Chapter 6: The Net

I’m a piece of shit. I’m a piece of shit. I’m a piece of shit.

Perhaps I had gotten my priorities wrong but that didn’t change the fact that I felt like a piece of shit. Judy was technically still in a relationship and I, not necessarily just my path, had straight up seduced her.

Was it the 5 bottles of beer in which I had used my path to not throw up? Was it the skittering feeling I had in my stomach from the moment I saw her face? 

I’m a piece of shit. I’m a piece of shit.

[Warning: Passenger’s line of thought deviates from ‘Path to good mental health’]

I’m a pretty little piece of shit.

That wasn’t much better…

[Path reorganizing…]

But then again, Judy was bound for a breakup anyway…bad, bad Tesha. Stop justifying your actions.

Shortly after the kiss Judy informed me to bring any new BDs I wanted to tune. It wasn’t as far as I wanted, but it was a start. After returning home on a Delamain and sleeping in for the night, I woke up sober to absolutely humiliate myself as I thought of the day before. Maybe I should take my thoughts off of this for the moment. Besides, there was another active path that required my attention.

[Path: Persona-Clairvoyant]

My face turned impassive (Resting Bitch Face) as my hands flew across my tablet while the Cyberdeck once again began writing lines of code, preparing a virus for whatever I was about to do. Another aspect I hadn’t considered with the path was that it technically allowed for multitasking, or rather it did the thinking aspect for me so I could move my fingers one way where my mind would be writing down code into the cyberdeck.

My tablet glitched once, twice, before I was brought to the Home Page for Zetatech before I had logged in with a Corporate Account. Going through screens faster than I could read, I had ordered myself a Netrunner Station, Deep Diving Port Managing Kit, CPU cooling stations, a few net runner suits, and a dozen other purchases under the false name before having it delivered to an address I didn’t recognize.

My cyberdeck then decided it was time as it released the virus through the account I had logged into. Making changes to the log as it wiped away the traces of who, where, and other minor details. The virus was still in effect as it began to integrate itself into the Zetatech network to slowly cover my tracks as it followed my order to the Storage unit.

My hand flew across the tablet as a small-time fixer was contacted to bring me the ‘boxes’ which will be in a specific area at a specific time. No questions asked. 

As I scrolled to the bottom of the path, I realized that with express delivery, I would have my fully operating Netrunner station in 5 days. Quite fast considering that the manufacture and storage was mainly done in Northern Canada for security reasons. 

It was technically possible to acquire the Netrunner station faster if I had agreed to take a different (more efficient path) and decided to klep from the rising gang in Pacifica (VooDoo Boys) but any interactions with the gangs was something I wanted to keep to a minimum. As a small-time gang, they would eventually notice and would lash out at anyone. Whereas a mega-corporation like Zetatech would write it off as corporate corruption from a higher up and the investigation team would keep their heads down and pray that nobody noticed.

… …

The path put me on a recliner and with a drink in hand as it prepared me for a long run. Writing out a program to revolutionize the world…and also a few tricks here and there. 

Program: Crossroads

The program was exactly what it said it was, except in the case of a world like this, its capabilities held the level of significance unseen since 2020. Crossroads, a program to allow anyone to essentially connect to Citi-nets around the world without oversight.

After the DataKrash on 2022, the world’s net (also once known as the World Wide Net) had completely fragmented into small, barely salvageable pieces. With the R.A.B.I.Ds (courtesy of genius net runner Rache Bartmoss) infecting approximately 80% of the net and dismantling it into pieces, the corporation and the DeFacto Net Police known as NetWatch decided to save what little could be saved.

Like cutting off edible pieces of bread off a moldy loaf, NetWatch had built something known as the BlackWall to separate everything that was ‘clean’ of RABIDS and everything else (which was most). The BlackWall is an incredibly complex yet simple entity with one goal in mind; nothing goes in, nothing goes out.

While the Blackwall had held the line for the last fifty years, the consequences of the BlackWall is clear to see. Megacorps and City officials hiring Netwatch to rebuild small parts of the Net and localizing it to become something known as a ‘CitiNet’. Night City had its own ‘CitiNet’ which was closely monitored by both NetWatch and Arasaka.

Connections between CitiNets are incredibly rare and resource intensive, often requiring old technology such as RadioWaves and connecting up to Satellites to get something resembling a connection. In order to save what was left of the Net, the new Net was fractured and limited with what little remaining under the thumb of the corporations.

This program would change that. 

Crossroads, to put it simply, is a modified copy of the Blackwall. It begs the question of how many sides does a wall have? Depending on its thickness, its location, and the wall itself, the answer changes. What doesn’t change despite the number of sides a wall may have is that there is just one wall.

