Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 300 The Catfish Effect (22)

The closer you get to the control room at the top of the control tower, the more spacious the floor appears.

The simple, square design of the concrete pouring and the load-bearing columns in the hall reminded Lin Yue of the underground bunker halls of nuclear tests in movies and TV dramas from his previous life. With the sound of footsteps, the elevator in front of him seemed to be just a stone's throw away.

However, his fighting style is not as fierce as before.

The mysterious person… no, or rather, someone like the lark who has blatantly accessed a personal communication system, can only rely on AI, or is AI itself. Even if that chief intelligence analyst of New America had a hundred lives, he wouldn't dare to cause trouble for him.

Ye Shi.

This company is on Lin Yue's list of companies to be closely monitored.

Since he has the memories of a reincarnated person, he must anticipate all the risks in advance. The voice that spoke to him just now was clearly the mysterious person who warned V not to interfere with the memory alteration incident in his past life's story.

AI…

"Ott?"

Lin Yue had tried his best to catch up on foot. He discovered that although Ultraman could not answer him, the entire prosthetic body's software was still supported by the algorithm left by Ultraman. However, he now needed to be more careful to defeat the enemy.

Seeing that Otto did not answer, Lin Yue stopped calling out and instead stared intently at any movement around him.

He didn't care what role the Night Clan played in this; he only wanted to avenge Suzuki and, incidentally, silence Michiko Arasaka, who had returned to Night City.

Arasaka Yoriyuki failed to deal with this woman in Japan, most likely because his father was supporting Michiko behind the scenes. This is not good news. Lin Yue wants DRA to have the opportunity to develop, and this Arasaka executive who is eyeing him with deep hatred must die.

Swah——

Lin Yue slashed horizontally from the side, his shoe soles scraping against the rough ground, creating a puff of blue smoke.

moment!

Several points of light appeared on the ceiling above!

"I thought you were all eager to rush over and protect Michiko Arasaka, then tuck your tails between your legs and run away!"

Those were ninja throwing weapons, all sharp shuriken, shooting towards Lin Yue at a speed no less than that of bullets!

With a single swift movement, Lin Yue braced himself against the blade and sprinted to the side of the supporting pillar. The shurikens clanged and clattered, knocking down a large amount of cement debris, some of which made a metallic popping sound as they embedded themselves into the pillar.

Four or five dark figures attacked from the front!

The blade's frantic slashing produced a series of crisp sounds.

Lin Yue noticed that this guy was dressed like Oda in the Arasaka ninja suit—a close-fitting outfit with matte black ceramic carbon fiber plate armor covering his vital areas. His prosthetic eyes were the same type of military-grade, multifunctional, anti-physiological prosthetic eyes found in Arasaka suits.

These guys are clearly much more experienced; their attacks are very rhythmic, well-organized, and they maintain a consistent and orderly rotation of substitute attacks.

It was just a little bit short...

Lin Yue's retreating steps proved his current decline, which was already quite good. If Ultraman had completely lost the authority of his cybernetic body, this thing would be nothing but scrap metal, and he would only be able to fight by relying on his own reaction points and hacking techniques.

The speed of these ninjas cannot be solved by hacking.

call!
Overwhelmed and searching for a way to escape, Lin Yue suddenly felt a strong vibration from the blade. The vibration transmitted to Lin Yue's nerves, immediately causing a swollen and sore sensation.

Without Ultraman's computing power, he would naturally be at a disadvantage in close combat.

Lin Yue, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly to prevent it from slipping from his grasp, had his eyes hovering above the blade. Surprisingly, the ninja wielding the sword with both hands was someone whose eyes appeared unmodified. However, he was using the Kijiro Tsukasa's prosthetic eye technology, with the red dot above his forehead serving as his third military prosthetic eye for predicting movements and analyzing the battlefield situation.

Where is your power?

Lin Yue's mind was frantically searching his memory. This guy wasn't from the Arasaka Yoru no Shiro headquarters, and with his accent, he seemed more like someone from headquarters—just how many people did Saburo send to Michiko?
"Isn't this... here?"

Lin Yue's eyes turned bloodshot, and the guy frowned slightly before quickly retreating.

scoff-

In the instant he retreated, a puff of smoke erupted from his left arm holding the knife. After quickly sliding back more than ten meters and stabilizing himself, he maintained a crouching posture to prevent impact. Before standing up, he stretched out his hand to block several ninjas who wanted to continue charging forward.

"He's on guard (beware of his quick crack)."

The entire conversation was conducted in standard Japanese.

Under Lin Yue's gaze, a layer of light began to emanate from the ninjas, and their bodies and the surrounding environment began to distort...

Optical camouflage.

This high-end cybernetic body of Night City can only be manufactured by the company. It is not something that can be easily obtained from cybernetic doctors in the game world. It is the result of optical ingenuity and technology that the company strictly controls.

You can steal a sample, but you can't replicate it.

With this thing paired with the Arakasaka Ninja... Lin Yue could only suppress his urge to charge forward and think about how to defend against this attack first.

