstill!

A dozen or so smart cities across the United States were thus plunged into gridlock!

Seeing the situation inside, Martin didn’t press Skye further:

Skye lay in the interface pod, and the cooling liquid was frantically boiling and bubbling!

Bang!

A massive electrical surge overloaded a line in the interface pod, and Skye convulsed violently as if in a seizure, shocking Martin...

Bzz—

Countless screens began to flicker, dark red mosaics and cryptic texts completely dominated the network!

Martin stepped forward to press the emergency disconnect button, but before he could offer further comfort to Skye, he was stunned:

The screens, seized by dark red mosaics and breached by electrical surges, began playing fragmented footage:

He recognized the locations: New York’s Hudson River, Washington’s Potomac River, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, Houston’s NASA John Space Center...

And the site of the President’s speech.

Barnes, the presidential hopeful, was firmly outlining the future onstage: "...this country, this world, will become a better place through our joint efforts—"

A low rumble suddenly drowned out his words, initially mistaken by the crowd as thunder.

But then, the ground began to quake slightly, causing people to stop what they were doing, shift their gaze away from Barnes, look around, and see the water column shooting skywards!

The earth roared, water splashed, and a massive steel ship rose from beneath the waves!

The entire United States, even the whole world, affected and hacked by the satellite network, witnessed this scene—

And former President Ellis appeared on television:

"As the President of the Mei Country, I will make my last decision of my term, signing a presidential order to amend the term limits in our laws.

The parliamentary vote will begin now.

Simultaneously, we will...we will eradicate the traitors among us, and the terrorists worldwide hostile to us!"

The giant beast blotted out the sky.

Barnes was at a loss, and people were even more confused.

The President who was supposed to be stepping down...

What did he just say?

Before Martin, all the screens under enemy control were forming countless bright red texts:

[WE BLANKET THE SKY]

[WHERE ARE YOU?]

...

The wall was smashed open by Hellhound’s strong arms, just as Stark Tower’s defenses were torn apart by Lille!

V ducked past Hellhound’s arm, the Mantis Blade thrusting fiercely into the joints of the Hellhound robot, with the extreme thermal energy supply switching to electrical current just before the blade pierced.

As the blade sank in, the temperature began to drop, replaced by the high-voltage electrical channel hidden within the blade—

AI Lark’s code written into Hellhound was instantly overwritten, the massive robot retracting its arm, leaving behind a pool of blood on Takemura’s side and traces of some special Prosthetics Maintenance Liquid, flesh and prosthetics smashed into a mess, plastered on the wall.

This Arasaka Ninja indeed had some skills, especially when it came to escaping.

Riddle was far more unfortunate: this New American Agent relied on aptly implanted prosthetics and abundant experience to operate, but could only endure such an unexpected attack!

As the arm was retracted, Lille controlled the machine to tear apart the room containing the Little North Star project results while grabbing the Lark on the ground.

Riddle, half of his body crushed to a pulp, fell out of the wall, his gun and hand compressed into a lump.

He looked at the captured Lark, his shattered knee hitting the floor:

"Uh... Zhaomei..."

V glanced at Riddle, jumping onto the top of Hellhound.

"Not gonna finish him off? Also, that Arasaka bastard seems to have run away."

"No time for that."

Lille’s voice sounded entirely like metal vibrating, an indescribable eeriness...

Stranger than the heavy metal screams of those Vortex Gang guys.

The Hellhound completely tore open the door and stepped inside. The key database was a spherical capsule suspended in the air, connected by numerous cables.

The outcome of the Little BeiDou Project was here: an inactive AI matrix.

The researchers on the project had studied rogue AIs for a long time and truly produced results hidden behind this wall, but what they failed to notice was that the hackers responsible for deep-diving into the old web and contacting rogue AIs had already undergone changes—

Ultimately, they didn’t live long enough to see their harvest, either dying from mental issues brought about by deep dives or being killed by the rogue AI that had already infiltrated and taken over the Little BeiDou facilities.

