Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 399 The Emperor (Part Two) [5.3K]

"Enemy attack!"

Takemura's eyes instantly turned bloodshot, and his head began to buzz.

He had imagined a thousand ways for Emperor Arasaka to die, but he never expected to be strangled to death by a thug disguised as Arasaka Yorinobu in Arasaka's business... right under his nose.

He served as Saburo Arasaka's bodyguard.

Goro Takemura's fighting prowess is beyond doubt.

At least he could immediately get close to Lin Yue.

Lin Yue immediately activated his Sianweistein, using a gravity field to instantly crush a samurai who attempted to slash him. The sharp blade appeared in his hand, and then Takemura Goro closed in. The clash of swords, accompanied by a buzzing sound, sent the two flying away...

Zhucun's face was gloomy.

This guy is practically a machine...

Speaking of fighting.

That day at the NCX spaceport, Michiko Arasaka was rescued by Goro, but she did not engage in direct combat with Lin Yue. This was the first time Takemura had witnessed Lin Yue's extraordinary strength.

No wonder a few scattered soldiers were able to break through the defenses, causing so many soldiers and agents to pay the price.

Of course, Lin Yue back then was nowhere near as powerful as he is now; in other words…

Goro Takemura was no match for Lin Yue.

Saburo Arasaka sent this loyal samurai away, probably because he didn't want Lin Yue to kill one more person.

Lin Yue found it difficult to evaluate Goro Takemura.

Arakasa has kept him for so long that Takemura Goro can only numb himself and stop thinking about whether these things are morally or ethically sound—it seems that Takemura should still choose to be loyal to Arakasa Saburo.

Lin Yue raised his finger, and the flippant movement of a single finger undoubtedly stimulated Takemura Goro's nerves.

Just as Takemura was about to launch another fierce attack, Lin Yue no longer wanted to give him that chance. Takemura Goro also had no intention of taking the man's life... This was not out of mercy, but because Lin Yue knew that Takemura actually did not approve of Saburo's actions.

Lin Yue still needed to keep a hand on those who didn't support Sanlang's actions.

But if he wanted to escape unscathed, he had to instill fear in the soldiers of Arasaka.

At this moment, Takemura's body began to tremble slightly, a state caused by an overproduction of adrenaline due to extreme anger.

"That little pistol was pointed at the person you were supposed to be pointing it at, wasn't it, Takemura?"

Takemura felt as if he had been doused with a bucket of cold water. Before he could react, neat cracks began to appear around him, centered on himself. Although the top floor of the Gumbi Building was constructed with the highest safety standards, Lin Yue had already pushed the power of the gravity generation field to its limit.

"asshole!"

The roar of Zhucun was accompanied by the collapse of the floorboards, and his entire body disappeared suddenly in a cloud of dust with a heavy impact sound!
The dense barrage of bullets fired from the gun barrels around him did not cause the slightest change in Lin Yue's expression. On the contrary, he simply walked around as if he were walking, watching the bullets twist and turn in the air as they flew past his side.

His toes scraped against the ground, making a sound, and he charged forward like a cheetah.

The soldier's mask reflected the man's crimson and pale blue pupils.

"Sanlang's people..."

“Killing one means one less.”

Boom!
The soldier was like a tattered sack. You should know that the armor of the elite Arasaka soldiers was not to be underestimated. Bullets could hardly cause any scratches on it. However, under Lin Yue's heavy punch, a dent the size of a head was smashed into it.

"Hold!"

The elite squad of Arasaka had never seen such a monster before. Compared to Heavy Hammer, this guy was obviously faster and more ruthless.

If this guy hadn't had normal conversations with Takemura, the soldiers would have thought he was a complete cyber lunatic!
"No! No—"

Lin Yue raised his blade, and the soldier whose neck was restrained received the most swift and decisive throat-slitting amidst screams and fear.

Soon, all the soldiers cleaning the lower levels of Arasaka were drawn up by the terrifying news from the upper levels.

"Lord Arakasaka has been killed?!"

Lin Yue's simple and effective killing methods quickly made even those Arasaka ninjas, who had activated their Sianweistan or possessed extremely high reaction speeds, start to consider quitting. If this continued, they could only watch as this cybernetic body, which seemed to have no cooldown time, slaughtered them all.

