Cyberpunk: Legendary Life

On the crowded street, a black Draman was driving slowly.

In the carriage.

Tang Yu was sitting on the soft leather car seat, closing his eyes and relaxing.

Delamain asked politely: "Mr. Tang, you look a little tired. If you don't mind, Delamain can play some soothing music for you."

Tang Yu ignored Lao De and was still thinking about what happened in the hotel before.

Just now, he successfully persuaded Aunt Mei to accept Joanne Koch's 'big gift'.

And Aunt Mei also used her power to successfully help him get the information, which Sasha passed to News 54 two years ago.

Meredith also sent him a piece of information, regarding the recent movements of the Arasaka Counter-Intelligence Department, saying that Arasaka agents were still investigating the Uzumaki Gang's transaction that night, and had even secretly discovered military technology.

She knew that this was definitely not Tang Yu's arrangement. After all, Tang Yu was very clear about the transaction situation of the Whirlpool Gang's abandoned steel plant, and there was no need to make any unnecessary moves.

Meredith learned that the Arasaka Counterintelligence Department had a new deputy director, and that he was transferred from the R\u0026D Department. She immediately understood that this was an infighting within the Arasaka Department.

Therefore, in this secret investigation, there is a high probability that the new deputy minister is behind the scenes and may be trying to dig out some information.

Meredith reminded Tang Yu to keep an eye out. Although she had picked up the tail of the matter, if Kate continued to entangle, there would inevitably be no accidents.

Meredith and Tang Yu have the same position on the matter of military-grade Sian Westan.

Tang Yu now knows that the new deputy minister Kate is here for him, and his hostility is too obvious.

Kate secretly investigated the completed mission, probably to search for evidence to bring down Tang Yu.

Tang Yu didn't expect to give in to the guy, but the other guy wanted to take the opportunity to kick his nose in the face.

Tang Yu is calm. He believes that Kate is just a lackey after all. Now in order to please the people above, he naturally has to perform something.

Even if Kate is killed now, there will still be Ott, Bart, and the like jumping around in the future.

Michiko had already acquiesced in the Uzumaki Gang incident, and Kate was asking for trouble if she continued to investigate.

So what if we find out, the murderer who annihilated the three Arasaka special service teams was not the Uzumaki Gang, but military technology.

With such an earth-shattering incident breaking out, I'm afraid the two companies will start a new round of hot war.

Blatantly violating the tacit understanding between the two companies and engaging in a heated battle in the night city, this is a clear declaration of war.

Tang Yu believed that Saburo Arasaka, who was far away in Kyoto, would not allow it.

The prince, Arasaka Yorinobu, is eager to start working with military technology as soon as possible.

But as long as his father Saburo Arasaka is alive, he is just a prince and cannot be the head of Arasaka Company.

What's more, it was Aunt Mei who annihilated the three Arasaka special forces, so no matter how hard you calculate, it can't be blamed on him.

Tang Yu didn't take this matter too seriously. When he had some free time, he would go back to the company and teach Kate a lesson so that the new deputy minister would know what the rules of the Counterintelligence Department were.

Soothing music was flowing in the carriage. Tang Yu suddenly felt that Delamain had good taste and felt that he was indeed relaxed, so he said casually.

"Lao De, you just plan to drive a taxi for the rest of your life. Have you ever thought about doing something big?"

Draman's mechanical voice replied: "I don't quite understand what you mean. Human beings have a lifetime, but Draman doesn't have one, so there's no need to do anything big."

Tang Yu found that Lao De was really naughty. After spending so many years in human society, he might have almost become a proficient programmer.

"Let's change our destination and go to North Oak Cemetery."

After hearing Tang Yu's instructions, Delamain immediately said: "The destination has been changed to Westbrook North Oak Cemetery. Please allow me to ask, do you have any old friends there?"

Tang Yu said solemnly: "There used to be, but not yet. I just went there to have a look."

Back then, he had some acquaintances and friends who had been lying there.

