One side job more important than most "main" jobs (SPOILERS)

[Fins_FinsT]

"Dream on" is the name. Happens in Act 2.

For those who did not play it yet and those who did not pay much attention - long story short, spoilers:

Peralez, who runs for Night City mayor, tasks V to investigate an intruder into his 25-floor ap. V discovers that he, and his wife, are being brain-washed by an unknown entity. And strongly so: their very brains are artificially adjusted to remove certain neural paths, as well as to add new ones - so that they both have some fake memories, some true memories erased, strongly shifted opinions about lots of things - all as desired by that unknown entity.

So, upon discovering the above, Johnny tells V that he'd go and zero that unknown entity. Then, as V heads to another talk with mr. Peralez - an anonimous call comes to V, which V is unable to reject. Distorted voice tells V that "they" know everything V wants, everything she does, that whatever she'll do won't change anything, and threaten not to cross the line when playing with "fire". The call also disables V's eyesight for its duration and drops her to the ground.

Shortly after the following talk with mr. Peralez, Johnny assumes that that unknown entity - is a rogue AI.

Now, why this "Dream on" side job may well be extremely important? Quite simply, because this is where V encounters, 1st-hand, something more powerful than any gang, any corporation, any government: namely, a being which can puppet-master even most influential humans, and thus, practically, control the fate of mankind. This is bigger than _anything_ i so far know in the game, potentially.

Another thing is, it seems many "forks" and "conditions" may be involved in getting that "special, secret" outcome outta this job:

- there are multiple paths through interactions with both Peralezes, and my guts say that only one, very specific, path would have some "special / secret" outcome;

- after chasing the "van" during this job and following fight with some goons, Johnny mentions that "they" know V got access to the database with all the deets about specific alterations made to Peralezes (and many other citizens on top!). Which becomes obvious as data from that database suddenly goes being deleted before V could copy everything. But, Johnny also wonders if "they" figured out who, exactly, accessed the database. And this, possibly, could depend on whether V was detected during that fight (i wasn't). Further, perhaps it's even doable to complete the fight without even "alerting" any enemy, and then copy all the data without it being deleted?

- during that same fight, there are several security cameras around, and i suspect that even if V manages not to get detected by any of them, but still anyhow alters their mode of operation, "they" may well be alerted (assuming it's an all-noting AI, see). Thus, perhaps the "proper" way to play the mission would be to sneak around, let all the cameras to remain in their normal mode, and still manage to access that database regardless. It seems that buildings and paths "around" the place where the hostiles are - very much allow completely covert / non-intervening inflitration, and this may well be on purpose;

- rather high stat checks are involved during this job, particularly for intellect and technical ability. I have 20 and 18 correspondedly and passed all those checks with room to spare, but it's quite likely many other players would not have both stats sufficiently high and thus could possibly miss some crucial detail for getting "secret, special" outcome outta this job - making the "proper" result indeed even harder to discover.

Further, the outcome of this whole story is one of things which appear during end credits, and quick glance around wikis shows that so far there is only one and same outcome happening - which is, Peralezes fail to free themselves outta that mind control. Means, that presumably-AI entity, that "they" who control Peralez, many others and essentially - Night City and beyond - remain at large.


So, i wonder what we can discover, collectively, regarding this side job, and this whole story line in general. In particular, those are the questions i am currently seeking answers for:

- who exactly controls "SSI" (a security company through which Peralez couple, as well as other "clients", are being spied on and mind-controlled by). Where are their headquarters? Can V go and put an end to their operations?

- what exactly is the role / function of one "Blue Eyed Man", who happen to witness the final v-Peralez conversation of "Dream On" in person? So far, all the hints i found are suggesting he, himself, is not the puppet master. So what's his job? "Fixer" person for above mentioned AI? Creator of that AI? Perhaps just one of many agents of said AI? Something else? Further known details about the guy are https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Blue_Eyes , see, but so far i don't see desired answers there;

- how exactly mrs. Peralez knew Judy (as it's Judy who initially is contacted by mrs. Peralez to start this whole chain of events)? What past connects the two? Can we possibly find some crucial detail about it if we'd have Judy as a lover? Bed talks are often revealing, after all even Arasaka jr. was leaking some highly sensitive info through some;

- if "they" is indeed some AI, then can V actually come in direct contact with it?

- based on events presented in "Dream On", personally i can easily see one great moral trilemma present for possible "should V end that AI, should V just don't interfere, or should V actively help that AI". Can we anyhow have V to actually make this choice, via some "hard to find" questlines' relations and somesuch? For example, Blue Eyed Man, as we know through the link above, will sure be "in touch" few more times, involving himself even in very late main jobs and even "secret" ending of the game, so i wouldn't be surprised if more "secret" content is actually present around this whole deal.

