Chapter 16: The Massacre

As Mortimer delved deeply into cyberspace, the hum of the server in his ears gradually faded away.

He slowly opened his eyes, and before him appeared the vast cybernetic form of the enormous Arasaka server, modeled after the shape of Anzu City.

This colossal cyber metropolis lay quietly, sprawling low to the ground. Mortimer gazed at it intently, while the incarnation of Death’s Wish—a small cat—softly meowed at his feet, lifting its head to nuzzle his ankle.

Mortimer scooped up Death’s Wish, and within this cyberspace, his thoughts were unexpectedly serene.

Here, only the quiet flow of endless data streams persisted. Sitting on the floor, he gently stroked the cat’s head, lightly tracing its chin with his fingers, eliciting a contented purring.

For the first time, Mortimer observed this space with such quiet attentiveness.

Looking around, he could see flickering blue shadows within the giant city—devices and avatars connected inside the server—some even taking humanoid forms.

These were the Arasaka Network Monitors connected to the server network, who normally linked directly via hacker chairs in the monitoring rooms.

Because of this, Mortimer clearly saw a quiet blue figure suddenly emit a silent scream in cyberspace, convulsing and collapsing into a mass of data.

Then, the immense cyber city before him abruptly trembled violently.

“Lucy: Hurry! Hurry! The hacker in the monitoring room triggered the server ICE before dying... Alarm...”

The encrypted communication was cut off—undeniably, the server had activated its security protocol, disrupting network connections. The Guardian AI was now actively engaged!

Without needing her warning, Mortimer already knew what he had to do.

The Death’s Wish in his arms suddenly turned black, its eyes glowing crimson, then it sprinted furiously toward the nearby cyber metropolis.

Mortimer immediately chose to log off and decisively unplugged the neural connection.

Sure enough, within two seconds he heard the server’s power surge loudly—an unmistakable sign that its cooling system was maxing out.

Death’s Wish was designed by Bartmos, an AI-driven program that, once sent inside the server, could use the server’s own computing power to launch a virus hack.

The hardest step in hacking a server is actually getting the program inside. Once that’s done, the program runs itself.

Now, standing inside the server room, Mortimer didn’t even need to dive deeply—just plugging into the server and transmitting the program sufficed.

But to be safe, he risked deep diving first, watching the program enter and operate before disconnecting.

Mortimer stood waiting until the server’s cooling hum diminished, then lay back in the hacker chair, reconnected the neural link, and dived back in.

The moment he entered cyberspace again, he couldn’t help but marvel at the terrifying sight before him.

The once towering earthen city had become fractured. A massive black beast was mercilessly devouring the remains of a giant blue-armored warrior.

Judging by the remnants of this colossal warrior, the original data form must have been fifty or sixty meters tall in cyberspace.

The black beast ravenously tore and munched at the warrior’s data fragments, greedily consuming every piece of armor before finally roaring in satisfaction toward the sky.

The enormous roar echoed throughout cyberspace, then its gaze turned toward Mortimer.

“Master...” Its voice was sharp and rough, yet filled with excitement and joy.

“The Guardian... I have devoured it.”

“Grant me access to the server.”

Mortimer frowned slightly but said nothing, simply issuing a command. Death’s Wish then crouched low, and the shattered cyber city began to reassemble.

Only this time, the Arasaka emblem atop the highest tower transformed into Death’s Wish’s cat head.

“Connecting... successful,” it said, then shrank to the size of a leopard cat, excitedly hopping around the ancient city. “I’ve gotten smarter, wonderful.”

Mortimer remained silent. Once he confirmed the server connection, he revoked its computing privileges.

The black cat turned blue again and froze, then looked at Mortimer with an expression of slight grievance.

Yet it said nothing further and quietly returned to his feet, rubbing against him once more.

“My mission is accomplished, well done.”

“Well done, but I’m not satisfied with your tendencies, so... formatting.”

Mortimer calmly issued the format command, and Death’s Wish frantically shook its head: “I absorbed a vast amount of Guardian AI, becoming stronger. Formatting will set me back.”

Mortimer said no more. Then, Death’s Wish suddenly collapsed, dispersing into a cloud of data.

It had no time to scream or protest—only watch helplessly as its program was shattered and reset.

When it reformed, it reverted from the leopard cat back to the small, meowing kitten.

In cyberspace, AI can evolve by consuming other AI, and this growth does not even require connection to a server.

Once evolved, the improvements in algorithms and intelligence are permanent—a truly terrifying characteristic.

