V was embedded in the wall, momentarily dazed.
It wasn't that the damage was severe—
it was that she couldn't believe she had lost a fistfight.
Before she could spiral into disbelief, Lancelot's next punch was already on the way.
V snapped back to her senses and dodged.
BOOM—
The wall behind her exploded, a massive hole blasted straight through it.
Giant Jellyfish: "Careful. His cyberware output is extremely high."
Mid-warning, V was sent flying again. She hit the ground, coughing, and spat out a complaint:
"You're really fucking timely with those warnings!"
Lancelot descended from above.
V backflipped out of the way—
CRASH!
Lancelot slammed into the ground, stomping out a crater.
"Hahahahaha! So even the legendary V has a day where she runs like a scared dog!"
Lancelot laughed wildly.
V merely shrugged.
No one is born strong.
She herself had clawed her way up from the streets—
bloodied, beaten, chased until she fled in disgrace.
She'd been through all of it.
Giant Jellyfish: "What now?"
"Same as always," V replied, her fighting spirit intact.
"All strength, no skill—still fights like a dog chewing rocks. Skull-marked overlevel mobs? I've killed plenty."
V stood again.
Lancelot charged.
This time, V didn't dodge.
She closed in.
Facing the terrifying iron fist, V twisted her body mid-motion, evading while delivering a spinning kick straight into Lancelot's head.
THUD.
Lancelot's head tilted slightly.
That was all.
He countered immediately.
V slid along the ground to evade, then snapped upward with an uppercut that smashed into Lancelot's jaw.
Enraged, Lancelot attacked even more viciously—
and with that fury came bigger openings.
V weaved through the barrage, then leapt high—
A steel knee slammed into Lancelot's chin.
Seeing V airborne, Lancelot forcibly overpowered inertia with sheer mechanical output, raising his arm for a counterstrike.
But V's heteromorphic frame vented jets of air from both flanks, adjusting her posture mid-air.
She dodged, stepped off Lancelot's arm, reversed thrust into repulsion—
Right leg bent, left leg straight—
A textbook Caesar Kick crashed down onto Lancelot's face.
Boosted by downward momentum and thrusters—
Even Lancelot was sent flying, tumbling backward like an empty soda can before smashing into a wall.
Then—
Lancelot casually stepped back out of the wall.
Two steps later, he staggered, dizzy, and braced himself against it.
Giant Jellyfish: "Strange. With his cyberware strength, that shouldn't have caused significant damage."
V snorted.
"Not strange at all. His cyberware's fine—but his brain's stock issue. Otherwise he wouldn't still be this stupid."
She continued calmly:
"When the enemy's strong, you hit their weak spot.
Lancelot's human brain is his only weakness."
"I call this move—kicking the crippled leg of a lame man."
Lancelot clearly realized it too.
He'd always despised everyone else—
now he despised himself.
"If only I'd been an AI from the beginning…" he muttered.
V raised an eyebrow.
She wished she were truly human—
while someone else wished to be an AI.
This world was fucking insane.
Time to end this.
There were far more interesting things than fighting.
But the moment V took a step—
She bounced.
Her heteromorphic frame floated upward like a balloon.
Lancelot seized the opening, rushing forward and grabbing her ankle mid-air. His cybernetic arm whipped violently—
SLAM!
V was smashed into the ground.
Left.
Right.
Again and again.
Alarms blared inside the heteromorphic frame.
V was tossed around until her vision spun.
She finally broke free, attempted a backflip to rise—
Hands hit the ground—
And she floated up again like a balloon.
Lancelot leapt effortlessly, maneuvering in mid-air—
CRASH!
Another punch sent V slamming down.
"The fuck is this…?!"
"I shut down the gravity generator," Lancelot explained smugly.
"Low-gravity combat is my domain. You're dead."
He dove downward in a brutal assault.
V felt like a ping-pong ball.
She could counterattack—but low gravity warped every movement.
Giant Jellyfish: "We're losing ground."
V clenched her teeth.
"I need time to adapt to this battlefield!"
"We don't have time."
"Yes, we do!" V roared.
"I hand you control of my body—you give me admin privileges to the virtual world!"
