Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 245 Subduing the Tiger (Part 4)

Suzuki focused all his attention on the Tiger Claw gang members in the VIP area from various surveillance angles, and he did indeed pay attention to the sensor data of each room door on the surveillance partition at this moment, but he did not expect that the Tiger Claw gang members were fooling around in the room.

He was dumbfounded; this…

"asshole…"

Seeing that the guy's mouth was round, Lin Yue immediately grabbed a stick-like object from the side, which seemed to be a piece of aluminum alloy door frame strip left over from the maintenance of the Genting Club. Before the Tiger Claw Gang members could make a sound, the sharp alloy stick was pierced directly into the guy's throat!

Accompanied by a slight sound of footsteps…

The Tiger Claw Gang member felt a tearing pain in his throat. The black-haired man in front of him, like the Grim Reaper, pressed his cold, black prosthetic hand firmly against his mouth. The pupils of the man's eyes, faintly glowing red, reflected the despair in the Tiger Claw Gang member's eyes.

"Well…"

He also tried to struggle, reaching out to try and get the attention of the group of people sitting together on the sofa drinking.

"Ok?"

The commotion, though not too loud, caught the attention of the Tiger Claw gang members responsible for security at the VIP area. They vaguely noticed that the room seemed to have been closed... So they immediately stopped laughing and joking. One of them drew a pistol from his waist, cocked it without hesitation, and slowly walked towards the suspicious room.

Suzuki Shin, who was staring at the surveillance camera, was in her throat... She was ready to make a commotion at any time to attract the Tiger Claw Gang members to come looking for her, so that Rin could get away first.

"Calm down, calm down..."

Lin Yue's voice remained calm as he instructed Suzuki not to act rashly.

After all, if something happens here, given the temperament of those Tiger Claw Gang leaders, they probably wouldn't come even if they were beaten to death. Today's matter would be ruined, and if it got involved with Hegezi's side, Lin Yue would have no initiative at all.

At this moment, the Tiger Claw Gang members who were gesturing to each other as they approached the door of the private room were clearly well-trained.

"Wrap it up."

The Tiger Claw gang members slowly crept forward. The leader, gun in hand, noticed the automatic door was locked, and his expression turned cruel—"Damn it…"

So he knocked on the door, his tone feigning casualness while actually instructing his partner to swipe the access card, and said, "Hirano, what the hell are you doing? Making such a racket?! Are you afraid this blockhead won't hear you and report to the boss...?"

"Hey, Hirano-kun, say something. Are you so enjoying yourself that you can't even speak properly?"

Just as the Tiger Claw Gang members, their faces grim, were attempting to force their way in—

"Hey! You bunch of idiots! Come in and try it out?!"

A rough, hoarse voice came from inside, and the group immediately froze.

At the same time, a woman's voice came, soft and sweet, slightly unsteady, with a slight pause, "No, Hirano~"

The Tiger Claw gang members exchanged bewildered glances. The leader, who had drawn his gun and tried to rush in, twitched his face slightly. "Damn it! You're really looking for a thrill, opening the door and waving it around us!"

After a moment of silence, the Tiger Claw Gang members walked back, spitting out curses.

Suzuki, who was watching the surveillance video, breathed a slight sigh of relief.

In the dimly lit room, the man who had been twitching in Lin Yue's hand was now on the verge of death. His pupils held a look of utter horror, as if he had seen a demon. The man who had taken his life was like a devil straight out of hell, skilled in assassination.

Half of his face was that of a man, while the other half was that of a woman!
Accompanied by the twitching of the light, the woman's unsteady breathing sounded particularly terrifying...

What exactly was interfering with the behavioral feature faceboard at Genting Highlands? Not to mention Suzuki, even Lin Yue himself was startled. Although the behavioral feature faceboard didn't achieve full coverage, it at least read some information on-site and made some temporary changes.

As long as we can fool the people outside the door...

Now, it has clearly been achieved.

The Tiger Claw Gang members, who had experienced great terror before their deaths, stared resentfully as they slowly knelt down against the wall, leaving a deep red mark on the wall as if it had been heavily painted with cheap paint.

Beside the bed, the phallus, holding a woman's revolver, stared blankly upwards, a short dagger matching a samurai sword perched on its forehead—belonging to this Tiger Claw gang member.

Lin Yue didn't hold back. The sex doll was ready to fire immediately, but Lin Yue decisively pulled the weapon from the guy's waist and swung it directly at the sex doll's head—this was undoubtedly dangerous, since a person's body stiffens for a moment before death, and if he was unlucky, the woman might pull the trigger.

It can only be said that Lady Luck has temporarily smiled upon Lin Yue.

"This damn prosthetic body..."

