"Dreams? They are nothing but a luxury for adults now, sothing out of reach but worth pursuing." Faced with ridicule, Lin Miao flicked the cigarette on his fingertip towards Lucy’s forehead, hitting the mark.
As Lucy stared at him with bewildered resentnt, Lin Miao’s gaze traveled past her to the other side of the river, crossing the municipal center and landing on the skyscrapers of the corporate plaza.
"I’m the kind of person who sticks to their word. One day, Huang Ban, Militech, EBM, Zeta... I’ll bring these guys down one by one, and build a new world on their corpses. Either beco a legend or die in the gutter—that’s the survival rule in Night City. I’m just adapting to the life here."
This isn’t just sothing he’s doing; it’s what his players will do too. It’s an unsolvable puzzle.
As Lin Miao tries to climb higher, to survive, he attracts more and more players.
Here, besides him, there aren’t any laws to restrain this group of lunatics.
He can’t even fully control the players himself, because the fundantal permission to log into the ga is always in the players’ hands.
They are a group of cold-blooded, rational yet passionate and hot-blooded weird spectators.
Players might slaughter the city from top to bottom for a useless decoration or achievent, or spend all their hard-earned coins on a pitiable NPC and run around for them.
And knowing what kind of education these people receive in reality, Lin Miao can well imagine how they would treat those large corporations in a free and open world, how they would treat this world. If he could stop these talents, it would be a miracle, especially since as the ga operator and planner, a thinking living person, he wouldn’t possibly go against the players.
Better to ride the wave than fight upstream.
against the world?
No,
it’s us against the world.
Definitely a lunatic...
Lucy has heard many grand speeches. Every day, countless punks on the street shout about taking down corporations to beco legends, but they end up dying in gutters, forgetting the grand words and either beco villains or return to ordinary lives.
From the end of the last century until today, not a single corporation has been taken down by punks.
The most famous among them is Johnny Silverhand, the rock star who rode the military tech wave to die at the Huang Ban Tower and Bartmos who blew up the original net before dying, yet none of their actions changed anything. Instead, their actions only expanded the corporations’ influence.
She exhaled a mouthful of smoke towards the moon in the sky, and the bright moon was instantly shrouded by mist, adding a touch of hazy beauty.
"Heh... then I’ll just wait and see your new world."
Lucy picked up sothing from beside her and threw it at Lin Miao.
"Take this."
"What..."
Lin Miao saw a black silhouette coming towards his face, quickly reaching out to catch it. It turned out to be a wtwo headband. He hadn’t used it once, mainly because seeing the fool-like smile on custors wearing wtwo headbands in 18 stores put him off. This thing was like digital ice.
Lucy tossed him a chip as well. "It’s the new world, plug it in."
’Cyber-eye, activate defense chanism.’
"What’s this?"
Rather than wearing the wtwo headband as she suggested, Lin Miao held the data chip and examined it.
"Ha? You don’t think I’d use Black wtwo against you, do you?"
Lucy sounded a bit displeased at Lin Miao’s actions.
"No." Lin Miao shrugged, holding up the headband, "I’m just... I’ve never used this thing."
"Hey... Are you kidding ?" Lucy widened her eyes, looking at Lin Miao in disbelief. Soone growing up in this era hasn’t used a wtwo headband?
He could be so old geezer crawling out of a grave or a primitive hacker fresh off a cyberspace escape.
But Lin Miao’s expression didn’t seem like he was fibbing, and who would even lie about sothing like this?
In this era, claiming not to have used wtwo is as absurd as saying you’ve never eaten food.
"This isn’t a wtwo, just an environntal simulation chip. Rest assured."
Lucy jumped down from the balcony, walked to the sofa, bent over, and put the wtwo headband on Lin Miao, inserted the chip, then connected the data cable to the slot at the back of his neck.
The soft strands of hair brushed against Lin Miao’s nose, tingling at the tip, but he held back from sneezing so as not to ruin the mood.
He indeed hadn’t used a wtwo headband before but that doesn’t an he couldn’t use one; he was just teasing Lucy.
Unlike Gloria’s mature and strong independent woman vibe, Lucy’s outside cool, inside warm, secretive with dreams teenage girl act was rare in this city.
Quite frankly,
Lin Miao was smitten with her.
There’s nothing to feel embarrassed about. Facing one’s desires is what normal people do.
Should he pretend to be a saint above earthly bothers?
Once the data cable was connected, Lin Miao’s vision popped up with an installation request for an unauthorized package. After a brief system virus scan, confirming it as regular software, Lin Miao approved the installation.
"All—done."
anwhile, Lucy had already put on her wtwo headband. Checking Lin Miao’s headband, she realized that he genuinely hadn’t installed relevant programs before, shocking her further.
"No way, you really haven’t used one, hahahaha."
What kind of willpower and self-discipline does it take for soone this grown to never use a wtwo?
Are you a runaway AI?
"So what next? What do I do?"
Lin Miao played dumb while having Lucy set up the headband close-up.
"Hmm... you just wait."
Lucy chuckled, inserting the data chip into the headband, then sat on the sofa opposite Lin Miao, smugly putting her legs on the coffee table. No matter how mysterious this guy gets, he’s still a fool who needs her help installing a wtwo.
As the headband lens shone brightly, replacing all light sources entering Lin Miao’s eyes, his consciousness simultaneously entered another world.
PS, the wtwo Lucy used in Edgerunners and the wtwo in Cyberpunk’s world concept are entirely different things. Standard wtwo can’t freely move or connect. Sensory linking is advanced tech, akin to lizard-like military tech, which only top wtwo editors like Judy can attempt filming linked wtwo. Normal wtwo can only experience what the recorder experiences, whereas David and Lucy could freely jump about, ride, and even drink what Lucy drank.
So what they’re looking at isn’t personal wtwo, but special wtwo akin to VR environntal simulation.
.
Here’s what a wtwo headband looks like
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