Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 523 The Pursuit!

Warsaw is now a world of white snow.

A crow flapped its wings, sending glittering snowflakes swirling wildly across the air. The entire street was silent, save for the snow engulfing the melodious voice of a distant holographic songstress—

This area has been sealed off. Please leave as soon as possible. Any consequences arising therefrom will be handled in accordance with the relevant agreements between Arasaka and Warsaw, and no compensation will be provided.

The streetlights displayed blood-red holographic notifications, reflected in the black eyes of a raven preening its feathers above. Below, the snowdrifts rose and fell, revealing upon closer inspection densely packed, snow-covered limbs and severed limbs, with sparks occasionally emanating from the broken wires and flesh…

"Fuck...fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

"Too late!"

Vladimir clutched his hair, seemingly expressing his fear with anger; the icy shell of prosthetic spinal fluid and blood solidified made his skull throb.

The man crouching on the ground let out a long breath, and behind him came the rustling sounds of two hackers walking and observing—

"It was locked down half an hour ago, so it has nothing to do with you... Besides, this isn't the area we're going to, right?"

Lucy was smoking, looking every bit the professional assassin. I wondered if she was cold in the winter. She was still dressed in her usual black and white customer service attire from Night City, except now she had a black jacket with the lightning bolt logo of the poor medical aid company where David's mother used to work—a gift from David.

Vladimir glared at Lucy, then realized that he couldn't really blame them or the mysterious boss, so he stood up helplessly.

"They're like wild beasts, just like Siberian bears... After winter, before the snow has melted... This is what a starving black bear looks like when it breaks into a villager's house."

Sasha's ACPA function barely activated trace analysis, with fluorescent green indicator lines everywhere. The cause of these corpses was, without exception, an extremely simple force.

Tearing, smashing, every punch landing hard.

Is this how Heavy Hammer fights...?
My impression of them has changed.

"The boss said that after the explosion, all that was left was the head. Was it a genetic clone?"

"This doesn't seem like his style at all... It's really strange. I thought this guy was really—never mind."

Sasha glanced at Vladimir. There were some things he shouldn't have heard, even if it was very likely that the Gilafa Corporation was on Rin's whitelist.

As Vladimir listened to the discussion between the two hackers behind him, his anger gradually rose. It wasn't out of displaced anger, but rather a feeling that he had to vent.

"Fuck your mother, Arasaka!"

Lucy and Sasha were discussing whether to head to the next area when they heard the roar echoing through the street.

Lucy paused for a moment, glanced at Sasha, then walked up behind Vladimir, a cigarette dangling from her lips, and patted him on the shoulder.

They hadn't expected Vladimir to be this angry.

“People are always easily swayed. I thought you were using some kind of relationship.” Lucy continued absentmindedly, “It has to be a place like this, completely controlled by a company… It’s rotten to the core, each place is rotten in its own way, but for such a horrific massacre to happen under the nose of the European Community, they’re probably still saying that North America is the rotten place, right?”

Vladimir said in a low voice, "It's different."

“We’ve never been the same as you… You’re just temporary friends to us. We are a company, that’s true, but we’re here for them.”

"I thought we would back down temporarily, and that Arasaka wouldn't be so ruthless."

Sasha stepped forward, saying, "You underestimate them."

Vladimir stared in astonishment at the girl whose body was slowly beginning to be covered in black substance.

"Human life is the least important thing. Killing them all will solve the problem. The company is more than happy to do that."

Vladimir muttered, "I must get revenge on that son of a bitch!"

Lucy immediately chimed in, "Great. With your projectile-launching system, enhanced tendons, and the added Krenchkov—how do you plan to get the better of that monster that's supposedly a heavy hammer?"

Vladimir had clearly misunderstood.

"Is this all there is to your cooperation? You bring such advanced prosthetics just for the money?"

"Just how damn numb are you guys?!"

Sasha frowned, about to retort angrily.

Lucy stopped her, "This prince from a Grimm's fairy tale, idealism is certainly a good thing, but you can't get fat in a day—Giraf makes a year's worth of money and then gives it all to you to recruit soldiers, then runs over from the Polish, Belarusian, and Soviet borders—"

Then she pointed her pale hand, inlaid with gold patterns, at the corpses. "What were they fighting for?"

"If you can't survive, it's because of money. You all understand these principles, right?"

Vladimir was dumbfounded.

He clearly underestimated the strategic depth of a female agent from Arasaka. She understood the world, had tried to escape it, and that's why she believed Rin's words so readily…

Some things cannot be obtained through legitimate means, and sacrifices are inevitable.

"You bought their lives with money, and when they can't survive, they won't consider the Warsaw City Hall or who's the puppet ruler of this country..."

Sasha raised her chin and pointed to the black tower at the end of the neon lights. "It won't count until it falls down."

Then the cat-like girl smiled and stared at him, "And you? Are you confident you can defeat them?"

