Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 220 Searching for the Enemy (Part 2) [Bonus Chapter for 11,000 Words!!]

As the automatic door to the private room opened in the distance, Yu Jin, the security guard, stared at the woman who walked out.

Like many clubs or bars, these women tend to be very bold and kitschy in their clothing. However, the more upscale the club, the more corporate militaristic their outfits tend to have to avoid looking cheap.

"Why did you come out?"

It must be said that Ember's security personnel are indeed very responsible; if any problems arise, they immediately question the person involved.

The woman's eyes seemed to possess an innate allure; her pupils were blue with patterns like a kaleidoscope. She pursed her red lips slightly, "You pervert! You insisted on only having one—if I had known it would be like this, I wouldn't have come here. You're disgusting!"

The security guards exchanged a glance, both seeing a mixture of disgust and incomprehension in each other's eyes.

Under the watchful eyes of the security guards, the woman walked straight to the large French windows where customers could rest and plopped down on one of them. She seemed quite resentful. With a snap, she lit a pure white cigarette, the kind of medium-length cigarette that only men smoke.

Amidst the swirling smoke, the two security guards lost interest in keeping an eye on the female doll and returned to their duties.

Lin Yue was sitting on the sofa at that moment, observing the location of all the security facilities and monitoring rooms on this floor.

This entire floor of the private club was designed in a "V" shape. The pointed end houses the bar counter for a small bar, where the two security posts are located. At the end of each of the two corridors on the left and right are blast-proof transparent doors, and there is a camera scanning device every three steps. On the left side of the innermost corridor is Lin Yue's private room, and behind the door on the far right is the entrance to the subnet...

Given his current identity, he can only use the corridor next to the sofa, which is reserved for security personnel and club staff.

It's obvious to anyone with a brain that the internet monitors haven't left yet. The reason Lin Yue came out so early was to see if he could find out what Arasaka was doing here—that's right, he was a little worried about what V was doing, since with so many security personnel, any problems could be a big deal.

"Ah…"

Lin Yue yawned lazily, looking at her manicured nails with a sense of boredom. She watched one of the security guards walk towards the corridor ahead, seemingly as part of a random patrol. However, Lin Yue didn't want to delve into it, as she knew the location of the monitoring room.

Once Lin Yue can infiltrate the monitoring room, he can see the permissions of these cameras on the PC and thus determine Arasaka's activities here from the footage.

While thinking, he casually picked up a separate chip from the coffee table; it seemed to contain a communication briefing for the Ember staff.
[Gross]: They're all company people, we can't do anything about security, these sons of bitches!

[Martin]: I get it, I get it... What kind of bullshit business meeting is this? It's full of important people, especially that slim woman from Arasaka—wow, she's got a great figure! I thought she was some company bastard's mistress!
[Gross]: Where? Where?

[Martin]: Take a break, buddy. Leave the third floor to Arasaka and the other companies' security teams. The fourth floor and above can't have any problems, understand? We can hang out and play cards and go to bars normally, but if something happens, you're not my brother anymore, get it?!

[Gross]: Yes, yes, yes... but could that woman be seen on the monitor screen in the control room?

[Martin]: Forget about it. That woman seems to be from the Arasaka Security Department. Go ahead and sneak a peek if you're not afraid of losing your eyes! Get to work, follow the rules, check the surveillance equipment every ten minutes, and don't mess things up!
[Gross]: Okay! You're so stingy! :P
My gaze then shifted to a promotional video for a discrete chip.

[It's here! Major business partnership information! The big-bellied Kavokin will help you get rich!]

[Hey stock market investors, Night City's companies have been making some big moves lately; Arasaka is riding high, with powerful collaborations! Insider information, only for my followers—Arasaka has signed huge technology cooperation agreements with several major companies including Night City, Biotechnology, and Kijitsuka. Want to make money???]

Whether you're squatting on the toilet or washing your cheap clothes, wipe your ass clean and throw away that damn junk, because you're about to become rich!!! Just buy Arasaka's stock without thinking! Sell as much as you can!

