Cyberpunk: XYZ

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Chapter 11: The Bizzare Psych of X II

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Joi's expression was calm. She knew then and there. She wasn't speaking to the X she knew, someone very different was standing before her, someone dangerous, yet still, she would go on to shake his hand.

It was a rainy day. The sky was bleak, yet people still marched to slavery like the work-loving citizens they were.

That's how the city programmed them after all, mere slaves. Willing slaves. People have to work to survive, not only for their own sake but also for their loved ones.

Some jobs are better than others. Even those who work in corps have their own problems.

Corporations after all are dangerous grounds in which even a single mistake can send you in a downward spiral, straight to the abyss.

Hell, you don't even need to make a mistake to be eliminated in the competitive landscape of corporations.

Your ambitious underlings will make sure you make a mistake, or at least make sure everyone believes you made a mistake just so they can take your place and climb higher in the hierarchy of corpos.

That stressful environment is the very reason why there can be so many suicide cases among the corporations' employees.

However, there aren't nearly as many suicide cases as there should be for the simple reason of advanced meds.

There are expensive medicines such as antidepressants that will destroy your body but at least keep your money from completely falling apart.

Just as the underlings are seeking to take their higher-ups' jobs, the higher-ups are also seeking to squeeze their underlings for all their worth, exploiting them fully without any consequences.

And such practices seem very common to the point that in Night City, 80 hours of work a week is the best treatment a corporation can offer.

In fact, most corporations force their employees to work at least 90 hours a week.

Whatever suffering corporations' employees go through, it still pals in comparison to Night City's common residents.

The common people can not even afford medicine... They can not afford to even avoid seeking suicide.

There are also those who seek riches, glory, and the adrenaline that comes with NC's deadly streets, such as Solos, mercenaries, and Netrunners.

Therefore, their work is also accompanied by danger, stress, and anxiety, just like X who was impatiently awaiting nudes.

It's not what you think... Probably. He was awaiting nudes from Olivia, the second set of nudes. Did that make it sound any better?

Olivia is Antonio's mistress, Antonio and his uncle being the target of the Gig brought to him by Jackie, scavenging some dirty material about either of the two, or preferably both.

The easiest way to get to them without jacking into the Net is through Olivia, someone who isn't very tech-savvy, allowing him access to her device.

Now, he has reached the next step, starting with the first nude she tried to send to Antonio... It didn't reach him at that exact moment.

Instead, the nude reached X first, upon which he quickly attached a tiny code to it.

To Olivia, it would look as if the nude reached Antonio the exact moment she sent it even though it actually reached X before the latter redirected it to Antonio.

The only difference is that the new nude has a code attached to it which will take effect a few minutes after it reaches Antonio.

It is a simple code that can not really be considered malware in its strict definition as its job was simply to survey the security system of Antonio's receiving device.

Antonio works in Arasaka, so he most definitely has some kind of Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics in his device or ICE for shorts.

Therefore, gaining unauthorized access to his system is certainly not an easy task, unless he designed a malware made solely for deceiving Antonio's ICE specifically.

Moreover, X doesn't need complete access as long he acquires information regarding the uncle, preferably their conversations and messages with each other.

Only then did X prepare the malware and await a second nude so he could attach the malware to it.

And soon, the nudes reached X, then Antonio alongside the malware, a malware which was designed to deceive the ICE for as long as possible.

'Should I install a backdoor?' X contemplated his options as he downloaded as much of Antonio's data as possible, starting with his messaging history, saved call records, and encrypted files.

He downloaded basically anything that is likely of value without an in-depth look as X had at most forty seconds of time before his intrusion was detected.

'Better not... Too dangerous to be worth it. I still don't know if a capable Netrunner can trace me back through my Net footprints,' X finally denied that option.

Still, to be even more cautious, X ended the intrusion ahead of schedule. He'd rather not appear on Arasaka's radar just yet.

He has been exceedingly cautious, not even jacking into his laptop whereas the cream of the crop in the field of hacking are Netrunners who connect their minds directly to the Net.

That gives them capabilities as though a god in the Net at a cost, of course, the grave possibility of being traced, thus leading to the enemy Netrunners or Black Ice frying your brain remotely.

There are many advantages and disadvantages to Netrunning, and X, despite his brilliant mind; has yet to consider himself adequate to surf the Net.

There is still much to learn, thus why he settled for using the oldest method in the book, a keyboard, and it served him well so far.

X quickly disconnected from the Net and then transferred the stolen data to an external SSD before formatting his system.

Wiping his laptop operating system is a daily operation for X, yet even that amount of caution fails to grant him the degree of privacy he seeks.

It's very difficult to find privacy in this day and age, the corporations made sure of it.

In spite of that, X still found as much privacy as he could by simply using his brain as a password & information manager.

The assistance of Y and Z allows him to easily treat his brain as a large data bank.

Imagine X's brain to be something like the Library of Congress. Y is the one who acquires knowledge, books, and items for the library while Z is the one who maintains the library, the Librarian.

A Librarian is a professional who facilitates access to information and resources within a library.

They curate collections, develop educational programs, manage databases, and oversee library staff.

Their role is to support learning, research, and exploration for library members.

That perfectly encapsulates Z although his role revolves solely around assisting X.

The brilliance that's X's psych and mind is what allowed him to run through gigabytes of the data he stole from Antonio; in a matter of minutes.

However, that was only after he went back home, to his cozy roof. Indeed, this was another cautionary measure of his, running the operation from somewhere far away from Vik's clinic.

"I wonder, how was privacy in your time?" Once X was done with his little Gig, he had time to relax and ask Joi a question that tempted his curiosity.

"Privacy? There was as little privacy as technology allowed, do you want privacy? If so, maybe I can help if you fully liberate me," Joi suggested.

"How so?" X was curious.

"My processing power isn't optimal, but it should be more than enough to look over you and erase all of your footprints in the Net," Joi explained.

"I can also help with your Net adventures, help you find vulnerabilities in your targets, and so on... That's one of the reasons why you awakened me, is it not?" Joi continued.

"Hmm," X stroked his chin in deep thought, or rather, Z was in deep thought, "That's not exactly what we need. What we need is influence, power, and resources."

"Do remember why Vik uses only the implants necessary for his work, especially cyberware such as optics. We'll need to either create them ourselves or break them down and rewrite them so only we can access them."

"Therefore, we can only walk the Bioware path at first. We needn't worry about Cyberware before we have the resources and power to implant them safely." Z advised X.

"You're right... I'm getting too ahead of myself. I should focus on the present instead of the future... Starting with..." X nodded.