The Giant Jellyfish instantly understood.
"Can this work?"
"I trust them!"
V's eyes flared blue.
She deep-dived—
But not into cyberspace.
She plunged into the virtual sandbox world stored in her stack memory.
It was summer there.
Her Kiroshi optics read 62°C ground temperature, 48°C air temperature.
Yet a smiling news anchor in a storefront screen cheerfully reported:
"Today's low: 32°C. High: 39°C."
Thirty-nine?
V glanced at her optics—48°C.
That discrepancy was definitely a bug.
She waved it off.
"Let that dumbass jellyfish fix the bugs—I didn't come here to be an admin."
"Focus. Real work."
She summoned a holographic keyboard, hit the "~" key, opened the console, and began typing commands at blistering speed.
The virtual world shifted accordingly.
She interfered with the game developer's controls—
the way the jellyfish interfered with an author writing a novel.
Progress climbed.
Intervention grew more concrete.
Just as she was about to finish—
A sudden, searing pain ripped her back to reality.
Interference halted.
V opened her eyes to find Lancelot pinning her to the ground, smashing her repeatedly.
She fired her thrusters and shot along the ground like a shell, crashing into a wall—but breaking free.
Giant Jellyfish (guilty): "Sorry, V. That was my mistake."
V twitched her mouth.
"It's fine. Round two, champ."
She dove back into the sandbox.
In the brief time she'd been gone—
The world had changed.
For example:
"Game Developer Announces Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 2.3 Delayed"
She'd triggered the 2.3 update so players could repeatedly challenge it—
so she could adapt to low-gravity combat.
That was how her experience was built before.
Doing it again was fine.
As for officially declaring 2.2 the final version—
That jellyfish announced it.
What the fuck does that have to do with V?
Players didn't disappoint.
After early failures, top-tier players released flawless no-damage clears.
The strategy was simple:
One word—steady.
If you had to add more—cowardly.
Patience incarnate.
Attack only when safe.
Never greedy.
One hit at a time.
No flashy instant kill—
but immaculate fundamentals.
After 47 minutes and 23 seconds, the Big Boss Lancelot fell—
without a single mistake.
Viewers knelt in admiration.
V absorbed the experience.
But there was a problem—
Players could use cheats.
She couldn't.
…Wait.
She could.
A bio-theoretical AI could continuously self-correct.
Wasn't that the ultimate cheat?
So—
Which path?
Autobot or Decepticon?
V considered briefly.
Then laughed.
Autobots or Decepticons—
Aren't they all Cybertronians anyway?
She returned to reality.
BOOM!
Lancelot punched her into the ground, then ripped her out by the neck, lifting her high.
"V! Let's see how long you can last inside that turtle shell!"
His grip tightened.
The heteromorphic frame's neck creaked, deforming, on the verge of collapse—
V disengaged the armor and dropped free.
Lancelot froze.
He casually tossed the empty shell aside like trash.
"So you've accepted defeat?"
"No," V spread her arms.
"I just realized a truth."
"Humans have limits. We're destined to be replaced by machines and AI. Rise and fall, birth and extinction—objective facts. Willpower doesn't change that."
"What nonsense are you spouting?" Lancelot snapped.
"Sorry," V sighed.
"Forgot your IQ's low."
"What I mean is—"
She inhaled deeply.
"Lancelot. I'm done being human."
"Then die!"
Lancelot punched.
He'd already calculated every possible dodge—
But V didn't dodge.
She caught his fist.
BOOM!
The ground shattered.
She held it. Firmly.
"…Gorilla Arms?" Lancelot stared.
In his memory, V always used a Projectile Launch System.
Next instant—
Mantis Blades snapped out of the Gorilla Arm, stabbing toward his throat.
Lancelot barely blocked with his left arm—
Only for Monowire to fire from V's wrist, coiling like a living serpent and binding his arm and neck together.
The strongest High Knight was utterly stunned.
One person—
with Gorilla Arms, Mantis Blades, and Monowire?
Night City's latest tech?
Impossible.
The human nervous system couldn't support three cyberarms in the same slot.