The reasons for above mentioned "trilemma" are as follows:

-- 1st choice is obviously "V can't let AIs mind-control any person", simple;

-- 2nd choice is "V realizes that single person, V included, is incapable to properly estimate things which are way too complex for a single human mind, and thus decides to have nothing to do with that AI";

-- 3rd choice, then, is "V realizes that this AI is benevolent: mind-controlling Peralez couple in a way which would massively reduce human life loss and suffering in Night City should he become a mayor, and also Peralez couple themselves end up living one quite fulfilling and meaningful life while under that mind-control, with ethics and morals much effective and proper, loving their daughter, etc - and thus decides to assist that AI however possible, for common good".

And those reasons are indeed quite important, and very much relevant even in our real life, see. So it ain't just in-game trilemma, it's also very much one of largest choices mankind faces in reality, right now. 21st century rapidly develops AI technologies. Even now, AIs are already affecting more things in our life most of us know about. Indeed, even very CPU of the computer you, dear reader, uses to read this - in most parts designed not by any human, but by an AI. Been so for quite a few years already, too - things became way too complex for human engineers to blueprint. So yeah. Big thing - thus extra interest to this particular storyline in CP2077, in particular, for me (and i think - for any reasonable player).

Any leads, foughts, ideas and extra info is very welcome here, as i don't care about spoilers at all.

 

[Raptorousrex]

Game itself has answer for Peralez issue all you need to do is crack shard.... I not gona tell whos or where because it would be a spoiler!

 

[Fins_FinsT]

Game itself has answer for Peralez issue all you need to do is crack shard.... I not gona tell whos or where because it would be a spoiler!

If you mean shards (yep, there are more than one) which point to Night Corp AI being behind cyberpsychosis and mind controlling people - then sure, i know about those, but i really doubt that one AI is the same which is true puppet master of Peralez couple.


There are several arguments to confirm the above. One of most simple and short ones - certain kind of a ring worn by several key characters. Comes with some "JG" letters on it. And those people are mostly not Night Corp at all, from what we know. Namely,

- one mr. Hellman wears one, and he's very much Arasaka most of his life, a scientist of top caliber;

- Blue Eyed Man wears one, and while he could be Night Corp, i highly doubt it, given late-game events he takes part in;

- one certain "Garry" prophet wears one, and i think it's clear he's not Night Corp: 1 eurodollar being enough to "last another day"? plus, we know he gets kidnapped after certain events, which ain't how suits usually end up being; and all the nonsense he spits out, too;

- one certain mr. Jenkins wears one. This one's high-ranged Arasaka suit and V's boss in corpo prologue;

- mr. Peralez, also, wears one, and there are some lines in the game suggesting he's much in trouble vs Night Corp as an independent candidate;

- one mysterious "Brendan Barker" wears that ring too. He's the only one in this list who may well be Night Corp suit, though he as well might not be.

There are probably few more NPCs who wear that ring, but those are ones i know about. Go check them yourself if you don't believe me (youtube videos with them would suffice, but in-game with zoom is best, of course).


Instead, my current best-guess is that there is much larger entity; probably - large collective entity similar to Geth from Mass Effect in quite some key regards. And that entity is, ultimately, not hostile to humans, but at the time of CP2077 events prefers to remain largely hidden (not known / apprent to humans). An AI-collective which is, in general, benevolent and non-hostile. This particular tribute for one Mass Effect character - "Legion", a robotic platform controlled and operated by great number of inter-dependent Geth AI entities - is probably the best way to "feel" how this sort of an AI would end up be:

So you see, it ain't quite as simple as "Peralez issue". Peralez story is merely one small window to much bigger picture, i think.

Post automatically merged: Jan 30, 2021

Just made few little discoveries poking around during the last scene of "Dream On" quest.


First, the call which threatens / blinds / stuns V - happens exactly when V comes into direct line of sight to the Blue Eyed Man (who's present on the balcony), except if taking extremely unusual routes.

By "default", track line for the quest leads V to the base of stairs which lead to the ground level where Peralez is waiting to talk. If going that route, the call happens exactly when V comes on top of those stairs - which is when Blue Eyed Man gains line of sight to V.

However, V can also avoid the stairs and double-jump right to the ground level the stairs lead to. This puts V several meters further from Blue Eyed Man in compare to the spot where V gets the call in the previous route. If it'd be some raidus / distance script triggering the call - then V would still not be getting the call right after she double-jumps to the upper level. Not the case: the call happens at once.

