Chapter 864 - 143: Through the Storm (5)

The streets of Bruges fell into chaos not seen since the implementation of the European Barrier system.

The workers, having nothing but their own legs and feet, found their loud accusations somewhat ridiculous under pursuit, and even fellow workers not joining the parade sneered:

Look, an illegal gathering.

The law is the strongest baseline under the European Barrier system; morality, survival, justice, personal existence... all those blurred, subjective, and so-called humanistic things yield to the sole and ultimate logic of this system!

It’s not just about work; even the attempt to uncover the truth, to vindicate friends and family, must adhere to procedures:

If there’s no procedure, the police will point the gun at you, the patrol cars will sound the alarm, all the justice pursued will be completely shattered as this terrifying curtain of violence falls, even if some still believe there might be things that should transcend the law, they will fall silent as the agitation calms...

The fleeing workers only felt suffocated: this city was once so safe.

Safe to the extent that even when people were thrown out of the barrier daily due to losing their jobs, unpaid debts, inability to work, the city still wouldn’t have any unresolved robberies, thefts, or murder cases, things left on the street by accident would be found just as they were even after a day.

But now it is so dangerous.

The city seems to have come alive, former friendly neighbors wore faces of mockery and disdain, diligent police no longer kindly tell them to call beforehand if something happened...

They suddenly became the city’s sinners, the criminals pursued by everyone.

But...

"ADL forced employees to work at high intensity leading to cyberpsychosis! They are the ones breaking the law!"

Beep beep—

A worker shouted in desperate anger, but was quickly drowned out by the heavy blare of police sirens.

As for the people in the car, they appeared serious, but felt more like they were entertained.

"Beep beep—"

"Please do not panic, Bruges police station is executing a mission. If suspicious individuals are found, please upload suspect information immediately via the public network."

"Harboring criminals will be pursued as aiding and abetting."

"Do not believe any words of criminals."

The heavy sound of sirens echoed through the streets, police cars passed through.

If it was Night City, there would often be panicked drivers stepping on the gas recklessly, and the chance of citizens running chaotically on the side increased:

Because once such things happen, it might evolve into street gun fights in a few minutes, bullets don’t have eyes.

But here, with police cars traveling, cars on the streets would only orderly move to the sides to make way, everything remained orderly, no panicked citizens, no helpless police officers, and certainly no ruthless company soldiers...

Only the slow and steady advancement of police cars, silently oppressing everyone’s nerves...

Especially the nerves of those being pursued.

On one side of the road, amidst the crowd of onlookers, a man silently watched the scene, quietly turning away, starkly contrasting those gathering to watch the chaos.

"...Back not long when I saw someone messing around in the street, really hit the jackpot, go to Night City and come back a disaster star..."

Mumbling something, the man’s prosthetic eye flashed brightly, transforming the world in front of him into a simplified version of cyberspace—

Pop!

The street lights suddenly burst into furious sparks!

Bright streetlights extinguished completely, replaced by scarlet fault lights, public service HUDs in front of citizens shut off, police cars lost navigation!

The man shut down all public devices in the block!

Bruges Network Supervision Office, two office network agents suddenly jumped from their chairs!

The protection of the European Barrier connects on-site devices like a web, a single tug moves the whole network.

Only top hackers most familiar with this system could possibly attack the EU’s public system—

But such hackers often receive the highest salaries and enjoy the best treatments in network supervision, and are embedded with diverse monitoring software!

Who is attacking the EU’s devices?!

...

Blackouts previously caused civilians to complain bitterly, including these fleeing workers—

But this time is different, they only felt the darkness was like a mother, holding them extremely safely in her arms:

The more chaotic, the harder they are to catch...

At least for now, they won’t be caught!

The leading worker rushed with his comrades among the crowds, turning a corner on the street when suddenly a strange voice echoed in his ear:

"Head towards the port! I’ll lead the way for you! Look on the road!"

The workers looked up towards the center of the road, seeing a rare European pickup truck speeding with lights on...

A woman on the truck shrugged frantically with a glow stick in hand, her head seemingly wearing some recording device covering half her face:

"Over here!!!"

And behind her stood a steel-like man, carrying various media devices.

...

"What’s going on!"

The attack continues, power shortages occur following a district’s paralysis, the hacker hiding in the dark just needs a bit of operation to briefly plunge a region into darkness.

The ADL regional manager, watching the workers group almost dispersed now racing madly in darkness, even running louder as he cursed by the window:

"Damn EU, paying so many taxes every year just to raise these layabouts?!"

[Correspondent: Bruges Police Station]

[ADL Regional Manager: Why haven’t those people been caught yet?!]

[Bruges Police Station: Someone attacked the public network, citizens blocked the road, we can’t exactly run them over, can we?]

[Bruges Police Station: Network supervision has intervened, don’t worry, it’s actually good!]

[Bruges Police Station: These people really pushed hackers to act, once caught we’ll sentence them with a level five felony!]

[ADL Regional Manager: Are you sure you can catch them? Don’t forget we...]

[Bruges Police Station: Hey, watch your words, what "we" and "you", I’m an official person, you’re a business person.]

[Bruges Police Station: Nonsense, as long as they don’t have an assembly parade permit, what else can they do besides go to jail?]

[Bruges Police Station: Advantage is on my side! Won’t let those criminals get away.]

ADL regional manager holding champagne, upon thinking, indeed rushed himself.

Yes, anyway, that Elliot, and that idiot Sevens, couldn’t make it either.

Sometimes these rigid rules are quite fun: with just network equipment, permits and decrees can be transmitted to another city, proving it’s legal, registered.

But the rule is that the responsible person must be present... someone explains it’s to have accountability, otherwise it’s unclear if something happens.

Yeah, the rules are clear.

Thinking this, he looked towards the port, looked at the turbulent port...

At this look, his pupils shrank intensely!

Bang!

A gigantic black tail fin slaps on the sea surface, some kind of enormous black creature heading towards the port!

Boom!

The port was even smashed down!

It’s a humpback whale!