Chapter 782 - 61 Psychological Shadow (Part 1)

Elliot’s small cabin was cramped and crowded, at least in Lille and Johnny’s eyes—can humans really live in a windowless room?

But from an AI’s perspective, this room was perfectly sized, the thickness of the walls, the embedded piping, pathways, and the overall wiring setup were all very comfortable...

The only discomfort was that it housed a person rather than neat servers.

This house was also anti-human in the sense that if Munemasa hadn’t taken over the security cameras of the apartment building, they wouldn’t notice the Floating Car of Network Supervision Agents arriving...

This place is really just for sleeping.

[Munemasa: They’re here.]

[Johnny: This crappy house is even more ridiculous than a prison!]

"Have you been to prison? Don’t talk nonsense! How’s this house lacking?"

[Johnny: I’ve really been there, Night City prison is much better than this crappy place... The old folks inside speak nicely.]

Elliot was stunned, isn’t this the roaming AI? How has it been to prison?

At the same time, he caught another keyword: Night City.

This AI... came from Night City!

"Night City? The prison in Night City is better than where I live?! You guys..."

[Beep—]

[This is a temporary broadcast within the apartment: There’s an abnormal wiring issue inside the building, and the maintenance team is stepping in.]

[Please try to stay home and cooperate with maintenance personnel.]

[Network Surveillance Agents have arrived locally to ensure your safety and protect your information security.]

[Using Network Surveillance services, your information security is worry-free.]

[Munemasa: Truly interesting, information security worry-free... living in a room monitored to the level of a strand of hair 24 hours a day.]

Elliot sat on the bed, his heart racing, perhaps because he was about to face Network Supervision, the fear made him unconsciously start to suck up...

"Anyway, it’s always going to leak, leaking to Network Surveillance is better than leaking to... unprincipled hackers, right?

I don’t have anything that big companies would be interested in..."

[Johnny: Heh... spineless shrimp, you didn’t say that when you were bypassing the firewall.]

Lille thought for a moment and directly pulled out the hallway surveillance.

The two people from Network Surveillance who came were wearing tidy uniforms, looking high-class and professional, walking with an imposing demeanor, seemingly chewing gum, which added a relaxed touch to their professional image.

The workers loitering in the hallway either stood at their doorsteps or secretly cracked open their doors a little, observing with hidden curiosity.

In the surveillance view, watching the two Agents approach, seeing their every move at your fingertips felt completely different from facing them directly:

Elliot, standing at one meter sixty-eight, weighing one sixty-eight, was chubby and short-legged, with ordinary facial features, even somewhat flat.

Long hours of technical work left him smelling of machine oil and smoke, with skin dry as bark, even the prosthetics he’d used for years would occasionally malfunction, leaving him awkwardly tapping and patting in place...

Not just him, but most of the people living in this apartment building were like this.

Even though these two agents were here to deal with him, he felt a conflicted sentiment:

Network Surveillance employees... they’re really good, with power, looking bright and strong, knowledgeable...

Unlike himself...

Beep—

The doorbell rang, Elliot nervously opened the door.

Standing only one meter sixty-eight, not handsome, round in shape, unwelcomed, apart from work, just nesting at home on the internet...

These two agents were different, standing at one meter eighty-eight, a favorite with the ladies, well-proportioned, skin fair and smooth...

They work in Network Surveillance, they are the decent people.

He didn’t know what was wrong with him, his mind crazily thinking about these things: if only he were also a Network Surveillance employee.

Watching these two in surveillance, his emotions were quite subtle, facing them directly, these thoughts became even more... profound.

He cooperatively opened the door wide, smiled while scratching his head, feeling a bit nervous:

"Hello, um..."

Ignoring Elliot’s nervousness, the lead Network Surveillance Agent directly sent over an electronic credential to his system:

"Network Surveillance detected a technical issue here, the technician’s maintenance report has some... details that aren’t quite right, we need to ask you something."

[Munemasa: There’s a scanning program in the files, they’ve connected it.]

[Johnny: Show credentials... In Night City, if any reckless youth was suspicious and asked cops to show credentials, it would become a gunfight in no time.]

[Johnny: I wonder why these people are so obedient, enforcing the law by showing credentials first, turns out it’s to flaunt power.]

Throughout Europe, Network Surveillance is undoubtedly the network police.

Considering the era, public safety is based on information technology, it’s even safe to say Network Surveillance is Europe’s official police, and each city’s police force is merely there to assist them.

Based on comprehensive monitoring systems, Network Surveillance staff only need to routinely run programs to obtain a citizen’s entire information.

But when faced with Munemasa and Lille, this system meets its nemesis.

The scanning program directly entered Elliot’s system core, but AI like Munemasa and Lille can completely run data in a distributed manner on different devices, mimicking normal system operations.

To discover them already hidden throughout the entire building requires not just AI-targeted scanning tools but also very strong hacking skills—

These two guys are definitely not those hackers; just one round of contact, Munemasa and Lille immediately made their judgment.

These two Network Surveillance Agents are completely different from Dragon Hunters, not to mention Blais, their skills... can be described as very poor.

They seem several times more mighty than Blais, but in reality, their so-called work is just running programs and reading reports.

Though so-called hackers, whether masters or novices, must first write programs for preparation, there’s a very visible difference between masters and novices:

In this world, when a master runs a program for mechanical computing, they will definitely try to monitor all data, using experience to judge anomalies, using intelligence and knowledge for real-time adjustments, even without super temporary coding ability, switching between tools is basic operation.

A novice, that is, a so-called scripter, just runs the program and does not care anymore, only waiting for the final report, totally ignoring what’s happening during the process.

Without understanding details, they can’t make judgments...

The weakest part of the network supervision is precisely these showpieces:

Once these showpieces are deceived, the devil hidden in the details will only become increasingly vague with layer upon layer of reporting, ultimately unable to present the correct facet of events!

The returned report only needs to be normal, if no one monitors the program process, they can even stuff something inside!

Thinking of this, Lille instantly made a decision:

[Lille: Take action.]

[Munemasa: Still as big a shot as ever.]

Already being scrutinized, not thinking of hiding in the server, but instead actively hacking in for disguise...

But this is indeed Burger King’s style.