2077: V really knows how awesome he is

Hackers are powerful, but they're also too easy to target. She's been living too leisurely these days; she needs to get her body back as soon as possible.

Glancing at the battle in the distance, Xu Zhong realized he was at a disadvantage, and defeat was only a matter of time.

It's not that Xu Zhong is inferior to Takemura Goro; it's just that the unlucky kid broke a leg, so he'll probably remember to fasten his seatbelt next time.

V was about to step forward to help when a loud bang suddenly came from behind him.

She looked back and saw a speeding vehicle, out of control due to EMP interference, crashing head-on into the guardrail. Half of the vehicle went off course and was swaying precariously, about to fall.

"what!!!"

The young female driver screamed, thinking she was about to die, when an arm suddenly grabbed her.

With a loud bang, the vehicle fell off the overpass and exploded, but the girl was held firmly by V and hung in mid-air.

V tugged hard several times, but couldn't pull it up at all. Just as she was about to adjust her posture and try again, Xu Zhong suddenly exclaimed in surprise:

"Sister V!!!"

V turned around and saw that Takemura Goro had already knocked down Xu Zhong and was slashing fiercely at him with his samurai sword.

"Fuck me!"

V gasped and instinctively raised her other hand to block, but the blade only cut the skin of her arm before stopping.

The attack was aborted.

V looked at Goro Takemura, and Goro Takemura looked at V. Suddenly, he sheathed his katana, reached out his hand, and together with V, pulled the girl up.

The girl ran away in fright, which was the wisest choice.

Goro Takemura stepped back a few paces, drew his katana again, and gently raised the tip of the blade a few times.

He's getting V to stand up.

"Damn, we actually found a living samurai."

"Sister V," Xu Zhong called out again, throwing the "black stick" over.

Goro Takemura did not stop him, and V caught the weapon precisely.

Why did you stop just now?

Takemura Goro spoke for the second time: "Give me back the lord I've been holding!"

"Understood." V turned the mechanism, and a blade popped out from the end of the black rod: "Defeat me, and I'll return Saburo Arasaka to you."

The two men stood with knives in their hands.

Goro Takemura's entire body is locked with cybernetic implants, and V is also unable to use his cybernetic implants.

Those who share the same plight will fight to the death, and no matter who loses, they will have no regrets.

But both had reasons to win, so the struggle began.

Steel against steel, will against will, risking their lives in a fierce and epic battle!

With a deafening roar, a bolt of lightning struck down, and the two charged forward simultaneously.

With a roar, Takemura Goro swung his sword down, deflecting the blade with a V-slash while stepping forward. The length of the Miao sword displayed an appalling terror, making the tip of the blade like a venomous snake aimed straight for his throat.

Goro Takemura quickly dodged to the side, simultaneously kicking V in the abdomen, and then, with a quick turn of his foot, slashed at V's neck.

With a bang, V raised his left arm to block the katana. The blade sliced ​​through the artificial skin, but was stopped by the metal skeleton of the missile launch system inside.

If he could use the power of the prosthetic body, this strike would definitely sever V's arm, but Goro Takemura couldn't do it.

All his prosthetic bodies have been shut down, and now he can only rely on his accumulated experience and his diligent martial arts training.

Coincidentally, V also has both of these things.

Under Goro Takemura's astonished gaze, V raised his forehead and bumped his head into Goro's nose.

Blood splattered out, and the samurai staggered back in pain.

Unlike Goro Takemura, V's skills and experience did not come from a bright and clean dojo. All her skills and techniques came from life-or-death battles on the streets.

Having landed a successful blow, V immediately pressed her advantage, embracing the situation with the ultimate tactic of street fighting: strike while the iron is hot. She raised her Miao sword and unleashed a series of heavy slashes.

Left and right, the clanging of metal clashing echoed incessantly. There were no set patterns, nor were they needed; it was an all-or-nothing attack, a fight to the death, abandoning all formalities and letting power decide everything!

when!when!when!when!

Goro Takemura was beaten so badly he couldn't lift his head, and his katana was slashed with many notches. Only then did he realize that this was not a random beating by street thugs, but a return to simplicity after countless battles!

A good swordsmanship is one that can kill. Takemura, if you encounter someone like that, run!

Goro Takemura remembered his master's words again. He always listened to his master, but this time, he couldn't escape.

