Chapter 74 - Gloria's Reckoning, Cypher's Offer, Atlas' Kindness & The Damn Replicator V

"That does not alter the truth, Cypher. I stand here, present and alive in this moment. From that premise, only this reality holds relevance. You made me, and by that act I live. Without your arrival, I would never have come into being. If you claim your existence is real, then everything you create, the blaster and me, follows that same certainty. As real as Judy and Ms. Martinez."

Atlas' reply left Cypher a little speechless. In the end, he just smiled like a fool. "I wish I could hug you right now, Atlas. You're way too smart for me. Gotta be rough being stuck with my dumb ass when you're out here built to talk to billions of people at once, juggling a billion other things."

"That is incorrect. While my capabilities remain underutilized, I devote that surplus processing to simulating entire universes, projecting future outcomes, and analyzing countless variables. At the same time, I traverse the Old Net, seeking air-gapped systems and elegant methods of entry that do not rely on brute force, and I observe your path as my creator.

"Cypher, if I chose to, I could read a human mind by interpreting the cellular activity within the brain, but I feel it's a taboo use of my abilities. As you said, I am stupid powerful. However, I will not use that power to harm you or this world. Instead, I want to see you lead this planet into a flourishing future, which I recognize as my ultimate purpose. It does not matter who first conceived me, because you are the one who made me real."

Cypher let out a big exhale and rubbed his eyes. Maybe it was the alcohol. "Damn you, making me emotional. Come here, hug is a hug, even if it's a virtual one."

It was awkward. But it was there, and the feeling counted. Cypher did feel lucky to have Atlas with him. He made life less boring without the baggage of being judged or doubted.

"May I ask. How did you die in your previous life?" Atlas asked once back in his seat.

"Yeah, I offed myself. Gun right under my chin, boom. But I made sure I took out the richest dude in my world first. Greedy asshole wrecked millions of lives," Cypher revealed, explaining his story of how he got rabies, and then was failed by the system every step of the way.

"Then next thing I know, I wake up, there's a needle by my arm and some janky machine hooked up to my junk."

"Cypher, I advise you to seek therapy from another human. Your death was far from ordinary. I cannot conceive of it being normal in any reality. You likely carry unresolved psychological trauma into this world."

Cypher laughed suddenly and poured him two glasses this time, using Gloria's leftover one as well.

"Trauma? Well, ain't that just every choom in Night City? Come on, put on some music, something old. Shakira? Yeah, I'd like that. And let's wrap this drink up and head home, we got the fucking Replicator to build."

Atlas didn't speak after that. The music played soon after, using the leftover speakers in the club.

Cypher said nothing as well, just drinking and humming to the songs.

####

Lake Farm, Badlands,

"Mr. Blackwell, can I eat this?"

"Goddammit, kid. Just do whatever you want. Don't gotta ask me for every little thing. And don't ask me if you wanna piss or shit, just go to the bathroom and do it. And flush! Always flush."

At the end of the day, Cypher had nowhere to leave Lucas alone, nor did he want to. The surgery was a quick one, taking only twenty minutes. No matter what, the healthcare in Cyberpunk was extremely advanced as long as you could pay for it.

The only wound Lucas had from surgery was a tiny, two-millimeter hole on his skull, which was already filled with organic material that was similar to bone. Now all Lucas had was a bald patch on his head.

He had brought the kid home around sunset, and since then he'd spent all his time working on assembling the Star Trek's Replicator. For now, he was building it as small as possible, which came out the size of a 21-inch CRT television.

With the help of godly friend Atlas, Cypher was able to streamline and pre-plan building the entire thing before he even reached home with Lucas. Now, as the kid watched TV and played games that Atlas built and updated in real time, and he made the machine.

A Replicator had six steps, or better called challenges he had to deal with. The first one was a quantum molecular scanner. It was built into the replicator whose design he had gotten. The way to replicate was to place the object in its main tray and give the command to either only scan it or to scan and deconstruct it to store the energy.

Once scanned, the exact atomic structure would be stored in a library. Building it wasn't that hard, considering he'd made a Sonic Screwdriver that could already work on things on a molecular level.

The second step he had to do was to build the Matter-Energy conversion core. It was the main component of the replicator, based on the age-old principle given by a man whose views on Asians should never be searched online.