In fact, Lin Yue's current goal, besides relieving the pressure on the lower floors of the Ganbi Building, is more about buying time for the team.

Relic samples are unusable or cannot be lost. The best outcome is to make Relic an open secret, with the aim of inciting public outrage. Even if companies want to forcefully push this product forward, they have to consider the backlash from the public.

The worst-case scenario is that Relic should not be allowed to return to Saburo Arasaka or his staff.

Thinking about this…

Lin Yue felt helpless.

He underestimated the impact of certain factors on the overall outcome.

Relic's whereabouts were likely betrayed by an unknown third party, so all Lin Yue had to do was buy the team enough time on the top floor of the Ganbi Building so that the team could do their best to find Relic's location.

"Dexter, that idiot who talks nonsense..."

The story of a lowly soldier causing the downfall of a kingdom now seems to be more than just a fable.

Dexter did something that caused Relic's secret to be leaked. If the company were to seize the secret, the whole thing would be ruined, and there would just be one more Arasaka in the world.

On the top floor of the Azure Sky Tower, Lin Yue watched as more and more soldiers poured in. The entire building was beyond recognition from gunfire and cybernetic attacks. He threw away the already chipped steel knife in his hand, his fists exhaling hot breath, his eyes burning with fervor—

"Come."

Lin Yue's words consisted of only this one word.

……

lower level.

At this time, the Gumpi Building was undergoing a catastrophe.

This property that Arakasa was so proud of had gone through so many events, and now, with the highest authority of Arakasa dying on the top floor of the Konpaku Building, this place of extravagance representing money and power was about to become history.

After all, no one would dare stay in a hotel where even an emperor who lived to be over a hundred years old could be killed.

"Sasha?!"

Suzuki glanced at the time and realized that Sasha had already been held up by the hackers of the Arakasa website. In desperation, he tried to contact Qiwei. Ten minutes had passed since Qiwei revealed that Dexter's people couldn't find the Relic chip, and where that thing was now was a big problem.

Even so, Suzuki remained by his side.

He knew his task and responsibility.

Immediately afterwards——

The lights in the entire Glamour Building quickly dimmed.

The piercing alarm made Suzuki feel inexplicably tense. Then, he tentatively looked at the contents of the subnet, and his expression suddenly changed drastically!

Saburo Arasaka…

He died inside the Glamour Building?
The hackers on Arasaka's network, in complete chaos, swarmed in like madmen. Sasha's body began to convulse violently. Knowing he couldn't hesitate any longer, Suzuki hurriedly reached out and ripped the human-computer interaction cable from the girl's hand. As the cable snapped—

Sasha's laptop began to overload rapidly, immediately emitting the sound of short-circuiting arcs and explosions, followed by flames emerging from the black smoke.

Fortunately, Suzuki had kicked the laptop off Sasha's lap beforehand...

The girl pursed her lips, her face deathly pale. Suzuki tentatively glanced at the brain-computer interface log; the Arasaka hacker's counterattack was far more powerful than he had imagined. She wasn't injured, just overloaded—

After all, the network access device around her neck is the same one Rin wears, so it's enough to deal with Arasaka.

A few minutes later, Sasha slowly woke up. Through her blurry vision, she saw Suzuki's concerned eyes and immediately became half-awake. The first thing she said when she hurriedly grabbed his sleeve was, "Suzuki, Saburo Arasaka is dead."

Suzuki: "Ah... I know."

Looking at Suzuki's serious face, Sasha knew that this guy didn't know the whole story—

"certainly not!"

"cold…"

"It was Rin! He killed Saburo Arasaka!"

Suzuki swayed and almost lost his balance.

"It's not Arasaka Yorinobu..."

Half the story.

Looking at Sasha's serious and certain expression, Suzuki knew that Lin Yue had used his behavioral characteristics to commit an act no less serious than assassinating the emperor. More importantly... if the emperor were really dead, Arasaka would definitely bite people like a mad dog!
"It's too late, we have to go!"

Suzuki immediately got up and tried to pull Sasha along the retreat route, but Sasha stubbornly reached out her hand.

"My task is to ensure your safe execution; the current situation is beyond our control."

"No, it's not."

