Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 49 The Smiling Stranger
"Anyway, maybe I should become a hacker, so I can hide in some dark corners and do some shady things that can make money."

Qiwei daydreamed aimlessly: "Once I've saved up enough money, maybe I can retire somewhere? I don't know, but I'm sure I'll make a lot of money and never let anyone control my life again!"

V neither confirmed nor denied this. Of course, she also wanted to get rich, but more than just money, she longed to become a real 'big brother'.

This is the dream of every street kid since childhood to become a 'big shot'.

She was revered, her legend was told throughout the city, and she became famous!
V suddenly fell silent as well, because she couldn't help but think of Mercer's suggestion again—an unknown nobody or a world-famous figure?

She seemed to have found the answer.

And
V glanced at Qiwei: "He just asked you for 50,000 euros?"

"Well, at the beginning he said he didn't actually need any payment, as long as I sincerely asked him for help. But if you were in his shoes, would you think this was reliable? Would you believe him?"

Qiwei said.

V shook his head naturally: "I would think he's an idiot. Such a simple scam could only fool a child."

"Yes. So when he saw that I didn't believe him, he said, according to my values, fifty thousand euros."

Qiwei couldn't help but laugh. Everything that had happened tonight felt like a beautiful, unreal dream: "And then he rescued me like this. Have you met that A? What kind of person is he?"

"Uh, he's quite the smooth talker, but he's also really impressive. His hacking skills are probably among the best in Night City."

The prosthetic body looks quite high-end, suggesting he's not short of money and is very generous, but his clothing isn't very stylish; it's just like a street kid's outfit, though it's quite clean.

I've only ever seen him wearing a hockey mask. To be honest, his voice sounds a bit like a child's, and he's not very tall.

V thought for a moment, then made his own judgment, saying, "But he speaks quite maturely, and seems reliable and sincere. He's probably just a short man using a voice changer."

I think most hackers are thin; maybe all the nutrition goes into their brains.

Qiwei nodded to herself, and an image of a short, unattractive but kind-hearted, generous, and highly skilled nerdy hacker came to mind.

Perhaps it is because women often overlook the real world that they like to recruit beautiful women or play the hero to save a damsel in distress?
[Mercer: I didn't overhear on purpose, but to be honest, your slander against me hurts me deeply, V.]

"Oh my god! Don't suddenly throw out words in people's eyes, it's terrifying!" V shouted.

Mercer's voice chuckled as it reached her ears: "If I just spoke, wouldn't you be so scared that you'd drive the car straight into a ditch?"

"Damn it! I knew the program you left me had a backdoor!" V said, looking a little angry.

"No, I just added you and Qiwei to the same team voice chat. Then I heard you talking bad about me."

Mercer's voice made V a little guilty, but she still said confidently, "In Night City, not many people wear masks and act all mysterious."
To be honest, I'm not the kind of person who judges by appearance. Being a little short and not very good-looking doesn't affect your skills.

"Go to hell, V. I'm a real, handsome guy, and I have a beautiful girl with me right now, afraid that something might happen to me in cyberspace."

Mercer said confidently, "I'm short because I haven't developed properly yet. Right now, all the nutrients are in my head. Once my brain develops, I'll be over 1.8 meters tall."

"Ha~ I think I've heard something similar before, but where did it come from?"

Let me think. Oh, there's a famous 'Shorty Wood' in the Haywood district!
He was only about 1.6 meters tall. Before he turned 20, he always said that it was because he didn't eat well and didn't get enough nutrition, and that he would grow taller once he was well-fed.

Ha, as soon as he turned 20, this kid went and got a pair of legs implanted, stubbornly insisting they were his own. But during a gunfight with the Sixth Street Gang, he stumbled and took a grenade in the face.

Hahaha! "

V laughed heartily, realizing that Mercer was actually quite easygoing and wouldn't mind if she joked with him.

"Oh," Mercer said meaningfully, "We'll see in the future."

V exclaimed, "Oh, right, didn't you say you were being watched by internet censors just now?"

"Hmm, I'm still being chased around, but it's on my own."

Mercer said in an extremely calm tone: "The programs developed by the internet monitoring system are quite interesting, such as IP tracking, blocking IP redirection and locking, and even programs that can lock your signal to prevent you from going offline."

You know what, their skill level is actually quite good. I've already browsed the entire Night City network, and they're still following me around.

"Hey, why don't you concentrate? I heard someone got locked online for a week by the internet monitors and wasn't allowed to log off. When the monitors found him at home, he was starving to death in a chair. Hurry up and have your friend unplug you!"

