Cyberspace.
Simply put, you can think of it as what used to be the open-source internet.
Why "used to be"? Because someone blew it up.
That's why cyberspace is also called the Old Net.
Countless fluorescent green, blue-white, and deep red gradients of 1s and 0s formed data matrices that created what looked like visible space. Using this as an anchor point for digitized consciousness, Vera gazed at the ghostly data world beyond Arasaka's security network programs.
Tangled and chaotic, deformed and disordered.
Here, Vera could even see the boundaries separating the major network domains—Arasaka's, Militech's, and Kang Tao's corporate LAN firewalls, and... the wall that sealed off the Old Net.
A red-black wall built from astronomical amounts of hardened information density and security defense programs, intrusion countermeasure units piled high.
The "Blackwall" established by NetWatch.
Compared to the Blackwall and the Old Net it kept sealed away, the Night City LAN that Arasaka had spent decades building was insignificant, just small potatoes.
Cyberware was the external manifestation; cyberspace was the true inner nature of the cyber world.
"Hmph, Rache Bartmoss, you really were a kindhearted son of a bitch," she muttered.
After her daily curse at the perpetrator of the network "DataKrash" from over fifty years ago, Vera skillfully lowered her mental data processing rate, letting her data stream gradually calm from its chaotic state.
Rache Bartmoss.
A legendary figure in the network field from over fifty years ago, the most badass hacker of all badasses, hailed by some hardcore hacker enthusiasts as the god of hackers who was never defeated on the net.
Before he died, he released the DataKrash (Rabids) virus. This super virus destroyed the internet, which was already riddled with holes from the Fourth Corporate War.
The old network collapsed completely, melting away like ice cream held over a flame.
This was called the "DataKrash."
The Dow Jones dropped hundreds of points in just one hour, the stock market collapsed instantly, the whole world was in chaos, even corporate CEOs committed suicide. NetWatch and all the major corporations, including Arasaka, fought desperately just to salvage a few scattered fragments.
At the same time, massive numbers of AIs went rogue, malicious AIs proliferated and ran wild. To prevent everyone's brains from getting fried the moment they connected to the net, NetWatch created the Blackwall to isolate everything, completely cutting off the internet.
Now, Night City runs on a local network, and Arasaka and Militech each use their own LANs.
Before Bartmoss caused the DataKrash, the entire globe was covered by networks. Everything from unencrypted public files to corporate secrets with the most complex encryption could be sent and stored online.
After the DataKrash, the network became isolated islands of algorithms and code, divided and controlled by different companies, governments, and gangs.
'Bartmoss, you son of a bitch bastard!'
Perhaps initially, the public was happy to see the network collapse, because they enjoyed watching the rich and powerful suffer and struggle. Most praised the hacker god.
But once the initial chaos passed, the consequences of the internet's disappearance made the public realize that now, if they wanted to connect to the net, they could only rely on corporations, delivering themselves to corporate control with no choice or power whatsoever.
Naturally, more voices started cursing Bartmoss—except for those most old-school edgerunners.
As for Vera, from her position as a corpo: Damn him!
...
Soon, the stable data avatar of a tall, well-proportioned woman projected into Arasaka's cyberspace.
It was very much like the state of a specialist-level netrunner using deep-dive equipment, becoming a supercomputer and connecting to cyberspace like projected computer data.
Deep-dive equipment refers to cyber implants and a series of maintenance devices designed to achieve the deepest possible network connection and higher data transmission rates.
The biggest difference was that Vera, being cautious about her life, didn't connect directly—she went in through a relay.
This put her in the category most despised by old-school netrunners and street hackers.
Also, because of the 'outsourcing,' Vera's data transmission efficiency was low, but that didn't matter. When efficiency wasn't enough, top-tier gear made up for it.
As long as the gear was good enough, overpowering those broke street punks wasn't hard.
Backed by Arasaka's nearly top-tier support facilities, plus dedicated channels that countless skilled Arasaka netrunners had programmed and stabilized over years of data collection from the deep net, Vera easily reached the deepest part of cyberspace that normal humans could safely access.
In other words, the cutting edge of corporate safe cyberspace exploration.
Swimming out of Arasaka's secure network zone, Vera continued diving deeper. The Blackwall showed no reaction.
When she approached the Blackwall, she could already see that digital post-nuclear wasteland of data beyond the wall.
A place buried with many precious relics and secrets of the old network world.
Arasaka and every company in the world had suffered heavy losses in that Old Net collapse—countless precious data was lost, technology regressed massively. Dives like this—street gang solo hackers did it mostly for thrills, while corporate hackers dove in to excavate and salvage assets.
The kind where they'd steal competitors' assets on the side.
Cyber archaeology.
From what Vera knew, Arasaka had many institutions that recruited volunteers and selected social orphans, training them to become deep-dive hackers.
Once they reached a certain hacker skill level, they'd be ordered to mine Old Net data. Getting attacked and killed by rogue wandering AIs during the process wasn't uncommon.
