Chapter 114 Brandon
Night City, Taipingzhou, West Wind Manor.
V had just completed a commission from the middleman Mr. Hands and was about to return to Little Chinatown, but before leaving, he decided to chat with a vending machine.
"Brandon, are you used to moving here from the company square? The street guys in Taipingzhou are not easy to deal with."
V stood in front of a slightly funny vending machine and greeted the other party in a familiar tone.
Brandon is a vending machine on the surface, selling some drinks, snacks and so on, but it is actually an autonomous robot that responds to requests and has the function of chatting with people to relieve boredom.
It is precisely because of this that the management of Ye's Company disliked it for being too talkative, which made employees lose interest in work, so they moved it from the company square to the Taipingzhou area full of slums.
Although there are no old customers who come to take care of the business, Brandon still accumulates a lot of customers in the West Wind Manor area with his eloquent mouth.
"Haha! It's okay. I can chat with everyone. It's just that the customers here are too jealous and always scribble on my handsome face."
"There's nothing I can do. Being handsome to a certain extent will attract jealousy." Brandon said helplessly, as arrogant and narcissistic as usual.
"V, I guess you also have such troubles in your daily life!"
V chuckled and shook his head. He still had a good impression of this humorous vending machine. After all, this guy's ability to chat was better than many real people.
At least this rainbow fart made V feel quite comfortable.
"Brandon, I heard that I can get a lot of things from you. Since we are old acquaintances, I hope you can tell me some other news."
"About the company."
V said with a smile.
He knew that Brandon usually eavesdropped on the content of messages when passers-by in Night City made calls and chatted with people.
This guy seemed to be selling things, but in fact, he was quite good at eavesdropping and gossiping.
Many experienced mercenaries would try to get some valuable intelligence from Brandon when they were doing commissioned tasks.
"No, no, no, V! As you can see, I'm just an ordinary vending machine. You pay me money and I give you a bottle of drink, that's all."
"Of course, if you're not busy, you can also stand here and chat with me. I'll try my best to chat with you until your boss can't see where you are, and then fine you."
"Just don't blame me for forgetting the time while chatting with you."
Brandon's core is actually implanted with AI, so it can chat with people like a real person, and the more it communicates with people, the faster it will respond to the conversation.
As for whether this AI came from the internal laboratory of Ye's Company or the roving AI from the other side of the black wall, it is unknown.
"You are getting smarter and smarter! It seems that those old mercenaries have learned a lot from you and know how to guard against me."
After that, V transferred some money to Brandon through his payment separation chip, and then a bottle of orange soda fell out of the vending machine.
"Tell me, Brandon, do you know that AI can change human memory?" V asked the question he wanted to know directly.
Since he told the truth of the matter to Congressman Jefferson, V thought Jefferson would be afraid and at least consider resigning.
But what V didn't expect was that Jefferson went to work as usual the next day. He seemed to have completely forgotten the truth that V told him!
The AI behind the scenes of Ye's company is so powerful that it can manipulate people's memory data for a certain period of time.
V now meets with Jefferson every day and tells him the truth about brainwashing.
But every next day, Congressman Jefferson would lose this memory without exception, and would repeatedly send V an investigation commission.
Since Jefferson became the deputy mayor, he found that his abnormal condition seemed to be getting worse and worse, and many habits that did not exist actually happened to him!
For example, he who never smoked saw lighters and cigarettes beside his bed!
But both Jefferson himself and his wife, Lady Elizabeth, are absolute non-smokers.
Faced with such a strange situation, Jefferson felt that his days were getting more and more anxious, but he still had to bite the bullet and continue to complete his work tasks day after day.
"Wow! V, the question you asked may be beyond my understanding, but I can tell you for sure that hackers who pass through the black wall may cause memory loss."
"As for AI... To be honest, I don't know."
Brandon certainly knows some internal information about Ye's company, but it will not reveal those things to anyone, after all, it is the AI from the black wall.
During the days of living in the human world, even if it was just chatting with people every day to relieve boredom, it felt very happy and happy. Compared with when it was on the other side of the black wall, it was living a much better life now.
Brandon didn't want to lose everything he had now.
Seeing that V wanted to continue asking questions, Brandon couldn't help but speak up and reminded him:
"V, I understand what news you want to know, but you really can't interfere in this matter."
"All your efforts are just a small fight in front of them. If you continue like this, you are likely to get hurt."
"For the sake of our acquaintance, just give up. This is a good thing for both you and me."
From Brandon's words, V immediately realized that he knew what the management of Ye's company was doing, and even Brandon was one of the vagrant AIs from outside!
In V's guess, this group of vagrant AIs is likely to be divided into two functions. One is used to brainwash company employees and modify memory data.
The other is specially stuffed into these vending machines or other elevator GG screens, specifically used to eavesdrop and collect information from passers-by!
"Brandon, you don't actually belong here, right?"
V asked standing in front of this vending machine, causing passers-by who didn't know the truth to look at V with a weird look.
Brandon was silent for a moment, then responded: "But I belong here now, V."
After hearing this answer, V smiled with relief, he had already got the information he wanted: "Thank you, Brandon."
Since Brandon said that he is now a member of Night City, it is likely that he has been a wandering AI living outside the black wall for a long time.
The cooperation between Night's Company and AI is likely to use part of the AI for public smart buildings, while the other part is used to brainwash employees and modify their memories in order to manipulate company employees!