V was a little nervous.

"Don't worry, disconnecting now would be a bad thing. Those idiots can find my house based on the offline signal. I was just playing around with them and passing the buck."

Mercer paused, then added, "Let's test the program and see how many more tricks they have up their sleeves. I want to learn them all."

"Don't go too far, A," V said, still worried.

Qiwei spoke for the first time, saying, "Do you need my help? I've secretly hacked into some private computers before, you can use them as IP jumpers."

"Need not."

Mercer paused for a moment before confidently saying, "Looks like they've run out of tricks. Give me thirty seconds, and after I've dealt with them, I'll come back and talk to you guys—V, I advise you not to speak ill of me."

He's not petty; although he doesn't take jokes to heart, he's also truly vengeful. If he gets the chance to make fun of her, he'll definitely make fun of her a thousand times over.

Qiwei pursed her lips involuntarily.

Thirty seconds?
Those internet monitors are all backed by large servers, which is why they can go so deep!
Meanwhile, Mercer had already stopped his dog-walking-like IP transfer within cyberspace.

"The target has stopped! Quick, David! Send the lock-on procedure!"

In cyberspace, a virtual figure with the Internet Surveillance logo emblazoned on its clothing shouted loudly, its exaggeratedly designed cannon aimed at the motionless Mercer.

Meanwhile, another man, dressed in similar clothing and wearing sunglasses in his virtual avatar, calmly aimed a laser gun at Mercer and pulled the trigger.

The red laser, flashing with red code markings symbolizing danger, flew straight toward Mercer.

However, to the surprise of the internet monitor, the moment the laser hit Mercer, his virtual image turned into a dissipating mass of blue data.

"Damn it! Zack! It's a decoy program!"

The internet monitor, named David, immediately jumped off his spot with a tense expression. The blue data stream transformed into a skateboard, which he stepped on and moved at high speed through the space. He was constantly changing his IP address to avoid being locked onto by Mercer's sending program.

With a sudden flick of his wrist, Zach blasted out a massive cloud of blue data, which shattered an entire network into fragments.

This mass of blue data spread across the network, and in the blink of an eye, it organized the fragments into a huge blue cage.

This means that his program has the capability to lock onto local area networks.

With just one attack, he temporarily isolated the network of Night City, turning it into an inescapable local area network, attempting to cut off Mercer's possibility of escape.

"The location is still here, he hasn't gone far!" Zach shouted, but then suddenly found that his feet had slipped.

He looked down sharply, and a black hole-like entity suddenly appeared beneath his feet: "I've fallen into a trap! I can't move! My IP is locked!"

"Run the quick crack program! If it doesn't work, reconnect!" David rushed over and tried to send him a few programs to help.

But a man wearing a smiling mask, a hoodie, and a black jacket suddenly blocked his way: "You've been chasing me for so long, why are you in such a hurry to leave?"

The smile painted in black on the pale mask looked more terrifying than a ghost at that moment, and David's data froze for a split second.

This is absolutely unbelievable!
Zack's virtual image flickered a few times, but could only remain in place in vain. The vortex beneath his feet was like a swamp, swallowing half of him whole.

He tried to forcefully crack it using the server's computing power and compete with Mercer in computing power, but found the program to be unexpectedly ingenious.

He blindly searched for program vulnerabilities with his computing power, and at the same time tried to use ICE for data countermeasures, but this black hole really was like a black hole. As long as he couldn't find a way out, the server's huge computing power was just for show.

Mercer said casually, "Don't bother. This program is just a copy of yours. One is a laser gun and the other is a cannon. There's no creativity at all in the design."

"Damn it! Do you even know what you're doing? You dare attack internet censors online? Aren't you afraid?"

Before David could finish speaking, he suddenly drew his gun, this time a huge machine gun appeared in his hands.

Machine gun bullets formed from data roared and engulfed the entire space, while Mercer's voice softly sounded behind his ear.

"If you can't beat me, you're resorting to cheating by using server computing power. Are you planning to overwhelm me with sheer computing power?"

Even in cyberspace, David felt a chill run through his body. He was using the server's computing power to fully unleash his ICE program, transforming it into one heavy blue suit of armor after another.

But Mercer simply stabbed him lightly in the back with a black dagger: "Just piling up computing power is useless for experts. Your brain can't possibly use that much computing power. It's a waste to just use brute force."

