Bab 47: Chapter 47: Little Monsters II
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Chapter 47: Little Monsters II
...........
X exhaled slowly, his mind racing. Little Monsters wasn't just a name; it was an army.
And now, he had to face the interesting truth: the army was his, even if he hadn't built it himself.
X returned his attention to the second map, to what the Little Monsters call home.
The first step was decoding the locations.
Each dot corresponded to seemingly random spots across the city, abandoned apartments, forgotten warehouses, and even a derelict sublevel beneath Kabuki.
X methodically cross-referenced each point against his own clinic records and city blueprints.
It didn't take long for the pattern to emerge.
Every green dot marked a place tied to despair; a shelter for runaways, a squatters' hideout, or a building where tragedies had unfolded.
They were places M had repurposed, transforming sites of hopelessness into sanctuaries.
X stood up, and the moment his focus faded away from the computer, he started hearing things again, the sound of vehicles driving down the streets, rain, and Joi.
"X? X! Are you okay?" There she was, eyeing him with concern and puzzlement.
She didn't know for how long she was calling him, and he couldn't hear her, so focused that all the noise was thrown into the background.
He no longer had Z who would archive everything X didn't notice. Now, he has to rely on himself.
"Yea... Yeah," X uncertainly nodded, eyeing her strangely, "Joi, my dear. Can you catalog every meeting and conversation we had since you woke up? Can you do that for me?"
"Of course," Joi nodded, "But... Do you need anything else?"
"..." X blinked twice, his vision falling upon what he needed most, "My coat." He put it on and walked out.
The rain today, it wasn't toxic. It was unusually fresh, the polar opposite of how X feels right now.
He didn't feel safe. He felt watched and not in control, paranoia overwhelming his mind.
He couldn't focus much, feeling his mind a blundering mess, thinking of so many things at the same time.
Is this a window of how X was before Y and Z? A mess of a mind. Is this why they were necessary? How would such a mind change X now?
X visited the nearest location under the cover of darkness. The address led him to a crumbling tenement in Vista del Rey, its windows boarded up and its facade covered in graffiti.
The Little Monsters seemed to be well organized, although a bit defenseless as X didn't find it particularly difficult to hack into their private communications.
That allowed him to look within, piecing together the logistics and their living environment.
Inside, the scene was shockingly different. The walls were cleaned and reinforced with cheap but functional materials.
LED strips bathed the narrow corridors in a faint, comforting glow. Rooms were sparsely furnished with scavenged chairs and mattresses, yet they felt lived-in.
On one wall, a tag stood out: "Be warned. I am watching. Here is Home. Here is peace."
There seemed to be a lot of old-gen cameras within, although most malfunctioning, but he was able to see a small group huddled in the common area; teens and young adults, wary but alive.
There was a relatively clean kitchen, and several areas for all kinds of activities, as simple as sewing clothes to recycling broken tech.
The green zones weren't random; they were part of an intricate network.
M had orchestrated supply drops, coordinated safe travel routes, and even ensured the availability of stolen cyberware for those too damaged to function.
The infrastructure was mind-boggling. It wasn't just a movement; it was an ecosystem.
The more X uncovered, the more the mystery deepened. M had operated with surgical precision, tapping into Night City's darkest cracks and turning them into footholds.
One particular discovery made X baffled: encrypted schematics for a hidden vault beneath Japantown.
The files referenced a storage facility stocked with stolen medical supplies, cyberware components, and even tactical gear. The name of the vault? "Sanctuary."
How? Just how did M achieve so much in so little time? It's not as if he always had control right? Just how much of X's memories for the past months are actually real?
X first thought that M only sometimes takes control, at night, but evidence shows otherwise. What is real and what is not; is now up to question.
Sanctuary didn't seem to be just a resource hub; it was a command center.
X found video feeds of Monster's higher-ups meeting there, planning raids, and coordinating their efforts.
Now, that was difficult, getting that video feed and information regarding the Sanctuary hard.
It was only because M is a part of him that X found the process easier. Otherwise, it would've taken him several hours at least to make a dent; while in a deep dive.
Beyond logistics, X discovered M's psychological reach. The Little Monsters weren't just soldiers or survivors; they were believers.
