Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 275 Fate Reversed! [5.2K]

"I wonder if this thing can still move."

Pila, a cigarette dangling from his lips, looked at the old transmitter on the mottled cement platform at his feet. These were remnants of the unification wars. Wanderers in the badlands and wastelands, unable to contact their families due to storms, would painstakingly climb these dilapidated towers to use the still-functioning military broadcast lines to contact their tribes.

Of course, most of the usable areas have been repaired by the homeless, and the traces of the homeless's activities are mostly near the border of Night City, that is, south of Taipingzhou. So, apart from the black soil filled with Night City's garbage, there are hardly any living people in the north.

"Move around, friend."

Pila tapped the still-sparking control hub with the wrench in his hand. After confirming that the data reading of the handheld computer in his palm had started to return to normal, he bent down to plug in the mobile computer's cables on the ground and patiently waited for the hacker to arrive.

I glanced at the time and it was just past the expected meeting time.

Despite her worries, Pila kept muttering and cursing Arasaka and all this mess that could easily kill someone.

However, what he is doing now is not unimportant, because soon a hacker will act as a human server to completely wipe out the Arasaka elite armed forces that have stormed in here; although the guy didn't say it, Pila can guess.

"That's so tragic..."

As a member of the team who had seen Lin Yue use the Black Wall to quickly crack the system in Dogtown, he roughly calculated the power of these launchers. If the EPM thread was not installed to create a Faraday cage effect, an implant of an ordinary person who accidentally entered would be turned into charcoal in one second.

But how does the network connect?
Pila scratched his head. Although he wasn't a professional hacker, he knew that Qiwei's laptop, which barely had a signal from Night City's public network, was definitely not capable of launching an attack of that scale. The traffic generated by even a tiny bit of data related to the black wall was far beyond what the computer's core could handle...

If she doesn't figure out a problem, Pila feels like she can't eat anything or rest properly.

He slowly descended from the creaking scaffolding, and as he glanced at the sky dominated by smog and pollutants, he seemed to realize something—

Pila's expression turned strange.

He couldn't think of any other way besides satellite data transmission.

Squatting below, smoking, he didn't understand whether his guess was true. On the other hand, he was wondering how many soldiers had died along the way at the hands of this guy who could quickly crack the code.

So it's a miracle that guy didn't turn into a cyberpsychotic.

Pila sullenly smoked his cigarette, not out of pity for the soldiers, but because he felt something was missing. His eyes darted around and he found a new task. He hurriedly pulled out a few wires from under the tower and frantically walked towards the dilapidated transformer in the distance.

"Let's go big."

The high-voltage power lines, which could instantly burn one's internal organs if one is not careful, are sparking with electricity. Pila, transformed into an "old electrician," has repeatedly and skillfully stuffed the power supply lines of the base station into the line with strange cries—he has done this kind of work many times.

Night City's electricity resources are supposedly controlled by whoever gets to the power lines first. As a result, the power plants' output and the fees they can collect are roughly in a 5:1 ratio.

Paying your electricity bill honestly is being a bastard!
The first thing to be affected is the power plant in Santo Domingo, which is frequently targeted by cyber hackers. These hackers take advantage of power outages to run cables out of the "unmanned" power plant, so the team is basically based in Santo Domingo.

What he needs to do now is to turn this thing into a base point for a one-time, small-scale network nuclear explosion. Once that guy connects to the network cable, it will be all for naught!
"Hmph!"

Pila strained with all his might to pull at the completely aged electrical wires. They were as hard as the cheap leather jacket on a street mascot. Even with Pila's considerable strength, he couldn't accomplish the task requiring a power-type prosthetic arm with his two prosthetic arms.

Pila couldn't bear to give up so easily.

wrong?

After trying various methods, Pila suddenly had a flash of inspiration!
My own little sister Rebecca is a perfect match, isn't she?

Just as this older brother was thinking about his sister's gorilla arm, he realized that they were already more than ten minutes past their scheduled meeting time.

Feeling uneasy, Pila called Rebecca, clearing her throat as if to say something harsh, but no one answered for a long time, and when she called back, the line was disconnected…

paralysis!

