"Wake up. Open your eyes, Johnny Silverhand."
The hazy words in his perception gradually roused Johnny, whose body had been taken over and whose consciousness had faded the moment he connected in. Still dazed, he heard strange voices, then felt his body being shaken.
Then, he truly opened his eyes.
And saw several faces leaning over him.
After half a second of stunned silence—
"V, Oliver, Jack. What are you doing?"
"Oh, looks like there's no problem."
Oliver was the first to pull his head back. Looking at T-BUG beside him, he asked, "Johnny's data really is fine, just like you and Carl said. Have you figured out the internal core code?"
"More clearly than ever."
T-BUG's gaze remained fixed on the streams of data racing across the screen, her tone carrying a barely restrained excitement.
"Alt Cunningham really was a genius. Who would've thought data could be used to carry consciousness like this? People always said she was second only to Bartmoss and on par with Spider Murphy as a hacker. I never believed it—now I do."
"Enough praise."
Carl, who was also checking the data nearby, raised the data pad in her hand and looked at Johnny. "You're awake. Do you feel anything wrong, Johnny?"
"Other than hearing you all praise my girlfriend instead of checking on me first, I'm perfectly fine."
Johnny Silverhand shook his dog body, his projection appearing as he immediately lit up a cigarette.
"It felt like I closed my eyes, opened them after a nap, and it was over. I was prepared to either die or at least be left with a pile of side effects. And this was it?"
"Because this really was it."
Carl turned her gaze back to the data pad. "For some reason, your Relic was especially easy to