Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 208 A Double Act
Arakasaka Tower.

Fully armed security agents pushed the stretcher with hurried footsteps. The security measures, as tight as a city wall, moved along with the stretcher. They didn't know the girl's identity or why they wanted to move her out of Arasaka Tower.

But this girl's life is tied to their heads; if something happens, the counterintelligence department's "accountability for the aftermath" is unique in Arasaka Tower.

"Have you gotten the instructions?"

The security agent pointed to the elevator, signaling two soldiers to step on the corner first, while the guard took out a digital identity card from his side—sure enough, the security department was now under temporary control, and all personnel belonging to this department could not leave through normal channels.

AI: "There is an anomaly in your department's database. Technicians are working on it. Please be patient."

The temporary commander who raised the question immediately notified his superiors, and with the help of the hacker, the elevator began to run in reverse, forcibly sending the passengers who were supposed to get off on the first floor back to the upper floors of Arasaka Tower.

The moment the elevator doors opened, light flashed across the company soldiers' black equipment and weapons, and the company employees, whose mouths were covered, kept making muffled noises.

The stretcher was wheeled in, but the soldier who had been keeping watch at the door didn't intend to come in; instead, he pressed the close button…

The moment the elevator started running normally, the temporary commander breathed a brief sigh of relief. He signaled his men to knock out the company employees. With a thud as their bodies fell into the steel elevator, the commander began to plan the next step of the operation.

"As per Supervisor Suzuki's instructions... after we exit the elevator, we need to quickly rendezvous with another team and, as soon as possible, take our equipment and personnel to Area B of the underground parking lot, where there are vehicles specifically for transporting 'cargo'..."

It sounded simple, but when the commander uttered the last sentence of the order, everyone bowed their heads in unison and began to check their weapons and equipment.

"Apart from the other squad, any personnel who come into contact with us during the process... can be considered enemies and are allowed to fire freely!"

"Yes!"

As the numbers approached the 20th basement level, one of the team members slung his gun over his back and pressed down on Sasha's stretcher.

The rest of the personnel stood in front, and a few of them gently waved their hands, their individual defensive shields completely blocking the elevator doors that were about to open.

At this moment, Sasha, lying on the stretcher, also slightly opened her eyes, glancing at the obviously tense soldiers and the tense atmosphere around her—she subconsciously squinted her eyes, preparing for the "storm" that would follow once the elevator doors opened.

Time seemed to freeze for a second, followed by a long silence.

The underground parking lot was pitch black, with only a few eerie green emergency lights. At the commander's instruction, the first two soldiers stepped out, their motion-sensor lights casting a pale white beam of light. Apart from the smooth ground, the surrounding area was dotted with scattered parked vehicles...

"What's going on..."

Soldiers holding shields and probing ahead slowly moved forward.

Meanwhile, another squad was also creeping towards them on the dimly lit road around the corner…

The moment the two squads met, a fierce gunfight nearly broke out. If the two soldiers at the front hadn't held their ground, the tense agents could have easily opened fire simultaneously.

"What about what Supervisor Suzuki ordered?"

The leader pointed to the small server, a device that was usually propelled forward by pulleys; this was the most valuable neural matrix in the Dogtown underground facility.

"Don't worry... Minister V has already sent the personnel involved in the decoding out of Arasaka Tower. Now it's up to us."

After a safe reunion, the two teams began escorting "Neural Matrix" and Sasha towards their designated location...

However, ever since Sasha regained consciousness in the elevator, she felt a chill all over her body, and the fluffy blanket could not dispel the electric-like feeling... She knew all too well that she was to be taken out of Arasaka Tower for treatment, but was that even possible?
The increasingly ominous premonition and the clanging of guns from the soldiers around her made Sasha instinctively tighten her grip on the blanket.

The soldier responsible for pushing Sasha forward was a young white man. Although he had deliberately grown a beard, it couldn't hide the youthful energy in his eyes. At this moment, he also noticed that the girl on the stretcher had woken up, and squeezed out a faint smile while observing his surroundings.

