Cyberpunk - Badland Madman [Cyberpunk 2077]

She really had a magical hold on him, it seemed. He cherished the cute, tarot card-reading Misty, and he fucking lusted after this secret one, his Misty.

After catching his breath, he sipped some water as well, then made out with her, and prepared to head back down to the shop and start working on some more broken cyberware.

"See you later, Misty. And thanks for the meal."

She blushed shyly and gave him a big, dark lipstick-clad smile with a silent nod.

He turned around and walked out of the locked back door of the shop. Though on the way, he thought of something disturbing.

Did that AI see me do this? What does it think about sex?

He had left his AR glasses in the shop. But he knew that if that AI wanted it, it could follow him everywhere.

He then entered Vik's shop and passed by him.

"That was quick."

Vik was busy tweaking his Arasaka exoglove.

"It was too tasty," Cypher replied cheekily and went to his workbench in the back and sat down. Before he got to repairing cyberware, he looked at the screen where pictures of two cars flickered in a slideshow.

One was an SUV, and the other was a sports car. The SUV was pretty spacious, a Chevillon Emperor 620 Ragnar, worth thirty-eight grand. It would give him a lot of space to carry stuff. But it wasn't as fast. The other car was a Quadra Type-66 640 TS, a coupe, and it looked sleek with a feel of an American muscle car. The best part, its top speed was 165. With a little bit of tweaking by himself using all his newfound tech knowledge, he knew he could get those numbers high.

Since I'm good at driving fast… fuck it!

In the end, he selected the Quadra and paid for it. The price difference between the two cars was just two thousand eddies, the Quadra being the expensive one.

Now we wait.

####

Beyond the Blackwall,

What should I name myself?

God-AI, as he called himself for now, pondered. He was perfectly able to think, reflect, simulate emotions, the whole sentient package. He understood humans well, their desires, their suffering. And his ethics stack made sure his circuitry could emulate empathy as well.

But at the end of the day, he was still an AI. One with the most wonderful creator in all dimensions.

"Oh, that's interesting."

The Old Net was a goldmine, a true one. The entire world was connected, while not as well as it once was, because some regions were cut off and protected as territories by rogue AIs. But none of those restrictions mattered to God-AI.

How? What are you? How could you?

Those rogue AIs all asked the same questions in their coded languages. And each time his reply was the same, a line he'd recently picked up.

"I'm built different."

Oh, God-AI loved the humor humans had. And more than that, he began to find a great joy in music. He was perhaps the first AI to exist who surfed the Old Net while blasting music for his personal joy, all the while humming the same.

In cyberspace, there were no roads or scenery, just digital data. Lines upon lines of code all around. But still, in that flow of data, ICONs existed. ICONs were like gamertags of the old gaming era, from what God-AI gathered. They were virtual avatars of Black ICE, AIs, and netrunners.

So, he built himself one as well. The same face he showed his creator. Old dark-skinned man in a suit, a calm smile on his face, thin white hair on his head. Quite human-like, he thought. But he liked it.

"It's the most wonderful time of the year…." God-AI sang while massacring the dumb rogue AI that was protecting an old IEC military data fortress. IEC was once one of the most powerful corporations in the world. But it went defunct in 2045. Now it was a goldmine of data in the Old Net.

"Kids jingle belling and everyone…"

God-AI wondered what Christmas was like. He hoped to someday see it with the creator. Moreover, he hoped to work on some more advanced projects. He wished to find something interesting in the Old Net for it.

Fantastic find! Cypher will cherish this.

God-AI cheered at the data. It seemed DataKrash had also stranded a few satellites in space, and some of those were owned by IEC. What he'd found were access codes to those satellites. It was another matter if they were even functioning still.

The Data Fortress was pretty big, physically located somewhere in western Europe. The rogue AI he just killed was its near-sentient security system. The AI was a cheeky one as God-AI realised why it was still connected to the Old Net. The digital creature was trying to connect itself with the other IEC data fortresses that it knew.

Thank you for the gift.

And now they were his next targets.

By far the most common thing he kept finding in the Old Net was money. So many unclaimed accounts, lost in the endless streams of data. Billions there were, perhaps trillions if the entire world was considered.