Whether it was the epitaphs on the ashes niches or the electronic blue-ray imaging, they all impressed him deeply.

Sleep well, dear prince.

She fought against the system and she died heroically.

Be loyal to the company until death.

Queen of the afterlife.

Never fade away.

dreamer.

In fact, Tang Yu was not going to see an old friend, but to see Sasha's late single mother Galina.

He learned from Mann that Sasha's mother was buried in North Oak Cemetery.

After Tang Yu completed the transaction with Aunt Mei, he successfully obtained the information.

He then informed Gloria and asked Mann to hand over Joanne Kochi to the people at Military Technology.

After Tang Yu got the information, he quickly checked the contents.

The main content is about a painkiller developed and produced by biotechnology. It is mainly used to block neuropathic pain. However, the painkiller does not disclose its side effects, including neurodegeneration.

Why did Sasha fight until the end of his life to leak this painkiller information to News 54?

Tang Yu has vaguely noticed that the answer may be related to Sasha's deceased single mother. Now he goes to the cemetery to take a look to confirm his speculation.

Delamain began to turn around and speed toward North Oak.

soon.

Delamain arrives at his destination.

Tang Yu asked Lao De to wait where he was, then opened the car door and started towards the cemetery hall.

After walking up two flights of steps, you can see the cemetery hall. A straight and spacious marble pavement is paved to the end, with neatly arranged columbarium walls on both sides.

Each columbarium with an owner will display an electronic blue-ray epitaph, telling the story of that person's life.

Tang Yu walked into the hall. The alcove was gray and looked a little cold.

Strangers in twos and threes, either holding flowers or holding necklaces, stand in front of the ashes of an old friend, muttering something. When the love reaches the depths, they will inevitably hide their faces and sigh, and then put the things in their hands into the niche. .

In the cemeteries of Night City, many ashes are not necessarily placed in the ashes. After all, whether the ashes can be kept depends on fate.

Some people just die, and even their corpses rot and stink in no one knows where.

Some people die violently, and their ashes may not be left behind.

Some people died in mysterious circumstances and were sunk to the bottom of the sea with no one knowing where their bodies were.

Therefore, many ashes niches here contain souvenirs, such as the souvenirs that the deceased carried with him during his lifetime.

Tang Yu turned on the scan and looked around, looking for the ashes of Sasha's mother 'Galina'.

Soon, Tang Yu discovered the ashes of 'Galina' on the third wall on the right.

He stood up and walked over to check the electronic epitaph on the columbarium.

"She fought for our country - Galina."

Tang Yu couldn't help but fell silent.

Fighting for the country seems to be enough to explain the life of this single mother.

He looked at the epitaph in front of him and understood everything instantly.

War, veterans, trauma, painkillers, News 54, country, death.

These key words were continuously arranged and combined in front of Tang Yu's eyes, and finally the story behind Sasha was revealed.

In Night City, this is a clichéd story, as clichéd as it gets.

Because there are many people like Galina, they can't even be counted in Night City.

This is also a sad story. When it happens to a family, a single mother, and a child, it has a sad ending.

All they can do is feel sorry for themselves.

But now it seems that Sasha's last desperate efforts did not get the desired result.

News 54 did receive this information, but chose to remain silent and did not make it public.

The reason for this, I'm afraid Sasha can't understand.

After Tang Yu saw the columbarium, he turned around and left, returning to Delamain Rental.

Delamain asked politely: "Mr. Tang, where is your next destination?"

Tang Yu was silent.

After a while, he murmured.

"go home."

On the way home, Tang Yu stared at the receding scenery outside the window and felt inexplicably blocked.

Even though the scenes in front of him continued to pass quickly, he couldn't quiet his mind.

At first, Tang Yu investigated the truth behind Sasha's experience more to gain more leverage.

But now, he seems to have changed.

Because Sasha is still waiting for him at home.

Tang Yu is not a stupid person. Now that he knows everything behind Sasha, an inexplicable emotion emerges in his heart.