Mortimer squinted, gaining a deeper understanding of AI.

The aggression and autonomy Death’s Wish displayed just now were troubling—is it because it evolved independently through offensive consumption?

Or because it devoured the Guardian AI?

Or simply due to the program’s inherent traits?

That remained to be studied.

But now was not the time for research.

Mortimer closed his eyes, and the next moment his vision linked into the entire Arasaka facility’s monitoring system.

...

“Mortimer won’t be in trouble, right?” In the minus-first-floor monitoring room, Kyoko anxiously watched Lucy connect her laptop with a data cable as countless streams of data flashed rapidly on the screen.

“I don’t know. I’m trying to restore the network... The connection’s back! Mortimer, is that you?”

Lucy keenly sensed the server had stabilized, and that the monitoring privileges had shifted.

“It’s me. Proceed with the next step. You all go to the medical bay. I’ve revoked access to all other rooms. Now, I’ll clear the way for you.”

“Lucy, well done. The group on the first floor didn’t even realize the network permissions changed hands.”

Mortimer’s steady voice eased Lucy’s tension. She promptly unplugged the laptop cable.

“Understood. Kyoko, Leon, to the medical bay.

Daichi, Mortimer’s taken over monitoring. Come with us—you’re strong and can carry more.”

Daichi Tetsuya’s voice came through the channel: “Got it. Leave it to me, Mortimer.”

“Grab the Relic chips and the refrigerated box and get out. Supplies and what I need aren’t in the basement but in the first-floor warehouse.

I’ll mark the routes in your cybernetic eyes. When you reach the elevator, split into two groups.

Daichi and Leon take the marked supplies from the first-floor warehouse.

Lucy and Kyoko take the refrigerated box and board the hovercar quickly. Don’t worry about the robots and turrets—they’re ours now.

Once the hovercar’s permissions are sorted, I’ll join you.

Move fast. Once the fight begins, we won’t be able to hide this. We estimate only five minutes of safe action on the first floor.”

“Received!”

The response echoed crisply through the channel.

Mortimer swiftly took control of the entire building’s monitoring—with the server’s backing, all floors’ surveillance were at his command.

He even spotted several hacker corpses—hackers connected to the server on other floors.

They died instantly in the battle between the two AIs launched by Death’s Wish. This wasn’t due to their incompetence; Bartmos’s program was just overwhelmingly powerful.

It took less than half a second to break through the personal ICE protecting these hackers without AI defense. They barely had time to unplug, only able to emit a few screams before their brains were cooked.

Some people had already discovered the bodies and were preparing to report.

However, the network outage caused by the server battle earlier and Lucy’s manual shutdown of the alarm system meant they were scrambling.

Some ran to spread news by foot; others desperately tried to reboot systems and trigger alarms...

But to Mortimer, all this was meaningless.

Because the network was now reconnected to them.

“Death’s Wish, disable their personal ICE.”

Mortimer, through his server assault, had begun to understand Death’s Wish’s capabilities and usage.

This now low-intelligence AI, boosted by computing power, broke through the personal ICE of terrified Arasaka agents in the blink of an eye.

“Transmission Doll: Prosthetic Malfunction—Success.”

“Transmission Doll: Memory Erasure—Success.”

“Transmission Doll: Synapse Burnout—Success.”

Three virus programs transmitted into their unprotected brains.

First, the prosthetic malfunction paralyzed their mobility.

Then, memory erasure wiped short-term memories and data, making them appear like suddenly awakened demented individuals.

This prevented anyone from extracting data related to Death’s Wish.

Finally, synapse burnout roasted their brains into a jumbled mess.

Thus, except for a few woken by noise, most remained in deep sleep.

Anyone who awoke and tried to assess the situation suffered the same fate as the agents—brains fried, collapsing helplessly.

Mortimer showed no mercy. If alarms were triggered early and messages got out, their escape would become perilous.

After neutralizing all potential warnings and suspicious targets, Mortimer expressionlessly monitored hundreds of surveillance feeds simultaneously in cyberspace—a task of unimaginable difficulty!

Even with computing power, watching all this data and video still relied on his own mind.

This was why Arasaka stationed a hacker every two floors in monitoring rooms, connected directly to the server to serve as human overseers.

No single hacker could control and monitor every device in such a massive facility alone.

Mortimer felt a faint warmth in his head. The neural connection linked to server-grade cooling, flowing coolant to lower his brain temperature.

