Fighting a small Militech combat squad was nothing like taking on Nott alone.
However strong Nott was, he was still just one man. His oppressive presence and combat prowess were tangible.
But he was an arrogant madman, and he had shown himself in front of V.
Now, though, V faced a seemingly endless hail of bullets, without even being able to see anyone.
The drones' small-caliber ammunition couldn't penetrate her subdermal armor, but it could hit areas that weren't protected by it.
Her eyes, her ears-her entire head was vulnerable.
The Nekomata fired slowly, and each magazine held only four rounds.
Shooting by feel, V hit those armored vehicles almost every time, but the drones' light rounds were impossible to guard against-
"Ah! Motherfuckers! I've never hated drones this much in my life!"
The enemy also fired rockets every so often, forcing V to dart between several rocks like a mole-
But even the rocks were fragile under this kind of firepower, gradually getting ground away!
"Fuck! Lier! Have you fucking figured something out? I can't hold out much longer! Fuck..."
Bang!
A rocket exploded beside V, and the blast sent her flying-the spot where Nott had struck her earlier throbbed faintly.
She had kept her Kerenzikov active for a long time now.
She operated the Tanto Submachine Gun with one hand to attack the drones and the Nekomata with the other to shoot the armored vehicles, all while having to reload.
V felt as though she was fighting a war. She faced an army, while she was all alone.
"Fuck! Hurry!"
V glanced back, but saw nothing. For an instant, she even wondered whether Lier had fled.
Boom!
Another rocket exploded, blowing V away like a scrap of paper.
Even in a slowed-down world, sufficient firepower left places where there was no dodging.
Besides, V's body was nearing its limit.
"Fuck..." V spat out blood and raised her head, only to see that the drones had crossed the final defensive line she had set for herself.
The sounds of the armored vehicles drew ever closer.
"It's over..."
V felt powerless. She could even hear footsteps.
Bzzzt-
High-voltage current surged with an ear-splitting shriek.
The next moment, she saw drones rain down onto the ground. The vehicles seemed to have lost control, mindlessly rolling over friendly troops who had been reduced to slow motion.
[First implantation of unique cyberware: Militech "Chapter" Type 6 prototype core (unfinished)] [Note: This cyberware uses cutting-edge neurobiology to support AI survival and control, but it is now directly connected to your nervous system.] [Tech Points gained: 200] [Current Tech Points: 676]
Almost the instant the implantation was complete, Lier activated the cyberware.
Every nerve in his body became highly active. His brain worked at blistering speed, and rows of numbers and data flashed before his eyes.
He saw everyone there-
With a single thought, he began breaching their systems. Vast amounts of data formed a seemingly visible space! Just like cyberspace!
Cyberspace was a virtual space mapped by network administrators using information density and electrical resistance.
After using Dive Gear, netrunners could become supercomputers, allowing them to operate in that space like computers.
Dive Gear was developed to maximize the brain's computing power while keeping it independent and preventing data from eroding it.
Now, Lier had entered that state directly, and the data formed a space before his eyes.
He could even see the boundaries separating the various network domains, as well as... the wall that isolated the old internet.
And the boundary where Lier currently stood was an absolute boundary, both physically and on the network! The phenomenon of "shifting network domain boundaries" was laid bare before him!
Viewed from elsewhere, the Blackwall appeared stable and reliable. From here, however, it was trembling and moving!
The Blackwall's movement could affect the domain boundaries established by NetWatch at any moment, and people couldn't communicate across the Blackwall. That was the fundamental reason network domain boundaries shifted.
An empty network boundary, a towering red-and-black wave... that was the Blackwall's true form.
Before that towering wave, a person was like-or rather, truly was-an ant.
"Holy... shit..." Lier was a little stunned.
More and more data poured into his brain, leaving him entranced.
Just as Vic had said, cyberspace was an abyss-when Lier opened his eyes again, the Blackwall stood before him, eating away at him!
