89: Chapter 88 The Sun Shines Brightly, This is Really a V-Shaking Event

The studio's security door closed silently behind him, shutting out all the noise from the outside world.

Lin Yi sank into the ergonomically customized work chair wrapped in soft leather; the backrest automatically conformed to the curve of his spine, emitting a faint sound of inflation.

He shook his head, temporarily putting the messy "surprises" regarding V out of his mind; there were more practical things to do right now.

His gaze fell upon the control panel embedded in the desk to the left of his workstation.

The panel was made of matte black metal, with faint blue glowing circuits flowing across its surface.

He reached out his right hand and pressed lightly on the back of his neck. Accompanied by the extremely subtle sensation of a neural interface connecting, a stream of pale gold data, almost invisible to the naked eye, extended from the "Bai Ze" interface port at the back of his neck and precisely connected to the panel's physical port.

"Identity verification passed. Welcome back, Lin Yi."

A gentle, electronically synthesized voice sounded in the room.

Almost simultaneously, a series of subtle mechanical whirring sounds came from inside the wall to the right of the workstation, which had previously looked seamless.

The heavy alloy panels slid open silently like petals, revealing the space hidden behind them—this was his personal network center, meticulously built within this apartment and never shown to anyone else.

Rather than a room, it was more like a compact and efficient technical hive.

The ruggedly styled network equipment seized from the Voodoo Boys had been cleverly integrated and reconstructed, woven together with various cutting-edge components Lin Yi had scavenged from the black market and abandoned data ports.

Thick, shielded cables were neatly bundled like steel vines on both sides of the racks, connecting several server arrays that were still humming in operation.

Some traces of Voodoo Boys graffiti still remained on the casings of these machines, but they blended strangely with the cold blue glowing cooling fins and pulse relays Lin Yi had installed, forming a unique mix-and-match aesthetic.

The air was filled with the smell of coolant and the distinct charred scent produced when electronic equipment runs at high speed.

"Finally, it looks like something," Lin Yi scanned his masterpiece with satisfaction, the corners of his mouth slightly raised. "Although with 'Bai Ze', the hardware upgrade isn't much of an improvement for me, but with this, that guy V..."

His thoughts naturally drifted back to V, wondering if V could also utilize this network center, perhaps she could gallop through Cyberspace more safely and freely, without always having to rely on relatively bulky mobile terminals.

However, just as this thought arose, it was like a bolt of lightning cutting through the fog in his brain.

A detail he had long ignored, one that was extremely unreasonable, slammed into his mind—V had already implanted a Sandevistan!

But according to the ironclad laws of cyberware compatibility in this era, the Sandevistan, a speed-enhancing cyberware that places an immense load on the nervous system, had a fundamental conflict in its underlying architecture with a network interface port that required deep neural access. The result of forcing both implants was only one: neural overload, brain burnout, Cyberpsychosis! This was common sense that even the most reckless thugs on the street knew!

Yet V... when she occasionally used hacking skills for some shallow network browsing and scraping, she didn't seem to show any abnormalities?

Before, he just assumed V didn't use it often and her body could handle it, but now, combined with the fact that she was going to complete a "troublesome matter" that sounded far from simple on her own, a strong sense of unease instantly gripped Lin Yi's heart.

"Something's wrong, something is definitely, absolutely wrong."

He let out a low shout and could no longer care about anything else.

His consciousness instantly sank into "Bai Ze", the reality on both sides of his vision receded like a tide, replaced by endless flowing points of data light. He entered Cyberspace directly.

Here, time is measured in milliseconds.

He mobilized his [Insight] authority, using the last communication signal with V as the anchor point. His massive computing power spread out along the intricate network nodes of Night City like an invisible spider web, locking onto V's precise physical coordinates almost instantly—an abandoned freight transfer station on the edge of Santo Domingo, which was near the entrance to the black market.

Finding the location was just the first step.

Lin Yi's consciousness, like an apex predator, efficiently usurped the network around the target area.

Traffic surveillance cameras, warehouse access control systems, even the residual wireless signals from a homeless person's broken cyberoptic... every connected device with scanning capabilities became an "eye" extending from him.