The moment the black dagger entered his consciousness, it transformed into a terrifying black shadow that spread out from his data.

David was shocked to discover that his ICE was as fragile as a piece of paper: "You..."

"The vulnerability is too obvious, bro. If you can't even find a target to fight, what's the point of ICE being deployed?"
Hmm. David's personal information. Hey buddy, you make 10,000 euros a month, what are you risking your life for?
Forget it, I won't mess with your servers anymore. I'm afraid you won't be able to handle the stress on your servers. ICE is really well written. Without finding the vulnerability, it's really impossible to break in without the computing power of a large server.

You guys probably hid AI in there too. Okay, that's all for today.

However, I must warn you guys—stay away from me from now on. I have no interest in playing hide-and-seek with you online every day.

So what if you killed a bunch of scum? The idiots in the Voodoo Gang kill and extort people online every day, why don't you just destroy their headquarters?

Are you afraid of a bunch of useless people putting together a garbage server and a garbage security system?
Then you should be even more afraid of me.

Let me make this clear first: next time we meet, greet me properly. If you dare to lay a hand on me again, I'll really go against you from now on.

In Night City, you internet censors should really watch your step, lest you actually die and nobody buries you.

Mercer's figure vanished in an instant, leaving only a soybean smiley face icon etched on the ground, leaving the two internet monitors, who were still unable to move, looking at each other in bewilderment.

"Damn it. This is bad. When did such a powerful expert arrive in Night City?"

David's face was full of frustration.

Zack sighed, half of his body still buried in the trap program, and now he was trying his best to crack the program.

Although he couldn't find any loopholes or good methods, he could still use the server's computing power to brute force his way out, especially since Mercer quickly stopped providing computing power to the program, and the data black hole immediately disappeared.

"That guy was ruthless. To be honest, we were no match for him. We couldn't even use the computing power. He went straight for the program's vulnerabilities."

I've used up all the server's computing power, but I still can't find any vulnerabilities in this program. I can only try to offset them with computing power, but the other side doesn't give us a chance to compete in computing power.

How so?

Zack looked at David.

David pondered for a moment, then said, "Report it. This guy must also have a small, no, I think a medium-sized server providing him with computing power support."

His thinking speed is too fast. I suspect that even with the support of computing power, we can't reach half of his thinking speed. This level of accelerated thinking is simply not enough with just the computing power of our own brains.

Try looking at the electricity consumption and recent server equipment purchases to see if you can find any clues.

This guy must be new to Night City; the latency is so fast it doesn't seem like he's using a dedicated internet line from somewhere else.

In short, it seems that another new name will be added to our internal wanted list.

What are you going to call him?

"The Smiling Stranger?" Zack looked down at the smiling soybean face on the ground that seemed to be mocking him.

“Fine.” David said speechlessly, “How come these new hackers are all so lawless? It’s almost 2072, and they still dare to act so recklessly.”

"Alright, let's leave the rest of the operations to others as usual. We're not really confident in our abilities, are we? Even that awesome Lark back then was eventually taken down, wasn't he?"
Let them investigate offline. What level of danger are you planning to assign to the online investigation?

Zach asked.

David thought for a moment: "The highest level, I'll report it to headquarters. We need to register this kind of person as soon as possible."

"Tsk tsk, how many years has it been since we've seen such a powerful hacker? We're really unlucky. Luckily, the other party was quite nice and didn't roast us."

After Zack finished speaking, David shrugged, also showing a relieved expression. The two looked at each other, checked with the server's computing power to make sure no backdoors had been left, and then logged off together.

Ten minutes later, a smiley face icon quietly appeared on Night City's publicly available online wanted list.

[Wanted: The Smiling Stranger.]

[Gender: Most likely male]

[Identity: Unknown]

Age: Unknown

[Physical characteristics: Wears a pale, smiling mask; height approximately that of an average adult male; no distinctive features. (See attached image)]

[Criminal record: Hacking the server of the 'Spring Night' sex club on Twisty Street, using the puppet program to kill twenty-three Night City citizens, and overclocking the server caused a fire, resulting in significant property damage.]

Attacks on cyber surveillance have caused psychological trauma to cyber surveillance personnel.

[Warning: This person is extremely dangerous and possesses advanced puppet programs capable of blocking networks and preventing disconnections. They are suspected of having the computing power of medium to large-scale servers. If encountered in cyberspace, it is recommended to immediately disconnect from the internet to avoid them.]

[Danger Level: Extremely High (Emphasis and Bold)]

(End of this chapter)