Now!

Lin Yue roughly knew why V was here...

It seems V is better at handling company issues than I imagined. Now that I'm temporarily away from Arasaka Tower, it wouldn't be right for Nitta not to put pressure on V. If something goes wrong with such a large-scale business event, V will have to take the blame; if nothing goes wrong, Nitta will gain more leverage for his own promotion or to solidify his position…

V's presence here meant that she hadn't given Nitta any leverage, which undoubtedly put Lin Yue at ease.

After all, her memory only went back to when V took the information to kill Abernathy. At that critical moment, V was indeed too straightforward—but there was nothing she could do. Given his status, if V hadn't listened to Jenkins, he probably would have been crippled much earlier, and might not have even reached the point where Liz met Jack.

Now, with his dual ministerial positions, V has a larger stage to showcase himself.

There's a feeling that a storm is brewing...

Lin Yue paused for a moment and said to Jack, "Wait for me for a while, I need to go check on V."

Jack on the holographic screen looked puzzled. "Aren't you afraid that girl will misunderstand? Misunderstand that you've already left Arasaka, and you're still thinking about getting involved in company matters?"

Lin Yue shook his head. "I'm a little worried, but I won't show up. I'll just see how far the business talks have progressed."

Jack: "Tsk tsk tsk..."

Having made his decision, Lin Yue stood up and headed towards the employee entrance unnoticed by the security guards. At this moment, transformed into a woman, he appeared to sway his hips and walk slowly, but in reality, he was intently staring at the automatic door to the monitoring room on his left—

Suddenly he turned around, his hand touching the lock of the automatic door. With a slight electrical hum, the overloaded smart lock opened, and Lin Yue immediately slipped inside.

"you…"

The security guard noticed someone approaching from behind and blinked. Since it was a doll that had entered, he wasn't initially on high alert. However, when he saw the woman's scarlet eyes, he sensed something was wrong and tried to draw his gun. But a sudden burst of crimson electricity from his body prevented him from even letting out a cry before the woman's icy hand covered his mouth.

The final image of this world was nothing more than a crimson mass of blood, staring at itself like the Grim Reaper…

Lin Yue slowly put down the corpse and took the VIP key to the upper-level club from his body. At the same time, he was amazed by his quick hacking—the Black Wall Protocol seemed to have changed. The current quick hacking was more like an offensive puppet that overloaded the enemy's entire prosthetic body. Apart from the signature red electric current, it seemed that its power was not as great as before.

But Lin Yue, as the user, knew very well that the feeling of being able to handle it with ease and control his power was wonderful, at least his body no longer experienced that damned burden.

If given the opportunity, you could try [Black Wall Protocol - Quick Cracking] after brain-computer interface overclocking.

Lin Yue stared at the computer screen, rapidly switching between nearly a hundred devices. His information processing ability was no longer that of the mercenary in Dogtown; the increase in his intelligence points seemed to be expanding the development of his brain. If one had to describe the current situation according to Lin Yue's memories from his previous life—

It's more like the female protagonist in "Lucy" enhancing her brainpower, becoming more perceptive, logically sound, and possessing extraordinary memory.

Soon, Lin Yue's eyes settled on a particular scene.

His expression wasn't good. The woman's fair chin was visible beneath her black hair, and her figure was graceful. The process of her attack was clearly visible... Without hesitation, she snapped a security guard's neck and shoved him into a nearby trash can.

really…

Lin Yue knew that it was good for him to be suspicious, but what made him even more curious was what it was that V had to do personally.

Logically speaking, she has quite a few people under her current rank, and she can even use some of Arasaka's special squads, so why would she need to do it herself?

I don't have time to think too much.

Lin Yue was exasperated. After cleaning up the body of the security guard, he paused the surveillance cameras and deleted the backup recording. He briefly observed the corridor before heading towards the fourth-floor corridor where V had gone.

