Cyberpunk: I'm Not a Scavenger - Chapter 67: Truth and Technology (Patreon)

Pantheon connected his personal link to the data terminal, then used the terminal as a bridge to the server.

The extra layer inevitably slowed things down, but it made the connection safer.

The vulnerability supplied by Militech's agents was more like a shortcut straight into the database. It bypassed Biotechnica's subnet ICE and gave him a high-speed route inside.

Different floors and departments maintained their own subnets and servers, and this part of the database had its own encryption. But the hardest obstacle was already behind him. Even Lucy and her team wouldn't have needed long to crack this.

"Let's see what Militech's really after."

Pantheon narrowed his eyes and skimmed through the files.

[Project Code: Nightingale Plan]

The name immediately reminded him of a gig from the game. It had been so long, though, that even he couldn't remember all the details.

Officially, the project concerned a new broad-spectrum antibiotic being developed jointly by Militech and Biotechnica.

Its true purpose was to find a way to make soldiers immune to biological and chemical weapons.

The research hadn't gone well. Otherwise, Biotechnica wouldn't have needed to conceal its progress from Militech.

Instead, the researchers had created an uncontrollable new virus.

Those infected suffered extreme discomfort in response to electromagnetic stimulation, along with agonizing nerve pain.

In an age when nearly everything depended on cyberware and network connections, an inability to tolerate electromagnetic stimulation was as good as being cut off from society.

And technically, even light was a form of electromagnetic radiation.

What angered Pantheon most, however, was the identity of the test subjects. They weren't laboratory mice. They were the Red Ocher clan, nomads from the Badlands.

Biotechnica had been experimenting on living people.

Under the guise of a partnership, the corporation had lured the Red Ocher nomads into the study, then secretly poured its so-called medicine into the tribe's water supply.

Once everyone became infected, the sick nomads would depend on Biotechnica for help and have no choice but to obey.

As Pantheon read one experimental record after another, he couldn't forget that every entry represented someone who had been alive.

His gaze grew icy. Biotechnica was guilty, but did that make Militech innocent? Did they seriously expect anyone to believe Militech knew nothing?

All the megacorporations were the same rotten breed.

Following the terms of his gig, he gathered the core data from the [Nightingale] project and downloaded it.

Was that the end of it?

What a joke.

Meredith probably thought he was nothing more than a musclebound idiot. That was the only reason she'd dared give him access to such a valuable network vulnerability.

Handing a vulnerability like this to a master netrunner was like asking a monkey to guard an orchard of peaches or a rat to watch over a granary.

If Pantheon didn't leave a few dozen malicious programs and backdoors inside Biotechnica's subnet, how could he call himself Bartmoss's successor?

While going through the database's access logs, he discovered an incomplete data key, probably left behind by a maintenance engineer.

There was an almost old-fashioned elegance to its encryption. He tried two different approaches and recovered the password without much effort.

And then?

From there, it was like finding an unbeatable card combo. All he had to do was keep playing his cards.

One supposedly impregnable data fortress after another fell before him.

Biotechnica's internal database opened its doors, and Pantheon walked in as though he belonged there.

Its security programs could only look on helplessly, like a powerless husband watching a thief with a stolen key stroll in and out of his home.

Pantheon browsed the records and downloaded everything that seemed useful: personnel files, laboratory equipment maintenance logs, names of service contractors, and more.

The deeper he went, the more evidence of Biotechnica's crimes he found.

To test a new drug, the corporation had poisoned a town outside Night City, killing more than three hundred people.

To seize farmland, it had deliberately suspended cultivation permits and secretly contaminated the soil, bankrupting countless small and medium-sized farms.

And to manipulate share prices for profit, it had used agents planted inside Crimson Harvest to carry out terrorist attacks.

Pantheon saved those files too.

Evidence this explosive needed to reach the public at the right moment. The long arm of a corporation wasn't something to underestimate.

Naturally, the database also held advanced research and technology. Several projects were exactly what Pantheon had been looking for.

[Nano-Medical Robots]

Project Objective: Develop ultra-miniature, one-nanometer robots capable of clearing metabolic waste from human cells, destroying abnormal cells and foreign invaders, and repairing damaged tissue and organs.

Combined with targeted cell cultivation and cloning, the robots would integrate directly into cells and keep the body's functions at their peak over long periods, potentially extending human life.

Project Progress: 67%. The cloning laboratory was destroyed in the 2023 nuclear explosion. Project supervisor Francis Young went missing, and portions of the cloning technology were lost.

Pantheon's grin widened as he read.

These weren't the ordinary nanomachines sold to clean blood vessels or patch up cheap cyberware.

If they could protect and clean structures inside cells, they might also prevent the alien virus, or alien cells, in his Nanosuit from attacking his healthy tissue.

And if he could reproduce and improve the technology, he might eventually create a Cyberpunk-world version of the Nanosuit.

Just imagine what a whole squad of fighters like V, all wearing Nanosuits, could do in urban combat.

[Sixth-Generation Integrated Gene-Cutting and Editing Cradle]

Project Objective: An improved model of the previous gene cradle, with cutting and editing efficiency increased by 67% and further improvements in processing nonhuman cells, including fungi and viruses.

Project Progress: 99.9%. Development is proceeding smoothly. The related equipment and technology will soon be transferred to the Italian headquarters.

Genetic engineering had been central to Biotechnica's rise, and the company had always invested heavily in it.

The new generation of gene cradles could perform targeted genetic cutting and editing with almost perfect accuracy, down to the level of individual base pairs.

Yet Biotechnica's current CEO preferred using the technology to recreate Earth's wildlife, producing such oddities as koalas with venomous snake fangs, cheetahs that could change color, and gigantic eagles resembling pterosaurs.

Biotechnica hadn't stopped developing new projects either. Pantheon had heard that it was experimenting with an enormous biological computer near the US border with Canada.

Apparently, the computer was built primarily from fungus.

Pantheon practically drooled over the possibilities.

If the nanomachines couldn't stop the alien virus, the gene cradle might still provide a way out.

Unfortunately, the relevant technology wasn't stored in this database. It had probably been sealed away along with the equipment itself.

Going all the way to Italy sounded like far too much trouble. He'd much rather stay in Night City.

His inner bandit was already getting restless.