Breaching the Mainframe!

What up.

Back again.

Enjoy the chapter.

NOTICE: I made a mistake where Intelligence should also have lower xp requirements because it's all about hacking with Rache Bartmoss' Netrunning Potential. Going back and revising the chapters that had incorrect numbers. Thank you.

-+=[BoG]=+-

John walked out with a saddened but determined expression, his resolve unwavering in the face of rejection.

He put his hands in his pocket but noticed the shard from that mugger.

Scanning the shard, he didn't notice any malware so he slotted it in and it had random nonsense on it while also having 500 eddies, so he transferred it to his own savings.

As he walked back and called the elevator, he was lost in thought as to what to do next.

John came to the decision to practice the netrunning module when he got home.

Stepping into the elevator, three more dudes of average stature came in behind him with one putting a gun to his chin.

"Hand over the bag, shithead!" The man threatened with his two friends also pointing guns at him.

'Again, really?' That's Night City for you.

"Alright, alright. Chill choom." John held his hands up and took stock of the situation. He had his Unity in his hip and Kyubi he stashed earlier. Won't make that mistake again.

Suddenly, he grasped the wrist of his attacker holding it to the side while crouching down burying his head into the man's chest. He was considerably taller than these three goons, so using him as a shield would be the way he gets out. At the same time he did that, he pulled out his Unity and shot where he saw his friend last.

The bullet hit its mark as Goon #2 screamed in pain and fell down.

"Move idiot!" His other friend wanted to shoot but couldn't since John had him in a vice grip.

"I'm try–" He was interrupted as the giant started charging forward using him as a battery ram into the dude that was still standing. John was taking a few punches but it was ineffective at such close proximity and this dude was clearly no boxer.

Both Goon #1 and Goon #3 fell over as they crashed into each other.

John quickly switched targets and shot Goon #2 in the head. He then aimed again and shot Goon #1 and #3 in the forehead.

That was the end of that.

Athletics +100

Brawling +100

Cool +100

Cool +100

Cool +100

'Guess Cool levels up directly from kills?' John shook his head and was planning on checking his stats on the ride home. There was also a hint that perhaps combat is the best way to level up. It made sense to him.

He took the 2 Unitys and 1 Lexington while also taking the shards from their bodies. About 600 eddies in total on them. Not a bad haul for a random encounter.

John let out a sigh of relief and patted around his body making sure he didn't actually get shock and adrenaline wasn't masking the pain.

He found no such wounds.

Pressing the screen to go down, he dragged the bodies into the corner.

As he reached the bottom floor, he left for the station.

Once he made it up another elevator and got on the metro, he pulled up his stats as he sat down, making sure he had his Kyubi on him this time.

Body 5(560/1250)XP

- Brawling 4(700/1250xp)

- Athletics 5(100/1500xp)

- Shotguns 5(0/1250xp)

- Heavy Machine Guns 4(400/1250xp)

- Blunt Weapons 4(500/1250xp)

Reflexes 4(1275/2000)XP

- Driving 4(200/1250xp)

- Pistols 4(1250/1250xp)

- Submachine Guns 4(550/1250xp)

- Assault Rifles 4(1250/1250xp)

- Blades 4(450/1250xp)

- Rockerboy 4(200/1250xp)

Cool 1(600/800)XP

- Throwing Weapons 1(400/400xp)

'Not bad.' John hummed to himself as he looked everything over.

It truly was better to level up in realspace.

As he got off the metro and up his megabuilding, he made his way to his apartment and shut the door.

John lit up a cigarette with a glass of Whiskey and just chilled out for a bit.

He didn't feel like playing music and after twenty minutes of thinking and relaxing, he got up. 

Hungry, he got some food and water before devouring it while tossing the garbage into the can.

Once that was done, he sat back down on the couch and was ready for his first taste of what netrunning would be.

His mood changed as he smiled and loaded up the training shard.

Appearing in the classroom, he walked over to the netrunning module and it didn't have the red X anymore so he walked up to it and it transferred him.

This was the most mindfuckery room in the training shard.

There was pixelated blue code like in deep diving with a few notable features.

A book was right in front of him on a table and on his left there was a familiar-looking data terminal with a dial that had the text: Level 1. There was also another table with a book on it.

Further out to the center, there was some kind of pixelated blue dome with a red figure of code.

To his left was literally just a normal monitor, keyboard, mouse, and an actual bookshelf completely filled.

As he was done surveying his surroundings, he walked forward and picked up the book. 

John started reading.

It detailed how he can customize his netrunner icon, like calling and such freely even without a cyberdeck.

This confused him because that would mean Lucy used her own face which is strange. Maybe that was just for the show and not reality. The book advised against using his own face and body. Hell, it didn't even have to be humanoid. Both processes could be configured with thought and intention. 

Don't be mistaken though, it's not like you can show up as fucking Aatrox and then switch to a generic icon. Your data signature doesn't change and people will recognize it. There are ways to mask this, but change? Not possible.

