CHAPTER 498: IMAGE 159: NEW VERSION PREVIEW

The reason Huang Ban wants to ransom the people is quite simple; those four individuals don’t hold much value to Huang Ban. Things have come to this point, and there’s no need to hide anything. If they’re dead, they’re dead.

But Lin Miao cannot sell them to Military Science, not even if they’re dead. That’s the bottom line.

However, after Valerie put the four people into the car, she suddenly grabbed Yumi from the crowd, extended her finger to the back of Yumi’s neck, and slid it across, causing a chip to eject.

Valerie caught the chip and looked at Yumi coldly.

"Agent 1173, you’d better give me an explanation as to why you still have this behavior chip during a mission."

As for the other two in the team, Valerie didn’t bother looking at their expressions. She still couldn’t understand how Huang Ban agents could make such a rookie mistake during a mission.

Even if they couldn’t get into the residence, preparing high explosives for remote throwing should have been more than enough to eliminate everyone inside.

And the conversation during the mission was also bizarre. How could each sentence end with some random emoji?

Full of doubts, Valerie dragged someone to investigate, only to discover that their behavior and language logic were remarkably similar to the content of the young detective training from the Cat Ear Detective Corporation opened by Huang Ban Meizhi decades ago.

"I..."

Yumi swallowed nervously, sweating profusely, unsure how to explain.

Fortunately, the hacker, Weaving Princess, in their team explained for her.

"We were serving Miss Mizuki when the task came through, and because it was tight on time, she might not have had the chance to remove it."

Valerie: "..."

She would be truly stupid if she believed that.

Albertson...

You bastard, no wonder you arrived so quickly in the middle of the night...

————

"Here’s the data you requested."

"You guys sure work fast."

"In this era, efficiency is paramount; those who move slowly are already dead."

Lin Miao took the data chip from the Military Science personnel, feeling pleased.

He shook his head and patted the other’s shoulder.

"It’s a blessing for the company to have employees like you working 22 hours a day, not like the mercenaries under me. They laze around all day and work only eleven or twelve hours, having no clue about ambition."

"If I could, I’d have them trained at a renowned company like your Military Science, to truly learn what’s meant by ’the company is home, and development depends on everyone.’"

His tone carried a sense of disappointment for his mercenaries, making others clench their fists.

However, the Military Science library staff understood. Despite seeming kind, this guy was actually notorious for treating his subordinates’ lives as expendable.

Military Science had statisticians track that nearly 1,500 mercenaries at this bar had died in the past two months, almost surpassing the total number of brawl deaths in Night City over the past six months. Even Military Science’s global bases could barely compare.

Moreover, what Lin Miao requested wasn’t anything complicated. One could even say it wasn’t worth much; just a bunch of construction designs, plans, and models...

Big corporations like Military Science usually have their own design departments. If they wanted to build something, they’d just have someone create based on the databases, and AI could quickly generate a building plan considering local hydrology, geology, light, and company needs.

But Lin Miao didn’t have architectural design AI. Even building a server room would just end up an empty shell, and consulting Night City Government’s design bureau was unsafe, as secrecy was paramount for what he intended to do. He wouldn’t even dare ask the players for help, lest his needs and tendencies be exposed.

Asking mercenaries to steal a database was pointless, needing hours to download large data, and even pigs would catch you eventually.

Unless they could directly abscond with the company’s server room.

Lin Miao looked at the chip in his hand and sighed.

"With so much data, it might take a week to read it all."

But the employee shook his head, pulling out a briefcase filled with hard drives from behind.

"The one in your hand is just the directory; the actual data is here."

Each hard drive likely held storage measured in hundreds of terabytes. Was Military Science dumping data on him like garbage?

Lin Miao opened the case, casually picked up a piece, weighing it in his hand, probably two or three pounds.

"So much, my people might not finish even in ten years."

"This is Military Science’s database for training building AI, collected over nearly a decade, training for a full thirteen years."

As the Military Science employee said this, he spoke with a certain pride, as if he was truly a part of the company, even feeling like he was gifting to Lin Miao.

"Of course, this was last-generation data; otherwise, headquarters wouldn’t have agreed to this request."

Regarding the Sea God sub-net, Lin Miao hid nothing from anyone, since it was pointless to hide. Better to lay it out as a shield.

[Lin Miao: Bro, how long will it take you to go through all this data?]

[System: About an hour, but training the Sea God would take longer, approximately twenty years, but I can spare some computing power to reduce that to overnight.]

[Lin Miao: Bro, you make me look bad. After all, I’m now a superhuman with 10 intelligence, so why do I never feel smarter? Did you steal my intelligence?]