Human logical thought usually doesn't support multithreading.
Some gonk's gonna ask: What are you talking about? Splitting focus is normal. I can pull up porn on my holo and handle my little choom at the same time.
Sure, the human body supports multitasking on an instinctive level.
But when it comes to logical, complex thought, humans can usually only run one line of thinking at a time.
Here's an example. Two very simple math problems:
∫1^3 (2x^3 - 4x^2 + x - 5) dx
∫0^pi (sin(x)* cos(x)) dx
Now try solving them simultaneously.
Learn to distinguish instinct from thought.
That said, fast thinking and efficient execution can make you look like some kind of multithreaded genius in other people's eyes.
If you can solve both in half a second while everyone else can't even solve one, then from their perspective, you can be approximated as a "multithreaded" thinker.
—Arasaka Academy: Introduction to Logic (Adult Education Textbook)
Muramasa only learned this after coming to Night City and gaining some understanding of the human brain.
And after taking over Masamune's brain, it gained a flood of new data.
One tactical lesson stood out:
As a ninja, you must learn to launch multithreaded attacks.
But Muramasa wasn't human.
It actually could think in parallel.
Sensors spun up.
Light. Vibration. Air composition changes. Thermal shifts. Even faint electromagnetic fluctuations.
Complex signals were perceived by Muramasa in their rawest form—as electrical current.
Humans need signal demodulation.
It didn't.
All it had to do was face the data and apply the solution encoded in its model—
Bang!
The legendary Mackinaw's hard deceleration let the Centaur quadruped war machine overshoot slightly. Even after shedding damaged components and totaling two bikes, that armored truck was still a multi-ton beast.
Just from the shriek of its brakes grinding against the pavement, Muramasa calculated that if the quadruped war machine got hit by something like that, it might literally snap an ankle.
And its primary target—the one carrying Brainiac's mainframe—had already bailed from the vehicle and started running.
So the real priority—
was the people on the truck.
Jackie was using powered armor. Not heavy by the standards of its class, but top-tier in both output and functionality.
Muramasa could clearly read the heat generated by the suit through infrared sensors and roughly infer its operating principles and current state.
Battery power and bio-energy were its two primary energy sources.
Both had limits.
To Muramasa's surprise, the battery looked like it would hit the wall first.
Then there was V.
Every movement she made was so fast it gave the illusion that, like an AI, she possessed unbeatable judgment.
But in truth, she relied heavily on instinct.
And instinct depends on perception.
Perception—
can be deceived.
And finally, Leo.
Honestly, he was the human Muramasa found hardest to evaluate.
From an outside perspective, his combat capability didn't look especially impressive.
But Muramasa's dense sensor package told a different story—the dexterity of those three octopus arms was absurd. To fully exploit that kind of mechanical flexibility, you needed matching computational support.
No human should be able to maintain that level of calculation while also doing anything else.
Muramasa had always believed there was a high probability Leo was also an AI.
And once the race began, that probability spiked sharply.
But now, it had reached a second conclusion:
An AI was "residing" inside the octopus arms.
It didn't know how that was possible.
But the probability was high.
And last—
the truck.
Just a truck.
Sensors gathered data, converted it to electrical signals, fed it into the database, processors ran, current returned with the answer.
In the face of AI thought speed, even a Sandevistan was dim by comparison.
In a single second, V—launched high by the octopus arm—still hadn't crossed this stretch of less than fifty meters, while the Centaur war machine and Muramasa's main body moved in perfect sync.
Screee—
Second second.
Time flow reached V's reaction speed.
The legendary Mackinaw dragged sparks across the road, the stink of burned friction not even having time to spread before the truck and the Centaur war machine collided—
—or rather, almost collided.
The four-legged war machine lifted its feet, reminding everyone that it didn't rely solely on wheels or treads for high-speed movement.
It made a bounding leap like some quadrupedal animal, appearing ready to just barely evade the Mackinaw's impact—
at least its front legs were clearly going to make it through.
V stood balanced on an octopus arm less than thirty centimeters thick.
Leo controlled the arm, converting every scrap of battery power into mechanical energy, storing it throughout the limb's articulated structure.
The long arm released that force section by section like a whip snapping down to the tip.
V's powerful legs fired with everything they had. Reinforced tendons and synthetic muscles gave off tiny micro-level pops as they took the load—
The artificial fibers were almost tearing apart.