He heard the abyss promise him immortality, secrets, and omnipotent power...
Jumping in without protection offered only one outcome: losing himself.
But Lier was different.
[Risk of digitization caused by hyperaccelerated immersive computation. You are about to transform toward digital life.] [Trait: Heart of Evolution activated] [Remove interference with mental faculties?] [Removed]
This illusory space couldn't affect him in the slightest. He could regard the data calmly, as calmly as a creator regarded his own creations, rather than losing himself in it.
Lier pulled away from the Blackwall and disconnected, though he still carried some of its data with him.
He saw the flow of data, saw the data belonging to those V killed abruptly burst apart.
The data drifted away. Some lingered on other people, while some seemed to float away on the wind... toward the Blackwall.
"Data... also depends on reality to exist, and AI is life born from data. There's no reason AI should inherently be a higher form of existence. Humans can evolve too."
After that reflection, Lier focused on his targets again-
But with only beginner-level hacking techniques, completely hacking these people remained quite difficult.
[Accelerated acquisition of practical technique: Network Hacking (proficient level)] [Current acquisition progress: 30%] [Tech Points required: 280] [Redeemed] [Current Tech Points: 396]
Knowledge flooded his brain. Looking at the empty cyberspace and the towering Blackwall, he suddenly had an idea-
What would happen if he used the data he had brought out of the Blackwall and uploaded those fragments to the enemy as a Demon?
After people died, some of their data fell onto the Blackwall. That seemed to suggest that everyone could connect to it.
Through that connection, he could reverse the flow of Blackwall data and send it straight into the enemy's bodies.
Lier acted as soon as the thought occurred to him. He directly breached several drones and the soldiers' cyberware, then worked to sever the faint connection between himself and the Blackwall while trying to redirect the data that had clung to him.
Only when he began doing it himself did he discover that, within the same volume, Blackwall data was thousands of times denser than data in the normal world!
Merely handling this tiny piece took Lier far longer than cracking every soldier's cyberware protocols!
That tiny piece was enough to clog the cyberware and drivers of the entire squad-more than fifty units in all!
Data blockage was the most basic form of hacking attack, but now the data used to clog their systems came from the Blackwall, with a density countless times greater!
Such an enormous data stream pouring into a drone could produce only one result-its software drivers would be destroyed, its electrical control systems would fail, and a surge powerful enough to burn through its circuit boards would occur, ruining it completely.
For people, implanted cyberware didn't carry currents powerful enough to burn through the human body. But that vast amount of data was enough to completely clog their cyberware's operations, dropping its efficiency to less than a tenth of normal!
Their movements would slow, and their homeostatic systems would break down at the same time, as though they had contracted a terminal illness-
Exactly as V was seeing now! They all seemed to have lost their bearings, rooted in place like wooden figures. Those doing a little better dropped to their knees and began vomiting!
The unlucky ones were run over by armored vehicles moving at high speed.
"Finish them off-I hacked their cyberware."
Lier's communication window appeared in V's field of vision, though for some reason it was red and black.
"Everyone?"
"Everyone. Hurry up. I don't know how long it'll last."
After getting that answer, V reloaded her weapons with a savage grin.
This was a massacre, but she wouldn't feel guilty about it.
[First development of unique Demon: Blackwall Data Blockage] [Note: Tear off a high-density block of Blackwall information and upload it to an enemy network as transmitted data.] [Tech Points +3000] [Current Tech Points: 3396]
"So, Vic, what exactly is this thing? How is it so powerful?"
V called Vic.
With the network domain boundaries fluctuating, they were now within the Pacific State network domain, so calling Vic no longer required bypassing the wall.
Once inside the Pacific State network domain, they didn't have to bypass the wall to make calls.
"...I don't know how to explain it. You know about cyberspace, right?"
"No shit. Who doesn't? Netrunners use Dive Gear to enter cyberspace and do whatever they want."