Lin Yue wiped the sticky liquid off his hands. Not only was his full-body prosthetic body slowing him down, but his behavior and facial expressions were also starting to malfunction—could Huang Yue be next?

However, for a lone wolf with the most lethal hacking skills in combat, giving up quick cracking seems like putting the cart before the horse. But Lin Yue knows very well that it would be more dangerous for him to easily defeat the enemy with various puppets if he didn't have other hackers covering him.

The gang's subnets are all under strict 24-hour surveillance by hackers.

As long as Lin Yue dares to use hacking techniques to infiltrate the brain-computer interface connected to the Cloudtop subnet, the subnet's ICE will immediately trace back without the hackers needing to do anything. If this process is not successfully interrupted and the ICE catches up and reports back to the hackers, then the infiltration will lose its meaning.

If his prosthetic body can't be repaired anytime soon, Lin Yue needs to consider finishing his current work and continuing to study cyber hacking. After all, if he encounters an enemy equipped with S.A.R.S ...

The current situation can be described as one of utter devastation, and there will be plenty of opportunities to rebuild ourselves, but that's a story for another time...

Once the enemy's attention was completely diverted from this area, Lin Yue resumed his operation.

After going around to the elevator, Lin Yue's attention was once again drawn to another level.

The higher you go, the more strictly controlled the Tiger Claw Gang becomes.

Lin Yue carefully recalled the route that Wu Zi had just told him, ready to deal with any enemies he might encounter outside the elevator.

At this moment, a sudden change occurred within the prosthetic eye.

It's Suzuki.

After the elevator doors opened, Lin Yue made his way forward, taking advantage of the dark purple ambient lighting and poor illumination at Cloud Top.

"My cybernetic body can determine the enemy's line of sight and field of vision, Rin-sama—I have established a brief screen sharing using the company communications system. You may continue on your way. I will memorize the route, and we will meet at the target location later."

While listening to Suzuki's words, Lin Yue kept an eye on the enemy's field of vision through his prosthetic eye. He snapped Suzuki's neck while Suzuki was still yawning, and pushed the body into a nearby storage room…

In the labyrinth of desire at Cloud Peak, Lin Yue, like a sharp knife, is piercing towards its very heart…

……
-
"Ah…"

A long, drawn-out yawn.

An NCPD police car, with its windshield disguised as wire mesh and its entire body as thick as a tortoise shell, is parked on the ramp below the Westbrook Bridge.

The passenger seat back had already been reclined, and an NCPD operator was covering his face with a police cap, which bore the badge representing the impartiality of law enforcement in Night City, but it now appeared somewhat crooked.

The yawn came from this utterly bored fellow.

He slightly lifted the hat covering his face, his sleepy eyes glancing at the muscular man sitting upright in the driver's seat, and let out a sneer-like exhale.

"I said, Dorio... Dorioa trainee operator!"

Dorio, who was intently watching the road, suddenly realized what was happening—

"Sir."

Seeing Dorio's large hand still on the steering wheel, the old police officer smacked his lips and said, "That's enough, kid... Internal oversight has been abolished for a long time. No matter how straight you sit, you won't get a promotion or a raise."

Dorothy just smiled sheepishly when she heard this.

The veteran officer thought the other person would get red-faced and yell back, after all, not many guys from Night City who come to the NCPD to make a living have good tempers, and there are rumors in the department that this new agent has a gang background, supposedly the Animal Gang who can punch a car door in one punch.

The other person's smile clearly prevented the veteran police officer, who was ready to cause trouble, from making another move.

You can't hit someone who's smiling...

Seemingly bored from sleeping for too long, the veteran officer slowly adjusted his seat. His clothes were all wrinkled, except for straightening his bulletproof vest. He turned the rearview mirror and combed his few remaining hairs.

Dorothy seems eager to get her internship certificate stamped with a "qualified" mark.

The veteran officer's tone softened slightly as he fiddled with his hair and asked, "You've been staring at the road all morning, what did you find?"

Dorothy replied respectfully, "Five thefts, three speeding incidents, and one suspected hacking attack where the body was taken away by REO people."

In fact, the veteran police officers were extremely reluctant when they first received the task of training new recruits.

He always felt that there were some bastards in this city who wanted to do something impressive in the NCPD. Take that idiot he was mentoring at the end of last year, for example. There was a shooting in Japan Street—a young man who had just been transferred from his trainee status rushed into the pedestrian area with a police siren on!
The results of it?
The cyber madman's mantis knife made his pitiful kinetic pistol look like a toy, tearing his bulletproof vest to shreds.

In the end, it was only after the Terrorist SWAT team arrived that the situation was resolved...

