Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 656, Section 70: The Abandoned Pawn
The captain finally moved.

His movements were slow, like a mechanical leopard calculating the moment to strike. The bodies of the four team members lay scattered in pools of blood, yet he didn't even glance at them—just like when he dealt with the female team member Li De earlier; his pupils only saw the mark of the objective being achieved.

The top student from West Point, the last remaining member of the White Hawks team, was now analyzing the trembling patterns of every muscle in Li De's body with the eyes of someone dissecting a specimen.

The buzzing sound of S.A.S. changed.

No longer the violent, straight-line charge of an ordinary team member, but a chess-like movement defying the laws of physics. Li De watched as his military boots moved with the precision of a chess grandmaster maneuvering a knight in a precise "L" shape amidst the pool of blood, each step precisely avoiding the gleaming blood on the ground. The tactical dagger, held in a reverse grip, maintained the optimal angle for a thrust. When Li De was forced to dodge to the side for the third time, he suddenly found the back of his neck struck by the blade tip that was already waiting there—

Hiss!

The dagger grazed his cheek, and Li De could even hear the faint sound of his cheekbone rubbing against the alloy. Warm blood arced through the air, and a few drops splashed onto the captain, only to be immediately repelled by the anti-fouling coating of his tactical uniform.

'Military-grade neurotoxin.' Li De licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, and his body's immune system immediately began to detoxify, analyzing and breaking down the toxin. The answer was soon revealed on the retina of his prosthetic eye.

The "Military Technology Internal Type IV Neurotoxin" will melt the motor neurons of the victim into protein plasma within ten minutes if a military-grade antidote prosthetic is not installed. It is extremely expensive, and it is rumored that the amount of toxin applied to the blade alone is enough to buy a military-grade prosthetic.

Li De didn't even have the authority to use this neurotoxin, which was only under development and still in the experimental stage, yet it appeared so easily on his current adversary. Considering the open and covert situations between the two sides in the new America, this was truly ironic.

Captain White Hawk was clearly not going to give Li De a chance to slowly detoxify. He suddenly spun around, his dagger slicing a Z-shaped line of death. The moment Li De leaned back, his boot heel suddenly slipped—his opponent had anticipated that he would step on that pool of sticky blood mixed with bits of flesh! The instant the dagger pierced his heart, Li De used his left hand to grab the blade, his metal finger bones sparking brightly as he cut, while his right leg simultaneously shot up to kick his opponent in the back of the knee.

Click!

The cracking sound of the hydraulic joint did not come as expected. The captain bent his knee 0.2 seconds early, so that Li De's boot knife only tore through his tactical pants. The titanium alloy Achilles tendon hidden under the trouser leg reflected a cold light. He used the force of the kick to flip in the air. The dagger left three deep wounds on Li De's left hand, revealing synthetic blood vessels. The poisoned blue light crawled along the wire groove to the elbow joint.

"You have eight minutes left." The captain's voice hissed like a cryogenic chamber depressurizing, chilling to the bone. Type IV neurotoxin had already seeped in—even a trace amount was enough to overload the detoxification prosthetic body in Li De's body, and if the toxin continued to invade, even Li De would not be able to hold on.

The captain's reminder was by no means well-intentioned—it was a precise psychological stab. He knew all too well that even a top agent like Li De was more likely to have his rationality eroded by the countdown-like threat the closer he got to his limit.

Ordinary people stiffen under pressure, while geniuses may burst forth, but in a life-or-death struggle, victory or defeat often hangs by a thread; a half-second hesitation is the time it takes for a dagger to pierce the skull.

The captain threw away his dagger and pulled out two pulse knuckle dusters from his thigh armor. Each protrusion pulsed with a high-voltage arc powerful enough to paralyze the prosthetic body.

“You were once someone we respected because of your unwavering loyalty to the new America. Unfortunately, the person you served is no longer the person America needs to lead.”