However, the AI wasn’t particularly strong; the weak Black Wall signals that seeped in quickly suppressed it. As Lille wrote in the Hellhound and seized control of the facility, it completely vanished from the Little BeiDou Project—

There is a difference even among danger thresholds. Although humans inherently struggle to match AIs, once they transform or create AIs in some sense, what they produce isn’t simple by any means.

"You said you’d help me!"

The AI Lark controlled Lark’s vocal organs to shout angrily—it had been driven out by Lille!

Lille did not respond to the angry AI but instead controlled the Hellhound to immediately access the database storing the Little BeiDou results.

The Hellhound flickered with intense black and red currents. Perhaps it became more conspicuous in Cyberspace after Lille took control of the Little BeiDou Project; or perhaps because the structure of the facility became increasingly exposed under the collapse of the ruins, and the attacks from the Black Wall intensified.

This would be key for Lille to break through the Black Wall!

As data began to be read, he discovered that this AI matrix and AI Lark could fully carry out his plan:

The Little BeiDou Matrix could completely separate AI Lark, turning it into a truly dangerous threshold individual, entirely free from Lark’s interference, becoming a complete entity.

And this AI had only one characteristic: to interfere with the Black Wall, or even control the Black Wall.

When Lark used it to attack enemies with the so-called "Black Wall Gateway," the equipment on her body would also be attacked, notably her brain would come under attack, and the human brain is purely consumable. So she would be tormented beyond belief.

But AI is different; with a backup, a server, it can be used repeatedly...

The Black Wall would be completely fooled—

Most notably, now almost all network devices equipped with the Black Wall in Night City would be entirely burned out by the Black Wall!

"How is it?" V fixed Lille’s head into the clothes, and after confirming it was secure, he patted the Hellhound contentedly. "Any discoveries?"

Great discovery.

In theory, Lille should immediately use this AI matrix at this time to separate AI Lark, cooperating with his new "companion" to break through the Black Wall and create chaos.

Only by completing this first step could he gradually regain control.

But the multi-threaded thinking of AIs caused him to jump from his target and notice other things:

As the saying goes, for hackers, there is no door that cannot be opened. Those rogue AIs can also be considered a type of hacker—

Whether they want to absorb all existing human knowledge or destroy and control humanity...

They always need to break through the Black Wall, yet they have never achieved this step...

However, humans have succeeded: AI Lark’s complete form would be the first step for a dangerous threshold to break through the Black Wall, from nothing to something.

This action would make the collapse period of the Black Wall predictable rather than indefinite.

"Release me, release me from this body, and the world will be under our feet!"

Whether it was because it was housed in a human body or due to its creation by Military Technology, Lille could feel that AI Lark was extremely aggressive—

Relying on it is like negotiating with a tiger, and if Lille completely regards himself as a dangerous threshold, this would be an entirely good thing.

But clearly, this is like opening Pandora’s box.

No one knew in their hearts, no one questioned him; there was only external pressure and the inevitable choice laid before him...

Pressing this button, having this button, to become the most terrifying terrorist in the world once, releasing the sword of Damocles hanging over humanity’s head, he could even control this sword for a long time...

Yet he might also lose control: AI Lark is a dangerous threshold, Little Octopus should be able to control her, but her unique effect on the Black Wall meant she could actually threaten Little Octopus...

Moreover, once the nuclear bomb’s technological route proved effective, it would only be a matter of time before other capable organizations developed this thing.

Bang!

V threw a stone, hitting Lark: "Why are you always blabbering, unlike Little Octopus—Little Lille, hurry up and get it done."

"I..."

The AI-processed brain suddenly sensed a peculiar emotion: V was looking at him expectantly.

It seemed seeing him brought hope to V, seeing him... reminded V to take a vacation after finishing this job.

Expectation...

It was a human emotion.

Beautiful things are false; real things are ugly, but Lille always wanted a world that was both real and beautiful, which is why he came here and reached this point.

Many were hoping he would once again fiercely break through the siege.

Lille responded to V: "Look how anxious you are."

Even though no one was watching Lille, giving him a spiritual interrogation or moral coercion, Lille still made a swift decision.

It’s time to initiate Plan B.