Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 751, page 165. Enjoyed
The moment Aguilar finished speaking, he activated the Sianwistan.

The humming of the prosthetic body overclocking reverberated within the skull, and nerve currents swept through the body like a storm, causing the world to slow down abruptly.

Each Aguilar has a different fighting style based on a pistol, but the best Aguilar, arguably the strongest of all time, excels in one area: absolute speed.

With each step, dust billowed into the air, tiny particles clearly visible in the light. Sparks from the gun barrel solidified into orange-red specks, like fireworks frozen on pause.

In Aguilar's accelerated perception, even the curve of KK's lips on the other side became slow and clear, the twitching of muscle fibers like film being disassembled frame by frame.

Aguilar's prosthetic eye gleamed coldly, its crosshairs precisely locking onto four vital points on Karl's body—his temples, heart, throat, and spine. The nanomuscle fibers beneath the subcutaneous armor were already stretched to their limit, and the mechanical joints emitted a faint hum.

But just as he was about to pull the trigger of the 'Apple of Death', Carl's pupils suddenly turned towards him.

In that almost frozen moment, Karl's gaze cut through like a razor blade. He not only saw the first bullet fired by Aguilar, but also met Aguilar's eyes directly.

—He can see me?!
A wave of horror shot through Agilar's spine. The thought had barely formed in Agilar's mind when Karl's figure twisted and blurred, turning into a blurry afterimage.

'Impossible!' Aguilar's mind raced. 'I clearly activated Sianwistan first. Even if intelligence suggests KK might possess both Krenchikov and Sianwistan, that millisecond difference would be enough to establish an advantage. When exactly did he activate the prosthetic?'

Shock spread like ripples, but the legendary assassin's muscle memory overwhelmed all hesitation. Aguilar's steps forward did not falter in the slightest, his leather shoes crushing the ground and leaving spiderweb-like cracks in the slow-moving world.

As a legend known for his assassinations, Aguilar's ability to fight head-on is indeed inferior to that of an inhuman monster like Adam Hammer—but this so-called 'deficiency' is merely a comparison with the most advanced violent machines.

In fact, every inch of his prosthetic body has been tempered, and every move is imbued with the experience of thousands of life-and-death battles. Even when facing KK, he is fully confident that he can hold his own for several rounds.

The instant he got close to KK, Aguilar flicked his wrist, and the lines from his cuffs propelled twelve miniature stun grenades from his belt, fanning out all evasive angles. Without the slightest hesitation, he followed the barrage and pounced on KK, his suit fluttering at high speed.

At this distance, the shockwave from a stun grenade will also affect the user.

But this brief window of opportunity was exactly what Aguilar needed—after hundreds of hours of intensive training, his nerves had long since adapted to this level of sensory stimulation. Although it would affect him, his arm remained as steady as a rock amidst the blinding light and the shattering sound that could break his eardrums.

The tactical dagger, gripped tightly by his five fingers, drew a cold arc. This weapon had slit the throats of countless people. At this moment, the blade was pointing precisely at the coordinates of KK's carotid artery. Even under the sensory confusion caused by the stun grenade, his muscle memory still ensured that this strike was absolutely accurate.

—But Carl disappeared.

In the slow-paced world created by S.A.S., the specially modified stun grenades that exploded immediately upon triggering should have enveloped everything in bright light and explosions. However, the moment the shockwave spread, Karl, who should have been affected, was not in place.

The moment the unidentified object shot out from Aguilar's waist, Karl's figure had already completed a second acceleration.

The reinforced tendons unleashed a near-instantaneous thrust at their limit, causing the bones and prosthetic joints to hum, instantly traversing a distance of three meters. The afterimage remained in place while the real body had already moved out like a ghost.

Carl had no idea what Aguilar had popped up, but anything that would risk a legendary assassin's life in close combat was certainly no friendly gift.

Since it's not a good thing—just avoid it. When Aguilar's senses returned to the normal flow of time, his brain and body were still trembling.

Even after rigorous training, and even though the subcutaneous implanted cushioning gel had absorbed most of the impact, the close-range detonation of the stun grenade still struck his neural circuits like lightning. A sharp ringing echoed in his skull, and his visual sensors briefly flickered with noise.

But the killer's instincts overwhelmed all discomfort.

The whistling sound of the bullets he had fired earlier whizzed past his side, while the ballistic warning from another direction sent his adrenaline soaring again. His muscle memory reacted before his thoughts could process it—he twisted his body sharply, his bulletproof suit slightly warping as he changed direction at high speed. Even though his prosthetic body wasn't completely paralyzed by the stun grenade, it still managed to unleash a deadly burst of speed.

Even as Sianwistan was dying, the prosthetic nano-relay implanted in his nervous system still managed to unleash its last bit of power. Aguilar's body swerved to the side as if electrocuted, the first wave of bullets whistling past the collar of his suit, the scorching trajectory leaving a faint red afterimage on his retina.

However, those bullets strangely changed direction in mid-air.

"Intelligent transformation".

The modified submachine gun in Karl's hand was glowing with a ghostly blue light as it was being charged.

The special modifications reduced the lock-on time of Karl's transformed smart weapon by 0.1 seconds compared to conventional smart weapons. For Aguilar, whose nerves were still being eroded by the aftershocks of the stun grenade, this was an almost inescapable dead end.

The bullets traced serpentine lines in the air, and although the change in direction caused a decrease in initial velocity, each shot precisely bit into Aguilar's vitals.

At the critical moment, the legendary assassin suddenly curled up as if he had anticipated it—the nanofibers under his bulletproof suit hardened instantly, and the subcutaneous armor and synaptic signal optimization components worked together to strengthen the muscles and form a dense defensive layer at the point of impact.

"Ding Ding Ding-"

The bullets struck the surface of the bulletproof layer, creating a fine shower of sparks, before finally embedding themselves futilely in the outer layer of the suit, like a swarm of poisonous bees nailed to amber. Aguilar slowly raised his head amidst the hail of bullets, a line of blood seeping from his grazed cheek, which only made his eyes appear more ferocious.

But Carl didn't give him any chance to catch his breath.

The KK in his hand had already transformed, and a gun that had begun charging was already aimed at Aguilar.

Karl never believed that such a smart weapon that required changing its trajectory could actually cause any fatal damage to Aguilar, so after firing the bullet, he immediately assembled the new components and completed the transformation.

Facing the gun that was almost fully charged and glowing blue at his muzzle, Aguilar wanted to curse.

What exactly did those fanatical designers at the Tsunami Design Bureau design?

The first opponent I encountered after the event truly gave me a real treat.

(End of this chapter)