Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 405 The Emperor (Part 8) [5K]

"My biggest wish is that you can wait for me."

Rebecca sat on a concrete block beside the Westbrook River embankment, swinging her little feet, and said those words to herself.

There's nothing more pleasant than strolling through the streets of Japan with someone you care about and enjoying the scenery.

She braced her colorful hands behind her back and greedily inhaled the air through her nose.

The faint scent of tobacco and the subtle smell of laundry detergent that a boy might have made her feel at ease.

"It's getting late."

That guy always spoils the mood like that.

Rebecca opened her eyes and glanced at the person beside her who was staring at her with a smile on their lips, looking at her with displeasure.

"Trying to cheat, huh?"

“We agreed at the company that I would leave whenever I said I would…really.”

That hand gave Rebecca's head a quick, unceremonious ruffle.

"Hey, what are you going to do next?"

Rebecca, with her hands in her jacket pockets, asked the question seemingly out of boredom, but in reality, she wanted to know if he would soften and take her shopping again if she persisted.

"Of course, we should make our company successful!"

The blurry figure flicked away the cigarette butt in his hand, speaking casually, and casually showed Rebecca his prosthetic body, all top-quality stuff…

Rebecca, who had her distinctively personal hands in her pockets, couldn't help but clench them tightly.

Stroking the slightly rough structure of the gorilla's palm, I couldn't help but feel a little ashamed.

"I think I need to upgrade my prosthetic body too—"

"Of course, I'm tired of seeing this color on your arms too... Without us protecting you, you might get beaten to a pulp by the company one day!"

Rebecca smiled smugly, while the man remained silent.

The cheerful smile began to crumble, then looked forced and faded away.

Rebecca slowly lowered her head, her toes silently drawing arcs on the ground.

"We can't help you anymore, right?"

The screen began to tear—

Rebecca suddenly raised her head and shouted fiercely, "How could this be? How can you manage alone? Have you forgotten the days we worked together in Dogtown? You can't afford the prosthetic body, and you're too weak. Even the prosthetic veterinarian doesn't think highly of you..."

"I can help you!"

Wow!

Between reality and illusion, Rebecca's wide eyes saw that unreachable figure speak.

“Rebecca, you are destined not to be like me.”

"People are born with differences."

Rebecca's expression changed drastically, like a roaring little lion.

"Stop talking nonsense and stop lying!"

A faint sound and a muffled groan of pain came from the dim, azure-green layer as a needle pierced the body…

Rebecca casually tossed the needle aside, the high-hardness plastic syringe making a sound similar to glass as it hit the ground.

Immediately afterwards…

She raised the iron gun in her hand, pointing it at her brother Pila and Jack Wells!

Bang!
This series of actions gave no one time to react. The Octant was shaken by the immense power of the Ironclad, and the bullets that grazed the two men caused Pira's mohawk to swing wildly...

Rebecca then tossed the azure helmet in her hand in a discus-throwing motion.

As Jack and Pira stared in disbelief, Octant flew backward as if hit by a cannonball, tumbling across the ground before transforming into a fireball…

"Hold…"

Rebecca laughed and shook her head helplessly.

"Pila, stop being so useless, okay?"

Pila paused for a moment, then jumped up and started cursing.

"You heartless bastard! You're wasting your time here. Once you run out of immunosuppressants, you're finished!"

Jack stepped forward and placed his hand on Rebecca's shoulder, without the slightest fear or timidity... because he recognized that the person standing in front of them was the Rebecca he knew.

"How's it going, sis?"

Rebecca turned her head and spat out a mouthful of blood.

"There's no time left, we need to keep up. You heard what Rin said about the limited time we have."

As they spoke, a tremor and the roar of airplanes echoed from above the Azure Sky Building. The sound of machine guns made all other sounds inaudible. The three watched helplessly as things began to fall from above.

Those were... corpses!

Jack's Adam's apple bobbed as he saw the still-burning crimson niches around the Azure Building, the red so intense it seemed to drip...