He had to be wary of this; if Jack happened to start stealing data, he'd be in trouble once the alarm went off—on the other hand, he wanted to help V, even if the matter of Respectable Logistics and Roger's data were ruined today, he would still choose to do so.

“This woman…”

Lin Yue muttered to himself as he walked up to the next floor, instructing Jack to wait.

……
-
Within the Yu Jinzi network.

After reviewing all the network certificates and licenses, Bridil, along with two subordinates who had participated in the review, issued an order to leave the network.

As a job, many people are irresponsible, like these two who slack off right under your nose...

Bridil was not a cynical person. He knew that some things were just a matter of life and death. He was aware of the obvious violations, such as illegally collecting user data and the risk of leaks, but he did not intend to pursue them.

When a tightly woven net develops various holes, it shouldn't be repaired by one person, but rather the person who created the net should be held responsible.

Therefore, he ignored his subordinates' inspection of non-compliant behavior and patiently waited for the other two members to leave the network.

Bridil only planned to take the next step after the user information disappeared.

The fact that Ember came to investigate at this critical juncture was actually intentional on his part. He was well aware of the business activities that Arasaka was conducting here. Since this was the place with the most Arasaka personnel, Bridil simply treated this place as a database with a particularly large sample size and began to compare it one by one with the member information scanned by the Ember security system.

It was a clumsy method, but Bridil wouldn't give up. He would keep trying wherever Arasaka appeared until he found the hacker who was highly likely to be connected to Wendy's death; like the tracking program, it was like finding a needle in a haystack.

Feeling somewhat down, he tentatively hacked into Ember's entire security database fortress. For a young, genius hacker like him, entering a club's fortress was incredibly easy, and he could even do it without the firewall backtracking, to the point that even Ember's online hackers couldn't detect it.

"Ok?"

The moment he entered the security system, Bridil sensed something was wrong.

Because he discovered that many hardware devices had stopped working, he quickly retrieved the logs of the devices stopping and analyzed the floors where these devices were located.

Three floors, four floors…

Bridir began attempting to remotely boot the firmware, and it wasn't as difficult as he had imagined. In fact, the devices all started up automatically the moment the command was given. As the screen returned to normal, Bridir's expression became serious...

The result was still somewhat disappointing for him, because all the backup data of these probes had been deleted, and even if it were to be recovered, it would be impossible. The other party was clearly a highly skilled hacker who was very good at offline activities.

It's perfectly normal for enemies to be in Arasaka's area, so Bridil didn't think much of it. Besides, a certain young company executive had been so awful that Bridil didn't want to get involved at all.

Just as he was about to listlessly search the user database, he noticed that there seemed to be no trace of deletion in the logs of a surveillance camera on the third or fourth floor. Without thinking twice, he quickly read the backed-up video information. To his surprise, he discovered that the content hadn't been deleted at all—

He quickly reviewed the video recording.

The woman's face is not clearly visible due to her side profile, but she is very tall and barefoot on the ground, bending down to approach the security guard whose back is to her.

The only thing Bridil could see were the two sparkling earrings beside her ears…

The woman's actions were undeniably ruthless; her fair, slender arms possessed extraordinary strength, easily snapping her enemy's neck with a single, effortless movement.

Bridil swallowed hard; his intuition told him that this woman was no ordinary person.

He began analyzing the woman's movements frame by frame, and in one shot, he found the woman slightly turning her head to the side. After zooming in and restoring some image quality, he saw the woman's stunning profile. Combined with her clothing, Bridil felt that this woman was more suited to be a Dream Star or something similar...

So he quickly compared the woman's facial features with the database of the Ember Network, and he actually found something.

Name: V

[Subordinate to: Night City, Arasaka]

[Other: Unknown]

What are the people from Arakawa doing here?
Having discovered the secret, Bridil wasn't going to let it go. He started using the code Wendy left behind to quickly compare with the users scanned in the database. Finding nothing, he hurriedly searched for the woman's whereabouts on other devices.

