Night Hacker

Chapter 6 – Console

Gu He had a headache when he awoke early in the morning.

Did the talent test finish yet? What did I get?

He only recalled returning to the sofa after Captain Lorna and the others left and he doze off shortly after, without even catching the supermodel competition.

It appears that something else took place, right? He tried to remember, but it was as if he had been drinking.

Fan Debao was nowhere to be seen. He circled the hallway and used the restroom to freshen up, but he was still unable to spot the obese figure. He most likely joined Li Cai’s side.

The izakaya’s wooden door opened, but the exterior glass sliding door was still closed with the message “open later” hanging.

Even though it was just daybreak, the rain that had been falling all night had ceased and was now dripping from neon signs, lanterns, and roofs.

The cluttered neon lights of the alleys and streets have gone out coldly, like all the ghosts of the night.

Without rain, the street was still bustling with noise like the big city streets, except that there is no traffic flow, but there still a noisy scene of people coming and going.

A street singer passed by the door of the store, then a group of gang members with tattoos on their faces, office workers with briefcases, young girls in scantily clad clothes smoking cigarettes, preachers with words on their lips, and homeless people begging with ragged clothes…

Gu He after observing for a moment, turned around and entered the tiny kitchen through the bar door. He found a thermal mug for guests and made himself a glass of wolfberry water.₍₁₎

Alcohol consumption harms the body, wolfberry feeds the liver and shields the kidney.

As a psychiatrist, he understands very well that if a young people do not maintain health, they will raise doctors to take care of them till old age, wolfberry water must be drunk from a young age.

He took a sip of the warm wolfberry water before retrieving the bar’s remote control and turning on the wooden box TV.

The largest consortia in this area is Santo, right?

Gu He had already found out that Santo is found everywhere.

The kitchen has an all-in-one desktop computer with a 12-inch monochrome display, no mouse, and a built-in keyboard.

Computers, TVs, karaoke machines and other equipment all have the same trademark, which is three intertwined green vines.

The middle finger, X-crossed, and some derogatory phrases were, however, depicted on these trademarks. Although Lao Fan and the others appear to despise the Santo Company intensely, they are forced to employ these tools.

The morning news is playing on the small TV screen:

 “The Supreme Court made a decision, and Santo won the antitrust case”

 “Santo releases the first generation of laptops with a built-in modem, the Internet era has arrived”

“The unemployment rate in the Walled District, the Sludge Pond District and other places hit a new high, and the mayor promised to improve the situation”

Gu He sat on the sofa, watched a few news articles, and made sure that his judgments were correct.

Although it is significantly more advanced in certain areas, the level of technology in this world is comparable to that of the 1980s.

“The wealth disparity in this country is enormous.”

He scowled as he watched the “Sludge Pond District” slum scene on television, complete with shacks, incomplete structures, landfills, unclean kids, and gang members with intimidating eyes.

When the news of Santo Company was broadcast just now, the image was the “Garden District”, one of the wealthy districts in the city, with neat streets, skyscrapers, beautiful garden villas, various schools, hospitals, art galleries, etc. 

Santo is a sizable corporate coalition that works with other powerful corporate consortia to construct the so-called “New World Bank.”

Liuguang City is tightly held by the New World Bank, which has cut off all ways to ascending the corpo ladder. Ordinary individuals live their entire lives as wage slaves and may pass away alone in the street’s waste dump.

Everyone has a bright future, they live in heaven whilst we live in the sludge goes an old saying on the street.

As for himself, he is worse than ordinary people, he is a wild dog.

A mouthful of wolfberry water almost spilt out when he glimpsed the upcoming news again and coughed.

‘Police bust an organ truck, more than 100 stowaways killed’

Stowaways’ mangled corpses with missing valuable organs including kidneys and corneas were discovered inside the refrigerated truck, which was discovered in the vicinity of the Sludge Pond District. Police believe the Sludge Gang is involved in this case.

Zhuang Ge and the others did it, isn’t that right? Could those friends from yesterday be the victims?

Gu He scratched his head, No, Zhuang Ge is from the Arcade Gang, not the Sludge Gang…

First of all, there are twenty-nine districts in Liuguang City.

The Sludge Gang is in the Sludge Pond District, and this is Shouhui Street in Kabukicho District. It’s fine.

 “But, as my status as a wild dog…”

Gu He already knew that no one cares about the number of dead dogs in Liuguang City, and it is not news if they die at one time.

Fuck, I have to hold Miss Kumiko’s thigh tightly…

If I can’t be a good cowherd, there is no Miss Kumiko to help me get a legal identity. 

He may fall into the clutches of the Arcade Gang again, kidneys and corneas getting sold will no longer be just a threat.

“What a dogshit life.” Gu He grasps the thermos cup tightly, why did he come to such a world?

I really want to go back, there are family, friends, and safety…

After a long while, he sighed and took a mouthful of wolfberry water. Mentality is very important. For now, it’s best to just lie down.

