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Chapter 2 - This is Night City

Hours of continuous trekking significantly depleted his energy.

Energy level warnings had flashed twice in his visual interface, both times temporarily ignored by him.

In low-power mode, his thinking seemed to become more "humanized." He began to miss the times he'd enjoyed high-efficiency energy fluids on forge worlds, and even more distant memories—the sweet, cloying taste of happy nerd water.

Just as he was preparing to conduct another energy assessment, a distorted silhouette appeared on the distant horizon.

"Man-made structures!" His spirits lifted.

Signs of civilization meant there might be resources, information, and definitely energy!

Hope reignited, and he quickened his pace.

But the desert didn't seem willing to let him go easily.

The distant skyline began to turn murky, a yellow curtain wall advancing toward him at alarming speed.

"Warning: High-speed moving solid particle flow detected. Sandstorm approaching."

"Activate environmental adaptation protocol. Servo-skull, return to standby." He issued the command while foot probes extended deep into the sand layer, switching to "stability anchor" mode. His robes sealed as internal filtration systems began humming.

The sandstorm roared like a solid wall crashing into him.

He was like an iron fish swimming against the current, each step heavy but resolute.

The sound of sand grinding against metal was piercingly sharp, but he merely silently adjusted his posture and calculated the optimal path.

This confrontation with natural forces oddly calmed his somewhat anxious mood.

After the sandstorm subsided, he shook off the sand and dust, gazing toward the small town.

It looked closer now, and more dilapidated.

Rusted vehicle carcasses reduced to mere frames were half-buried in sand.

Weathered, low-rise buildings were mostly collapsed.

A huge billboard leaned crookedly in the sand, its neon tubes long shattered, but faded lettering could still be vaguely discerned:

"...otechnology"

"Militech—Securing Your Future"

"Biotechnica? Militech?" Cairo read the two names aloud, an increasingly strange feeling growing in his heart.

These names carried a cold, corporate sense of the future that matched none of the hometown companies in his memory. Instead, they seemed more like... products of a specific cultural background.

A vague notion began to take root at the edge of his mind, but he couldn't quite grasp it yet.

He didn't immediately enter. The servo-skull on his shoulder silently rose once more.

"Reconnaissance mode. Map the structure, scan for life signs."

Through the real-time data transmitted by the servo-skull, a detailed structural map of the town began to construct in his field of vision.

Most building interiors were structurally unstable.

Heat signature scans showed... life signs, very weak, sparse in number, and scattered.

"Life form characteristic analysis: No standard humanoid heat signatures or neural network fluctuations identified. Genetic sequences display high-degree aberrations, consistent with characteristics of high-intensity radiation exposure. Body size parameters: small to medium.

Behavioral pattern analysis: Photophobic, cave-dwelling, foraging habits. Threat level: Low to medium (based on possible group behavior)."

The servo-skull transmitted analysis results, accompanied by infrared footage: several creatures with ulcerated skin and degenerated eyes—mutated weasels or similar beings relying on keen hearing and smell to move quickly in the shadows—gnawing on an unidentified animal carcass.

"Radiation mutant creatures..." Cairo breathed a sigh of relief.

The servo-skull's judgment was based on the lack of intelligent life characteristic signals, not simple species classification.

It seemed this world's environment was truly terrible, giving birth to these pitiable creatures.

As long as they didn't swarm in packs, these things posed limited threat to him.

He carefully avoided areas where mutant creatures nested, following the structural map's guidance toward the town center and a relatively intact building—what looked like an old automotive repair shop. Perhaps inside would be something he needed.

The workshop door had long since rotted and collapsed.

The interior was dim, thick with the heavy scents of rust, motor oil, and dust.

Several cars reduced to mere skeletons lay on lift platforms, tools scattered everywhere, most unusable.

But his gaze was instantly drawn to a terminal in the corner—half-embedded in the wall, covered in dust but with seemingly intact structure.

More importantly, there appeared to be physical cables connected behind the terminal, leading underground!

"Physical interface!" Cairo's heart leapt with joy as he immediately moved forward.

He brushed away the thick dust, exposing the terminal's data port.

This old-fashioned specification didn't pose any difficulty. A mechanical appendage flexibly transformed, precisely interfacing with the port.

"Attempting to bypass local routing, directly trace signal source through underlying cables... there's data flow!" He felt faint but definitely orderly data pulses coming through the interface.

Permission barriers were like paper before his advanced intrusion tools from the Warhammer era.

Several seconds later, he successfully hijacked this pitiful terminal's permissions and, following the cable that might lead to some not-yet-completely-damaged old-era regional network, arduously traced upward.

Large amounts of data were still garbled and noise, but finally, some fragmented information began to be captured and parsed by him.

Broken news headlines flashed by: "...Night City Council's latest round of quarreling..."

Blurry advertisement fragments: "Afterlife nightclub, witness legends..."

Incomplete traffic announcements: "Heywood district sealed today..."

Corporate logos clearly visible: "Arasaka Security Services, your first choice," "Kang Tao: Pioneering the Future"...

Night City... Arasaka... Kang Tao... Afterlife...

Each word was like a key, violently opening the floodgates of his sealed memories! Those cyberpunk-themed works he'd watched, games he'd played in another universe when he was an ordinary Earthling...

The servo-skull hovered quietly beside him, recording its master's sudden body rigidity and the instant focus change of optical lenses.

Brief silence.

"...Fuck." A complex exclamation—mixing enormous surprise, slight disappointment, but mostly disbelief and absurdity—leaked from beneath Cairo's face mask.

Not his homeland Earth. Night City. Cyberpunk 2077.

He stood stunned for several seconds, then a strange emotion surged up—somewhere between laughter and tears.

He'd transmigrated through two universes, only to drop into a fictional world he'd once thought was mere entertainment?

However, after this sense of absurdity passed, what replaced it wasn't despair or depression.

He looked around this dilapidated repair shop, recalling the barren desert, radiation mutant creatures, collapsed network he'd seen along the way...

All these terrible sights suddenly acquired a feeling he could understand, even found "familiar."

"Alright, alright... Night City..." he muttered to himself, his voice gradually becoming steady, even taking on a hint of strange vitality. "Global network collapse? Massive pollution? Corporate war remnants? Mm, very reasonable, perfectly fits the setting."

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