Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 853, Section 63: Suspect
After studying the Triceratops for a while, Carl reluctantly put away the two knives and continued his investigation.

Such a massive Triceratops is not something you can easily take with you.

Leaving aside how much time it would take to clean up the underground space after the secondary collapse, the maintenance and subsequent adjustments to the Triceratops itself would be beyond what the Carl family could afford.

While it might be possible to support it through connections, it seems unnecessary to go to such great lengths—besides, cramming a Triceratops into the top floor would likely be extremely crowded, and transportation would also be a problem.

Karl continued deeper into the underground space, passing through the gap created by the Triceratops' earlier actions.

The encounter with the Triceratops brought good news: traces of the attackers may still remain underground.

Previously, while using the EMP knife to paralyze the Triceratops, Carl also used a monomolecular wire to access its database for a rough look.

Data shows that its activation time was short, almost exactly the moment the attack occurred, and its command was to "eliminate strangers." In other words, this Triceratops was released to fight off the intruders during the attack.

In its activity log, besides the record of its battle with Karl, there is another record of an encounter with the enemy. Since it was still able to move freely underground afterward, it means that the enemy did not cause it any damage.

This may suggest that, under the fierce attack of the Triceratops, the attackers may not have had time to completely erase the intrusion record or retrieve the weapon, and may even have suffered some casualties, so that they later had to try to completely bury the Triceratops by urgently blasting the underground space.

Otherwise, it would be hard to explain why the collapse here was handled so crudely—when Carl, Oliver, and Jack entered earlier, they were able to move so easily through the underground space. If it weren't for the secondary collapse caused by the Triceratops, they might have been able to reach the deepest part without any obstacles.

This crude blasting method is clearly inconsistent with the precise and efficient blasting techniques used outside. Now it seems that the attackers encountered a Triceratops while carrying out the blasting underground, which forced them to act hastily, resulting in such a chaotic scene.

After all, while Karl could easily deal with the Triceratops, in another situation, if Karl didn't have the EMP knife and only had the EMP grenade, it might be much more difficult to deal with it.

Because the biological bodies used in biotechnology can resist EMP to a certain extent, if Karl's knife hadn't been able to penetrate deep into its flesh and accurately find its core, given the rampaging momentum of this steel-flesh tank-like monster—its strength and armor were so formidable—it would probably have required a dedicated terrorist mobile unit to completely subdue it.

While constantly calling Jack and Oliver over the radio, Carl arrived at the vicinity of the eco-park he had visited once before, and sure enough, he found a corpse lying there dressed differently from the biotech security personnel.

Carl crouched down, his fingertips touching the marks on the corpse's tactical uniform.

The corpse was somewhat mangled, clearly having been torn to some extent. Judging from the injuries, it was likely caused by the two Deinonychus that were near the Triceratops. Apparently, while defending against the Triceratops, it was killed by the more swift attackers.

Karl's gaze swept across the surroundings. The signs of battle in this area were far more intense than in the passageway. The walls scorched by energy weapons, the metal supports torn apart by immense force, and several bloodstains of different shapes all indicated that the attackers had encountered unexpected and fierce resistance here and had paid a price.

He then quickly and carefully searched the body, and pulled out a translucent data chip stained with blood from the person.

Carl wiped the chip a few times on the relatively clean corner of the corpse's clothing, hesitated for a moment, and then plugged it into his phone.

'I hope they don't smash my phone. These people don't have any identification on them, they're very cautious, so I can only check if this thing is a call log.'

With this in mind, Carl quickly completed the analysis of the chip. The chaotic data stream was decoded intermittently, and the displayed results were mostly fragmented communication log snippets. "Defense breached, target 'Garden' is ahead."

"Encountered a heavy biological defense unit! Repeat, it's a heavy unit!"

"Requesting backup! We need heavy firepower! Our weapons aren't doing any damage."

"Retreat! The order is retreat! Data obtained, experimental subjects obtained, retreat."

The communications logs were interrupted, indicating that the person died here during the final withdrawal phase of the operation.

Was it indeed a premeditated attack, targeting data and experimental subjects?
The information in the tattered intelligence log was insufficient for Karl to determine who the attacker was, so he searched the body again in greater detail and finally found something strange.

The clothes, weapons, and prosthetics on the corpse seem a bit off.

Karl was a mercenary who had been in Night City for many years. When it came to knowledge about weapons and cybernetic bodies, he was definitely no less knowledgeable than professionals. After all, these were 'partners' whose lives were at stake. During Karl's examination, everything on the corpse was of various international brands.

The term "international mix" originally referred to a historical phenomenon where weapons and equipment came from diverse sources during a certain period. However, in modern usage, it no longer emphasizes the specific historical context but rather refers to the situation itself, which involves complex origins and different standards for weapon systems.

And that's the kind of corpse Carl is seeing now.

Typically, these elite personnel choose weapons that are highly compatible with their implanted prosthetic systems. Many high-performance weapons require specialized adaptation using prosthetics manufactured by specific companies to achieve maximum effectiveness.

If weapons, armor, and prosthetics from different sources are mixed and matched indiscriminately, such as the common practice of street mercenaries who 'pick up whatever they can,' not only will it be difficult to achieve the intended synergistic effect of the equipment, but in severe cases, it may even induce cyberpsychosis due to system conflicts or excessive neural load.

The fact that such elite personnel could launch such a precise attack suggests that the person behind the corpse clearly lacked the means to do so. This implies that they intentionally made adjustments to avoid being identified, preferring to sacrifice people rather than expose themselves.

That's a very cautious approach—but sometimes, being overly cautious can become a weakness.

Carl recognized that the weapons and cybernetics on the corpse were all the latest models, but this "international mix" style was extremely rare even among the two largest weapons and cybernetics companies in Night City.

Carl happens to have some connections with both of these companies, so it's highly likely that the possibility of this matter being related to them is very small.

Now that they've been ruled out, the number of forces in the entire Night City capable of acquiring this equipment is extremely limited. Kang Tao, Night Corporation...
It's unlikely that these companies are hostile to biotechnology, although it's not impossible. However, if we don't focus our suspicions on the corporate level for the time being, then there's only one place in Night City that can obtain these weapons and prosthetics from various sources.

Dogtown.

(End of this chapter)