Sasha's gaze glazed over for a moment—

In the image reflected in her pupils, milky white liquid spurted from one side of the young soldier's neck, his expression quickly contorting into a grimace, leaving only an empty neck and a body on the verge of collapse...

Knife?

how so fast !

Sasha clearly saw that glint of cold light flash across her neck...

From Sasha's perspective, two soldiers hurriedly dragged their stretchers aside and quickly formed a defensive formation. On the other side, the team escorting the neural matrix didn't seem to be so lucky. Gunshots were accompanied by roars, the underground parking lot was dimly lit, and the sharp, strange laughter of some women echoed incessantly.

In the girl's memory, in that collapsed building in Dogtown, when Lin Yue first used the network power from the Black Wall... she heard such a voice.

The squad responsible for escorting Sasha also opened fire!
Sasha tried to find the attackers amidst the blinding flashes of gunfire, but the moving shadows seemed too fast, leaving only the bloodstains from the blades as they reaped lives and the streaks of light emitted by the crimson prosthetic eye as it moved rapidly.

Arasaka has institutions all over the world that train these ninjas; they call them special agent societies. It is rumored that Michiko Arasaka did not start from scratch; the connections left by her father, Kei, and these special agent societies have, to some extent, provided a lot of help for Michiko to gain a foothold here.

[The battle system has an unsolvable bug. You can try...]

Sasha struggled for a moment, then immediately gave up.

After losing the support of the wandering AI, the Black Wall prosthetic body was difficult to recall, which made her feel like she was on a roller coaster ride... The Black Wall prosthetic body had existed in Rin's body for so long, yet his body was incredibly strong—could there really be such a thing as talent in this world?
Sasha, unable to get up and fight, was constantly chattering with his teeth, a sign of his adrenaline being released in large quantities.

She was thinking of everything she could use.

The situation was completely one-sided. These unidentified Arasaka ninjas were definitely masters of instant kills, never hesitating and seemingly intent on wiping out both groups.

Even though these agents managed to get away with it a few times thanks to their combat awareness and formation, bullets didn't seem to have much of a limiting effect on those freaks whose upper faces were covered with optical components that looked like insect compound eyes.

It's important to know that Sasha and that neural matrix now have security levels approaching those of a director.

Taking advantage of the brief pause in their movements, Sasha counted out the personnel on the other side. Ten Arasaka ninjas were present; it was obvious who had given the order. Only someone with real power on the board could command these people.

Even in the past, V could only use these people to find Rin with the authorization of Lai Xuan.

"Miss Sasha, please don't move—"

While the squad's temporary commander was changing magazines, he reached out and pressed Sasha's shoulder. Before he could finish speaking, two Arasaka ninjas, one on each side, slammed into the single-soldier shield blocking their way with tremendous force. The two burly company soldiers were instantly pushed aside by the two seemingly slender women!

Sasha felt a lightness in her body. The soldier who had spoken earlier was equipped with a Sianwistan Type I prosthetic body. Seeing that the enemy had broken through the formation, he quickly pulled Sasha back!

The Arasaka ninja, having regained his footing, raised his sword and locked his gaze on Sasha and the soldier. But before the two ninjas could make a move, their limbs began to twitch uncontrollably, electric currents coursing through their bodies, and their blood-stained swords clattered to the ground!

Arasaka ninja gritted his teeth, having already missed his chance to reclaim Sasha. Now, he could only coldly watch as wave after wave of counterintelligence agents flooded into the underground parking lot…

With his hands in his suit pockets, V, surrounded by his subordinates, stopped at the chaotic scene of the gunfight.

"It's you?!"

The Arasaka ninja who was detained by the counterintelligence department had also worked with this woman briefly, but he never expected that she would reach such a high rank in such a short time.

V sighed softly, picked up a samurai sword from the ground, weighed it in his hand, and muttered to himself, "There really are people this stupid."

This idiot, no one but Nitta could be that stupid...