The captain was extremely wary of Li De. Even though he had managed to find an opportunity to deliver a few hard blows to Li De thanks to the sacrifice of four of his teammates, and the poison had even seeped into Li De's body, he dared not be careless in the slightest.

Li De did not reply, but simply watched him silently.

The captain he was watching vanished instantly.

The moment the captain disappeared, all the holographic screens in the cabin simultaneously displayed static. Li De used muscle memory to parry with his sword. With a loud clang, his hand and the blade shattered, and an electric arc exploded—the pulse knuckle dust that should have attacked from the front actually refracted down from the ceiling!

“Rhombus-shaped zigzag.” Discarding the shattered tactical dagger, Li De, wearing a grounded-plated anti-electric suit underneath, rolled to avoid the subsequent three knuckle duster thrusts. He recognized this as a fighting style that could only be performed by S.A.R.S., using the zigzag motion of the wall to attack.

Captain S. A.S.'s system coolant piping had been modified so that liquid nitrogen mist would be sprayed every time he stopped, ensuring that his sprints could maintain high speed and proper cooling.

Suddenly, the electrified brass knuckles emerged from the nitrogen mist. Li De barely managed to turn his head, and as his fist blade grazed his earlobe, it brought up a cluster of blood droplets. He seized the opportunity to grab the captain's wrist, but instead touched the magnetic bearing implanted under the skin—that arm twisted 180 degrees like a snake's skeleton, and the brass knuckles pecked at his eyeball like a venomous kiss!
Without hesitation, Li De initiated the modification program for his left prosthetic eye. *Swoosh!*
The sparks from the exploding prosthetic eye saved Li De. He took the opportunity to knee the opponent in the abdomen and heard a muffled sound of the artificial stomach rupture. The captain took three steps back and revealed chromium alloy ribs from the torn combat suit, with coolant flowing between each bone.

In the instant the captain was distracted by the excruciating pain, a cold glint flashed in Li De's remaining prosthetic eye, and a grenade that had been noticed by a member of the White Hawk squad earlier rolled off his waist.

The azure pulse of EMP exploded like the scream of a demon.

three seconds.

It was enough to cause all the electronic prosthetics in the audience to spasm and go into shock.

It was enough to overload and rupture the hydraulic system of the captain's steel knuckles, and metal fragments directly severed three of his fingers.

It was also enough for Li De to pull out a piece of matte obsidian from the lining of his clothes.

This was his last personal weapon, a weapon that would not be affected by EMP.

The structure remains pure to this day.

No circuitry required.

All for this moment—when all high technology becomes scrap metal, humanity's oldest killing techniques will still be effective.

Pfft!

The captain looked at the obsidian plate inserted into his carotid artery and showed surprise for the first time. This weapon, which was once popular in the Americas, could evade all metal detectors. At this moment, it was being violently manipulated by Li De, severing the junction between the captain's artificial carotid artery and the nerve conduit.

The two rolled and fought in the pool of blood, like two rusty killing machines undergoing their final adjustments. When Li De finally shoved the obsidian into the captain's neck, the outcome was decided.

Li De slowly propped himself up, coughing up two mouthfuls of blood. A faint, eerie green light shimmered within the dark red bloodstains—the poison had penetrated deep into his bone marrow.

The situation was worse than he had imagined.

White Hawk's reinforcements could arrive at any moment, and the power plant's alarm system might have already been triggered. He had to leave and find support. But the FIA ​​was no longer trustworthy, and the encrypted terminal had become an invitation to death.

His body grew heavier and heavier, his breath carrying the smell of rust and decay, yet his mind remained sharp as a knife—the gaps in the mechanical guards' patrols, the weak points in the ventilation ducts, all the data were as clear as ever, but time was running out, every second the toxins were eroding his remaining life.

Treatment, support.

——Who else?

His fingers instinctively reached for his waist, but only touched the cold metal.

Abandon a piece.

(End of this chapter)