The ninja seemed to have no intention of speaking, but simply bowed slightly and gripped his sword, performing a perfectly executed sword-drawing technique.

Lin Yue felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head. No matter what, he seemed to rely too much on the support these intelligent programs gave him, forgetting his partners, letting hatred pull his mind, and getting caught up in facing a powerful enemy.

The evil of anger is the most important principle in the training of Arasaka ninjas; if emotions take over, defeat will follow.

A gentle breeze ripped Lin Yue's sleeve, and the threat indicator on the Oracle's Prosthetic Eye flashed a glaring dark red warning on its left side.

They've made their way over!

Lin Yue turned sideways and swung his sword, bending his knees to deflect the attack. He then entered a suspended state and attempted to reverse his posture and retreat in a state of perfect harmony with nature.

Meanwhile, the prosthetic eye was frantically searching for any flaw in the optical camouflage that might be revealed when the opponent made a large movement…

scoff!

Lin Yue's back was instantly torn apart!
"hiss…"

The icy sting made his scalp twitch. Behind him, the prosthetic body and his flesh were clearly separated. A white mark instantly appeared on Lin Yue's prosthetic body. This was only because he adjusted his posture in time and dodged it by instinct.

After landing, Lin Yue started sprinting to the side without saying a word.

"run?"

If he doesn't finish the optical camouflage time limit, he has absolutely no chance of winning. Ultraman doesn't know why the connection was lost, but at least he can't afford to fail at this final hurdle.

Behind the sprinting figure, a series of blurry, ripple-like, translucent afterimages almost instantly bit into it!

Lin Yue could naturally hear the distinctive S.A.R. Stein voice.

call!
Seemingly sensing that they were about to succeed, the ninjas ignored their superior's advice and moved too close. Then, Lin Yue's blade pointed downwards, and the cement debris on the floor was lifted up in a fan-shaped area!
The moment he saw the trajectory of the stone on the right change, Lin Yue thrust forward, the blade piercing the soft flesh with perfect accuracy.

You can't be wrong...

This is the sensation of piercing body tissue and prosthetics.

Lin Yue dared not be greedy for an attack. He suddenly gripped his knife and slashed downwards. The moment the optical camouflage on the other side collapsed, a pair of pitch-black hands smashed his neck, his head flipped ninety degrees, and the back of his head hit his back.

"Harada-kun!"

Lin Yue heard someone growling.

Almost instantly, a knife pierced Lin Yue's side, and his synthetic lung immediately failed. But compared to that, the pain was what drove him mad.

"Kill this mad bastard!"

Some of the ninjas were cursing.

Lin Yue's black prosthetic hand suddenly gripped the blade, and the bulletproof leather in his palm was already cut open.

He stared at the hateful face that emerged from the optical camouflage, his own face reflecting the same hatred.

The man had classic scleral show, and seemed emotionless when looking at people. He glanced down at the knife Lin Yue was holding in his hand, and was about to speak when a piercing static noise suddenly came through everyone's channels—the frantically flashing prosthetic eye made everyone except Lin Yue and the ninja leader instantly dizzy.

Lin Yue pressed his hand against the blade, not pulling it out, and quickly retreated.

Looking at the ninjas lying in disarray, Lin Yue immediately realized the connection to Ultraman.

"The Night Clan has blocked the subnet. Hurry up and get to Rin—that guy has a key to the Black Wall."

key?

This wasn't the first time Lin Yue had heard this word. It (Key) could be translated as secret key or key, but this was the first time Ultraman had used the Chinese word "key" to replace it.

"Very important."

Otto's renewed affirmation prompted Lin Yue to immediately draw the blade from his chest.

Seeing the blood splattered on the ground, the ninjas got up and quickly launched another attack, but the wounded guy was no longer as sluggish as before.

They couldn't remember how they were dealt with. Before they even moved, they were merely charging forward with their knives drawn when four or five men standing side by side were swiftly and irreversibly disabled by ICE, their cybernetic bodies shut down. Not only that, but almost simultaneously, their heads flew off like champagne corks popping one after another at a ball...

next second!
The ninjas, realizing what was happening, tried desperately to guard the elevator entrance, but they never expected that the force of that guy's charge was unstoppable. He smashed the leg bones of a large group of powerful ninjas, forcibly pushing them into the elevator, and then slashed wildly with his sword.

The sprayed warm liquid is the ultimate violent aesthetic!
A few tens of milliseconds later, panting heavily, the guy whose upper body was already stained with various shades of red calmly pressed the elevator button.

The ninja, who was still alive and trying to reach out from the side, watched helplessly as Lin Yue gripped the slippery hilt of a sword and plunged it in.

"Ding-dong-"

The moment the elevator doors opened!
Lin Yue rushed out almost without hesitation!

However, when he rushed to the center of this command post, a fierce gust of wind rushed in from the shattered circular observation window, causing his torn clothes to dance wildly against his skin...

It's an Osprey transport aircraft!

The stark white and glaring lights on the side of the fuselage transformed the hall into a world of white and black.

