V slipped silently into the abandoned auto factory, carefully observing the surroundings.
The entire place was crawling with Scavengers.
Armed patrols moved back and forth through the compound, surveillance cameras covered nearly every angle, and heavy-duty mechs stood guard in key positions.
Where the hell had the Scavs gotten military-grade hardware like this?
V refused to believe for a second that they didn't have corporate backing.
"Damn corpo dogs."
She cursed inwardly.
"They're not even human."
Her cyberdeck quickly tapped into the Scavengers' local network.
The moment she discovered a biometric monitoring system, however, she immediately abandoned the idea of direct remote intrusion.
Instead, she switched to stealth assassination.
This kind of biological monitoring cyberware could track the vital signs of every connected member in real time.
The moment someone died, the local netrunners would know.
Reality wasn't a game.
Hackers couldn't just fry people's brains from a distance the way braindances and arcade sims made it look.
Under normal circumstances, a netrunner sitting in a proper hacker chair could easily overwhelm ten independent cyberdeck users.
The sheer difference in processing power was impossible to compensate for with skill alone.
That was why professional remote intrusions almost always relied on dedicated rigs.
Even though V's cyberdeck was a high-end model Xiao had given her, she still didn't dare alert the enemy netrunners directly.
So, she chose the simplest method.
Silent kills.
Relying on optical camouflage, she slipped into the compound like a ghost.
One surveillance camera after another went dark.
One Scavenger after another disappeared without a sound.
Knocking someone out permanently without killing them immediately was a basic technique every field operative had to master.
The entire purpose was to avoid triggering biometric monitoring.
V dragged unconscious bodies into dark corners, storage boxes, and behind machinery.
Her movements were smooth.
Elegant.
Efficient.
A perfect silent infiltration.
Before long, she had cleared the outer perimeter and entered the factory proper.
Inside, the atmosphere became even darker and more oppressive.
The dim red emergency lights cast a sickly glow over everything.
A thick metallic smell lingered in the air.
Blood.
Mixed with it were occasional screams and desperate cries for help.
The sound alone made V's scalp prickle.
"What a bunch of sick bastards…"
She muttered under her breath.
Then she continued deeper in.
Her silent kills carried her all the way to B1.
The first basement level looked like an industrial slaughterhouse from a nightmare.
The floor was slick with blood and chunks of flesh.
The stench in the air was so thick it felt suffocating.
Rusty cages stained black-red with dried blood lined the walls.
Torture tools hung from hooks.
Broken bones were scattered across the floor.
And worst of all—
damaged and mutilated dolls, likely stolen from somewhere, were being used to film grotesque scripted scenarios.
The sight was enough to make anyone's skin crawl.
Even someone as battle-hardened as V felt deeply unsettled.
A strong instinct screamed at her to turn around and get out.
No wonder Panam was terrified of this place.
This wasn't just a Scav den.
It was a living hell.
But V had no choice.
She had to keep moving.
This time, however, she changed tactics.
There were simply too many people on this floor for silent takedowns to remain practical.
So instead of engaging, she bypassed the entire level and headed straight for B2.
The second basement level was different.
The roaming figures here were no longer ordinary Scavengers.
These were clearly trained guards.
Fully armed.
Professional equipment.
Combat drones accompanied every patrol.
The dual-layer defense made it obvious that something important was hidden below.
Ironically, while the security here was far tighter than B1, the environment itself was far less grotesque.
It looked more like a sealed security floor built specifically to protect underground secrets.
"I really hope that optical camo of yours works."
Johnny's voice suddenly rang in her ear.
"Otherwise you're about to get ventilated."
V nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Damn it!"
She cursed at him in her head.
"Can you stop popping up and scaring people right when I'm focused?!"
Johnny immediately burst out laughing.
"Pfft—sorry, V."
"I didn't realize I almost made you piss yourself."
Because he could feel everything she felt, Johnny knew exactly how close she had been to losing control.
"Shut up."
"We're settling this later."
V gritted her teeth and cut him off.
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down.
Using a combination of agile footwork and optical camouflage, she slipped past B2's patrols and descended to B3.
This was the location she had pinpointed as the hiding place of the Scavenger netrunner.
She knew that unless she neutralized the hacker first, she wouldn't be able to move freely.
But the moment she reached the third basement—
Johnny suddenly clutched his mouth.
"No, V…"
"I'm gonna throw up."
The wave of nausea hit so hard that V herself almost gagged.
This wasn't just Johnny's reaction.
She felt it too.
The third basement looked less like a hideout and more like a bio-lab straight out of a horror braindance.
Everywhere she looked were twisted creations that pushed the limits of human imagination.
Mad cybernetic modifications.
Flesh cultivation vats.
Half-grown organs.
Spliced limbs.
This place had gone far beyond mere horror.
It had crossed into pure madness.
Researchers wearing gas masks moved busily through the lab.
They looked more like scientists than Scavengers.
One after another, they injected unknown compounds into restrained test subjects.
Then came the transformations.
Bodies twisted.
Flesh proliferated.
Bone structures warped.
Tumor-like growths expanded like living cancer.
The sight filled V with revulsion.
Night City was known for its technology.
But something like this—
this was beyond technology.
This was insanity.
Fortunately, the researchers seemed completely unable to detect her through the optical camouflage.
But the things inside the massive cultivation tanks were another story.
The grotesquely modified creatures floating inside were disturbingly perceptive.
More than once, V caught their eyes rolling in her direction.
Watching her.
She noticed cyberware systems embedded in their bodies beginning to activate.
The creatures convulsed violently, struggling to lunge toward her.
Then a powerful electric shock coursed through the tanks.
Their bodies spasmed and collapsed back into unconsciousness.
Yet despite the brutality of the treatment, their vitality was terrifyingly high.
Even after being tortured to the point of madness, they still refused to die.
There was no doubt about it.
These things were no longer human.
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