Cyberpunk 2074: Shadows of the Past

Chapter 20 The Price of Strength

"Xi Tan?"

"...5 more minutes of sleep..."

2074年，1月13日 6：00
Sunny after rain.

Sunshine worked tirelessly across hundreds of millions of kilometers just to see the beauty of the girl when she was sleeping.

The man smiled helplessly, sat up from the bed, held her in his arms, and prevented the frivolous sunlight from kissing her face.

"You won't even eat the jealousy of the sun, Yahweh, you are so childish." Xita squinted her eyes halfway, leaning against the man's arms, stroking his lips with her left hand in a playful manner.

"When did you learn mind reading skills?" He raised his eyebrows, brushed away her naughty little hands, and lowered his head to kiss her half-closed eyes.

"Hee hee..." She felt the man's tenderness and smiled softly.

"Get up, I have a gift for you." He looked helplessly at the slacker nestled in his arms, and gently shook her body.

"What are you talking about first..." She coquettishly got up from Yawei's arms, turned sideways, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"The kind that can become stronger..." He blinked pretending to be mysterious, and nibbled the tip of her cute nose that came close to her.

"Ah! Tell me, tell me! Otherwise... you will be punished!" She wiped off the saliva left on the tip of her nose in disgust, and stared fiercely at her beautiful eyes.

"Chip..." He reached out and touched the interface on the back of Xita's head, "The kind that can make you a top hacker."

"where?"

"It's already in your head..." Yawei rolled his eyes, "It's the previous prototype, I left some things in it."

"Keep something? Does it affect you?" She stopped being funny, her beautiful eyes were full of worry.

"No," he stroked her tense back, "my strength remains the same and will not decrease."

"Oh, then take it out for a walk!" She relaxed and lay lazily in his arms.

Yawei shook his head lightly, he always had nothing to do with this sticky person.

"Switch the prosthetic eye to scan mode." He poked her face.

"Switched...and then?"

Xi Tan tilted his head suspiciously. In the scanning mode, the man who was close at hand in front of him seemed to be a mysterious shadow, blurred.

She didn't like the feeling of being away from him, and was eager to end the session.

"Be patient, Xita...look around..." Yawei smiled lightly, pointing to the surroundings.

Hita looked around and opened his mouth wide in surprise.

She saw a whole new world.

All the electronic equipment in sight is connected with a fuzzy white silk thread, they do not intersect with each other, and extend outwards.

She quickly looked out the window.

A huge network covered the sky and the sun, trampling the entire Night City under its feet.

"What is this? Yahweh?" Her voice was trembling, half excited, half scared.

She was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the glorious vision of God's Realm, and stepped into the clouds with one foot, and she will be far away from the mortal world ever since.

"You can understand it as..." he frowned, organizing his words, "my perspective, a part of my perspective."

Xita lightly jumped to the floor, stepped on her slippers and walked to the window.

Standing on tiptoe, she looked down at the tiny figures coming and going on the street.

"Did you see those people?" Yawei got off the bed and hugged her from behind who was a little excited and a little scared.

"I see..." she murmured, intoxicated by the feeling of looking down on all beings like a god.

"As long as you think...they die, they die," he whispered in Hita's ear.

"How to do it?"

"Just think... just think..." He tapped her little head.

"Unlike cyber hackers, they are making choices when invading targets, and the options depend on the plug-ins they have installed..." He paused, giving the shocked Xita a little time to buffer, "I, or We...we just need to think..."

"You think the prosthetic body of the guy down there is too ugly, and you want to take it off? When you have this idea, it has become a reality." Yawei pointed to the exhibitionist with a big steel cannon on the street below.

He sighed disdainfully, and the exhibitionist's big steel cannon fell off by itself.

"I*! This is too scary!" Xita was very surprised, and gently scratched his face to confirm that he was not dreaming.

"Can I do that?" She looked at the exhibitionist on the side of the street who was bleeding and writhing in pain, and smiled gleefully.

"Almost..." Yawei paused, "but I will give you restrictions... to prevent your brain from being overwhelmed and becoming cyberpsychopathic."

"What the hell is cyberpsychosis?" She turned off the scanning mode, went to sit on the sofa in the living room, and just a few minutes of God's perspective made her a little tired.

"The external manifestations when the brain can't bear the erosion of the prosthetic body..." He walked to Xita's side and gently rubbed her temples.

"Like..." He pondered for an appropriate metaphor.

"for example?"

"For example, driving..." Yawei clapped his palms, "You have installed a prosthetic body, which is equivalent to driving a car..." He stood by the sofa and pointed to the passing vehicles on the elevated road.

"The more prosthetics you wear, the faster the speed... At first you can still control the speed, but you will get tired one day, because this is an endless road." He smiled slightly, "When you are tired When driving at a high speed, every second of distraction is fatal. In a trance, you have teleported thousands of miles. Your tired brain panicked to give instructions to avoid the vehicle in front of you, but what you dodged was only The phantom a few minutes ago..."

"There was a sound of 'touch', and the car accident happened before the brain could react." Yawei looked at the black smoke rising in the distance, and today's dead man's lottery added another number.

"This is cyberpsychosis, Xita..." He touched her head, "When the brain is exhausted and overloaded, people will get sick..."

"And all kinds of realistic factors will aggravate the progress of brain fatigue, right?" Xi Tan looked up at the man standing in the sun, his face was blurred in the backlit vision.

"The prosthetic body installed and the pressure of life will continue to aggravate fatigue... This is tantamount to actively chasing death..." He nodded in agreement with Xita's guess.

"Gloria!" She stood up hastily, wanting to run downstairs immediately to persuade the kind woman to change her job.

"I installed a nanorobot on her body, which will bear a certain burden instead of her brain," he stopped Xita who was in a hurry.

"Anyway, I must persuade her to change jobs! Working 18 hours a day is too dangerous!"

"There will be a chance, Xita..." He pulled the girl to sit on the sofa, comforting her softly.

"Let's do today's commission first, there's a call." He whispered.

In the next second, Xi Tan received a contact from Rogge.

(End of this chapter)