Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 727, Section 141: The Intervention of the Netherhound

Li De was certain that no one could keep up with his speed—not even the genetically enhanced special agents from Arasaka.

As he flipped and leaped towards the second floor, shattered window frame glass pierced his palm. A sharp pain shot up his arm bone like an electric current, but he completely ignored this pain that he was already used to. Using the force, he pushed himself up, and his muscle fibers groaned as they exploded.

But all of this was seen by them.

In a dimension where time seems to stand still, there are eyes that are always watching his every move—that is wisdom.

As Li De's body flipped in mid-air, his back fully exposed to Ming Zhi's view, time seemed to stretch out. This fatal flaw was clearly reflected in Ming Zhi's eyes, like a signal light suddenly lit up in the dark.

“You’ve been careless, Mr. Li De.”

Wise's gaze was as calm as a stagnant pool, without the slightest ripple.

His pupils contracted slightly, precisely locking onto Li Deteng's trajectory, but his facial expression remained frozen like a mask, revealing neither smugness nor contempt, only mechanical calmness.

Li De's figure disappeared from Mingzhi's sight with an explosive leap, but Mingzhi's gaze remained fixed on the spot, not even his eyelashes trembling. He stood motionless, as if everything was as expected.

"Similarly, Mr. Li De, your desire to kill my men is also impossible."

Mingzhi's voice was barely audible, yet it carried an undeniable certainty.

He was surrounded by the rubble of collapsed buildings, and could only see the broken sky above through a few cracks in the concrete. Under the gloomy sky, there was nothing but drifting smoke and the occasional drone flying by.

But his ears had already caught it.

A sound that Li De ignored—a subtle noise almost completely masked by the gunfire and explosions of the intense firefight.

"call out--"

A sharp, piercing sound cut through the air, growing louder as it approached, like the growl of a predator, piercing the clamor of the battlefield.

That was the roar of the Ghosthound's hovercar engine; the hiss of the turbine etched an invisible trail in the air. Clearly, the fierce fighting here had alerted the true masters of Dogtown.

In Dogtown today, even a neutral Trauma Team airship passing through could attract anti-aircraft fire, let alone an open exchange of fire like that between Arasaka and Military Technology. The arrival of the Ghost Hound was only a matter of time, not to mention the "concerned citizens" secretly calling the Ghost Hound's hotline to report it.

The hounds' hovercraft issued no ceasefire warnings or took any action to stop the fighting; they simply announced their arrival through force.

The inhabitants of Dogtown showed no tolerance for outsiders; as soon as the hovercars appeared, they launched an attack without hesitation, using modified weapons.

These airships, specially armed for emergency missions, unleashed a barrage of machine gun fire and small missiles upon reaching the ground the instant they broke through the air.

They demonstrated the terrifying power of armed airships in combat in the most direct way, and also confirmed why airships have always been regarded as a military transport means of equal importance to helicopters, from the corporate war era to the present day—they can not only rapidly deploy troops, but also instantly turn the battlefield into a death zone.

This specially modified hovercar is so powerful that it could blast an entire tribe to scorched earth in the Badlands; if it appeared in Night City's gang territory, it could instantly turn the most fortified street fortress upside down.

Its weapon systems had already locked onto both Arasaka and the military technology personnel, but the order of attack was clearly meticulously calculated—the primary target was always the threat on the high ground. Arasaka's sniper should have been the first to be attacked, but a second earlier, he had received orders from Akechi.

Upon hearing the order from that lord, the Arasaka sniper, equipped with a top-of-the-line optical camouflage cybernetic body, leaped from the height without hesitation. His figure vanished completely after creating a slight ripple in the air.

At this moment, the only heat source signal displayed on the airship's scanning interface was the figure climbing upwards at an astonishing speed—Li De.

Li De's tactical intention was clear: he wanted to take advantage of the brief period of chaos that would inevitably occur when the Arasaka troops returned to reinforce their commander after being attacked, in order to complete the secondary objective of eliminating the enemy snipers. He climbed onto the precarious rooftop in the blink of an eye.

But how could Wise not have foreseen this?
Our difference is one second.

In a sensible manner, the hovercraft has already completed its lock-on.

When Li De heard the distinctive turbine hum of the hovercraft during his climb, he selectively ignored the threat.

Because at that moment, all that remained in his mind was the sniper who should have been on the rooftop—but when he climbed to the top, all he could see in his pistol was an empty wasteland.

'Even when the commander was attacked, there wasn't the slightest chaos. Did they abandon the commander and relocate while I was fighting that young man below? What an elite Arasaka squad!'

While Li De was feeling the pressure, the hovercar that had locked onto him opened fire. The barrage of bullets rained down on him like raindrops from a spreading cloud, but the Krenchikov in Li De's spine was still functioning, and his body instinctively made an evasive maneuver before the bullets touched his skin.

The concrete rooftop crumbled under the hail of bullets, and only a fleeting shadow could be seen in the rising dust. The top-notch military technology of the special agents once again proved the value of their trump card.

The intervention of the Ghost Hound, while not the best outcome, is still acceptable.

The reason why the Arasaka agents were pursued so relentlessly in the first place was because Li De was convinced that they were carrying critical intelligence that could endanger President Miles's safety. Once this data was sent back to Arasaka, it would trigger an unpredictable storm.

However, the powerful intervention of the Ghost Hounds completely changed the situation—once the ruler of Dogtown designated this area as a no-go zone, all intelligence transmission channels would be completely blocked. Even if Arasaka really had something, under the Ghost Hounds' heavy encirclement, they would have no chance of sending information out of this battlefield.

This outcome was already within Li De's tactical plan.

In his previous command, he deliberately ordered Yarman's troops to fire wildly and relentlessly pursue Agent Arasaka, precisely to create a large enough commotion to attract the attention of the Ghost Hound.

The deafening gunfire, the shockwaves from explosions, and even the deliberately exposed encrypted communication frequencies—all of these proclaimed to the rulers of Dogtown, the Hound of the Underworld, that two groups of reckless outsiders were running rampant on their territory.

Now that the tactical objective has been achieved, the risk of intelligence leakage has been completely eliminated with the intervention of the Ghost Dog. Although the alert level in the area will be raised in the short term, making subsequent operations more difficult, this cost is insignificant compared to letting Arasaka take away intelligence that could endanger the president.

With intelligence agents around, we still have the upper hand.

However, the Arasaka personnel who came this time were indeed very elite, especially the commander, who was definitely not a minor figure. When they saw the KK squad that was currently protecting President Miles, they should remind them to be careful in their actions.
After the Ghost Hound intervened, both sides fled.

The roar of more hovercraft engines could be heard from afar in this area, as reinforcements for the Ghost Hounds were gathering. Li De glanced one last time at the direction in which the Aragaka agents had retreated, and then silently disappeared into the shadows of the ruins.

(End of this chapter)