[TN:Just kidding that was just an april fool joke, just changing my schdule to biweekly so i get less burnout ja ni]
Leo's brain got half-cooked because Blue Eyes had only been ambushed—
not crippled.
And strictly speaking, the ambush had only hit a small section of the server cluster.
As for why it produced such an insane effect—
that was all Muramasa.
That AI was a real technical monster. If it had only been Little Octopus doing the work, at best it would've punched a hole in the data wall and popped a few servers.
Rhyne was dumbfounded.
Really, truly dumbfounded.
Just now, he had watched this lunatic called Burger King carry out—
a city-scale suicidal net attack.
"He... he..."
Rhyne didn't even know what to say.
He wanted to call Leo a suicidal terrorist, a psycho, a complete brain-dead maniac.
But...
the dead deserved some respect.
And if Leo was already dead, cursing him out didn't really mean much anymore.
Then he saw Leo raise his head.
"Ugh—"
The moment his muscles recovered, Rhyne started dry-heaving from sheer tension.
Leo shook his head.
No matter how many times he went through it, even if Heart of Evolution let him ignore the discomfort and pain and keep thinking straight—
the feeling of having half your brain and nervous system burned out, then regenerated, was never something you got used to.
"Done."
"Done?!" Rhyne wiped drool from the corner of his mouth and snapped, "What the hell did you do?!"
"I hit Night Corp. Broke through their firewall. While I was at it, I burned out part of their internal power grid. Oh—and two power distribution stations in Watson too."
After saying that, Leo took a breath and waited for the lizard serum to finish restoring the last little bit of brain matter.
Rhyne was even more stunned after hearing that.
They attacked Night Corp?!
In 2076, a megacorp—especially a multinational megacorp—was basically the ruling structure of a mid-sized nation from the old world.
And if you were talking about a special corp like Militech, you could practically call it the ruling structure of a major old-world nation and not be far off.
NUSA itself could basically be said to have been built by Militech.
Night Corp might not have the same total weight as the transnational giants, but as the founding company of Night City, backed by the city itself, it was still massively wealthy.
Inside Night City, it could be treated as a political entity on the level of a small or mid-sized country.
And most importantly—
Night Corp controlled almost every part of Night City.
Especially the infrastructure.
This was a full-on terrorist attack.
Rhyne completely lost it.
"Why would you do that?! All you had to do was free me, then—then NCPD, MaxTac, all of them would—"
"Shut up."
Leo barked.
Rhyne shut up.
Then Leo turned to Jackie and said, "Go upstairs and check the situation. Have Muramasa do a full scan of the AV."
The two of them nodded and left.
Leo looked back at Rhyne.
"I had to do it. Didn't you hear what he said just now? He was already planning to burn you alive while I was jacking into your head."
As he said that, Leo pointed at Peralez on the floor.
The young politician had taken off his glasses and the signal-boosting device attached to them. His eyes were unfocused, his back against the wall, body trembling.
Only then did Rhyne notice how strange Jefferson looked.
And right—
he himself was still alive.
Not just alive.
His chrome was working normally again.
That came down to Leo's direct clash with Blue Eyes—
three AIs launching a sneak strike on Night Corp HQ.
That forced Blue Eyes to split a huge amount of processing power, and because of the hardware limitations Blue Eyes was working with, Leo got the chance to forcibly sever the connection between Blue Eyes and Peralez.
The price was that Leo had to take a direct AI attack with a human brain.
The surprising part was that Blue Eyes's AI assault wasn't actually absurdly overwhelming—
at least not to the point where Leo couldn't beat it.
Burning out more than half his brain bought him the win.
There wasn't much time.
Leo said it directly:
"Night Corp's under AI control. A lot of ideas have been planted into Peralez's head. And just now, that AI was the one doing the talking."
"Huh?"
Rhyne looked at Peralez.
The man looked like he was waking up from a dream. Bitterness, shock, and confusion all showed in his eyes at once.
Like a drowning man reaching for the last thing that might save him, he looked at Leo.
"I... I felt like I was dreaming. I was awake. I heard everything you were saying. I even felt like I was controlling my own body. I said those things... it was me. It was me. I wanted to kill Rhyne. I was the one who broke into his office...
If I killed him, I could become mayor. I could shape the city. Shape... the city of dreams."
Rhyne was completely dazed now.
Too much had happened tonight.
Who even remembered anymore that the whole farce had started because Burger King wanted to become the underground king and help NetWatch catch an AI?
The escalation was insane.
Peralez curled up in the corner, clutching his head.
In public, he was a confident politician.
He could pull a pistol and zero mercs sent to assassinate him.
He could stand in front of cameras like a hard man and speak about ideals that inspired voters.
But now he had discovered that everything he was—
might have been manufactured.
Just like before.
He had felt himself being controlled, but at the same time—
felt like that was exactly what he should do.
This time, his brain didn't erupt in unbearable pain.
What remained was the total collapse of his worldview.
"If I can't even control my own thoughts... if my memories, my tastes, my beliefs, my opinions all came from programs, from someone else...