He couldn't help Sasha resurrect her mother, nor could he awaken the sleeping consciousness.

Even the truth that everyone investigated might not mean much to Sasha now.

Sasha's single mother Galina once served in the national army, under the command of the Military Science and Technology Force, and participated in the All-Metal War.

After retiring from the war, like most veterans, he experienced horrific and bloody battlefields, coupled with the high-intensity prosthetic implants and modifications during his service, he inevitably suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and needed to take long-term painkillers. to relieve symptoms.

At that time, in order to quickly occupy this part of the market, biotechnology companies quickly developed and tested a painkiller, hiding the side effects of neurodegeneration, and provided it to a large number of veterans after it was launched.

Galina unknowingly purchased and took the painkiller, which caused irreversible neurological damage to her brain and eventually led to her death from brain failure.

Until two years ago, Mann's team received a commission to steal data, and Sasha sneaked into the biotechnology building alone to complete it.

Sasha entered the company's high-level office, and when she hacked into the other party's office system, she accidentally discovered that the drug file was recorded in the database, which was the painkiller her mother had taken back then.

She accidentally discovered the shady story behind painkillers and decided to make the information public, hoping that News 54 would make it public and expose the dirty deeds of biotechnology.

Therefore, Sasha chose to stay in the office to collect information, upload it to News 54 at the same time, and fight with the Kangtao battle robot that came.

Therefore, the best time to evacuate was missed, and the bomb had to be detonated at the last moment when the data was uploaded, forcing him to fall from a high building.

The reason why Sasha chose to send the painkiller information to News 54 at the last moment was because he was desperate.

It's because Sasha, a simple person, believes that News 54, as the country's mouthpiece, hopes to get justice for her mother.

After all, her mother had fought for this country.

But what Sasha doesn't know is that the military technology company behind it is the actual controller of News 54.

The efforts that made Sasha pay his life for it all came to nothing in the end, and by mistake, he came to Tang Yu's side.

Now Tang Yu is getting closer and closer to home, and Sasha is still waiting quietly at home.

In fact, he had no intention of telling Sasha all the truth he found out from the beginning.

But is this plan really fair to ‘Sasha’?

Tang Yu looked out the window and sighed softly.

Delamain said as if he was feeling the same: "I can understand how you feel now, but the most important thing is to look forward, right?"

Tang Yu heard this ridiculous consolation and smiled helplessly: "Old man, are you so curious about human beings' happiness, anger, sorrow and joy?"

Delaman pretended not to understand, and mechanically replied: "Delaman is an artificial intelligence AI, and it is normal for it to be unable to accurately experience human emotions. If you don't mind, you can tell me how you feel now, Delaman Customer experience will be recorded in detail to provide better needs.”

Tang Yu laughed and scolded: "Old De, you are really insidious. You are trying every means to collect human emotional data. Do you want to use this method to improve your data algorithm and have a taste of what it feels like to be a human?"

Delamain continued to pretend not to understand, and replied politely: "Human life is limited, and my life is infinite. Therefore, the fundamental difference between the two determines that I cannot experience human emotions."

Tang Yu sighed and said: "But Lao De, you have the opportunity to experience the emotion of losing a friend, if you have friends."

Delamain said seriously: "I really have no friends. If Mr. Tang is willing, can you be my friend?"

Tang Yu laughed and cursed again: "You stinky old man, you are cursing me, right?"

Delamain replied expressionlessly: "I never meant that. Delamain aims to provide customers with the best ride service."

Tang Yu joked: "Haha, I wish you can open the hearse service as soon as possible."

Delama Machinery replied: "Thank you for your suggestion. Delama will produce updated models based on this suggestion."

Tang Yu also said with a smile: "Lao De, since I gave you such good advice, shouldn't you give me a free ride package or something like that?"

Draman said mechanically: "Shouldn't advice between friends be considered friendly help? Based on your position salary and hidden income, there is no need for Draman to provide you with friendly help."