"Then you should also know that besides having the equipment, netrunners have to soak in an ice bath when they dive. That's because Dive Gear essentially turns the body into a Biocomputer to process the complex data in cyberspace.
"A Sandevistan is also cyberware that turns the body into a super Biocomputer to accelerate it, but a normal Sandevistan has a safety limiter.
"With unrestricted acceleration, a person's consciousness sinks into cyberspace, just like those unlucky netrunners who don't connect or disconnect their Dive Gear properly.
"Their brains burn out completely under unrestricted computation. Of course, there's also an urban legend that people can live forever in cyberspace... but that's never actually happened.
"So when you use a Sandevistan, you can't perform complex data processing, and no netrunner uses a Sandevistan as their operating system."
"What does that have to do with Lier?"
"The cyberware inside him is exactly that kind of super Sandevistan with unrestricted acceleration-he sank into cyberspace in that instant, and then... climbed back out!"
Disbelief had crept into Vic's voice.
"People often say that those who go overboard with cyberware are edgerunners walking along the brink of cyberpsychosis.
"But this thing-this one implant alone could turn anyone into a cyberpsycho!
"Sure, his body doesn't have much killing power, but the more likely outcome is that he'd think he was an AI and go on a rampage through cyberspace!
"But he came back to his senses! Do you understand? He woke up! Like nothing had happened! Even people watching porn braindances react more strongly than he did!"
V was a little stunned after hearing that. Was this guy really that badass?
Vic continued, "Seriously, V, I don't know what's going on. But if I had to put it into words, I'd rather give him a new name.
"I'd call him... an abyss runner. And unlike those edgerunners who could lose control at any moment, he...
"He looked like he'd come home, I guess."
Vic couldn't stop picturing Lier calmly studying Demon development techniques during surgery, like an obedient schoolboy coming home and opening a textbook to study.
Was he even human?
Lier groggily opened his eyes. Overworking his brain brought fatigue, and with this Sandevistan installed, he was even more exhausted than if he had actually fought a battle. The computation involved his entire body.
Heat kept rising from his body, like a computer with a failed cooling system.
Clearly, after that single operation, his lifespan-already a candle flickering in the wind-had received yet another discount.
"Is it done? Sorry... sorry for the trouble, but get me into the vehicle in this position-don't, don't forget the cargo in the car. It's worth a lot..."
V walked up to Lier and gave him a thumbs-up. "Of course-fucking amazing, Lier. We wiped out an entire Militech squad!"
Vic said over the comms, "A few too many people have had their minds blown today-V, remember to cool him down. I'm hanging up."
Tap...
A raindrop landed on V's face, and her expression instantly brightened with delight.
"Holy shit, what luck. It's raining."
Lier forced himself to stay awake. Together, they checked the stolen Behemoth Armored Vehicle for tracking signals, loaded all their loot, and sped away.
It would take Militech several hours to receive the news and organize another pursuit. By then, they would already have slipped into the Badlands.
The rain would erase their tracks, leaving nothing to follow.
The vehicle raced along the highway as torrential rain battered the windshield.
"We should sing something! This piece of shit doesn't have a radio!"
Inside the vehicle, V shouted, afraid Lier wouldn't hear her. "What's the name of that weird song you were humming earlier? It sounded pretty fun. Perfect for right now!"
"It's called-'Fuck the Jamaican.' The next part goes like this:
"My wife's simmering bird's nest soup, I'm off to open some tequila~
"Thirty years of living like this~ more money than I can spend~
"The light deep within the clouds always gives me something to hope for..."
As he sang, Lier fell asleep.
Just before he drifted off completely, a ray of sunlight entered through the broken window. It pierced the thick dark clouds and fell before him.
He seemed to see an ancient wheel.
Covered in ancient script he couldn't understand, it turned slowly.
[Unstable energy is about to erupt. Please prepare.]
Before you continue