#1013 - Sun (II) (Godfathers, my condition is a bit off, one chapter today, I will make up for it la

Nevada, ablaze with lights, hovercars glide through the city's sky as fashionable people stroll the streets, enjoying the vibrant nightlife.

V, blending into the crowd, recalls her days of struggling in Atlanta:

The state, under the rule of the New United States, emulates the European Community, employing powerful surveillance and control systems to eradicate crime. However, this eradication is far from righteous—

The glittering lights of Las Vegas are surrounded by a silent wasteland. Logically, it should also be part of the city, but electricity doesn't reach there.

Years ago, this area seceded from the United States, seeking to escape the corruption of the Big Four gangs, the pervasive high taxes of the federal government, and the financial scams from officialdom, aiming to build their own city. But after independence, the state government's public power and infrastructure construction groups became even more excessive:

Companies and governments monopolizing basic resources drastically increased electricity prices, caused intermittent power outages, controlled beverage and water supplies, and restricted food imports annually under the guise of equipment upgrades.

Keep in mind that the city's biggest export resource is freaking batteries and energy!

People then realized that the state government was also a bunch of greedy parasites, but what followed was a slew of "free trade" policies. Companies began investing in building factories, seizing plants and roads.

Before independence, the state government promised everyone would be resettled and every hard work would be rewarded. However, less than a year after independence, not a single piece of land in this place didn't belong to a company—

The only infrastructure group belonging to the state government even played output restrictions, exporting goods even when their own people were freezing to death.

When the New United States marched into Las Vegas, not a single citizen stood up. But this time, they didn't stand up because they anticipated what would happen next:

The Old United States, the Nevada state government, and the New United States are all the same scum. Sure enough, nothing got better, only worse, even intensified because of the new policies the New United States learned from the European Community, which, in a sense, made the suppression even stronger.

Past poverty transformed into violent crime, but now, poverty mostly leaves people with the choice to die silently, like the dead city on the edge of Las Vegas, decaying day by day.

The city center is resplendent, while the outskirts are covered in yellow sand.

Now, the city council will continue to implement President Myers' policies for the New United States: the unification and prosperity of the New United States require massive resources and funds.

Any losses will ultimately be extracted from ordinary people.

V, like an ordinary street youth, walks through the dead city on the outskirts. Unlike Jack, she doesn't want to deal with these people, but scatters weapons in the blacked-out dead city—

As she walks through the dark and cold streets, past abandoned cars, piles of garbage, and dilapidated buildings, the homeless, armed, emerge from the ruins, following in the shadows.

They follow V back to the place with lights, and then the cold lights are gradually replaced by neon lights. The lights become dazzling, and huge billboards project colorful lights and shadows. The bars and casinos are bustling with voices. From time to time, people are kicked out of the casino, and some fly away on hovercars with crazy laughter, the air filled with the scent of money and desire.

The homeless gathered in the shadows are perfectly hidden, and today's social order maintenance network seems to be blind, completely unable to see that the penniless are gathering, and the danger index is rising—

Until crossing a certain street, the people gathered in the shadows all stopped, holding weapons in their hands, but also hiding them tightly under the only piece of rag on their bodies, behind the bodies of their companions.

They watch V enter the administrative center under the eyes of drones and patrols as if nothing had happened, eventually entering the administrative building.

And the huge screen of the building is still playing a group photo of President Myers, state government officials, and a group of company representatives.

[Jack: Phew, I feel a little nervous. I'm familiar with the feeling of risking my life, but not with the feeling of fighting a war.]

A smile appears on the corner of V's mouth:

[V: Jack, I feel like you're not so awesome anymore. You're even getting nervous.]

[Riel: Get in position. Don't blame me for mercilessly mocking you if you drop the ball.]

Texas.

This state was one of the most important among the first to declare independence, and the resistance it encountered was far greater than that of Nevada and Iowa—

The reason lies only in the fact that the headquarters of Petrochemical Corporation is located here.

In Riel's plan, this independence of the Free States has nothing to do with the company or the state government, which means he is not only declaring war on the New United States,

This state no longer has a complete piece of land. War and unrestrained exploitation have left the land barren, riddled with cracks, and even with flames spewing out.

Everywhere are abandoned oil towns, but there is not a single person inside—

Petrochemical has established a large number of alcohol-dwarf wheat greenhouse planting bases here, one breeding tower after another dominates here, people live in the cracks, wearing heavy protective clothing to move in the chemical plants, heavy air fills the entire area.

Compared to the Petrochemical Building in Night City, Petrochemical Corporation's headquarters here does not have that unique huge office building.

Because there is no need to build such a building: the entire state of Texas is a company asset, and land is abundant.

Compared to Nevada and Iowa, the "citizens" here are almost only Petrochemical employees, in addition to various vagrants, struggling to survive on this man-made hellish soil.

There are not so many resentful vagrants here, more are workers who are so physically and mentally exhausted that they don't think about more things and indulge in cheap entertainment after work.

"Don't be too surprised, the message to call you to a meeting was sent by me. If you had fully withdrawn from Night City earlier, hacking into your network system wouldn't have been so easy, but who told you... to be the same as those people below?"

The answer is obvious:

In recent days, Riel has easily hacked into Petrochemical's network, and through signal coding analysis at the Night City terminal, has hacked in layer by layer from the outskirts of Texas all the way to here.

This is a shocking answer at any time:

As the world's top giant company, their network is not only sophisticated but also powerful. To break through the entire Petrochemical network, another company of the same scale would have to bet all its computing power and launch a cyber war on the network! It is impossible to do it silently!

It's as if the technology itself is fighting against them! The technology they thought they had mastered completely betrayed them, and all this could only happen without their knowledge!

The fact is indeed the case: the coverage of Riel's rogue AI, including his own technology, encompasses almost all fields such as network attack and defense, hardware design, computer science, social engineering, advanced biological science, human-computer interaction, etc. If a single company can still catch up with his skills in a certain field, then a company can never catch up with him!

Someone blurted out—

"Rogue AI... you are not human at all."

Bang, bang.

Trenton Parker, Petrochemical's second-largest shareholder and current CEO, knocked on the table to silence his colleagues, who were already showing obvious signs of losing their composure—

But in reality, he himself was not calm:

If he were facing a human, he would not have any panicked emotions, but is the guy in front of him really still human!

"Mr. Burger King, or should I call you Mr. Riel, this is, after all, a formal meeting: what do you want?"

Whoosh—

In the dark night sky, several violent pillars of fire spewed out from the cracks in the ground, followed by terrifying explosions!

The sound of the explosions was blocked by the thick tempered glass of the building, but the rising fireballs seemed to be drumming in their hearts!

The flying metal fragments and building debris foreshadowed a terrifying destruction. From a high altitude, it looked like a violent wave of destruction swept across the entire Texas, and the flames were burning all Petrochemical's assets!

Tzz—

The image from the cybernetic eye was accompanied by bizarre flickering and a black screen. Riel's figure instantly disappeared from the edge of the window. At this moment, the entire management team was roaring and terrified in their hearts:

The high-tech on their bodies had been hacked from the very beginning. They had been confronting phantoms all along since who knows when!

Bang!

The glass was hit by a huge piece of flying debris. Amidst the loud noise, all the managers felt their entire bodies were burning...

Not only was the world in front of them burning, but the cybernetics on their bodies were also emitting abnormal high temperatures!

"I want you to burn."