He selected a high-definition security camera mounted on an abandoned crane closest to V, adjusted its focal length to the maximum, opened the aperture fully, and concentrated all scanning beams on the familiar figure crouching on top of a shipping container, vigilantly observing below.

Deep scan initiated!

A series of cyberware identification information flashed through his consciousness like a waterfall, moving too fast for an ordinary person to catch:

[Target Identification: V (Valerie)]

[Detected Implants:]

[ - Kill Plugin (Active) ]

[ - Sandevistan-Apogee (Active) ]

[ - ICE Protection Matrix (Active) ]

[ - Adrenaline Booster (Active) ]

[ - Monowire (Standby) ]

[ - Oracle Implant (Active) ]

[ - Arasaka Mk.4 Cyberdeck (Active) ]

The preceding list was within Lin Yi's expectations; these were all pieces of equipment V openly possessed or that he had speculated she might have acquired. But the last item, the information clearly labeled [Arasaka Mk.4 Cyberdeck (Active)], made him feel as if he had frozen solid.

"Huh? Arasaka Mk.4?! What the hell?" Lin Yi almost thought he had misread it.

Sandevistan and a cyberdeck coexisting? This fucking violates the basic rules of this world!

He immediately strengthened [Insight] to perform a deep analysis and comparison.

More data streams emerged, constructing V's current neural load model and comparing it with known limit data in the database.

[Insight analysis complete.]

[Warning: Target cyberware compatibility adaptability is abnormal.]

[Current neural load: 37% (peak fluctuation to 48%).]

[Estimated neural capacity threshold: ...recalibrating...]

[Comparison complete: Based on neural signal strength and stability models, the target's theoretical neural capacity threshold is approximately 2.5 times that of the highest known recorded individual (Adam Smasher).]

"No way???" Lin Yi's consciousness let out a silent scream within the data stream. "Right, is this right? This V isn't right, is she?! Dual operating system?! Sandevistan and a cyberdeck running at full power simultaneously?! What the fuck... did she install mods?!"

A sense of absurdity washed over him.

But the next second, an even more absurd, yet perfectly explanatory thought floated up from the depths of his memory like a ghost—before crossing over, he had indeed installed a bunch of mods for the V he controlled in "Cyberpunk 2077". Aside from the "enjoy life" Lizzies Bar, a bunch of aesthetic mods had successfully turned V into a legend at Clouds in Night City, and expansion mods had directly turned her into "V-Prime".

But Lin Yi thought: It's reasonable that V didn't use the cyberdeck often... but he immediately cursed in his heart, "Reasonable my ass! This isn't a question of whether it's reasonable or not, this simply shouldn't be possible!"

Thinking that V not only had this "dual operating system" installed—which would absolutely lead to instant insanity in the original world—but was also alive and kicking, able to fight and run, and her neural load was far from reaching its limit... a conclusion that made his scalp tingle gradually became clear:

"So, the V of this world... is simply the V I modded?! Hiss..." He gasped. If this inference held true, many things made sense—aside from her strength progression speed that far exceeded ordinary people, and the strange abilities she occasionally displayed when facing powerful enemies that didn't match her current cyberware configuration, there was also... "Looking at her face, which was clearly on a different level of beauty compared to other women in Night City, as exquisite as if she had character beautification mods enabled... I should have known!"

A chill spread down his spine.

"That doesn't mean...?" He suddenly remembered another even more outrageous mod he had installed just for fun, a mod that involved the deepest, most dangerous area of this world. "I remember... I also installed a... Blackwall Quickhack mod?!"

The effect of that mod was to allow V to borrow, or even simulate, the power of Blackwall AI to a certain extent, unleashing Blackwall pulses that far exceeded conventional hacking abilities...

"I'm screwed!!"

Lin Yi's consciousness instantly snapped back to reality from Cyberspace, and he jumped up from his work chair, fine cold sweat seeping from his forehead.

If V really carried the effects of that mod, in this real world, where countless terrifying entities filled the space behind the Blackwall, every time she attempted to use that power, it was tantamount to lighting a bonfire in a dark forest and shouting at the top of her lungs! The consequences would definitely not be something that could be solved by reloading a save file like in the game!

He must contact V as soon as possible; he had to figure everything out before she could potentially use that dangerous power!