Sasha quickly explained that Lin Yue was currently attacking a large number of Arasaka's combat teams, and that Sasha wanted to rush up the Azure Building with Suzuki to find Relic's whereabouts.

Suzuki stared intently at Sasha, seemingly considering whether or not he should do it.

"Alright, we'll search for as long as Lord Rin holds on."

Where is Qiwei?

At this point, Sasha's expression seemed less serious. "It was the Arasaka counterintelligence department that surrounded that place. They want to arrest that traitor within Arasaka. Ms. V is leading the team... No need to worry."

Upon hearing that it was V.

Suzuki's heavy heart gradually calmed down.

"Let me make this clear, Miss Sasha: once we have evidence that Relic is not in the Azure Building, we must leave. We can't let Lord Rin's actions be hindered, understand?"

Sasha nodded emphatically.

“I collected the parameters of that thing under infrared sensing within the subnet. As long as the chip has not been removed from the biological preservation container, we should be able to know whether it is still in the Azure Building.”

"But now the subnet can only download data from outside; all the ways to get in have been blocked by Arasaka's hackers."

The two of them, one after the other, ascended into the still-open emergency elevator. ...

Gunshots and heavy explosions echoed everywhere outside. Falco stood with his gun raised, leaning against the dark doorway.

Qiwei was in the bathroom at that moment.

She took over the crew-cut guy and forcibly took control of him while he was searching for the mole in Arasaka. The Relic chip is also the target she is currently looking for.

Falco had no choice but to remain on guard.

Before Qiwei woke up…

There is nothing he can do.

However, Dexter and his gang were indeed as greedy as Rin had said, always thinking about maximizing their profits.

Actually, when Saburo arrived at the Azure Building, the Arasaka unit had another order while searching for the Relic chip: find the "messenger bird" mentioned by the military technology. Although Saburo Arasaka knew the identity of this messenger bird very well, he still received this order.

The person in charge of carrying out the operation was, of course, V, the head of the local counterintelligence department.

It has to be said that Lin Yue's guess was correct. V's series of performances made Saburo think that V was a useful person, and V never had any excessive ulterior motives. Everything he did was to serve Arasaka's interests (on the surface). So, by chance, V became the person that Saburo Arasaka dared to use at this crucial point.

When Dexter's hacker TBUG learned that Arasaka, a high-ranking official named Arthur Jenkins, was a mole within military technology, he immediately packaged the information and sent it to Arasaka.

Little did they know that this was an extremely foolish and self-destructive move.

Arasaka wouldn't go to war over Jenkins and military technology. Of course, it would be fine as a distraction, but at this crucial juncture, the sensitive Arasaka would inevitably react strongly, and Jenkins himself would have to take the blame.

It felt like fate had somehow intervened.

Jenkins did his best, even when he had no other choice but to rebel, he still died as a scapegoat.

In the lower levels of Arakawa, V's mind went completely blank upon seeing the news of Saburo Arakawa's death...

She gritted her teeth, turned her head to look at the team that was about to descend into chaos, and the black pistol in her hand made many of them instinctively shut their mouths.

"He's really good at handling things."

The death of Saburo Arasaka is not as important to V as finding the mole.

Permissions may be revoked at any time.

She still harbored resentment over the incident where a military technology intelligence operative died in the Arasaka interrogation room—

"minister."

The soldiers of the special operations team at the front looked panicked.

"The person... has been found!"

V found it hard to understand the unusual panic on the soldier's face.

Who on earth made their agents look like this...?

He pushed aside the soldiers' brows and walked forward, while the soldiers behind him hesitated to speak, knowing that the orders from above were to execute this traitor on the spot.

V, who rushed into the room, considered everyone, including Michiko's aides, those whose hands weren't exactly clean at the shareholders' meeting, and the one surrounded by soldiers on the sofa in the lavishly furnished room—that must be the mole.

V's face darkened.

Taking two steps at a time, the soldiers began to make way when they saw their superior arrive. V, who had just lifted his foot, froze in place, his face instantly stiffening.

There was only a two- or three-second silence.

V waved his hand, and the soldiers slowly lowered their guns.

Jenkins sat on the sofa with his legs crossed, sipping his bourbon whiskey... Just like every time V came to his office, the silent Jenkins seemed never to reveal his thoughts to outsiders.

