Chapter 743 - 23 The Unfinished Tune

Johnny Silverhand is a rock star.

Although he didn’t have a record label, a big company agent, or enough money to live in a mansion, compared to bands and musicians with mature business models, he was just an immature pauper—and naturally not a superstar—

But if stardom was the first tier, he was definitely in the second tier, and in Night City, he was an unprecedented rock megastar surpassing the first tier.

Music has the power to move people, and his performances were of the kind that had absolutely no competition. It was precisely because of this talent that he could pull off the feat of attacking Arasaka Tower:

The attack on Arasaka Tower was a very sudden plan. To obscure the truth and evade the ubiquitous Arasaka intelligence network, the plan only truly began when they started the actual action.

The most crucial part of the action, and the very beginning, was Johnny Silverhand’s announcement to hold a free concert in front of Arasaka Tower!

A hastily organized concert, a hastily issued announcement, with only a few hours to react, Johnny didn’t even doubt his own charisma. He easily pulled it off, and even did it astonishingly well—

When the concert reached its climax, the frenzied crowd even dared to throw Molotov Cocktails at Arasaka Tower!

Although Lille couldn’t stand this drifter in many ways, if it were before, or at most times, he wouldn’t have chosen to befriend such a guy...

But fate is truly fascinating.

With Johnny occupying his thoughts and inexplicably using his computing power, even interfering with his work, from a rational perspective, he was always thinking about how to manage this useless presence while meeting his own needs.

But maybe because there was now a soul imprint genuinely preserving human thought in the sector, the two of them achieved some degree of fusion, and Lille suddenly had a new insight:

In essence, the unlucky Johnny didn’t actually do anything wrong, he just found himself bound to Lille inexplicably.

It could even be said that Johnny initially was just a bystander, and it was Lille’s need that had pulled this native consciousness of the Cyberpunk World.

If he tried to eliminate Johnny once and for all just because a bystander he captured didn’t obey, did not bend to his will, rejected communication, and allowed hostile emotions to grow freely...

Then he’d be just like Johnny.

In fact, it could be said that this mindset could be more akin to those far worse than Johnny.

He suddenly thought of the original "Cyberpunk 2077" where the relic chip had the effect of completely overwriting the consciousness and mind of the implanted, erasing a person from both hardware and software, turning that person into another.

Right now, without being implanted with a relic chip, getting caught up in these... trivial matters and developing bad habits, wouldn’t that make him even weaker?

Lille carried the hopes of many people; he didn’t want to become a capricious person who diverged completely from the ideal self.

Moreover, Johnny wasn’t essentially a bad person; he was just brainless about many issues—there are more brainless ordinary people in this world. Would he really force them like the people from Arasaka, Ye Group, and Military Technology?

[Lille: I thought you’d choose a more... familiar style.]

In the factory, Johnny controlled Lille’s arm as if it were his own hand.

The transformation ability of the Transformers, combined with the cutting-edge ergonomics and motor neuroscience knowledge in Lille’s mind, made Johnny almost unable to tell the difference between this hand and a human hand.

He didn’t choose to perform a rock piece—in fact, he didn’t even choose to sing.

A 44-time signature short piece, an 8-beat rest at the start, with the robotic hand strumming down on the guitar twice.

With thin mechanical fingers plucking the strings, the tempo was about 140, theoretically quick, but Johnny’s play didn’t feel fast, or even sound complex.

As for why it was "about 140," it’s because Johnny turned off the metronome.

Musicians wish to have a rhythm as precise as a clock, but Johnny refused to truly possess an atomic clock-level sense of rhythm.

The melody was soothing and rhythmic, unique yet not complex, reminding Lille of his days at the Adkaduo Camp, away from the city bustle, in a calm, cloudy weather of the Evil Land, with the sunset, Jack, V, Pan’an, Sol, even David’s little group...

And many others, they actually never drank in the Evil Land together, but Lille could recall such a scene.

Thinking this way, he suddenly felt the piece was missing something: other instruments and vocals.

It might be lacking, but there’s also something strange, because the song didn’t sound as aggressive as most rock, especially not the usual "Martial Artist" rock style.

The phrase ended abruptly at its climax, like a scene suddenly ending after people toast together.

Sam was dumbfounded: he had never seen a Transformer really play music.

As for whether it’s good... it’s hard for people to ignore Johnny’s music.

The Autobots could clearly hear its rhythm, pitch, and the dynamics that had no mechanical sensation at all, purely human music—

Besides special cases like Bumblebee, Transformers couldn’t even understand music, let alone create music loved by humans?

The conclusion is, it was played by a human.

After playing, Johnny stayed with the guitar silently, pretending to be a master.

[Lille: Feels like it’s unfinished.]

[Johnny: Because it’s not finished, this is rock, just played with an acoustic guitar, it sounds different obviously, plus there’s no bass.]

[Johnny: Also, it’s not the raucous ones that are rock; if you think it’s noisy, it’s because the emotions in the song are too intense, expressed directly, it’s simply moving.]

[Johnny: Without a soul, it’s not music, if they can’t understand it, they’re clueless hicks, alright, now it’s your turn.]

Johnny dutifully returned to the sector, after Lille took over the body, he put the acoustic guitar against the wall.

Unfinished song? So it’s unreleased?

But Lille somehow found the melody somewhat familiar...

"Are you really a human?" Sam gaped.

"Nonsense." Lille jumped onto the workbench, casually patting Sam on the shoulder, "Feeling inferior? Surprised my human aspects even exceed you, a robot? Don’t overthink it; I literally hold a doctorate in another world."

"Lille." Optimus Prime interrupted the two’s banter, "What do you plan to do next? I detected that you’ve inserted a device into Sam’s neural system, such a device... we’ve never researched."

"Good that you haven’t, you are Transformers, you had never seen humans before coming to Earth. The reversed methods make it hard for humans to have their direction in research."

This device can safely read Sam’s brainwave signals and export information from his brain...

If we’re lucky."

Sam was alert: "Wait wait... what do you mean by ’if we’re lucky’?"

"Literally, if it’s just reading brainwave signals, I can guarantee it, but to get you back to normal, I also have to extract the spark source energy from within."

I haven’t done this kind of work, there might be risks..."

With that, Lille glanced at Optimus Prime.

The latter immediately understood what Lille meant: "Unless there’s someone more knowledgeable in Cybertron Technology to help you, is that what you mean?"

Lille shrugged and nodded.

Optimus Prime sighed, and Lille could even smell the scent of motor oil.

"Ironhide, Ratchet."