Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 726, Question 140: Doubts and Answers

In Li De's mind, there was absolutely no way the young man in front of him could avoid this shot—the bullet fired from the fully charged technical pistol had a speed and power far beyond that of ordinary firearms. But clearly, he was wrong, utterly wrong.

Just when Li De thought that the other man's body was leaning forward with the swing of his sword and that he would have difficulty adjusting his posture in an instant, the young man's sword spun half a circle in his palm at the moment of the slash, and the blade suddenly flipped, changing from a downward slash to an upward slash.

This move is not a simple variation, but a famous reverse slashing knife technique, with clean and crisp movements and no hesitation.

According to legend, the legendary swordsman Sasaki Kojiro's signature technique, "Swallow Return," was based on this very technique.

However, Mingzhi's use of this move at this moment was not because he truly understood the legendary swordsmanship, but because he had already reserved some strength when he slashed. Before the momentum of the blade faded, he flicked his wrist, and the blade rose against the trend.

A bullet fired from a fully charged technical pistol is far beyond the reach of a knife in the hand of a wise man.

Although the material of this knife was enough to cut through bullets from ordinary handguns, just like he had previously cut off the bullets from the discard pistol, the bullets at this moment had been accelerated to their limits by electromagnetic energy. Their penetrating power and speed were incomparable to before. Even if the wise knife could accurately intercept the bullet in its trajectory, the terrifying kinetic energy would be enough to break the blade in two, and then continue to penetrate his body with undiminished force.

Wise is well aware of this.

He never expected to slice the bullet in half with the backhand slash; his aim was merely to let the blade graz the bullet and slightly deflect its trajectory.

The faster something moves, the more easily it can be deflected by subtle disturbances. Although some enormous objects can crush all obstacles with pure kinetic energy, the technical pistol in Li De's hand is clearly not yet at that level.

The blade rose, clashing with the bullet—the sharp metallic clang pierced the air, and in the instant sparks flew, the bullet's trajectory had already deviated.

The knife was indeed a fine knife; the blade was intact, the body was unbroken, and it remained firmly in his hand even amidst the violent tremors. The bullet, however, whistled past his shoulder and disappeared into the darkness in the distance.

Li De's pupils dilated in shock. Clearly, the fact that he thought the shot missed was so devastating that for a moment he even doubted whether he had fully charged the sabotage pistol in his hand.

So precise, so perfectly timed, it was like a feather landing on a raised blade, not being cut by the blade, but gently swaying away – it was simply absurd and unbelievable.

'His swordsmanship and precision are extraordinary; what I just saw wasn't even the limit!'

With such swordsmanship, where did Arasaka find these people?!

Li De now regretted rushing to Dogtown after updating and maintaining his cybernetic body following the news, without receiving any new intelligence. Otherwise, he would definitely know who the young man in front of him was. Even though the young man didn't seem to have a combat cybernetic body like the S.A.S ....S.S.S.S.S.S..S.S.S.S.S..S.S.S.S..S.S.S..S.S.S.S..S.S.S..S.S.S.S..S.S..S.S.S.S..S.S.S..S.S.S..S.S.S..S.S.S..S.S.S..S.S.S.S..S..S.S.S.S..S..S.S.S.S..S.S..S.S.S.S..S.S..S.S.S.S..S..S.S.S.S.

In his surprise, Li De overlooked something.

If the young man in front of him were a mortal, then no matter how hard his knife was, he would have difficulty maintaining a stable posture when facing a bullet with his unmodified hands alone. However, with the four seconds that Mingzhi had calculated having passed, the arrival of support made him temporarily unable to notice this.

"Your Excellency, please be careful!"

Li De's thoughts were interrupted by the sudden turn of events. In the instant he was stunned, the four-second time limit, which Akechi had precisely calculated, expired—as expected, the combat personnel upstairs abandoned their protection of the sniper. A fully armed soldier jumped directly from the broken second-floor window, his metal prosthetic arm colliding with the concrete floor with a dull thud, the red light characteristic of Arasaka's prosthetic eye flashing amidst the rising dust.

The most chilling thing was the soldier who came from afar, whose skull was blown off by Li De's single shot.

The injuries that should have killed him on the spot are now being forcibly maintained, keeping him alive.

He staggered to his feet, and the automatic injector at the neck of his clothing, sensing his critical condition, hissed as it ejected the needle, injecting a vial of scarlet combat stimulant directly into his carotid artery.

Blood spurted from the wound on his head, but the small suture device placed there by his teammates had already started working with a 'click-click' sound. The special material suture staples forcibly pulled the shattered scalp back together. This zombie-like warrior actually picked up his submachine gun again and formed an encirclement formation with his two teammates and the person whose prosthetic heart had been activated and who had stood up again.

"Lord Mingzhi, please step back!" the warrior roared as he leaped down, his voice distorted by excessive adrenaline.

The four men spread out in a flanking formation, completely disregarding the wide-open space behind them—this stemmed not only from their absolute loyalty to Mingzhi, but also from their understanding that even if the technicians left behind were not professional combatants, their skills were good enough to use crossfire to contain other military technology units.

The battlefield situation reversed instantly. Due to the attack on Akechi, the one-sided suppression had turned into a stalemate.

The start-up sound was loud and clear as the four smart submachine guns simultaneously entered the preheating state. The mechanical hum of the gun barrel heat sinks as they unfolded mingled with the electrical hum of the Krenzikov prosthetic body operating at overclock.

The Arasaka operatives didn't need to communicate at all. The tacit understanding formed over years of fighting side by side allowed them to automatically lock down all possible escape routes for Li De. At this moment, they had only one goal in mind: to completely annihilate this dangerous element who threatened the safety of the commander at all costs.

When Mingzhi received protection from his personnel, he naturally retreated immediately. As he retreated, his hand bent slightly downwards, and a silver monomolecular line, which no one noticed, was released and cut inwards from his palm.

Just like a normal hand, the hand with bionic skin and related structures quickly exuded bright red blood belonging to Mingzhi, which was connected to the arm through bioplastic blood vessels. Then Mingzhi withdrew the monomolecular lines, causing the arm to begin to tremble.

Blood dripped down, and Mingzhi now looked as if his muscles were trembling involuntarily from overexertion, while his hand holding the knife bled from a split at the base of his thumb.

After a four-second adjustment, Li De's Krenchikov restarted. During the slowdown, he took advantage of the fact that the intelligent weapon had not yet fully locked on to begin dodging, while glancing at Mingzhi. He wanted to memorize Mingzhi's face, and at that moment, he caught a glimpse of Mingzhi's trembling arm and hand out of the corner of his eye.

The question of how the young man deflected the bullet, which he hadn't thought about before, suddenly appeared in his mind and was immediately answered. This was something that he would have realized later, but he answered it before he even had to think about it, which easily convinced Li De of his doubts.

'Was that the limit of his blocking? Judging from the condition of his arm, it was probably just a barely manageable strike. His arm hasn't been modified much.'

While organizing the information about the young man in his mind, Li De's body disappeared in the hail of bullets. Using the prosthetic leg, he leaped up and climbed directly to the second floor.

Although it was regrettable that he couldn't eliminate the person who was clearly Commander Arasaka's subordinate, Li De was not the kind of person who didn't know how to adapt, especially since his original goal was to deal with the sniper.

With the four combatants gathered around the young man whose swordsmanship and sense of perception were somewhat troublesome, Li De naturally chose to deal with the sniper who was now unprotected.

(End of this chapter)