Further, it's even possible to go "around", in a car (as long as V's in a car, the call does not come) - through the bending highway part which goes around the building in which Blue Eyed Man stands. Doing so maintains line of sight to Blue Eyed Man, we can clearly see him while driving in 3rd person mode - the call is still not happening. However, the instant V steps out of the vehicle - the call happens. Even if it's so far from Blue Eyed Man actual location that his model / person simply disappears (not rendered anymore due to too far distance), yet the spot he stands on is still in direct line of sight to V.

This, however, does not suggest it's Blue Eyed Man himself makes the call. He may well be merely an observer through whom "true architect" sees the scene. However, this clearly proves that BEM is actively involved in the quest. He does not speak, but he clearly either making the call to V himself, or assists someone / something who does.

There are two routes towards Peralez / Blue Eyed Man which i found which trigger the call way before direct line of sight from BEM to V happens, but both are quite very unusual paths.


Second thing, it's possible to go to BEM's location legitimately, by using "hover" kind of leg implants. And via at least two different routes, even: 1st, "from the front", i.e. jumping over the gap between Peralez's terrace and BEM's position (metal construction to the left helps as a middle point). 2nd, "from the back", by going from similarly levelled (to BEM's floor) part of a highway, with somewhat narrow lefthand building part as a middle point. The latter way goes entirely behind BEM's back, however the call happens as soon as V exits the car near the spot from where it's possible to jump into BEM's building / floor, so this does not allow to "go in undetected". Either there are drones, or BEM has 360 degrees field of view.


Third thing - when going right next to BEM by either of those two routes, his name appears over his head, and it's in green color. I.e., he's indicated as an ally in this sense.


Fourth thing, when scanned, BEM is listed as one known to NCPD criminal with wanted rating of 3 (out of 5) stars. Street cred reward is 300sh, and his crimes listed are "classified". Nothing specific. This is one extra minor argument towards "Blue Eyed Man is not Night Corp suit": should he be, Night Corp would most likely have NCPD to wipe out any trace of him from NCPD database (which V has access to when scanning people thanks to good old Viktor).


Fifth, it's actually possible to aim a tech sniper rifle into BEM's head, which quite surprised me. But, this seems to be a glitch; at times V stops aiming as soon as crosshairs come close enough, but other times it works. Just for curiousity, made 20 shots (5 clips), non-charged, into his face. And i have plenty headshot and stealth damage boosts. No visible impacts, no visible effects. Much like any other "crucially important" character, whom V can't hurt in any way (for they "must" remain alive for questlines' continuity).

 

[Fins_FinsT]

Made a bit more progress about this whole story, though nothing ground-breaking.

During "Cuckoo's Nest" gig (the one where V needs to rescue a woman imprisoned and tortured in some mental institution), there is an "unknown device" on said insitution's roof - a transmitter very much like we see during "Dream On" gig, which this topic is about.

This another transmitter points seemingly to nowhere, towards a dam, and says the same "reciever within 1.5 miles" when V scans it.

Turns out, there is some hidden stuff towards that direction indeed. Namely:

- if going on foot right during, or after, doing "Cuckoo's Nest" - then 1st, V will encounter a truck with its driver dropped dead right next to it (and having legendary pants on him), and right next to that - there are also couple police cars with active flashers and two humans in police uniforms, also dead. A shard nearby tells the story of some unknown "them" who are using NCPD uniforms as a disquise (and obviously from the scene, couple police cars, too). Quite possibly, those "they" are no others than SSI personnel;

- if going even further, there will be an area not far from the dam, with 4 militech soldiers, who blow up a van parked there. Given the fact that during "Dream On", it was exactly a van which was recieving the signal from the transmitter, and seeing how this another van stands exactly where this another transmitter points to - this sort of coincedence is extremely unlikely.

Together, all those things together make it quite certain this is another of SSI's operations there:
- transmitter;
- covert operation about killing that truck driver, with killers themselves also killed right after, indicating high-profile special service acting to cover its involvement;
- a van parked exactly where transmitter points to;
- and presense of at least one high-profile "subject" in a fixed environment (the lady V rescues), which would easily be of interest to SSI's brainwashing puppet masters.

The most interesting part, however, is that that another van does NOT exist if V did not visit 1st location before going to where the van is! It's just empty space there. Why's that? Is this simply CDPR's way to hide things - like, "the player would certainly discover 1st scene if going on foot following this transmitter's direciton, so let's hide following bits of the puzzles from any other players"? Sigh...

