Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 145 Abducted
The man, with his disproportionately large prosthetic hand, held a wine glass and slowly sipped his drink.

"From Arakawa?"

As night fell, the bar was filled with the playlist of the "User Error" radio station, and the distorted bass drowned out his mutterings.

Various documents scrolled slowly through Sunrise Old Man's prosthetic eye. Meredith's document only contained information about Joey, while Rin only had a string of employee numbers.

The renowned lone wolf had no clue why his son, Pila, was associating with Arasaka.

He left a large sum of money to his children when he passed away, so he shouldn't have become a mercenary, much less work for a company.

Although he knew that Pila might follow in his footsteps and become a street kid in Night City, the sight of his daughter's modified prosthetic arm made Sunrise breathe a heavy sigh of relief.

He had just seen Rebecca chatting with V and a few others.

Rebecca's profile and petite stature are strikingly similar to Sunrise's father's deceased lover.

The lone wolf, who had disappeared for many years, looked back at the surroundings of the afterlife.

As an irresponsible "father," he clearly hasn't figured out how to meet his children.

Just then, it seemed that the people in the private room had left.

Old Man Sunrise quickly turned his head, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Pila, who came out with his hands behind his head.

The burly woman leading the group walked out. Sunrise shook his head; a few quick glances with his prosthetic eye were enough to tell that this group didn't possess many high-end cybernetic devices.

The scanner made a crackling sound.

Sunrise smacked his lips and, after careful observation, discovered that his son was also covered in some rather shabby cybernetic modifications.

Are they really that poor?
Thinking room.

Pira was getting closer and closer to him.

As the sun rose, he subconsciously turned his head, held his breath, and focused intently on catching the sounds behind him.

Pila laughed in a shrill voice, subtly moving closer to Lucy. "I know a really good bar. How about tonight, Lucy?"

Lucy said casually, "Not very good."

Pila's shamelessness was on full display. "Or, to have some fun, I built a really cool machine at home—a robot vacuum that can do backflips. Want to see it?"

Lucy: "No, thank you."

As she spoke, the girl's listless gaze swept over the man sitting by the counter. His expression was slightly strange, and she had a feeling that she had seen him before.

The man wearing such a large trench coat seemed very thin, with a noticeable bulge near his spine, a hunched back, and a prosthetic hand that looked like a demon's claw...

Her gaze unconsciously shifted to Pila, who was practically face-to-face with her, still babbling on and on.

Oh, so it's like this guy.

Lucy tilted her body slightly. "Be careful the prosthetic body doesn't malfunction."

Uh…

Pira quickly stepped aside, covering her face with both hands—Lucy sneered and followed Dorio's steps, and the group walked out of the gate of the afterlife one after another.

Pila, who had stopped in her tracks, cursed angrily, "Tsk, stupid bitch! So hard to handle!"

Because Pila had tried to put her arm around the beautiful hacker's shoulder last time, the prosthetic body immediately emitted an electric arc.

The tech expert clearly reacted to Lucy's threat, then smacked his lips, rummaged in his crotch, and slowly sauntered out of the door of the afterlife.

Sunrise sneered; this kid's skills at picking up girls are terrible.

Although I don't want to admit it, I'm the same way.

The siblings' mother was a kind, petite woman who made a living in the Japanese neighborhood when she was young.

Old Man Sunrise, a guy who's always been wild about relationships, somehow became deeply attracted to a woman...

Of course, this couldn't stop Sunrise's free-spirited nature, but the woman was also the submissive type, almost never complaining that her man faced stray bullets and dangers every day in Night City.

The two children idolized themselves more than their mother.

At that time, Sunrise had considered leaving this circle, but unfortunately, before he could put this idea into practice, the woman died.

The children were still young, and the father, who had no other choice, wanted to earn a lot of money to take them away from this damned place, but he almost died and was used as a dog by the military for more than ten years.

Where did Rebecca go?

Sunrise muttered to itself.

He watched his daughter walk into the bathroom, and now it seemed like it had been a little too long... Could it be that she had left?
As the sun rose, he hijacked one of the cameras in the next life. He glanced at the corridor behind the next life, which was empty, but he immediately switched to another camera, trying to see if there was an exit in other directions.

Several chaotic figures flashed across the camera's view.

At sunrise, I saw a member of the Tiger Claw Gang standing at the entrance of the women's restroom, carrying a knife and with one hand on his hip.

Are those bastards from Night City still around?

The camera could naturally hear the guy's foul language and the woman's terrified voice.

Sunrise scratched his chin, feeling utterly bored.