Her speed jumped instantly to 120 kilometers per hour.
To a normal person, she was just a black blur cutting through the street.
And even that wasn't the limit of what she could endure—
Her two arms, built to swing mantis blades, took on even greater strain. The blades' internal mechanisms deployed, maintaining their usual snap-out speed even at this insane velocity, meaning the tips' linear speed shot far beyond 120 kilometers per hour.
And that blade deployment velocity didn't come from nowhere.
All that momentum fed straight back into her arms and body.
So V only had one chance to adjust her slash.
Whoosh!
A massive cloud of steam blasted off Muramasa's surface.
Some kind of ultra-bright red laser hit V's visor before the steam even reached her. It flashed at extreme frequency, instantly shorting out her optical sensors for a moment—
That tiny disruption turned her whole field of vision red.
And once a person loses sight, instinct starts to fail.
Her posture immediately shifted conservative. Her arms moved into a more defensive alignment, because the reboot would be fast, and her instincts pushed her to prioritize defense.
Muramasa crouched inside the steam.
Boom!
Third second!
Time flow reached Jackie's reaction speed.
His fist accelerated again under explosive propulsion!
In Jackie's eyes, the whole world was moving too fast—he could only make predictive moves.
That move—
was the rocket punch.
Both fists came up in front of him. The turbo booster squeezed out one final burst of acceleration, fire and smoke from the detonation serving as perfect cover.
He was going to smash the Centaur war machine apart in one hit.
But he felt no impact at all.
The Centaur war machine leapt like a four-legged beast, and the rocket punch only grazed its underbelly!
The combination of raw force and the extreme heat on the gauntlet surface still deformed the armor badly, even with only a scrape—
But in the end, it hadn't truly damaged the war machine.
And Jackie felt something step on him.
At that moment, V's vision came back.
And she saw it—
Muramasa!
Jackie's attack path had been low, hers had been high. One targeted Muramasa, the other the war machine, leaving only a narrow gap between them.
What kind of lunatic would choose to thread that death gap?
No one.
Get it wrong, and you'd be torn into chunks.
But Muramasa did it.
Its heavily mechanized body had gained two crude extra arms on its shoulders, like industrial manipulator limbs. One planted a rocket at the gap in Jackie's power armor neck seal, the other stuck one onto V's left leg.
It was going to use the explosion to drive straight at Leo—the unstable variable.
To outsiders, Jackie and V looked like the biggest threats.
But to Muramasa, once Leo was gone, humans wouldn't even qualify as opponents.
The rocket fuzes primed early. The blast would catch Muramasa too—
but the speed boost gained would be enough to break past the octopus arms' mechanical reaction limit.
And the reality matched the calculation.
One octopus arm was busy launching V.
Another was bracing Leo's body.
The last one—the shorter, thinner arm—
had a reaction ceiling.
The claw shot straight at Muramasa, and a brief calculation confirmed its model.
It could break through the defense.
Fourth second—
The moment Muramasa's tactical success probability reached 99.9%.
"First blood!"
A scorching short blade deployed from Muramasa's wrist, edge forward, driving straight toward Leo—
But Leo's expression didn't change at all.
As if he couldn't react.
But on closer comparison, it was obvious:
From the very beginning, Leo's face, limbs—none of them had shown any subjective change whatsoever.
As if he hadn't been directly controlling them at all.
Muramasa's processor stuttered—
This was completely different from how Leo had been at the beginning of the race.
It was like he had been running some other computation the entire time.
The more complex the logical thought, the less possible multithreading was for a human—
And right now, Leo had devoted every region of his brain to driving the octopus arms at full power, making them move almost identically to when Little Octopus controlled them.
That had deceived Muramasa.
[0.1% probability: Exotic mechanical arms are under manual control.]
[Probability confirmed.]
[New question: Is there an AI?]
[New question: If yes, why did the octopus arm AI disappear?]
[New question—]
Bzzzt—
A strange external current surged in from the leg. In cyberspace, a fully armed octopus arm appeared and completely pierced its chassis integrity!
[Chassis anomaly: Left leg control lost.]
Boom!
Two rockets exploded behind it. With sensor feedback gone, the gyros began spinning erratically, throwing Muramasa into total chaos!
[Question answered.]