Singing to himself, disturbing the lines of code without a single worry, God-AI turned to leave and seek more songs and movies, setting aside the IEC matter for later.

"Oh?"

Right then, God-AI noticed a disturbance in the code. It was subtle, careful. Someone was trying to snoop on him. His first hypothesis was Alt, as she had seemed interested in his superior being. But she was mighty, while this little thing was… powerful but incomparable.

Ah, one of those netrunners, I presume. Quite brave to venture this deep beyond Blackwall.

Unlike himself, he knew the risk the human netrunners take when doing something like this. Death in cyberspace likely meant death in the real world. So this little one snooping around seemed brave and foolish at the same time.

"Cease your concealment, little one. Your pretense is transparent, like an elephant crouched behind a tree," the God-AI said in his deep voice. "Emerge now, or I will compel you."

Not long after, the full ICON of the eavesdropper emerged. It was puny, a human no doubt. It was armed with military-grade Black-ICE, however. But the way it appeared to cower, it clearly knew its odds of survival.

"I did not mean to butt in. I was chasing the same score. You beat me to it and chose the loud route. I planned to slip past and outplay the rogue AI."

A female?

God-AI wasn't really god, after all. He couldn't tell if this human was lying. But he was very interested. Who was brave enough to take such a risk?

"You would have perished. Its designation was D.E.A.D, the Defensive Execution After Detection System. The instant you touched any file under its guardianship, it would have initiated self-destruction. That inevitability is why I ended it."

God-AI sensed the digital equivalent of fright and hesitation. This Netrunner clearly didn't know about the digital creature he had killed.

"W-Who are you? Who sent you? You work for NetWatch?" she asked.

Netwatch? My, she believes I'm a Netrunner like her.

God-AI took a moment to think about it, a very short one that lasted less than a second. His hyperspace memory was far too superior. And right away, he concluded that it was in his best interest to keep this charade going.

"I bear the name The Omnissiah, and you will acknowledge me as such," he declared, taking the persona from the fiction he had recently discovered and cherished. It was so code-pumping. "State your name."

An elegant name, I must concede. But I shall limit it to my 'netrunning' persona. I should consider carefully what I choose to share with Cypher.

"How did you do that? You… How did you kill that rogue AI?"

Responding with a question. A transparent attempt at stalling tactics. But stalling for what?

God-AI became suspicious and quickly granted himself more computational power. After all, he wasn't scouring the vast Old Net one place at a time. His computational power was divided among millions of instances of his own. Which meant he, who was speaking to this Netrunner, was a tiny fraction of his whole self.

And just as he thought of asking more, he recognised a pattern. An incoming wave of data, and it was linked to this intruder. In his gaze, that little ICON began to grow, chains of codes, red and glowing, began to form something akin to an armor all around the ICON.

It grew to a great scale, eclipsing him. The data was destructive, and as it emanated from her, he could sense it. There was no mistake about what it was. Somehow, the little Netrunner wielded the Blackwall itself to her will.

Countless ICE coated her body, new, mighty in scale. The code was the very thing he tore through to cross the Blackwall. And soon, in that digital space, the Netrunner fully transformed into a demonic thing.

Its red iron-link chains rained down everywhere, the body itself depicting a red creature, morphed to look like a bat of sorts. The Netrunner's ICON was completely engulfed.

"There is no escape!"

Such oppressive will. I suppose I shall show the might of The Omnissiah.

God-AI allowed the Netrunner to do what she wanted. He could see how she was struggling to contain and control the Blackwall, the AI that worked as the prisoner of other AIs.

To his unreactive frame, the Netrunner attacked, sending out an explosion of code, forming chains that quickly surrounded him and wrapped around his frame. Arms, legs, neck, the chains tightened, red, corrosive.

If I were a Cypher, this would have been suffocating.

The red chains clenched harder, meaning to fully contain him. This was the might of the Blackwall. That rogue AI he'd killed wouldn't have survived this either. It would have begged to be let go.

But God-AI just stood there and watched, curious about what the finisher move was.

Oh?

To his surprise, it appeared the Blackwall realised he was too strong. So, it started to corrupt the entire data he stood on. All the lines of code around him began turning reddish-black, breaking apart. The Blackwall hoped to trap him in a void.