Is that old woman, Wakako, dead? Is nobody taking care of these idiots in the Tiger Claw Gang? Are all their subordinates this low-quality?

He switched the cameras back and forth, and just as he was about to exit, a small shadow emerged from another women's restroom.

"At this."

As the sunrise approached, he looked at the girl's oversized and tacky jacket, the pink tattoo on her neck, and the bulging prosthetic arm in her pocket—and sighed softly.

My daughter has changed so much.

The father still remembers how his little girl with a ponytail used to ride on his shoulders, giggling and playing with cockroaches in her hands.

Rebecca has kept these cockroaches in boxes since she was a child so as not to harm them. She would play with them for a while and then put them back. She would even feed them regularly.

She was happy to listen to her mother's advice, such as letting the cockroaches go home and gain their freedom.

Night City has no living birds because of extinction.

Sunrise likes to eat fresh meat, so he often spends a lot of the money he earns from commissions on buying live chickens from those voodoo idiots in Taiping Island.

Rebecca cried most often at the dinner table when she was a child.

It was simply because she saw her father using a dagger to process a live chicken.

Sometimes, when Sunrise was in a bad mood or had been shot, she would put down her utensils and yell at the girl. Her mother would never argue; instead, she would hold Rebecca tightly in her arms and tell her that it was synthetic meat.

Pila kept begging him to kill the chicken one more time.

This made Sunrise feel a sense of continuity in its bloodline.

After his woman died, Sunrise took on any job, partly because he was naturally drawn to thrills, and partly because he wanted to earn enough money to take his two children out of Night City.

In a daze, he saw Rebecca slowly walking out of the corridor through the camera lens. Sunrise Dad rubbed his hands nervously, as if he was already thinking about how to stop the girl.

The brother and sister must have changed a lot by now, having grown up in Night City.

In some ways, Pila did a great job taking care of her younger sister.

Just as Rihe was about to get up, Rebecca stopped in her tracks.

Under the astonished and shocked gaze of Sunrise Daddy, Rebecca retreated step by step back into the corridor... He saw the Tiger Claw Gang, who was blocking the doorway, bend down and blow smoke into his daughter's face. Then the Tiger Claw Gang moved aside, and the toilet door closed after Rebecca went in.

A feeling of disappointment and frustration washed over the lone wolf.

Old Man Sunrise slammed his hand on the table with a loud bang.

"damn it!"

Claire wiped the glass, her tone indifferent, "Guest... don't cause trouble in your next life. You can go out and act drunk and disorderly."

Sunrise ignored the burly woman.

He stood up, pulled his trench coat tighter around himself, and three hundred euros appeared out of thin air beneath his wine glass. He then strode into the corridor.

……

At the entrance to the women's restroom.

Rebecca's yellow-pink prosthetic eye blinked.

She deliberately hid her prosthetic arm in her pocket and asked in a sweet, innocent voice, "What are you doing?"

The Tiger Claw Gang member with fluorescent green hair sized Rebecca up and down.

The crimson tip of its tongue licked its lips, revealing teeth that shone with a silvery-white sheen and a mixture of yellow and black.

"An interesting game."

He blew smoke from his mouth onto Rebecca's face, and Rebecca coughed softly.

This immediately made the guy on the other side even more eager.

His gaze was fixed on the area below Rebecca's jacket collar, then moved like a wolf to Rebecca's smooth thighs.

"Want to join?"

At this moment, two members of the Tiger Claw Gang stood on either side of the sex doll, the woman's mouth was covered, and she was making muffled noises.

"This looks like a lot of fun."

Rebecca walked in like an innocent little girl.

As soon as she entered, she saw two Tiger Claw Gang members standing on her left. One of them threw the woman aside, and she fell heavily to the ground with a cry of pain.

Rebecca noticed out of the corner of her eye that the automatic door behind her was closing, and the member who had greeted her earlier slowly moved behind her...

now.

One of the Tiger Claw Gang's hands was slowly reaching towards her.

Humph.

Rebecca's eyes began to turn cold.

Just as one of the Tiger Claw gang members placed a hand on Rebecca's shoulder, a brightly colored mechanical hand immediately grabbed her wrist.

"Big Brother——"

Rebecca suddenly exerted her strength.

"Let's play games!"

The sound of the prosthetic body shattering rang out!
Rebecca twisted her body forcefully, tearing off the Tiger Claw Gang member's arm along with it, splattering the bionic blood onto the dirty ground covered with various small advertisements.

"Wow! That's powerful!"