So he figured the woman next to him, who was as strong as a man, was probably just as stupid, so he decided to ignore her. But she turned out to be very obedient and wouldn't act unless he gave her an order. Many times, she would just watch as gunshots rang out on the roadside, and her first instinct would be to turn on the radio to see if the dispatcher was taking any action.

Ok…

The old police officer meant that she thought Dorio was the right person for the job.

"Hmm, aren't you afraid of being called a turtle or a bastard by passersby?"

The veteran officer glanced at Dorio. He knew all too well that some bastards loved to provoke the NCPD. When his side had a lot of men, they would often bring a large group of buddies, escort them to the police car, take these loose-tongued street punks into an alley, give them a good beating with batons, and that would be the end of it.

As for company dogs and gangs…

Just turn a blind eye.

Sometimes you even have to do favors for the company dogs, and the resentment you feel... don't even mention it!

Dorothy shrugged, not intending to answer the question.

She's someone who's experienced hunger; when she was a mercenary, what she did was nowhere near as good as this.
The veteran officer seemed to have let go of some of his resentment. He looked at the cigarette Dorio offered him, squeezed the cigarette, and pulled off the filter.

"Clap."

Dorio lit it for him; she had learned it from Rin.

The veteran officer felt he hadn't met someone he clicked with in a long time.

"In our line of work, you have to turn a blind eye to some things. Do you know what's most important?"

Dorothy shook her head.

The veteran officer put away the mirror and said seriously, "Safety."

NCPD dispatch console: "Unit P034 reporting." The veteran officer grabbed the microphone in front of Dorio, "Everything is perfectly normal!"

The female voice from the dispatch console continued, "Please continue to monitor the situation."

The veteran officer cleared his throat. "Anyone free for dinner tonight? Dispatch?"

The dispatcher hung up the call with a click.

The old police officer spread his hands, and Dorio smiled subconsciously.

"See...it's not that hard, but that's how it is, a whole bunch of idiots don't understand how to do this job," the officer rambled on. "Me? I don't take any money, I just lie there—"

Dorio: "So there really is something going on?"

The veteran officer grabbed the microphone. "P034 Abnormal situation report. We are currently staking out a suspicious vehicle. Please report back immediately. Over."

Dorothy was speechless...

what the hell.

The veteran officer said, "Anyway, let others know you're doing something. The specifics don't matter, as long as you don't get close to danger. Let me tell you, a Vortex gang car crashed in Santo Domingo before. Do you know what was inside?"

"A whole truckload of projectile launching systems, thirty heavy machine guns, and the Ajax's new guns still smell of gun oil!"

Dorothy's brow furrowed deeply.

The veteran officer tapped her shoulder. "Tell me, what can your service pistol do?"

Dorio sighed. "Nothing works."

The veteran officer nodded. "So when I take you in, I won't tell you how to handcuff those cyber lunatics. Instead, I'll have you go into the alleys and grab a few drug dealers whenever you have time, and tell the dispatcher that you're working hard and not taking dirty money from gangs—otherwise, you'll be acting like a dog and have to go against your conscience. That's all."

Dorothy nodded, pursing her lips.

She agreed with half of it, but the rest…

Okay, this city is terrible, but it shouldn't be like this.

The veteran police officer savored his cigarette...

Just then, the dispatcher, whom the veteran officer had been teasing earlier, sent out an order.

"Three vehicles suspected of speeding are on Japanese Street. Nearby police officers, please be aware that one of these vehicles grazed a pedestrian, resulting in a fatality. Please respond promptly to nearby units. Please proceed to Block 26, coordinates (102, 23) — we're talking about you, P034!"

The veteran police officer sat up straight.

"Damn, he really holds a grudge."

Dorothy was stunned.

The veteran officer rolled his eyes. "What are you standing there for? Get running."

Dorio: "But..."

The veteran officer gave him a look that said, "You don't understand again." He said, "Turn to the left—and don't ask me why we're turning in the opposite direction. Tell them there's a traffic jam, and we're trying to get closer by taking a detour."

The tires strained against the ground, driving in the opposite direction until they finally veered into a narrow lane.

"clever!"

The veteran officer listened to the dispatcher's voice while praising Dorio.

Dorio focused solely on driving, showing little emotion whatsoever.

She's not an idealist. Whether the NCPD is keeping the law in order or not has nothing to do with her. She just wants to finish her internship and do what she wants.

As the suspicious target shared by the NCPD appeared on the car's infotainment screen, the veteran officer instructed Dorio to slow down while keeping an eye on the other person's movements.

He wanted to perfectly avoid those cars.

Dorothy was also quite capable, driving frantically but not very smart.

then--

The target disappeared from the car's infotainment screen.

The veteran officer blinked. "Tsk...we really can't chase them; the guys who can afford to hire hackers to bypass the NCPD's wanted procedures are mostly local thugs, not corporate dogs. Otherwise, the NCPD dispatcher would probably be cursing 'stupid corporate dogs' on the channel!"