A sad part is, it's not possible to save the van. It is, indeed, possible to kill all 4 militech soldiers before the van blows up: i managed to do it with 4 quick lethal headshots from the top of a pavillion (sort of like a bus stop on steriods) across the road, and the van was still intact. However, the van still blows up all on its own if approached by V later on - even despite all the militech soldiers who are supposed to be blowing it up are out. Scripted event, obviously.

When scanned, both before and after exploding, this van shows nothing special about it. Just a van like any other.

Here's few pics showing the van and two shards found in those locations. If anyone manages to find anything else about this all - please, share it in this topic.

 

[_Fender_]

There is youtube clip about that mystery which suggests it will be further explored in a future DLC which would make sense - Could be done as a big mission before going to Hanako as well as big deal with Blue Eyes after the main game where we pursue for a cure.

 

[fchopin]

It would be nice if we get a DLC for this and maybe for the AI we help get the cars or maybe they are connected in some way.

 

[JoshShaw]

Made a bit more progress about this whole story, though nothing ground-breaking.



Turns out, there is some hidden stuff towards that direction indeed. Namely:

- if going on foot right during, or after, doing "Cuckoo's Nest" - then 1st, V will encounter a truck with its driver dropped dead right next to it (and having legendary pants on him), and right next to that - there are also couple police cars with active flashers and two humans in police uniforms, also dead. A shard nearby tells the story of some unknown "them" who are using NCPD uniforms as a disquise (and obviously from the scene, couple police cars, too). Quite possibly, those "they" are no others than SSI personnel;

Oh my god! I found this before Dream On and spent so long scouring that area and trying to fight off the hordes of spawning police to check the bodies of the fake police for more info on who they really were. Didn't realise any connection. The fake police shard really creeped me out, I wanted more. Hopefully with future content we'll get more of that kind of vibe.

 

[Fins_FinsT]

Oh my god! I found this before Dream On and spent so long scouring that area and trying to fight off the hordes of spawning police to check the bodies of the fake police for more info on who they really were. Didn't realise any connection. The fake police shard really creeped me out, I wanted more. Hopefully with future content we'll get more of that kind of vibe.

What do you mean by "hordes of spawning police"? When i got there, not a single alive police officer was present at the scene nor in vicinity.

Also, i dug up a bit of continuation to the last shard shown in my previous post. The car which Militech was out to destroy, per shard's content, was a property of one "ms. Tucker Albach". Well guess what, we get to meet a woman with this name, and not just meet her - V's going to capture / kill her as the objective of one of Padre's gigs! Further, there is also her computer with messages to read, see https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Tucker_Albach's_computer for contents.

Thing is, this certainly looks like one clever cover-up by SSI: since when "vice managing director" of one of largest corps drive a simple van around? Militech goons are sent to blow up a car with their superiours _thinking_ they are blowing some luxury ride of a high ranking corpo parked at designated spot, but they are not doing it themselves and don't see what kind of a car it is. While goons themselves - see it, but i bet nobody told them whos car it is. So nobody realises something's fishy.

And i wouldn't be surprised if this one ms. Albach, who worked for years as high-ranked Kiroshi suit - was under SSI's watch (and possibly mind control), herself. Possibly still is, even? During "Dream On", we learn that SSI does multiple "projects" of the sort they do with Peralez couple. And ms. Albach probably disposed the car with which she killed that poor poor girl, herself - and if so, SSI knew it'd be perfect cover for them to send Militech to blow up that van as if it'd be Albach's "car".

Thing is, it's possible for V to even talk to Tucker Albach during that "Eye for an eye" job from Padre. Further, V's actually being a hitman send to her, it's quite favorable position, in general, to have ms. Albach reveal some deets which could perhaps lead to SSI - in theory. Perhaps related dialog lines only appear if V witnesses the above described places after Cuckoo's Nest, and possibly even other "secret" conditions fulfilled? Who knows...

P.S. In any case, there is one thing i am quite sure about: the logical order to this all would be to do "Dream On" 1st for V to learn about SSI, after which V would then do Cuckoo's Nest to discover that 2nd transmitter, then follow with the scenes about truck driver / fake police and Militech blowing up that van, and only after all that go Eye for an Eye gig to talk with ms. Albach. Perhaps, the script which blows up the van would even be conditional based on whether V did Dream On 1st, allowing close inspection of the van provided Militech goons are dropped before they could blow the van up? Something to try!

