Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 681, Section 95: Gun

A blinding white explosion suddenly erupted, and tungsten alloy shrapnel, carried by the shockwave, transformed into countless deadly streaks of light, tearing fiercely at Echo's ACPA armor. The shrill sound of metal colliding with metal pierced the air, and sparks flew like a torrential rain.

"Armor layer damaged, shrapnel did not penetrate!" The system's warning echoed coldly in the cockpit.

Echo gritted his teeth, and his back armor withstood the baptism of death at the last moment—it was the third composite liner he had requested to be reinforced, now gleaming with a dark red glow after being overloaded.

The shockwave crashed in like a giant wave, pushing the steel giant forward half a step, its hydraulic joints groaning under the strain.

But the next second, Echo's fingers bulged with veins on the neural touch band, and ACPA's foot grappling spikes slammed into the road, leaving two sparks flying in the air with a screeching sound. As the dust was cleaved by the gale whipped up by the mech, the sensor had already relocked to the target, and the tungsten carbide blade vibrated at a high frequency, like a buzzing beep.

"Om-"

The tungsten carbide cleaver emitted a piercing sound from its high-frequency vibrations, and the air around the blade was distorted by the violent shockwaves, as if even light was being torn apart by this deadly weapon.

"Thermal energy activation complete, electrothermal conductivity meets the standard, and combat threshold meets the standard."

As soon as the cold electronic sound faded, the dark gray blade of the cleaver suddenly lit up—first a dark red like a branding iron, then turning into a blinding incandescent white. The lattice structure of the carbon-tungsten alloy was wildly agitated under the stimulation of the electric current, and the superconducting coating transmitted the violent energy to every inch of the blade without any loss.

The tungsten carbide cutting blade used by Echo is made of tungsten carbide, which is an excellent conductor of heat. Since this material is used, Echo naturally couldn't leave the cutting blade untouched.

Echo could feel the surging current beneath the arm armor—like countless silver snakes, winding and crawling along the channel outside the insulation layer, eventually converging on the slashing blade. High voltage jumped on the surface of the blade, bursting out fine blue-purple arcs, making the dust around the mecha look like phosphorus dust in a storm.

"boom!"

As ACPA's heel hydraulic jack locked onto the ground for the last time, Echo's arm joints emitted a shriek of hydraulic overload.

On the battlefield where the smoke and dust had not yet dissipated, a blazing white lightning bolt slashed out as the mech turned around—the twist of its waist and hips created a perfect arc of power, and the tungsten carbide blade, heated to its critical point, even left a brief plasma afterimage as it cut through the air.

ACPA is powered by a combination of fuel cells and battery packs, which allow the ACPA armor to operate continuously for 24 hours. However, if the batteries are forcibly extracted to provide power, its continuous combat time will decrease rapidly. Some novice ACPA pilots often hesitate to exert their strength in combat because of this.
However, for Echo, a seasoned hero pilot, he naturally wouldn't care about things like continuous combat or returning to base. This time, his output directly consumed 10% of his total stored power, all in order to kill KK as quickly as possible, before KK could react, like a bolt of lightning.

That was indeed a fast strike.

Even those with the Sianwistan skill would be unable to dodge this extremely accelerated strike, because the Sianwistan only slows down time in the senses while accelerating nerve reactions. When faced with an attack that is difficult to detect even when nerve reactions are pushed to their limits, it is still impossible to dodge. This is why there are different levels of skill among Sianwistan users.

Echo was certain that the fragmentation grenade wouldn't kill KK, so he immediately drew his knife.

Carl also knew that the fragmentation grenade couldn't do anything to him, so he moved forward.

In his retina, the explosion simulation curve transformed into data that entered his mind: fragment distribution, shock wave attenuation rate, armor penetration probability. All these things wove together in his eyes into a three-dimensional survival network. While the echo was still preparing to meet the impact of the explosion, Karl had already found one of the few paths to survival on that network.

"Shoot-"

The sound of bulletproof vests being violently torn was drowned out by the prelude to an explosion.

Karl shed all his burdens like a snake shedding its skin, his bare upper body skin stretching out marble-like patterns in the smoke. The clothes he threw out spread out strangely in the air, forming a tilted buffer curtain.

"Bang!" Tungsten alloy fragments rained down like a storm, but miraculously refracted upon contact with the clothing—the bulletproof ceramic plate altered the angle of most of the fragments within a fraction of a second, while the remaining deadly shrapnel was induced into a spiral trajectory by the deliberately relaxed fiber layer. Karl's figure blurred for a moment under the cover of the exploding fabric, like a ghost in bullet time.

With the threat of fragmentation removed, maintaining a certain distance makes it easy to avoid damage from fragmentation grenades.

The radius of death from the fragmentation grenade drew an invisible line between the two men—and Carl stood on the edge of this line, as precise as if measured with calipers.

Tungsten alloy shrapnel whistled past him, tracing scorching paths through the air. His skin could feel the subtle air currents created by the deadly metal tearing through it, like the gentle caress of death's fingertips. But Karl didn't even flinch—he had calculated the deflection angle of each bullet before the explosion.

The fragments that grazed his ear were like streaks of light, while in Karl's path forward, the streaks of light slid behind him.

The slashing blade flashed like lightning, but unfortunately, it was still too slow.

Compared to the echo of catching a fragmentation grenade and its shockwave before gripping the cleaver, infusing it with electrical heat, and then slashing back at high speed, Karl was far too fast.

Facing the shockwave and shrapnel, the two were on the same horizontal plane, stabilizing themselves. Karl was one step ahead, channeling electricity and heat. Karl was two steps ahead, gripping the cleaver tightly. Karl was three steps ahead, turning around. Karl was four steps ahead.

In battle, being one step ahead can determine victory or defeat, let alone four steps ahead.

As he swung his sword back in a swift motion, he saw Karna's already blurred figure.

The figure was not where Karl should have been after receiving the impact of the fragmentation grenade and the fragmentation, as he had predicted.

Rather, it's more accurate to say they're just too close.

Echo's horizontal slash was executed by gripping the sword with both hands and then rotating it from the right side to sweep behind him, while Karl had already arrived on his left side at that moment.

He was holding a gun in his hand.

Johnny Silverhand once said that Carl was only allowed to play with his gun once, to prevent Carl from taking his gun like he would a lighter.

Carl remembered Johnny Silverhand's words.

So he used it this time.

As for what happens next...
That's like taking a lighter without even realizing it; you just 'unconsciously' take it and use it.

The roar of the Malorian 3516 was deafening. It was rumored to be as powerful as an anti-tank gun. The gun, which could only be controlled by a prosthetic hand, was drawn from the waist, spun in Karl's hand, and then perfectly reached into his palm and was firmly grasped.

"Bah!"

A sound like a heavy cannon rang out.

(End of this chapter)