He couldn't help but think of Misty.

Could it be that what Misty said...

Jack shook his head and quickly suppressed the thought.

"Let's go, guys!"

Rebecca made good use of her brief moment of lucidity, preparing to use herself as a battering ram to storm the Azure Tower. "You all know what that sex doll said, there are a few Arasakas hiding inside the Azure Tower... French ones."

"What a lousy place, never heard of it."

Rebecca nimbly flipped off the counter, and the group headed towards the elevator.

……

"What exactly happened?"

Falco felt that his room was about to be stormed by the Arasaka soldiers outside at any moment. He was anxious as he watched the Arasaka soldiers patrolling outside randomly kick open the doors of the guest rooms. It was only a matter of time before they found their way to him.

Qiwei could hear Falco's urging, and could only let the crew-cut guy break through from the front of the Azure Building.

Soon, the crew-cut guy, disguised by optical camouflage, broke into the hacker room of Arasakako Network.

At this critical juncture, Arasaka had already sent people to strengthen the maintenance of the subnet, which meant that Qiwei had to control Xiaopingtou to eliminate these troublesome hackers.

Technically, this is not difficult to achieve.

However, the hacker's disconnection will attract the attention of the hackers inside the Arasaka Tower at any time. Controlling the short-haired Qiwei will only have a very short time to search the floors. She might even have her brain burned out by the Arasaka hackers without her knowing!

Now that things had come to this, Qiwei showed no hesitation whatsoever.

Resembling a giant spider, the flat-topped machine crawled from a blind spot in the surveillance system, all the way from under the pipe shaft to the hacker chair. This agile machine can crawl in zero gravity and can even hang upside down from the ceiling without any problem.

With just a little effort, the thing crawled onto the hacker's face like a facehugger from a horror movie.

Once a hacker is inside the network, they are completely unaware of what's happening outside...

The moment the short-haired hacker connected his phone, the hacker trembled and went offline, puffs of burnt black smoke billowing from his head.

All the hackers below were eliminated in the same way. The flat-headed guy was very good at hacking, but when Qiwei was focused on controlling the flat-headed guy, another signal locked onto Qiwei's location.

no doubt…

That was a TBUG that was set up from the very beginning.

Because TBUG had a license code for military technology, the connection between Xiaopingtou and Qiwei quickly became unstable.

Qiwei immediately became extremely vigilant upon realizing the extremely aggressive cyberattack methods employed by the manipulator with the short haircut; he was clearly someone who had taken many lives online.

The subnet of the Azure Sky Building began to unfold. Qi Wei, with program packages surfacing around her, stared blankly at the empty space, seemingly not very focused...

However, when the data attack from the pitch-black void appeared beside Qiwei like a venomous snake...

Behind the data, a smug, sinister smile curled at the corner of someone's mouth.

Qi Wei's eyes never seemed to show much emotion; she simply watched helplessly as the venomous data shattered her virtual image. The person behind her seemed somewhat suspicious as they watched Qi Wei crumble like a mirror.

With her command port fully exposed, all that's needed is one final step for her to gain control of the military-grade spy robot.

After the military technology authorization code was read, TBUG indeed saw the flat-top's operating interface. Relieved, she assumed that the chaos around her was caused by Arasaka's attempt to capture that spy.

At this moment, following Dexter's instructions, she prepared to use the crew cut to negotiate with two merchants. The crew cut was currently in the hands of another mercenary hired by Dexter.

"I got the buzz cut back. Protect Relic well, or we're all doomed if it's lost!"

The burly man on the other end simply gave a soft "hmm".

TBUG, who has never liked communicating with people, was naturally happy to see the other person remain silent...

At this moment, the big man gradually put down his phone, sat upright on the sofa, and his face was deathly pale.

A creature with bloodshot eyes, a hairless head covered in surgical scars, stood before the man. It had no hands, only two sharp blades protruding from its palms.

This also means that he was a madman who was just an experiment.

