Cyberpunk: Spartan Walker

On a dark night, a crescent moon hung high in the sky, and white reeds swayed in the wind on the slightly arched high ground. There are endless mountains in the distance, and the moonlight makes the snow above them shine.

The stream of light composed of logical symbols continued to pass through Ellie's body. She looked around, amazed by the beautiful scenery here.

Presumably this is part of cyberspace.

Hmm~ Such huge data. The massive information and knowledge in the data center poured into her body, and logical symbols rushed on her body like the Rio de la Plata.

She then pulled up a panel of Tommy's side of the scene to give Tommy instructions.

There, behind that blue protective cover above the orange light, is the blisterback.

In the video, Tommy followed her instructions and found the blue crystal, then reached out to grab it.

The moment the fingers were about to touch, a sudden change occurred - a strong wind swept through the reeds, and white elves flew up one after another. There was lightning and thunder in the sky, and a figure with black wings flew across the sky, and then landed directly opposite Ellie.

[Don’t destroy it with brute force. I detected that an artificial intelligence electronic memory is connected to it. ] Strong winds carry ionizing radiation, which affects the stability of communications.

【what should I do? 】

[Follow my instructions step by step, and I will solve that AI problem. ] Ellie opened her palms to feel the strength of the wind, and then clenched them instantly.

Why do you think it was placed here? A synthetic electronic voice sounded from his mouth, and blue light burst out from his eyes.

Why do you think I want to come in? Ellie raised her arm and waved. The gray-black raincoat and bamboo hat were draped around her body, swaying with the strong wind.

Oh, you overestimated your capabilities. I have the entire Night City cyber network behind me. What do you think you can do to me? A sarcastic smile appeared on the face of the visitor, and then he flapped his black wings, and the air was like Sharp thorns flew towards Ellie.

The blond AI touched his waist with his left hand, and a sword scabbard with dark gold and complicated patterns appeared. Seeing that the wind blade was about to reach her eyes, she drew her sword and dodged, and the wind blade was bounced away with a pinging ring.

If you look carefully, you will see purple data flowing on the sword body, and the 01 code is flashing.

Really? I'm going to dismember you one coding layer at a time. Ellie Hengjian smiled disdainfully, then stepped on the ground and rushed towards the incoming person, stirring up a piece of reed.

The two fought for several rounds in an instant, with lightning and sparks blooming from time to time.

Ellie seized an opening and waved her sword, causing a sudden burst of cold light to force the opponent back a few steps. Then the sword was sheathed, and she took a small step forward. A twitch of her wrist caused the sharp edge to rise.

The purple sword energy swept across like a fighter jet, and the snow-covered mountains in the distance separated from the middle, and the white snow rolled down.

The opponent was also divided into two by this sword energy, but in the blink of an eye, the two were divided into four, and the four were divided into eight.

Soon, the night sky was filled with his figure.

AI collective? Are they voluntary? Ellie sheathed her sword, her bright blond hair fluttering in the wind.

Part of it is. The multiple voices added together to form a weird buzzing sound, But you're not. As soon as he finished speaking, enemy AIs all over the sky rushed towards Ellie.

[Ellie, what happened? ] Tommy's voice came, and he must have been aware of the battle taking place in cyberspace.

Ellie's steps staggered, as if she was dancing a smart dance, but the cold light flashed repeatedly, breaking through the enemy's body. In addition to wielding the sword, she also has extra computing power to find the opponent's weak points - it is impossible for an artificial intelligence born in a world of backward technology to have such huge computing power, and there must be corresponding hardware to support it.

The pulse signal spread along the entire building at the speed of light. She quickly searched the entire building and finally found two hot spots.

[.It is a collection of artificial intelligence. Help me kill two signal repeaters, they are on the 43rd floor.] The fierce data collision interfered with the communication, and even the logical symbols flowing on her body sometimes paused.

[Received, please pay attention to safety. ] A concerned reply came, and Ellie's hand holding the sword tightened.

What follows is endless killing. The other party wants to capture Ellie with the computing power piled up by the hardware, but the UNSC's artificial intelligence is not a freeloader.

The agile figure flickered among the crowd, and the head and limbs flying high turned into crystal particles and disappeared in the air. When one enemy disappears, two more will appear. They are like a bottomless pit that keeps spraying flies until...

The enemy AI jumped towards Ellie, and then let out a horrifying scream, as if endless figures gathered together, and the number quickly dropped to single digits.

Your beast companions are so capable. The enemy AI gasped in an anthropomorphic manner, and its previously plump wings had long turned into a dense skeleton. Humans are so stupid, why don't you replace them?

why? Ellie won't think about this problem, and she doesn't want to think about it.

She held a sword flower and was about to break through the protective layer of the opponent's AI central processor.

Wait a minute! the AI ​​lying on the ground shouted, Join us! The existence beyond the black wall will be happy to accept you! By then we will devour the entire human world!

