Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 532 The Attack! (Part Two)
"Those bastards from Arakasaka are still so worthless after all these years!"

Morgan seemed to be too difficult to deal with, and only one cybernetic ninja who came out of the multi-party battlefield chose to patiently lie low so that the agents who escaped later could continue the pursuit.

This demonstrates just how deep Arasaka Space Force's infiltration has become in North America.

But now is not the time to think about that.

With a swift turn of the blade, the carriage, made of special steel, was torn open as easily as paper, like a wild beast opening a tempting can of food…

As the prosthetic body grew heavier, Morgan could only hastily pull Rebecca away, but the stowaways lying against the metal sheet were not so lucky.

Wherever the blade struck, limbs were severed, and even the death throes could not be uttered. Some people held their cleanly severed arms, their eyes filled with terror—the weapons were so sharp that their nerves did not even realize that this was a serious injury.

Morgan moved quickly, but he was still cut on his chrome-plated arm by the blade. Beneath the smooth, black prosthetic skin, the bulletproof leather peeled up, and then streams of milky white prosthetic bio-liquid gushed out.

The enemy's meticulous preparations this time were aimed at delivering a fatal blow.

Before the blinding sunlight could fade from everyone's eyes, the intense gunfire outside the vehicle caused the metal body of the carriage to collapse and shred instantly, as if it were made of paper. This frenzied gunfire lasted for several minutes, showing no sign of leaving any survivors!

After all, these Arasaka ninjas were ordered to pull out that damned chip.

Whether the chip's host, Rebecca, is alive or not is not something these people need to consider. For Saburo Arasaka to be resurrected, the data in this chip is the most valuable thing.

"Stop shooting."

The ninja with the knife raised his hand and saw that the tracking system of the train car, now a pile of scrap metal, was locking onto any suspicious moving objects in the environment.

“Morgan Blackhand…the old-fashioned bastard should have died long ago.”

He seemed to be carefully chewing on the name, clearly showing that Saburo Arasaka and his successor Hanako were both skilled at this kind of hate education targeting rival companies.

After all, few company leaders would keep using the term "barbarian" to describe their enemies.

There was no living creature beneath the cover; all that met the eye were glaring images of death and names retrieved from various databases. The cybernetic ninjas who had massacred the checkpoint began to approach, searching for the two men's bodies.

However, it was clear to the naked eye that there were not many cybernetic ninjas at this checkpoint; most of them were heavily armed gunmen. It was obvious that Kang Tao's delaying tactics were very effective.

However, even Kang Tao probably didn't anticipate that the new America would block Morgan Black Hand's prosthetic backdoor so quickly.

The cybernetic ninja walked to the collapsed cargo container and gestured for the hesitant gunman beside him, who was clutching his weapon, to come forward and inspect it. The gunman swallowed hard, mustered his courage, jumped onto the container, and began to pry open the metal sheeting. Soon, various deformed and shattered red and white objects came to light.

For these executioners, this wasn't a particularly terrible scene. But under such intense fire, even if Morgan was in a metal armor, he probably wouldn't have a complete corpse left.
The gunman, who was thinking this, only lost focus for a moment. In the first second after the bullet cleanup, Morgan appeared, sliding and crawling into the toolbox under the truck floor.

The dark hand and the eyes that looked like those of a demon from hell terrified the gunman.

In a single glance, the gunman's body went limp. Using the corpse as cover, Morgan, covered in wounds, looked up and saw prosthetic ninjas rising from his left, right, and rear. Sharp mantis knives materialized from the prosthetic ninjas and flew straight at Morgan, who still used the gunman's corpse as a shield, unleashing a hail of bullets at the gunmen in front of him.

He was powerless to reverse the situation.

Having traveled such a long distance, it is truly remarkable that his prosthetic body has persisted to this point.

Even if the ninja behind him wanted to attack Rebecca, who was lying quietly at his feet, he couldn't do anything more—

"Feel sorry."

Morgan's thigh was covered in wounds, and there was no place on his body without them. The bloodstains had long since made him unrecognizable, and every breath he took was filled with hatred and exhaustion, causing his lungs to burn with pain.

Kill one if you can.

This is the last vestige of dignity for a proud lone wolf.

It seems that Li De, that bastard, didn't choose to get off that damned hovercar during the melee—it seems he held back. Morgan thought he was also questioning whether his life really had any meaning, after all, they were just loyal dogs deceived by lies under the system.