What do you think he chose as his deep-dive icon? 

Gear 5 Luffy with the iconic clouds and hair. He initially put a straw hat on his back but decided against it as one day it'll be too recognizable.

As for his static icon that everyone will see when they call him? Come on now.

Classic Nika in front of the moon. 

Both of these were of course more pixelated, especially his avatar, but it was recognizable enough.

He looked down at himself and saw that it changed which made him feel good.

Next, John decided to start off easy and chose what looked to be Breach Protocol training that he remembered from the game with the grid and all that.

This, however, made him worry as his speed wasn't too good on those, but it would at least be fun.

Moving over to the book on the left of the terminal, he opened it and read.

It won't be fun.

The Breach Protocol would be far more difficult in real life than in the game which made sense considering that it's very easy to hack into anything playing Cyberpunk 2077.

Let's start with the basics of what the text outlined. 

The buffer size, which is in all cyberdecks determines how long the sequences are and the Code Matrix or the grid is where you input the sequences themselves. Your OS/cyberdeck will generate the sequences themselves.

To expand on buffer size, it is generally good to have more of it as you can upload more programs in a single breach. If you want to upload more then you'd have to breach it again.

What's a program? It's an overarching term for quickhacks, demons, and daemons.

Demons are typically used for Data Fortresses to protect...well their data and are too large to actually fit on a cyberdeck, but the subtype, daemons, can be.

Daemons are used by all netrunners and it's a type of program that can incorporate other programs, albeit not as powerful as the originals, to do whatever the netrunner wants it to do.

Demons are also the same way but instead of using the power of cyberdecks, it uses the power of Data Fortresses, so it's like an upgraded version of a Daemon. It also has a limited AI which is insane. It's also a form of Black ICE.

Black ICE is used for security of a Net Architecture or it can also be used for Data Forts and even on cyberdecks too. 

To put it simply, it's like having a guard dog where you can have it defend you or patrol the Data Fortress and eliminate anyone poking around.

John felt overwhelmed by the information as he was trying to simplify the knowledge in his head. The book was far more detailed.

Back to trying to understand, a Net Architecture is basically an isolated network like Night City and so on. Thanks to Mr. Bartmoss, the internet works like this now where one can't access anything on the net unless you have an Access Point to another one, but since they are on physical servers...not possible.

Now within Net Architectures, there are Data Fortresses. Simply, it's just a 3D representation of a computer system. His cyberdeck had ICE which means a limited Data Fortress. It would only keep out netrunners who had no clue what they were doing.

If he wanted to upgrade his ICE he'd need to program and code it himself by accessing his neural interface and uploading software, programs, and such.

John felt like his brain was steaming with all this knowledge. 

'Why couldn't this work like Chakra from Naruto or something? How does Chakra work? Oh, it's a combination of physical and spiritual energies! Okay, but how do you gather it and combine it? You just feel it!' That would be real nice right now.

He had a little background in coding as in took two years of it in high school in his past life. It was fun little things that he enjoyed.

Once he got to AP Computer Science though? Completely fucking lost. Had to drop the class. It also didn't help that the teacher didn't really explain it very well and there were no textbooks.

His only hope would be for the system to help him out. It's not like he can't ask Lucy either.

John didn't know what she'd ask for in return, but learning from an incredible netrunner would be invaluable.

Back to Breach Protocol. You can't just upload quickhacks to someone or something without either having access to their connected subnet which either requires Access Points or breaking through ICE and latching on to their connection and then further breaking of ICE to take control. Oh, this also doesn't account for if there are enemy netrunners who'd detect you and trace your location to counter-hack.

If that was it, then it wouldn't be so bad, just upload your daemon or quickhacks by uploading the sequence, then boom you're in.

Nope. That's bottom of the barrel ICE.

Some would have multiple sequences needed to break through, time constraints, even multiple grids at the same time!

John felt helpless with a weak smile before he thought of the memory influxes.

He felt like glazing himself over the brilliant decision to have Rache Bartmoss' potential for easier XP gains.

All there was left to do now was practice.

He jacked in with his personal link.

There was the iconic grid and a short sequence.

Looking it over, he started matching the codes as columns and rows switched, so he had to be careful which line he chose.

After a few seconds, he completed it.

Breach Protocol +100

He decided to level it up on the spot as memories flowed in and felt that he could do it even faster. It's not like he was thinking faster, not exactly anyway, but it was becoming more natural and fluid for him which would cause his speed to go up. Maybe his brain chemistry is being adjusted and finetuned for breaching? That's a lifesaver.

Confidence regained, he kept going at it.

-+=[BoG]=+-

Holy exposition, but it had to be done.

Even after reading the wiki about these things, I'm still not 100% certain on certain things, but I also don't want netrunning to be bland, so getting into more advanced topics is essential in laying down the combat and intricacies of the net.

Thanks for the continued support.

See you in the next chapter!

Later!