Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

”You have a sister?”

In the morning, when Gao Gong brought out two servings of scrambled eggs with Nutrition Paste, he suddenly asked.

”Sister?” Gao Yuanyuan, who was hanging clothes, turned her head in confusion, ”I don’t have a sister.”

”Oh, is that so.”

”Why would I have a sister?”

Gao Yuanyuan tilted her head, her long black hair swaying slightly, eyes as big as Zhenzi’s seriously staring at Gao Gong. With the TV in the background, Gao Gong felt a tension in his mind, but outwardly, he wore a radiant smile.

”I think if our family had one more person, wouldn’t it be livelier?”

’Our family—’

Gao Yuanyuan’s face suddenly turned red, she couldn’t help but give Gao Gong a glance and murmured softly, ”Stop talking nonsense.”

What was strange was, where did that sense of danger just now come from?

”Second personality, split consciousness, memory life?”

After sending off Gao Yuanyuan, Gao Gong muttered to himself. Just now, when the other party opened the door, he sneakily checked this cheap sister’s Attributes, but found no Negative State. Instead, the Attributes and Skills section surprised him.

Name: Gao Yuanyuan

Race: Primordial People

Profession: None

Personal Attributes: Power 3, agility 3, Endurance 2, Intelligence 26, Perception 35, Personality 15

Professional Knowledge: Virtual Information Security lv4, Cyber Programming Language lv6, Neural Communication Technology lv4

Isn’t this Intelligence and Perception a bit exaggerated?

Also, is this Welfare Institute a programmer training class?

These three pieces of knowledge belong to a Professional Knowledge Chain called ’Neuro-Editing Technology.’

This Knowledge Chain is also shared by Neural Editors and Cyber Hackers.

And thinking of that ’Visual Imaging Device,’ this Welfare Institute doesn’t seem simple either.

”Interesting, ordinary tasks are fine, but if it’s a task related to the ’Professional Knowledge Chain,’ I must explore it.”

After postponing all his morning appointments and hanging a closed sign at the door, Gao Gong took out the Network Access Chamber.

The Flying Bird Four-type is one of the most advanced Access Chambers on the market, resembling a Motorcycle Helmet, with the ear section thickened, like bird feathers. Once worn, a line of text automatically appeared before him.

’Would you like to proceed with brain implantation?’

It comes with an implantation function, huh.

Decisively clicked no.

’Without brain implantation, do not use the Network Access Chamber. Our company is not liable for any consequences arising from this!’

Gao Gong smirked, decisively turning on the switch.

In the next moment, the surrounding scenery vanished, replaced by Electronic Rain.

Electronic rain composed of characters, numbers, and codes.

The rain poured down, submerging his feet in an instant.

Gao Gong stared at the rainwater as numeric raindrops began to combine, forming rain curtains, each one turning into a memory fragment.

Gao Gong stretched out his hand, his hand transformed into a gigantic tentacle within the rain, and with the lighting up of the Spiritual Node, these raindrops became subject to his control, condensed into a large sphere. As the water sphere rotated, the memories began to spin like a carousel, featuring scenes of conquering the Star System in a past life, as well as the struggles, ranking below others, and everyday life of this present life.

As the speed increased, with a bang, the water ball exploded, transforming back into garbled numbers.

’As expected, relying solely on Psychic Ability, forcibly Programming is impossible.’

Gao Gong closed the Access Chamber, took off the ’helmet,’ experiencing a stabbing pain in the head, rubbed his ears, and surprisingly found a trickle of blood.

Glancing at the System Panel, there was a pile of ’abnormal mental states,’ and if his Will wasn’t over 200 points, the odds of those assessments succeeding were high, leading at the very least to Schizophrenia.

With a thought, the flesh turned transparent, and the damage to the eardrum, burst capillaries, and violently pulsating nerves began to heal.

To change professions to ’Cyber Hacker’ without equipping the Access Chamber, finding the Big Data Monster ’Electronic Enlightenment’ is a must.

But from Gao Gong’s memory, these Big Data Monsters, all above level 60, were notoriously difficult to deal with.

The only one easy to talk to ignored strangers.

However, Gao Gong knew something that could gain that creature’s favor.

”Better try connecting to the network first. I wonder if, at this point, those security guards are still being strict.”

The Cyber Network’s security guards, also known as those Black Wing Killers, are Deadly Enemies to these Big Data Monsters, and if was the right time for a crackdown, those ’Big Data Monsters’ wouldn’t even show up.

Gao Gong needed to confirm whether the current Cyber Network was in an intense crackdown stage.

If the Network Access Chamber cannot be used, then ordinary people wishing to access the Cyber Network must use ’link devices.’

This ’link device’ is somewhat like a cipher machine from World War II, with a small screen at the front and a series of incomprehensible symbols and numbers below, producing ’beep-beep-beep’ sounds when pressed.

Gao Gong hung a large pair of headphones over his head and turned on the ’cipher machine.’

A series of symbols, resembling garbled text, appeared on the small black screen.

Gao Gong found the matching metal keys and knocked them out one by one. As each key was pressed, a garbled symbol would disappear.

Once one line of symbols vanished, another line of garbled symbols automatically floated up.

