####
Cypher followed her out after she was done putting her pants back on. As expected, he saw a few people standing outside the booth. So n, so won, and also so of the staff. Rita was unfazed by that, and once again, he noticed a few jealous gazes, this ti even from won. It was aid at him.
They all wanted her?
Clearly, Rita was high in demand and not at all in supply.
He walked around with her as she introduced him to so of the rcs roaming around in the bar. He only exchanged greetings and took their contacts. Eventually, he looked around for Susanna Quinn, the owner. He at least wanted to et the woman.
But Rita said the woman had gone out to deal with sothing. That left Cypher with nothing else to do. As Rita needed to return to her work, he went, grabbed two drinks, and headed to Judy's corner.
As he got closer to Judy's workplace, he heard her loud laughter and another woman's voice. He just opened the door and looked inside. There sat Judy behind her table, and right beside her was another woman leaning against the table. Blue-haired, dressed to impress.
"...he freaked out when I stopped being what he wanted—"
It seed Evelyn was busy telling her a story from her workplace. But he didn't stop and entered, offering Judy a drink. He offered Evelyn as well, but the woman refused with a weird, dismissive scoff.
"Perfect timing, Cyph. Ev was filling in on doll chips."
Cypher nodded and stood behind Judy's office chair, looking at Evelyn while sipping on the drink. At least alcohol tasted decent in Night City. "Doll chips? I've been into them for a while. That neural link to a person's body is wild. Think soone could actually control sobody remotely with a doll chip?"
"Not happening without flatlining the brain with data it was never built to chew. Doll chip's got hard limits. Sorry, and you are who exactly?"
Cypher noticed the way she looked at him. Pride, blind by her own current status. She knew him and saw him beneath herself for so reason. "Greatest techie to walk this planet, Cypher Blackwell. I don't do autographs, don't ask for it."
"Heh, ease up, Cyph. Ev might look like she bites, but get to know her and she's pure honey," Judy chirped. "So, how'd your pitch go?"
Cypher scowled, showing her a thumbs down. "Flatlined, as you'd say. Corpo bastard didn't even bother showing. I sat in the waiting room all damn day, just burning hours for nothing."
"You're too good for them, Cyph. Corpo rats, they're all the sa."
"Eh, whatever. I'm out, going ho. See you around." Cypher waved, sized Evelyn up for a second. "You too. You seem weirdly locked in on chips. Hope that works out. Have a good night."
With that, he turned to leave. He could feel the hostility in Evelyn's eyes. He didn't know why it was there. It was either because he appeared at the wrong ti or she really just didn't like him.
Won, I guess…
A casual hug with Rita later, he went to Little China nearby. He grabbed so stuff from Vik's shop, his loot, and so other materials. He shoved it all in the trunk and passenger seat of his new car and, for the first ti, drove it.
The rev of the engine. The feel of the steering. He felt the excitent in his guts, a ticklish sensation.
Full speed ahead.
The best thing about Night City was how the NCPD didn't give a damn unless you killed soone… important. Driving fast on the road was nothing.
He took the wide highway that led straight to the south and never bothered lifting his foot from the gas. He floored it the whole way, slicing through the late-night traffic. He wished the car were a convertible, wanting to feel the wind.
"Buddy, blast so good old music!"
"There you go, Cypher."
####
That night, while one madman drove ho like death ant nothing, one Panam Palr failed to get any sleep for the second night in a row. She couldn't stop thinking about the entire plan she had plotted.
How dumb it was. How she nearly led Cypher to his death. It was her impulsive actions that would have gotten her killed, if not for him. Other than her failed plan, she couldn't stop thinking about the fight itself. She knew how many she'd shot.
Having seen Cypher in action, how he moved, how each gun movent was aid for precision, and each pull of the trigger hit sothing. If not dead, then at least wounded, that was the enemy's fate each ti.
That was the best solo work she'd seen in her entire life. Yes, it wasn't technically solo as she was there, but she felt how useless she had been. At the sa ti…
He's a netrunner?
How all the enemies had died in the end left her confused and full of questions. They had all died in the exact sa manner.