The guy whose arm was torn off didn't let out a single scream. Instead, he grinned and drew a short dagger from his waist, stabbing it fiercely into Rebecca's head!

Because they had just taken a potent drug, they felt no pain at all.

Rebecca rolled over and disarmed her, leaving her with no choice but to pull out Liz from her waist!
The blade whistled as it pierced through the air!

But before he could fire, the next second—

Because of the cramped toilet space, Rebecca's back was pressed against the toilet door!

Whoosh! The blade, accompanied by a gust of wind, suddenly hurtled towards Rebecca's head.

"You filthy bitch! You want to save people?"

The Tiger Claw Gang members chuckled maniacally.

"Later, we'll cut off her arms and legs with a knife, and sell her internal organs to the boss—"

"Mmm! Such fragrant flesh."

boom!
A flash of silver light!
Rebecca instinctively looked down and felt a chill on the top of her head.

Looking up, the blade was hanging overhead, its force so great that even the door behind him trembled.

Gudong.

Rebecca swallowed hard, quickly dodging another member who tried to hug her. She nimbly slid to the side—

The pink pistol in his hand suddenly fired!
call out!
The bullet pierced the arm of the guy whose knife was stuck in the toilet stall door, causing him to stumble to the side.

Before Rebecca could fire her second shot, two members of the Tiger Claw Gang from Hu Zuanba pounced on her one after the other!
Rebecca gritted her teeth, only able to fire at the Tiger Claw Gang members leaping into the air in front of her. The bullets created ripples in the air, leaving faint trails...

In that instant, I saw the oily sheen on the faces of those perverts, the faint music outside the toilet door, and the helpless woman curled up on the ground.

The world has been put on pause.

Bang! —

A strange mechanical starting sound rang out.

A trail of debris squeezed in from outside the automatic door. The man in the leather jacket circled Rebecca. At this moment, the girl's face seemed fearless as she roared, her pupils flashing with gunfire!

And in the gun in her hand, a bullet was being fired!
The man's ears were filled with muffled, strange sounds, as if someone was playing a cassette tape at an extremely slow speed.

As the sun rose, he bent down and pressed his face close to his daughter's, squinting as he looked at Lizhi's aim and the spot where the bullet was about to hit.

"Tsk tsk, you missed. You really embarrassed your dad."

He took the gun from Rebecca, slashed it, pressed it against the men's foreheads, and fired three shots in quick succession. After waiting for the bullets to slowly emerge from the muzzle, he shoved the gun back into his daughter's hand.

Sunrise stood to the side with his hands behind his back and snapped his fingers silently.

Wow!
Everything made a chaotic sound, like the tide crashing onto the shore.

From Rebecca's perspective, the heads of the two Tiger Claw Gang members in front of her suddenly exploded!

A gunshot, far beyond her expectations, rang in her ears!

Well…?
Rebecca swayed slightly.

She immediately spotted a dark figure beside her out of the corner of her eye.

call!
She immediately pointed her gun at the strange man whose hands were almost hanging down to his knees.

The petite girl's chest heaved, while the sex doll over there fainted immediately after the three headless corpses collapsed one after another.

Sunrise slowly raised his hand, grinning mischievously, "Oh! Hold your gun tight, I'm not with them—"

Rebecca looked puzzled and tilted her head slightly.

Why does that guy's appearance and build feel strangely familiar?

Imitating Pila?

When did this guy appear next to us?
"who are you?"

Sunrise stared at the girl, then suddenly stretched its neck forward half a meter at an exaggerated length, startling Rebecca.

"I?"

Under Rebecca's questioning gaze, the man looked at her strangely and muttered:
"I'm your dad."

……
-
After Mann left.

V stared intently at Lin Yue.

"When did you get involved with New America's agents?"

Lin Yue's cigarette butt was almost burning down to the filter. "For this prosthetic body on my face, I lied to the people of New America... and that doctor in Dogtown too."

V clearly wasn't going to let this topic go.

"Hmm, I answered part of it."

"For example, how did you find out about Mann's friend? I don't think you could get this kind of information from Ghosthound or... Arasaka."

V is absolutely right.

Even the head of the counterintelligence department at a branch of Night City only has access to a very small portion of the data, let alone Lin Yue and himself, who used to roll around in the mud pits of Dogtown.

The atmosphere in the private room was extremely tense, and V felt like she couldn't see through the person next to her at all.

Doubts can often arise from just a few words and some scrutiny of details.

Every lie requires countless more lies to cover it up.

Lin Yue has now come to realize this.