Vladimir is no little brat.

He couldn't bring himself to say such things... Arasaka was unshakeable, at least to Gilafa, Arasaka's army was no pushover...

"bring it on."

Lucy nudged Vladimir's shoulder.

"The city's public systems are locked. No one except us hackers knows what information is circulating. Seeing is believing, which is no longer relevant in this day and age—let's look for clues, cute little cat?"

Sasha gritted her teeth.

"Don't call me that!"

Lucy waved and walked away first, a cigarette still between her fingers; she loved these adorable children.

"Okay, little kitty~"

Sasha puffed out her cheeks, clenched her fists, and walked forward.

Lucy took a couple of steps and looked at Vladimir, who was standing there dumbfounded, and asked in confusion, "Trying to run away? Or don't you want to come with us to investigate that guy's clues first, and also trace the source of that malicious program, Black Wall?"

"If we run... that distance at the monomolecular line is deadly."

Vladimir seems to have switched to another personality—

"Hehehe, don't be like that, dear sister, I'm just thinking... um, yes, thinking about life."

Sasha raised his fist.

"So you think it's a major blow? What a pity. If the network didn't have the Arasaka hacker, we could easily find a camera and hack the footage, then we could compare the results."

Lucy chuckled. "Do you know what I was thinking about?"

Vladimir listened intently the whole time and discovered that the two people showed absolutely no fear of the heavy hammer... as if the person behind them could really take down the cybernetic monster.

Is that the guy at the bar who hasn't undergone any modifications?

No way...

"what?"

Sasha blinked, her face innocent.

Lucy exhaled a puff of smoke and hot air into the sky. "Space prosthetics, who knows what new things they might have put on it for that monster? After all, Hammer only needs a human brain, so they can do whatever is convenient for them... Have they forgotten about what's on you?"

Thinking about it this way...

It really is.

If Rin's combat power weren't so abnormally high, this ninja would have been able to kill Takemura and escape unscathed. The more she used this weapon, the more she realized how terrifying technically skilled people like Hanako and Michiko were.

"It seems like everyone on this street has been killed. There's no need to go into those closed shops either; Arasaka won't leave any survivors."

Lucy knew her father very well.

He could even regard his own flesh and blood as external objects, let alone the citizens of Night City who witnessed the carnage caused by the heavy hammer.

"It will become more perverse, more bloodthirsty, and more like a wild beast."

Lucy's tone was somber.

A chill ran down their spines...

Lucy then changed the subject, "However! If we're wrong, we'll have to teach this guy a lesson..."

Vladimir's face stiffened, but he hadn't spoken yet.

Lucy's face suddenly turned icy, and the monomolecular wire in her hand swirled wildly around her like a venomous snake that had come to life.

"I go!"

"Dog?"

Vladimir thought it was aimed at him and immediately tried to retreat.

However, Lucy sensed the afterimages of snow raging from all directions; it was definitely the Arasaka ninja…

Ding!
When a single molecule is subjected to force and collides with a metal, it emits a sound that feels like metal!

Lucy's hair flew wildly, her hands were crossed, and her face turned fierce. At that moment, someone holding a knife was surrounded by monomolecular lines in a whirlwind!
Then he pulled hard!
Crash! The thing tightly wrapped around the ninja's arm was immediately shredded into pieces of prosthetic body parts!

"Hold!"

Sasha's reaction was no less impressive.

The snow at our feet was instantly pushed away by the enormous force!

He then used one arm to shield his forehead and captured the ninja's afterimage's path.

The two who collided violently were clearly at a disadvantage, with the masked guy, Arakasaka, immediately pulling out a kunai from the side of his chest, even with his sternum broken and the pain editor running, ready to deliver a fatal blow to Sasha's neck!
"Arasaka Ninja, an old rival—"

Sasha's body sank down, and a force powerful enough to pierce through a steel plate caused the guy's back to bulge out sharply, and then two pieces of metal spine burst out!
"Ho!"

There are two more.

Lucy's voice came through at that moment, "Kill them all. We'll be in trouble once they find out about us. Takeda will recognize us!"

"Received, meow!"

Sasha chewed bubble gum inside her helmet, which was still showing signs of damage, and dodged a man who attacked her from behind with a quick turn. Then, Sianwistan let out a whoosh, causing the expression on the face of the Arasaka ninja under his reflective mask to change drastically!
"Isn't this a prosthetic body?"

No one could tell him the answer.

The helmet shattered into dust upon impact with the elbow covered in special flowing metal, each fragment reflecting Sasha's blood-red ACPA electronic eye, along with bits of flesh and bone...

The man, who tumbled dozens of times in mid-air, suffered severe head and spine dislocation and died on the spot.

Three…

Poor Vladimir, his prosthetic eye only caught the speed of the ninja's end, while that guy was announcing his execution "book".