The woman seemed to have vanished from the facility; Bridil searched for a long time but could not find her.

But he knew enough that Arasaka was doing some shady things here.

If we can find evidence that Arasaka violated the law on online activities, that would be an unexpected bonus... You know, the internet regulators don't have a good eye on these big companies. Everyone knows that these companies are always thinking about circumventing the Great Firewall, but they just haven't been caught red-handed.

Somewhat disappointed, Bridil did not intend to give up, but continued to examine areas that might be questionable.

Just then, a woman appeared in the scene.

Her appearance was naturally excellent, but her aura made Bridil immediately realize that she was a doll.

Bridil stared at the strangely behaving sex doll, because he knew perfectly well that sex dolls shouldn't be present in such an internal staff passageway...

The camera panned... Bridil stared intently at the woman until she disappeared around the corner of the corridor. He quickly switched the view, and when the empty corridor appeared, Bridil's heart skipped a beat.

Oh shit…

The camera rotated, and Bridil looked carefully for a long time, the images switching continuously, but he still couldn't see the woman's figure again.

The increasingly strange atmosphere made Bridil's heart pound wildly.

The network monitoring subordinates, who had long since left the network, had been waiting for their superiors in the equipment room for half a day, and were even getting a little impatient.

"What do you think this madman is trying to do? Is he really planning to fix this rotten subnet?"

The subordinate ignored the rule against smoking in the equipment room and was puffing away while complaining.

Another guy, who was engrossed in lighting his cigarette with a colleague's light, squinted and looked on with enjoyment. "Damn it, let him do it—look at how he acts when he sees the company, he doesn't fight back or talk back, what a coward! He's only good at catching those gangsters and some random hackers. Let's see if Arasaka-goo makes a move."

"Alright, keep your voice down..."

The two chatted idly, exchanging a few words here and there.

Soon after, they both received a message from Bridil, instructing them to leave the Ember and proceed to the next inspection location. He explained that there were still some questionable contents within the Ember subnet, and he needed to stay a little longer. The two subordinates shook their heads repeatedly and left the equipment room, muttering under their breath.

After the people below left, Bridil began to overstep the rules, using the Ember Network to hack into the network devices in every club room, especially the fourth floor.

Although it was a reckless act, Bridil was not afraid; the opponent's flawed operational details gave him some confidence.

Soon enough, he actually found the woman in a room at a club.

This is a private room of nearly 200 square meters, which is not only filled with a dazzling array of luxury items, but also has an infinity pool on the rooftop. Having seen many luxury clubs, Bridil was immediately interested in the distinctly different decor of this place.

Being different implies being special, which proves that the room's owner is no ordinary person, while the tall woman standing silently by the door with her back against the wall seems to be waiting for her prey to come to her.

Bridil was using a camera system that captured the movement of the niche lights. In theory, this thing had an outrageously high ICE (Intrusion Detection Index) and the benefits of intrusion were very low, but Bridil didn't care about that. He just wanted to know what Arasaka was doing, so he quietly observed him.

At the same time, a woman with a charming figure appeared on the fifth-floor corridor. She used her excellent stealth skills to gradually infiltrate the blind spots of the patrolling security personnel.

The high heels on her feet were lighter than the stealth shoes of special operations team members, making it difficult to even notice that someone was reaching into the inner room.

Lin Yue glanced at the room; V was inside. If he went in rashly, a fight might break out, so he turned around and hid in the next room. With his strong arms, he lightly jumped and grabbed the ladder with one hand, climbing all the way to the top floor of the Ember Club.

There were also security personnel above the embers, two soldiers with sniper helmets attached to their heads, one on the east and one on the west.

Lin Yue crouched down behind a protruding obstacle, peeking out with one eye to hack into the antenna equipment on the rooftop—

Tick-tock!
The antenna's main control panel emitted an error message. The sniper who was closest to the sound asked in confusion, walked over to the antenna, and began to check where the wiring was malfunctioning.

