Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 735, page 149. The Second Second

'It's a tranquilizer dart. Are they trying to avoid alerting the others while they're dealing with me during their infiltration?'

Karl's thoughts flashed through his mind like lightning, and then a peculiar feeling arose.

We were really underestimated.

"Bah."

With a faint sound of tranquilizer darts hitting the ventilation duct wall, Karl had already pulled his head back.

"You want to capture me alive?"

Karl's voice echoed eerily in the narrow metal pipe: "Who are you?"

The gray-clad man opposite did not answer, but Karl heard the rustling sound of fabric rubbing against the pipe wall. The other man was adjusting his posture, like a viper gathering its strength. It seemed that missing the target had not affected his mindset in the slightest.

The man in gray clearly had no intention of explaining anything to Karl; in fact, he was already prepared to attack again the moment Karl dodged his first tranquilizer dart.

'It seems that simply talking to each other to see if there's common ground isn't enough to avoid a fight.'

Since a battle is inevitable, let's strike first!

Hopefully, the slider will listen to explanations when it encounters strangers.

Carl slammed his right leg against the pipe wall, propelling himself forward like an arrow. The moment his body emerged, his left hand fired three quick shots from his Free Pistol to block the opponent's path, while his right hand swung out a neurotoxin knife aimed at the opponent's chest.

With a single, instantaneous strike, Karl blocked all the paths his opponent could take to escape in that confined space.

The gray-clad man's performance surprised Karl. He actually flipped backward in the narrow space, and the kunai that slid out of his sleeve 'clinked' as it parried the small knife that was not very conspicuous in the dim and cramped environment. At the same time as he dodged three bullets, three shurikens shot towards Karl's face in a triangular formation.

Carl slightly tilted his head to dodge the sharp shuriken. When he looked back at the gray-clad man, the man responded with a tricky side kick. At the last second, Carl tilted his head again, and the man's military boot grazed his ear and struck the wall of the duct, causing the entire ventilation duct to groan under the strain.

Taking advantage of that brief opening, Carl's Freepistol was already pressed against his opponent's ribs—

"Bang! Bang!" Two bullets were fired, but they only pierced through the wall of the ventilation duct and entered the external space. At the moment when the bullets were about to hit the gray-clothed man, the gray-clothed man suddenly twisted at an angle that violated the laws of physics. The bullets grazed the gray clothes but did not take away a single piece of cloth.

'Krenchikov? Interesting.'

Karl suddenly turned to the side, and as the gray-clad man twisted, a kunai that he had been holding earlier flew out from his bent body, almost grazing Karl's waist, and 'clang'ed into the pipe behind him. In the instant Karl turned to the side, the gray-clad man seized the opportunity, retracted his kicking leg, braced his hand on the ground, and slammed his leg down towards Karl's lower body.

Karl abandoned his freedom, reaching his hands straight up. Under the gray-clad man's gaze, his ten fingers pierced through the pipe wall, then snapped out and gripped the outer wall. Using this as leverage, he bent his legs upward and leaped up, dodging the sweeping kick.

'Have your hands been modified?'

The man in gray immediately realized that Karl's actions required the support of a modified prosthetic arm to penetrate the pipe wall. So he took the kunai that had slipped out of his sleeve and aimed it at Karl's ankle tendon. This was the most suitable part to attack when Karl raised his body, as it was exposed outside the center of his body.

Karl realized that the gray-clad man had discovered that he could only use his legs in this supported state, and understood that the other party was prepared to attack his legs first. However, he still did not hesitate to use his hands to grab the gray-clad man's wrist from the side at a wonderful angle.

The gray-clad man felt a leg, as strong as the wind, kicking towards his hand. He twisted his wrist and met Karl's kick with a kunai. However, before making contact, he realized that Karl's boot would hit his wrist first due to the speed difference. So he simply gripped the kunai tightly and placed it in the path of Karl's kick, letting Karl choose whether or not to pay the price of being pierced by the kunai and kicking his wrist.

At this moment, Karl accelerated his leg, using the enhanced tendon prosthetic. The air that was originally used to change the trajectory in the air struck the gray man's wrist before Karl's kick. The gray man's kunai changed almost immediately due to the nerve reaction of the wrist impact, and the kunai that he had placed in Karl's path also deviated and was kicked aside by Karl's hard kick to the palm.

The gray-clad man's movements were also incredibly fast. The moment he felt the impact on his wrist, he had already released the kunai. As Karl kicked the kunai away, its tip piercing the pipe wall and rushing outwards, his hand changed from a clenched fist to a palm. He used his palm, which had a larger bearing area, to slap the side of Karl's toe. The two collided and produced a dull echo.

"Oh!"

A muffled thud reverberated in the confined space. The shockwave from the collision of the two enormous forces made the entire pipe vibrate like a tolling death knell.

Karl felt the impact of his leg strike on the other person. The moment he realized that the other person's body was trembling because of his attack, Karl released his grip on the outer wall. As he fell, he picked up the Freedom that he had just thrown aside and put it into his holster.

At this distance, a pistol becomes a burden and is not as useful as using your hand.

Karl leaned forward and delivered a chop to the throat. The gray-clad man's arm was numb and he couldn't use it. He could only use his other hand to pull out another kunai to meet Karl's chop.

"His-"

As his fingertips collided with the kunai, Karl felt the simulated pain of the sharp kunai slicing through his prosthetic hand. This pain stimulated Karl's mind to become even sharper, so he grabbed the kunai with his other hand and, under the slightly surprised gaze of the gray-clad man, his other hand also formed a chop shape and continued to aim straight for the gray-clad man's throat.

The gray-clad man's hand was still numb, while the other hand, holding a kunai, was being held by Karl. Now that his front was open, he had nowhere to hide!

The gray-clad man did not dodge the attack. He only managed to twist his body slightly, allowing the hand chop to strike his shoulder. Karl's five fingers pierced deeply into the gray-clad man's body. As the gray-clad man made his first sound, a painful groan, he tilted his head back. Then, with Karl holding a kunai in one hand and stabbing into his body with the other, leaving him wide open, Karl's headbutt slammed into Karl's face.

In the slow exchange of blows, it is now the second second.

(End of this chapter)