Cyberpunk: Cross-dimensional Science and Engineering

Chapter 17: Chapter 16: Return, Matt Murdock (Testing the waters, please follow~)



"Steven Nott, a veteran of the Fourth Corporate War, voluntarily joined the cleanup crew after the war to do the dirty work.

After retiring, he took up the role of president of the Atlanta Veterans Association, handling some conflicts that the NUSA could not openly deal with, occasionally making some extra money on the side.

Implanted prosthetics, 'Peregrine' Si Anweisitan, an old model; thermal Mantis Blade, enhanced tendons, subdermal armor...

Like most people in the association, he had a record of losing control and, during a party, had an episode where he killed his wife and friends.

It just so happened that the previous president had had an incident, NUSA intervened to save him, adjusted the power of the Si Anweisitan, and let him continue to serve the government.

Arrogant, impulsive, easy to control..."

A few hours later, the Military Technology personnel came forward to investigate this conflict.

In fact, before them, a second wave of Military Technology squads had arrived, but unfortunately, they ran into the arriving Kantao squad.

Both sides engaged in fierce combat, and eventually, the Military Technology personnel repelled Kantao's men and started investigating the scene.

All kinds of wreckage lying there, reconstructing the original scene seemed somewhat impossible, lots of problems.

Nott was the first to catch up with these petty thieves, who killed Nott?

Reportedly, the assailant was just a nobody, an insignificant thief, how did they kill such an elite?

Moreover...

After Nott, a 64-man Military Science squad arrived, but it seems they all went offline at the same time!

"Strange, really strange—the scene investigation report has been uploaded, technical support needed.

Thanks to Nott the fool, trying to make a quick buck got himself in too deep, now there's no way to investigate."

The investigator watched as the upload progress bar filled, a line of text popped up.

"Upload complete, target: Lark."

The scene data and investigation results were transmitted to a high-level network agent in Washington for technical analysis.

Soon, a response was received.

"It's clear that Nott encountered an ambush after catching up, he arrived almost simultaneously with the troops.

A Kantao hacker squad was lying in ambush here, launching a network attack as the team crossed the web domain boundary, the ICE failed to properly defend the attack.

The precise timing, it must have been planned for a long time, it's advised to elevate security levels to respond to this incident."

Nobody thought anything was amiss—after all, who could have imagined that someone could hack the networks of over fifty people in an instant!

But this high-level agent named Lark concealed some additional information she saw.

The remnants of the crippled software among these people, she discovered something familiar…

The characteristics of those data fragments…

Came from the Black Wall she had crossed countless times.

Was it an external AI?

Effortlessly wiping away the traces of the Black Wall from the scene to ensure it wasn't detected by the net monitors, Lark disconnected the data link.

She decided to investigate on her own.

...

"[Spatial-temporal fluctuation detected, implanted prosthetic located, forcibly spending technology points to bind implanted prosthetic.]"

"[Implanted Prosthetic: Military Technology 'Chapter' Model 6 Prototype Core (unfinished)]

"[Description: Not a device intended for human use, a prototype technology designed to house AI.]

"[Weight: 2.622kg]"

"[Implanted Prosthetic: Neural Interface]"

"[Description: Separation chip can be inserted at the neck, multiple areas of the cerebral cortex are neurally linked]"

"[Weight: 240g]"

"[Implanted Prosthetic: Qilusi Model 2 Prosthetic Eye]"

"[Description: Can display data flowing through the neural interface in graphical form within the prosthetic eye for improved brain-computer interaction,

manufactured from high-end components, its accelerated scanning algorithm can speed up image logging and recognition, can zoom up to 8x focus]"

"[Weight: 24g]"

"[Implantation of prosthetic body completed, technology points -2886]"

"[Current technology points: 510]"

Looking back at the action over there, Lille had actually guessed that the car contained more than just smart weapons the moment he saw the project name "Reality Distortion."

Because in the game, the Si Anweisitan Model 5 was called "Reality Distortion."

This Si Anweisitan had the best effect in the early versions of the game, overshadowing the Military Technology Si Anweisitan, but in the new versions, it became the worst Si Anweisitan.

It could only reduce time by 20%—not even as good as Krensky, also showing that active neuro-enhancement technology is much higher in technical content than passive technology and is not so easily achieved.

