Chapter 1 Cyberpunk Escape Action

"Xu Yang, a second-level neural network engineer, has an income of 7,500 this month, and arrears of 4,606,300. After deducting 7,500 for repayment, the remaining arrears are 4,598,800, and the actual income this month is 0."

Xu Yang numbly pulled out the cash card, and the contents of the screen switched to the slogan "Your service makes Gaoge Kyushu more prosperous" and a round smiling face.

Gaoge Kyushu is one of the giant enterprises in the eastern hemisphere. It has gained advantages in previous corporate civil wars. It has a complete department, sufficient manpower, and is thriving, focusing on vehicle development, industrial production and security services.

Xu Yang is a "company person", a term used to refer to those who stayed in the company from birth to death.

His parents were also company workers, too busy to take care of him, and died very early, at the age of 35.

According to the company, they have fulfilled their consumption obligations and labor obligations and are model employees of the company.

Xu Yang's growth, accommodation, study, medical and other expenses are all provided by the company. When he graduated, the cost was about 500,000, and he needed to work hard to pay it back.

In order to enhance his work efficiency and avoid being eliminated by machines, he loaned more than 4 million to the company and installed human augmentation implants for himself.

So the loan is not repaid.

The situation of other company people is similar to him. The more you work, the more you owe the company, and you have to work hard to repay the loan.

One way to reduce loans is to have children.

Every time a child is born, the company's debt is reduced by 25%. This is the only reason why the company's employees are not extinct. Even if they know that their descendants will become company people, they will recognize it.

Xu Yang returned to his work station and opened the lunch box in front of him. There was a nutritional paste in it. It looked like white mud and tasted bland, but he liked it very much. It was efficient and easy.

Because he has no real income, he eats the company's food, uses the company's food, sleeps in the company, receives the consumption coupons issued by the company every month, and exchanges a bunch of things he doesn't need to help the company meet the consumption target.

"Hurry up with your report."

"The Eastern District collected 30 witch babies from 28 families, 2 defective ones, 18 with industrial potential, 6 with combat potential, and 4 with unknown potential."

"This month's performance is enough."

Xu Yang originally wanted to take a break from squinting, but the whispers of other companies in the distant work station disturbed him, so he might as well continue to work.

He pulled the data cable out of his right wrist and inserted it into the wiring slot.

Xu Yang's mind has integrated a technology called "digital mind".

The digital mind is modern cutting-edge technology that converts biological neural currents into electrical signals. In Xu Yang's mind, the digital mental panel took shape, and the security system of the entire company building was unobstructed. Every camera, alarm device, automatic defense equipment, machine security and laser traps were connected to him.

His job title is a Level 2 Neural Network Engineer, and he works for the company's cybersecurity department, where his day-to-day tasks include overseeing employee actions and maintaining cybersecurity.

As a trained neural network engineer, Xu Yang can use his digital mind to connect the network. Most of the modern electrical equipment is added to the same network, which is convenient for unified management.

He needs to supervise the day-to-day activities of thousands of employees in the building, as well as check the hidden dangers of the company's built-in defense system, an extremely boring task that requires him to maintain thousands of devices, guard against hostile hackers, and warn those who Stealing and cheating company people.

There is a lot of work, but the salary is low. Because he is skilled, the work of the department is concentrated on him, so that he is full of work every day.

Xu Yang uses his own consciousness to supervise and control the equipment without hands. In his consciousness, these equipment can be directly checked, controlled and modified. With the help of implants, his brain is similar to an advanced computer.

Today is different.

The first camera Xu Yang encountered had already been checked.

He quickly inspected the equipment of the entire company and was surprised to find that they had all been maintained. He hurriedly searched the logs and found that a set of AI called "Tian Gong" did his work for Xu Yang.

how is this possible?

Xu Yang's heart was beating wildly.

His performance day by day, and the fact that these devices have been maintained today does not mean that Xu Yang can rest, it just means that he is missing a day of work.

Insufficient performance to be fined!

He quickly opened the terminal at hand and contacted Huang Na, the head of the department.

"Sister Huang, why don't I have to work today, haha." Xu Yang sent a message hypocritically, feeling uneasy.

