Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 725, 139. Inescapable
The knife is so fast that when it cuts through the air, the blade seems to emit a high-frequency vibrating buzzing sound.

The bullet fired by Li De as he pulled the trigger intersected precisely with the trajectory of the blade's downward slash. With a metallic clang, the bullet was split in two, and scorching fragments of the bullet grazed Mingzhi's ear, leaving symmetrical scorch marks on the concrete wall behind him.

Mingzhi's swordsmanship is actually quite ordinary. At least compared to his friend, Mingzhi has not specialized much in swordsmanship. His current level is only because he learned a little bit during sparring with his friend at his request.

However, while his swordsmanship was average, his insight and precision were excellent. It was merely a matter of slicing bullets with a knife. For Akechi, as long as the knife matched his precision, there was nothing difficult about it.

If it weren't for the difficulty of revealing it, Mingzhi could have tried catching bullets with his bare hands again, but that would have exposed himself to Li De. Mingzhi's current task is to conceal his identity, and there's really no need to expose himself to Li De of the Joint Intelligence Bureau.

To demonstrate sufficient, yet not like, one's own level.
Li De's Krenchikov should have reached its limit. Li De's movements are slowing down now. Hmm, four seconds. I should still be able to hold on.

Thinking that he only needed to hold out for four seconds, Mingzhi took the initiative to meet Li De with his knife.

He's not stupid. If he just stands there and gets shot by Li De, even if he can cut bullets with his knife, Li De might know how to use bullet collisions to make them curve. He can't take that kind of risk.

The first second.

As Wise had predicted, the increase in neural reflexes brought about by the Krenzikov prosthetic body in Li De's nervous system had reached its limit.

Blood vessels appeared at the edge of his retina. In the brief moment when the flow of time slowed down, he saw the subtle adjustment of Mingzhi's wrist—the samurai sword was changing from a downward slash to a horizontal slash, the dark patterns on the blade lit up with scarlet red, and its edge was pointing directly at Li De's head.

If it were a moment ago, or even just the instant before, Li De would have been absolutely certain he could have dodged the attack. However, it was as if his opponent had seized the moment when Li De's reactions slowed down due to reaching his limit and attacked. Li De's retreat was too late.

Faced with this precise strike, which was by no means fast due to enhanced nerve reflexes, Li De instantly assessed the threat posed by his opponent.

'Was my feeling just now wrong? Apart from that keen sense of timing and awareness, the other party's skill level is about the same as those Arasaka agents before. Although they are also elite among elites, they shouldn't have given me that strange sense of threat.'

Li De began to doubt the sense of threat he felt. Was it really the profound mystery of swordsmanship in Japanese culture, and that his opponent was merely an excellent swordsman who had reached a level described as 'false' in the records? The blade was already at his throat.

With a forceful twist of his neck, the blade severed the necklace that swayed in his chest as he twisted his neck. Under his control, the nanofibers of Li De's subcutaneous armor bulged up on his neck, blocking the last blade tip that could have slit his throat, and sparked a string of blue-green sparks from the friction with the blade.

The nanofibers in his subcutaneous armor couldn't stop the blade from slicing through his throat, but with this layer of obstruction, Li De managed to avoid the blood vessels in his neck from being damaged by the blade, leaving only a deep wound on his skin and subcutaneous armor.

This is the second second.

An alarm went off in Li De's nervous system, and the world suddenly returned to normal speed, but the visual cortex support prosthesis continued to output information—the wise knife path left a faint black afterimage on the retina, followed by another close approach.

Li De, however, had already discerned the connection between the opponent's wrist movement and sword trajectory from Mingzhi's strike. A series of afterimages, perceived in his mind, were hurtling towards his body, and he dodged by tilting his head based on these predicted trajectories. The blade grazed his temple, Adam's apple, and collarbone three times in succession, each time precisely within 0.5 centimeters of his skin. The beads of sweat that were severed reflected fragmented light spots in the air. Sword after sword, or rather, blade after blade, Li De had completely grasped the skill level of the person before him.

To say that the other party had not installed any combat cybernetics would clearly be a misjudgment.

The opponent's movements were clearly optimized by combat assistance software, and his reaction speed was far beyond that of ordinary people. He had obviously been equipped with a neural acceleration component. The most troublesome thing was his hand modification - the trajectory of the blade was unpredictable and sometimes suddenly accelerated, as if the control system had some kind of loading control.

But that's about it.

A guy who relies on combat aids, whose data probably comes from some high-ranking member of Arasaka, and who imitates his fighting style, is ultimately just a clumsy imitation. An opponent of this caliber is not even a threat.

Three seconds have passed.

'So, my feeling was wrong after all.'

Despite these thoughts, a sense of doubt still lingered deep within Li De's mind.

Why did this fighting style feel somewhat familiar to him?
A guy who uses a knife and attacks by speed.
'Oda Santayu?'

Li De had found the answer to his own question, but a strange feeling, like the strands of sugar candy stuck to his clothes, still lingered in his mind.

Does she really look like Oda Santayu?
Just when Li De thought he had found the answer, but deep down he still harbored a sliver of doubt about all the top agents, Mingzhi felt his hands were getting a little tired.

'I was trying to imitate Oda Santayu, but as I used it, I kept accidentally using too much force in my hand and trying to swing it out. Then I tried to be more steady, and inexplicably I ended up using V's fighting style again.'

Oda Santa's fighting style is somewhat similar to V's; strangely, the two become quite alike as you use them.

Wise breathing began to become turbid.

The rapid, continuous swings of the knife had pushed him to his physical limit. He was panting heavily. Li De confirmed this detail while dodging. Without a pain blocker, every muscle contraction was torture for the nervous system.

It seems we've reached our limit.
It has to be said that although the person in front of me was not a real threat, their keen senses still managed to buy me four seconds, which was quite unexpected. However, this time also allowed me to fully charge my gun.

Before the new force could be generated and the old force could be dissipated under the sharp blade of Akechi, the sacrificial pawn fired a shot, which was aimed directly at his chest. With the door wide open, Akechi had no way to avoid it.

(End of this chapter)