Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 753, Section 167: Aguilar, Death.

Karl felt the hot breath of the gun muzzle on his jaw.

—The bullet from the Death Apple has been fired.

In a split second before an ordinary person could react, his body released a tension that was almost tearing his muscles apart, his cervical spine bent backward in just the right arc, the bullet grazed his Adam's apple, leaving a thin line of blood.

The scalding bullets burned his skin, but Karl's pupils remained as calm as ice.

This is an extremely precise dodge, and it is also the optimal dodge range that Karl calculated.

Because if he got any bigger, he wouldn't be able to see Aguilar's next move clearly.

Aguilar's attack is not over.

He had been concealing a hidden blade, connected to his wrist and resembling a modified hand, which sprang out from his wrist. Using Karl's hand, still with the blade tucked under his ribs, as a fulcrum, he suddenly lunged forward like a lever, the tip of the blade aimed directly at Karl's right eye, the distance reduced to three centimeters—

The cold glint of the hidden blade reflected a silver star on Karl's iris.

Three centimeters—

Within the reaction limits of a normal human being, this is already a certain death distance.

But Karl's brain was working at breakneck speed, his pupils contracting rapidly as he broke down the movement of every fiber in Aguilar's wrist muscles into a quantifiable stream of data.

Trapezius muscle contraction amplitude and anterior deltoid muscle activation pattern recognition completed.
Sword tip trajectory prediction: Penetration through the right eyeball.

Expected severity: fatal.

These data flashed through Karl's mind in an instant, and he chose a seemingly suicidal action: instead of leaning back to dodge, he raised his head slightly to face the tip of the sword!

"呲-"

The hidden blade grazed the edge of his eyeball, and Karl could even feel the blade slicing through his eyelashes.

But it was this millimeter-level deviation that caused the sword tip to miss the eyeball itself, only making a small cut below his right eye. Warm blood flowed out, instantly blurring Karl's vision.

Is there poison on the blade?

No.

In that case, there is no need to urgently inject yourself with antitoxin.

Karl, who made the judgment in an instant and narrowly avoided Aguilar's attacks twice, had to admit one thing: Aguilar, the assassin hailed as a living legend, even if his deeds were composed of individual Aguilars, the Aguilar in front of him was definitely worthy of the title of legend.

Carl's two injuries were not intentional. He should have avoided them by chance and not been hurt at all. However, every time he dodged at his limit, his opponent would seize the moment when his movements were changed due to muscle tension and make the same change.

Although the bullets he fired and the hidden blade he thrust out could not be completely changed in trajectory at the moment of attack, so that their attack paths could not be adjusted to face Karl's body after he dodged, the slight change in trajectory each time caused Karl, who should have dodged at the last second, to suffer some unexpected injuries.

Blood flowing from below Karl's right eye slid down his cheek, congealed into a bead on his chin, and finally dripped onto the metal surface of 'KK'.

--Snapped.

The soft sound became exceptionally clear to the two of them at that moment.

Carl didn't wipe the blood from his face.

Because he knew that Aguilar was watching his every tiny movement—the moment he wiped away the blood, the angle of his shoulder tilt, even the rise and fall of his ribs when he breathed. This man was like a sophisticated killing machine, capable of turning any subtle physiological reaction of his opponent into an opportunity for a fatal attack.

“You are excellent,” Carl said softly, his voice carrying a rare hint of admiration.

Facing such an opponent, we cannot afford to be careless or complacent; we must truly eliminate him.

In response to Karl's soft words, Aguilar suddenly lowered his center of gravity. The movement was so subtle that an ordinary person would hardly notice it, but in Karl's eyes, it was like the sea level dropping before a storm—a preparatory stance for some kind of high-speed dash technique.

Carl immediately adjusted his grip on 'KK'.

His fingers relaxed slightly, allowing the weapon to be semi-free in his palm—this was to allow the weapon to unfold and deform. At the same time, his calf muscles began to tremble slightly at a specific frequency, which was the manifestation of the strengthening tendons being preloaded with kinetic energy.

Aguilar moved.

His close-range attacks weren't as explosive as Karl's, but rather carried a strange fluidity, as if gravity had lost its effect on him. His hidden blade thrust out again, this time aiming at Karl's left carotid artery.

Carl had already anticipated the trajectory and turned his head to the right—

But suddenly the tip of Aguilar's sword trembled!

This is not a simple change of move, but rather a technique that uses precise control of every muscle fiber in the wrist to create high-frequency vibrations in the blade during the thrust, instantly altering the originally clear attack trajectory.

Aguilar understood Karl's evasive tactics, so he also made changes, reserving some strength to alter his trajectory at the last moment.

This is certainly an excellent approach, however
'You already know my methods of evasion, how could I possibly still do it?'

Moreover, ignoring my weapons and thinking that they have a firm hold on them is underestimating the weapons created by the geniuses at the Tsunami Design Bureau.

Aguilar suddenly felt his hand holding 'KK' slip away. This sudden loss of strength not only changed the trajectory of his forward thrust, but also exposed his entire upper body to Karl.

Modular transforming weapons naturally also have a disassembly function.

The front part of Aguilar, which was held in place by his body and subcutaneous armor, had been separated from the rear part, and the rear part, which had a core, had undergone another transformation in Karl's hands.

It turned into a knife.

A short knife with a blade length of thirty centimeters.

Aguilar's prosthetic eye was suddenly shut down, and a data intrusion had already been completed at some point, which even Aguilar's military-grade protection could not avoid.

Aguilar had been engaged in close combat with Karl for quite some time, and the reason Karl hadn't deactivated the 'KK' transformation earlier was because he wanted to use it as a fulcrum to invade Aguilar's body with data.

How could a deformable creature composed of a single molecule as its core not possess the ability to invade? Aguilar deliberately locked it firmly there, which made Karl's movements much easier.

"See you next time, Aguilar."

Karl said this, and then Aguilar didn't even react.

Or rather, he couldn't react in time.

That was a speed that even with his S.A.S ...

Karl raised his knife.

"I actually know a little bit about everything."

Before he finished speaking, Karl had already sheathed his knife.

Deformation resolved.

'KK' transformed back into a gun and was put back into its holster by Karl; the monomolecular wire was also recovered.

And Aguilar.

The body and head have been separated.

(End of this chapter)