Players Invade Cyberpunk-Chapter 678 - 220: Cyber War

"A new NPC?"

All the players knew about the opening of Cyberspace and the old network dungeon. Some players hadn't tried it yet, but there were already many screenshots on the official website.

The central plaza was huge, probably several square kilometers. Even if a few thousand people were active inside, it wouldn't feel crowded, but it was quite empty, with only two NPCs and just one dungeon entrance.

Now, with a new NPC appearing suddenly, it definitely drew all the players' attention towards it.

Especially since this NPC was female, and her profession seemed similar to Lucy's mentor, a Hacker, offering some special auxiliary Demonic Puppets.

Surrounded by players as if watching a rare animal, Song Zhaomei was in quite a predicament. The players' enthusiasm was a bit overwhelming for her, and she was shouting some incomprehensible phrases.

"Beauty, can you make me a snowman suit!"

"No ambition, I want an oleander, oleander is the best in the world!"

"Wearing an oleander to a team fight? If you're gonna wear something, it should be a suit!"

"This..."

Song Zhaomei was sweating, and she could only manage a forced smile to respond to everyone.

According to Lin Miao, it didn't matter if she couldn't understand what the players were saying, just pretend she didn't hear it. If the players really need something, they'd come with detailed data to find her.

Her task here was to get familiar with interacting with players while trying to make some Demonic Puppets or auxiliary programs for them to use.

Demonic Puppets, being semi-intelligent offensive programs crafted by Hackers, had their computational power consumption borne by the Hacker.

In the past, AI Hunters would specifically make a batch of their own Demonic Puppets to hunt roaming AI in the network. Once encountered, the Puppets would charge in to fight the AI. Inadequate early prevention meant Hackers would sometimes brag and drink with friends in real life, only to pass out the next second because their Puppets consumed all their computational power, even to the point of burning out their brains.

The ones Song Zhaomei makes now are similar, but Lin Miao advised her not to make them too strong in combat, mainly to help players in battle.

If they can restrain, entangle, or help players escape from roaming AI, that's good enough. The real damage still needs to be dealt by the players themselves.

And the one standing here talking to the players wasn't the real Song Zhaomei; it was just a virtual machine she left behind, multitasking.

What surprised Song Zhaomei was that players seemed to care more about being 'interesting' than 'useful'.

Practicality was actually a lower priority for them.

"BGM?"

"Yes."

The player who made the request nodded vigorously.

"When we use our combined skills, it's best to coordinate with exciting background music; just thinking about it gets me pumped up."

"Hmm... Do you need to specify any particular track?"

Song Zhaomei had only been here for a few days, and players had already made many weird requests, but she didn't dislike it. In fact, she kind of enjoyed it.

No one forced her to make some doomsday machine here, and Lin Miao didn't even set work hours for her. She could come and go as she pleased.

The atmosphere among the players was harmonious and interesting, full of humanity, completely lacking the greed and coldness of company employees chasing profit.

Also, after being connected to the Black Wall by Lin Miao, enduring those military tech modification experiments no longer felt like a fate worse than death due to data torture from the Black Wall.

Though she still had to keep up appearances.

"Yes, yes, each combined skill should have its own BGM, and it'd be best if it were smart enough to automatically cue to the climax when we unleash a big move."

Those so-called combined skills, Song Zhaomei analyzed them. Honestly, their power was secondary; she was more surprised that players could link their minds without affecting each other, something humans or AI typically couldn't do.

"A piece of cake..."

Within a minute or two, Song Zhaomei inserted the uploaded music into those so-called combined skills according to their names.

Having his suggestion adopted, the player was thrilled and immediately gathered his buddies for a dungeon run.

"Let's go."

Wheelchair wanted to join the fun but was dragged away by the street thug toward the dungeon entrance.

"Go, go, go, hurry up and choose skills. I heard there's a small Boss program over there. Watch me lead you guys to rake in the loot."

In the cyber world, Wheelchair could actually walk normally, just without much tactile sensation.

Players had been exploring the Prometheus Laboratory for over a week, using trial and error to discover more unknown areas, which in turn attracted the attention of local programs and firewalls. The conflict between the two sides was escalating, with constant battles, big and small.

The most significant threat came from Prometheus, wiping out dozens of players in a group within seconds.

A few players traversed the old network entrance and followed the coordinate path into the lab's data fortress.

The movement speed of data bodies was much faster than in reality; as long as there were coordinates and no external obstructions, it was almost like teleportation.

"We've been waiting forever; if you didn't come, we'd have started the raid ourselves."

Led by Er Zhuzi and over a dozen hacker players, along with more than two hundred idle players, they were stationed in front of a data wall.

And more players who received the news kept joining.

"Listen up. According to preliminary scouting, this seems to be a secondary database of the laboratory. There are several data cores inside. Once we get in, we'll activate a temporary field consolidation program. The Boss needs to be dealt with quickly; preferably, we handle it before Prometheus and the firewall can react, then package the data and get out..."