A golden prosthetic arm patted the burly man's shoulder from behind, its tone as casual as if in a conversation. "Bien joué. Il est temps de partir pour le paradis. (Well done. Time to go to heaven.)"

The burly man's lips moved, "No, please—"

His mouth was covered with a handkerchief, and the madman's two modified mantis knives were plunged into the big man's stomach, stirring incessantly until he breathed his last.

"Good dog."

The man glanced at the handkerchief in his hand with disdain, then smiled and praised the experimenter who seemed like a cyber madman.

He then picked up the box that was soaking in the bathtub filled with ice, saying, "We have to go, lest those guests come looking for us."

Cyber ​​Madman, who was usually known as a good dog, was not very obedient this time. He just kept staring out the window. Even the man was getting a little impatient. Cyber ​​Madman was a little frightened by the man's authority, but he still kept staring outside.

"Tsk..."

"what happened again?"

Just as the man walked towards the window, a man with a sniper rifle on his black chrome-plated arm stood tall on the side of the openwork structure, aiming at the target that was about to appear.

However, he was completely covered by optical camouflage...

call out--

Boom!
The bulletproof glass trembled violently, the man's pupils contracted, and the hand holding the suitcase was instantly snatched away by a bullet.

That's because he subconsciously lifted the box to block it.

"The dogs in Arakawa aren't as fearless as I thought."

The man turned the cigar he was holding toward his lips.

With a shot from his claw gun, he shattered the glass of the room, and Sianwistan, leaving a trail of afterimages, began moving along the steel cable towards the opposite room.

The cyber madman pounced out like a ferocious tiger.

Morgan Blackhand stomped on the guy's face, landing in a cowboy-like manner, and then fired a black submachine gun at him, sending the guy staggering backward.

However, before the Arasaka test subject could recover from the recoil of the gun, Morgan's black hand was already right in front of him.

"I said decades ago that your kind of flawed thing is completely uncontrollable and unusable."

"Are you curious?"

Morgan Blackhand's blade sliced ​​across the man's throat, spraying out milky-white prosthetic fluid, which then slumped limply to the ground.

This is not finished.

The guy wasn't truly dead until Morgan emptied the bullets.

In that limited space, the French-speaking man, carrying a suitcase, ran out, leaving a long trail of blood on the ground.

Morgan Blackhand helplessly spread his palms.

"I should have wasted my time on the top floor. I wonder what that guy is like now. I really want to know what it's like to be the number one lone wolf in Night City."

……

"Minister, there are many unauthorized Arasaka signals within Konpaku!"

Having just received Lai Xuan's instructions, V held the gun in one hand and checked the magazine capacity. All her subordinates were waiting for her, the minister, to give her final instructions.

V naturally knew that those were Saburo's followers.

After glancing at Lai Xuan's warning countdown, her most important task right now was to accurately identify the key to breaking the deadlock in this chaotic situation.

She also needs to contribute to the Relic chip, and now is the time to do so. According to the quirky girl under Rin's command, there are some Frenchmen from Arasaka secretly trying to get their hands on the chip.

I just don't know if these people have found the chip yet...

Because of his legal status as an Arasaka, it's actually quite possible for him to sneak out.

"Anyone not belonging to Night City's signal must disarm. If they do not act in accordance with the instructions, they will be treated as enemies."

Harry, who was in the Arakawa Channel, was startled.

"Is it really okay to do this, boss?"

V obviously can't care about all that.

Still dragging it out—

Then we'll really have to wait until Arasaka's aircraft carrier razes this place to the ground before we regret it.

V's prestige within the Arasaka counterintelligence department was beyond question, and soon everyone sprang into action. V tried to contact Lin Yue, but the channel where he could hear Lin Yue speaking just moments before was now silent.

She learned from her subordinates that Arasaka's old, immortal ninjas from Tokyo had come to Night City.

However, V showed no intention of going to provide support.

Since Rin dared to appear and execute Saburo, it proves that he just needed to buy time. The best outcome V could achieve was to keep the Relic chip firmly in his own hands.