The hacker chair, colder than ice, bore some of the neural load while connected to the neural link, acting like a large network adapter, aiding rapid, massive data transfer with the server.

The sensation was peculiar—Mortimer felt increasingly like an extremely calm computer.

He knew this was no ordinary hacker’s feat—it was a unique talent!

Though, he wasn’t particularly fond of the feeling.

Still, it greatly aided him, allowing precise judgment of his limits and condition, and keen analysis.

“I’ve got it!” Lucy’s excited voice came through his ear, and Mortimer responded with a flat “hm,” then instructed:

“Everyone put on the chips. Take the remaining three with the boxes.”

Watching on the feed as Lucy and the others connected the Relic chips, Mortimer immediately began networking and linking their chips—first cracking the original programs, then establishing connections.

The communication enabled by the Relic chips was remarkable—like the game’s nightingale, Mortimer’s virtual image appeared directly in Lucy and the others’ vision.

Moreover, it created a private network channel for communication, far more secure and discreet than encrypted software, with no signal fluctuations.

“Mortimer? Amazing...” Lucy and the others jumped at the sudden appearance of Mortimer’s cyber avatar.

His new digital form wore a black hoodie beneath a leather jacket. The hood was up, shadowing his face with a faint veil, revealing only a familiar visage.

He looked like an older Mortimer—about a twenty-year-old youth.

“Cool, right? Inspired by a game protagonist also named Mortimer...

But you need to leave immediately. The first floor hasn’t received any alerts. Move fast. Once you reach the elevator and it opens, those troubles will be resolved.”

Mortimer smiled, then glanced at the trembling assistant of Dr. Oda in the corner.

Now, he could even use Lucy’s cybernetic eyes to see through their perspectives and feel their sensations—such was the marvel of direct neural communication established by the Relic chips.

“Don’t, don’t kill me! I—I didn’t do anything...” The poor assistant barely finished speaking before a sudden heat surged to his head. He screamed, clutching his smoking scalp, dying on the floor.

This assistant had seen Lucy and the others wearing the chips, which might alert Arasaka that they had discovered other ways to use the Relic chips.

Otherwise, no one would foolishly implant these chips now, knowing Arasaka could remotely activate them.

Mortimer absolutely did not want this exposure.

Because logically, they had stolen the hovercar prosthetics, looted warehouse supplies, and even stripped the special forces captain. Taking the Relic chips would only be for money, research, or trade.

This would make it hard for Arasaka to suspect Mortimer had completely removed the variant Soulkiller program with help from Ulte.

The chip’s hardware plasticity was the real prize.

If Arasaka realized he could erase the Soulkiller, their pursuit would escalate to the highest level.

The Soulkiller program lurking in the chip was automatically retaliatory!

Whether AI or human, any attempt to crack or erase it would immediately awaken the Soulkiller, triggering automatic operation.

Ninety-nine percent of humans would never survive this infamous, terrifying killer virus.

If you tried cracking the chip while connected online, the virus could instantly kill you via the network.

Trying to crack it offline?

Ha! That would mean returning to the cyber-ancient era of coding to hack a top-tier conscious program.

And it’s a program encrypted by Arasaka!

So, it’s an impossible task.

If you tried hardware cracking?

You’d only end up destroying the Relic chip.

Only terrifying AIs like Ulte Canningan could do this.

Once exposed, Arasaka would chase Mortimer to the death—he had no desire to hide in a freezer for decades like Bartmos, ultimately transferring himself into cyberspace.

Yet... this also revealed the cold-bloodedness of the new director.

Because once activated, the chip prioritized killing the hacker wearing it, not the AI.

Only after killing the hacker would it use the hacker’s brainpower to attack the AI and send all consumed data remotely to Arasaka’s server for storage.

This meant Eina Tano had never cared about these small hackers’ lives—they were bait Arasaka used to capture AI data, Mortimer included.

Perhaps Tano’s original plan was to kill Mortimer’s consciousness with the Soulkiller, then archive and transmit it back, turning him into another pitiful Johnny Silverhand, toyed with and analyzed by Arasaka.

At this thought, Mortimer’s gaze grew icier.

Lucy and the others watched the assistant clutch his head and collapse lifelessly. Only Kyoko seemed reluctant but they wasted no time and headed to the elevator.

When they opened the elevator doors, the scene before them left them all breathless, their bodies instinctively stiffening.

Because now, the only hacker controlling the network inside the base was initiating a silent and merciless massacre.