"Well, the technical department has developed a new model, code-named 'Tiangong'. It has many functions. It was launched after the stress test, and it will be our new colleague in the future."

"It seems to have done my part, so what about me?"

"You're not right, relax."

Xu Yang was about to scold, he clenched his fist and released it. Subconsciously, he wanted to access the company's network to continue checking, but the "Tiangong" AI had already obtained higher authority, completely overriding Xu Yang's status, supervising and controlling the entire building for him.

"Do I have any other work to do?" Xu Yang hesitated before adding another message, "Please assign me some work."

People die if they don't work.

"I'm sorry, everyone has done their assigned tasks today. I don't have any work for you here. The department will soon need to adjust personnel. Please pay attention."

The subtext is that Xu Yang has been completely replaced by a set of AI, and it is best to find another way out.

Xu Yang was paralyzed back, he was optimized.

It is the general trend that artificial intelligence will replace human jobs, and the speed of people becoming stronger simply cannot keep up with technology.

The company has performance requirements every day. Xu Yang's job is now being replaced by AI, which means that there is no work output every day. Not only will he not be able to get wages, he will also be fined, or even a crime.

The most terrifying thing is that Xu Yang is a digital mind that he has loaned to himself. Now he has no work to do. If he does not take out the loan, the company will directly dismantle his digital mind and recycle it. When the body and the digital mind are highly overlapped, Once dismantled, Xu Yang's life will be in danger!

The death of Xu Yang would have no effect on the company.

The only way for Xu Yang to survive is to take the initiative to resign, and then go outside to find a job to pay back the money and fill the hole in the loan.

And if he leaves voluntarily, the company does not have to give him a penny to compensate him, so that he can fend for himself and become his creditor. Xu Yang had to work hard outside to continue repaying the company's loan until he died of exhaustion.

This is the fate of the people of the company. They are raised by the company and dedicated to the company until the individual is destroyed. All this is confirmed by the contract when they are born. Their parents gave birth to them to reduce their own pressure and did not consider them. fate.

Xu Yang only felt a chill in his heart.

Since he joined the company, he has worked hard and fantasized about being able to spend decades safely at his workstation, but all of this is like a joke.

His personal efforts are also worthless. He was trained in the company to obtain skill files, and took out loans to install digital minds, all of which were not comparable to the newly developed artificial intelligence. Its efficiency in checking the network security system was more than 10 times that of Xu Yang.

Replaced without warning and then unemployed.

To sell physical strength, can you earn 5,000 a month? How many years will it take to pay off the 4.5 million? I tried my best to repay the debt... After paying it off—

He felt trapped in his workstation.

Xu Yang picked up a cigarette and smoked it desperately, every time his nerves were tense to the extreme, he had to do this to numb himself.

Cowardly living.

The terminal flickered slightly, Xu Yang looked sideways and found a new message from Huang Na.

"AI is now under maintenance for an hour, you can see what you can do." At the end of the message, there was a cheering emoji.

"Well, if I leave now, which set of procedures will be applied?" Xu Yang asked tentatively.

"Your digital mind is in debt... If you leave your job, go to the prosthetics department to dismantle it."

Xu Yang's heart froze.

He was exhausted, opened the company system, and saw that the "Tiangong" AI working for him was temporarily offline.

What can you do when you are offline, now it is taking salary for people, and everything is handled by AI. Xu Yang felt more and more frustrated. Taking the initiative to leave is also equal to death. If Xu Yang's digital mind is removed, he is very likely to be paralyzed, or become seriously ill, and he will not be able to pay for the follow-up surgery. For him, he is already facing a desperate situation of fate.

wait...

Xu Yang took a deep breath, his wickedness grew towards his gut.

escape!

Run away with a digital mind!

The shopping vouchers that the company issued to Xu Yang over the years were all piled up in the dormitory. If you sell them all, you can exchange them for about 150,000 yuan, which is enough to buy the earliest ticket, go to a small place, and hide.

This is the only chance to escape the company right now!

Surveillance is everywhere in the company. It was originally controlled by Xu Yang, but now it is managed by "Tiangong" AI. However, the AI ​​was offline for an hour, and now they are back under Xu Yang's control.

When "Tiangong" resumes operation, no matter what you do, it will be recorded. At that time, there is no way to run, there is only one dead end!