If the ideal I'm chasing is a lie, a phantom someone else forced into my head..."
Peralez's face twisted more and more until finally he said the one thing he least wanted to admit, his headache nearly strong enough to make him black out again:
"I... I'm someone living inside a phantom. You were right. You're more fit to be mayor than I am. At least you're real!
You're... you're someone who can believe in your own ideals! Mine—everything about me is fake...
I can't tell what's a lie and what's real anymore..."
Bang!
Leo used an octopus arm to yank Peralez upright and pin him against the wall.
"There's no time for your full emotional collapse scene right now.
Want to look at me?
I'm human too.
You might be a fake man, but I'm a real one.
This real man beat the evil AI controlling you and stopped you from doing something against your will.
Got a problem with that?"
Peralez widened his eyes and shook his head.
"Good. Then trust me. The way a soldier trusts a general. The way a child trusts a parent. The way... a believer trusts the Heavenly Father.
Starting today, I'm dragging your world back into reality. Treasure the truth."
Leo stepped forward until he was only a fist's distance from Peralez, two mismatched eyes fixed on him—
always so effortless,
always so calm,
always...
as if there was always a road forward.
Just like the Peralez he had once imagined himself to be.
The difference was—
this one was real.
That was what Peralez felt.
Peralez calmed down a little.
"Good."
Leo patted him on the shoulder, and the octopus arm casually stuck him with a stimulant.
"Not a bad thought, kid.
What's past is past. Before, you lived in illusion. Now, as long as I'm alive, you live in reality."
Leo straightened Peralez's collar.
Peralez looked like a child now, mind completely blank, no longer thinking about anything.
But he had strength again.
Rhyne was baffled.
What about me, then?
You're keeping Peralez alive, so what—am I dismissed?
"You," Leo said, looking at Rhyne, "not gonna lie, you've got some skill. But that's not an excuse for turning Night City into a cesspit.
You like freedom.
Well, I won.
Now I'm gonna exercise a little freedom myself..."
The octopus arm had barely begun to rise when Rhyne instantly got the message.
"I'll behave! I'll behave! We're both Night City locals, I—"
"Good."
The octopus arm dragged the two men together. Leo grabbed their hands and forced them into a handshake.
"One former fake idealist. One lifelong realist liberal bastard.
Today. Here.
In my presence.
You shake hands and make peace.
Peralez becomes deputy mayor."
Peralez was still dazed.
Rhyne, on the other hand, understood immediately.
But—
"You make it sound nice, but with all due respect, after a night like this, there's no way I can protect you anymore!"
When corps fought corps, Night City Hall could do nothing but laugh awkwardly and try to smooth things over.
In truth, city hall was nothing.
Its whole existence relied on the corps balancing each other out.
Night Corp actually did a huge amount of the real work.
Now Night Corp was in total meltdown.
What possible reason did Rhyne have to protect Leo—protect these three homicidal Burger King lunatics?!
If he protected them, that made him a terrorist too.
Leo shook his head.
"I don't need your protection."
"But I heard your life—"
"I do need some tech to keep myself going. But Night City's five gangs, plus the NCPD under your hand, means practical control over almost every part of the city. Add in the tech displayed tonight, plus the Aldecaldos' logistics routes along the U.S.-Mexico border...
You wanna guess what all that's worth?
Do you really think I still need an official identity to show up in Dogtown?"
Leo shook his head again.
"I don't need you to give me anything.
What I want is for you and him to sit in the mayor and deputy mayor's seats, and do exactly what I say.
Do your jobs well. I'm optimistic about you.
And your new assistant.
Forget Holt."
Rhyne swallowed.
It still felt unbelievable.
Between becoming Night City's underground emperor, becoming a truly respectable man—
and becoming a full-blown criminal, hunted by nearly impossible-to-defeat MaxTac units—
they had chosen...
they had chosen to become the endlessly hunted criminal?
They attacked Night Corp.
Took every charge on themselves.
All just to save the controlled Peralez.
To save him, a man the corps had explicitly marked for death...
Honestly, even Rhyne had to admit—
there were really people like this in the world?
It was staggering.
So the question came back to the present.
If that was the plan, then outwardly distancing Leo from both him and Peralez meant the corps would have a hard time figuring out what had really happened, and the NCPD would have no reason not to obey Rhyne.
Once everything was over, the story became:
The Burger King terror crew failed to assassinate the mayor, but in the process caused Night Corp's infrastructure to collapse.
And that meant—
Rhyne could return as mayor.
Kick Holt out.
Install Peralez as deputy mayor to check Rhyne, to check his brand of extreme liberal freedom.
Rhyne could keep doing what he did best—holding the corps in balance and keeping Night City a free city.
People needed freedom.
But they also needed guaranteed dignity.
This was the best outcome Leo could think of.
But that meant...
"But how are you planning to get out?" Rhyne asked. "MaxTac's all over the outside! They'll kill you! You'll be hunted to the ends of the earth!"
Leo turned and walked out of the room, heading upstairs.
"Then let them chase."