Behind him, a figure slowly moved to the ventilation duct atrium behind the sniper. Lin Yue looked down at the atrium controlled by the smart lock and tried to hack into it. He discovered that it was connected to the subnet's ICE and could only be deactivated by deep diving.

Aside from that, only the methods commonly used by technical experts remain…

Seeing that the sniper, scratching his head and checking his equipment, was about to turn around, Lin Yue pried open the control panel of the automatic ceiling and began modifying the wiring inside, all while keeping an eye on the movements of the two people in front of him.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his gaze shifted back and forth between the person and the equipment.

Damn it... hurry up!
Lin Yue wasn't exactly a seasoned technical expert; his technical skills weren't high to begin with. He was okay at disarming some laser-activated landmines, but opening a large gate using technical means in such a short time required a lot of experience…

The real world is not a game. In a game, you can scan something with a prosthetic eye and know how many skill points it requires. By comparing, you can understand whether you can pry it open. But in reality, you have to try it yourself to know how difficult it is.

Lin Yue had even prepared to use his lightning-fast attack to kill the two, but that was undoubtedly risky.

Knowing the security procedures, he understood that snipers on lookout duty needed to continuously report the situation to command center. A loss of contact would trigger an alarm, ruining not only his own mission but also V's. Never mind!
With a determined heart, Lin Yue's movements became faster and faster. Just then, the sniper in front of him suddenly turned around!
Lin Yue's eyes widened—

"what?"

The sniper looked ahead at the empty space, then something seemed to flicker. Guessing he might be seeing things, he cursed under his breath and slowly walked back to his position, holding his sniper rifle and keeping an eye on all the instructions within the net.

Hearing footsteps above, Lin Yue leaned against the ventilation duct, patted his chest and let out a long breath, then slowly moved toward the room where V was.

At the same time, he still sent a message to V.

But a reply came immediately.

The user you are currently trying to reach is not within the service area.

Just know...

This is the old procedure for missions carried out in Arasaka: only subnet communication is allowed, and all external communication is cut off. Since Lin Yue has temporarily left Arasaka Tower, he naturally does not have permission to use the subnet to contact V.

However, he remained cautious and didn't act rashly. Who knew what model V's prosthetic eyes were? Night City and the world weren't the game world he was used to; on the contrary, there were many different models of prosthetic eyes, and the company's equipment was far more extensive than he had imagined.

Therefore, V was able to scan Carter Smith, who was eavesdropping behind a wall in the office.

Lin Yue, lying quietly inside the duct, observed the room behind the fence below the ventilation duct, but found no trace of V.

"Jack, get ready. If things get out of hand, get out of here. I need to keep an eye on V."

Lin Yue's worry was written all over his face. They had agreed to help each other, but V hadn't given him any information about the company's affairs.

Now that things have come to this, it seems there's no other way but to wait.

……
-
Westbrook, Charter Hill.

This is a mansion belonging to one of the shareholders of Arasaka.

In the artificial, dense jungle facing the mansion, the hardy leaves swayed gently in the breeze. However, the emerald green leaves seemed to be shrouded in a blurry layer. As the layer of light faded, a dozen fully armed Arasaka soldiers appeared in the jungle, their shoulder armor emblazoned with Arasaka's new logo, each holding a standard Arasaka smart weapon.

A woman's cool voice came through the communication system.

"You should know very well what to do with the people who sell Arasaka. Go inside first and wait for my orders to act together."

The soldier pressed the communication earpiece next to his ear and replied in Japanese, "Yes, Minister V!"

The squad leader gave a subtle hand signal, and the fully armed soldiers moved forward in a cone-shaped attack formation, with soldiers on both sides holding their guns and on high alert, quickly crossing the road.

call out!
The soldiers made a slight thud under their feet as they easily crossed the four- or five-meter-high iron fence. The technical and cyber soldiers at the rear quickly hacked through it, rendering the guards ineffective.