Dorothy thinks this guy is really good at talking...

However, she didn't care. After all, even if she could talk a lot, she was still a nobody compared to Pila. Speaking of which, she actually missed everyone.

Knowing that Mann was involved in a lot of trouble, Dorio decided to cut ties with the past. She just needed to hear what Mann was thinking and then give up.

A faithful girl only wants one answer, nothing more.

"Slow down, those idiots got away."

The veteran officer lit a cigarette at some point. "Speaking of which, we've been together for a few days now. I'm a forgetful person, so I've already stamped this probationary stamp—don't thank me, I need to keep this for now, you still have ten days of probation left."

"Ugh... hiss, this smoke is really pungent, not as good as yours."

Dorothy stared in astonishment at the blank sheet of paper in the old police officer's hand.

The veteran officer adjusted his hat. "Consider this my thanks for the cigarette and your intelligence... They all say that girl ahead of you in line... what was her name again?"

"Stella."

"Oh right, Stella—her IQ is a fucking 160! I think that's bullshit. With an IQ that high, she must be a cunning bastard!"

Dorothy shook her head helplessly.

The area in front of the car seemed to be an industrial zone behind the Japanese street. The whole road was covered with tiger head graffiti, and every few steps there were Tiger Claw gang members giving us the middle finger.

"Just a little longer and we'll be off work."

The old officer leaned back comfortably, turned his head and reached out to tug at the strap of Doriol's bulletproof vest. "Damn it, you should have told them to get a larger size. I really don't understand where you guys from the Animal Gang get such a muscular build."

Dorothy instinctively wanted to shove the old police officer's hand, but then she saw that the guy's dry hair, which was sticking out of his hat, was a little gray, and his eyes, which were squinting from the smoke, were covered with wrinkles.

She dismissed the idea.

It was just concern; I'd seen that look on Rebecca and Mann's faces far too many times.

The bulletproof vest tightened, and the veteran officer, satisfied, withdrew. "I said—"

Gah!
A sharp sound.

Dorothy didn't know why she subconsciously turned the steering wheel around; her mind seemed to go blank for a moment.

The NCPD's sturdy police car was violently struck from the passenger side by a truck that was almost three times its size!

The car spun wildly on the road like a top—

Dorothy felt like she had been thrown into an old-fashioned washing machine. If the car hadn't been so heavy, it probably would have rolled over on the spot!
She pressed her foot firmly against the brake pedal, her waist feeling as if it had been broken from the side—and sure enough, the car eventually overturned.

"Boom boom boom!"

Amidst a pile of vehicle parts and sparks from friction, the truck transporting building materials came to a stop. A green-haired head popped out from the driver's seat and shouted in Japanese, "Let's go!"

He then muttered, "These cops are crazy! They actually dare to come and block us like this."

Three imperial carriages, all uniformly black, emerged from behind and headed into the densely packed buildings of the city.

Four or five motorcycles with their rear ends modified to be raised high, their colors matching the hazy, chaotic colors of Japan's bubble era, were driven by four members of the Tiger Claw Gang carrying knives, heading towards the police car whose roof had been overturned and dented.

A disfigured corpse was dragged out.

It looks like a man.

"Wow! It's so heavy!"

Tiger Claw Gang, cigarette dangling from their lips, dragged the man out. Passersby who had been on the roadside moments before now shrank back and ran away.

"Hey! Bro...where's this guy?"

On the other side, the Tiger Claw Gang pointed at the empty cockpit, looking puzzled.

The Tiger Claw Gang leader pointed to the riverbank, "Go check if it was thrown into the river."

As they spoke, several members of the Tiger Claw Gang carried buckets of ethanol siphoned from motorcycle fuel tanks. The pungent smell of alcohol mingled with the spilled, clear liquid. The Tiger Claw Gang leader took a few puffs of his cigarette.

"This is…"

The Tiger Claw Gang leader noticed a piece of white paper soaked in ethanol at his feet, stained with blood. He squinted and leaned closer to examine the blurred writing…

He awkwardly spelled it out in Japanese-accented English:

"Do...Li...what?"

Just then, a voice, indistinguishable between male and female, rang in my ears.

Dorio

The Tiger Claw Gang leader turned his head and saw a man whose gender was indistinguishable, whose body almost enveloped him. He had a head of dirty blond hair, wore a tattered bulletproof vest, and had half of his face swollen as he smiled at him.

Immediately afterwards, two fists the size of sandbags came flying from both sides toward the head of the Tiger Claw Gang leader!

The cracking sound of the skull seemed so abrupt in the otherwise quiet backstreet.

……

……

(End of this chapter)