Chapter 727 - 7 A Completely Different Mei Country

[The website you are visiting is risky; continuing might damage your computer.]

[Details↓]

[Continue to visit.]

In Mei Country, in a dimly lit room, another excited young guy clicked on the website, and malware slipped into his computer through a breach.

This all conformed perfectly to human activity patterns, without any chaotic spark radiation or abnormal electromagnetic waves. In a time when Transformers are the primary threat, no one pays much attention to the actions of an ordinary hacker.

Moreover, this hacker operates very covertly, and his methods are quite common. When cyber police notice something is wrong, he disappears in a flash.

Porn sites are great for phishing, and it’s tough to leave any trace for pursuit.

There are countless porn sites in this world. Even the shoddiest ones can get traffic if the site owner persistently promotes them and makes the URL visible to as many people as possible, guaranteeing someone will click in.

Out of 100 people, perhaps 30 will tentatively type in the URL, 20 will choose to ignore the risks and continue to visit, 10 will become curious about the small ads on the site, and finally, a few might even have their souls snatched by the chat programs in those ads...

And their money.

Of course, Lille chose not to engage in fraud. Large-scale fraud easily catches the police’s eye, which isn’t conducive to his covert operations and is quite inefficient—

Lille opted to infiltrate financial systems directly, establish shell companies, and start wreaking havoc in the stock market.

Matters of finance, they can’t be called fraud.

These computing resources will provide Lille with sufficient computing power to break into financial systems, register shell companies, and simultaneously forge data at various key nodes on the network, making the issues difficult to detect.

The only problem is that these shell companies just need someone on site to inspect, and problems will arise...

But in the short term, by pushing out a large amount of combined information and offering quick, hefty returns, luring in a bunch of people blindly believing that money begets money is not an issue.

[Johnny: These flicks are really retro, but retro is good. I haven’t seen such primitive flicks in a long time.]

[Johnny: I remember back in our day, production companies would equip their artists with prosthetics, allowing them to perform any pose imaginable, with some things so large they were disgusting, both men and women had them. It’s downright perverted when you think about it.]

[Johnny: I kinda like these retro flicks.]

[Lille: You’re actually finding artistic value while picking flicks.]

[Johnny: My aesthetics are artistic. Look at how many naive kids have clicked in—if you gave these morons a Super Dream headband, they’d wear it right out on the street.]

[Johnny: A world with aliens, and another with a Mei Country... quite peculiar.]

In the Cyberpunk World, 2009’s Mei Country was already split, and Night City had become a lawless place. The mercenary trade thrived even more amidst the chaos—

As long as you’re willing to risk your head on your waistline, you have the chance to get anything you want, as long as you don’t die.

Night City is the most developed city for the mercenary industry, and post-split North America of Mei Country is the most suitable continent for mercenaries to survive.

For Johnny, a complete Mei Country with a bunch of "retro" humans seemed strange.

Sam drove to college, with his whole family dragging luggage, stopping and going, half touring, half rushing, making Johnny feel... odd.

Born in 1988, Johnny lived in a Cyberpunk Country long controlled by the "Four Departments," with falsehoods in financial systems that made the economy appear vibrant, but people were struggling in reality.

The young Johnny was far from a rock star; he was a patriotic youth: during his time, Mei Country lost the First Central American War and split in 1996, then lost the Second in 2003...

And turned into Hell since.

By comparison, this world’s Mei Country is Heaven—

The car parked by the roadside, with only Sam’s old man still driving while everyone else slept.

In the form of a cellphone, Lille aimed his camera outside the car, capturing all the vibrant youths and relaxed folks on the street, with storefronts lined with dazzling goods.

In the distance, the sound of swearing drivers, talking pedestrians, and music constantly drifted in...

Sure, not everything was good, but road rage and drunks going crazy on the street seemed full of life and freedom to Johnny.

At least, not everyone wore their desire to make money on their faces; not everyone chased fame and wealth like marionettes.

The most important thing is, there’s no expectation of a large-scale gunfight erupting at any moment.

[Lille: Doesn’t the air here feel disgustingly sweet to you?]

[Johnny: A little, compared to that hunk of crap called Night City, this place looks a lot more peaceful, and not too boring.]

[Johnny: Why aren’t they at war?]

[Lille: Being busy fighting aliens is still war.]

Johnny pointed at some young people on the street smoking something:

[Johnny: Just for that stuff, we fought a big one down in Central America and didn’t win, and later, everything on Night City streets was even more intense.]

[Lille: And you, you went to war initially, but then spent your days smoking that stuff.]

[Johnny: You don’t know a damn thing! We... got deceived by those sons of bitches!]

[Lille: Oh, I know too well, but I’d find out I got deceived and would definitely not be messing around with women and doing drugs.]

Johnny fell silent, watching the scene outside the street.

Lille, too, had felt the sting of betrayal. Johnny’s agitation sparked memories of that feeling within him...

Upon reflection, Johnny and he both reacted differently: Johnny imploded inward after exposing lies, while Lille lashed out destructively, but perhaps their differences weren’t so vast.

Both were unable to remain as they were after being deceived, and if one had to say, the deaths Johnny caused were far fewer than Lille’s.

Because their soul imprints were almost entwined, Lille, though controlling Johnny’s readable range, could still share these slight emotional shifts.

Johnny knew Lille was truthful: at least, he didn’t spend his days messing around with women and doing drugs.

But that didn’t mean he acted with a completely clear conscience.

Both faced colossal deception, left with nothing after being betrayed, feeling somewhat... at a loss.

Still, while Johnny remained confused, Lille already had a goal.

[Johnny: Anyway, seeing another scenario of Mei Country is pretty fascinating. Now tell me how you plan to continue this?]

[Johnny: Since you’ve kidnapped me, might as well broaden my horizons.]

[Johnny: We’ve run a porn site and become financial fraudsters. What’s your next move?]

[Johnny: We’re just a broken cellphone now and still have to accompany that idiot university student to college.]

[Lille: So we need to find an idealistic young person to do things only humans can do.]

[Johnny: What ambition could someone trawling porn sites have?]

[Lille: We’re not looking for someone who runs porn sites. A war between Transformers has taken place in this world, but the government remains silent about it...]

[Johnny: Got it. You’re a sneaky little bastard, first it’s porn, then it’s conspiracy theories.]

Those who pursue conspiracy theories have brains that work differently, but undoubtedly, they have "ambitions."

Genuinely believing in conspiracies and acting on that belief pushes the "pursuit of truth" dial to the max...

In normal eyes, it may be conspiracy theory, but in this world, it’s actually the truth.

Plus, Lille conveniently had firsthand video evidence: it couldn’t be more perfect for fishing.

At this moment, countless personal websites around the world published videos of the Transformers war, shot by passersby—

Lille sought one particular site called "Truth Uncovered."

The reason was simple: the site’s physical server was at Sam’s upcoming university, and its maintenance folks were even his roommates.

If luck favored them, when Sam reached university in a few days, a new body awaited Lille there too.