The courtyard was decorated in standard European style. Two security guards, each holding a gun, were whispering amongst themselves, completely unaware that two cold-eyed soldiers had crept up from behind. Before they could even make a sound, their mouths were covered, and they fell to the ground, dragged along—

The body was thrown into the dense garden vegetation.

Strictly speaking, the shareholder living here is biased towards Lai Xuan's faction. Perhaps out of hostility towards Nitta, he transferred a lot of evidence that was unfavorable to Nitta and made backups.

The team's objective is to control the shareholder to send out the data, while V deals with the subordinates in the embers who are about to meet with the information broker.

The soldiers executed their missions flawlessly because they were all outstanding agents selected from counterintelligence and security agencies. They were not distracted by anything except the mission itself—they did whatever V told them to do.

V, having given the order, silently listened to any sound in the Ember Corridor.

Nitta clearly underestimated himself. He thought that with Yoriyuki under control, Rin temporarily away from Arasaka, and V alone unable to hold the line, he assigned V a task that was similar to angering the hawks. For Arasaka, the leak of information was detrimental to the current improving situation, and it was also bad for Nitta personally.

After careful consideration, V resolutely chose to accept this action, which was tantamount to betrayal, because she knew very well that if she disobeyed, Nitta would have a legitimate reason to issue a personnel order from headquarters to weaken V's power. It would be difficult to do things in reality if she outwardly complied but inwardly defied him, but that did not mean that V had no chance.

She needs to get her hands on that information and figure out how to maximize Nitta's losses while protecting Arasaka's interests...

Soon after, footsteps could be heard in the corridor.

V stretched his neck and slowly tightened his grip on the knife.

……

Ember, this mysterious club where Hua Zi was willing to meet V, is more like a "city within a city" club that provides the venue and does not interfere in any conflicts that may arise.

Night City signed an agreement for the club, granting Ember similar rights that the law does not apply here.

From this perspective, it may seem that it does not belong to any company in Night City, but in fact, it is backed by Peizhuo Petrochemical.

If we had to pinpoint any connection, perhaps the embers are linked to the burning process...

The special power allows a lot of intelligence to be exchanged here. Once the company takes action, it will become the target of everyone's criticism. The only reason V dared to expose himself and infiltrate here to execute unidentified people was to drag Nitta down with him and make him afraid to give orders to him again.

V is quite intelligent to have managed to do this, but her process was not very rigorous, and she didn't consider the subsequent legal issues at all.

She just hoped that today's events wouldn't involve the people from Peizhuo Petrochemical.

Today, as a global energy giant, Peizhuo Petrochemical has long been an impenetrable fortress.

The concentration of power in one person reached its peak.

After Ellen Trieste's death, all power in Petrified Petrochemicals was transferred to Trenton Parker, Louis Parker's eldest son. Ellen is said to have died in 2045. Her lifelong wish, besides meeting her lover who died in World War II in the virtual world, was to use her position as the chairman of the board to suppress Parker and attempt to become the current controller of Petrified Petrochemicals.

But time is the real factor in winning or losing the game.

Ellen's age was her biggest drawback. Trenton, born in 76, was younger and could wait longer. At the age of seventy, he finally witnessed Ellen's death. With her being abandoned in space in Earth's orbit, Petró Petrochemicals emerged as the ultimate winner.

At this moment, there was a handsome young man in the corridor. He was Trenton's third child and a special client of Ember. This room, unlike the other club rooms, was specially prepared for him. Obviously, he did not expect that someone from Arasaka had already infiltrated this room.

Enrique Parker walked forward slowly, looking relaxed and at ease.

At the same time, he was accompanied by V's real target for this trip, the subordinate of that director Arasaka.

As the two security guards opened the automatic door for the boss, they immediately scanned the entire room before allowing him to enter.

"Where's the stuff?"

The moment Enrique sat down on the sofa, he asked his informant.

