Warhammer: The Time Traveler

Chapter 2 This is Night City
The continuous trekking for several hours significantly depleted their energy.

The energy level alert had flashed twice on the visual interface, but he ignored it for the time being.

In low-power mode, his thinking seemed to become more "human," and he began to miss the time when he enjoyed high-efficiency energy liquid in the Forging World, and even the sweet taste of soda from his more distant memories.

Just as he was preparing to conduct another energy assessment, a distorted outline appeared on the distant horizon.

“A man-made structure!” He perked up.

The presence of traces of civilization implies the possibility of resources, information, and definitely energy!
Hope was rekindled, and he quickened his pace.

But the desert didn't seem willing to let him off easily.

The distant horizon began to blur, and a yellow curtain of light advanced toward them at an alarming speed.

"Warning: High-speed solid particle flow detected. Sandstorm is approaching."

"Activate environmental adaptation protocol. Servo skull, return to standby." He issued the command, while the foot probes penetrated the sand layer, switching to "stabilizing anchor" mode, the robe sealed, and the internal filtration system began to hum.

The wind and sand roared, crashing against him like a solid wall.

He was like an iron fish swimming upstream, each step heavy yet firm.

The sound of sand rubbing against metal was sharp and piercing, but he simply remained silent, adjusting his posture and calculating the optimal path.

This confrontation with the forces of nature strangely calmed his somewhat anxious mood.

After the sandstorm subsided, he shook off the dust and looked towards the small town.

It looks closer and more dilapidated.

The wreckage of the vehicle, rusted to the point of being just a frame, was half-buried in the sand.

Most of the low-rise buildings that have weathered have collapsed.

A huge billboard lay askew in the sand, its neon lights long since broken, but the faded lettering was still faintly discernible:

"...materials technology"

Military Technology – Safeguarding Your Future

"Biotechnology? Military technology?" Chen Yu read these two names aloud, feeling an increasing sense of unease.

These names carry a cold, corporate, futuristic feel that doesn't match any of the companies from his hometown in his memory; rather, they seem more like... products of a specific cultural context.

A vague idea began to sprout on the edge of his mind, but he couldn't quite grasp it.

He did not enter immediately; the servo skull on his shoulder rose silently once more.

"Reconnaissance mode. Draw a structural diagram and scan for signs of life."

Using real-time data transmitted back from the servo skull, a detailed structural map of the town began to form in his field of vision.

Most of the buildings have unstable internal structures.

Thermal signal scanning revealed...signs of life, very faint, few in number, and scattered.

"Biophysiological characteristics analysis: No standard humanoid thermal signals or neural network fluctuations were detected. The gene sequence shows high aberrations, consistent with high-intensity radiation exposure. Body size parameters: small to medium."

Behavioral pattern analysis: photophobia, burrowing, foraging habits. Threat level: low to medium (based on potential group behavior).

The servo skull transmitted the analysis results, along with an infrared image: several mutated weasels or similar creatures with festering skin, degenerated eyes, and relying on their keen hearing and sense of smell to move quickly in the shadows were gnawing on the remains of an unknown animal.

"Radiation-mutated organisms..." Chen Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

The identification of the servo skull is based on the lack of characteristic signals of intelligent life, rather than simple species classification. It seems the environment of this world is indeed appalling, giving rise to these pathetic creations.

These things pose little threat to him unless they are in large groups.

He carefully avoided the mutated creatures' lairs and, following the structural diagram, moved towards the most intact building in the town center—it looked like an old-fashioned auto repair shop, where he might find what he needed.

The workshop gate had long since decayed and collapsed.

The interior was dark and filled with a strong smell of rust, engine oil, and dust.

Several cars, reduced to mere skeletons, lay on the lifting platform, tools scattered on the ground, most of them unusable.

But his gaze was instantly drawn to a terminal in the corner, half-embedded in the wall, covered in dust but seemingly still structurally intact.

More importantly, there appear to be physical cables connected to the back of the terminal, leading underground!

"Physical interface!" Chen Yu was overjoyed and immediately stepped forward.

He brushed away the thick layer of dust, revealing the terminal's data interface.

This outdated specification didn't stump him; a mechanical appendage flexibly deformed and precisely connected to the port.

"Try to bypass the local router and trace the signal source directly through the underlying cable... There is data flow!" He felt a faint but orderly pulse of data coming through the interface.

Access barriers were rendered useless by his advanced hacking tools from the Warhammer era.

A few seconds later, he successfully hijacked the poor terminal's access and painstakingly traced the cable that might lead to some old-fashioned local area network that wasn't completely destroyed.

The large amount of data was still garbled text and noise, but finally, he began to capture and analyze some fragmented information.

A fragmented news headline flashed by: "...A new round of infighting in the Night City Council..."

A blurry advertisement clip: "Next Life Nightclub, witness the legend..."

A tattered traffic notice: "Heywood District closed today..."

The company logo is clearly visible: "Arakasa Security Services, Your First Choice" and "Kantau: Creating the Future"...

Night City…Arasaka…Conto…Next Life…

Each word was like a key, suddenly unlocking the floodgates of his long-sealed memories! Those cyberpunk works he had seen and games he had played in another universe, when he was just an ordinary Earthling…

The servo skull floated quietly to the side, recording its owner's sudden stiffening and the instantaneous change in focal length of the optical lens.

There was a brief silence.

“…Damn.” A complex exclamation, mixed with immense surprise, a little disappointment, but mostly disbelief and a sense of absurdity, escaped from under Chen Yu’s mask.

This isn't Earth, my home planet. It's Night City. It's Cyberpunk 2077.

He paused for a few seconds, and then a strange, almost absurd feeling welled up inside him.

He traveled through two universes and ended up falling into a fictional world that he had previously thought was just for entertainment.

However, after the sense of absurdity passed, it was not replaced by despair or frustration.

He looked around at the dilapidated repair shop, recalling the desolate desert, the mutated creatures from radiation, the collapsed network he had seen along the way...

Suddenly, all this terrible scene took on a feeling he could understand, and even found “kindness” in.

“Okay, okay… Night City…” he muttered to himself, his voice gradually becoming steady, even taking on a strange vitality. “Global network collapse? Massive pollution? Legacy of corporate warfare? Hmm, very reasonable, very much in line with the setting.”

(End of this chapter)