Nothing goes in, nothing goes out.

There is nothing about Netrunners or net users wearing a program and integrating themselves with the BlackWall to transport connection to any other places with the BlackWall.

Nothing about using the BlackWall as a glorified VPN.

Unfortunately, the BlackWall is an incredibly long and complicated piece of work with a lobotomized AI constantly monitoring its upkeep. Even while typing out thousands of lines of code with a Cyberdeck allowing me to type at the speed of thinking, this was going to take a while.

Crossroads Program was reconstructing the World Wide Net. The users just didn’t have to know about its other functions.

… …

I happily received my unknown packages as they landed on the terrace through the RCS (Revere Courier Services) delivery drones. Making sure to place some wheels underneath the boxes before they landed, I pushed the boxes into the shed, placed separate from the main house but still on the terrace. 

While I personally didn’t understand what half of the things inside the boxes, the path guided me as I pried open the wooden boxes, peeled the plastic wrap, and started setting up a proper Netrunner station. The external RAM, CPUs, and Cooling stations were set up quickly before I focused on the Netunner chair and the connection port. This wire goes here, that one there, and so on. 

There was nothing like an official Netrunner tier however the general Netrunner community loosely agreed on 5 Netrunner tiers, with each increasing tier being supplemented with better equipment and oftentimes being the better Netrunner simply through the advantage the technology presented.

Tier 1 would be the Netrunners who utilized the old ‘Keyboard’ style Cyberdecks which were popular until the late 2020s. An external way to transfer data and jack in to the net and view it on a 2D screen. While much safer than the other options, this method and tier is considered almost obsolete due to the slow transfer speed and the lack of diversity it offered in the net. Most ‘tier 1 net runners’ are oftentimes normal civilians with no training in the net looking to explore without risking their minds or shopkeepers of antique cyber decks demonstrating their uses to customers.

Tier 2 and 3 were almost identical in the fact that both would utilize some form of internal Cyberdeck which would allow for a true connection to the net (or to experience the net directly through the brain). This is the tier in which net runners will truly be able to feel the winds of the net in their face as their neural link is connected directly into cyberspace. Due to the advantage of upload speed and the liberal use, this is the tier that most net runners are at, especially merc net runners who regularly see combat. The difference for tier 3 would be that these net runners would have some form of external heat regulation available such as ice baths or a heat sink that they could connect to.

Tier 4 Netrunners is where things could get quite serious. Tier 4 and above was incredibly resource intensive with a proper net runner station to monitor the net runner’s health, temperature, heartbeat, and the cyber-dimension. Various machines and devices were hooked into the Netrunner chair (which in turn was connected to the Netrunner) to allow for better performance with providing additional RAM or taking the burden of data-heavy programs, or holding up a Data Fortress to allow the Netrunner to stay in the net in peace. Tier 4 is oftentimes when Netrunners go further than their biological limitations and go under the knife for some serious cyberware.

Deep Dive Ports (a long cord which could be jacked into the back of the head) to allow for better transfer of information from the net to the brain (and vice versa). As the name suggests, it allows the net runner to dive deeper in the net as one would the ocean, the truly brave running through the old net and even around the BlackWall.

Others would undergo a partial cyborg transformation (or full borg) to allow for a more efficient method to regulate the temperature of the brain and other crucial parts of the body. Further still, net runners may choose go replace parts of their brain with cyberware for a faster reaction (computation) speed.

And finally Tier 5. A net runner who has undergone a full borg conversion or is packing enough cyberware that it’d be useless to distinguish the two. Every device and tool a Tier 4 Netrunner has in their entire storage, a tier 5 would have it packed into their body and perform the same. A tier 5 net runner operates the same or better than a tier 4 net runner without the limitations of location or preparation.

My path was guiding me to become something between a Tier 3 and 4 Netrunner. To have all the tools and external equipment but without undergoing cyber-transformation minus the already existing deep dive port. 

While it may seem lacking in a world with legendary net runners and mega-corporations with full-borg net runners inside literal ice blocks, there were two things that could trump them all.

It didn’t matter that a Borg’s cyber brain would think hundreds of times faster or a combined netrunning force of a mega corporation would attempt to find me. No matter what counter intrusion programs they make or what AI they try to develop against me…

Sufficient preparation and some good fucking code was the base of everything a net runner was. No amount of metal in a brain was going to change that.

