In American comics, all your teammates are the main characters and bosses

Chapter 178: David's Immunity

If you were to ask what people most hope will collapse, rot, or be shipped away, I'm not sure about other things, but ex-partners and former companies would definitely be on the list.

As a former employee of Arasaka, unlike V who is a formal employee and a superior to the company, Lucy has no good feelings towards Arasaka Group.

Now, hearing the excitement in Lucy's words, Valerie also looked at Lucy with a puzzled look.

But Lucy didn't even look at him, she just stared at Ron.

Seeing this, Qiwei on the side just shook her head and didn't say anything more.

The origin of the old network scavengers comes from the hacker god Batmos. Batmos has network capabilities far beyond corporate hackers, and is an idealist who leaks confidential company documents whenever he has nothing to do. After the giant companies have captured Batmos through the network countless times, they decided to eliminate him directly through physical means. Before he died, Batmos released the program he had prepared in advance.

As a result, the effect of the program far exceeded everyone's expectations. The Internet began to collapse around the world, and a large number of hacker consciousnesses called Flow AI began to attack the corporate networks of giant companies indiscriminately.

In order to protect the remaining files, the company's hackers created a black wall in the cyberspace, isolating the AI ​​from attacking the company's remaining files. As a result, the area outside the wall is called the old network, which is full of roaming AI. Similarly, this has also led to the fact that all networks used around the world are local area networks protected by black walls. Even if they are only a few dozen kilometers apart, as long as they belong to different black wall ranges, the network content will be greatly different.

The so-called old network scavengers are those who risk being attacked by cross-border AI to collect files and information that have been lost on the external network due to cross-border AI attacks for the company.

To be honest, it's not that difficult. Just open a brain-computer interface and you can directly access the old network to scavenge.

But the problem is that the hacker battles in the cyberpunk world are not as simple as just tapping the keyboard to crash the computer. Once you are targeted by the cross-flow AI, no matter how superb your means are, you can only evacuate with difficulty at best. Even if you are a well-known company or gang hacker, you will be attacked by a large number of cross-flow AI if you are not careful, causing your prosthesis to overload and burn the neural circuits, and being roasted by your own prosthesis.

The difficulty is low, but the risk is high. No one actively signs up, and even if there is, they have to pay a large sum of money. As a result, many secret bases that adopt orphans and train them to go to the old network to find remaining files for the company came into being.

After witnessing countless friends being roasted by the roaming AI, Lucy and the remaining few took the opportunity to escape. Although all giant companies are doing this, they cannot do it publicly. Once discovered, it would cost a fortune in public relations fees. So Lucy and the others began to be hunted down. One, two... The friends who escaped together were killed one after another, which made Lucy think that she had to leave the earth no matter what.

Because as long as you are on Earth, it is impossible to escape the clutches of big corporations.

but now……

Facing Lucy's expectant gaze, Ron nodded: "That's about right. Arasaka is definitely going to die anyway. After all, Saburo is the guy most likely to be connected to the world virus."

This is not Ron's nonsense, but because the world virus itself will seek out those with weak wills or paranoid thinking to parasitize.

It is true that cyberpunk worldview is full of cyber maniacs. But what can a powerless cyber maniac do even if he is parasitized?

You know, even if the parasites of those world viruses are strengthened, they are only strengthened in terms of strength. And the intelligence is still at the level of the original person. In this case, even if a cyberpsychopath is parasitized, he will only become a powerful cyberpsychopath. The level of the prosthesis is just like that, let alone Ron Armstrong. Considering the world view of Cyberpunk 2077, a terrorist mobile team can easily solve it.

In this case, no matter how you look at it, Arasaka Saburo is the best choice - he has a high status, noble identity, is old, old, paranoid, and weak in energy. He desires immortality and focuses on developing cyber ascension technology to upload consciousness to the Internet.

This is undoubtedly the best carrier for the world virus itself.

Ron also has no favorable impression on these giant companies in the cyberpunk world.

Capitalism in this world has become so powerful that it is unregulated. For example, why did Mann's team require two hackers? The reason is that Sasha, the previous hacker of Mann's team, accidentally discovered that there were serious problems with the immunosuppressants manufactured by biotechnology when he was performing a task related to biotechnology and invading the network.

Long-term use of this immunosuppressant can cause the nervous system to weaken and degenerate. The biotech company itself is well aware of this, but chose to conceal it for the sake of high profits. This also led to a large number of people who used this immunosuppressant dying from neurological diseases. Sasha's mother was a user of this immunosuppressant and died of neurological diseases.

Furious, Sasha chose to send the relevant information to Night City News Channel 54 for exposure. In order to ensure that the files could be successfully transmitted and exposed, Sasha stayed at the computer desk in the biotechnology company until the transmission was completed. At the last moment, she broke out of the window, but was shot and fell from a high place. When Mann arrived at the scene, she was already dead.

The weapon she used, a pink automatic pistol, eventually fell into Rebecca's hands, named Lizzie, and can be found in the Lizzie Bar.

It was precisely because of Sasha's death and the fact that the team had no hacker to provide additional help when Sasha was fighting alone that Mann decided to give the team two hackers to facilitate response to different situations and combat.

Although Mann's team is a marginal group at the bottom of Night City and their abilities are very average, Mann, as the captain, does gain the trust of his teammates. The reason is that Mann, as the captain, is sometimes more like a patriarch, allowing these people living in this cold city to feel the hard-earned warmth and trust.

This kind of warmth and trust may be rarer than gold in Night City...

It's just rare but not precious to some people.

