"Damn it, I told you to sharpen your knife more often. Shit, what a waste of half a day's effort."
After sawing for a long time, although bloody and mangled, Brother Finger's finger was still in his hand.
The sweating Tyger Claw straightened his back and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Damn it, didn't you say that leaving blood on the torture tools would scare these rookies? Who knew this thing would rust."
"Damn it, haven't you read books? Haven't you studied physics? Don't you know that iron exposed to water reacts with dissolved oxygen to form iron(III) oxide?"
Seeing his idiotic companion dare to talk back, the Tyger Claw was furious.
But as the two argued, a faint sound like objects falling suddenly came from outside.
"What's that sound?"
The Tyger Claw frowned, no longer in the mood to scold his companion.
"Hmm, a sound?"
The Tyger Claw near the door directly opened it, poked his head out, looked left and right, and then pulled it back in.
"Nobody, maybe it's the wind."
Turning around and shrugging casually, the Tyger Claw indicated that everything was safe.
"Bang!"
The Tyger Claw's relaxed expression hadn't faded when the door panel behind him collapsed with a crash, pinning him to the ground like a sandwich.
"Everyone, don't move! Surrender your weapons or die!"
The next second, V, who had kicked down the door, withdrew her big foot and rushed in, gun raised.
"Shit!"
The other Tyger Claw in the room saw this, his cybernetic eyes almost bulging, and he frantically reached for the gun on the table.
"Bang bang!"
V was decisive, shooting the opponent twice, then immediately fired at the door panel under her feet. Blood flowed out from under the door panel, and the person stopped moving.
"Jackie, are you okay!"
At this moment, the rest of the group rushed in.
As soon as Berry entered the room, she spotted Jackie tied to a chair.
Seeing that all of Jackie's body parts were still intact, the stone in her heart dropped halfway.
Her worst fear was that upon entering, Jackie would already be in several pieces on the operating table, or half his body would be in a grinding meat grinder.
"I'm fine, but you should check on this old guy in front of you first, he looks like he's almost done for."
Tied to the chair, Jackie could only gesture with his chin, telling everyone to look at Brother Finger.
Brother Finger's mouth was full of blood, and his fingers were bloody and mangled. He was already gaunt, and now he looked like a skeleton soldier. If they had arrived any later, he would have been pronounced dead.
But seeing Brother Finger, Berry seemed unusually surprised.
"Brother Finger, what are you doing here?"
Unexpectedly seeing an acquaintance, Berry was a bit confused.
She couldn't imagine how Brother Finger ended up being held here with Jackie.
But upon seeing Berry, Brother Finger was even more agitated than her. His previously half-closed eyes suddenly widened, and as if in a final burst of energy, he gesticulated with his bloody, mangled fingers, making gurgling sounds.
"Never mind, let's go back to the tower first!"
Brother Finger had most of his teeth pulled out, and in his agitated state, he spoke for a long time, but all Berry understood was that more blood was flowing from his mouth.
She immediately decided to evacuate this dreadful place.
Shooting the chains binding Jackie, he rubbed his hands and stood up.
"Damn it, I really fell into a trap this time, almost ended up here."
Jackie said with lingering fear.
With premeditation against unpreparedness, who could have known that the Tyger Claws would even bring out a big truck to catch him?
It was only fortunate that the Tyger Claws didn't intend to kill Jackie, otherwise he would have died right on the curb.
That would have been too humiliating a death.
"By the way, why did the Tyger Claws want to catch me? Do you know?"
On the way back, Jackie asked.
"The Tyger Claws have declared war on us. Perhaps they don't need many reasons to catch you."
V explained.
Everyone was happy to have rescued Jackie intact, but the thought of the Tyger Claws still weighed heavily on V's mind.
Although she hadn't witnessed gang wars in the city, she had deeply experienced the wars between Nomad families in the Badlands.
Gang, or rather, family wars, were never as honorable as in urban legends.
Once a war began, both sides would use every means to eliminate the other's living forces, ensuring the complete disappearance of the opposing side from the Badlands. Women and children, lacking the ability to resist, were priority targets.
Both sides would use scouts, black market transactions, and bribes to find the location of the other family's camp, followed by a surprise attack, killing all guards and non-combatants.
When those who had been fighting outside returned, there would only be smoking ruins and a ground littered with corpses.
Even defeated families would not be spared.
Even if they fled to the city or hid in the deep mountains, the opposing family would still send assassins to relentlessly pursue them until the last bloodline of the enemy family disappeared.
This was the nature of combat in the Badlands.
Although the city was not the Badlands, it was probably similar.
"I see, we'll be busy then."
Jackie nodded after hearing this.
As a native resident of Night City, he naturally knew the severity of gang wars, so his expression was also very solemn.
He had once been cracked open in a street fight and almost died.
Why the Tyger Claws caught him was no longer important; there were tough battles ahead.
The car stopped at the entrance of the Hive Tower.
But the atmosphere outside was a bit off.
Several people stood in a circle at the entrance, with Viktor half-crouching in front, staring intently at something.
"What's wrong, Viktor?"
Getting out of the car, Berry asked.
"As soon as you left, I notified everyone outside to return, but it was still a little late; one transport vehicle still lost contact."
Viktor's brows were tightly furrowed, his face clouded, and his voice was unusually weary.
Approaching a little, Berry finally saw a black courier box, about the size of a bedside table, lying quietly on the ground in front of Viktor.
V also walked over, looked at Viktor's serious expression, and activated her Kiroshi optics' X-ray mode to look at the black plastic box.
V's hand paused when she saw what was inside.
The atmosphere was tense, Berry didn't understand what had happened, and stepped forward to open the courier box.
"Don't look, Berry."
V placed her hand on Berry's shoulder, and Berry heard the difficulty and hesitation in her voice.
With a slight effort, Berry pulled away from V's hand, not intending to give up.
As the BOSS of Honeycomb, she had to know what had happened to her organization.
This was her responsibility.
She squatted down and examined the outer packaging. The cardboard box was wrapped in black tape, revealing no information from the outside.
Berry reached out, tore open the tape in the middle, and opened the box.
Her pupils slightly dilated, and the strong smell of blood, so close, made her dizzy.
There was nothing else in the box, just five bloody human heads.
And Berry recognized all their faces.
They were Mercenaries from the Hive Tower.
A rope, entering from the top of the head and exiting through the neck, connected the five heads.
The enemy had not only killed them but also subjected their bodies to the most malicious insult.
The bloody holes where their eyeballs once were stared at Berry, seemingly still trying to tell the living something.
Silently closing the lid, Berry picked up the box, walked through the crowd, and entered the Hive Tower's main gate.
"The war has begun."
Her tone was calm, yet it was mixed with memories of the past and reflections of the present.
Viktor shook his head; the scene he least wanted to see had ultimately appeared.
This city had opened its maw, intending to completely devour them.
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