After cleaning out my deep dive port (back on my head) with some alcohol dipped Q-tips and a vacuum cleaner, I settled in on the Netrunner chair as I jacked myself into the net. A million sensations all at once hit me before I was transferred to a world of data.

… …

This world was a place where humans could become one with the (blessed) machine. Where metal and flesh sometimes became indistinguishable. Through continuous augmentations and transference, monsters like the which of Adam Smasher were created.

Individuals who were capable of battling a tank to a standstill and face down an army of men. Even so, the legends of Night City and beyond were limited to the physical world. These legends didn’t shoot beams of nuclear light from their eyes, they didn’t have the ability to bring the world to a halt.

One did.

Rache Bartmoss. The Netrunner. For his final gift to the world upon his death, he had managed to change the world forever…in the realm of cyberspace, he did so literally. 78% of Cyberspace scorched and destroyed beyond recognition with an entire corporation having to make a deal with an AI to section off the entire affected area.

All of this he accomplished with a pre-programed virus. All this he did without the help of a inter- dimensional bio-crystal magic space whale super quantum computer to simulate and precog the future with no deviations. 

Imagine Rache Bartmoss, and then I imagined what I could do.

As I fizzled into existence into cyberspace, I created my ‘icon’. Allowing myself to shape a ‘flattering’ body and a mask with an eye to soon symbolize Clairvoyant. I waved my hand in front of me as walls of code rose and took shape.

A full roaring dragon was created from ground up as I watched it soar through the black sky of the digital realm. The very floor I stood on trembling before walls of stone and metal, lined with endless cannons and lights. Small skittish creatures wrote themselves into existence while larger, knight-like figure, patrolled the area.

I raised my hand to the sky, palm out, as I pictured something that this world sourly lacked.

“Let there be light”

And there was light.

… …

Ryuichi Yanagi

‘You will burn.’

That was the phrase I was fed as I grew up in Tokyo. That was the truth I learned once I followed in my father’s footsteps (may his soul be granted entrance) and became a Corporate Net Runner for Arasaka.

Arasaka had no equal when it came to dominance in Cyberspace. Ever since the humiliating defeat of the 4th Corporate War, Arasaka-sama had doubled down on the resources in expanding the cyber operations. Arasaka’s cyber intelligence, skills, personnel, and data fortress was second to none.

Let it be said that the difference between bravery and stupidity is a fine line. There were truly countless Netrunners throughout his years as part of Arasaka’s Cyber security where I witnessed their pitiful attempts to break through, to hide, and eventually beg for mercy.

‘You will burn’

And burn they did.

I think in one part of my mind, I always knew it was bound to happen but I simply couldn’t shake my belief in Arasaka’s capabilities. As net runners, we know that our time is limited. With our brains connected directly to the net, all of us are only a single bad program away from the same fate we give to unwelcome intruders.

One day someone will create a faster program, a better intrusion system, the AIs will finally breach the BlackWall. Someday someone or something was going to catch up to us, but at the same time, the thrill and the freedom the net offered was why I, along with countless others, continued to jack into that port day after day, time after time.

Until our brains were fried, we would run the net. 

We were net runners.

…

Nobody expects an attack but working for a corporation like Arasaka, I was trained to expect the unexpected. What was shocking, however, was the method in which the intruder went about the intrusion.

Against a Data Fortress like Arasaka (NC HQ), most intruding net runners would opt for stealth or at least attempt to hide themselves in order not to be the focus of our attacks.

Not her.

With nothing but an additional tag and a mask to hide her identity (and IP), she charged directly towards the castle walls with the lighthouse spotlights focused directly at her. My fellow net runners casted a hundred defensive and offensive programs as imps, daemons, and even Cerberus was summoned as they charged down the walls to face down the intruder. The castle defenses were activated as the turrets came to life and began taking shots at the intruder.

Only twice in my life thus far had I been slack jawed in the net. 

Once when I had first entered the net with my father as he showed me how to summon the basic imp. The second when I had followed the trail of the legendary net runner Spider Murphy only to be recoiled across the Citi-net by an unknown program.

And now, the third time.

Birdlike wings manifested on the back of the intruder as she took flight and skillfully dodged between the hail of programs and attacks. Something resembling an old hunting rifle manifesting in her hands as she skillfully took aim at the castle walls.

{WARNING WARNING: INTRUSION IMMINENT}

“DEFENSIVE PROGRAMS NOW!!” My boss yelled across the fortress.

Dozens of walls sprung up between the intruder and the castle only for them to shatter like glass upon impact. The small bullet, leaving behind a silvery trail, circled outside the castle walls like a predatory shark as it hunted the summoned programs.

A trap to lure out the programs.