Seeing the other party's hesitation, the young man, who clearly had Nordic ancestry, opened his hands. "Perhaps you're scared. Here, Arasaka can't get his hands on you—I heard it's evidence of some operational violations. Maybe you'll have to go to the internet police or the NCPD or something?"

The informant swallowed hard. "Damn it, NCPD and Arasaka are practically inseparable. You can't tell?"

Enrique found this guy somewhat amusing. He rested his chin on one hand and beckoned forward with his hand. "Give me the stuff. Maybe I can protect you and your boss with my integrity... But your boss should be with Lai Xuan, right? What? You switched sides because Lai Xuan isn't doing so well anymore? Aren't you afraid of being purged by Arasaka?"

The informant gritted his teeth and said, "Even that department head named Rin has been kicked out, leaving only a ruthless bitch. Of course, my boss doesn't want to stay here!"

Enrique paused for a moment, then said approvingly, "I also saw that girl at the party. I never expected her to be the head of your branch's intelligence agency. It seems my mother was right: the prettier the woman, the more dangerous she is."

Then his gaze shifted, "What do you think, V?"

From behind a niche, V, dressed in a fishtail dress, slowly emerged—

The informant looked like he'd seen a ghost; the hairs on his body stood on end!
"I am!"

Enrique wore an enigmatic smile, his eyes gazing appreciatively at the woman's graceful figure. "You're curious why I'm sitting here knowing there's a deadly datura hidden in my room, aren't you?"

V gently raised his hand, and the blade flew without warning towards the back of the head of the informant who was trying to escape.

Throughout this entire process, the seemingly cunning Enrique didn't even blink.

V wanted to make a move, but Enrique spread his hands and said, "I advise you not to. Pedro Petrochemical has nothing to do with Arasaka. Selling information is my business, but you have to consider the consequences, sweetheart."

From beginning to end, V didn't say a single unnecessary word.

Enrique's smiling face slowly began to fade. "Hey, you wouldn't..."

The moment the woman's pale red eyes lit up, Enrique paid the price for his frivolous words. Lying on the ground in agony, he watched helplessly as a pair of fair, jade-like feet approached him on the carpet.

"I hate that title, and... what about the intelligence chip?"

Under V's gaze, Enrique, lying on the ground, shakily raised a chip, "Holy crap...that really hurts!"

V picked up the chip and began quickly deleting all content related to Arasaka, preserving all evidence of Nitta's misconduct.

Immediately afterward, V's gaze locked onto an external device, followed by a teeth-grinding overload sound, and a burning smell filled the room...

Enrique had a feeling that this woman might actually dare to do such a thing!
He even thought that V was putting pressure on him, showing him what the consequences of overloading his implants would be—

Under Enrique's puzzled gaze, she pulled the chip out of the brain-computer interface and threw it in front of him.

Meanwhile, the action team on Charter Mountain began its extermination operation.

V's red lips parted slightly, "Upload it to the Ember's subnet, don't make me repeat myself."

Enrique stared at the chip on the carpet. "What the hell are you going to do?"

After a deathly silence, Enrique finally gave in and placed all the contents of the chip into the subnet.

Before he could speak, V's leg began to slowly twist. Enrique knew something was wrong. Accompanied by a fresh, elegant scent of perfume, a powerful kick knocked him unconscious...

V crouched down, pulled out a soft thread from his wrist, and completely breached Enrique's personal ICE, deleting the external memory storage and erasing the memory itself.

While doing all this, she asked in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, "Minister Rin, how much longer do we need to observe?"

A moment of silence fell over the room.

V's lips curled into a smile as he heard the sound of something falling behind him. A soft, sweet female voice came from behind him, "V...you took too much risk. Why didn't you tell me?"

After finishing all this, V stood up and stared at the woman in front of him. "Hmm...not bad new look. It's a bit of a waste to climb pipes in this outfit."

Although V had a smile on his face, the sarcasm in his eyes grew stronger. "You say you don't care about Arasaka's affairs and that you want to leave the authority to me, but actually you want to know everything about Arasaka? Are you spying on me? I wonder how long you're going to use me as a tool to climb the ladder?"

