"Rache Bartmoss, do you know him?" Asa spoke leisurely.
"The legendary Netrunner? I doubt there's anyone who doesn't know him. It's just that he's been missing for about 50 years."
Sascha replied, a hint of doubt rising on her face. How did Asa know about him?
And what was the point of mentioning a figure who had long since disappeared?
"We'll be seeing him in a moment."
Knowing she was about to see someone who had been missing for so long, a chill ran down Sascha's spine. She knew Asa meant no harm, but anyone else would have wondered what he was up to.
As mentioned before, Rache Bartmoss belonged to the same era as Johnny Silverhand and Alt Cunningham.
Over 50 years ago, he was one of the most famous Netrunners in the world.
The Internet was blown up, and now everyone can only use local networks; this guy deserves some of the credit for that.
Before long, Asa and Sascha arrived at the Night City landfill.
Before they even got close, a small mountain of trash appeared on the car's display screen. Through the window, it felt as if they could already smell the stench of decades of accumulated Night City garbage.
"Bartmoss is hidden here?"
Sascha's face was a complete question mark.
The vehicle drove onto an open space in the center of the trash mountain. Asa pushed open the car door and stepped out first.
Sascha got out from the other side. Before stepping down, she unconsciously rubbed her leg. Asa had been touching it randomly earlier, and the spots he touched felt like they were burning now—a stinging heat. If she could lift her clothes to look, she'd surely see red marks.
This guy...
Asa trip was specifically to find Bartmoss's corpse. On him was a Cyberdeck that would still be considered top-tier quality even in the year 2077.
It sounded unbelievable, but it was the truth. Technological development in the cyberpunk world had stagnated. Not only were resources exhausted, but the development of new energy and the search for new homes had also ground to a halt.
Aside from Earth, the only other homes were the bases on the Moon above, and the Crystal Palace was at most a high-end resort, completely dependent on resources from the ground.
As for technology, it wasn't even worth mentioning.
However, perhaps because they arrived early, the position of the freezer had changed.
The once-conspicuous freezer was nowhere to be seen, but Asa had his ways.
Standing in the landfill, Asa sensed carefully. The Netrunner's corpse was stored inside a freezer.
After more than 50 years, the freezer was almost out of power, but it still perfectly preserved his body. That stench was exceptionally obvious to Asa extraordinary senses.
Atmospheric Magic acted like an invisible giant hand, scattering the trash above the freezer and revealing the unit hidden in the pile, which still held a small amount of power.
"Boss, you mean the legendary Netrunner Rache Bartmoss is hidden inside here?"
"Yeah."
Asa walked to the freezer, hooked his index finger into the seam, and gently pried it open.
Click.
The freezer opened. Ice, meltwater, and a man lying inside appeared before Asa and Sascha.
A powerful stench hit them. Asa expression didn't change, but he quietly cut off his sense of smell.
Sascha, on the other hand, was miserable. The smell forced her back three meters, and her eyes were stinging so much she could barely keep them open.
"Rache Bartmoss... he's actually inside."
Virtually everyone in the hacking world knew this man. As one of the most legendary Netrunners in the world and one with a public identity, his face had been plastered all over the streets of Night City back in 2020.
This man was the spitting image of the photo on the wanted posters—dressed in Netrunner gear, his identity was unmistakable.
Arasaka Corporation and Militech had been searching for him, but they could never find him. To think he died here.
Sascha covered her small nose and stepped closer, her gaze filled with both shock and pity.
Even one of the most legendary Netrunners since the 21st century ended up dying like a stray dog in a Night City trash heap.
"He's not dead,"
Asa spoke up.
"He's still alive, just in another form. He uploaded his consciousness to the network; what's left here is merely his physical shell."
Out of the blue, Asa revealed a shocking secret.
"Huh?"
The Bob-haired girl's mouth formed an 'O' shape, making one want to stuff something into it.
Sascha was stunned: "You mean he uploaded his own consciousness?"
"That's right. But he still has some valuable items on him. Once we take them, there's nothing else good left in the Badlands."
Consciousness uploading wasn't a concept invented by Arasaka. Digital consciousness and spiritual immortality were concepts that had existed since the rise of Cyberware.
But for the longest time, no one had successfully achieved digital consciousness. The concept remained a prospect in the eyes of ordinary civilians rather than a reality.
"You mean Bartmoss did it? He successfully uploaded his consciousness and then discarded his body, leaving it like trash in a Night City gutter?"
Sascha was somewhat dazed. These concepts were extremely shocking even for her, a Netrunner who wasn't at the top of the industry.
Bartmoss didn't leave his body in a freezer for display like others, becoming a stationary idol. After achieving his goal, he quickly abandoned his flesh and blood to travel to the world on the other side of the network.
"Yes, but we didn't come here to admire his corpse. There's a piece of Cyberware in his head that's still applicable today. What we need to do is take it out."
"But we..."
Sascha was about to say,
"We don't seem to have the professional skills," but as she turned her head, Asa jacket was gone. At some point, he had donned a white lab coat and a mask, holding tweezers and a scalpel.
"Let's begin."
Performing Cyberware surgery on a piece of rotten meat required almost no finesse, as long as one didn't let the foul-smelling, decaying tissue touch them.
Before long, relying on the experience provided by the Militech agents, Asa successfully removed a small piece of Cyberware from Bartmoss's brain.
Bartmoss's Cyberdeck—acquired.