Chapter 157: Invading Mikoshi
Inside the manufactorum, Joric's processing core parsed Maine's request signal instantly.
In fact, Maine didn't even need to report. Joric's consciousness was already an invisible web, silently permeating and covering Arasaka Tower's internal network via the electronic warfare implants—personally modified by Joric and technologically leagues ahead of this era—carried by Sasha and Kiwi.
Every data node and every communication link within the tower was under his real-time surveillance.
However, when his perception reached deep into the tower's core, he encountered a completely different boundary.
Target: Mikoshi—Arasaka's most central data fortress. Its defense philosophy was fundamentally different from the rest of the tower's network.
The lessons of the 2023 nuclear detonation and the attack by legendary Netrunner Rache Bartmoss had led to the most extreme security measure: absolute air-gapping.
It was like an independent brain slumbering in a steel womb, devoid of any electrical connection to external networks, forming a defensive line built purely on physical isolation.
Any form of data interaction had to be realized through dedicated physical interfaces located in the most heavily guarded bottom level of Arasaka Tower.
Faced with this purely physical barrier, even Joric could not cross it via remote intrusion alone.
He calmly accepted this technical reality, immediately transmitting precise coordinates and connection protocols to Sasha and Kiwi via an encrypted data link.
"Sasha, Kiwi," Joric's command entered the two netrunners' minds directly. "Jack your data probes into the concealed interface beneath the elevator control panel. Frequency: Gamma-7. Protocol: I will provide."
Receiving the command, Sasha and Kiwi acted swiftly. They expertly located the hidden port under the control panel and jacked in their specialized cables firmly.
The moment the connection was established, a torrent of data surged in—highly encrypted, structurally complex, carrying the distinct defensive attack signatures of Arasaka systems.
Had it been ordinary netrunners, their nervous systems would have fried and their consciousness collapsed instantly.
But they withstood the impact. Their neural interfaces and processing centers, reinforced by Joric, operated efficiently, steadily receiving and sorting this dangerous turbulence.
Joric's consciousness extended forward along this hard-won physical channel.
Arasaka's vaunted layers of firewalls and dynamic encryption protocols were as good as nonexistent before him.
The data-processing logic he employed was fundamentally based on knowledge accumulated over tens of thousands of years. Against the network defense systems of this era, it represented a generational disparity of fundamental nature.
Encountering virtually no effective resistance, he quietly seized core administrative privileges.
"Access cracked. Elevator activated," Joric's steady voice sounded again in the squad channel. "Your mission is to reach the underground data hall, locate the core server array, and establish a solid physical connection. Notify me immediately upon completion."
The heavy elevator doors slid open slowly. Maine's crew entered, and the elevator began a high-speed descent, piercing through rock layers toward the deepest depths beneath Arasaka Tower.
When the doors opened again, an immense underground space was revealed.
It was brightly lit, the temperature noticeably lower than above ground. The air was filled with the low hum of running server clusters and the faint sound of flowing coolant.
Countless rows of towering server racks stretched like a steel forest to the edge of vision.
This was the physical location of Mikoshi—the core data fortress of the Arasaka North American branch.
"Spread out, secure perimeter. Clear residual resistance," Maine ordered.
The squad members dispersed rapidly, taking advantageous positions. Sporadic security personnel were quickly eliminated.
Under the protection of Maine and Dorio, Sasha and Kiwi located an exceptionally thick server core interface in the center of the hall, connected by countless cables.
"Boss, arrived at core server array. Preparing to establish physical connection."
"Execute connection procedure," Joric confirmed.
Sasha and Kiwi jacked a specialized cable, pulsating with ghostly blue light, into the core interface.
This time, the moment the connection was established, even the reinforced netrunners felt an intense data shock, as if the information of an entire ocean was trying to surge through that single cable.
Back at the Badlands manufactorum, Joric's primary consciousness formally entered Mikoshi via this stable physical link.
His perception was instantly submerged in an endless stream of data.
But this was not a chaotic flood; it was a carefully organized and encrypted universe of information.
Here lay all research data, financial records, trade secrets, government contracts, competitor weakness analyses, and undisclosed tech blueprints accumulated since the establishment of Arasaka's Night City branch...
As well as massive amounts of personal data used for training AI and conducting Soulkiller experiments.
Joric's consciousness acted like the most efficient scanner, retrieving, decrypting, and copying this information at astonishing speeds.
Data was categorized and packed, then transmitted back to the massive data storage unit he had prepared in the Badlands manufactorum.
This held immeasurable value for his understanding of this world's tech tree, social structure, and power dynamics.
However, his goal did not end there.
Joric's consciousness continued to probe deeper into Mikoshi, bypassing layers of data barriers, finally touching a special zone locked down by multiple heavy encryption protocols—the Digital Soul Prison.
As the final logical firewall disintegrated silently before him, the internal scene presented itself to his perception.
It was a void space constructed of pure code, vast and boundless.
Countless faint points of light floated within, flickering uncertainly, like a silent sea of stars.
Every point of light was a product processed by the "Soulkiller" program.
Not a true transfer of consciousness, but a digital soul constructed through memory copying and personality simulation at the moment of the subject's death.
Trapped here, they were neither living beings nor pure data. Their conscious activity was suppressed to a minimum, like specimens sealed in amber, maintained in a state of eternal stasis.
"Although I knew vast amounts of digital souls were stored here before I traveled to the Warhammer universe, seeing it with my own eyes is... intriguing." In the data-space, Joric projected himself as a young man of Eastern descent with black hair and black eyes—his appearance before receiving his augmentations.
He made a gesture of stroking his chin, a movement impossible for his armor-clad body in reality.
Only in data-space could he so naturally simulate such a "human" habit.
While continuing to copy the entire data content of Mikoshi, including all information in this digital prison, he delved deeper, searching for specific "stars."
Soon, he found his targets.
The code identifier surrounding one point of light pointed to a name—Johnny Silverhand.
The other was identified as—Arasaka Kei.
(End of Chapter)