[Detected Car System Shutdown/Default]

"Hmm?"

John had just opened the car door when he looked up and saw Gino, who had originally gotten into the sports car, climbing back out.

She made a gesture with her eyes to follow, tucking her arms close and walking away into the light rain.

John consented to the operation authority.

Silver Rider 577's system was completely shut down—anything that could connect to the internet was under Black Light's surveillance, and no one could remotely operate this sports car.

Gino stood by a piece of rubble.

The desolate suburban night could only faintly see the red signal lights on the dunes; the nearest light source was an advertisement sign standing at the cemetery entrance.

John caught up, wiping the rainwater off his coat.

"Don't want to go back, want me to take you for a ride?"

"Do you think sisal rope is suicide?"

Gino suddenly asked a question.

John was about to speak but then pursed his lips.

He had similar doubts.

Indeed, sisal rope was a defective fool with personality issues, but his reaction half a day before his death was too strange, like he was high, and his brain was single-tracked.

"Do you think he was killed by someone?"

John shrugged and asked back.

Gino's complexion turned slightly pale.

"If you had to guess, who would it be?"

"Bismarck."

John answered without hesitation.

Sisal rope started behaving oddly after receiving treatment from the Source Equation.

The only person who accessed the medical system was Bismarck, who also allocated a newly installed Network Access Vault for him.

"He had too many opportunities to mess with it."

John felt his guess was pretty reasonable.

He even began to think—if Gino wanted to cause trouble for Bismarck, whether it was through the Wanderer Alliance for revenge or wanted his help, what kind of assistance should be provided...

But John noticed Gino's expression was still grim.

She looked towards the darkness of the wasteland, only speaking until a cross-district hovercar disappeared at the end of the dunes.

"Before we entered the Source Equation, he wanted to talk to me alone, do you remember?"

John nodded.

He thought sisal rope was just explaining the serum as the fact of a roaming AI, but judging from Gino's tone, the two of them had discussed other things.

"Sisal rope made me help him finish the firmware part of the [Black Box Plugin], which is the cyberspace weapon I just gave you."

Gino squatted behind a collapsed wall.

She didn't seem to be hiding from the rain, but rather hiding from something else—something that required being far away from all electronic devices and network-connected items before daring to speak.

Members of the Wanderer Alliance each have their own talents.

Besides basic network technology, hackers have their own areas of expertise.

Take a few members John has encountered so far.

Baseball Bat lives in the Whistle Community.

A large number of immigrants gather there; he personally has been figuring out compiling and cracking company firewalls since childhood.

Tinfoil specializes in hacker combat.

She can assist the main attack team members and achieve multithreaded kills in cyberspace.

Sisal rope is a public network expert.

He roams media networks and municipal networks as easily as going home.

Gino leans towards firmware transformation.

She's good at transforming hacker products, doubling the performance of network equipment.

John is deeply impressed by this.

"So sisal rope asked you for help?"

"Help improve the weapon he newly developed..."

Not everyone in the Wanderer Alliance can contact the serum.

Sisal rope is one of them.

He discovered serum is a roaming AI, made a miniature black box program, and then asked Gino to help solve hardware issues.

Even a fool could react.

Sisal rope was scared of the serum!

He lacked a sense of security, even needed to create a weapon to protect himself.

"So serum dealt with sisal rope?"

John wasn't quite doubting, just had too many questions.

"Can this thing harm serum?"

"What do you think? The thing inside your body is just a super program. At the time, sisal rope used it when escaping at the subway station; do you think it's effective?"

John was silent for a moment.

Sisal rope was terrified when caught at the subway station; now thinking back, maybe he thought it was someone sent by serum to catch him.

He indeed released something at the time, even instantly paralyzing John's prosthetic body.

If Black Light hadn't forcibly released control, sisal rope might have succeeded.

More details surfaced in his mind.

John finally realized—why did Gino and sisal rope fear serum so much?

It turned out the two of them were secretly guarding against their boss and got caught red-handed.

Gino noticed John hadn't spoken for a long time and asked.

"What are you thinking?"

"Serum wanted you both to go with me to Source Equation, was it hoping you'd die there?"

"..."

Gino squatted on the ground, brows tightly knitted, then used her hand to rub her shoulder soaked by the drizzle.

Unexpectedly, John chuckled in the next second.

"Oh, I think it wasn't serum who did it. Think about it, if... sorry, it wanted to silence us, when the three of us were together, it could directly act, and no one could escape! Isn't the roaming AI's capability supposed to be impressive? If the Eastern People's hovercar was also brought down by serum, using a similar method to let us die in an accident would be better; no one would care about the death of a few fringe walkers."

Gino seemed persuaded by John.

She hesitated slightly.

Seeing this, John sighed, reaching out to pull her up.

"Whether it's Bismarck or serum, it's all just our wild guesses. If I had to say..."

A trace of hesitation flashed in John's artificial eye.

"Sisal rope might have been killed by me."

"Ha, nonsense."

"Mhm."

John draped his coat over Gino and pulled her towards the car.

"Bismarck let me choose someone to copy the key; if I chose sisal rope, he wouldn't have had time to go to that damned lab."

"... That's too far-fetched, who knows what might happen?"

Gino instead comforted him.

John just smiled, eyes looking toward the red signal lights at the horizon's end.

"Yeah, who knows?"

Silver Rider 577 started gently, the engine roaring, driving towards the city's central light fog with a thrilling sound wave.

Nothing unexpected happened on the return route.

[Eden City - Bolago Club]

John stopped the engine in the corner of the basement, speaking to Gino as she was about to leave.

"When serum contacts me, I will ask directly if sisal rope's death is related to it or not."

"... Do you have to?"

"You mentioned it; it's just a string of code that can think. Straightforwardness benefits us both; I can't help you with the affairs of the network world. I don't understand the relationships within the Wanderer Alliance, nor have I pledged allegiance to a boss, but based on my experience, mutual suspicion with a superior always makes it difficult to thrive."

John's expression was relaxed.

"Besides, I'm dying; it has no reason to deceive me, and the most important thing for you now is to rest well, have a drink, and find some fun with pretty girls."

"Mhm."

Gino leaned against the car door, laughing with hands on hips.

"Hahaha, I want to visit every store front in the club ground floor today; none of those little bigmouths will escape today, let me think, also Gria's handmade cocktails—honestly, since Angelica left, only her drinks fit my taste..."

She propped against the car door, speaking animatedly, occasionally squinting her eyes in savoring something.

John listened silently with one hand on the steering wheel.

He seemed to share Gino's joy, from the indulgent life she depicted, sparked more survival desire.

"John, John? Hey, buddy."

"Hmm?"

John snapped back.

"Take care of yourself, will you? Remember to notify me if there's any news."

"Okay."

"Seriously, John, even if it's just to give me an address to collect your corpse."

"..."

John saw seriousness on her face, hesitating a moment before speaking.

"Then I wouldn't want to live next to sisal rope."

"Ha, no problem."

Bang.

The magnetic door closed.

Inside the Silver Rider sports car, only the gentle vibration from the engine starting remained.

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