"I found a route that gets around their line of sight. Keep the noise down."
T-Bug transmitted a shortcut path highlighted on the minimap. It would let them slip deeper inside through a hole in a side room.
Luo Qi, however, had no cyberware installed, so he couldn't see any of it. All he could do was follow Jackie and V.
The three people in the hall were all busy with their own things, completely unaware that three of their buddies had already vanished.
They noticed even less that three sneaky intruders had slipped right into their base.
"No, not this room." Luo Qi pushed on a door. It didn't budge.
At the other end, V jerked back as if he'd touched a live wire.
"There's someone outside," he said urgently. "He almost saw me. He's carrying a machine gun—won't be easy to deal with."
"We need to draw his attention somehow," Luo Qi said, eyes sweeping the area.
The only path forward was blocked. The moment they stuck their heads out, they'd be spotted. They had to come up with something.
"Use that optic reboot hack. Blind him. Leave the rest to me."
Luo Qi looked at V, his face practically screaming, Trust me.
"Alright. Give me the signal and I'll upload it. Takes three seconds," V said, bracing himself against the doorframe, ready to pop out the instant he got the cue and slap a quickhack on the target.
Luo Qi dropped to the floor, aimed through the hole toward the doorway outside, and pulled out a grenade.
"Three, two, one—go!"
He called out to V, then waited a second before finally throwing the grenade.
Bzzzzzt—!!
The crackling sound of a cyberoptic malfunction instantly threw the big gang member into confusion. But before he could even shout, a huge explosion went off in front of him.
"Enemy! Open fire!"
That shout, however, had come from Luo Qi.
The grenade blasted one guy at the doorway off his feet. The others turned around in a panic and saw nothing but chaos. They never actually spotted any enemy.
But the big thug whose optics were failing didn't think that far. On instinct, he raised his oversized weapon and squeezed the trigger at the scene ahead.
RATATATATATATATA—!!!!
The heavy machine-gun rounds chewed through walls and tables, bullets ricocheting wildly around the room.
It was total bedlam.
"Return fire!!"
Luo Qi kept shouting like he was putting on a show, then drew his pistol and started firing at the gang members who were already half-dead from their own guy's spray. He dropped several of them with cold, precise shots.
Back when he played Cyberpunk 2077, there had only been a handful of enemies in the hall.
Reality, however, was much nastier than the game.
There were at least several more.
But now they were all on the floor.
The moment the optic reboot wore off and the big thug blinked his vision clear, Jackie burst out with a pistol in each hand and gunned him down, filling his head with holes.
"My sensors aren't picking up any more activity. Looks like you got them. You can keep moving," T-Bug said.
After Luo Qi and V went around finishing off the wounded with their guns, T-Bug confirmed the area was clear.
"What about the person we're here to save?" V asked.
"Look around. She's probably nearby."
Jackie rubbed his shaved head and let out a long breath. "Brother, you've really got some tricks. They died without even knowing how."
"That," Luo Qi said with a grin, "is what you call tactics, amigo."
As he spoke, he stuffed the money he'd looted into his pocket while opening emails on one of the computers.
"Tsk, tsk. Looks like these people stripped cyberware off a lot of victims."
"Tch. Organ-harvesting trash," Jackie said in disgust.
People who trafficked in human organs were the very bottom of the barrel, no matter what country or what era.
V pushed open another door and strode inside.
"This is beyond fucked…"
"Ah yes, summer's favorite—an ice bath," Luo Qi whistled. "Just a bit too much ice."
Inside the bathtub were two unconscious naked bodies, a man and a woman, nearly submerged in ice. It was one of those scavenger methods—simple, crude human storage, like stuffing two slabs of pork into a fridge for later.
V hauled the woman out of the tub.
"This should be her. Target confirmed."
"Are we too late? Is she still alive?" T-Bug asked quickly. "V, jack into her biometric signal. Let's see what's going on."
"She's lying in a bathtub full of ice… and there's someone else in it too. Jesus… they were refrigerating living people…"
"Don't panic, V. Even if she survives, she probably won't remember any of this. At worst, minor subconscious damage. Nothing more."
V replied in a tone that practically dripped with outrage. "I heard survivors from stuff like this can have panic episodes out of nowhere… hands suddenly start shaking like crazy, like they're falling into freezing water again."