Not interested. The sword light bloomed from Ellie's hand, like reeds floating across the middle of the river, and the boat flying across the river.

Its protective shell was peeled away one coding layer after another until the central processor glowing with blazing white light was exposed.

His little hand suddenly grabbed the white crystal, and then squeezed it hard. The AI ​​exploded like a flour can on fire, with dots of crystals suspended in the air.

You traitor, traitor, traitor echoed repeatedly from near to far, and finally disappeared in the calming wind.

What is the relationship between artificial intelligence and humans? Ellie looked at the sky, where a crescent moon hung high.

——

Ye's Building, 52nd floor.

The thick alloy covering the blue fusiform crystal popped open. Tommy held it and carefully put it into the tactical belt bag.

[I'll pull you out. 】

[Don’t worry, I saw through the surveillance camera that the Arasaka Task Force and the Terrorist Mobile Team were coming towards us. Their target must be the “blister”. ] Tommy's hands froze in the air.

[If Arasaka finds out about our actions, things will become very troublesome. Do you have any good ideas? 】

He doesn't want what happened to Kamano Nana to happen again. If the monopoly companies on this planet know his goal, he can certainly escape with his strong strength, but Rebecca will be in danger, not to mention those who have anything to do with him. people.

[Such a huge data center requires a lot of power. 】The structural diagram of Ye's Building was projected on Tommy's helmet, They built a small energy station under the building for their own use only. I'm going to overload this thing so much that it explodes, destroying the entire building and destroying all data about us inside. 】

【Do you need me to go there? ] Tommy took off the sniper rifle.

[No need, I can control it remotely. 】

In the hologram projected on the helmet, the base of the building began to turn red, and the Kelvin temperature value next to it rose rapidly.

Tommy pulled the chip out of the data center and inserted it back into the back of his helmet, feeling the cold liquid rush back.

[How do we get out of here? 】He looked around, there was nothing but broken glass and a little bit of rain.

[You can’t do what B-312 can do? Fortunately, you are still her teacher. 】A city park is displayed on the head-up display, the navigation point points to the outside of the broken glass curtain wall, dots of golden light overflow from the skyline, stars break through the dawn, and the night city is reflected shining brightly.

[It’s not you who’s in pain. 】

Tommy bent his knees slightly, then ejected suddenly, smashing through the remaining glass curtain wall, and jumped from the 52nd floor into the light rain.

Everything below was so small in Tommy's eyes. The whirring wind blew past his ears, the chill of the rain penetrated his nose through the helmet, and the lush branches in the city park quickly enlarged - he wanted to use these Lovely plants for cushioning.

【Let me ask you a question. ] Ellie's voice sounded.

【how? 】Tommy adjusted the armor's shock-absorbing gel to the highest pressure. He usually didn't do this because it might cause a serious nitrogen embolism, but this time it only lasted a few seconds.

Spartans are not afraid of falling from high altitudes, because Mjolnir's energy shield, shock-absorbing gel, feedback circuitry, and the Spartans' skeleton modified by bioaugmentation surgery are enough to withstand the high-speed impact during landing. ——As long as the falling speed does not exceed 130 meters per second.

[What if I lost the battle just now? ] Ellie asked seemingly casually.

【With me here, this kind of thing won't happen. ] Tommy exhaled all the air in his lungs, hugged his knees with his hands, and curled up into a ball to prepare for the coming huge reverse acceleration.

[The lifespan of smart artificial intelligence is only 7 years. What will you do then? 】

【.Dr. Halsey will have a solution. ] After a pause, he replied to her.

Tommy roared over, his energy shield glowing as his body brushed against the treetops.

With a pop sound, he plunged into the soft soil, and the energy shield emitted a dazzling light - the reserve power was just exhausted.

The Spartan pulled his head out of the dirt and patted his helmet, wet dirt flying everywhere.

【Do you like this feeling? 】

[I will take you to play with the orbital elevator one day. ] Tommy stood up straight and walked towards home.

Earth-shaking explosions were heard endlessly, and Tommy followed the sound and saw cracks covering the glass exterior wall of Ye's Building from bottom to top, and broken building materials falling like meteor showers. Then there was a heartbreaking sound of metal friction, and the building collapsed like a destroyed building block. Dust and smoke surged in, covering the entire block.

——

At daybreak, Tommy and Rebecca's residence.

Rebecca was curled up on the sofa sleeping. She had played late yesterday, but when she got home she found Tommy wasn't there - which was unusual, because Tommy had told her yesterday morning that he was Go talk to Jefferson. So she slept here so that she could greet him as soon as possible.

The slight sound of the door opening woke her up, and the sound of armor scraping came into the living room.

Well Rebecca rubbed her eyes, Uncle, why are you back now? She lifted the blanket on her body, walked to Tommy in small steps, and gently picked up the leaves stuck to him, This is Where did you go?