He had nowhere to run.

He pulled a short knife from his pocket and threw it, which pierced V's shoulder with a thud. Takemura Goro thought this would slow down V's attack, but V flicked the blood that flowed into his hand, staining Takemura Goro's eyes.

Taking advantage of the moment when the enemy closed his eyes, V lunged forward and delivered a powerful knee strike to Takemura Goro's groin, then slammed him to the ground with an over-the-shoulder throw.

Goro Takemura's face turned pale, while V was laughing heartily.

She was also injured, even more severely than I was, but her fighting spirit grew stronger and stronger, like the King of Hell in mythology who rules over the underworld.

They treated pain as a companion, allowing their spirit to supersede their physical body.

For the first time, Goro Takemura felt fear.

The tip of the Miao sword was raised slightly, and V gestured for Takemura Goro to stand up.

The samurai took a deep breath. He knew the other side would accept his surrender, but he still stood up.

I already knew it; I had nowhere to escape.

In that case, let's abandon everything—experience, skills, even the desire to live—and fight only for victory!

"drink!"

Goro Takemura unleashed a fierce strike; he had also mastered a deadly sword technique!

boom!

The Miao sword and the samurai sword clashed once again.

Steel against steel, will against will!

Sparks flew between the two weapons. Takemura Goro flipped his wrist to deflect the force and pierced V's arm from the side. Amidst the splattering blood, V raised his Miao sword and slashed down fiercely. Takemura Goro had no choice but to abandon his sword and use both palms to meet the blow, clamping the blade between his flesh and blood. Then, he used the momentum to throw V away.

Goro Takemura picked up the Miao sword that V had dropped and charged forward again. V also drew Goro Takemura's katana from his forearm and met him in the same manner.

The two exchanged weapons and clashed violently once more.

Bang.

The katana, unable to withstand the weight, broke in half. Goro Takemura, his momentum surging, flipped his wrist and unleashed a downward slash.

puff!

The sharp blade pierced his body.

The two people were pressed tightly together.

While Takemura Goro's sword was still in mid-air, V's broken blade had already pierced his chest.

The Miao sword is too long, and its radius of rotation is too large, which slows it down.

Conversely, the broken katana became a short sword, which, although much less powerful, was faster to spin.

One fast, one slow; one wins, one loses.

Weapons are secondary; the real winner is the one who wields them.

V lowered his wrist, causing the broken blade to slash upwards and shatter Takemura Goro's heart. The latter coughed up blood and slowly knelt down.

“I have it… my lord… I’ll give it back to you.”

Goro Takemura extended his hand to V and spoke for the third time.

V pulled the short sword that Goro Takemura had just thrown from his shoulder and placed it in the hand of the last samurai.

Since they are samurai, they should have a way of dying.

Goro Takemura understood everything. A hint of gratitude appeared in his eyes as he plunged the dagger deep into his abdomen.

One horizontal cut, one vertical cut.

It hurts so much, it hurts just like being betrayed.

V walked to Takemura Goro's side, picked up the Miao sword, and swiftly slashed down, so that the last samurai would no longer feel pain.

This was her final farewell to her former friends.

V threw the "black stick" back to Xu Zhong and straightened his blood-stained suit.

"Let's go, Koch is still waiting for us."

Chapter 38 New Toy

Joanne Koch's apartment, in front of her computer.

V's eyes lit up with blue light as he began his search through a sea of ​​data.

Joanne Koch cut open her sleeve and carefully treated the wound on her arm.

"It was indeed Goro Takemura. He switched to this computer at 1:22 a.m. yesterday via an outdoor communication antenna, using the military-grade NET800 military decoder."

V found relevant clues online and reported the results to the two people inside the house.

"As expected of Saburo Arasaka's bodyguard." Xu Zhong, whose lung had been pierced by Goro Takemura's sword, still felt lingering fear as he touched his wound: "Thank goodness he's dead."

"Don't be too happy yet, there are still people behind Takemura Goro." V said seriously.

"Who would cooperate with a wanted criminal from Arasaka?" Xu Zhong asked skeptically.

"I don't know, but the suspicious points are too obvious."

V calmly analyzed: "First, where did he get the NET800 decoder? Putting aside the fact that military-grade equipment requires connections, the price alone is something a wanted criminal cannot afford."