What is that idiot Lin Yue up to now?
[Unable to connect]...

is that a lie?

Under the sunlight, Pila looked like a lonely fellow abandoned on the barren land. His shadow was stretched long by the hazy sunlight in the dim sky, and his two arms, like those of a gibbon, hung down on the ground as he quietly looked at the horizon.

After this, no other company, NCPD, or gang can bully him and his sister anymore.

Anyway, that's what Rin planned, and he knew it very well. But this trip wasn't in Dogtown, nor was it about robbing mercenaries on the street. It was a real confrontation with Arasaka.

It seems normal for any problems to occur.

He shook his head, feeling utterly speechless.

At least Rebecca and Qiwei drove their car over for me...

How do I pull the wire out?

……

"Hello? Hello?"

Rebecca's eyes flickered, but every time the call notification light appeared, she couldn't hear the other person's voice; instead, she received a message that the call had been disconnected.

Although she couldn't see the user's name, she figured it was probably Pila who typed it...

Qiwei also noticed Rebecca's eyes in the rearview mirror, as well as her long neck, probably trying to see how much time was left until the finish line.

"Pira?"

Qiwei asked.

Rebecca pouted. "Maybe it's because we took a little time to tow the drone. Look how nervous he is. That jerk just keeps rushing us."

Qiwei's eyes revealed a hint of envy as she said softly, "It's a good thing to be cared for, after all, he's your brother—but we are indeed late, and I don't know if Pila managed to handle it all by himself."

Emma, ​​sitting on a chair nearby with her heart still pounding, looked curiously at the petite girl with the violent prosthetic body. The thin, gloomy man in her mind seemed nothing like her.

"Your brother...?"

Rebecca puffed out her cheeks. "He was mutated by drinking the unfiltered fake water from Night City, and his brain isn't working very well."

Although it's a double-edged sword—

But it was her lively Night City "local dialect" that made Emma laugh, entirely because even genuine Night City natives would joke about unfiltered and heavily polluted tap water... The high price of "real water" naturally caused dissatisfaction among local residents for a long time.

Seeing that Emma wasn't angry, Rebecca became even angrier...

She swore to God that she originally wanted to provoke this woman who was her "love rival," but she was defeated by the gentle smile on the woman's face.

cut--

What's so great about making yourself look good?

Emma moved closer to her. "Are you an adult yet?"

Rebecca's forehead twitched. This was unacceptable! Even if Lin Yue had said he would protect this woman, she couldn't let her be looked down upon like this.

Rebecca puffed out her chest, "Of course, a VVVVIP member of the Night City Dream Club!"

The concept of adulthood is Mewtwo…

Emma smiled gently.

Qiwei glanced at the rearview mirror—

As Emma's long, slender hand gently stroked Rebecca's dirty gorilla arm, Rebecca reacted as if she'd been electrocuted, her eyes wide with alarm: "What are you doing?!"

Emma quickly withdrew her hand. "I just think it's unbelievable that you... at such a young age, can control such a powerful prosthetic body."

Rebecca blinked.

“Dogtown is full of heinous criminals. Even boxers who like to smash people’s heads with their fists wouldn’t dare to get a prosthetic body like yours—” Emma continued with some admiration, “It seems Mr. Rin was right, you are the most talented one in the team.”

Rebecca paused for a moment, then said with an air of arrogance, “Girl, this is a genuine Santo Domingo classic cyberpunk, with gorilla arms… an entry-level version.”

It seems that praising himself wasn't enough—

She added earnestly, "If you weren't carefully chosen by the prosthetic doctor to shape your face... you'd be really pretty, with great skin, unlike those women in the Mewtwo Club who have a thick, slippery, biotech UV-protective coating on their skin."

Emma blinked, mimicking Rebecca, and said, "Thank you."

A few minutes later…

Qiwei shook her head as she watched Rebecca telling Emma everything behind her. She probably hadn't realized that she had already been completely fooled by her love rival.

Emma wasn't teasing Rebecca; she simply felt that this girl shared similar traits with Lin Yue: interesting, cute, and a little reserved.

only…

Emma was no fool; she could smell the sourness in the conversation at the very beginning.

