Players Invade Cyberpunk-Chapter 649 - 209: If I’m Not Mistaken, You Must Be an Idiot

In the context of the outer network, the most dangerous elements are not the past data fortresses, but the omnipresent viruses, antivirus software, rogue AIs, and other hazardous data entities.

These stationary data fortresses are relatively safer places instead.

However, saying they are relatively safe only means the ICE inside won't come out and kill people.

Large threats in the area had already been cleared by Lucy in advance, so there won't be too much malicious software refilling this hole in the short term. Players have enough time to find the vulnerability in the data fortress's external firewall. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Since the collapse of the old network, a large amount of technical data was lost in it, causing real-world technology to progress slowly, but hacking technology hasn't fallen behind. Both the AIs outside the wall and the hackers inside are advancing, the only difference is in the extent.

After sacrificing more than thirty players' lives, Jackal finally found a gap in the firewall, allowing the other players to slip in.

"We're in, but it doesn't feel like much?"

The Giant looked around, where many pixelated bright data fragments floated in the empty space.

These fragments, isolated inside the data fortress and not mixed with the external data, have been preserved intact for over fifty years without being damaged, thus retaining their validity.

The Giant casually touched a pixelated data in front of him.

His fingertip felt an electric tingling sensation.

A data voice sounded in his mind out of nowhere.

[Clock-In Registration]

[Registrar: Kaspar Brunan (Lab Director)]

[Clock-In Time: December 7, 2019, 6:01 AM]

[Late by 1 minute, deducted salary 10 Orokin, performance score -1]

The year 2019...

This point in time seems so near, yet so far.

For the Giant, it's five years ago, but in game time, it's already over sixty years ago.

The lab assistant named Bruce might've been quite upset because his salary was docked.

Looking at the traces of human life left over sixty years ago, even though it's just a trivial piece of information, players still feel a subtle sense like they've traveled through time.

"Does this count as archaeology?"

The Sword Saint looked around, as if worried about time police jumping out to arrest them.

Brother Ni: "I think it's more like tomb raiding. Those firewalls are the mechanisms left behind by the tomb owner during their lifetime."

The Sword Saint: "Cyber tomb raiding, huh? We're like treasure hunters, maybe even bumping into cyber spirits of emperors."

Driven by curiosity, the players poked around, occasionally floating up to touch those data fragments to see what was recorded inside.

Although most of it was trivial, insignificant chatter, the players were never bored.

According to the game's usual design, these data fragments are not only materials to perfect the world view but might also hide important information about this instance.

Especially the Soulists, who have been battered by Hidetaka Miyazaki's narrative logic multiple times, will certainly not overlook any potentially valuable information.

They recorded and organized all the information and uploaded it to the official forum for future clue sorting by themselves and other players.

Wildman, instead of jumping around with the other players, asked professional Pandora,

"Which way should we go now?"

Unlike the outside with a mini-map to guide, the map in Cyberspace is meaningless. The data fortress is constantly changing and doesn't mark any BOSS routes, leaving everyone in the dark, truly pioneering.

Petite Pandora looked left and right.

A data fortress has no doors or windows like real buildings, but there are access ports.

Data migration and synchronization between different databases also require data channels, only these are invisible to the naked eye and need to be activated by sending commands.

"I'll figure something out with the others. You can try detecting around using skills, but be careful not to touch any warning lines; activating the firewall would be really troublesome."

After Pandora finished speaking, she trotted off to discuss countermeasures with Jackal.

This made other players feel somewhat frustrated, as the setup in Cyberspace is entirely different from reality, and the impact of their implanted and physical stats on data entities is negligible.

But what can they do? It's the hackers' playground here; without them, the other players wouldn't even be able to enter the door.

"Why is it this guy again?"

The Giant's grumbling attracted Wildman and Brother Ni's attention.

"What did you find?"

"This place is full of clock-in records, which feel worthless, and this Brunan guy is always late, never like a proper worker."

The Giant looked exasperated as they found numerous data fragments, but most were someone's clock-in records, primarily from April to June 2022, all ending on June 13, 2022.

No clock-in record went beyond that day.

Because on that day, Bartmos blew up the entire network, free data melted, data fortresses of major companies plunged into an eternal sea of bugs, and AI scattered Demonic Puppets everywhere, causing servers to explode in overload.