It looks like due to his own interference, the development of Si Anweisitan directly reached the game's version 2.0...

Lille opened his eyes and the first thing he did was check the time.

It seemed he had disappeared for almost 20 hours; now it was 6 p.m.

Thinking about it, his efficiency in the Cyberpunk World was extraordinary, earning an hourly wage of 25,000 euros.

Unfortunately, money wasn't interchangeable between the two worlds.

At the moment, he was still holding an old-style smartphone, which was quite sluggish to use.

Although he had set the system to learn through commands, he hadn't really learned anything substantial.

However, the news he found did confirm that this world was the Marvel World.

The apartment he lived in was in Hell's Kitchen, a gathering place for poor immigrants, and the place was rented.

Structurally, it was somewhat like the poor apartments in 'Spiderman 3,' but even smaller, shorter, damper, and the floor creaked louder.

Moreover, his mother had been out all day, without any rest, apparently struggling a lot to afford medical treatment for herself.

He still had to strive to live--both here and there.

Lille still had a lot to do--like connecting his offline prosthetics to the internet here.

Even though they appeared to be the same prosthetics, they were actually completely different in the two timelines.

Lille needed to modify many parts to make them compatible with the internet in this world.

Next...

"In other words, when converting physical items, 1 Technology Point equates to 1 gram of mass, quite... meticulous."

Lille wanted to stand up, feeling somewhat sorely refreshed--because in the other world, the prosthetics had been surgically implanted.

Here, they seemed to appear out of nowhere, without the pain of cutting open the flesh and bones, making the initial operation feel more real.

This prosthetic extended from the cervical curve up past the chest curve, completely replacing that segment of the spine after it was cut out and inserted from the back of the neck.

The internal bio-neural connectors and spinal enhancement device would pop out automatically after connecting to the spine.

The spinal enhancement device would emerge from the prosthetic and fill the space between the bones, then synthetic nerve fibers would reach out, extending into the marrow and gray matter, connecting to their designated nervous systems--

Ultimately, directly or indirectly affecting all the motor and sensory nerves of the human body.

Feeling like he'd been electrified, Lille sprang up from the bed.

Now he was able to move normally again, and he didn't need to worry about paralysis, just an early death.

"First, I need to set a power throttle, otherwise I might look like a fireball at full speed."

After Si Anweisitan took effect, the body would heat up like a computer running at high speed.

Although the prosthetic itself had very little metal content, mostly composite materials, it was unlikely to be detected by metal detectors.

But if operating at full speed, the significant rise in body temperature would be noticeable even without instruments, and in fact, even at normal power, Lille's body temperature would be about 0.1 degrees Celsius higher than his own normal temperature.

The prosthetic itself didn't have a safety program, but Lille could add one himself.

Just as Lille was engrossed in understanding the cyberpunk marvels on his body, a clamorous noise suddenly came from outside the door.

Lille frowned.

"Haha! Look at this big dick I drew, now this place is called Dick House!"

"Hahaha!"

They sounded like troublemakers, and Lille was puzzled since it was a poor apartment building. How could vagrants have come up here?

Listening to the noises, it seemed they were starting to play outside, and soon a different sound emerged.

"Scram! You bunch of ragamuffins!"

The voice was vigorous, yet somewhat aged; Lille recalled for a moment, it seemed to be... the landlord?

The commotion immediately escalated, and the street urchins' voices turned cold and furious:

"Fuck off, old man, you're fucking asking for it!"

Lille could hardly bear to listen anymore--he remembered the landlord seemed decent, and he felt he should go out and see for himself.

Bang!

Just as Lille opened the door, he saw two street urchins about to hit someone, but their actions were paused.

The landlord, too, along with the two street urchins, turned to look at the apartment's main entrance - where a man with a gentle smile stood.

He wore round sunglasses, was dressed in a suit and carrying a cane, holding a document bag in the other hand.

"If you guys start something, I can guarantee you'll spend some time in jail, and will lose all your 'earnings' during this period."

"Fuck, it's this asshole again, let's go."

The two street urchins, as if they met their bane, walked away sulkily, and the lawyer kindly cleared a path.

"Oh, Lille, you're up? I think your mother will be happy to see this.

Let me introduce myself, I'm Matt Murdock, here to help you."


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