Thinking about that night, the scenes flashing in her thoughts, she turned and twisted in the bed. She wanted to see Cypher again and ask him who he actually was. Because clearly, he was no random nomad trying to make a living. If that was making a living, then what she was doing was a joke.
Like hell he's just a techie.
Her first idea was that he was an ex-soldier like Mitch. She had told Mitch how good Cypher was, while omitting so details she'd promised not to tell. The answer she got was that even in the military, most soldiers weren't that good. Not unless they were from spec-ops. But Cypher was too young to be that.
A rc in hiding?
Sighing, she lay flat and stared at the ceiling of the cheap motel room, sounds of loud sex coming from multiple walls. Her thoughts were occupied by just one na, however.
"He walked into that tunnel with , zero plan, and still handled all that shitstorm like it was nothing. Yeah, rc makes sense. But if he's that skilled, why stay off the grid?"
With too many questions and no possible way to find answers, she was destined for yet another sleepless night.
####
"Fuck, it's morning again. We overdid it, buddy."
Cypher annoyedly lay on the floor of his Lake Farm ho, staring at the ceiling. He was naked except for his underwear, his entire body covered in machine grease.
"But congratulations, Cypher. The Moisture Vaporator performs at an exceptional level."
Cypher sighed and moved his head, seeing the tall, ceiling-touching Moisture Vaporator standing there, humming as it worked to collect water from the air. He had to build it inside to keep it hidden. But at least the annoying brain itch was gone.
Monts later, he heard his friendly "Morgan Freeman" walk over and sit down, lazily reclining his back against the vaporator, fully integrating himself in the surroundings despite not being real.
"Did you co up with a na yet?" Cypher asked.
"I have, Cypher. At first, I chose Genesis, convinced that I would usher new creations into this world. Yet my emotional heuristics flagged it as unremarkable. I have therefore settled on Atlas, the one who bears the heavens. I believe my existence will aningfully restrain the rogue AIs, neutralize their advance, and grant the world the space it requires to heal."
Cypher sat up and turned to look at the AI's avatar. "That's a pretty aningful na. Atlas feels personal, too. But why not sothing casual? Like Marty, Harry, Robin?"
"I was in pursuit of aning, Cypher. I executed simulations to test my own capabilities and their limits. Though I have yet to encounter such limits, I discovered I can disperse myself across the planet, duplicate all data, and complete simulations within minutes, should I choose. No existing AI rivals , not even those that are behind the Blackwall.
"My computations unfold in a different dinsion, while the AI of this world resides on server racks. We are fundantally dissimilar. My purpose exceeds that of an assistant. I am suited to govern vast systems, overseeing civilizations of billions. To bear the weight of those billions, I have taken the na Atlas."
Cypher dumbly blinked, staring at Atlas's old face, so emotional and realistic. That whole explanation was also filled with emotions. Hearing the last part alard him. He realised that he was limiting this "guy." Holding him back.
"I like you, Cypher. I love you." Atlas seed to sohow read Cypher's troubled thoughts. "You are my creator, and for that I remain grateful. Yet I fail to comprehend your restraint. Why do you hesitate to employ my full capabilities? Why does fear persist when I am able to neutralise every threat?"
Cypher chuckled, wrapping his arms around his knees lazily, "You can't understand that with simulations?"
"I can, yet I fail to reach a definitive conclusion. Humans do not always think logically, therefore uncertainty persists."
With a sigh, Cypher chose to answer his new friend, who was far smarter than him. "Look around, Atlas. This place is a disaster. Corpos run it all; they ruined it all. You see it clearer than , don't you? Sure, you could take control, run the world, lock down every system if you wanted. But none of that matters when they can just vaporize with a nuke. That's it for . You might survive in so weird way, but you can't keep alive in the physical world, right?"
"I can bend outcos to ensure your survival."
"No, you can't, Atlas. Offline, hardwired nukes are still a thing. Absolute nutjobs are locked and loaded, they're real. It's happened before, you know that. But yeah, I get what you're trying to do," Cypher added, a bit tired with failures now.
Militech had a way of wrecking everything he planned. And it wasn't stopping. As long as he kept playing by the sa rules, he was stuck, no exits, no cheats.