Just as Rebecca was rambling on about how much business Lin Yue would have to do and how wonderful his life would be after getting through Arasaka's ordeal, Emma suddenly asked, "You have feelings for that guy, don't you?"

Rebecca's mouth sounded like a radio that had been cut off; the only sound in the car was Qiwei playing the playlist from the body temperature radio station.

"Uh...no...right?"

A far-fetched explanation, a subconscious denial without naming the person.

Emma looked at her knowingly. "Then you'll have to speed things up."

Rebecca didn't hear clearly at first, but when she realized what was happening, her face immediately fell.

ha?
What kind of play is this?

Even Qi Wei couldn't help but glance at her, thinking that this woman's logic was indeed very strange.

"What...are you talking about?"

Rebecca felt her thick skin, honed through years of street-level exercise, was burning with embarrassment.

Emma, ​​however, spoke earnestly, as if recounting something ordinary: "I'm serious, if you have such thoughts, then don't hold back—" Rebecca stared blankly.

Emma leaned closer to the guy and said, "That woman at the company is incredibly selfish!"

Company women?

V？

Rebecca quickly raised her hands and waved them, "I... uh, no."

Emma shook her head with a regretful expression. "Why don't we ask the lady who's driving? She probably suggested the same thing, right?"

Qiwei's ears twitched. Hey... don't drag me into this.

“They say you’re sick, and quite seriously so… and it seems they’re right.”

Qi Wei's muffled voice came through.

Unexpectedly, Emma suddenly laughed, her lips half-covered, her face flushed a peach-pink, and even her prosthetic eye had a faint purple tinge.

Rebecca stared blankly at the woman.

After she stopped laughing, she said, "It's good to be sick; you live without burdens. It would be more painful to be cured."

"Anyway, Miss Rebecca, I have no objection."

Rebecca blushed, turned her head away, and buried her face in her collar. This question was even more blatant than Mewtwo's, and she couldn't answer it.

Qiwei sighed. It seemed that Miss V had been stirred up into conflict again.

Just then, Qiwei frowned and saw the signal tower in the distance.

"Where are the Pira people?"

Qiwei looked down and found that the signal seemed to be interfered with by a nearby signal tower. With the help of her prosthetic eye, she saw the guy sitting on the ground holding his head.

Rebecca quickly moved closer.

"What's going on? This guy's squatting on the ground?! Could he have secretly gotten drunk?"

Qiwei rolled her eyes.

“Pira doesn’t drink—he’s probably just worried about not being able to contact us, right? There are only ten minutes left. Rin is going in circles. Falco will be here soon. Hold on tight!”

Step on the gas!
Rebecca felt that what Qiwei said about "Pila not drinking alcohol" was actually wrong, and that the second half of the statement was false.

That guy is heartless; he's probably squatting on the ground cursing himself!

After all, they were late!

At this moment, Rebecca, like a professional mercenary, asked Emma, ​​"Emma... Madam? You have an EPM thread, right?"

Emma pointed to the prosthetic threads on her face that complemented her features, subtly adding a touch of elegance. "Yes."

Rebecca said seriously, "We must make sure it works. There will be extremely strong EPM interference later, along with a hacker attack. We need to complete the deployment here."

The car sped to the foot of the tower in an instant!
Pira suddenly stood up and stared at the not-so-transparent car window.

Qiwei came down first. She frowned and looked at the cigarette butt next to Pila's feet. "Damn it... slacking off, huh?"

Pila's Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

A petite and agile figure jumped out of the back seat of the car. "I'll tell Lin Yue later that you didn't do your job properly."

Pila stared at Rebecca for a long time, until Rebecca herself felt a little uncomfortable, before he finally spoke—

"Damn it! Can you please stop making things so complicated!"

“I have an idea that can only be realized with the power of a car, but you’ve always been the most fussy… and I can’t get in touch with you by phone.”

A barrage of complaints and endless chatter.

Rebecca lunged forward, raised her middle finger sharply, and grabbed Liz's pistol with one hand while cursing loudly!

