Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

After changing professions to become a Cyber Hacker and re-entering Cyber Space, it felt completely different.

Perception data flowed more smoothly, shaping was faster, and consciousness was clearer.

This was primarily because of a piece of professional knowledge—the Electronic Hacker Manual.

Electronic Hacker Manual:

Lv1: Through hacker training, develop a series of perception systems such as hearing, vision, touch, taste, smell, and combine them with connection devices to enhance input and output.

Lv5: Can discern the needed data nodes from the flood of perception data, mastering this touch world composed of buttons and switches through code.

The greatest function of the Lv5 Electronic Hacker Manual is actually the ability to choose one’s ’Descent Location.’

Just like saving a game, in Cyber Space, he can selectively descend to any place he has been before.

Gao Gong appeared on the ruins of the ’Metaverse.’

The ’Metaverse’ had turned into a broken cross-river bridge, with the middle part plunged into a sea of data, the water swelling over the broken piers, with embedded code structures at the fractures.

Violent data rain poured from the sky, and the water level rose higher and higher, with massive waves of data occasionally crashing in, spewing countless program comments at the crest.

Programmers hate two things the most: writing comments themselves, and others not writing comments.

These ’program comments’ exploded in mid-air, transforming into data spray, leaving you wondering how many programmers would get a headache looking at these messy codes tomorrow.

He reached into a puddle and stirred, activating the professional skill ’Sensory Data Programming.’ After five seconds of data generation time, he exerted his hand and gently lifted a large black umbrella.

The exquisite young man put one hand in his pocket, held up an umbrella with the other, and appeared like a battered Little Hua amidst the gale, especially evoking tenderness.

Gao Gong walked ashore, where Black Code was squatting on the ground, bored.

”Where is Sister G?”

Black Code lifted his chin; on the road, large trucks formed from local area networks were flipped on their sides, and signal base station-like poles were kicked into pieces, even passing AI stray cats were tragically shot in the head.

Gao Gong walked along the information highway and got onto the viaduct.

On the way, various strangely shaped vehicles appeared from time to time.

In reality, they might be news websites, virtual communities, data transmitters, or servers.

But obviously, this road was blocked.

In the center of the viaduct, explosions continually echoed.

”Plenty of websites won’t be accessible today,” Gao Gong muttered to himself.

In the viaduct center, a girl with tattoos all over her body was wielding a pink machine gun, sweeping at the passing vehicles.

The bullet chain transformed into a beam of light, creating continuous explosions wherever it passed.

At her feet lay a mountain-like pile of robot wreckage; in reality, they had a name.

Antivirus Software.

Amidst the gale, the gunfire was like thunder.

Gox was lost in a bloodthirsty frenzy, raindrops falling and smudging her eyeshadow, turning her beautiful braided hair into a feather duster.

Her fury, wanting to ignite the raindrops!

The rain above her suddenly vanished.

Gox turned her head in astonishment, only to see an exquisite young man holding an umbrella for her, smiling at her.

Gox stared blankly at him, tears unknowingly rolling from her eyes.

At some point, the machine gun had been dropped, and the tattooed girl suddenly let out a ’wah’ and hugged him tightly.

”The old lady is gone, she’s gone, sob, sob…”

Gao Gong closed the umbrella, letting the data raindrops fall. Each raindrop was actually a piece of memory, a feeling.

…

”Eliza isn’t dead.”

Facing Black Code and Gox, Gao Gong spoke with confidence.

”Are you sure?” Black Code asked seriously.

”Yes, the new search engine doesn’t have so many intrusive ads. I’ve confirmed it in reality.”

Gao Gong smiled: ”Rest assured. Now Eliza’s body is decomposing into countless data mites, reabsorbing data to restore her human form.”

”You make a point,” Black Code murmured: ”If she was really dead, we wouldn’t have been able to escape the Metaverse.”

”So what do we do now?” Gox asked gloomily.

”The reason the Mother of Data couldn’t beat the Pipe Sovereign isn’t because sensory data isn’t as good as neural signals, but because there are too many data havens in Cyber Space, causing a lot of valuable commercial data to be monopolized by corporate vampires.”

”If we want Eliza to revive faster, the only thing we can do is break the shackles of these data havens, release these secret data, and let the search volume of search engines soar.”

”That’s indeed the case,” Black Code hit his palm, ”With the total amount of data increasing, the old lady should be able to revive faster.”

Gox stood up abruptly, her almond-shaped eyes widening, the blood veins in her eyes growing, as she pulled Gao Gong’s shoulder and flashed a murderous smile.

”Hey, little pet, which one should we start with first?”

The Rich Lady Love Prototype flashed a playful smile.

”I just happen to know such a place.”

…

At dawn, Gao Gong got up, removed the electrode patch from his temple, and twisted his neck, preparing to check on his affordable little sister upstairs.

Entering the room, Gao Gong suddenly frowned. The bed was empty, with only a note left behind.

’I’m off to work, breakfast is in the fridge, remember to eat.’

Gao Gong tilted his head, and the next moment, on the wall, on the door, on the floor, large pieces of flesh bulged, blood vessels swelled, and bundles of neural tissues like cobwebs covered the small house tightly.