M had woven a narrative so compelling that even X found it hard to untangle.
The Little Monsters are Night City's little creation, created out of people's despair and hopelessness.
M seemingly never shows himself. It's merely his actions that drive them, his words that guide them.
X felt his grip on the investigation tighten as he realized the sheer scope of M's influence.
M seemed to be their anchor. They're united... Because of him. He's the biggest monster, thus why they fear him, respect him, and bring out their curiosity. What had he experienced that made him so... Monstrous?
But there were darker revelations, too. As X retraced M's steps, he found signs of calculated violence.
X pieced together that M had been quietly reshaping the balance of power in Night City, eliminating obstacles to his growing network.
The actions were discreet, trying to minimize their connections to the Little Monsters as they were certainly not ready for battle.
X scoured his own memories, trying to pinpoint when M had begun this crusade, but everything felt hazy.
Z, his once-reliable archivist, had failed him. Important details were missing, overwritten, or corrupted.
Conversations he should have remembered were gone, replaced by fleeting impressions.
It was as if M had built walls inside X's own mind, hiding the extent of his actions until it was too late.
As X stared at the map again, he felt an uncharacteristic pang of uncertainty, dissecting a reality where his darker self had outmaneuvered him at every turn.
M wasn't just a monster; he was a creator, a visionary, and a manipulator.
The word "Home" lingered on the screen, its meaning now painfully clear.
To the Little Monsters, it was a promise of belonging. To X, it was a reminder of everything he had failed to see.
The search for M's traces has just begun, but X knew one thing for certain, the monster was never lurking in the shadows. He was everywhere.
X turned around and walked away, his whistles resounding amidst the heavy rain, his mood seemingly abnormally good.
"Hello hello," X soon reached the cheery blossom market, taking a seat in one of the stalls, "Some kebab French tacos my friend."
"Good mood, huh?" The stall owner raised a brow.
"Hahahaha, no," X let out a laugh before shaking his head, "I'd say a bit of a crazy mood."
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Bab 48: Chapter 48: The Isolation I
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Chapter 48: The Isolation I
...........
"Hahahaha, no," X let out a laugh before shaking his head, "I'd say a bit of a crazy mood."
Without Z and Y in his mind, the world had changed. The hyper-connected brilliance, the relentless web of well-reasoned ideas and strategies that once coursed through his thoughts, was gone.
In its place was strangely not a numbing stillness nor a yawning void but a plane of chaos, a delirious mix of uncontrollable memories and ideas.
He had made the decision himself, severing their influence to escape the possible influence of M.
Still, he felt like a sculptor stripped of his tools, left to carve stone with his bare hands.
The tools were his anchors to reality, the weights that held his fucked up mind back from complete chaos.
X's hand twitched toward a stim injector, injecting himself with what's within, something to calm down his messy brain.
It muddles his mind somewhat, but it allows him to function better than to remember the past and think about... Things.
He let out a long breath, settling on his chair before his computer. He eyed a certain file glowing on his screen, a dossier from Wakako.
It was the information he got from Wakako in relation to the Militch Gig... Militech, a corporate juggernaut with resources that dwarfed even the wildest dreams of smaller players in Night City.
The task wasn't just about the benefits it would bring him; it was about proving to himself that he could still play the game. He needed control, needed a challenge that could anchor him to reality.
With a deep breath, he focused his thoughts. "Sleeper program," he muttered under his breath.
Without a deep investigation, that's the only X saw to get what he wants out of Militech.
Surveying the information made X frown... It wasn't enough for a headstart, nowhere near enough, mostly just information about Militech that isn't publicly available.
I guess that's why Wakako's Netrunners weren't able to infiltrate Militech. The information Wakako gave him is likely the result of months of digging, helpful but doesn't give X a strong enough push.
His terminal beeped softly, snapping him from his thoughts. A series of preliminary scans of Militech's network infrastructure had finished running in the background.
X rolled forward, fingers grazing the keys as he reviewed the results. Layers of firewalls, adaptive protocols, and intrusion-detection systems made up Militech's digital defenses.
Their systems were airtight by design, but no system was truly invulnerable. Every wall had a crack, and X just needed to find it.
