Blackwall

The Blackwall (or Black Wall) is a firewall developed by NetWatch. Located within the Net, it is tasked with keeping rogue AIs from breaking through into the rest of cyberspace and wreaking havoc.

The firewall often splits old network systems in half, leading to stories of haunted data.

2040s
In the 2040s, NetWatch, helped by the Transcendentals and the Ghosts, was secretly developing a project called "The Black Wall" in order to keep the Net under control. Ever since the DataKrash caused by Rache Bartmoss, humanity was forced to sacrifice its access to invaluable resources and knowledge for the safekeeping of the Net. The Blackwall's task was to secure an area of the Net for human use while holding at bay the threat of the dangerous rogue artificial intelligences that were released decades earlier into cyberspace.

2077
By 2077, the Blackwall is still active as the danger of the rogue AIs getting free could possibly cause the end of the world. However, several netrunner groups believe the free AIs will help them conquer the virtual world, and thus look for ways to destroy the firewall. To ensure this never happens, NetWatch works overtime to keep others from destroying it.

It is revealed by various sources that the Blackwall is not a firewall, but actually a powerful AI masquerading as ICE, whose job is to keep out any rogue AIs it can identify from the secure net. It is also referred to as a band-aid solution, due to fact that the Blackwall, being an AI, could go rogue itself. The Voodoo Boys believe that outcome is inevitable, and are willing to do anything to remove the Blackwall and win favors with the rogue AIs for when they return.

Other groups of a more elite veneer have also expressed an interest in the Blackwall. The American multinational corporation Militech in particular sought to reactivate the long-dead Project Cynosure, itself an early attempt at capturing rogue AIs using adaptive neural networks, in an effort to harness the Blackwall for its own ends, particularly to compete with Arasaka. The federal government of the New United States also expressed a disproportionate interest in harnessing the Blackwall through skilled netrunners such as Song So Mi, despite the fact that both of these actions would have likely led to another corporate (or global) conflict.

Alt Cunningham reveals that the best way to survive beyond the Blackwall is by assuming a human form to not turn into pure data, out of animalistic behavior.

Depending on the choices made at the end of, either V or Johnny can agree to follow Alt beyond the Blackwall, where they will fuse with her like the rest of the constructs from Mikoshi.