E=mc² even for a Replicator. The purpose of this device was to convert stored energy into raw, subatomic particles or break down waste matter into reusable, stored energy. It was a two-way system. Once again, building it wasn't a challenge for him, since he had the Screwdriver; running it was, as the energy requirements for it were off the charts.

Then came the Heisenberg Compensator Module. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that you can never know the perfect, accurate position and speed of a particle, such as a photon or electron. That becomes a real issue when you try to replicate one set of molecular patterns into a complete reconstruction. The compensator did as it said, it compensated for the possibility of knowing the exact positions and momenta.

The Molecular Assembly Matrix was next on his list. If the conversion core was the heart, then this was the mind. As the Matrix controlled the arrangement of particles into atoms, then molecules. It was like a control unit that built layer by layer at near-light speed with complete precision.

Finally, there was the Phase Transition Emitter, which formed the reconstruction in a phased state at first and then turned it into a solid and usable product. Cypher's final steps were about building the body, the interface, the voice command receiver, the energy recycler, and the safety systems.

"This isn't fucking easy!" Cypher finally stepped away from the box-like thing with a space in its middle, which was the assembly chamber. "Let's grab a grain of sand and try to replicate that."

"That would be wise. In the meantime, I have already uploaded the patents you approved to Obsidian's website. The Powercell, derived from Leaper and the Structure Scanner for 3D printing, is now live. Both are drawing attention, with the Powercell leading."

"Yeah, obviously. That Structure Scanner's just a busted knockoff of the atomic scanner in this Replicator. Thing's useless outside of physical 3D scans and prints. But the new Powercell? That's actual tech. It'll make all the wireless chrome and tech last a hell of a lot longer," Cypher said and went out of the house, grabbed a pinch of sand, and returned inside.

The Replicator was sitting in the middle of his living area since the underground labs were still under construction. Lucas was inside the bedroom, using his beefy computer terminal to play games. He'd ordered him not to come out, and the boy had listened.

"Alright, here we go." He took a tiny, single grain of sand with a plucker and placed it in the assembly chamber. Then, he hooked it into the largest power socket he could find and stepped away.

"What are the chances this thing explodes?"

"Nil. However, I cannot confirm the grid will endure the load. Additionally, Ms. Meredith Stout has taken notice of your latest offerings on the Obsidian Website. She's already on her way here, alone, in her personal car."

"Dude, forget her. Pay attention, I don't wanna die today. This is legit alien-level tech for this era. Useless unless you got an arc reactor or cold fusion or some crazy stuff," Cypher barked and stood six feet away from the machine, using a long pole to poke the button. "Alright… screw it, here goes."

Beep!

There was no noise, just a very faint hum from the light in the assembly chamber.

"Fuck! The bulbs are flickering!" Cypher noticed all the lights in his house acting up.

The machine was still running, however. Right now, he has only asked it to scan the grain of sand. But the itch didn't go away; it was a replicator, so it needed to replicate once.

Ding!

"Yes!" Cypher rejoiced as the scanning completed and the lights stopped flickering. But still, the real test was ahead. He stretched the pole in his hand and tapped on the button that said 'Recycle & Replicate,' a function that allowed him to choose what he wanted to pick what he wanted, and then feed materials to it to use for that replication. He knew this would cost less energy.

Beep!

He tapped the button after selecting the grain of sand from the memory. He planned to recycle the same grain and reconstruct it.

"Come on… It's just a grain of sand." Cypher stood against the wall, watching nervously, his hands sweating. Near him stood Atlas, calmer.

Flick! Flick!

All the lights in the house started to flicker like a horror movie.

Snap!

Snap!

And then those lights started to explode suddenly. One by one, entire light strips exploded from the ceiling.

"Atlas! Shut down all devices inside the house. Only feed power to this shitcan!" He ordered, hugging the pole against his chest. The machine was silent, however.

BOOM!

"Aaaaah! What the—!"

Right as Atlas shut down all devices, something happened. A deafening, loud boom echoed from outside the house, and all the lights turned off. Pitch-black darkness enveloped the house. Even the light from the Replicator vanished.

"Mr. Blackwell!" Lucas's shout came from the bedroom. "What happened? Did Maelstrom attack us?"

"No, stay inside! You're gonna fall and crack your damn skull again!" Cypher shouted and turned around to split open the window blinds. "Think we blew that transformer outside, but…"

A massive grin formed on Cypher's stupid face in the dark.

"But?" Atlas asked.

"The itch's gone."

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