Chapter 787 - 66: Babbling Elliot (Part 2)

"But do you guys know, I actually resent some media people on the EU network who have to mock Night City every day, highlighting how righteous the EU laws are and how good life is here."

Elliot spat: "Do I not know if life is good or not? I live in the cheapest housing, use the crappiest prosthetics, and systems that are several generations outdated, just to avoid being in debt.

And now, with one fine, I have to stay like this for a year to pay it off!

And those EU officials... tsk."

The elevator kept descending, and a sleek floating car glided by in the air, looking somewhat out of place in this intensely industrialized city.

Like the two rich and handsome network supervisors striding breezily into a cramped and rundown workers’ dormitory, it appeared just as incongruous.

"Those EU civil servants who come to ’gain experience’ just sit in floating cars every day, eating, drinking, chatting, all while watching us work our asses off."

After speaking, Elliot glanced at the city center, where a building stood that wasn’t nearly as tall as the workers’ apartment buildings, but with a lot more design flair compared to the concrete blocks of the apartments.

Imposing, beautiful, and spacious with lots of light.

Even as Elliot said this, Johnny and Lille in his head knew this guy... was filled with envy.

Ding.

The elevator reached the ground floor, no longer able to see the stylish building through the skyscrapers.

Elliot stepped out of the elevator onto the muddy floor: The EU had corresponding plans for the urban landscape, with drones cleaning every street.

But the ground in front of the workers’ dormitory was forever coated in mud that couldn’t be washed away because countless workers came and went every day.

Foxstone is the EU’s border, the very periphery of the EU, furthest from all that prosperity;

And the workers’ dormitory is the outermost area of Foxstone.

He silently stared at the ground: "Do you guys think I’m too... too conflicted?"

[Johnny: Yeah, you’re pretty conflicted, who asked you?]

[Lille: Indeed, I asked you to read the news, not to share your opinions.]

[Munemasa: Chaotic logic, unclear goals, aimless thinking. It seems your intelligence is a bit low, but your courage makes up for it; otherwise, your probability of encountering me in this life should be almost zero.]

Elliot blushed on the spot, his face turning pig-liver red again:

He made the big mistake of liking to pour out his feelings to people... or things he hadn’t known for long.

After delivering a lengthy soliloquy, the indifference of the listener left him wanting to crawl into the mud with embarrassment...

Who would understand!

[Lille: But it’s okay, stick with me, and you’ll have a chance to shine.]

[Lille: Oh, by the way, are there any coworkers who like to babble on like you?]

"...I don’t know." Elliot’s pig-liver color had just faded before flaring up again, "Who talks about this every day? Aren’t they afraid of being grabbed for a chat by visiting civil servants?"

"What do I do now? Do we buy tickets and go find little Matt?"

[Lille: Do you have the money to buy tickets?]

[Lille: Secondly... if you go to buy tickets now, you’d be caught as soon as you reach the airport...]

[Lille: Go to work, I need a bit more time to plan the next steps.]

"Oh."

Ugh, even with three remarkable minds in my head, I still have to work.

Really wish I could win 500,000 euros.

Lille had two reasons for wanting him to work: One, the EU’s control over this region is far stronger than any organization in Night City, grabbing a gun and going is unrealistic.

Considering the all-encompassing surveillance on Elliot’s system and residence, and even suspecting that the "black market-acquired" mysterious VPN helmet was deliberately left by network supervision, Lille reasonably suspected that the EU might have a behavioral prediction system for citizens.

Kind of like the ctOS he used in Marvel World, or Hydra’s Zola program.

And in the past, there was V and Jack, now there’s no one who can fight; grabbing a gun might just get him killed.

Second...

The time for this brief return is up.

[The dimensional rift is being repaired, cross-dimensional activity will soon close.]

[Lille: But aside from work, there’s indeed something else you can do.]

[Lille: You said you’re interested in technology and want to learn real skills not controlled by the EU?]

[Lille: We can teach you.]

Elliot’s eyes lit up upon hearing this!

In front of employees of Network Supervision questioning him, he was a trembling coward, ranting freely but ultimately obedient, even secretly envying them...

Who wouldn’t want an easy, respectable, high-paying, and powerful job?

Who wouldn’t want to be an object of envy?

But in these... AI’s eyes, network supervision agents seemed like a bunch of immature fools, brainless, being played around——

Watching those agents’ every move through surveillance, it felt... just awesome!

Maybe when they watched through surveillance, it felt like this?

He couldn’t become a... a "noble" in this life.

But he really loved that feeling.

"I want to learn!"

[Lille: Great.]

[Lille: It’s up to you.]

Munemasa was full of CPU-level doubts:

[Munemasa: Weren’t you going to take this stupid fat guy along? Why am I the one teaching him?]

[Lille: Just think of it as taking on another disciple, I have other work to do, very, very important work.]

[Lille: Don’t try to access external networks before I reboot, let this guy do it instead.]

Munemasa’s CPU confusion didn’t lessen at all, it only increased, but Lille didn’t give him the chance to ask further questions and immediately went into dormancy!

Irked enough, Munemasa wanted to go into overdrive and directly attack Foxstone’s information hub!

With Lille’s voice gone silent, so too did Johnny’s, leaving Munemasa with only the eager Elliot to converse with:

"I want to learn, I want to learn!"

[Munemasa: Learn... sigh, go ahead and learn.]

[Munemasa: Why are you so excited?]

"Of course I’m excited!" Elliot fiercely pumped his fist, "Master... I have a question. You said that helmet might’ve been given to me by network supervision, so does that mean they wanted me to escape on purpose?

Why? They’re clearly the ones who love control the most..."

[Munemasa: Ahem.]

[Munemasa: I don’t get that stuff, don’t ask me about your social engineering matters, I only teach you tech content.]

"Oh, oh... okay, okay, forgot Master, you’re AI. Human affairs, indeed complex, we humans can’t even figure it out..."

Elliot began to mutter again, and Munemasa, sensing this overly eager guy’s excitement and enthusiasm, suddenly recalled his last disciple...

His last disciple wasn’t this talkative.

But upon learning they could learn these... these "skills," they got extremely excited...

[Munemasa: Hey, why do you want to learn this stuff?]

"Of course, for freedom and truth!" Elliot said decisively, "Things not obtained by oneself couldn’t be freedom, truths not obtained by oneself are even harder to verify!

I want to obtain freedom and truth myself!"

[Munemasa: Heh... you sure talk a good game.]

Flashes of his last "disciple" answering this question crossed his mind, and Masamune wasn’t as clear and definite with his answers.

But thinking now, maybe this fat guy and Masamune might have some similarities?

[Munemasa: Hope your intelligence is as high as his.]

"Who?"

[Munemasa: Einstein.]

"Huh?"

Munemasa opened with a joke for the first time.