However, the order had only been issued for a short time.

V and his men encountered the Arasaka elite force that was conducting a search; these were all men brought by Saburo.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Put your hands up, quick!"

Those elite troops were very well-equipped, after all, they were from the Tokyo headquarters. If they were to engage in close combat, V's side might suffer a great loss. Even though she had the advantage in numbers, she dared not be careless.

The counterintelligence soldiers were even more nervous.

They couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines as they watched V, the first person to step forward. It was no exaggeration to say that if anyone made even the slightest noise, this place would instantly turn into a burning oil drum.

V signaled his soldiers to put down their guns, but the elite squad from Tokyo on the other side was clearly not letting their guard down.

"Night City Counterintelligence Department V".

"To assist in the investigation of the leak of internal information from Arasaka... and the assassination attempt on Lord Arasaka."

The elite soldiers showed no respect whatsoever to V, whose rank was several levels higher than theirs. "This is none of your branch's business. Withdraw now!"

The soldier's voice came from beneath his bulletproof mask, sounding somewhat muffled.

V thought to himself, "That old bastard Saburo Arasaka really armed his personal guards to the teeth. You know, it was Hammer who led these elite soldiers, practically raised on money, to save Arasaka from the design of military technology during the Fourth Company War."

"Hmm? Are you sure you guys from Tokyo have the authority to order our headquarters to retreat?"

V wants to go even further.

The soldiers were clearly more nervous.

"Back off!"

As the soldiers began to subtly move forward, the chill in her eyes grew stronger.

"okok..."

V seemed to have given in first, standing still with his hands raised.

The soldiers approached V in a defensive formation. The lead soldier tried to push V back with the butt of his rifle, but as soon as the gun touched V, V's prosthetic arm, inlaid with gold patterns, grabbed the soldier's gun muzzle.

The soldier's back felt icy cold—

"You're the fucking hacker!"

The moment the shout came out, the signature red-eyed hacker light in V's eyes caused the nearest guys to have their prosthetic eyes shut off in a swift crack!
This is actually Lin Yue's hacking talent in terms of "proximate propagation" and "collateral infection"...

However, this was not the limit for V, who was overclocking her brain. Synaptic melting, a ruthless and rapid cracking technique, was applied to the brains of everyone in a world where time seemed to stand still... until the RAM was exhausted. By then, V had infected at least seven or eight people with the rapid cracking technique.

The control panel in the V-shaped view is closed.

“Sizzle!!”

A pungent, acrid smell of burning flesh filled the air, along with the soldiers' cries of agony!
The soldier in front of V looked up, his eyes rapidly consumed by flames, like a ghost knight about to fall into hell... He wailed silently, only orange flames coming out of his mouth.

"Fire!"

V's men were not oblivious to the situation; they began firing their guns as soon as V's actions showed initial success.

Even the most elite troops would find it difficult to resist such a direct attack. Not to mention the soldiers who could still run or activate their prosthetics to find cover, the soldiers whose prosthetic eyes hadn't finished closing died a pathetic death. These were all elite soldiers, yet they could only be pierced through by unskilled killing methods.

In the very first moment of close combat, V caught the arrogant guys in Tokyo completely off guard and taught them a lesson they shouldn't have.

V kicked aside the corpse at her feet, and she could see that her subordinates around her were somewhat panicked—

In the past, the Night City branch would never have dared to touch these guys from Tokyo, but now, in their eyes, this is basically tantamount to betrayal.

Nothing happened here.

"If you don't want to be kicked out of the company, then get rid of anyone who threatens you... Arasaka has been replaced, that's a fact. If you can't see the situation clearly, you're going to be finished sooner or later!"

"What, is this the kind of principle Jenkins taught you?

Looking around at the soldiers, V glanced meaningfully at the passageway to the lower level.

as predicted…

The soldiers raised their guns again, their faces no longer showing any fear.

……

……

(End of this chapter)