#997 - Alien reinforcements

The Latvian army is basically divided into three levels. The lowest level is the militia, which can only be stationed in Europe to maintain order. These militias use skill chips and software to assist in controlling city machinery and maintaining order.

The second level is the ordinary army, which basically understands the operating principles of modern weapons such as drones, armored vehicles, missile vehicles, and rocket launchers. Compared to the militia, their intelligence, mobility, and willpower have been significantly improved. An important automated machinery operator can control intelligent formations of up to dozens of drones.

The third level is the Titan.

In this war, all the troops and Titans were投入into combat, but in reality, there were only a meager 70,000 humans. The real combat basically relied on mechanized units, including drones, self-propelled artillery, and missile vehicles, almost achieving automated combat.

The nuclear explosion at the beginning of this battle obviously caused serious damage to Ultron, causing the Ultron legions, united by the network, to severely degenerate. All the machines became independent individuals, retaining only basic combat instincts, becoming truly rigid robots—

Not to mention Titans, even the intelligence of ordinary soldiers far exceeds these Ultron robots. Therefore, the real key to victory in this battle has never been the assault on the King's Seat, but whether the soldiers can wipe out the Ultron legions.

However, the nuclear explosion completely disrupted Ultron's network and also suppressed the Latvian legions' battlefield communications. Information warfare and information command became a bubble, and mechanized equipment became disobedient. Delays, incorrect instructions, and loss of connection were common.

Not only did Ultron's robots have to fight individually, but the Latvian legions also basically lost the ability to remotely control equipment. The soldiers could only rely on the guns and knives in their hands, and the exoskeletons on their bodies.

How could 70,000 people fight against the overwhelming robots?

Even if the remaining Ultron robots were all sub-individuals with low combat capabilities, they were still military weapons!

Ultron's main consciousness restarted in a factory on the edge of the Mechanical Hive. Having lost its carefully crafted body, it could only use the same mass-produced bodies—

This terrifying robot had already transferred its consciousness to the outer industrial area. Although the wireless communication was broken, the wired network, under a strict electromagnetic protection system, had disconnected from the explosion point, preserving its consciousness almost completely.

However, the characteristics of the outer industrial area, which was built based on resource points, determined that it could only disperse its consciousness and attach it to this Mechanical Hive in a distributed manner—

As Riel said, Ultron could not escape to any network in the world. The European network had Riel and rules it couldn't detect to block it, and the American network had rules jointly created by Hydra and Roxxon. Only this land...

Now, this surviving Mechanical Hive is itself!

Ultron watched its temporary body rise from its base and rush out of the gate, but the next second, it saw something incomprehensible:

Some mechanical soldiers actually rushed out from the Latvian squad that it had suppressed with firepower!

This immediately plunged Ultron's brain into doubt and incomprehension:

An AI that can generate consciousness, which is also the dangerous critical mass defined by Riel, requires a huge amount of computing power and very subtle design. The latter can even be said to be a matter of luck.

Because of this, the AI carried by individual Ultron robots is very primitive. Although it has a self-iteration function, the upper limit is very low. The Latvian military equipment is even more so.

But the flexibility of those combat robots and their coordination with the human side were incredibly exquisite!

Ultron simply couldn't understand: It was normal for human cooperation to be exquisite, and for their machine soldiers to be far superior in quality to its own through tactics and individual intelligence in combat, because every human is a high-level AI.

But what about those robots!

Night City, the city defense forces received new training orders:

A new batch of cyberpunk reality training equipment has been produced in the northern industrial area of the city and needs to be tested immediately—

The population of this city of seven million is increasing every day, as is the number of city defense forces, but more of them are former gang members transformed into NCPD outsourced members, etc.

Kurt Hansen also put on his training suit. This close-fitting garment can be directly connected to the electrodes of the virtual reality pod. Combined with neural implants and brain-machine equipment, it can precisely stimulate every muscle and nerve in the body. It can be said that it can simulate almost all aspects of the senses except for acceleration.

But in fact, Night City has also created training pods that can simulate acceleration. This has already been achieved technically. The European Space Agency will use this equipment to train astronauts, and large companies like Arasaka and Militech will also use this to train pilots. It just so happens that Muramasa knows how to do it.

But the first reality pod that can simulate acceleration is not for Hansen to use.

V is wearing a full set of training exoskeletons. Compared to Hansen and other ordinary soldiers, her exaggerated cybernetic implant rate and the existence of the Little Octopus means that entering the acceleration simulation pod can truly enjoy a 100% simulation effect.

V looked at the equipment on her body and then at the huge acceleration training pod in front of her—it was more like a huge room than a pod.

"Surely the advanced troops of New United States and Militech have a lot of this kind of equipment?"

Faced with V's question, Hansen shook his head: "If they all use this method to train troops, the cost would be terrifyingly high. This is a facility that only elites can use. As for your room, that's for the elite among the elites—

The cost of training excellent pilots is quite high. On the one hand, there are few biologically gifted people, and on the other hand, the equipment that stimulates potential under controllable conditions is very expensive.

Burger King—Riel intends to build a special force with unimaginable combat capabilities, and to train those soldiers, he will use the kind of room you're using. If you don't have the potential to use it, the risk of crippling is very high."

There was something else Hansen didn't say: He actually didn't quite understand. It was one thing for Riel himself to use dehumanizing technology, but the technology used by the people around him was also incredibly dangerous.

The amazing thing is that he hasn't heard of any of these people developing cyberpsychosis so far. At most, they just retire from the front lines and quit.

And among the retired soldiers hired by New United States and Militech, the incidence of cyberpsychosis is even higher. So far, many of Night City's veterans are still able to engage in normal industrial production—

Hansen can certainly notice that Riel's handling of these veterans is different from Militech's, but the fact that there isn't a single case of cyberpsychosis is somewhat unexpected to him.

V was even more delighted when she heard Hansen's words, and a burst of smugness: "It has to be me."

With that, she entered the room and closed the sealed door.

Hansen was speechless: Normal people wouldn't be so excited when they heard that something they were using was dangerous.

But now is not the time to explore Burger King's abnormal emotions. Riel has issued similar equipment to everyone, with varying levels of fidelity, from the city defense forces in Dogtown Military Base in Pacifica, to the major gangs in the city, and the nomads in the Badlands, everyone is connected to the equipment.

It's as if they're going to fight in a virtual world.

[Reality Training Mode Activated. Please eliminate all visible enemy machines.]

A terrifying scroll unfolded before everyone connected to the pods—

Burning sky, metallized earth, a rain of fire covering the sky and earth, an endless army of robots...

Even though Hansen is considered a cultured officer, the first word that came to his mind was:

Hell!