Running now, you can bring something to exchange for money, and you can retain your digital mind and exercise soundly.

I will not repay this debt!

Thinking of the scene of his parents dying at the company's workstation, Xu Yang felt disgusted from the bottom of his heart.

How could it be possible for me to give my life to such a black-hearted company!

Any extra second here is suicidal.

Even doing so will put yourself on the company's blacklist.

Xu Yang is a company employee, and he signed a lifelong service contract for Gaoge Kyushu in his mother's womb. If he escapes, he will undoubtedly be hunted down.

The major giant companies are in the same spirit, no matter where he goes, he will become a wanted target, and the security department will try their best to catch him back.

And for so many years, I have never heard of anyone from a company who escaped from Gaoge Kyushu and could still live. This is the most serious crime! Xu Yang is in charge of the monitoring system himself, and usually he is extremely wary of other company people escaping, knowing what will happen if they slip away.

But... the tree moves to death, the man moves to live!

Now you can walk with a digital mind along the way, instead of being dismantled. Of course, this is yet another crime.

Staying here will always be just a humanoid battery on and off duty, accepting the destiny of the company and burning yourself for the company.

Running away in violation of the contract, although it is a serious betrayal, will definitely be hunted down, but there are infinite possibilities!

Do you want to be a company dog ​​for a lifetime, or find a path to freedom?

Xu Yang made a decision in his heart.

He casually grabbed a few things on hand and put them in his bag. As a member of the Cyber ​​Security Department, every device around him was under the manipulation of his digital mind.

He turned off all the cameras and motion sensors from his position to the dormitory, and hurried out of the station. Xu Yang really knew the company's surveillance methods too well, and now he gave himself the green light to escape.

As a company employee, but fled in violation of the contract, Xu Yang's heart was pounding, what a daring act! If you change to another company person, I am afraid that you will have to accept fate and wait to die, but Xu Yang will never admit defeat.

People from other companies around him stayed in their workstations like logs, staring blankly at the smart screen in front of them, and didn't care about things other than the work content. Xu Yang could easily avoid them.

There are recorders and timers everywhere, feedback every employee's every move to the supervisory background, and Xu Yang secretly shields the surveillance background so that his actions do not leave any traces.

This also means that he has no way to retreat, and he has to move fast.

This series of actions is still unsafe. When the company's "Tiangong" AI resumes operation, Xu Yang will be located in an instant.

Xu Yang ran back to the dormitory, stuffed all the valuable and light things into his backpack, carried the bag and left.

There is a chance of escape in the taxi area.

Usually no one comes and goes, but Xu Yang's digital mind is compatible with network attack and defense and hacking technology, and should be able to hack a taxi and escape.

On the parking platform, the prosperous city outside can be seen through the glass windows, and there are many unmanned taxis in the parking spaces, which can travel on the floating channel.

Xu Yang quickly turned off the camera of the parking platform, adjusted the patrol path of the security robot, and walked carefully to one of the taxis, preparing to hack in.

At the same time, a driverless taxi arrived from a distance.

A resolute battle witch got out of the car.

Xu Yang was stunned for a moment.

She is tall and beautiful, wearing sunglasses, with long black hair tied up, a pair of giant peaks on her upper body wrapped in metal armor, streamlined and sturdy armor to protect her vitals, no traces of transformation and implants can be seen, and a large area of ​​attractive skin is exposed. , but it seems dangerous, so that people dare not think about it, with the power of the witch, it can destroy an entire street in an instant.

Witches are born with unique and powerful powers, some of which are unmatched by even the most advanced technology. The company breeds, captures, recruits and trains witches in large numbers to serve the company's interests.

The person in front of me is the witch used for military security operations in Gaoge Kyushu, named Pan Ruiyi! Her witch ability is an extremely powerful melee specialization, and she is also a member of the Mobile Riot Suppression Team, routinely patrolling various areas in the Eastern Hemisphere.

The moment he recognized her, Xu Yang's scalp felt numb.

Now is not the time to be timid.

He walked quickly to an unmanned taxi, pretended to be on business, used his digital mind to connect with the vehicle remotely, cracked the civilian-grade key it carried, and planned to gain control of it, the sooner he left. the better.

