99: Chapter 98 The Price of Being Unable to Control One's Own Fate

"Ow!" V clutched her forehead, glaring at Lin Yi in grievance. "What was that for?!"

"What are you so excited about?" Lin Yi pulled his hand back, annoyed, his face full of seriousness. "With your half-baked hacking skills, daring to touch that protocol is like lighting a flare in a latrine—you're just asking for trouble. Are the monsters beyond the Blackwall something you can mess with right now? If your brain gets fried into mush, I might not be able to save you in time."

"Huh?" V rubbed her slightly reddened forehead, her excitement deflating like a punctured balloon. She muttered, "Then why did you make it sound so badass? You got my hopes up for nothing..."

She suddenly remembered the topic that had been sidetracked, and her eyes immediately sharpened, like a hound discovering a new scent. "Right! Don't think you can just brush past this! Who exactly is 'Europa'? You haven't explained that to me yet!"

Lin Yi looked at V's unrelenting gaze and knew he couldn't dodge this one. He sighed, deciding to reveal part of the truth. "This has to do with whether you'll be able to safely use the Blackwall Protocol in the future," he paused, pointing at himself, "and it also has to do with the changes happening to me."

Then, he asked tentatively, "You've read Bartmoss's 'Netrunner's Guide,' right?"

"Read it ages ago!" V lifted her chin, a hint of pride on her face. "I'm not bragging, but with my current skill level, I'm only this far from those legendary hackers…" She held up her right hand, using her thumb and forefinger to indicate a gap that was almost negligible, her eyes full of confidence. "…just a tiny bit away."

Lin Yi looked at her exaggerated gesture and nearly laughed out loud.

But then he thought about it—given V's monstrous learning ability and growth rate in this world, perhaps… maybe her "tiny bit" was actually that ridiculous.

"Fine, you win." Lin Yi went along with her words. "Then you should also know about the group mentioned in the book called 'Transcendent AI,' right?"

"Of course I do!" V perked up immediately, reciting like she was listing off treasures. "Aren't they those elusive super AIs that we netrunners can't even actively observe? The known ones, like 'Akira' who controls the Japanese network, 'Zorro' who lurks in the African data streams, and… and that one in Europe, 'Europa'… Euro…"

Her speech slowed down, and her voice grew quieter.

When the name "Europa" came out of her mouth again, V suddenly realized something.

Her words cut off abruptly, like a crowing rooster being strangled.

She slowly raised her head, her golden eyes locked onto Lin Yi's, her face full of disbelief and a trace of imperceptible panic.

The expression clearly said: No way? That's impossible, right? Tell me I guessed wrong!

However, meeting her gaze, Lin Yi nodded slowly, his tone calm yet certain: "Bingo. Congratulations, you hit the jackpot."

"Holy crap…" V cursed under her breath, feeling her worldview take a hit.

Then, using language that was as concise and focused as possible, while cleverly avoiding the core issues Europa mentioned regarding his own "variables" and potential risks, Lin Yi selectively told V everything about being forcibly taken to the edge of the Blackwall not long ago, and his conversation with Europa (who was wearing her face).

He focused on describing Europa's power and mystery, as well as her connection to "Guixu" and "Bai Ze," omitting the terrifying parts about his own soul anomaly.

V listened, dumbfounded; the sheer amount of information was too much for her to process all at once.

A legendary Transcendent AI, not only had he met one, but it had actively sought out Lin Yi?

And that he had some inexplicable connection to a terrifying entity named "Guixu" sleeping deep beyond the wall?

That Lin Yi's "Bai Ze" was actually the "key" to inheriting it?

These pieces of information collided and rearranged themselves crazily in her mind.

Suddenly, she grabbed Lin Yi's wrist with surprising strength.

"Let's go!" V's tone was ironclad and unquestionable. "I'm taking you to see Viktor!"

Lin Yi was bewildered by this sudden action. "Why are we going to see Viktor all of a sudden?" His heart skipped a beat. Had V, with her beast-like intuition, sensed the key information he was hiding about the risks to himself?

"Are you a fucking idiot?!" V whipped her head around, her eyes practically spitting fire, her voice trembling with agitation. "That bullshit 'Bai Ze'! And that hellish 'Guixu'! Have you figured out what those things even are? Just because they said 'merge,' you merged? You have to check if a pie falling from the sky is poisoned before you eat it! There's no such thing as a free lunch in Night City! Why can't thousands of other people do it, but you can adapt? There's definitely a price to pay, and I don't want you, you bastard, to become a short-lived ghost. It took me so long to find someone like you who I actually get along with."

She bombarded him with questions, every word hammering into Lin Yi's heart. She pulled on him hard, trying to haul him out of the chair. "What if… what if your body is overdrawing something we don't know about? What if it suddenly takes your life one day?! No! We have to go to Viktor for a full checkup! Now! Immediately! Right now!"

Lin Yi looked at V's slightly reddened eyes, filled with worry and anger, and his heart was touched in its softest place.

Since coming to Night City, he was no longer the lonely loser from his past life who had to kill time by himself whenever he was idle.

Now, he had V, Jackie, and Viktor by his side.

They could mess around and roast each other.

Although the explanations regarding the soul mass anomaly and the nature of transmigrators were things he couldn't bring himself to say or verify right now.

Just to put the person in front of him at ease, Lin Yi helplessly raised his hands.

"Alright, alright… fine, my dear, I'll listen to you, I'll listen." He smiled helplessly. "I'll go with you to see Viktor, okay?"

He took hold of the still-pouting V and added seriously, "But we have to agree on this first: if Viktor's monitoring results show that I'm completely normal, that my physiological indicators are stable—or even better than before—then it means this 'fusion' is safe for now, and Europa hasn't lied to us. In that case, we'll carry on as usual, and you won't worry like this anymore, deal?"

He used a light tone, trying to ease the atmosphere. "Ok or not ok?"

V stared at him for a few seconds, as if judging the sincerity of his words. Finally, she turned her head away, sighed helplessly, and replied in a muffled voice, "…Fine. But we also have to think about a way out. Even if we can't counter it, at the very least, we need to keep our lives in our own hands."

Lin Yi looked at her—so clearly worried to death yet trying to act calm—and felt a warmth in his heart. He reached out and gently ruffled her indigo hair. "Yeah, let's go. I'm still here."

He closed the studio terminal and let V pull him along. They left home together, started up the Herrera EC-D i360, and drove into the streets as night began to fall, heading toward Viktor Vektor's small clinic in Chinatown, which was filled with the smell of disinfectant and the nostalgia of the old era.