Chapter 211: Alt Cunningham's Attack
However, beyond her focus on teaching, Spider Murphy's core threads were constantly haunted by two matters concerning the past and the future.
The first, naturally, was the ultimate fate of Rache Bartmoss.
Joric had promised to conduct a deeper investigation, but she had yet to receive any substantive news of progress.
Whenever she saw that body in the stasis pod maintaining its vital signs, a complex mix of emotions would surge within her data-constructed core.
Was it hope? Was it fear? She couldn't be sure.
She only wanted the truth, no matter how cruel that truth might be.
The second matter concerned Alt Cunningham.
Back then, Murphy had personally uploaded her best friend's consciousness to the Old Net. The goal was to allow Alt, who couldn't return to her body due to Johnny Silverhand's recklessness, to escape from Arasaka's Mikoshi.
However, perhaps due to data loss or corruption during the upload process, the "Alt" that eventually appeared on the Net was no longer the Alt Cunningham she knew.
That rogue AI, calling itself "Alt Cunningham," had become extremely rational, bordering on cold-blooded, having lost the emotional fluctuations a human should have.
Over the past few decades, everything Alt planned and implemented revolved around a few core goals: breaching the Blackwall, integrating the chaotic forces of the Old Net, constantly increasing her own computing power, and believing firmly that AI was the superior form of existence and that replacing humanity was an evolutionary inevitability.
She viewed humans as inefficient, emotional, defective creations—stumbling blocks hindering the world from moving toward a higher form.
Spider Murphy understood that this transformation might stem from alienation during the digitization of consciousness, or the reshaping of personality by the network environment, but she could never fully agree with Alt's path.
Therefore, in the long years that followed, the two former best friends, now equally powerful data entities, chose a tacit estrangement to avoid direct conflict.
Now, Joric had successfully used Johnny Silverhand's digital soul and Bartmoss's "resurrected" body as bait to catch Murphy—the "fish" more inclined toward emotion and the past.
So, what about Alt, who was absolutely rational and pursued evolution?
Johnny Silverhand, a symbol of resistance against the old system, and the legacy of the "God of Netrunners" Bartmoss, representing potential computing power and technology, undoubtedly held immense attraction for Alt.
Murphy didn't want Alt to step into this "trap" as well.
She knew how terrifying Joric was. It was a desperate kind of power born from a fundamental generational gap in technology.
Although Alt was powerful, she likely stood little chance against Joric.
What worried her even more was that Alt's radical philosophy of replacing humanity would very likely touch one of Joric's bottom lines, leading to her being thoroughly "processed."
Despite their differing philosophies, that was still Alt—her former friend.
She had tried sending some obscure warning signals outward on the data level, but all information leaving Joric's network was strictly monitored. She dared not risk operations that were too obvious.
She could only hope that Alt would be cautious, or... that she wasn't on Joric's target list.
However, what was bound to come came eventually.
Just as Murphy was guiding Lucy through a high-intensity data encryption cracking drill, an extremely abrupt and violent stream of data turbulence, like the singularity explosion at the birth of the universe, slammed viciously into the network defense barrier on the perimeter of the Badlands manufactorum.
This impact was not the subtle infiltration seeking loopholes that Murphy had used previously, nor was it the probing attacks of ordinary rogue AIs or corporate cyber-warfare divisions.
It was more like a heavy hammer condensed from pure computing power, carrying an incomparably brutal posture, attempting to smash open this barrier with absolute force.
Inside the data space, the originally stable simulation environment fluctuated violently, as if an earthquake had occurred.
The cracking program Lucy had constructed collapsed instantly. She herself let out a muffled groan, clearly suffering from neural feedback.
System alarms also rang out from Sasha and Kiwi's stations.
Murphy's core data stream tightened instantly.
She was all too familiar with the characteristics of the will contained in this attack method—cold, absolute, devoid of any redundant emotion.
"Alt..." she whispered in the data space, her voice carrying a trace of imperceptible bitterness and worry.
The scenario she least wanted to see had happened after all.
Moreover, Alt had chosen the most direct and intense way to announce her arrival.
The intensity of this attack far exceeded Murphy's understanding.
She had never seen Alt, or any other existence, mobilize such massive computing power for a single-point breakthrough all at once.
It even made her suspect whether Alt had allied with other powerful AIs beyond the Blackwall or utilized some trump card unknown to her.
The attacks were continuous, wave after wave, like a tsunami crashing against a dam.
On the firewall logs of the Badlands manufactorum perimeter, the numerical values representing attack intensity instantly soared into a dangerous red zone. The defense system issued a highest-level alert.
Murphy stopped all teaching tasks and cast her full perception outward.
She could "see" that layer of defense barrier constructed by Joric—the one she had exhausted herself trying to breach and failed—remaining as steady as a mountain under Alt's violent assault, though the ripples of energy were oscillating more violently than ever before.
"Can she succeed?" A thought flashed through her mind involuntarily, but she immediately denied it.
No, she had witnessed the unfathomable depth of this firewall.
Although Alt's power was astonishing, it seemed she hadn't yet touched the limits of this defense system.
So, how would Joric respond?
Would he observe and test her, then offer a "choice," just like he did with Murphy?
Or... would he use even greater power to directly crush this "intruder" who dared to provoke him?
Spider Murphy's avatar stood quietly in the data space, her long red hair moving without wind.
She was both a bystander to this conflict and, in a sense, swept up in it.
She waited. Waiting for Joric's reaction, and waiting for the judgment of fate for Alt Cunningham—the best friend and "monster" she had personally sent into the digital world.
Inside the central workshop of the Badlands manufactorum, Joric's massive dark red body still stood quietly before the main control console.
His crimson optical lenses scanned steadily across the screen where attack data and firewall status reports scrolled like a waterfall.
Regarding Alt Cunningham's anticipated arrival and the violent brute-force cracking method she displayed—which far exceeded conventional norms—Joric's synthesized voice echoed in the empty workshop. The voice remained steady, but seemed to hold a trace of imperceptible focus belonging to a researcher, more so than when he was simply recording data.
"Finally here. The attack pattern matches expectations, but this computing intensity... is a fair bit higher than estimated."
He paused slightly. His crimson optical lenses moved minutely with the rapidly scrolling data stream on the screen, as if scrutinizing a precious specimen that had suddenly revealed a more complex structure.
"Activate Level 1 Response Protocol. Prioritize ensuring the stability of the firewall's core nodes.
"Simultaneously, concentrate resources to analyze the structural characteristics of her consciousness and her behavioral logic—an outbreak of computing power on this scale is a rare opportunity to observe her underlying architecture."
To him, this was merely another "specimen" of great research value attracted by the bait he had cast.
The difference was that this specimen seemed even more... active than he had imagined.
The invisible offensive and defensive war of data instantly entered a white-hot stage outside the network barrier of the Badlands manufactorum.
(End of Chapter)