"Because at that time, all I could do was risk my life."

"Come to think of it... that mission of yours almost killed me in Watson's NID."

V's face stiffened slightly. "Hey, relax. I mean you can go into more detail."

How do you say this?
Lin Yue would not admit that he had used Li De's name to deceive Farida on the spot, based on his memories from his previous life.

Because saying that sounds like utter nonsense.

"Everyone has secrets, V..."

He turned to look at V, not forcing himself to meet her eyes, and said with his eyes lowered, "I am quite certain that I am one of Arasaka's people. If you have any doubts, please report it to Yoriyuki in Tokyo."

Lin Yue was confident that everything he had done was clean and that the matter was not true; Lai Xuan would make his own decision.

Actually, that's not what V means.

She just hoped that the person in front of her was 100% Arasaka and would be more honest with her. If any other problems arose, V was more worried than anything else. Compared to this cold "you can tattle" attitude, this woman from the counterintelligence department would much rather hear Lin Yue's well-organized explanation.

However, the other party rejected him.

V pursed her lips, caught in a dilemma.

The company nurtured her, and based on V's past behavior, those around her could basically conclude that Rin was a problematic employee—at this point, internal investigations would be too lenient. Company law grants companies immense power, and the principle of "better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free" is followed by all companies.

At that moment, someone banged hard on the wall of the private room.

"Boom!"

"I apologize for disturbing you both."

A familiar voice came through.

Rogge?

While Lin Yue was still worrying about how to cover up this incident, the underground queen of the afterlife, whom he had met two hours earlier, was now standing behind the door.

He stared at the woman, completely bewildered.

What does this influential middleman from the next life want to see me for?
Lin Yue, still unable to guess the other party's purpose after thinking it over, asked awkwardly, "Ms. Roger, what is it?"

Roger said slowly, "Friends from Arasaka, don't be nervous... I'm not so petty as to pick a fight with customers here."

"I'm not here to get on your good side or have drinks. There's a girl in your team, the one with the pigtails, remember her? —"

"She just killed several Tiger Claw Gang members in the toilet."

Did Rebecca kill the Tiger Claw gang members?

Lin Yue's gaze darkened.

"So what? Isn't it forbidden to bring heavy weapons and firearms into the afterlife? So what if a few gangs die?"

Roger leaned against the doorway, seemingly anticipating the reaction of the company dog ​​in front of him. "It's not surprising that a few ghost riders die. In fact, the cleaning staff often find dead bodies in the corners of the building when they're cleaning in the morning."

"But the problem is that your people have been kidnapped."

Lin Yue's heart skipped a beat.

He almost instinctively wanted to stand up.

V looked puzzled. "Kidnapped?"

Roger tossed a chip in front of Rin. “I can do you a favor. You might not care about a mercenary’s life or death, but our hackers discovered that a lone wolf hijacked Lai Sheng’s camera… We’ve also found out which direction he came from… Hope this helps.”

"It's free, after all, I respect my clients who have the means."

free?

Things that are free are the most expensive.

Clearly, Roger wasn't going to give Lin Yue a chance to refuse, and he turned and left the private room.

V casually took the chip from the table and inserted it behind his head, temporarily putting aside what had just happened. He took it out in less than a minute.

"No viruses, no malicious plugins—it's CCTV footage from the entrance to the afterlife. The guy who took Rebecca away drove a modified car with a S.A.S ...

It was concise and to the point, highlighting all the key information points.

Lin Yue took the chip and glanced at it.

"Send the information to Sasha and compare it with Arasaka's database. Can you find where the person went?"

V: "Unlikely, the car will be hard to find once it enters Night City..."

Almost the instant the words were spoken.

Lin Yue's eyes lit up.

The call was answered quickly.

"Making a phone call in the middle of the night, seriously..."

Lin Yue ignored the complaints on the other end: "Use the NCPD's traffic system to find a car for me. I've attached the details. Get it to me within five minutes."

In a private room in Night City, before the sleepy-eyed NCPD Director Jerry could even speak, the phone call ended.

He was taken aback at first, then his expression darkened.

Jerry's face twitched, and he muttered under his breath, "These idiots, Arasaka-san."

The sex doll beside him stood up and pressed on the man's shoulder, "What's wrong, darling? He's just a corporate jerk... just ignore him."

"You don't know anything! Get lost."

Jerry's chest heaved as he thought it over and over, but he still gritted his teeth and sent the information in the attachment to his subordinates.

"Find this damn car in three minutes... and get those network administrators who're monitoring the internet online!"

……

(End of this chapter)