After taking a look at the people in Mann's team, Ron asked, "How is your relationship with David going? Are you going to go to the Internal Affairs Department with David, or leave David behind and work alone with me?"

It took quite some time to find these three Vs, and the process was not smooth. In the process of fighting side by side, Mann's team and David himself also got to know each other better, and it was time to determine their own ideas.

After hearing Ron's question, Mann turned around and looked at his teammates for a few seconds, then said, "We decided to go with David."

Rebecca on the side also smiled and made a "strong" gesture, showing her open chest and said: "We are a team!" Should we say that it is worthy of the team in the original book? Although for the legend created by the famous V, the Mann team can only be regarded as marginal people. But the bond between them still exists. Although the way they met was completely different, it is obvious that both David and the others in Mann's team seemed very harmonious.

If we have to say who is not so honest among them, it would probably be Qiwei.

But even so, after shaking her head helplessly, Qiwei just sighed and stood behind Mann's team with a helpless look on her face, as if to say "There's nothing we can do, this is how it is."

Well, Rebecca's personality is there, and when she says she believes, it often means that she has really accepted David. But Qiwei... firmly believes that no one can be trusted in Night City. Compared with the Internal Affairs Department, which is not very clear about the situation and has not even visited this world in person, Qiwei obviously prefers the Field Department, which can freely go to other worlds - although the Field Department cannot freely go to other worlds.

Even Ron had to file a report.

But it is obvious that Qiwei is also very clear about her core competitiveness - team. Especially in the world view of Cyberpunk 2077, apart from Cybertron monsters like V-Zero, the importance of team can be said to be brought to the extreme. Hackers, heavy firepower, assaulters, development experts, medical experts, drivers. Without any one of them, it cannot be considered a complete team in Night City.

People know that Adam Hammer is 96% cybernetic - the remaining 4% is Rebecca-chan glued to the soles of his feet.

However, in the world view of Cyberpunk 2077, anyone who has undergone prosthetic implants must be injected with immunosuppressants to prevent their own immune system from attacking the implanted prosthesis. Perhaps Adam Hammer's prosthetics can withstand far more than ordinary people, but this does not mean that Adam Hammer can unconditionally undergo any transformation.

Such a mechanical monster would cost an astronomical amount just for daily maintenance. Rather than being a war mercenary, it is better to say that he is a living signboard created by Arasaka to prove his top prosthetic implant technology and weapon reliability.

"Enough of the sentimental talk. Prepare for the pre-employment physical examination." Ron said, "Stop taking immunosuppressants from now on."

"..."

Hearing this, there was silence at first, and then Mann at the side said hesitantly: "Stop taking immunosuppressants? Really? Then how can we prevent the immune system from attacking the prosthesis?"

"Be patient, and then get used to it." Ron said, "As a form of evolution, prosthetic modification is highly feasible. But this is based on the premise that you can completely integrate these prosthetics into your body. It is indeed feasible to suppress the immune system through immunosuppressants to control the prosthetics, but these prosthetics will also become completely foreign objects and cannot become your own things."

Seeing that Mann and the others still had many questions to ask, Ron pointed at David and said, "What do you think of David's ability?"

"Beyond imagination." Although he didn't know why Ron suddenly brought this up, Mann still answered truthfully after hearing Ron's question: "This is the first time I've seen a guy who has just had the Sian Westin implanted for less than a week and can use it twelve times in a short period of time and twenty-five times in one day. Whether it's the tolerance of the immune system or the body, I estimate that it has surpassed those legends of the same age, even Adam Hammer."

As they said this, Mann and the others' faces were filled with amazement.

At first, they were a little distrustful of David, especially because the military-grade Sian Westin David was wearing originally belonged to Mann, who had already paid the deposit.

In the end, it fell to this kid. But this kid had a terrible background, so they didn't dare to act rashly...

But soon, they were convinced.

Sian Westin gives people the feeling that time is slowing down, but in fact it stimulates nerves and physiological functions, and people's abilities are greatly increased in a short period of time. When the speed of an individual increases, the world he observes will naturally slow down. Of course, the basis for flexible use is to have sufficient reaction speed, otherwise, if the body suddenly speeds up but the reaction cannot keep up, it will only lead to nerve disorders and pituitary damage. Therefore, the equipment conditions in the game are also related to reaction.

To put it more simply, it means overclocking all the prostheses, organs, and nerves in the body at the same time.

Mann asked himself whether being able to use it five times in a day was his limit - both physically and mentally.

But David...

This guy uses it like a toy. Sometimes he would start the S'An Westin just to get a bottle of drink from the refrigerator.

What impressed them the most was that they encountered a group of scavengers who were waiting for their prey during an encounter. They had just finished fighting and were in a state of relaxation when they were suddenly attacked. David was the first to react and activated Sian Westin twelve times in a row. It was also the first time in their memory that David vomited blood and fainted because of Sian Westin in a battle.

In response, Ron just glanced at David and said, "David, how many times can you open Sian Westin in a day now?"

"I haven't tried it." Hearing Ron's question, David scratched his head and said, "But according to my estimation, if there is a two-minute interval between each use, it can be used about 80 to 90 times. If there is a five-minute interval, two to three hundred times should be no problem."

Hearing this, Mann blinked and seriously suspected that David was bragging.

"What was it like the last time you used it twelve times in a short period of time?"

"I was very tired. Every organ in my body was wailing. I even urinated blood when I got back." David said with some fear: "It felt like I had been doing intense anaerobic exercise in a vacuum. It was terrible."

"How many times can it be used continuously now, approximately."

"Hmm... about seventeen times. After recovering from that incident, my tolerance has improved a lot."

(End of this chapter)