He was a successful businessman, but he lived a failed life.

He has no children and doesn't like sports.

“V”.

Jenkins put down his wine glass and stared quietly at the woman in front of him, whose temperament was somewhat similar to his own, but who was younger and sharper.

An almost imperceptible sigh.

In my imagination, the way a company dog ​​would treat its apprentice sternly wouldn't be an interrogation.

"Seeing how surprised I am, you probably didn't check the company's daily attendance records properly. Arasaka sent me to reinforce the defenses of the Konpaku Building, you're too hasty."

V remained silent for a long time.

"I'm sorry, I can't guess what Lai Xuan is thinking."

V actually felt very guilty.

She knew that Jenkins had no protection from the hawks, and that she might not have received the same protection from the doves as Jenkins.

"There's nothing to apologize for, V."

Jenkins smiled. "You may not know this, but when Japan and Abernathy were competing for the position in the Special Operations Department, Saburo Arasaka had already met me... It wasn't because of Rai Nie's coldness, but because I... had higher expectations."

V clearly hadn't expected this.

However, Jenkins' expression began to change. "I have to say, old bastards like Saburo Arasaka use empty promises to make their subordinates fight to the death."

"Clearly, I lost. I died before he fulfilled his promise."

Speaking of which.

Jenkins asked curiously, "I'd like to know what incriminating evidence Arasaka has against me?"

V has absolutely no intention of concealing anything.

He handed the chip in his hand to Jenkins. The charges against him were numerous, and it seemed that Jenkins was just there to take the blame, but there was nothing that could be done about it.

Jenkins suddenly burst out laughing.

He shook his head and slammed the chip in his hand onto the table. "You know what I mean, so get started, V."

Perhaps as his life was about to end, Jenkins just stared at V and thought, "This cannibalistic world should never have existed."

V pursed her lips.

At this moment, she really wanted to say that she was moving towards this goal.

She wanted to share her ideals of realizing her self-worth within the company and her thoughts on the world with her teacher, but... she was destined to only be able to communicate through her eyes.

Looking at V's expression.

Jenkins nodded; he understood V's perspective, and everything else became less important.

Perhaps before death, nothing else matters so much...

V suddenly said, "Saburo Arasaka is dead."

Jenkins initially thought his apprentice was telling some kind of dying joke, but he quickly realized that V was not joking.

However, Jenkins' fate was not affected by Saburo's death.

This is from his own perspective.

The junior in front of me clearly showed his reluctance on his face...

But in order to shut everyone in Arasaka up, V needs to complete this task, otherwise he won't be able to explain many things, and he will still die if Rai Xuan comes to power.

That's where the problem lies.

Human nature doesn't seem to be needed in a company.

Jenkins's death was the key to V gaining a foothold in Arakawa...

"V, I haven't given you a gift, have I?"

V instantly understood what Jenkins meant; she always believed there were other solutions.

"Keep an eye on him and bring him back to Arasaka Tower."

Jenkins smiled meaningfully and took off his watch. "Keep it as a souvenir, hmm? How many of Arasaka's students have killed their teacher?"

V looked at the gold-plated watch in his hand, which looked brand new and was almost indistinguishable from a new one. It was hard to see such a thing these days.

Just as she was carefully examining the watch, Jenkins' expression suddenly changed—

Before V could react, the sound of a head slamming against the glass as it lost its support startled her.

"minister!"

The two soldiers closest to V hurriedly stepped in front of him.

The other two soldiers quickly lifted Jenkins, who had suddenly fainted. His wide-open eyes and the blood gushing from his nostrils were quite striking.

"Damn it, look at me! What are you looking at me for?!"

The soldier glanced at it briefly, then shook his head at V. "Minister, that watch is connected to the bio-controller. Taking it off is suicide."

V was stunned.

She had considered a thousand wicked ways to climb the social ladder, but she never imagined that her first lesson in life would be learning to climb over the corpses of her mentors.

Even knowing that Jenkins was dead wasn't the end of the matter.

The soldiers dragged Jenkins' body away, and V just stared at them, the watch gleaming on his fine leather gloves a souvenir from the Crossroads.

V can even remember the advertising slogan for this product—

Qilusi Crafts, your stepping stone.

……

……

(End of this chapter)