“Pavel Vladimir, Arasaka is not a place you can cause trouble for.”

The blade grew larger in Vladimir's eyes. That thing... it shouldn't hurt, right?

"What the hell are you blabbering about?"

Sasha's figure appeared like a picture suddenly inserted into the scene. She kicked the guy away, and a rapid burst of energy caused his entire body to become chaotic, with black smoke already billowing from under his helmet...

Silence returned.

Only Sasha's satisfied exhale could be heard...

Vladimir's face rapidly shifted from calm to pure terror. "This is a hacker?!"

“Hacker, huh…” Sasha’s mechanical hand bone made a cracking sound like a firecracker. “Uploading programs at crucial moments, yes, that’s it.”

Vladimir's jaw nearly dropped to the ground.

Who exactly is that ordinary guy in the bar with the bright look in his eyes?
How come he's never heard of these monsters?

Could this be someone from military technology or Kangtao?

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Vladimir was alright. Rin was more cautious; Vladimir couldn't die before things were confirmed.

"Alright, stop being so cheeky."

Lucy picked up the ninjas' swords; they were all nice items and could be used as decorations in her bedroom.

She actually quite likes knives.

However, before Sasha could finish speaking, her malfunctioning system locked onto a tall building—

"There's someone else!"

As they spoke, Sasha had already dashed off like a machine.

"Don't!"

As Lucy stretched out her hand, Sasha swirled up snow, which, along with the people running on the high-rise buildings, headed towards the end of the neon lights.

"Can you drive?"

Lucy looked at a sports car that was still running on the side of the road—

Vladimir grinned. "I guarantee you'll be satisfied, ma'am. And my job isn't just to get it moving; I'm their driver!"

The sound of tires screeching broke the tranquility of the street.

"Hey Sasha?!"

Lucy connected to the running girl using the vehicle's computer as a transmission node.

At this moment, only Sasha was breathing heavily; she was relentlessly pursuing him.

"We can't let this guy get away."

Lucy felt a sense of relief. She estimated that the guy's speed was definitely not as fast as Sasha's ACPA. Besides, prosthetics have their limits, and the limits of ACPA are not as unreliable as those of prosthetics.

"Hurry up."

Vladimir didn't engage in any banter; instead, he relentlessly applied the accelerator to the slippery snow, keeping the vehicle consistently stable.
"Rin, we're chasing someone. That guy doesn't know us, but there's no guarantee that Arasaka hasn't found out anything—"

Lucy reported to Rin in her mind using silent mode.

it's necessary.

Rin said that he would be there for any unexpected situation.

"Okay, be careful, I'm online."

"If you encounter a heavy hammer, try to place it in a place with high network density, and the equipment must be able to handle the massive amount of data."

After hanging up the phone, Lucy looked up through the windshield and, without saying a word, asked Vladimir to turn around.

"What?"

Vladimir did it first, then asked questions.

"Taking a shortcut, blocking people's way."

Lucy's answer was concise and to the point.

Vladimir raised his eyebrows. "A local?"

Lucy glanced at Vladimir, who gave her a look that said, "You guys are like ticking time bombs, ready to explode at any moment. I was just asking."

"We need to hurry."

Lucy's expression darkened slightly. "That guy is moving closer to Arasaka Tower. If he connects to the Arasaka Subnet, then..."

Vladimir: "Then what?"

Lucy's answer was concise and powerful.

"The heavy blow will come."

Vladimir's first reaction was to laugh. "You believe me?"

Lucy shook her head. "I don't believe you, but I believe Arasaka... They wish they had ten thousand of these monsters like Heavy Hammer."

Vladimir flicked his nose with his thumb. "Watch out, even if it's a fucking hammer, my driving skills are still top-notch—just so you know, you'd better shield me from some bullets when we get out, that bastard's too fierce."

"Do not."

Lucy's answers always surprised Vladimir just when he was about to be moved.

“We need to retreat. Sasha is to block him. That’s what our boss arranged.”

When he said those words, Vladimir thought the two people who had just been joking were hallucinating...

Why can he be so indifferent?

“Everyone on the team has their own strengths. For certain things, acting on impulse is what he should do—because he has the ability to save everything. We can’t. All we need to do is do what he asks us to do, which is the best help we can give him.”

Vladimir had absolutely no idea what was so special about the guy with the gleaming eyes in the bar.

What the hell kind of brainwashing organization is this?

"The 'he' you're referring to, is it one of the very strong... men among you?"

Lucy nodded without hesitation.

"Yes, very strong!"

As Vladimir glanced back at the road, her eyes were unwavering, and she repeated herself in a tone that looked down on everyone.

"Always...very strong!"

"Keep chasing, don't be afraid."

Vladimir took a deep breath and exclaimed, "Damn! I knew cooperating with you guys who risk your lives would be the right thing to do. I fucking love this kind of thing!"

……

……

(End of this chapter)