 “What happened to the test results last night?”

Gu He recalled carefully when Captain Lorna and the others left, he was still stable, and the vortex of light in his mind kept showing “nerve overdrive”.

Speaking of which, the illusion was quite real.

Thinking of this, suddenly, he felt that the spinning vortex of light appeared in his mind again.

“What the hell?” Gu He was so frightened that he changed from a slumped sitting to an upright sitting.

Why is this hallucination still there, the sequelae of fragmentation?

As soon as he focused his attention on the vortex of light, a splendid blue and purple light overflowed uncontrollably, resembling the dazzling halo caused by a city advertisement screen. When the brilliant light falls, an old-fashioned electronic panel emerges from the original vortex of light.

The panel is about the size of a keyboard, and the surface is covered with hazy light and shadow. It seems that it has not been fully activated. Only a few light bars like program progress bars and some buttons can be vaguely seen on the panel.

The only buttons that can be seen clearly for the time being are:

    【DATABASE】

    【COMPILER】

    【SHARE】

“?????”

Gu He frantically shook his head as if he were attempting to shake these hallucinations out, but he was unable to do so.

He couldn’t help remembering that he was transmigrated due to a power leakage of the computer, and the panel really felt like a computer console.

Is this my transmigration fortune? 

But…

As a psychiatrist who is proficient in both applied psychology and psychiatry, I usually like to read “Madness and Civilization”.₍₂₎ The first thing that comes to my mind is not my sudden adventure, but…  

“I’m not going crazy, am I?”

Gu He blankly looked at the console panel in his mind.

If the patient has any hallucinations, and a psychiatrist believes it. He would no longer be a psychiatrist but the younger brother of the “world president”, “alien world liaison officer”, “reincarnated emperor” and other strange people…

Even the concept of transmigration can be called a mental problem.

“Reduplicative Paramnesia”₍₃₎

This is a rare psychotic disorder characterized by a patient’s firm belief that some things around him are out of pocket, such as a different spouse, another hometown, or, worse, that the whole world is out of pocket.

 After a while, the illusion in his mind remained unchanged.

Gu He had to explore carefully, but the [Database] and [Compiler] could not be opened.

He tried to click the [Share] button again…

Suddenly and unexpectedly, some message boxes bounced like they were out of order:

“No shared contacts available”

“The current number of new shared contacts is: 1”

“Making new sharing contacts”

Gu He’s nerves boiled as all manner of weird light suddenly flooded his consciousness, and all of the living room’s scenes around the sofa were swiftly transformed into glorious and solidified light and darkness.

He feels as though he’s reached another dimension and that the console is distantly connected to another brain.

Unbearable sensation, a woman’s thin form towering in the foreground amid the light and shade.

She appeared to be sitting on the ground, looking to the left and the right while appearing startled and overwhelmed.

“Who are you…” Sure enough, there was a female voice over there. The other party’s voice line was inaudible and appeared to be disconnected at any moment like the signal strength was weak, and the sound was mingled with squeaking like a video cassette tape “Am I in… the spiritual network?”

Terrific, I’m actually crazy…

Gu He was even more shocked than her, and words such as dissociative disorder, schizophrenia, and paranoia flashed through his mind.

 Listening to what she meant, it seemed that he was really connected to her soul, like a video call.

However, he is more inclined to believe that he went mad and constructed a second personality which spoke to himself.

The squeaking sound like a cassette is still there, the connection has not been disconnected, but the other party is also cautiously silent.

After a stalemate, the female voice suddenly said again:

“Did Santo Company send you here? I don’t know how you can do this, but I will continue to investigate and won’t yield.”

Uh, girl, who are you, where are you, what are you talking about?

Gu He heard question marks all over his head₍₄₎, and said tentatively, “I look at you for a long time, I look at you for a long time…”

1. 枸杞水 wolfberry water tastes like shit btw, personal opinion ofc
2. Folie et Déraison: Histoire de la folie à l’âge classique by Michel Foucault. Further Reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madness_and_Civilization
3. Reduplicative Paramnesia, is a false conviction that a location has been replicated, is present in two or more locations at once or has been “relocated” to another area. Is Gu He seriously insane, who knows? Further Reading: https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/337748
4. I concurred with the guy in the comments who linked this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4gXzaE8nxg
5. “我看你老半天了，看你老半天了……” Internet meme: of Pan Changjiang and Xie Mengwei where Pan Changjiang ask Xie Mengwei to not sell wine online, “not good”. Then, later on, Pan Changjiang himself took a wine sponsorship Meaning: It is a metaphor for seniors with higher status and seniority in the industry who pretend to persuade young people to make themselves in a favourable position in the competition of the industry. Heres a clip : https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1DA411V7Mp/
6. Some of the raws (mostly the classes and slang) were indecipherable even for a half-mainlander like myself, as such there might be some liberties taken.