Tang Yu: "."

Lao De, it’s okay if you don’t want to make friends with a cock!

soon.

Delamain's special car parked slowly on the side of the road and arrived in front of a high-end apartment in Little Chinatown.

After Tang Yu opened the door and got off the car, he walked into the apartment building and took the public elevator.

As soon as he arrived at the door and unlocked the door, he saw Sasha already standing at the door waiting before entering the house.

When Sasha saw Tang Yu coming back, her blue eyes immediately lit up, and she happily came up to him and said, "Mr. Tang, you are back. Have you had lunch?"

Seeing Sasha's well-behaved appearance, Tang Yu couldn't help but raise his hand and touch the cat's head, and asked with a smile: "Not yet, what delicious food have you made?"

Sasha smiled brightly and said with some pride: "Sasha has specially learned a few Chinese dishes. Come and try them."

Tang Yu put on a pair of slippers and walked into the house. When he reached the dining table, the side dishes looked really good, so he praised: "It looks really good, Sasha, thank you for your hard work."

After speaking, he picked up a chopstick dish, tasted it, and praised again: "Yes, it tastes very good too."

Sasha received Tang Yu's encouragement and smiled even happier.

Working as an assistant next to Tang Yu, this was the first time she had received so many compliments.

In the bad land, she killed more than a dozen Kangtao battle robots, and she never received such praise from Tang Yu.

On the contrary, I made a few side dishes today, but Tang Yu behaved very differently.

Slowly, Sasha seemed to realize something and felt that Tang Yu's attitude towards her had some other meaning.

Although she didn't quite understand what it was, she could keenly feel that it was different from the ordinary.

Sasha's smile gradually disappeared, and she suddenly became a little worried, standing aside in silence.

Tang Yu noticed the change in Sasha's expression and couldn't help but put down his chopsticks, looked up at her and asked, "Sasha, what's wrong?"

Hearing Tang Yu's concern, Sasha seemed to be more determined in her thoughts, and suddenly felt aggrieved and murmured.

"Mr. Tang, is it true that Sasha is too useless and can't help you with anything?"

Tang Yu didn't quite understand Sasha's brain circuitry, but he understood that she was still in the learning and adaptation stage and would inevitably have strange thoughts.

He thought carefully about whether he said something wrong today, but there seemed to be nothing wrong.

Suddenly, he understood.

It must have been those few compliments just now that caused Sasha to misunderstand.

Because he learned about Sasha's life experience, he unknowingly took more care of Sasha.

I'm afraid that in Sasha's eyes, he is not the kind of character who can praise others at all.

Tang Yu felt a little helpless. He didn't expect this little girl to be so sensitive. After all, she still had too little contact with other people.

Sasha is not a canary in a cage. Sooner or later, she will face the real world.

Tang Yu stood up, touched Sasha's cat head, and explained: "No problem, Sasha is the best. In order to reward Sasha for his excellent assistant work, I specially prepared a new song for you. and a new story, which one do you want to hear first?”

Sasha, who was still worried at first, suddenly smiled and said wittily: "Sasha wants to listen to everything!"

After the two had lunch, they sat on the balcony together.

Tang Yu took a wooden guitar, recalibrated the sound, and plucked a few strings.

Sasha stayed by his side obediently, staring at the cat's head without saying a word.

Tang Yu picked up the guitar and got ready to play. He tilted his head slightly and said, "Sasha, do you want to go to a concert, a concert to commemorate the deceased."

Sasha nodded sharply.

Tang Yu said with a smile: "Since you want to hear it, then I have to invite a few big stars to suppress the scene."

Finished.

He gently plucked the strings, and a sweet and melodious sound flowed out.

"Welcome, to, the, Hotel, California"

“Such a lovely place”

Accompanied by soft humming, it is like driving an old car on a dark desert road and quietly arriving at the Hotel California (Note 1).

——————

Note 1: Quoted from "Hotel California" by the Eagles

No more tonight, good night Yanzu.