The intruder took the moment to line up another shot with the castle. There was no delay this time.

One moment I was standing atop the walls raining down fire, another I was falling through a dismantled program as rampant codes tried to work and fail.

The intruder wasted no time in flying through the walls and disappearing.

“INITIATE LEVEL 7 DEFENSE! DATA FORTRESS BREACHED! I REPEAT DATA FORTRESS BREACHED!”

I felt more net runners join the defense as personnel were flown and teleported in. One rather large data helicopter landed inside the walls before four Netrunners heaved down a heavy mechanical suitcase.

All four of them laid the suitcase on the ground before carefully opening up its contents.

“Fuck me…” I felt the words slip from my tongue, but it wasn’t just me. All of my colleagues who had managed to sneak in a glimpse couldn’t believe their eyes.

It was a swirling, glittering nimbus of energy, shot through with tiny tiny red stars. A high pitched crystalline singing voice echoed throughout the castle walls as soon as the suitcase was opened.

Any half decent net runner worth their salt knew what that was. The Ace-in-the-hole, the Arasaka Trump Card, Alt Cunningham’s magnum opus.

SoulKiller.

Soulkiller 1.9 Developed by Hanako and Yorinobu Arasaka-sama from the remains of what was left once Alt Cunningham had destroyed the server along with the physical destruction at the end of the 4th Corporate war. While rumors stated that another version was being created to be sold to the public as ‘Secure Your Soul’ program, the program he was seeing in front of his eyes was undoubtedly lethal.

A close replica of the weapon Arasaka had managed to create during the 4th Corporate War.

“Capture the intruder. At all costs!”

The whirlwind of stars and energy intensified before disappearing.

Now, all there was to do was wait for the Soulkiller to return.

One day, like all programs and net runners, I would fall and so would soulkiller.

But today was not that day.

SoulKiller wouldn’t fail. 

… …

POV Tesha Comtesse (Clairvoyant)

I twisted upwards into the sky as the space I had just inhabited rematerialized into the Soulkiller program. I threw another daemon at the whirlwind and watched it got shredded in a millisecond.

I could almost hear the teeth grinding of the program’s crystalline voice as I continued to evade its capture. It didn’t matter what predictive software the program was using when I already knew exactly what it was going to do.

My wings flapped as I dived downwards, coating my hands in a program which formed a gauntlet around them, and grabbed the edge of the program as I dragged it down with me.

As the Soulkiller expanded and thrashed around in rage, I metaphorically punched in its face as I dodged yet another attempt. Throwing daemons without end and watching them get torn apart like wet tissue paper. Absorbing their remains to try and get a read on me, which it wouldn’t.

[Taunt Soulkiller 1.9]

I harmlessly emoted a middle finger towards the program before dashing away. The world’s most lethal known program screeched in rage as I latched onto my coordinates. Sensing what it must recognize as ‘victory’, it teleported directly into my Data Fortress.

[Collapse Fortress. Bury Soulkiller]

A single trigger in the right place had the towers and walls crumbling down to pieces as bricks, motars, and incredibly heavy pieces of code fell directly on top of the Soulkiller program. It thrashed against its weight but even Soulkiller couldn’t delete them all in time. Eventually, it attempted to teleport away but it was too late.

[Chain Soulkiller]

Long chains of alternating code appearing in my hands as I formed a lasso above my head before throwing it directly around the energy whirl. Tightening the noose around the program, I watched as the chaotic whirlwind grow weaker and weaker as the chains grew tighter.

Eventually, the program slumped forward with gooey bits of stars and energy dripping onto the chains.

[Soulkiller Program 1.9 Captured]

One hand holding onto the chains, I let the other wave once in the air as I cut off the connection between the trail Soulkiller had left behind in its attempt to capture me. Severing the connection, I watched as Arasaka net runners flail around in panic as they lost their greatest weapon.

Rebuilding a simple doghouse from the ruins to keep the program chained, I programmed another stealth to hide its trace before approaching the chained program.

Rubbing it between its two dangerous stars I could see why the path had wanted me to steal this rather than make my own. It was a masterpiece which would have taken months of endless coding to do it alone.

The Soulkiller slumped further as it realized that it has lost its connection. It was locked here, offline.

“Good dog.” I smiled at the program. 

Even thought it shouldn’t have been able to see my face through the mask, I got the impression that the program was shivering, if it was capable.

“You’re going to be very busy soon. Do it properly or I’m dognapping your sister too, m’kay?”

Between the red stars, a small line of code infiltrated its core function to prevent self destruction.

“Good boy.”

The stars quivered.