What he needed to find most, however, was the extent of Militech's defenses. The scan must've only scratched the surface.
The whispers in the darkest corners of the Net and Wakako's shard told him more about what lies in the deepest layers of Militech.
That's the confirmation X needed. Sleeper programs are one of the most discreet and viable ways to finish the job.
It wasn't brute force he needed; it was subtlety. A sleeper program could infiltrate, lay dormant, and do its work slowly and undetected.
X stood up and prepared for a Deep Dive, put on his Netrunning suit, and leaned back against his chair. He linked up, and dove into the Net.
X felt a snap, followed by clarity as everything darkened and then brightened again, finding himself in the gorgeous world of the Net.
"Huh?" X felt different as he looked around. He felt his mind clear, very much unlike how he previously felt.
The chaos was gone, and all that was left was a purpose. X took note of that to be investigated later.
For now, X created a chair on which he sat, his vision soon consumed by layers of projections.
The digital schematics of Militech's network infrastructure from Wakako's shard floated in front of him, cobbled together from publicly available information and fragmented data scraped during his initial scans.
Each piece of the puzzle illuminated weaknesses, however minor, that could be exploited.
Militech's defenses were built on multiple tiers, with the outermost layer filtering incoming data packets through hyper-aggressive IDS/IPS, or Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems.
No direct attack would ever succeed. But beneath that exterior was the human element; the employees themselves.
Militch's primary HQ lies in Washington D.C. However, the megacorp also has a headquarters in Night City, Militech Offices.
This impressive building is Militech's regional headquarters in Night City located in Corporate Plaza, right in front of Arasaka Tower, on the opposite side of the Plaza.
X stood up with Militech Offices being his destination. He waved his hand and displayed a map of Night City, a very rough map showing public terminals.
X initiated a connection with some of the terminals on the way, using their nodes to make his way there, preferring safety over directly transferring to the terminals by Militech.
Still, it took him no more than a few minutes to reach Militech Offices whereas it would've taken him dozens of minutes to realistically, a couple of hours with the traffic.
From the distance of the Net's vast and unbound expanse, Militech's offices appear as a colossal fortress of gleaming digital architecture.
The structure rises from a seemingly endless plane of shifting code, its foundation surrounded by an impenetrable firewall shimmering with volatile hues of crimson and gold.
Along its facade, streams of data cascade like waterfalls, their motion smooth but erratic, which X deciphered to be layers of encrypted information constantly shifting and rewriting themselves.
Occasional bursts of static flash across these streams, a visual manifestation of the AI guardians patrolling its borders.
Above the architecture, the sky is fractured and storm-like, a swirling vortex of black and neon blue, as if the very fabric of the Net bends to Militech's presence.
Between him and the fortress lies a maze-like expanse of what is likely tangled data streams, static-laden fields, and pit traps; remnants of the countless security layers Militech has woven to deter intruders.
Yeah, X isn't approaching that. Instead, he turned his attention to the surroundings.
Through his probes, X had detected and managed to infiltrate a public terminal near Militech facilities, gaining access to its tiny camera.
He's a Netrunner after all. He wouldn't go there on foot to survey the place. Technology does his work for him.
The following days were tirelessly spent infiltrating some surveillance devices near Militech Offices, though far enough not to attract attention.
X used them to observe the human element there for as he is now, his only measure to gain access is that, people.
He created a folder and documented every public employee of Night City's Militech, along with a second folder documenting the employees he watched through surveillance.
He looked through their social media, and public records, especially family ones, and wrote a psychological report for ones with the potential for exploitation.
The process was long and arduous, but X couldn't extricate himself from it. In fact, he couldn't free himself of the Net, too absorbed in its tranquility and peace.
It's only his responsibilities in the Clinic that managed to release him from the Net, albeit temporarily.
X didn't sleep much when Z and Y were still here. Now, he only slept when he passed out or when the anti-sleep meds run out... His messy mind simply didn't let him sleep.
It's that fanatical dedication that results in several neural profiles of Militech employees.
Some of them have family members that are up for exploitation and others have traits or are involved in things that make them vulnerable.
He made profiles of all of their known family members and acquaintances and put them on the list too... X seemed to be a bit more extreme than usual.
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