Interdimensional Scientist, Starting from Cyberpunk Chapter 421: The Power of the Sex Dolls (Part 2)

[Regina: You guys work fast. There was another cyberpsycho incident in Northside — the MaxTac team handled it in about the sa ti as you. Only difference is, that poor bastard ended up in pieces.]

[Regina: We pulled the data from Anna's internal storage. Turns out she's been getting fed a bunch of articles lately — things like "The Undefined Doll," "The Sex Rights War," "How Much Value Can a Doll Bring You"… all that kind of crap.]

[Regina: These things started popping up a few months ago — flyers and split chips scattered all over the streets. The Mox brought in a bunch of new punks because of it, but they've been a pain to manage.]

Leo stared at Judy with no expression.

V walked up behind Judy and pushed her back down onto the couch — a little forcefully.

From that angle, you could clearly see Maiko stiffen up beside her. Sweat soaked the back of her shirt — even her sweat gland regulator seed to have given out.

V, with a kind of wicked amusent, patted Maiko on the shoulder. Maiko flinched so hard it looked like she was about to glitch out.

Well, if a doll's implants glitched, so what? It's not like she could kill anyone by suffocating them with a steel… component.

Leo looked straight at Maiko and sent her the list of articles Regina had ntioned. "These ca from you?"

Maiko swallowed hard and nodded.

Judy looked confused — she didn't understand what was wrong.

These were good articles! Enlightening, even!

"No wonder your business never grew…" Maekawa muttered, realization dawning. "You've been brainwashing them."

Judy blinked, baffled. "What are you talking about?"

"We're saying," Leo said coldly, "that this Cloud manager knows exactly how to manipulate young minds. She's been using you — and your girlfriend."

Leo pointed at Maiko. "Honestly, I don't care about your little crusade. Lucky for you, you didn't have the brains to ntion us in any of those articles—"

"Actually…" Maekawa interrupted, scrolling through Maiko's posts. "She did ntion you. Listen to this:

'The Burger King Syndicate are steadfast supporters of sexual autonomy. After teaching the Tyger Claws a lesson, they appointed sex-rights warrior Maiko Maeda to take over Clouds!'

'They've done all they could for us — now it's our turn to rise up! Brothers and sisters, it's ti to overthrow the Tyger Claws' cruel regi!'"

Leo's mouth twitched — then Maiko's head began to smoke.

In an instant, she convulsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut — but an invisible thread still seed to hold her upright by the neck.

The terror of being soulkilled returned in full force. Last ti, when her netfight with the Blackwall surveillance nearly fried her brain, she lost most of her speech.

This ti—

This ti Leo burned out her motor nerves instead.

With a flick of his hand, the invisible string snapped, and Maiko collapsed.

Her eyes were full of fear — but her optics and sensory implants went dead too, severed along with her nerves. Consciousness faltered in waves of confusion.

Judy stared at her girlfriend's twitching, broken body — frozen.

Anger, fear, confusion — all crashed together.

Then she snapped.

She pulled a gun from her jacket—

Click.

But before she could raise it, a gust of air brushed her face — her hand was suddenly empty.

Bang!

Pain exploded in her leg — she'd been shot.

V stood there, dismantling the pistol in a blur, springs flying — one pinged off Judy's forehead.

"Ah—fuck you!" Judy scread.

Leo turned his eyes on Maiko. "Clever idea, using dolls to start a coup. But tell — did you ever think about what happens after? Who's gonna keep Clouds running when you're done?"

Maiko trembled on the floor, mind barely holding together. Fear stripped away her pretense; she typed shakily on her fallen tablet:

[Full-body cyberization — Maelstrom.]

"Where'd you get the money?"

[Human trafficking — I can give you addresses — just don't kill .]

Judy read the words — and froze, her mind whirling.

Maiko had told her the money was savings!

Human trafficking?

She'd sold their own sisters and brothers?!

"You really deserve to die," Leo muttered, then paused — and turned to Judy.

"I want kids with hos to be safe at ho. I want kids without hos to have a place with — to work, to learn, to grow stronger.

When I killed Jotaro Shobo and the rest of those monsters, it wasn't so people like you could auction off body parts at premium prices.

I wanted the people who still have hope to live better lives.

Not to spread their legs for quick cash."

He gave her a disgusted look. "First ti I've seen soone try to extort people into buying sex.

Are you out of your damn mind?"

Then he turned to Maekawa. "We need to talk. Sowhere else."

Maekawa scrambled up and led the way obediently.

Behind them, the Mox girls who'd been tied up just stared at each other — all of them victims of Maiko's lies.

Leo had asked Maiko to find workers, but greed had twisted her.

Why couldn't she be the boss instead? The leader?

And so, she wrapped herself in the rhetoric of "rights" and "freedom," secretly recruiting girls, turning them into dolls for her own gain — even feeding Judy propaganda until she believed it.

The Tyger Claws were falling apart anyway; Maiko figured she could trade tech with Maelstrom to arm her own people.

If the chance ca, she'd take the throne.

Judy finally understood.

She really was an idiot.

She cared about her sisters — and they saw her as a tool.

This whole ss — every bit of it — was just Maiko's greedy power grab.

And she'd sold people to pay for Anna's full-body conversion.

Now everything clicked.

And then it hit her — maybe those other missing people were tricked the sa way.

Talk of "rights" and "freedom" — all just a con to feed Maiko's ambition.

A lie that only worked on fools like her.

"Help… …" Maiko croaked, trying to pull sothing from her bag.

She didn't know why the "Burger King" hadn't finished her off. She didn't even know what had happened to her body. She just wanted a shot of pneumatic injector to dull the pain.

Judy's hands trembled — from pain, from rage.

She didn't reach for dicine.

Her eyes drifted toward the gun on the table.

Bang!

In the next room, Leo slid a chip onto the table.

He'd gained sothing unexpected here — confirmation that Maelstrom was behind the full-body conversions sold out of Kabuki. That was one part of his larger mission checked off.

Previously, a priest had hired him to investigate a hacker nad Chu Qiaoxi, who was digging into the Deputy Mayor's office for corruption data. The hacker had hired a Valentino kid and a rc from the Afterlife to break into a database — but a traitor sold them out.

That led to Wulorli, a Militech rc, finding them. Cyberpsychosis spread like wildfire — the whole team died, and Trauma Team's dic Karniek went psycho too.

From Karniek, Leo learned that Wulorli's gear ca from Kabuki — that's why he ca to Maekawa in the first place, to trace the suppliers.

Now he had the answer — but since he was already here, he figured he might as well ask if Maekawa knew anything more.

Maekawa thought for a mont, then said, "That na, Chu Qiaoxi — rings a bell. You know his handle?"

Leo shook his head. "Haven't seen him online."

"Right, otherwise you wouldn't need ." Maekawa chuckled nervously. "You might want to ask Wakako. Her hacker, Minoru Namchang, might know sothing.

If I rember right… There is a hacker nad Chu Qiaoxi.

Goes by the handle Dante, I think."