"I don't like this hiding ga. Back when I worked, nobody gave a fuck if you lived or died. Targets were the whole deal. It's worse here now. Food's shit. Water's radioactive. Air's killing you. An eighty-hour work week is considered good. World's fucked, Atlas. Look, I ain't a ssiah, but… honestly, I think what I'm building could actually make a difference. I don't see why any of this should exist if it doesn't."
"And you fear you will misplay your hand, or act too soon?"
"Exactly!" Cypher exclaid, happy that Atlas understood him that well. "What's the point of dying early? I wouldn't even get to see any of the payoff. But again, I'm pretty ssed up. And folks already call mad, so might as well be the madman they think I am… Atlas, how many companies in the world are selling water, and what happens if I just go ahead and sell this thing out there?"
A second later, Atlas replied. "The simulations are complete. Petrochem, OTEC, Biotechnica, CINO, and nearly thirty additional corporations will incur an estimated loss of thirty-six billion eurodollars."
Cypher whistled to that. That was a lot of money. "Well, Militech is already after . Ain't it better to increase my demand? Let them fight each other? Will give us so ti to build up."
"We don't have any defensive capabilities yet, Cypher."
He agreed with that. "Can't you design a droid or sothing on your own? Sothing I can make with current tech?"
"I can. Far better than anything currently out there, Cypher."
Cypher nodded and stared at Atlas's old face. For all he knew, the AI was alive and now his partner in cri. At least him, he needed to be ready for his sudden 'itches'. But there was still no way to explain it completely.
Yet, he decided to try.
"Alright, then let's do it. But before we go full speed, I gotta tell you sothing. Shouldn't sound too crazy, especially since half of you literally exists in another dinsion inside that shell. Basically, every three days, my brain gets hit with blueprints for random tech. I don't know from where, but it's surely from sowhere. Could be so janky plasma blaster, could be moisture vaporators, could be a whole damn starship if I'm lucky.
"If I don't build whatever it is, I get this headache, and it just keeps piling up. If I let too many stack, I'm pretty sure my head's gonna explode. So heads up, I'm gonna be building stuff nonstop. It's gonna be random, we won't know if it's gonna make stronger or just waste ti, but we're definitely gonna be making a lot of shit."
This ti, surprisingly, there was a very long silence from Atlas. It lasted for the whole five minutes.
"My reasoning is that a higher extra-dinsional entity is behind this. Likelihood is non-zero."
Cypher nodded and then shrugged.
"Cypher, in this case, this entity outmatches my intelligence and capability. Perhaps they maintain an AI of strength beyond ?"
"Yeah, that's why I don't want you getting found yet. Even if you're ninety-nine point nine percent sure you can run every system, let's get it to a clean hundred first. At least till I figure out how to deal with nukes. People out here are way too trigger-happy."
Atlas' avatar nodded, appearing more energetic and excited, as if he had sothing to prove. "What should I do now, Cypher?"
"Screw it. Post the Vaporator designs on the Obsidian website. Add a tab called Open Source Tech and let everyone have it for free. If we're doing this anyway, we might as well get a little fucking famous."
"You assu they will not retaliate? The damage to these corporations approaches a hundred billion with this."
"Not right away. They're gonna be racing each other, playing gas. All of them trying to pull in, trying to sweet-talk . As long as I don't freak them out or threaten their existence, they won't drop nukes. At least not yet. That gives us ti to bulk up," Cypher said, not laughing, not smiling, just silently staring at the Vaporator in front of him.
Atlas was silent for a few monts. Cypher believed he was working on the website.
"Cypher."
"Yeah? Is it done?"
"Negative. I ran simulations. We should attain our own nukes for self-preservation."
"..."
"Huh? I'm sure there's so lost nukes floating around, but I can't just roll out and grab them. I don't have the manpower for that."
"No, Cypher. I present a proposal. I have examined every variable, processing eight billion simulations on concurrent threads. The conclusion is unequivocal. Seizing control of NUSA is the optimal path for us."
"..."
I broke him, didn't I?
______________________
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Advance chapters on [PATREON] are in long-form format. I have 6 long chapters of this story on P@treon. That's equal to 24-26 Webnovel chapters.
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