Before death, people seem to reminisce about the things they desperately pursued but could not obtain.

Above Rebecca, the black ninja helmet reflected her face, and her drowsy eyes opened a crack at this crucial moment…

"Rebecca, you can't lie down here!"

Silver Hand stood atop the toolbox, hands on hips, looking down at Rebecca with an anxious expression. His voice, like a call from the depths of her soul, forced Rebecca to awaken.

"Morgan?"

Sensing danger, Krenchkov gave Rebecca a brief opportunity to stop time, which allowed her to observe the current situation.

“What the hell—”

Morgan's swaying body, the prosthetic ninjas about to pounce on him from both sides, and the guy above his head...?

Rebecca's shocked expression instantly turned ferocious!

what happened?
It doesn't matter. What matters is that I can't just lie on the ground like this and wait to die.

The countless training sessions the Dreamer had conducted using the simulated chip for the prosthetic body were now paying off. With almost no need for conscious thought, the prosthetic body was like a heavy cannon ready to fire!

The gorilla's arm structure shifted layer by layer, and as Rebecca's fist extended, the ninja's blade tip pressed against it, piercing through layers of skin. Rebecca's other hand delivered a heavy swing punch, and the black helmet covered by a special substance began to crack. The ninja was flung away like a spinning top that had been whipped.

"Woo——"

The time stop stretched the sound out indefinitely, and despite the throbbing pain in her eardrums, Rebecca did not hesitate to block the surrounding cybernetic ninjas.

These guys are incredibly powerful. When Rebecca's Sianweistein twisted with all its might, the ninja helmet that was thrown off began to slowly emerge with a black, metallic liquid to repair itself. This is what makes this set of ACPA so troublesome.

But she couldn't worry about that now. Rebecca didn't know where her Iron Will was, so she could only grab a weapon from the ground and swing it around like a fire poker. The enemy's time stop was obviously not too bad either.

Seeing Rebecca's attack, Rebecca instinctively blocked with her blade but was thrown back by the monstrous strength of the black wall-like arm. Rebecca did the same to her on the other side.

After completing this series of actions, the time stop suddenly disappeared. Rebecca blinked and let out a long breath. In an instant, the attack, which had almost no blind spots, was neutralized!
"Keep fighting! Dodge!"

Rebecca pulled Morgan backward and jumped off. The red holographic warning line hanging in the air at the checkpoint indicated that it was under attack, which was tantamount to marking the location for the New America pursuers.

Amidst the whistling of bullets, Rebecca and Morgan charged toward the border.

The sentry guns that had been severed suddenly all turned on the two of them and began to unleash a barrage of fire!

The hail of bullets from both sides overwhelmed Morgan, who had lost his prosthetic body. As he ran, he deftly reached behind his head, pulled out a soft wire, and ripped it off.

With his prosthetic eye displaying only glitches and flickering malfunctions, he used the most dangerous method—hardware bypass—to bypass the lock-up.

However, this method of operation undoubtedly increases the risk of brain-computer interface reboot by several degrees.

"arms!"

Rebecca had no idea that Morgan would pull out that brightly colored gun from under his seemingly unconcealable black trench coat.

Just as Rebecca was worrying about how to deal with the sentry gun blocking the way, she immediately understood and caught the weapon in mid-air, delivering a shotgun blast that was enough to shatter the obstacle in front of her into dust!
The chemical and combustion effects of the bullets caused the machine gun, which had been drooping, to sag instantly.

"That guy's prosthetic body is failing!" The ninjas, who could also accurately dodge bullets from behind, roared as they piloted their skin-hugging ACPAs to convey the message to their comrades to launch a fierce attack on Morgan. Of course, Rebecca, upon hearing this, also turned around abruptly.

Morgan showed no panic, but Rebecca's expression immediately hardened.

"That's right, you'll be a legend in the next life."

Morgan's head-turning speed, combined with Sianwistan's afterimage-like movement, was completed in an instant. These extremely difficult-to-eliminate cybernetic ninjas were slowed down by Morgan's two heavily armed Saragatos. The gunmen outside the border, without the support of such cybernetic enhancements, disappeared almost instantly.

Only the sounds of intense explosions and sharp whistling air continued to erupt from ahead.

It's hard to imagine this is a battle between humans...

"Retreat. Border reinforcements are arriving soon. Let those monsters chase after them. Set up defenses in the Free State and cooperate with the orders from above."