When Rin left Arasaka Tower, she requested that the security department participate in the escort of Sasha. It was only because Lin Yue's righteous body was not in a very stable situation that she would have left Suzuki behind as well... V had thought that Michiko's brain was not very good, but he did not expect it to be this bad!
Are these people really not afraid of being punished later?
Seeing that she was being ignored, Arasaka Ninja's expression turned somewhat ugly. Just then, her twitching prosthetic body seemed to have recovered a bit, so she immediately moved, and the sword lying on the ground disappeared instantly.

In their crimson gazes, the distance between the ninja and the woman rapidly closed—

Boom!
The blade, hovering steadily between the two, trembled slightly. The woman's slender eyes and her cold, etched expression were reflected on the blade. Her high ponytail swayed slightly from the impact.

Moving the gaze downwards, V's hand was still in her pocket, and she looked extremely relaxed as she held the knife horizontally to parry.

"Like master, like dog... That's really true. Perhaps they chose the wrong location for the attack—"

"This is Arasaka Tower. I'm still in the counterintelligence department. Are you in such a hurry to settle things for your boss?"

Without giving the other side a chance to retort, V turned his head away, the crack already uploaded.

The Arasaka ninja stared intently at the blade in his hand for a long time before finally bringing it close to his throat. With a forceful pull, the corpse collapsed limply to the ground.

V glanced at Sasha, "That thing needs to be used as soon as possible, or we need to find the most suitable key. The one we're using now is rather basic, and there might be some issues with incomplete decoding."

Sasha looked at the female employee who never hesitated to get things done with some gratitude.

It should be the female department head of the company now.

"You can go."

Just as V nodded, the equipment and people who were about to set off were once again interrupted by discordant sounds.

"Then I'm afraid it won't be as you wish."

Jenkins buttoned up his suit jacket, and with only two people with him, he seemed to be going to a meeting alone.

In fact, he had to come here because he needed evidence of what would happen next. V's presence here at least proved that his message had been delivered...

"Director Jenkins."

V adopted a businesslike demeanor, asking, "What advice do you have?"

Jenkins stared at the corpses on the ground and the countless bullet holes in the walls. "The Black Wall weapon is Arasaka's property. Is this method of transfer compliant? Are there any relevant authorization documents? ...None of these things are available—what is your motive for killing so many people?"

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them aggressive.

At least for now, it seems that special operations and counterintelligence are fundamentally incompatible.

V was initially confused.

Jenkins was clearly the one who first relayed the message, so why did he suddenly appear at this critical juncture to protect Nitta's ninjas? And why did he continue to use a recipient who was unsuitable for further prosthetic research, all from the perspective of so-called company interests?

The moment their eyes met.

Jenkins and V both breathed a sigh of relief... the subtle reminder was still there.

So V replied with an indifferent attitude, as if he had no choice but to answer: "There are relevant technical specifications in Honshu. The director can check them himself."

Jenkins: "I can check it myself, but I'd rather hear you say it... like why the internal conflict broke out under the Arasaka Tower—the Special Operations Department has internal oversight authority, and I think you've gone too far, Ms. V."

Everyone present could smell a strong odor of gunpowder.

Unexpectedly, V, who had his arms crossed, simply smiled and slowly uttered, "No comment."

V is confident that he can prevent the other party from finding any flaws in the process.

To outsiders, this was a harbinger of an impending conflict between the two major departments of the Night City branch.

But in Jenkins' and V's eyes, they each had to show their attitude.

After all, they already had a rough idea of ​​what level Nitta was in their minds...

“With me, your actions will never be compliant.”

Just as Jenkins was about to stop him further, V gave him and the two security guards behind him an "unfriendly" look.

"Whether it's compliant or not is up to me—"

The special operations team's security personnel were both shocked and furious. "What are you trying to do?!"

Jenkins didn't react much; he just didn't quite understand why V's decision was so decisive. This meant that after Arasaka Tower, V would be the representative of Yoriyuki's forces, and any unfavorable actions from the other two factions would directly affect her…

V, what do you want to do?
"I now have the authority over the security department, we'll see."

V left out a sentence.

But the person who heard those words wasn't Jenkins...

……

……

(End of this chapter)