Thinking about it, horrified, he couldn't help saying,

"Why don't we just go and kill this bunch of Esoteric Buddhist lamas? Save them from harming anyone else."

New Dynasty Elegance was momentarily at a loss for words.

Cyber-psychos go on a killing spree when they lose control, but for players it's the opposite—if they don't kill people, they'll lose control. Think about it carefully and they're actually a bit scarier.

After a long while he finally said,

"Even if you kill them it's useless. I've already gone to talk with the lamas. The way these lamas preach is raising believers from childhood. The ones we're seeing now actually don't know anything. They're just the lowest-level believers, not much better off than beggars on the street, and they haven't really done anything bad. They're neutral-good NPCs protected by the system. Can't be killed."

"What a pity."

Brother Ni was a bit regretful that he couldn't kill anyone, so he could only turn to ask the next question instead.

"So... the wandering AIs we've run into before, when they possess someone, that's an external digital consciousness forcibly kicking out the host's main personality and taking control of the body. Then isn't there a possibility that, through some method, without using split personality, you could directly affect the host's primary consciousness?"

The number of times players had encountered wandering AIs was increasing as their activity range expanded. Whether it was that time in Watson District, the first time they entered the sewers, or the recent Dog Town incident, they all pointed to one thing: these wandering AIs seemed to be trying to directly control human consciousness, rather than just needing a body to move around in reality. You can slap together however many of those you want with random cyberware.

In that case, creating a second digital consciousness or an uncontrollable insane personality clearly doesn't match their previous behavioral motives. So what they're chasing after shouldn't be creating more wandering AIs, but directly controlling humans' primary personalities.

"I'm not the one who gets to answer that question."

New Dynasty Elegance chuckled.

"In the end, it still depends on how the dev team wants to write the plot. Brainwashing, hypnosis—if they want to do it, there are way too many similar methods. Wouldn't surprise me if they even ported over the Psychic Dominator and Yuri from Red Alert."

Psychic Dominator...

Brother Ni looked at the huge Four-handed Divine Statue in the distance that had originally been worshiped by the lamas. It was now wrapped up in scaffolding and tarps by Horizon Corporation's roadworks crew, apparently undergoing maintenance and modification. The project was no small thing; it had been going on for almost a week without stopping.

In his eyes, what else are these religious statues if not a kind of so‑called Psychic Dominator?

They bewitch those bottom-level believers into donating money and blood, even bankrupting themselves just to pay a bit of incense money to the Buddha. The only difference from a cult might be that the former seized the chance to get themselves legit.

Brother Ni looked back at New Dynasty Elegance in his Daoist getup. This guy changed into a new con-artist priest costume every day; even among players he was an oddball.

But compared to his previous priest and monk skins, today's native-religion outfit looked a lot more pleasing to Brother Ni. At least he hadn't really heard much dirty laundry about Daoism.

New Dynasty Elegance seemed to know what Brother Ni was thinking.

"Don't harbor goodwill toward any religion or religious person. Canon is canon, religion is religion. The former is philosophy, the latter is superstition."

"Including what you're wearing?"

"Including what I'm wearing. Just because you haven't heard about something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Maybe it just got suppressed and never spread. Buddha-grifters and Dao-grifters are actually the same. It's just that the latter are too weak—so weak that no one cares about their scandals, so they never go viral."

Brother Ni had a vague feeling

New Dynasty Elegance might know even more than he'd imagined. This guy might be the most unfathomable of all the players who had gone online.

Just like the constantly changing religious outfits on him, it felt like there was always a thin veil between them, impossible to see through.

————

White House, Presidential Residence

Miles was, as usual, sitting in her office handling state affairs, with an Intelligence Bureau agent standing by her side reporting. There was no third person in the room.

"According to reports from our undercover agents, they may be planning a major move soon. And our people in Havana also spotted Olivia. That Chaotic Blade Association leader seems to be negotiating with local drug lords, but her real objective is unknown."

"Olivia?"

Miles frowned. She felt like she'd heard that name before, so she dug through the archives and then, somewhat surprised, asked,

"Wasn't she defeated and captured alive by Horizon Corporation? How could she show up in Cuba? Is the source reliable?"

"Our people took photos. We can basically confirm it's Olivia herself."

"Heh."

Miles laughed.

"Now this is a bit interesting."

She'd wanted Lin Miao to come see her, but got snubbed before she could even get mad. And now he'd actually sent someone to Cuba. What's that supposed to mean?

Could he be planning to beg those drug lords for mercy?

No... if he wanted to bow his head, he shouldn't be sending Olivia from the Chaotic Blade Association.

Besides, he was still maintaining a hardline crackdown on illegal drug dealers in Night City and showed no sign of trying to build a monopoly channel for drugs. Horizon Corporation and the Cuba Drug Trafficking Group still had irreconcilable contradictions.

Not to mention the Intelligence Bureau agent had just reported that the Cuba Drug Trafficking Group was preparing the next round of terrorist attacks against Lin Miao. If Olivia really went there for peace talks, this wouldn't be happening. And by any stretch, the boss of the Chaotic Blade Association shouldn't be part of a peace delegation.

Miles' smile gradually froze on her face.

Horizon Corporation sending someone to Cuba meant Horizon was definitely eyeing Cuba. They sent people but not to negotiate... and Lin Miao absolutely knew the Cubans wouldn't let him off...

The next round of conflict between the two sides was only a matter of time. And with Horizon Corporation weak and isolated, facing the Cuba Drug Trafficking Group backed by the European Community, there was no way he'd get the final victory. He could only collapse and fail as the balance shifted against him.

Was Miles worried about Horizon Corporation collapsing?

She was.

And she wasn't.

Because once Lin Miao died, his assets would revert back to Military Technology and New America. Miles wouldn't lose out. But she thought of something else.

No wonder... no wonder that guy didn't want to come to Washington to accept New America's protection, and even arrogantly said that she, the President of the United States, should go to Night City to see him in person.

Miles' heart skipped a beat.

Maybe... this could be a chance to break the deadlock.

She found a certain contact in her address book. After dialing, she said,

"Arrange a trip to Night City. Remember, absolute secrecy. The fewer people who know, the better."

For smart people, reaching cooperation never requires both parties to sit down face to face, or even to know each other. As long as their directions of advance temporarily align, they can each do their own thing and still, invisibly, reach cooperation and take away the benefits they respectively want.