Invisible data pulses, channeled through the Blackwall protocol, continuously broadcast Osiris' meticulously prepared information into the chaotic domain beyond the Blackwall.
This signal leveraged the Blackwall's ubiquitous nature, ensuring its content could penetrate every corner the network could reach, both inside and outside the Blackwall.
Osiris did not expect an immediate response.
He knew clearly that both the information transmission process and the target's decision-making after receiving the information would take time.
Therefore, after setting the signal to loop automatically, he reallocated his primary computational resources to the deep analysis of Mikoshi data and the continuous optimization of the dimensional teleporter, retaining only a low-power background process.
This process silently monitored two things: any subtle changes in the workshop's surrounding network environment and the real-time data of the life support pod containing Bartmoss' body.
Time flowed peacefully in waiting.
The calendar turned silently, and Night City, after the upheaval at Arasaka Tower, fell into an unprecedented, suffocating "silence."
This silence was not an absence of sound, but a loss of its former "vitality" — that ceaseless urban pulse driven by countless ambitions, transactions, conflicts, and conspiracies.
The raging fires and violent explosions at Arasaka Tower, along with Maine's crew's irresistible advance, like a natural disaster, poured a bucket of ice water over this city of desires.
Everyone was terrified.
Major corporations fell into a rare silence.
On one hand, they were pleased to see their competitor, Arasaka, suffer such a heavy blow; on the other hand, they were deeply shaken by the weapons and combat power displayed by Maine's crew, which completely surpassed current technological levels.
Militech, Biotechnica, and other giants urgently convened top-level security meetings, not to discuss how to carve up the power vacuum left by Arasaka, but to prioritize assessing the threat level of this unknown force.
Their usual methods of armed deterrence and conspiracy seemed pale and ridiculous in the face of the absolute power displayed by that squad.
Before understanding the full scope, no company dared to act rashly, fearing becoming the next target.
Street gangs also reined themselves in considerably.
The once-boisterous conflict zones became quiet, and those lawless cyberpunks seemed to have learned the meaning of "caution" overnight.
The Valentinos, Animals, Maelstrom... whether traditional family-based gangs or fanatical groups that worshipped violence, their leaders all, by coincidence, issued similar orders: keep a low profile recently, and avoid any actions that might cause friction with that "monster squad" and its related forces.
Weapons that could instantly vaporize armored vehicles and tear apart streets with a single shot made their smart guns and rocket launchers seem like ridiculous toys.
Even the news media lost its former frenzy.
Although images of Arasaka Tower's explosion and burning had already spread throughout the city, subsequent reports were unusually restrained.
No experts dared to draw conclusions easily, no media dared to dig deep into the truth behind it, all reports remained at the level of describing established facts, full of uncertainty in their language, and even carrying a hint of fear.
They realized that this incident had exceeded the scope they could hype and control.
The entire Night City seemed to have been paused.
Surface order was barely maintained by the NCPD and corporate security, but beneath this fragile calm lay deeper unease and suspicion.
Everyone was watching, everyone was waiting, trying to catch a glimpse of clues about the future direction from this eerie silence.
This city, accustomed to chaos and noise, for the first time fell into a collective speechlessness due to pure, incomprehensible violence.
—
A few days later, Osiris was performing comparative calculations of fundamental physical constants between the local world and the Warhammer Universe. At that moment, the background process, which had been in standby mode, triggered a low-priority alert.
The alert originated from the sub-program responsible for monitoring the workshop's external network environment.
Data showed that an extremely covert and unfamiliar data stream was attempting to penetrate the outermost network defenses of the wasteland workshop.
This data stream did not originate from any known company or organization; its encoding method and intrusion techniques exuded an ancient and precise style, completely different from contemporary common network attack patterns.
It did not attempt a crude forced breakthrough, but rather, like a slippery serpent, quietly infiltrated along the crevices of the civilian data network, attempting to find a neglected vulnerability.
Its objective was clear, and its path of action showed obvious signs of probing; each touch of the firewall was extremely slight, as if carefully assessing the strength and reaction mechanism of this barrier.
This cautious and seasoned approach, along with the characteristics in its technical path that were distinct from the current era, immediately made Osiris realize that this was by no means an ordinary netrunner or corporate security department's probe.
This was precisely the signal he had been waiting for — something had received his broadcast and was attracted.
It came from beyond the Blackwall.
Osiris' crimson optical lenses subtly focused, and the computing power allocation on the main console was instantly readjusted.
A large amount of resources were released from other tasks and quickly invested in the comprehensive analysis and tracking of this invading data stream.
He did not immediately take strong countermeasures to expel or eliminate it, but rather, like a patient observer, constructed a solid and impenetrable logical firewall, steadily blocking the opponent's attempts at infiltration.
He wanted to see more clearly: How long would this "visitor" try? What methods would it use? What could its behavior patterns reveal?
The firewall's logs clearly recorded every attempted contact.
Upon encountering this invisible wall, the opponent did not give up but began to change its strategy.
It attempted various protocol vulnerabilities, simulated several legitimate access requests, and even tried to disguise itself as a harmless background data stream.
However, in the face of Osiris' defense system, built on knowledge far beyond this era's comprehension, all these efforts failed to achieve substantial progress.
The intrusion was effectively blocked at the periphery.
Inside the workshop, only the low hum of equipment operation and the steady, monotonous "tick-tock" of the life support pod's heart rate monitor remained.
But in that invisible digital domain, a silent, probing confrontation had already begun.
Osiris' massive body remained still before the control console; all the intense maneuvering occurred at the rapidly changing data level.
The bait had worked; now, he needed to determine what exactly had taken the bait and what it would do next.