Full of resentment.

Lin Yue naturally understood, "You knew I was here?"

V: "Nonsense, my people brought you in. Did you think everyone in the security department was Suzuki?"

V's anger flared even more, bordering on aggressive. "Has Minister Rin lost her tongue? Don't you want to explain why you're here?"

Lin Yue could only honestly reply, "Jack and I came here to investigate Respectable Logistics, but we didn't expect to run into you—"

V nodded in interruption, "And also to see if I'll ruin your plans, right?"

Even though the other person was a woman, V instantly compared her expression to Lin Yue's silent demeanor whenever something happened, and said rudely with her arms crossed, "Then you'll be disappointed. I'll activate the alarm in a bit. Nitta needs to give an explanation for the mission failure."

"You should handle your own affairs."

Perhaps it was the one-sided output that made Lin Yue no longer want to remain silent. He looked directly into the woman's eyes, which were clearly filled with anger, and said, "I was just worried about you, V, but I didn't expect you to be even more powerful than I imagined."

The words V was about to say were instantly swallowed back down.

Lin Yue spread his hands. "The team was released with the help of a middleman from Laisheng. I'm here for that order, and of course, I can also find out that shareholder. But since you have something more important to do here, let's do it your way. I'll have Jack leave."

V tilted his head slightly. "Now that the company is gone, what are you going to do about Dogtown?"

Lin Yue: "I've already said, your matter is the most important. I think we've done a good job already. Find a way to get out of here. As for Arasaka's matter, you don't need to tell me more, but if you need any help, be sure to let me know—"

"Sorry, V, it was just a misunderstanding."

Perhaps because he wasn't used to Rin having a mouth, V's expression became increasingly strange.

She found it hard to believe that the guy in front of her would say something like "I'm worried about you" without warning.

Furious and wanting to laugh at the same time, she took a deep breath and composed herself. "The internet censors got those things, let Nitta clean up his own mess. We can leave now." Under Lin Yue's gaze, V triggered Ember's alarm system.

Immediately afterwards, to Lin Yue's puzzled look, a separate chip was tossed over.

He reached out and caught the chip, blinked, and looked at the woman who was slowly approaching. There was a sly look in her narrow, beautiful eyes.

“You’re too late, Rin. That guy from Respectable Logistics is completely under my thumb. I’ve dug up all his information, and he’s currently enjoying the sea view in Night City—don’t think the company doesn’t know anything. I’m watching you.”

Now it was Lin Yue's turn to be embarrassed. After all that, it turned out that V had completed the task without notifying him.

Lin Yue pursed his lips, just about to erase his behavioral characteristics, when V said, "Do you want Ember's surveillance equipment to see that we're still hanging out together?"

Because behavioral characteristics cause synchronized changes in the body's hormones, Lin Yue felt something was off about V being so close—

Shouldn't it?
He immediately realized that the sex doll seemed to be a one-way player…

屮!
Seemingly not satisfied with that, V lifted Lin Yue's chin and examined him closely. "You know what, you've improved quite a bit... I hope you won't use those ridiculous excuses you gave me the other day to hide your true intentions anymore, okay?"

Lin Yue actually wanted to say that the things about his memories weren't nonsense, but at this moment he could only surrender and obediently admit his mistakes.

As the alarm sounded, V knocked down two security guards who rushed in—

She gently put her arm around the waist of the person next to her. "We'll have to trouble Minister Rin to create an alibi. After all, it's normal for company employees to have some fun, right?"

……

……

　[Ellen Trieste]: Died in 2045, a key figure at Pedro Petrochemical. She held the most shareholder votes, was the chairperson of the board, and had the greatest influence over other board members.

　　[Trenton Parker]: Holds the second-largest stake in Pestols Petrochemicals and is the company's current CEO.

　　Louis Parker: Founder of Petró Petrochemicals and father of Trenton.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)