 

[JoshShaw]

What do you mean by "hordes of spawning police"? When i got there, not a single alive police officer was present at the scene nor in vicinity.

When I found that scene there were two alive police officers there, which I assumed were the fake police mentioned on the shard. So I kept trying to kill them and quickly loot there bodies before the other spawned police (because of my subsequent bounty) offed me. I don't recall them having anything abnormal on them, though.

 

[Fins_FinsT]

When I found that scene there were two alive police officers there, which I assumed were the fake police mentioned on the shard. So I kept trying to kill them and quickly loot there bodies before the other spawned police (because of my subsequent bounty) offed me. I don't recall them having anything abnormal on them, though.

Interesting. When i went there, there were two dead police officers, instead. Their guns were lying next to them, both pistols. Each of the two dead policemen were lying next to a police car with working flashers on their roofs.

Did you have any dead policemen when you went there?

If not, then it means those two are same fake policemen, whos job was to off (or capture) the truck driver who, probably, discovered something about their (SSI's) operation (the transmitter and/or van which was getting the data). And then, someone else was sent to off those two after they were done - and you arrived before that someone else did his job, while i arrived after. I wonder if it's possible to actually see that happening (officers being offed by a killer) and then tail the killer, then?

This whole deal sort of reminds me about one scene from Ghost in the Shell: there also was a truck driver (garbage truck), who was observed and tailed by a "fake policemen" - operatives from Section 9, one of whom was former police officer, and the other major Kusanagi herself. They caught the driver in the anime, too - and then there also was a hitman from a competing special service, a brainwashed / ghost-hacked human, who attempted to kill both the truck driver and fake police officers, but failed to and was captured by Kusanagi. Here's the part:

Way too many coincedences - the truck, the two "not really police" officers after him, a killer on top, and the whole deal being about some shady "special ops" endeavor related to hacking humans' psyches, in both cases. So, four "coincedences" at once? Hardly.

So, could it be V's supposed to play Batou's role in all this - i.e., arrive to the fight between two "fake" cops and someone trying to kill them - in time to save them and force the killer to try to escape? Batou's the big guy with fancy optic implants in the video, that is.

 

[Guest 4400165]

@Fins_FinsT
"- after chasing the "van" during this job and following fight with some goons, Johnny mentions that "they" know V got access to the database with all the deets about specific alterations made to Peralezes (and many other citizens on top!). Which becomes obvious as data from that database suddenly goes being deleted before V could copy everything. But, Johnny also wonders if "they" figured out who, exactly, accessed the database. And this, possibly, could depend on whether V was detected during that fight (i wasn't). Further, perhaps it's even doable to complete the fight without even "alerting" any enemy, and then copy all the data without it being deleted?"

Nope, nothing changes. I don't remember if I tried to copy the data avoiding everyone, but taking out everyone in complete stealth doesn't change anything. I believe there is only one script.

But he won the election and that's what we get from it, unless we kept the truth from him.

 

[JoshShaw]

Interesting. When i went there, there were two dead police officers, instead. Their guns were lying next to them, both pistols. Each of the two dead policemen were lying next to a police car with working flashers on their roofs.

Did you have any dead policemen when you went there?

If not, then it means those two are same fake policemen, whos job was to off (or capture) the truck driver who, probably, discovered something about their (SSI's) operation (the transmitter and/or van which was getting the data). And then, someone else was sent to off those two after they were done - and you arrived before that someone else did his job, while i arrived after. I wonder if it's possible to actually see that happening (officers being offed by a killer) and then tail the killer, then?

This whole deal sort of reminds me about one scene from Ghost in the Shell: there also was a truck driver (garbage truck), who was observed and tailed by a "fake policemen" - operatives from Section 9, one of whom was former police officer, and the other major Kusanagi herself. They caught the driver in the anime, too - and then there also was a hitman from a competing special service, a brainwashed / ghost-hacked human, who attempted to kill both the truck driver and fake police officers, but failed to and was captured by Kusanagi. Here's the part:

Way too many coincedences - the truck, the two "not really police" officers after him, a killer on top, and the whole deal being about some shady "special ops" endeavor related to hacking humans' psyches, in both cases. So, four "coincedences" at once? Hardly.

So, could it be V's supposed to play Batou's role in all this - i.e., arrive to the fight between two "fake" cops and someone trying to kill them - in time to save them and force the killer to try to escape? Batou's the big guy with fancy optic implants in the video, that is.

There was at least one dead police officer already, yes. I kept trying to get to the corpse to check it's inventory which is what kept aggroing the others as I got remotely near it. Hence why I had to kill them to check.