Faulty Utopia

Sun Jack lay in bed, listening to the rain outside, as if everything had quieted down.

At that very moment, a flurry of emotions seemed to arrive belatedly, following him – the fear elicited by the close brush with death, the rejection of an unfamiliar environment, and the realization that he had become a disabled person.

Sun Jack shook his head vigorously and stood up again. Having arrived in this strange place, he had to adapt as quickly as possible.

Because if he didn't adapt as quickly as possible, he could face danger once again.

Sun Jack walked to the sofa and sat down, beginning to soak up knowledge through the advertisements and news before his eyes, and gradually understanding this new world.

As he continued to browse, he gained a fresh understanding of this city, or rather the entire new world.

The term "country" had completely disappeared now, and the governmental system had vanished; the whole world had become thoroughly capitalist, with major corporate conglomerates controlling the cities with their capital.

Each city, or rather each urban area, was now under the control of major corporations. The city's management was also handled by a city council formed by the largest corporations, and even security matters were outsourced to security firms, collectively funded by these corporations.

So strictly speaking, BCPD weren't police at all; they could only be considered security guards.

Of course, the corporations didn't operate this way out of any burst of conscience – to expect conscience from capitalists was less likely than expecting the moon to return to the sky.

They did it because at least a modicum of order assured the maximum profit for their companies.

As Sun Jack scrolled down, he saw the history of corporate strife over the last century. For the sake of profit, corporations used every means necessary – war, assassination, espionage. There was constant fighting among them, a desperate struggle for life and death.

However, seeing all this, Sun Jack let out a long sigh. It seemed that the corporations only cared about making money. Everything was for the sake of earning money, and the archaeology industry had completely disappeared.

He, a man frozen a thousand years ago, wasn't some highly desired "Tang Sanzang's flesh" that every demon would want to devour; he was temporarily safe.

Of course, Sun Jack understood that he was only temporarily safe, not absolutely safe.

Previously, Bro had said that in this world, traffic was gold. If his identity were exposed, he would definitely be in big trouble.

If he were truly discovered, Tapai would surely destroy him immediately without fail.

Therefore, his identity must remain absolutely secret now, and he had to disguise himself as much as possible as someone from this world.

Thinking this, Sun Jack looked toward Tapai, who was using his optical fiber to convert a wireless charging port into his own charging interface.

"Why are you looking at me? (´･—･)?"

"Nothing, carry on with your work." Sun Jack continued to search for information. After addressing the immediate safety issue, he again turned his attention to the so-called nervous system.

He still needed to know as much as possible about the thing that was going to be implanted into his brain soon.

"Come, come, come~~! Take a look at the latest neuro-enhancement network, Titan Ver.1.15! Not only can it connect to any of your prosthetic bodies like before and automatically display bullet count, but it also has its own ICE to keep you safe from firmware tampering and system hacking! Customizable ports allow you to insert as many enhancement chips as you want, in whichever way you want, be it the Pain Editor or flavor adjustment module, all are compatible....."

After watching various advertisements, Sun Jack gained more understanding of the neural network concept.

Simply put, this device was like a smartphone that could be inserted into your brain, allowing control over the body in the same way one could control a smartphone. The higher-end versions offered more control, even controlling pain and physical strength.

I must say, this stuff is really outrageous, with a vast array of functions. It's enough to make you want to buy it, but Sun Jack didn't forget that what he's looking at are advertisements.

No matter where in the world, when others advertise, they'll definitely only talk up the good points and not mention the bad.

Just judging from what happened before, that thing Baldy had right before he died was obviously used to suppress the nervous system.

As long as it was fitted, smoke was coming out of everyone's heads with neural systems, while my all-natural brain saved me and allowed a miraculous comeback kill.

"Since the neural system is a system, it's certainly susceptible to hacking and tracking by viruses. I don't care, all my systems are programmed with languages from a thousand years ago. Place a vulnerability right in front of them, and they wouldn't understand it, but you're different. It's hard to guarantee someone won't sneak a backdoor onto your system and use you like a zombie computer," Tapai, who had started charging himself, said.

Hearing this, Sun Jack suddenly got restless and began searching rapidly.

As he entered 'neural system virus' as the keyword, all sorts of bizarre cases appeared before him, including even an incident where someone drowned in a washbowl due to prosthetic body malfunctions caused by a virus invasion.

While the neural system is incredibly convenient, it also brings a plethora of strange and diverse risks. Other things aside, the problem is that this stuff gets installed inside your head.

That night, Sun Jack barely slept, wracked with indecision over whether to install the neural system. If he did, there would be all sorts of risks, but without it, it was like not having a cell phone in later generations—practically impossible to get by in this technological era.

Just as Sun Jack had finally fallen asleep, he was woken up by a series of knocks on the door, "Bro, open up quick, it's me."

Upon opening the door, Sun Jack saw Baldy standing there with his big gold teeth exposed.

"Don't you ever sleep? This early?"

"Sleep? Bro, you're so out of touch. You actually still need to sleep? You should hurry up and get that surgery to cut it out."

After all the explosive events of yesterday, it's not the slightest bit surprising that a person wouldn't need sleep.

"Cool," Sun Jack gave him a big thumbs up, quickly freshened up, grabbed his jacket, fired up Tapai, and headed out the door.

The three of them came down in the elevator, preparing to walk out of the building, when Sun Jack suddenly felt Tapai tapping him on the shoulder.

"Jack, quick, look, (◔-◔) factory, Little B Lamp,"

Sun Jack looked up to see a woman walking towards them.

It was the cat woman from last night, but now she didn't have a trace of the sultriness she had in the club. Right hand holding high heels, left hand with a cigarette. Eyes drooping listlessly, she looked like she had been up all night.

Sun Jack looked at Tapai with dissatisfaction. "Have some decency, will you? Can't you stop assigning weird nicknames to people?"

"Linda Linda! What a coincidence, you live here too?" Baldy greeted her with a familiar air.

The cat woman recognized the trio and emotionlessly nodded her chin towards the elevator and headed in that direction, brushing past them.

Watching her receding figure, Sun Jack felt a pang of sympathy. It wasn't easy for her either, so young and yet having to do such things to make a living. She must have been feeling terrible, right? I wonder what's on her mind now?

Just as the woman got into the elevator, her sexy, pleasant voice floated back faintly. "Fuck, that's some bad luck, running into three idiots right after getting off work."

"..."