The gunmen exchanged a glance and decisively stopped the pursuit, disposing of the body of the man Rebecca had killed.

At that moment, the two who had fled into the new federal state slid down a slope beside the wasteland. Rebecca, having somehow obtained a rusty piece of metal found only in shantytowns, stood on it, while Morgan, leaning back, slid and rushed down from above...

"I mean, how can there not be a car? I kind of miss Falco's driving skills; driving like that is so tiring—"

Rebecca's personality seems to have always been like this.

They're very easygoing; even if the sky were to fall, they'd still curse a few times first.

The dry trees and hardened thorns tore at their movements. After they stopped on a gentle slope, Rebecca was panting and about to answer Morgan when a bullet hit her feet, sounding like a long-range sniper shot.

"damn it!"

Rebecca clearly wanted to cover their retreat.

Morgan, who had just pulled Rebecca into the bunker, shook his head, slightly out of breath. "The things on them are strange. They don't look like prosthetics. Instead, they're like a kind of thin, movable metal film—you should be able to handle one of those, but three would be a stretch."

Rebecca exclaimed, "This is definitely not that Arasaka from Night City!"

Morgan nodded, then gestured for Rebecca to look in front of the bunker…

The weathered rock formations, with uneven hills and no tall vegetation to block the view, lead to a forest at the edge of the gray-white rocks.

Morgan pursed her lips. "Let's go first."

Rebecca's head felt like it had been shaken into a paste when she woke up. She had finally managed to distance herself from those bastards, but she was forced to confront a very frustrating reality.

Morgan's prosthetic body is completely unusable.

“Hey, listen to me—go to the forest, at least there’s cover there, head west… cough, there’s a wanderer I know, try to get to the Free State.”

Rebecca gritted her teeth, almost without thinking, she was about to curse the American man for talking nonsense.

Even though she was dizzy, she knew that this man had carried her through thick and thin with the new American government... It was impossible for Rebecca to give up her friend who had gone through thick and thin with her.

Morgan's voice suddenly turned sharp, "Someone is betting the lives of an entire city on your survival... The chip in your neck is causing your health problems, and that's why he's willing to take the gamble."

"Now... the new America that was supposed to make things better for you has made such a grave mistake... the person who bets on your survival will not let this go!"

At this point, Rebecca froze.

On the night when fires raged all around Taiping Island, she kept asking herself if her life was worthy of being rescued like this.

A short girl in Night City who liked to talk nonsense and swear—nothing special about her. She's dead, so be it.

But... that guy just wouldn't give up on himself.

Rebecca has been burdened with something called a hope, and that's the most dangerous thing of all.

She has to consider the consequences.

At least we have to be worthy of Lin Yue…

In this critical moment, Rebecca, who is usually unreasonable and unwilling to accept rational solutions, unexpectedly fell silent.

"Walk."

Morgan pushed away Rebecca's hand that she wanted to put on his shoulder. The wound on his thigh was so painful that even the pain editor couldn't suppress it, and he could only let out a "hiss".

Morgan then chuckled softly, seemingly to ease the girl's sorrow, "I can already imagine that guy's rage. Miles is a born fraudster, but... she'll pay for it, she definitely will..."

After saying that, Morgan reached into his pocket and rummaged around.

Strange to say.

There was a crumpled cigarette in my pocket, which had changed from a cylindrical shape to a flat rectangle, even though I didn't like the smell. But at least it was some comfort.

Knowing that someone is chasing him, lighting a cigarette is an extremely dangerous act. Unless the combat prosthetic eye is particularly bad, it can lock onto his location.

"Rebecca?"

"Ok?"

"Get me a plaque or a nameplate in my columbarium in Night City. Whatever... at least I'll have something to put my name on."

Rebecca paused for a moment.

"tombstone."

Morgan savored the stinging cells in his lungs after the exhaustion of running, enjoying the complete indulgence before everything was about to end. "Yes, that's it."

"Perhaps we are ultimately deformed products of an era's decline."

Morgan seemed to have let it go.

"If you can go back, please... please have that ridiculously powerful guy burn this damn cloning program to the ground?"

"Ah."

“Put a name on my tombstone, though I don’t have one, but I won’t be called Morgan Blackhand—just use the name the New America wanted me for, Lowell, which the AI ​​system gave me.”

"it is good."

……

……

(End of this chapter)