”To think she could leave like this, Information Life? Conceptual Life? Or was the body datafied?”

”Or, the Gao Yuanyuan who left with me yesterday doesn’t actually exist?”

Gao Gong really couldn’t understand how she left.

Advanced Information Lives can indeed blink across planets, across entire planets.

But that’s at least a 90-level thing.

And this is just a girl from a low-level planet.

Gao Gong thought of the three options given by the mission.

”Escape, Destroy, Report.”

”Report?”

”Gox, Gao Yuanyuan, a combined AI experiment, was the purpose of creating them really to oppose the Mother City?”

”Why did Eliza tell me to quickly resolve the real-life issue of Gao Yuanyuan before she disappeared? Is it because if I don’t address it now, it will become unsolvable in the future.”

”Once a certain stage is reached, will one personality end up devouring the other?”

...

Even when Ahong appeared at the small shop’s door, Gao Gong still didn’t understand.

”Why the hell are you wearing that pissed-off face,” Ahong said nonchalantly, as the pink-haired Aidoru displayed her projection and waved friendly to Gao Gong as they entered.

”Where’s my stuff?” Gao Gong said impatiently.

”Hehe, I’ve brought you some really good stuff, things you can only buy within our circle.”

Ahong mysteriously pulled out several small boxes, opening them one by one.

Sure enough, they were quality goods, all Fine+ hacker chips.

’Prosthetic Body Overheating’, ’Electromagnetic Short Circuit’, ’Remote Hacking’, ’System Manipulation’, ’Personality Modification’, ’Memory Search’, ’Emotion Slaves’, ’Black Code’

”Ahem, this one is for my own use.”

Seeing Gao Gong look over, Ahong’s face blushed as he quickly retracted the ’Black Code’ and replaced it with ’Weakness Projection’.

”Hey, you don’t have an implantation chamber; how do you install hacker chips?”

One big reason Ahong came in person was to see if the other could really use hacker skills without relying on an implantation chamber.

If such technology really exists, it would be a major breakthrough in the hacker field!

Generally, the implant chamber chip socket on the market doesn’t exceed three, with top-tier chambers not exceeding five, and the maximum being eight, because the human brain cortex has only four regions: frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes, each capable of handling up to two chips; more than that, and the brain can’t handle it.

So how to combine hacker chips and form one’s style—whether to go with the prosthetic body explosive flow or personality invasion flow—is a serious question.

Gao Gong glanced at him without speaking and extended his arm. As his muscles twitched, two rows of insertion slots appeared on the inner side of the forearm.

Ahong was stunned: ”You don’t insert them into your head?”

”I’m not wearing a helmet, besides, the neural system is not all in the brain.”

In Ahong’s astonished gaze, Gao Gong inserted each chip into his forearm, and with each insertion, a torrent of data pierced his neural system, turning into a wondrous combination of neuron signals.

Without the implantation chamber, naturally, he wasn’t restricted by it, and as long as his neural system could handle it, Gao Gong could be filled with hacker chips from head to toe.

Experiments concluded that with each chip inserted, the pressure on the neural system increased incrementally.

Every 10 points of Perception allow for one chip.

So in theory, the number of hacker chips Gao Gong could currently implant is 10.

Thus, a hacker monster was born.

...

Rainy Night with a Knife and No Umbrella appeared at the assassin’s base entrance.

Unexpectedly, a long queue had formed at the entrance.

There were also many conspicuous signs at the entrance.

’New Era Assassins, New Era Idols’

’Killing, Cleaning Up Corpses, Family Consolation, Self-Cultivation for Assassins’

’Assassin Alliance, The Debut Path of Assassin Groups’

’How to Cultivate Your Fan Base, Maintain Your Image, Live Broadcast Assassinations, Alliance’s Seven-Day Crash Course’

”...”

Brother Umbrella confirmed several times to make sure he didn’t go to the wrong place.

”Brother, you’re here for the job too?” The handsome guy in front of him turned around and said.

Brother Umbrella nodded.

”What did you do previously?”

Brother Umbrella thought for a moment and out of some inexplicable impulse said, ”Novelist.”

”That’s not the right major for this.”

”What’s your profession?”

”I am an excellent hairdresser, and my goal is to kill bad guys and make a lot of money!”

After waiting in line for a full hour and arranging to have beef brisket together sometime with the handsome guy in front, it was finally Rainy Night with a Knife and No Umbrella’s turn.

Three judges looked at him scrutinizingly.

”Name?”

”Asan.”

”Race?”

Rainy Night with a Knife and No Umbrella glanced at the player panel and said, ”Primordial People.”

”Gender?”

”... Male.”

”Specialty?”

”Specialty?”

”What are you skilled at, any hobbies or skills?” one of the middle-aged women judges said impatiently.

”Isn’t being an assassin just about killing?” Rainy Night with a Knife and No Umbrella thought for a moment and said.

”What old-fashioned thinking, assassins today need to be all-rounders.”

”Let me ask you, can you sing?”

”No.”

”Can you dance?”

”No.”

”Can’t sing, dance, or rap, what kind of assassin are you going to be!?”

Facing the judge’s questions, Rainy Night with a Knife and No Umbrella for the first time felt that the tasks in this game were damn too hard.