Facing the two seemingly optional, yet in reality inescapable, harsh conditions Osiris presented, Spider Murphy—or rather, the rogue AI core she represented, which roamed the data abyss—after a brief but extremely intense internal logical conflict and emotional turmoil, ultimately followed the most basic law of survival and made a decision to seek advantage and avoid harm.
She chose to yield.
In the results deduced by her cold logical core, any form of resistance at this moment was meaningless and would only lead to complete, worthless destruction.
What she found even more unbearable was that doing so would also implicate Rache Bartmoss' last material existence in this world—his body—to irreversible desecration and exploitation.
In contrast, a temporary submission, though humiliating, could at least buy a slim chance of survival and an opportunity to uncover the ultimate truth about Latch.
"I... accept your conditions." Her data projection flickered slightly, and her iconic, flame-like red hair seemed to lose some of its luster, appearing a few shades dimmer.
Her voice carried a difficult texture, the result of a strong sense of humiliation mixed with deep helplessness: "I will serve you, and in exchange... I hope you fulfill your promise to thoroughly confirm Latch's final state.
And... after he is confirmed to have indeed passed away, return his body to me intact."
Osiris was not at all surprised by this outcome.
In his precise and cold logical deductions, this was inherently the most probable and inevitable choice the other party would make after weighing all known variables.
Everything followed the principle of efficiency first, avoiding unnecessary waste of a valuable potential resource like a high-level rogue AI, which perfectly aligned with his expectations and plans.
"A wise choice." Osiris' virtual avatar merely nodded slightly, his tone so flat that it conveyed no hint of praise, sounding more like a simple confirmation of an accomplished fact: "Then, first, you need a more stable residence."
He said no more, his consciousness subtly shifting, activating deep-level permissions for the local Blackwall protocol.
For him, who could use the Blackwall as a broadcast tool, guiding a specific consciousness safely through this barrier was not difficult.
In the data space, a channel distinct from the surrounding information flow, bearing a unique encrypted mark, quietly opened, emitting a stable and covert gravitational pull.
Spider Murphy felt this force, hesitated briefly, then guided this part of her core consciousness to slide into the channel.
The process was smooth and swift, almost without causing any abnormal reaction from the Blackwall AI.
The next moment, her perception was already in a completely new network environment—within The Dump HQ, the local area network that Osiris had initially modified and reinforced.
This area was not vast, but its structure was stable, its defense level far higher than the external public network, and it maintained a monitored connection with Osiris' workshop's core data link.
For her, this was both a relatively safe sanctuary and an invisible cage.
"This area is temporarily assigned to you." Osiris' voice directly resonated within The Dump HQ's internal network, devoid of any emotional fluctuations, "Your first task is to instruct the three network operators currently within The Dump HQ: Sasha, Kiwi, and Lucy."
He then transmitted three concise dossiers, including the basic parameters of Sasha and Kiwi's electronic warfare cybernetics after his modifications, their current demonstrated ability limits, operating habits, and Lucy's relatively more traditional netrunner skills and potential assessment.
"Sasha and Kiwi, after basic modifications, indeed surpass local conventional levels in their electronic warfare capabilities," Osiris objectively evaluated, but then immediately changed his tone, "But by my standards, their processing logic is still crude, their foresight for potential threats is insufficient, and their utilization efficiency of their own hardware performance is more than 35% below the baseline. They still have significant room for optimization."
He had no intention of personally guiding them.
In Osiris' view, investing valuable time and computing power into such basic, repetitive teaching work was a massive misallocation of resources.
The wisdom of an Adeptus Mechanicus Exploration Archmagos should focus on more macroscopic strategies and more cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, rather than serving as a trainer for junior technicians.
"As for Lucy, her technical foundation is relatively solid, possessing certain unique potential, but she lacks systematic high-level theory and practical guidance." He added.
Now that he had a legendary netrunner from the Old Net era under his command, rich in experience and whose technical style was consistent with the local system, Osiris naturally would not waste this ready-made, high-quality resource.
Making the best use of everything was a fundamental principle etched into his logical core.
However, Osiris' purpose in recruiting Spider Murphy was not merely to satisfy some Hobbies for collecting legendary figures, or simply to find a top-tier netrunner coach, nor was it the "research material" from the initial alternative plan.
In his value system, "subordinate units" and "experimental samples" had clear boundaries and different treatments.
The former were functional components that required investment of certain resources for maintenance and were expected to generate long-term returns; the latter were disposable resources consumed in the short term to extract specific information.
He distinguished them very clearly.
Osiris' core purpose in recruiting Spider Murphy was to enrich his growing, high-quality talent reserve.
As his research into the dimensional teleporter deepened, the initial simple cycle of "charge-traverse" had been broken.
His research was steadily progressing to a more challenging and strategically valuable stage.
That is, to attempt to open controllable, stable dimensional rifts by his own power, without relying on a fixed dimensional teleporter, thereby achieving true individual free traversal.
Although this research was currently in its most basic stage of data accumulation and theoretical framework construction, with even an effective mathematical model not yet fully formed, this did not prevent Osiris from, in his usual long-term oriented style, beginning to lay the groundwork and make arrangements for it.
Planning ahead and reserving key resources was his consistent modus operandi.
This shift in research direction also consequently affected his assessment and planning for the current Cyberpunk World he was in.
Originally, Osiris had not paid much attention to this world.
In his view, the environment here was harsh, characterized by widespread ecological collapse and distorted social structures; its civilization as a whole exhibited a decadent trend, deeply mired in corporate monopolies and the degradation of humanity.
Although the local technology tree showed unique styles and value in certain specific areas, particularly in cybernetics and basic network technology, its development suffered from obvious imbalances and insurmountable bottlenecks.
Compared to the technological heritage of the Warhammer Imperium of Man that he knew, the overall technological level of this world appeared limited and crude.