Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 680, Section 94: Fragment
The neurotoxin silently seeped into the drug delivery system, and 'Echo,' the driver, detected the anomaly immediately.

A series of damage alarms and reports of unidentified substances flashed wildly on his prosthetic retina. At this moment, he was fully connected to ACPA through neural synchronization, and his whole being was like the central nervous system of this war machine. The moment the toxin invaded the system, he felt not only the mechanical abnormality, but also that his own 'body' was being eroded by some cold foreign object.

'Neurotoxins?'

The information about KK did mention this poisoned dagger, but Echo never paid it any mind.

How could such a weapon designed for flesh and blood possibly penetrate ACPA's alloy armor and directly threaten him inside the cockpit? However, reality slapped him in the face—the toxin was traveling along the drug delivery system straight to his life support device.

His reaction was lightning fast; he completed the three input operations almost instantly.

Cut off the pipeline—the control panel pops out from the left hand, the mechanical clamp inside the body precisely clamps the contaminated drug delivery tube, and the hydraulic device crushes and seals it with a 'click'.
Activate the shield—the interior suddenly cracks open, and micro-fire extinguishing gel is sprayed out, forming an amber-colored isolation membrane at the broken point of the head pipe;
Injection of antidote—an emergency syringe at the back of the neck automatically inserts, and ice-blue antidote serum is directly infused into the circulatory system through the implanted interface in the cervical spine.

Echo completed these emergency procedures in less than a second, which was incredibly fast for a reaction. However, even though he had dealt with the internal situation so quickly, a series of red alerts still popped up on his retina.

The neural synchronization rate dropped to 88%, homeostasis failed, and body temperature is rising.

Echo's vision began to show colored noise. In his eyes, the green grid lines of the tactical HUD looked like they had been splashed with acidic paint, and the edges began to writhe and dissolve, turning into pools of fluorescent slime. The original roar of the mech was distorted into the low growl of some kind of creature, as if a giant beast was breathing against his ear. Then, the mech's right arm, which had been as natural as a limb, suddenly 'disappeared' for half a second, followed by the phantom pain of being gnawed at by thousands of ants.

I've already been poisoned.

The drug pipeline, which was originally a metal blood vessel flowing with pale blue nutrient solution, had now become a conduit for death. Even though Echo had processed it at the fastest speed, the toxin was still like a cold, venomous snake, winding its way up the pipeline and piercing the nerve interface at the back of his neck.

Echo suddenly tasted rust—not a hallucination, but the toxins that had eroded his oral mucosa. His tongue pressed against his palate, and he could feel tiny beads of blood seeping from his taste buds.

'How ironic, the neural links that enhance combat effectiveness are now delivering death throughout the body at 200% efficiency.'

He realized that this state wouldn't last long, because his antidote had already caught up with the toxin, but the damage caused by the toxin couldn't be removed simply by eliminating it. His body had already suffered 'permanent' damage in this battle.

This thought and processing took Echo only two seconds, but within those two seconds, Echo controlled the ACPA's speed to decrease, which was enough time for Carl to do a lot of things.

The flying metal fragments whistled through the air, and Karl had ended his state of wandering in slow time.

This was far from his limit. If Karl were to maintain this duration now, it would be no less than the time V used at the far point of Sianwistan, but this duration was already sufficient. A split second, as precise as a surgical operation, was enough to complete a perfect armor-piercing operation.

ACPA's hand swept across Karl, who was punching him in the head, but the steel hand only swept through the air; Karl had already landed before the hand arrived.

Feeling the gravity pulling his body down, Karl watched as his hand swept across the armor and his toe precisely stepped on the protective protrusion of the ACPA knee joint. That spot, which should have been the strongest point of the armor, had become his best foothold.
Using the momentum of his leap, his fingers brushed against the crack in the ACPA's chest armor. As the EMP knife was pulled out, it brought with it a string of eerie blue sparks, as if a section of glowing spine had been extracted from the body of a mechanical behemoth.

“The Tsunami shipment should arrive in the next few days.” Karl squinted slightly in mid-air because of the electric sparks. Blood was seeping from his cheek, which was slightly scratched by the armor fragments that had grazed it. But he remembered the ‘armor-piercing transformation module’ marked on the weapons list—if such a thing really existed, perhaps they wouldn’t need to go through so much trouble next time.
The moment the alarm from the shoulder-mounted optical camera exploded on the retina, the echo muscle memory reacted before consciousness could register it—the rocket launchers that had just completed their salvo suddenly emitted a hissing sound as they were hydraulically released, ejecting from the back armor like molting snakes.

Few people would load fragmentation grenades onto an ACPA; it's as crazy as stuffing a tank with gasoline canisters. But Echo's modifications are always full of dangerous ideas.

Each of his rocket launchers had three fragmentation grenades embedded inside its casing. These miniature grim reapers were now rolling off the wreckage of the launched launchers, the 'click' of the safety pins spinning in the air creating a continuous chorus.

Fragmentation grenades can damage ACPA armor, but they can also damage enemies. At close range, Echo has ACPA armor for protection, but what about Carl?

Echo in the cockpit crushed the stimulant capsule hidden between his teeth. The excruciating pain temporarily restored his nerve synchronization rate to 94%. He was ready to turn around and chase after Karl the moment the grenade exploded.

A grenade alone wouldn't kill KK.

He was even more confident in this than KK himself.

As Karl completed his elegant backflip, he saw more than a dozen grenades forming a deathly barrage between the mech and himself. The closest one even grazed the hem of his billowing trench coat—the dented metal shells were blooming in mid-air like dandelions, revealing the dense tungsten alloy fragments inside.

"What a mad dog." Karl laughed when he realized what Echo had done. This was much better than the pilot he had tricked with a fragmentation grenade. He actually took the initiative to use the damage his armor could withstand to deliver a fatal blow to an unprotected enemy.

If we disregard Adam Hammer, who is debatable whether he can be considered a pilot or not, the person he is facing right now is definitely the strongest and most insane pilot he has ever encountered.
'Luckily, I was the one who faced him.'

The fragmentation grenade exploded, and Karl's figure blurred for a moment in the flash.

(End of this chapter)