Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 852, Section 62: Can I Steal It?
The sound grew closer and closer, as if it had locked onto Karl's location and was already nearby.

Karl's gaze suddenly locked onto the pile of loose rubble ahead—it was trembling at an unnatural frequency, with the amplitude increasing.

Small pebbles kept rolling down from the top, accompanied by a heavy, continuous digging sound. He could clearly hear the "rustling" sound of rough scales rubbing against the rock, as well as a deeper, low-frequency hum that seemed to come from inside a huge chest, making the gravel under his feet tremble slightly.

He slowly lowered his center of gravity, his muscles like springs compressed to their limit, every nerve ending sensing the flow of the surrounding air. The monomolecular wire silently slid out from the wrist device and was gently caught at his fingertips.

Hearing the heavy footsteps, Karl felt as if he might see an acquaintance.

Or perhaps a familiar dragon?

And things did indeed turn out as he predicted.

The next second—

"Boom!"

The rubble exploded outwards like an explosion, and amidst the billowing dust, a colossal creature smashed through the barrier, its head and thick neck probing into the already cramped space!

It was a triangular dragon head covered with thick bone plates and dark metal composite armor, its size far exceeding any paleontological data in Karl's memory. Its eyes were cold, mechanical red dots, scanning the narrow space.

Oh, damn it.

This is the only thought in Karl's mind right now.

What exactly did these people at Triceratops Biotechnology do? The behemoth before him was much larger and had a thicker carapace than the version he had seen before; it was practically unrecognizable.

If the previous Triceratops could only be considered an upgraded version of the ancient Triceratops, then this one gives the impression of being a fully armed, heavily armored biological tank.

Karl had no doubt that, given the monster's size, it could smash a heavy truck to pieces even if it collided head-on with it.

Could it be that those people with that powerful physique and exaggerated bionic armor technology just threw any technology at it because it was an experimental subject, ultimately creating such an insane monster?
The Triceratops noticed Karl, its eyes fixed on him, flashing a dangerous red light.

At that moment, Karl felt, to some extent, what the gorilla that had been gored to death by the Triceratops was feeling, though he didn’t know if the gorilla had any self-awareness at all.

This thing, now under its heavy armor, looks twice as big as it used to be.

The Triceratops suddenly moved. It suddenly bent down and, disregarding the fact that the collapse would not affect its movement in the slightest, it charged forward with its sharp horns. At the same instant, Karl moved.

He did not choose to retreat—the space behind him was narrow and its stability was uncertain. Instead, he charged forward, and at the moment the horn thrust at him, he narrowly missed the Triceratops' jaw, the resulting wind pressure stirring up dust on the ground.

'Before coming to Night City, we always joked about the tigers sliding tackles; now the tigers don't slide, but the Triceratops certainly got to enjoy it.'

With that thought in mind, in the instant they passed each other, Karl flicked his wrist, and the monomolecular line drew a silver line in the air that was almost invisible to the naked eye, precisely wrapping around a seam on the Triceratops' neck that was barely perceptible to the naked eye—the weak point where the biological tissue and armor were combined, which he had noticed in an instant.

"Sizzle—!"

A sharp, teeth-grinding cutting sound rang out, and sparks flew out along with a strange, bloody mixture.

Clearly, even the Triceratops's thick armor and the biotechnology-enhanced flesh could not stop Karl's monomolecular wire from cutting through it.

However, just as Karl attempted to sever the head support of the mechanical behemoth—

"Bang! Crash—!" The ruins exploded simultaneously without warning, with rubble and twisted metal flying everywhere like cannonball fragments.

From the left and right sides, two dark figures darted out at an astonishing speed. They were two slender Deinonychus with their bodies covered in matte black armor. Their forelimbs had been completely modified and replaced with huge, gleaming metal scythe-shaped prosthetics. They were heading towards Karl, who was temporarily restrained by the monomolecular line.

"I've never seen herbivorous dinosaurs and carnivorous dinosaurs hunting together."

However, this was within Karl's expectations.

While the Triceratops was moving, Karl heard extra, chaotic noises in addition to the heavy sounds. Moreover, it wasn't falling rocks; it was a very rhythmic sound of footsteps. Knowing that there might be something else there, it was only natural to take precautions.

"Sigh, dinosaur wars, can't we have some other extinct ancient creatures? When some people think of ancient creatures, they can only think of dinosaurs, right?"

Sighing inwardly at the research interests of biotechnicians, Karl made a move.

Time seemed to slow down.

Karl didn't even look at the Deinonychus scythe-like prosthetic arm that swung at him from the left; he casually flicked his left hand, which held the neurotoxin knife, backward.

"Qiang!"

A crisp, cracking sound.

The alloy claws, powerful enough to slice through armored vehicles, shattered like fragile glass the instant they came into contact with the seemingly insignificant knife. The Deinonychus's momentum did not diminish, but it lost its balance due to the sudden shattering of its weapon and staggered forward.

The collision wasn't because Karl's knife was sharper or stronger than the Deinonychus's claw; it was simply that Karl had noticed a small crack on the Deinonychus's claw out of the corner of his eye, so he aimed for that spot and threw the knife.

At the same time, Karl's right monomolecular line suddenly tightened. Instead of continuing to cut the Triceratops' neck, he used the force to swing his body. Using the monomolecular line as a fulcrum, he suddenly rose up like a weightless ghost, just in time to avoid the Triceratops below frantically shaking its head and crashing into him, as well as the Deinonychus's claws on his right that were powerful enough to cut a person in half.

He was incredibly light in the air, as if gravity had no effect on him.

Just as they reached the back of the Triceratops, Karl's free left hand moved again; this time, he drew his gun.

'Patterns are technological weapons.'

With clean, decisive shots from 'KK', the heads of the two Deinonychus were blown off. Karl, who had swung to the top of the Triceratops' head, then retrieved the monomolecular line, took out an EMP knife with his right hand, and plunged it directly into the Triceratops' skull.

The thick armor and flesh could not stop the EMP knife, which easily pierced through.
EMP boot.

Out of control and with its core destroyed, the Triceratops suddenly collapsed due to its own weight and inertia, crashing to the ground and causing a secondary tremor in the surrounding space.

"Please don't let it collapse again."

Karl, who had spent a second resolving the siege, let out a slight sigh of relief as time resumed its original flow.

Standing atop the Triceratops's body, and glancing at it, Karl had some thoughts in mind.

"Speaking of which, is it possible to steal this thing?"

(End of this chapter)