The only sound remaining in the entire room was the metallic clinking.

Gradually, a trace of exhaustion extended from his heart, and from his temple flowed what felt like scorching ’mercury.’

The ’mercury’ flowed onto the ground, gradually corroding a large hole in the surface.

In the next moment, a feeling of weightlessness hit, Gao Gong’s back suddenly arched, and he fell into an ocean of data, where his vision, smell, taste, touch, and hearing all blended into the seawater.

’Have I entered the Deep Web Layer?’

In this layer, all human sensory perceptions will be decomposed into Sensory Data and integrated into the Cyber Network.

Very comfortable, as if the spirit is extending infinitely, completely merging into some kind of beautiful world.

Besides the Deep Web Layer, there is also a Base Web Layer, but that’s the network core that only Big Data Monsters and Black Wing Killers can enter.

Between these two lies the vast Cyber Network.

As the immersion deepened, Gao Gong felt as if a ’Sensory Signal Amplifier’ was mounted on his body, with various sensations swelling more and more, suddenly contracting at the moment of being magnified to the limit.

Gao Gong abruptly leaped out from the seawater and appeared on an Information Highway.

Gao Gong straightened his tie and checked his reflection in the shiny road sign.

On the shiny road sign, a Shota with a stunningly beautiful face was looking at himself in the mirror, with big, springwater-pure eyes, a mix of sweet and fierce temper, and a pretty dimple when smiling.

Indeed, this is the true appearance of the former Virtual Realm Master.

Rich Lady Love Prototype.

”Sure enough, the moment I logged onto the Cyber Network, my true appearance was exposed.”

The beautiful Shota raised his eyebrows, his voice soft and soothing, even softer and more mesmerizing than Aidolu’s version.

Just kidding, do you know how many faces I adjusted to match the aesthetics of rich ladies across the universe?

Gao Gong stood on the Information Highway, seeing if he could hitch a ride—it wouldn’t matter; that place is a data storage center of large enterprises with strong firewalls, but finding a Data Node to stroll through is still possible.

On both sides of the highway is dangerous data turbulence; generally, unless you’re particularly unlucky or under hacker attacks, you’re unlikely to fall into it.

However, if you really fall into it, it’s basically certain death.

Soon, a big truck stopped in front of Gao Gong.

The door opened, and countless women stuck their heads out. Seeing the Shota version of Gao Gong, their eyes lit up, and their tongues extended, wrapping around Gao Gong like a bunch of ropes.

”Some dating software? Why are there so many zombie accounts?”

Gao Gong glanced around and noticed many women’s heads were split open, empty inside, which is standard for zombie accounts.

When boys are outside, they must protect themselves.

Gao Gong decisively retreated a step back, off the white line, with the red ropes blocked by an invisible barrier.

The women looked hungrily at him, muttering something while sighing ghostly when they saw Gao Gong unmoved.

’Beautiful app, find your soulmate.’

A line of text lit up on the road sign.

Gao Gong smirked, soulmate—what a nonsense.

A moment later, waves rose on the highway, and a fleet of luxury yachts sailed past with countless scantily clad beauties waving to Gao Gong.

Gao Gong seemed to hear the sounds of electronic music and pole dancing.

”Some kind of underground club LAN? I wouldn’t dare board this ship. Who knows if there are messy addiction viruses inside.”

’Red Dream Club, taking you into a pink dream.’

The advertisement lit up again on the road sign.

’Red Dream Club is just next to Hanging Street; opening in broad daylight? How dedicated they are.’

All interactive sensory data in reality will eventually consolidate into data packets uploaded to the Cyber Network.

Gao Gong waited for a moment, no vehicles came, but various gunshots were heard, as if two invisible factions were clashing.

Gao Gong stood on the highway as if in the middle of a street battle.

”Alright, two gangs are fighting in reality, using a lot of neural link weapons, and much sensory data is being uploaded.”

”Not surprising; many gangs in Nightless City are actually funded by corporations. For instance, a certain Military Contractor might fund a gang to test some street weapon’s performance.”

Gao Gong slightly regretted this; if he’d known earlier, he wouldn’t have connected in the Outer City District. What a mess!

After the gunfire, the highway suddenly cracked open, and an elevator rose from the ground, ascending straight into the air.

”Data migration by the Mechanical Main Brain!”

Gao Gong’s eyes lit up as he took three steps into two to press the elevator button.

3rd floor, 4th floor, 5th floor, 6th floor.

Nothing stopped at any level.

Blood keeps oozing through the cracks.

Gao Gong understood this was the data migration from yesterday’s ’Population Cleansing Plan.’

The Mechanical Main Brain wants to know how much population garbage was cleared yesterday.

’Ding!’

The elevator finally stopped on the 26th floor, and the doors opened, a strong smell of blood came rushing out.

Inside seemed like it had just been cleaned, with dried bloodstains on the floor.

Gao Gong stepped inside, and the elevator doors closed.

The next moment, data migration began.

’Ding!’

’Ding!’

’Ding!’

’Ding!’

’Ding!’

The devilish sound repeatedly filled the brain.

Electronic phantom sound? Sensory signals? Data fragments?

Damn it, someone in reality is ringing the doorbell.