"This job itself is simple," Kiwi said slowly.
"But diving into a completely new cyberspace—with hundreds of thousands of people connected at the same time? That's insane."
As one of Night City's top netrunners, Kiwi was deeply familiar with dimensional chips. The moment she sensed the structure inside Xiao's chip—and the sheer number of active connections—she couldn't hide her shock.
Even the internal networks of megacorporations never allowed so many users online simultaneously.
And this wasn't a matter of server capacity.
When that many minds were connected, countless thoughts intertwined—creating ideal conditions for hidden dangers to emerge.
"All it takes is one lunatic," Kiwi continued, "linking up with a rogue AI. The Blackwall's defense protocols would trigger immediately. The losses would be immeasurable."
She still remembered the latter stages of the Fourth Corporate War.
Back then, Militech had deliberately lured Blackwall incursions into rival networks, wiping out entire systems in one move.
"This network is independent," Xiao replied casually, picking at his nails.
"It has nothing to do with the Blackwall."
"That's even crazier!" Kiwi clutched her head.
"What if a rogue AI slips in? With this many people connected, it'd be like a rat in a granary. No one would survive!"
Her voice rose unconsciously.
Without the Blackwall, a rogue AI wouldn't even need to fight—it could simply feast.
"You can leave," Xiao said flatly.
There was a clear edge of displeasure in his tone.
He understood her concerns—but that didn't mean he had infinite patience.
Kiwi's fears weren't unfounded.
In the modern Net, overcrowding always attracted troublemakers.
Too many people invited rogue AIs.
Too few defenses invited disaster.
If the Blackwall existed, it would eventually devour every connector—and then annihilate the rogue AI along with them.
If the Blackwall didn't exist, the rogue AI would devour everything first… and still be erased later.
Either way, the Blackwall was the final eater.
That was why local networks mattered. With limited users, corporate netrunners could monitor every presence and eliminate threats before they escalated.
"…Sorry," Kiwi muttered after a moment, lowering her head.
"I talk too much."
The reward echoed in her mind.
"I'll take the job."
Xiao lifted his chin slightly but said nothing more.
"Do you have a netrunner chair?" Kiwi asked. "I'm getting ready to dive."
Relief washed over her.
She was just a mercenary.
The employer decided the rules.
No job in Night City was truly safe anyway.
If Xiao dared to run such a network openly, then he clearly had confidence in dealing with Flowing AI and whatever else lurked beyond.
And if things went wrong—
She trusted herself to jack out fast enough.
"No chair," Xiao said.
"But there's plenty of ice in the freezer."
He gestured toward a large bathtub.
The meaning was obvious.
Kiwi stared at him for several seconds before narrowing her eyes.
"Don't get ideas," she warned.
"I don't do side jobs. And my partner's waiting outside."
She was a netrunner—fragile by trade.
Even with Rogue's credibility, she would never meet a client alone. Trust didn't exist in Night City.
Xiao tilted his head.
"Top performers at Konpeki Plaza only cost a few tens of thousands a night," he said thoughtfully.
"You really think you're comparable?"
"…."
Kiwi exhaled slowly.
He wasn't wrong—but hearing it still hurt.
Konpeki's top escorts were selected exclusively for corporate executives. Rumor had it that even Arasaka Yorinobu had taken interest in one of them.
Losing to a "woman" who might not even be a woman stung more than she wanted to admit.
"Damn rich people…" she muttered.
"Making money so easily."
All her resentment dissolved into a quiet sigh.
She got to work.
Ice was prepared.
Cables were laid out.
Interfaces synchronized.
Two hours later, Kiwi finally lowered herself into the ice bath.
As she sank deeper, the spiderweb-like tattoos across her body emitted a faint blue glow, responding to the dive.
Her consciousness slipped free.
The Cyber Dimension unfolded before her.
Kiwi's data body moved smoothly through the digital expanse—until a strange fluctuation caught her attention.
"…What is that?"
Her heart skipped.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
She approached cautiously.
Ahead lay a mass of chaotic, disordered code—a writhing cluster of corrupted data.
Violence.
Blood.
Sex.
Hatred.
Fragments of distorted imagery overlapped endlessly. Some resembled malformed Pokémon like Mewtwo, others were nothing but raw, human malice.
Worse—
Some of the garbled code moved.
Like living creatures, they slaughtered nearby inert data, devouring everything they touched and growing larger with every kill.
Each consumed cluster made them faster.
Sharper.
Clearer.
As though something horrifying was gestating inside.
Kiwi's first instinct screamed rogue AI—
But she quickly realized it wasn't.
This thing couldn't affect normal data.
It could only devour its own kind.
A parasitic existence.
It existed safely within the Cyber Dimension—untouched by external attacks, yet incapable of harming connected humans.
A silent leech.
Absorbing energy.
Growing endlessly.
Unable to interact with the world—yet impossible to ignore.
Suppressing her unease, Kiwi launched her attack.
Custom intrusion scripts.
Logic bombs.
Recursive wipes.
Nothing worked.
Not only did the corrupted code survive—it learned.
Each failed strike sharpened its defenses.
Each attack accelerated its evolution.
Kiwi's expression darkened.
"This thing…" she muttered, teeth clenched.
"…is adapting."
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