Chapter 163: Hooked
Zed slowly rose to his feet, retracting the fist blade and wiping the blood from his hand.
“This was the last assassination target. The boss’s orders are done. Now it’s just these few left.”
As he spoke, Jhin pointed at the final names on the list.
Zed glanced over it, nodded once, and then left the area together with Jhin.
The remaining names on the list were mid- to high-ranking officers carefully selected by Lissandra.
Their chances of climbing any higher weren’t great, they each carried certain compromising secrets, and… there was a strong possibility they might defect.
Based on the model Lissandra had built, these people were highly likely to accept “funding” from PROJECT corp. There was a good chance they could provide useful intelligence—or become PROJECT’s embedded nails inside Militech.
That said, Roland had no intention of exposing the corp’s name. He planned to act under the guise of a mysterious third party, which made it better for Jhin not to appear at all during this stage.
To prevent any sudden awakening of so-called loyalty, Roland also had Zed and the others bring along both their leverage and puppet chips.
Anyone unwilling to cooperate would simply get a puppet chip implanted.
Roland avoided using puppet chips for direct control for the same old reason: the side effects were far too obvious. And in wartime, communication and face-to-face interaction were unavoidable.
It would be easy to notice something was off. It was a last-resort option—but… showing them one or two “samples” was enough to let them properly weigh the consequences of refusal.
Zed made some basic disguises before going to meet these people.
Once he learned how things were progressing on Zed’s end, Roland finally felt at ease and settled in to wait for good news back at the corp.
His gaze then shifted to a skeleton nearby—what stood out most was the silver cyberware arm attached to it.
Yes. Put simply… he’d dug up Johnny Silverhand’s grave.
Roland felt nothing about it. If anything, it was oddly satisfying—payback for all the grief Johnny had caused him back when he played the game.
Just as Roland had expected, Johnny did have compatible PROJECT templates. One was PROJECT: Thunder, and the other was PROJECT: Vengeance (Yone).
As for how to deal with Johnny after getting his hands on him… Roland kept his options open. Johnny had a filthy mouth, and Roland had disliked him at the start of the game, but later on, his impression had softened a bit.
That said… this time, Roland was standing firmly on the corp’s side. He strongly suspected that if Johnny’s consciousness were preserved, the moment he gained power, he’d turn around and come after him.
Still, sealing Johnny outright gave Roland a strange, lingering discomfort. So for now, he decided to leave the issue unresolved—especially since Johnny wasn’t even fully secured yet.
As for Johnny’s remains… well, they’d be carefully preserved. When Yorinobu Arasaka arrived, Roland planned to show him this priceless collectible—the one and only life-size Johnny Silverhand figurine in the world.
Even if it was just the skeleton version, it was still good enough.
Roland was sure Yorinobu Arasaka would love it.
While he was at it, Roland also had Mudor try to extract some of Johnny’s genetic material for research, just to see if anything useful could come of it.
Truthfully, Roland didn’t have high expectations. Johnny wasn’t exactly a top-tier combatant—he ran into Adam Smasher once… and that was the end of the story.
More than anything, Johnny was a spiritual symbol. If you were talking about real firepower, Morgan Blackhand was the one that mattered.
But Morgan Blackhand’s whereabouts were unknown. Forget his body—they didn’t even know whether he was alive or dead. Finding him would come down entirely to luck.
“Boss, the Rogue AI has made a move.”
Kelly’s projection suddenly appeared in front of Roland as she delivered the report.
A sharp glint flashed through Roland’s eyes.
“Finally took the bait!”
…
Mr. Blue Eyes stared at the base ahead of him, wrapped in layers of firewalls, lethal viruses, and counterattack programs. His expression grew heavy.
“Are you sure this is the place?”
“Yes. It’s confirmed. And this is the weakest point in their defensive cycle,” Red Queen replied with a nod. “Too many things have been happening lately. Night City’s in chaos, and our ‘comrade’ here can’t keep up with everything.”
Hearing this, Mr. Blue Eyes didn’t hesitate. He immediately signaled to the companions around him, ordering them to scatter and begin setting up the necessary measures.
He himself began preparing to breach the firewall and enter the base.
However, as he focused entirely on his task, he failed to notice that the many “comrades” behind him were silently watching. An eerie green light shimmered faintly in all of their eyes.
“What’s your plan?”
Roland looked at the image of Mr. Blue Eyes on the screen and turned to Lissandra.
“Let him break through the firewall and enter. Then the base’s sub-AI will put up a symbolic resistance before pretending to be converted. After that, we guide him into that body. That completes the process.”
Roland nodded, clearly satisfied with the plan. The body Mudor had created still didn’t have an official codename and was temporarily referred to as Bartmoss.
Bartmoss’s body currently lacked a primary controlling consciousness. With so much advanced tech and powerful cyberware packed into it, an ordinary mind couldn’t sustain it—it required a truly strong consciousness.
Mr. Blue Eyes was a perfect match.
That said, Bartmoss’s body had one obvious flaw: until full synchronization was complete, it couldn’t enter deep-dive mode.
And what did that mean?
It meant this was the perfect cage—a cage designed specifically for Rogue AI.
All that was left was to manage the power supply properly. Leave just enough energy for him to speak. Anything more would be completely unnecessary.
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