"Idiot! Making a call with such strong interference?! And you call yourself a technical expert! Don't get involved in Lin Yue's prosthetic body repair and he breaks it. I wouldn't even let you handle it!"

Pila spat as she spoke, "Huh? So noisy, you jerk!"

Rebecca was fuming, her chest heaving.

Pila bent down and fiddled with the car engine, then chuckled after several seconds, "Oh right, it's interference. How come I didn't remember?"

Qiwei glanced apologetically at Emma, ​​receiving a gentle, knowing smile in return.

The older brother's concern was far too obvious.

Just as everyone was waiting for Pila to put her idea into practice, a strange buzzing sound came from above...

It was as if something was moving above, and there was a pungent smell of chemical fuel, but when you looked up, there was nothing there.

Qiwei placed her hand on her forehead, gazing at the dark, golden sky—

Emma leaned against the car, her brows slightly furrowed.

This taste…

Just then, Pila, who had been looking down and whose nose twitched, suddenly shouted, "Damn it! There's a hovercar!"

Qi Wei was stunned!
Immediately afterwards, a text message, barely managed to get through due to signal interference, appeared inside the prosthetic eye…

[Qiwei! Adam Hammer is on your side! Retreat!]

【cold. 】

Qi Wei's pupils contracted instantly. "Arasaka! It's optical camouflage!"

Upon hearing the last syllable, Rebecca instantly raised her gun and pointed it at the sky. "Damn it, don't come out at a time like this and interrupt our plans!"

Iron-Blooded Roared!

Emma was immediately tackled aside by Qiwei.

Pila instinctively wanted to rush to her sister's side to provide support, but suddenly the place above, which seemed to be empty, twisted. Then, like a vengeful ghost, the hatch of a light hovercraft hovering more than ten meters high opened, and a guy covered in cybernetic armor, his body gleaming cruelly and coldly silver-white in the sunlight, stared intently at the bullets coming from the shotgun below—and at that petite body.

It would be really fun to stomp on her.

Adam Hammer's blood-red prosthetic eye silently watched the girl roar and howl in fear, yet she kept fighting back to cover up the fact that her teammates were about to become mourners.

The bullets only sparked when they hit the hatch and his body. Adam didn't move at all under the recoil of the Iron Man, and there wasn't even a scratch on his prosthetic body.

He's looking for other people...

Kenichi Saburo said that Rin was here, but it seemed like she wasn't.

Sure enough, this untrustworthy loyal dog tricked him, so Adam Hammer naturally had to vent his anger.

And all of this happened in less than a second.

Because he's in a time-stopped state in Sianwistan!
then--

His terrifyingly heavy body plummeted downwards in an instant!
He held the eight-star gun in his hands, but didn't fire it. He wanted to use the gun to smash half of the girl's head... that would be the most satisfying thing.

"Rebecca!"

Pila felt a sudden darkness before her eyes, and her feet suddenly trembled violently!

He was sent flying backwards as if he had been blasted by a cannonball!
Even as it flew backward, he was still staring intently at that spot. Why was it him?!
Why Adam's Hammer?!
Finished!

Qiwei let out a low growl—

"No!"

Dust, soaked in garbage, swirled up, accompanied by a strong stench, and erupted around the base of the tower like a small storm!
Everyone was in despair.

Everyone seemed to have a sense of déjà vu in their eyes, for this scene... seemed like it should have happened, but no one wanted it to.

Gray is the main color of the pupil.

That was despair…

However, the allure of fate often lies not in making the cowardly kneel, but in the resistance of the rebels against injustice!

Some people don't want this to happen!
A metallic clang, accompanied by the noise of a transmission mechanism, could be heard, and a young voice seemed to be speaking through gritted teeth.

"Adam... you just recovered from being a dead dog and you're already causing trouble here. Don't you want to go and cry to your mother?"

Everyone looked extremely surprised...

Yes…

Qiwei, Emma, ​​and even Pila, who was lying on the ground in a daze, were all stunned.

Could it be him? !
But his prosthetic body wasn't fully repaired; it shouldn't be moving this fast...

……

……

(End of this chapter)