"Hmph, want to escape?" A faint voice sounded in his ears.

Xu Yang turned his head and was shocked to see that the witch had appeared by his side at an unknown time, sneered and looked contemptuous, and a pair of eyes behind the sunglasses seemed to devour Xu Yang on the spot.

Xu Yang's heart was beating wildly.

"Do not……"

"Don't worry." Pan Ruiyi chuckled, "I'm on vacation today, not working."

"..."

"You are so weak, what do you want me to do, the pathetic weak who can't bear the pressure, the company needs the strong, not the waste."

"..."

"It's so incompetent to be an employee, let alone a human being?" Pan Ruiyi turned to look at the incomparably tall company building, "You still want to survive so weak? Idiot, without the company, you can't achieve anything. Get out now, the farther you escape, the better it is good!"

In an instant, Pan Ruiyi disappeared without a trace like a fast flying shadow.

Xu Yang was silent, he just used his digital mind to crack the car, got in, and let the taxi take him away from the company quickly.

In this era, there is a deep anonymous network, specializing in illegal activities. Xu Yang did not want to deal with its members. Now he is also a fugitive from the company. Dropped, and finally exchanged 120,000 and deposited it into the cash card.

Xu Yang bought a cigarette, took a deep breath, then threw it away, stepped on the ground, and vowed not to smoke again and never return to work in any company. He also swore that he would never let himself be insulted like that again.

Everything that has been damaged and trampled on, he wants to earn back all by himself.

The company people who leave the company have nothing.

10 days later, Xu Yang hid in the boundless site of Kyoto, a giant enterprise known for its high-tech, entertainment and animation industries.

Anjiu City is a big city under the infinite name of Kyoto, but Anjiu City is also a place that Xu Yang cannot afford to live in, so he can only find an underground city under it, Aizu Castle.

Xu Yang rented a small room in the underground city of Aizu and registered on the deep anonymous network that the company could not manage.

He works in the cybersecurity department, and has developed and utilized the digital mind quite well, and can use it to crack and hack electronic products, vehicles, and equipment. As a result, he claimed to be a free neuro-hacker with advanced cracking capabilities.

As soon as he got on the flight to escape, Xu Yang started looking for work to earn some money. But 10 days have passed and he has not received any work contract.

In the past 10 days, he has resisted the tracking of his traces tens of thousands of times. Gaoge Kyushu was extremely angry with his escape and immediately announced that he had violated the company contract and must be brought to justice.

The trials for those who escaped are extremely severe, and their brains will be dug out and made into a matrix of personality, erasing their free will and emotions, and becoming truly selfless corporate people.

The security department also went crazy to search for him all over the Eastern Hemisphere, waiting to take his head back and replace it with his own continuous jumping chips.

This is the price of escape.

It's death to stay in the company, and it's death to be outside. Xu Yang felt bitter. Could it be that his fate has come to an end like this?

If he can't work, the pursuit is coming. With the money he has now, he can't afford a decent security service to protect himself. It is only a matter of time before he is targeted.

He checked the status of the network address being tracked, and when he heard the rude scolding in the dark corridor outside, he was apprehensive, for fear that the killer would come to him at any time.

These days, I can't sleep at night.

Do I have to go back to the company to reconcile, just like the warm reminder in the employee handbook?

drip-

A new conversation notification lit up in the lower right corner of the screen, Xu Yang widened his eyes, sat up quickly, and clicked on the message.

"Can you handle the security system?"

Seeing the sender of the message, Xu Yang was shocked. The other party hid his ID, but the file showed that he had a very high reputation. On the deep anonymous web, mercenaries, hackers, and killers rate qualified employers highly, in a sense that they are trustworthy.

"Yes." Xu Yang quickly passed the news, "In terms of information attack and defense, I am still very confident."

"Can you deal with complete sets of company goods?"

"No problem." Xu Yang's digital mind is very high-quality, with high authority and technical skills, and it is no problem to deal with other companies' products.

"It's very risky to do this. You have to fight against the company alliance, or even annoy other giant companies. You won't mind."

"Of course it doesn't matter, how much is the reward?"

"100000000."

Xu Yang naturally wouldn't believe it, but he felt that there was a need to try. It's all about this, how can he pick and choose.

"Okay." He replied.