In the distance, Michiko walked unsteadily with her head down. She seemed to hear something amidst the loud roar of the engine, and her body suddenly trembled slightly.

Stiffly, she turned her head, looking at the man behind her who resembled a blood-soaked demon like a defeated dog.

The tall bamboo villager beside him let out a breath from his nose.

"Michiko Arasaka!"

Judging from the roar, it was a very young guy.

Michiko gripped Takemura's sleeve with such force that it penetrated his skin. Takemura shielded Michiko behind him, placing her in front of him.

Security personnel filed out of the Osprey transport plane, lined up on both sides behind Takemura with guns drawn, all kneeling in preparation for firing.

"Looks terrible, like a dead man."

Takemura had no intention of fighting this guy one-on-one. Since Michiko was still alive, it was time to retreat. As for what happened next…

There is a saying that goes well.

"We have a long way to go."

Lin Yue heard Zhu Cun's voice.

This loyal Arasaka, having been influenced by Saburo for so long, knows a few proverbs from ancient countries.

Almost instantly!
The gunshot and Lin Yue's movement erupted simultaneously!
The man, his face covered in blood, lunged at him.

Takemura's body seemed to lose gravity instantly. He asked himself if he was as fast as Adam Hammer, but with so many bullets, there was no open space around Lin Yuezhou, not to mention that a sniper rifle had already locked onto him in mid-air.

After dodging, Saburo Arasaka fired his Kappa smart pistol with quick and steady movements, almost predicting Lin Yue's actions several times. In addition, smart weapons are inherently difficult to deal with.

"Ultraman!"

Left with no other choice, Lin Yue could only be blocked by this dense barrage of fire.

He was unwilling to let the woman who had tripped him up twice return to Arasaka, and he roared almost with eyes wide open in fury.

"Watch out, that plane is about to use its machine guns to sweep through the buildings."

"Hold.!"

Lin Yue cursed loudly and immediately ran off!

The deafening roar of the machine guns began to devour everything in their path!
The corpses, debris, and other items began to scatter dust—

The reinforced concrete load-bearing equipment also developed terrifying "cracks" as debris flew everywhere!
Seemingly dissatisfied, this massive creature hovered around the building until it nearly snapped the building's load-bearing columns. Watching as one side of the top floor began to tilt, it suddenly rose higher and disappeared into the skies above Night City…

……
-
At the end of the intersection of network data and screens.

In a conference room.

A group of people, their heads connected to devices, were having a very intense discussion in encryption.

The attendees were not only politicians and high-ranking officials, but also gang members—

Even behind those holographic screens, familiar logos from advertisements throughout Night City are displayed on the chests of those dressed in suits…

Their core issue was singular: how to deal with a dangerous weapon in the city.

In the scene, the idea of ​​one person taking on a hundred is no longer an illusion.

That powerful fighting style, that precisely functioning prosthetic body—it's a level of sophistication that even the best software engineers in the world couldn't achieve. This isn't human; it's a weapon of unparalleled ingenuity.

The weak cry out in despair, while the strong observe.

The ones making all the noise are always the thugs in Night City who are too busy taking care of themselves; those who truly control the course of events are always a minority.

Mayor Wilton Holt.

The man sitting in the main seat was somewhat overweight. After waking up from the Mewtwo headband, he rubbed his temples, put on his black-rimmed glasses from the table, and let out a deep breath.

The subordinate leaned closer to the man, saying, "More than a dozen companies, including those in biotechnology, support removing this uncontrollable factor from Night City—"

Wilton stood up and gestured to interrupt his subordinate.

"where are they?"

What doesn't match his physique are his sharp eyes.

The subordinate nodded. "Arasaka hasn't commented; they're the ones who leaked this information, so they can't really clean up their mess. They haven't commented on military technology either. The Night Clan is doing what we say. As for Peizhuo Petrochemical… well, they said if this year's tax issue can't be resolved, then…"

That's all for this.

“Hmm…” Wilton nodded, though he was far from as calm as he appeared.

So this busy man lit a cigar, stood by the aquarium-themed viewing wall, and watched the fish swim inside…

Those agile and delicate tropical fish are the result of a great deal of biotechnology.

However, just as he was squinting and smoking in thought, an unidentified silvery-white sea fish emerged from the side, its fangs seemingly clearly visible!
The harmonious school of fish was instantly shattered, leaving behind a cloud of blood mist that gradually faded in the water, with some debris slowly falling to the bottom of the tank…

Only the face outside the jar, its eyes squinting, shrouded in a layer of misty, cold light, remained.

……

……

　Wilton Holt, Lucius Lane's successor and the current mayor of Night City. Holt is a seasoned politician who had coveted the mayoral position for years before taking over the office from the unfortunate Lane. Holt knows exactly which connections in the city can be used and which should be left to the corporations. Like his predecessor, Wilton Holt not only made deals with corporate executives but also didn't mind giving them some benefits, such as substantial tax cuts. Of course, doing so would greatly damage his political reputation, but he firmly believed that this was the way things were done in Night City.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)