V answered with action.
Not three.
Four.
The Mantis Blades retracted—
Then extended again—
Now a Projectile Launch System.
"Are you fucking doing magic tricks?!"
Plasma rounds detonated point-blank.
Lancelot was blasted away like garbage.
Severe concussion.
He scanned V—
And froze.
Because—
V — Facial Implants:
[Pathfinder Kiroshi Revelation]
[Pathfinder Kiroshi Long Sight]
[Pathfinder Kiroshi Alert]
[Pathfinder Kiroshi Hunt]
[Pathfinder Kiroshi Omen]
[Pathfinder Kiroshi Basilisk]
V — Frontal Cortex:
[Self ICE] [Mechatronic Core] [RAM Upgrade] [Newton Module]
[Kerenzikov Boost] [Camillo RAM Manager] [External Drive]
[Memory Boost] [Bioconductor] [Subdermal Chroma]
V — Arms:
[Gorilla Arms] [Monowire] [Mantis Blades] [Projectile Launch System]
V — Hands:
[Smart Link] [Ballistic Coprocessor] [Grip Stabilizers]
[Microgenerator] [Spear & Shield]
V — Legs:
[Reinforced Tendons] [Lynx Paws] [Ankle Reinforcement] [Train King Tendons]
V — Skeleton:
[Titanium Bones] [Kinetic Frame] [Adaptive Joints]
[Rebuilt Skeleton] [Dense Marrow] [RAM Compensation]
[Scarab] [Universal Boost] [Hundred-Fist Breaker] [One-Punch Breaker]
V — Nervous System:
[Kerenzikov] [Synaptic Accelerator] [Adrenaline Converter]
[Instant Perception] [Reaction Coordinator] [Nanofibers]
V — Integumentary System:
[Subdermal Armor] [Optical Camo] [Pain Editor]
[Counter-Shell] [Proximity Shield] [Nano-Plating]
V — Circulatory System:
[Adrenal Boost] [Heal-on-Kill] [Biomonitor] [Second Heart]
V — Operating Systems:
[NetWatch Interface Cradle: Quadriphase Transmission Ripple Mk.5]
[Militech Berserk]
[Militech Apogee Sandevistan]
Lancelot screamed, oil leaking everywhere.
"Impossible! A human can't run three operating systems at once!"
"Because I was never fucking human!!!"
V's eyes burned blue.
Neural overclock engaged.
Electronics around them exploded.
Artificial gravity reactivated.
Lancelot activated Sandevistan and charged.
V activated hers and met him head-on.
Time froze.
In absolute stillness, they exchanged hundreds of blows.
But this was Lancelot's limit—
Not V's.
She had three operating systems.
Militech Berserk—ENGAGED!
V grinned like a monster.
Strength.
Only strength mattered.
"Die!"
Her fist rose—
SPLAT.
Lancelot's head burst like a watermelon.
The headless corpse collapsed, blood spraying across piles of white eurodollars.
"Berserk's the strongest, you stupid fuck."
V spat blood.
She finished him with plasma fire.
Overkill was a virtue.
She even bombarded the fusion reactor below.
The mass accelerator control room vanished in fire and lightning.
"Finally… fuck, I'm exhausted."
Then—
Darkness.
She vomited blood and collapsed.
Giant Jellyfish: "How do you feel?"
V groaned. "Like I'm about to give birth."
"Joking means you'll live. But your body's damaged. You pushed it too far."
"I get it," V said, standing shakily.
"Like a shut-in jerking off every day."
"But I'm not human—why side effects?"
"You're not human—but this body still is. It needs time."
"How long?"
"One year and two months. Then your nervous system will complete transformation into a true bio-theoretical AI prototype."
"Nice."
V laughed bitterly.
"So do I celebrate one last year as a human…
or mourn no longer being one?"
The jellyfish stayed silent.
V already knew.
"Past, present, or future—V is V."
She launched skyward.
Then—
A forced transmission cut in.
A female hologram appeared.
"V. This is Alt. I'm at Arasaka Tower."
"If you don't come—
Sasha dies."
"…Fuck."
V cursed.
She'd been backdoored.