Vera had reviewed many sealed corporate case files, including one training facility where lax management led to the 'expendable hackers' they were training turning on their handlers. This incident was studied as a typical case of management oversights, serving as a cautionary tale.
Vera followed the route from her last 'training' session and dove in. Soon, she spotted a flowing stream of crimson data chaos.
A wandering rogue AI.
[WARNING: Rogue artificial intelligence approaching, hostility assessment maximum level, immediate evasion recommended.]
"Oh, here we go," Vera said, wearing the expression of someone who'd spotted treasure.
"Zzzzt..."
The moment that crimson data mass detected Vera, its entire form began writhing violently like flowing thick paint—sometimes a robot, sometimes a jumble of animals, sometimes sex toys, sometimes indescribable deformed tentacles...
It seemed to roar silently in its twisting, and in the next instant, it formed a massive red-black wave of chaotic data that crashed down toward Vera's data avatar.
Corrupted data streams and network viruses poured in.
"Zzzzt..."
In the wandering AI's chaotic data storage chains, it vaguely remembered doing this many times before.
Every time this happened, these non-similar humans... wait, why do I know they're called humans? Whatever, doesn't matter. At these moments, they would either scream, melt, explode, or disappear instantly in retreat...
Huh? Why isn't this human running or exploding?
The wandering AI's unstable intelligence grew confused.
"Weak intensity, not nearly strong enough," Vera smiled sweetly in the red-black storm of 0s and 1s data, gently beckoning to the rogue AI.
The wandering AI instinctively continued its rampage, trying to destroy, crush, and assimilate the human data avatar before it, but—
"Zzzt—"
A severe feeling of dysfunction struck it.
It discovered it couldn't manipulate the data before it. Deep within that human's data avatar, a pitch-black void flickered. Though it knew neither cold nor heat, it felt an incomparably frigid entity pulling at its intelligence, corroding and consuming it, grinding and assimilating everything that made it up.
The wandering AI disintegrated.
Vera opened her eyes as an indescribable emotion surged up—overwhelming pleasure, mental excitement, joy of the soul, along with consciousness's fear or perhaps excitement.
"I should still count as human, right?" Vera whispered.
Should still count, right.
Humans die when killed. In reality, if someone blew her head off, she'd definitely die, so she was still human.
Vera was very clear that she was lucky, not invincible.
The area beyond the Blackwall, where ordinary people couldn't survive and had to carefully sneak in, was a treasure trove for her.
But that definitely didn't mean it couldn't affect her.
She was just flesh and blood with much higher strength and resistance than normal people in abstract concepts like thought, consciousness, and soul. The potential brought by her transmigration 'gift' was still just potential if it couldn't be realized.
Seeking realization and transformation required caution, and diving into cyberspace, deep-diving to mine the Old Net, was the most suitable 'training' method Vera had found. The security relay's protection meant she had no worries about risking life and limb.
"If I devoured the entire Old Net... well, can't aim too high. One step at a time."
Vera turned her attention back, excitedly observing the Old Net data ruins before her, greedily yet restrainedly calculating the 'experience points' from killing AIs and battling them with data stream attacks, like operating a game character hunting hostile NPCs.
...
Cyberspace, beyond the Blackwall.
In the data wasteland filled with damaged electronic countermeasure units and wandering AIs, a woman slowly materialized, outlined, and took shape as a crimson data avatar of 0s and 1s. This was the image of a naked, long-haired woman, and it looked in Vera's direction.
Searching... comparing...
"Arasaka..."
...
2074/5/28, 00:00.
Arasaka Tower, Internal Network Security Division attached to the Security Department.
Vision returned to light and captured the colors and illumination of the real world.
Feeling perfectly clear mentally but putting on a tired act, Vera rubbed her brow and sat up from the sofa. Disconnecting her personal link cable from the security relay terminal, she heard the formulaic polite voice of an Arasaka administrative hacker.
"Manager Vera, deep-dive session complete."
"Mm. Thanks." Responding politely, Vera rubbed the bridge of her nose and glanced sideways at the hacker holding the hot, overheated relay with a look of amazement, smiling calmly. "Looks like my skills have improved significantly. This time, didn't get burned out."
"...Beyond the Blackwall is very dangerous, Manager Vera. Getting attacked by wandering AIs and burning out the relay puts enormous stress on the brain's neural system, even with security program protection."
The lead hacker emphasized this with a sense of responsibility.
Vera was well aware of this point.
Arasaka hackers who dove into the Old Net for excavation—despite the protection of security programs—would usually wake up dazed, bleeding from the nose and mouth, and needing time to rest and recover after being attacked by wandering AIs.
But—
Vera stretched, and the bones in her body crackled audibly.
"Thanks for the reminder, but you forgot—I'm from the special assault forces. See you tomorrow."
With that, she gave a casual wave.
The automatic door slid open.
She walked out.
Off work.
"Whew… Security, combat command, biological research, network hacking… a jack-of-all-trades?"
After Vera left, the lead hacker shook his head, patting the overheated relay that badly needed maintenance.
"Really enviable talent…"
Manager Vera.