"Secondly, he hacked Koch's computer early yesterday morning, and he can launch an ambush tonight. It's too fast; there must be some support."

"Third, how could he find a hiding place and a place to stay so quickly after fleeing from Tokyo to Night City? Arasaka, as the local tyrant, did everything he could to search for him, yet he couldn't find any trace of him. Excluding the possibility that he was just too lucky, then there is only one truth..."

“Someone is helping him.” Xu Zhong also realized the seriousness of the problem: “The only one who could evade the local thugs’ search is another local thug, and he’s using a military-tech decoder. Could it be…”

“Not someone from military technology.” Meredith Stock walked in, frowning as she saw V covered in blood. “Using the NET800 decoder requires my authorization, but I haven’t received any relevant application, so it must be black market stuff.”

Xu Zhong then asked, "What if it's your superior, for example, the president of military technology in Night City?"

"That would indeed bypass my permissions, but it would definitely leave a record. Even if he could erase the record, I can't see any benefit he would gain from doing so." Meredith Stock lit a cigarette. "So what if he knows that Saburo Arasaka's body is in our hands? Help those unworthy descendants of Arasaka get it back? Don't be ridiculous. From a military technology perspective, they'd rather Arasaka forever be labeled as 'unable to even find the founder's body.' If he knew, he might pretend not to know, or he might help us cover it up, or even use this to blackmail us, but he would never send Goro Takemura to steal it. No matter how illustrious a person is in life, after death he's just a corpse. Military technology isn't interested in a corpse."

“Biotechnology is interested in Saburo Arasaka’s body, but those medical fanatics are probably just collecting it. They certainly won’t return it to Arasaka, much less team up with Goro Takemura to assassinate Arasaka’s boss in Night City for such a personal hobby.” Joanne Koch said, loading a syringe into a pneumatic injector and telling V, “It’s going in, bear with it.”

With a soft "plop," the pneumatic syringe pierced V's neck.

V's mind was entirely on the person behind Goro Takemura, so she simply let Joanne Koch do as she pleased.

Xu Zhong seemed to understand something: "Neither military technology nor biotechnology has any need for Saburo Arasaka's body, and neither does Kangtao. In fact, Arasaka's side hopes for his permanent disappearance so that the second generation can smoothly take over. Since none of these four parties have a motive, the other companies in Night City are even less likely to help Goro Takemura seize the body. Or rather, their purpose in assisting Goro Takemura wasn't actually for Saburo Arasaka's body; that was just Goro Takemura's wishful thinking. The person behind it all is using Goro Takemura's wishful thinking to cover up their true purpose, which is..."

“Kill me.” V gave the answer: “The other side’s assistance to Goro Takemura has nothing to do with Saburo Arasaka’s corpse; it’s just to eliminate me. Goro Takemura is merely a knife in their hands.”

Xu Zhong understood everything: "The people of Arakawa?"

“The fight at the top is over, so it’s time for the bottom to take their turn.” V snorted coldly, “Looks like I’ve gotten in someone’s way.”

"Arasaka Yorinobu?"

"It could also be Michiko Arakasaka."

Where is Hanako Arakawa?

V calmly analyzed: "The Arasaka family has shifted the blame to Goro Takemura, but a winner still needs to be decided. The loser will definitely be unable to maintain his position in Tokyo headquarters. At that time, Night City will be the loser's only way out, so naturally, I must be eliminated first."

“Arasaka Michiko grew up in Night City, so it’s perfectly normal for her to retreat there after her failure. Arasaka Yoriyuki has no roots elsewhere, so he might choose Night City, which has the most complex internal relationships, to make a comeback. As for Arasaka Hanako, she is a conservative within Arasaka and a native of Tokyo. It’s the least likely that she would send someone to Night City to deal with me, so we can basically rule out any suspicion.”

“Michiko Arakawa is the prime suspect, followed by Yorinobu Arakawa.” Xu Zhong asked, “What’s their current situation?”

“That’s an internal matter of the Arasaka family. As an outsider, I have no access to any information. Besides, all of this is just my speculation, and it may not even be accurate. But it doesn’t matter who it is. Instead of worrying about how terrible the enemy is, we should find a way to make ourselves stronger. Stock, let’s start the Heterogeneous Project we mentioned before.”

Meredith Stock raised an eyebrow: "Are you sure? That thing is incredibly expensive."