When someone gets cursed out, they're bound to freeze for a moment.
Especially when it's a dog doing the cursing—
And not just any dog, but a bionic one.
Karl's entire squad stared, dumbfounded, at Ballball, who was barking and shouting furiously.
Amid the chaos, Jack blinked, patted his head to make sure he wasn't still dreaming, then pointed at Ballball and looked at Oliver with a puzzled expression.
"Did that dog just curse?"
"I heard it too. Pretty filthy language," Oliver nodded, then turned to T-Bug.
"Did you upload some weird program into Ballball?"
"How could I have? Didn't you hear Karl say it earlier? There's already a digital personality stored in the Relic," T-Bug replied, her gaze fixed on Ballball, a dazed look in her eyes.
Anyone would be stunned if their dog suddenly started shouting insults.
While the others were frozen in place, V reacted quickly. Realizing that Ballball might have been hijacked by the personality data stored in the Relic, he reached out and grabbed the dog by the scruff, lifting him clean off the ground.
Whatever was going on, it was best to get control of the situation first.
Suspended midair, Ballball kept cursing.
"Which bastard grabbed me?! You motherf—wait, where the hell are you touching?!"
Halfway through his rant, the dog realized something was off. He tried to turn his head, but suspended as he was, he couldn't—he could only see the floor getting farther away until his eyes aligned with a young man with black hair.
Who the hell is this guy?
Ballball instinctively tried to move, but all he saw was a furry paw flailing in front of his face.
…A paw?
He momentarily forgot to keep swearing. He tried again—same paw movement.
Again. Same.
His bionic pupils widened in shock.
"Fucking Arasaka! What the hell did you bastards do to me?!"
Hearing that curse, Karl blinked.
So the digital personality inside this dog… is an enemy of Arasaka?
"Strange," Karl muttered. He was already jacked into Ballball's interface and had begun capturing the data. He activated the projection function, originally installed for Ballball's security cam features, now enhanced by V for data projection.
Karl had only wanted a clear visual of the current state of the dog, but the moment the projection activated, the personality data inside the Relic seemed to find an anchor. A projection beamed from Ballball's head, and a man wearing sunglasses, with a familiar face, materialized in the air.
Karl's eyes went straight to the man's hand.
A silver cyberarm.
Karl knew that arm well. He'd seen it before.
"Johnny Hand Silver?" he muttered uncertainly.
"I'm Johnny Silverhand, asshole!" the projection snapped instinctively.
Then he froze, realizing something.
He raised his hands, looked at them, then followed the beam downward to look at himself.
Tried moving his hand—saw a paw twitch.
Kicked—a leg flailed.
"Fuck! What the hell is going on?! Why the hell am I a dog?!"
The projection turned toward Karl.
"You little punk, I don't know what the hell you did, but you better—"
V gave Ballball a slight shake, and the projection glitched. The image of Johnny wobbled.
"Adults are talking. Who's the punk barking over there?" V muttered.
"Dog bark," he added dryly.
V wasn't being gentle. This kind of arrogant, clueless personality wasn't going to get much sympathy from him.
Karl, on the other hand, found it entertaining.
A talking dog was rare enough. A foul-mouthed, trash-talking dog claiming to be Johnny Silverhand? That was gold.
"Alright, V. Let's put Mr. Johnny Silverdog down."
"You sure?" Oliver called down from the second floor, a bit worried. "What if he bites? You don't want to catch rabies."
"It's a bionic dog… right?" Jack added. He wasn't exactly confident. Even though he knew the dog was clean, he still had this weird feeling that getting bitten would infect him somehow.
V gave the dog one more shake before gently lowering him.
"Careful, Karl. Don't let him bite you."
"Who the hell are you calling a biter?! You think I'm just some mutt?!" Johnny barked.
But the moment his feet hit the floor, Johnny Silverdog spun around and lunged at V.
"You know what?! You're fucking right!"
Thud.
A clean strike from the hilt of a blade sent Johnny Silverdog crashing to the ground mid-pounce.
"Easy, V. Don't damage the hardware," T-Bug said, hands resting on the railing above. She was clearly more concerned about Ballball's body than its inhabitant.
"He'll survive. Maybe he'll learn something," V replied, looking at the projection, which now showed Johnny rubbing his head in pain.
"Fuck… why does that hurt?!"
"Bionic nerves. Pretty amazing, huh?" Karl said as he turned Johnny Silverdog to face him, then glanced at the projection again.
"So, you're really Johnny Silverhand?"
Johnny, now fully embodying the dog, rubbed his furry head, his eyes narrowing at the sight of Karl.
"What? You don't know who I am? Kid, you've been living under a rock."
"Oh yeah? Then tell me—do you know who KK is?"
"…What kind of stupid name is that? Sounds like some cheap nightclub headliner. Lame. I'd never pay to see that."
Karl just shrugged, unfazed. He tossed Johnny's earlier insult right back.
"Then I guess you're the one who's out of touch."
With that, Karl unplugged the monowire from Ballball. He'd already gathered enough data.
"Though… considering you died more than fifty years ago, I guess I shouldn't be surprised."
In the data Karl had retrieved, he discovered something fascinating.
The digital engram stored in the Relic—and now in the dog—really did originate from Johnny Silverhand himself.
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🔥🦾 CYBERPUNK: THE RELENTLESS 🦾🔥
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