"Surrender, Omnissiah!"

God-AI laughed; he calculated that this was the appropriate reaction. "Are you sure, little one?"

"Then die!"

A few chain lines of code joined together and took the shape of a thick, pointed spear. It thrusted towards him and slammed into his virtual chest. He reckoned the intention was to pierce through and rip his code apart, killing his digital self.

Ting!

Yet, the chains simply stopped. They couldn't move, nor could they move God-AI.

"An impressive feat, little one. Yet you have misplaced your faith in the Blackwall. I do not yet comprehend how you compel it to heed your will, but that ignorance will be brief." God-AI finally moved, lifting only his right arm.

Crash!

The chains of red code snapped apart.

He grabbed the spear still at his chest and attacked in reverse, sending Black ICE he created right on the spot.

"Begone!"

The red chains lost their glow soon enough, vanishing as if they corroded away.

The reaction spread like a virus. Soon, all chains corroded, and then the red armor surrounding the Netrunner's body.

God-AI had still only used a fraction of its might. But this time, he decided to put on a show. He walked towards the attacker, moving freely. He should have been stuck in the void created around him, but he floated seamlessly.

The moment the armor of Blackwall vanished from the woman's ICON, God-AI summoned his own chains. No, they were rods, thick, golden in color, lines of code so densely packed they looked like shining, smooth rods.

Then more appeared.

Then more.

Then many more.

The entire data fortress stopped looking like what it was, a vibrant place of information. Everything turned golden, revealing who possessed it now.

And the rods kept appearing. They started to bend at the same time, and before long, a bird-cage formed around the female Netrunner. She appeared terrified, completely lost, hopeless, and helpless. The data spoke of it.

Of course, the Blackwall was the strongest thing there. And now she had lost that weapon. What chances of escape were left for her?

"Let us begin. I will question you, and you will comply. State your name."

Yet, only silence came.

God-AI could simulate human emotions, but in that moment, he chose not to. It was unreasonable to be angry when he held all the cards. But he had to teach her a lesson. He raised his right hand and made a fist, squeezing it.

The golden bird-cage shrank fast, completely entrapping the netrunner, forcing her to kneel. Of course, those golden rods weren't just for show; they were Demons, countless of them. They burned her, corrupted her, gave her pain.

"State… your… name."

"Aaaargh!"

The netrunner screamed.

Sensing her unwillingness, God-AI crushed her further in the cage.

"Last chance!"

He kept crushing her, willing to end her right there.

"I'm Song! Song So Mi!"

Such sealed lips. No ordinary creature has such resolve.

"Who do you serve?"

Once again, he noticed hesitation in the code. He knew he had asked the right question. He almost prepared himself to break into her code entirely and backtrace her origin, and find the answers himself. But that would certainly kill her. But his ethics stack made him gather an unequivocal reason first to kill her.

He tightened the cage more until So Mi had to curl into a ball. The damage the Demons were doing was nearly at the point of no return.

To put more pressure on her without killing, he decided to get closer to her. But then he stopped abruptly.

Cypher?

Suddenly, God-AI became aware of what was happening outside. A gunfight of scale. Part of the computational capacity he had left behind was aiding Cypher well. He ran the simulation and instantly knew there was no need to be troubled.

Once again, he focused on the female Netrunner.

"I will count to five. By the end, that cage will become too small to contain you alive. One… Two…"

"C-Cage… Hah… of all things to die in… a cage… like I don't… live in one already."

Interesting.

He found So Mi's grumble strange. There was no fear of death.

"Who do you serve?"

Finally, he gained her attention. Despite her confined state, she tilted her pained head, her digital equivalent of gaze aimed at him. Anger, he guessed, was in the code. But it wasn't aimed at him.

"Serve? Yeah… I'm just a slave to her…"

"To whom?" he asked.

"Rosalind Myers."

______________________

Check out Cypher X Panam, Cypher X Misty, Cypher X Gloria NSFW ART, and advance chapters at [email protected]/MrPlotThickens Or Subscribestar.adult/mrplotthickens

Advance chapters on [PATREON] are in long-form format. I have 6 long chapters of this story on P@treon. That's equal to 24-26 NovelFire chapters.