The workshop fell into brief silence, only the energy core's low hum and servo-skull's faint scanning sounds remaining.
Cairo's steady, physics-law-stating voice had just proposed what would be considered an insane plan in the cyberpunk world.
"Precisely. The Blackwall—this global super-firewall's essence is a highly specialized, rule-driven massive AI collective." Cairo's crimson optical lenses swept across everyone's shocked faces, continuing in his signature emotionless technical analysis tone: "Its core mission is isolating rogue AIs beyond the wall, ensuring basic internal network security.
However, its scale is too massive, rule hierarchies complex, causing its monitoring of internal network 'non-malicious' but protocol-violating data flows—or those simulating specific system commands—to be imperfect.
Especially when exploiting inherent authentication vulnerabilities in its gateway protocol layer, or legacy design flaws.
Militech's 'Little Dipper Project' back then—some of its unpublicized exploration directions precisely involved trying to understand and weaponize certain Blackwall underlying protocol characteristics.
They achieved some preliminary, dangerous results. Though the project ultimately terminated due to loss-of-control risks, the technical principles it revealed... are genuinely feasible."
While explaining this, Cairo also recalled pre-transmigration memories.
He clearly remembered that during the New United States reconstruction, its intelligence and special operations departments excavated and inherited core portions of the "Little Dipper Project" legacy. Precisely these forbidden knowledge fragments from the old era got applied to a top-tier netrunner codenamed "Songbird."
That originally merely talented hacker got transformed and elevated into a terrifying existence worthy of being called a "cyber-nuke."
Songbird's terror lay in her ability to hack using the Blackwall itself as springboard and amplifier—because nearly all networks in the cyberpunk world, from personal terminals to corporate core databases, needed Blackwall connections for protection, isolating rogue AIs beyond the wall.
She exploited this ubiquitous connectivity. Leveraging the Blackwall's power, she could infiltrate virtually any target and easily mobilize the Blackwall's massive scale to instantly fry anyone or any device she locked onto.
Even the most powerful solo netrunners were insignificant as ants before the Blackwall representing the entire network defense cornerstone.
However, inability to directly confront didn't mean inability to exploit.
As he'd just explained, the key lay in "understanding" and "imitation."
"I don't need to—nor could I possibly—control the Blackwall. That requires beyond-nation-state computational power and would inevitably invite catastrophic countermeasures." Cairo's mechanical tentacles precisely tapped several key data nodes on screen, emphasizing his plan's core: "I only need precise 'imitation'... or rather, 'spoofing' its identity.
I can construct an extremely special data packet exploiting identified specific authentication vulnerabilities in Blackwall gateway protocols, making Blackwall systems themselves 'misidentify' it as high-priority system broadcasts or status synchronization information from some internal high-level node."
He paused slightly, letting everyone grasp this concept's subversiveness, then continued painting the terrifying scenario: "Once injection succeeds, leveraging its internal high-priority tagging, this data stream will follow Blackwall's internal communication protocols, being automatically copied and distributed to every network access point maintaining Blackwall connection and online status.
From most ordinary personal terminals, public ad displays, to corporate internal networks, government agency servers...
Any device connected to this network will theoretically, within extremely brief time, be forcibly presented with an unclosable, unbypassable, unblockable highest-priority information window.
And the window's displayed content would be your provided complete evidence exposing Biotechnica painkiller scandals."
Dead silence filled the workshop, like air itself froze.
Everyone was stunned speechless by this bold, insane yet grounded-in-cold-technical-logic plan.
Through the Blackwall, forcibly delivering messages to... every networked user globally?
This wasn't underground data stack secret circulation anymore, nor some independent news channel's pressured investigative report broadcast—but an unstoppable information tsunami instantly sweeping the entire digital world!
Biotechnica would have zero means for immediate deletion, suppression, or obfuscation of this information—because the source, on the surface, appeared to be the Blackwall itself!
This could instantly trigger global-scale public opinion earthquakes, delivering devastating blows to Biotechnica's credibility and market value.
Sasha forgot her quiet sobbing, forgot her self-protective curled posture. She stared blankly up at Cairo's dark-red, deity-like towering mechanical frame, eyes filled with incredible light.
That invisible wall called "corporate power" pushing her toward despair's abyss seemed to show cracks at this moment—cracks sufficient for its collapse—pointed out by this being before her.
Despair's ice layer crackled in her heart. A nearly scorching hope she'd never dared imagine—like vines breaking free from bondage—frantically coiled around her heart.
Rebecca's jaw dropped. After a long moment she snapped it shut, murmuring: "Holy... fucking... shit... this is literally 'going nuclear'... using the Blackwall to slap corps in the face with their own dirt?!"
Maine took a deep breath of machine-oil-scented air, struggling to calm the raging storm in his heart.
As crew leader, he instinctively weighed risks versus rewards.
He looked at Cairo, gaze extremely grave, voice low and serious: "Boss, this... really doable? How confident are you it'll work? What if... what if the Blackwall catches on—how bad's the blowback?"
"Technical feasibility, based on existing data model projections, assessed above seventy-eight percent." Cairo's answer remained calm as reporting experimental data. "Main risks center on data packet construction precision—must perfectly simulate specific Blackwall node digital signatures and communication formats; plus injection process instantaneity and covertness—requires completion within extremely brief time avoiding real-time monitoring system anomaly detection.
If deep autonomous Blackwall defense mechanisms identify it as high-threat malicious attack, might trigger injection source localization and high-intensity countermeasures.
But according to my calculations, because it highly imitates internal system commands and exploits protocol vulnerabilities rather than brute-forcing, triggering maximum-level countermeasures probability is below fifteen percent."
He slightly adjusted optical lens focus, supplementing: "Even if triggered, I've prepared multiple contingencies including instant physical disconnection, deceptive interference signal releases, plus workshop emergency shielding field activation—sufficient for evading tracking in vast majority of scenarios, ensuring this location's safety."
Cairo turned his gaze toward still-shocked Sasha, providing a clear path: "So that data backup you obtained at enormous cost now possesses far more 'efficient' and 'lethal' applications than simple publication.
You need to organize and refine it into formats most suitable for widespread dissemination in forced popup environments, instantly triggering public resonance.
When ready, and your body's undergone preliminary repairs capable of withstanding possible brief data transmission neural loads, we can initiate this 'global announcement' protocol.
Before technology that understands rule essence, corporate meticulously constructed public opinion manipulation barriers are merely fragile screens maintained by information asymmetry.
Breaking them sometimes requires not brute force but finding that correct 'frequency' triggering resonance."
Sasha breathed forcefully, almost greedily, chest heaving violently like relearning how to breathe.
She looked at Cairo, then at Rebecca beside her with burning light in her eyes, plus Maine and others whose expressions stayed grave yet didn't object.
Her originally dead heart lake was completely stirred. Surging waves mixed fear of unknown risks, scorching revenge desires, plus desperate all-in resolve toward slim hope.
Her curled fingers slightly loosened, then clenched again. Finally she nodded gently. Voice though still weak and trembling carried unprecedented burn-the-boats determination: "How long... do I need... before my body and data are ready?"
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