Chapter 868 - 147 The Tip of the Iceberg (Part 1)

"So... was your previous documentary shoot in Night City also sponsored by Jilafa Company?"

Elliot spoke bluntly, so directly that even Sevens was a bit anxious: why did this kid suddenly become like this?

Europe, as the most stable region in the world, has a strong cultural identity, and one of the cultural aspects that Europeans take pride in is subtlety.

Especially when engaging in these "political activities," everyone enjoys going roundabout, and takes pride in it, considering it a display of political elite prowess...

You rarely hear people directly say things like "take someone down," "did you do this job," or "who are you working for" in conversations, as it would be considered very offensive.

However, the Su Federation is very close to the European Union but behaves in a completely different style—

Phantom raised an eyebrow: "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious, it’s fine if you don’t want to tell." Elliot scratched his head and looked at Sevens, leaving the moment to his partner.

The latter put on a pretense of coughing twice and his expression became serious: "We appreciate your help to the citizens of Bruges, but now I need to ask you some questions according to the law, I will initiate the public recording protocol."

Phantom had a "figured as much" look, leaning back on the sofa with her legs crossed:

"Go ahead."

Sevens felt relieved seeing her demeanor, but the procedure still needed to be completed.

"Was the municipal system crash that occurred on that day related to you?"

...

Upon first seeing Phantom and Iron Hand, Munemasa suggested:

Abandon Elliot, give up the long and tedious escape plan, and choose to transfer data directly to the devices of these two mercenaries—

Compared to Elliot, Iron Hand and Phantom are obviously more trustworthy mercenaries, not just in terms of ability but even the support behind them is much better.

Since gaining autonomous consciousness, Munemasa has been operating in this world for over 70 years and in its long-active life, it has collaborated not only with Arasaka but with many humans as well.

For it, Jilafa Company is a more efficient cooperation partner:

The massive and sophisticated power structure and monitoring equipment within the European Union make even a wandering AI like it tread carefully, as a slight mistake could lead to being hunted by the entire European Union:

Network Supervision has absolute control over the cyber network within the European Union, and when dealing with wandering AI problems, they can bypass most of the European Union’s decision-makers and treat devices in an entire area as consumables to capture the AI.

In Cyberspace, this power exhibits itself as each exquisite and unique local area network of the European Union having an invisible string in its usual state; once some protocols are triggered, these local area networks will hand over all control under the control of the web like a puppet on a string—

The computing methods and reaction speed of AI far surpass those of human hackers, but this hardware gap is too vast.

Currently, the European headquarters of the three AIs, Lille, Munemasa, and Johnny, is in Foxstone, with equipment worth no more than 100,000 Euros stored on local servers, operating as the worker’s forum servers.

The operation of the worker’s forum conceals the true purpose of these servers, and cross-dimensional communication technology and Lille’s encryption completely mask the abnormal data flow, allowing them to gain more computing power...

Yet, at most, this is just equipment worth 100,000 Euros; the European Union’s GDP exceeds 20 trillion Euros annually, and the funds invested in this system are definitely over a trillion, so what can you use to compete with them?

This is also the essential reason why Lille and Munemasa can’t leave randomly:

The cyber network seems free, but don’t forget that any technology is based on real-world infrastructure.

Movement in Cyberspace is just data moving on information carriers; if it is wired movement, then there must be a connection from Europe to Night City, and if it is wireless movement, then electromagnetic signals also need to traverse informational spaces:

The billions of investments in establishing this absolute security barrier in the European Union mean even wandering AIs can only be blocked at the network surface, and could even be lured into a fictional paradox space—

This means any stray signal could be directly intercepted!

Not to mention that long-distance communication requires super-powerful communication arrays to ensure the signal can cross enough spatial distance without distortion.

So it’s not that Lille doesn’t want to return, but that upon arrival they can only look for opportunities...

To shake up a system, there can only be a disturbance large enough in scale, without chaos, there is no opportunity.

The emergence of Phantom and Iron Hand seemed to give Lille and Munemasa a "smuggling" opportunity...

But would the European Union’s longstanding European Barrier system really leave such a loophole?

Under Munemasa’s watchful eye, Sevens, as a European Union official, connected directly to Phantom’s prosthetic system and detected a special chip:

It can be simply understood as an "electronic visa," which foreign citizens must always keep plugged into the chip slot after being permitted to enter the European Barrier.

Foreigners carrying visa chips are no different from European citizens who are integrated into the European Barrier since birth:

In terms of "being monitored," they are treated the same.

The activated visa chip began self-testing, disrupting Munemasa’s idea of "physical smuggling"—

The full-body scan by Network Supervision would definitely uncover any anomalies; in Foxstone, they managed to avoid Network Supervision scans on Elliot by briefly escaping to factory and apartment networks, and after the scanning ended, they resumed operation through data backup on these networks.

But passing through the European Barrier gateway can’t be done this way, any slight movement in such a place can lead to countless investigations.

Lille’s "Big Disruption in the European Union" plan remains the only and safe choice.

So now it too became curious about the power outage incident that happened that day:

Who was attacking the European Union’s network?

...

"Of course, it has nothing to do with us; we are professionals with work visas and company passports, doing this would be seeking death.

Honestly, I’m quite curious too; I thought it would be hackers you hired...after all, you are a government unit, isn’t teaching a disobedient company a normal thing?"

Sevens was sweating: "Ma’am, you can’t speak carelessly."

"Can’t take a joke, if it were people from Night City, they’d stick their neck out and admit it, claiming ’Of course I have the capability to pull off this massive hacking...’

Ahem, enough loose talk, look at your timid face."

Seeing Sevens’ increasingly grave face, Phantom finally stopped talking randomly, letting the aged civil servant breathe a sigh of relief: after all these years of struggling, he finally had some power, and he didn’t want to invite trouble over this.

"But... uh, maybe it’s okay to say this?

I’ve been in the European Union for a while, and similar incidents have occurred in other cities, seemingly as if there’s some extraordinary hacker inside the European Union who doesn’t value life."

Sevens only recorded, nodding with a facade while relaxing.

Although Network Supervision is responsible for public safety with considerable power, when people want to know something, another issue arises:

After all, it’s a private enterprise, with no reason to disclose operational conditions to the public.

So Network Supervision would never publicize such matters; the European Union is not Night City, nor is it New America, and it’s very different from the Su Federation too; they wouldn’t offer bounties or hire mercenaries to maintain city safety.

So, it has nothing to do with them.

Yet Sevens suddenly received a message:

[Network Surveillance Agent #0863: Mr. Strange, what this media person said is true; there is indeed such a network criminal.]

[Network Surveillance Agent #0863: It seems he is very interested in you; we might have frequent cooperation opportunities in the future.]

[Network Surveillance Agent #0863: I currently have some things you might be interested in, looking forward to your reply.]