The woman convulsed in V's arms.
As he spoke, he pulled a data cable from his wrist and plugged it into the port behind her ear.
Then Luo Qi watched as V began reading off the data he retrieved.
"Sandra Dorsett. NC570442. Trauma Team Platinum member."
Jackie nearly spat. "Platinum member!? Holy shit. She loses one hair and Trauma Team comes screaming in."
"They probably cut off the outgoing signal. Her biomonitor was hacked—could be reflashed firmware or some kind of neurovirus…" T-Bug guessed.
"Save the tech talk for later, T-Bug!" Jackie snapped. "Take a look around this place—bathtub, ice, hooks, butcher knives…"
"It's basically a cyber slaughterhouse," Luo Qi added.
He stayed outside the room, searching the computers for useful information.
He had no interest in taking the opportunity to stare at other people's naked bodies. Better to figure out how this gang of scavengers had managed to take down a target like Sandra in the first place.
"Hmph. Must've been those kibble-eating losers," T-Bug said disdainfully. "Got it. Check her neural port. Is there a chip in there? Pull it. That should restore the signal."
"Are you sure that's safe? Can't we get her out first?" V asked anxiously, watching the target convulse harder in his arms.
"We went through too much trouble to screw this up now. Restore the biomonitor first, then we'll see if she's got internal bleeding… anyway, just find the chip and pull it!"
T-Bug's tone left no room for argument.
V found a chip slot at the back of Sandra's head and ejected it.
"Found it."
"Now check the biomonitor again…"
Before T-Bug could finish speaking, Sandra's biosystems started coming back online.
"Hello, Sandra. If you are conscious, please assume the recovery position immediately. Emergency evacuation units are en route and will arrive at your location in approximately 180 seconds."
V looked up.
"Biomonitor says Trauma Team will be here in three minutes."
"Ah…" Jackie let out a long sigh. "Pobrecita. Poor thing. Get her out of the ice."
V had only just pulled Sandra free when he suddenly swore in alarm.
"Shit! She's losing her heartbeat!"
"Lucky! That pneumatic injector I gave you earlier—where is it!?"
"Quick! Throw it!"
The moment Luo Qi heard him, he sprinted over and flung the small device. V caught it with a slap and jammed it straight into the middle of Sandra's chest.
"Hh—"
The woman, who had already begun seizing, let out a painful groan and gradually calmed.
"Let's move. Take her outside. To the terrace," Jackie said, taking the lead.
Not long after, a massive armored AV came in and hovered steadily at terrace height. A whole squad rappelled down from below in rapid succession.
"Docking in progress. Stand clear. Security procedures are now active. Follow all instructions."
A severe warning voice rang out. Luo Qi, V, and Jackie squinted against the wind as they held Sandra.
Trauma Team's assault personnel leveled their guns at the three of them. Only after confirming there was no threat did they pull out a folding stretcher.
"Move! Put the patient on the ground first!"
V stepped forward and laid Sandra onto the stretcher. But before he could even straighten up, a rifle butt smashed into him and nearly sent him staggering.
"Back up five steps."
A team member immediately pulled out a pneumatic resuscitation device and shot a dose into Sandra's chest.
"TT-133 to Control, patient NC570442 secured…"
"Cardiotonics administered. Dopamine seventy milligrams. Norepinephrine one hundred ten. Fibrin factor eight hundred…"
Sandra was loaded swiftly into the high-tech armored AV, but the operatives still didn't relax. They kept their guns trained on Luo Qi and the others until the very last moment before withdrawing.
Once everyone was back aboard, the Trauma Team craft sealed its hatch with a snap, lifted its nose, and shot away at high speed.
"Shit. You okay, V?" Luo Qi asked, patting him. V shook his head and rubbed the spot where he'd been hit.
"Let's get out of here. Elevator goes straight to the parking garage," Jackie said with a sigh. "Rich people…"
"Yeah. That garbage job's finally done," T-Bug said too. "I'm logging off now. See you around."
As they walked through the chaos of the scene, Jackie finally let out a breath of relief.
"Listen, mano, got a favor to ask. Can I borrow your car?"
"Mmm~" V made a deeply suggestive sound.
"I made plans with Misty, but… I can't exactly take the metro, can I? That'd be way too humiliating!"
Jackie laughed awkwardly.
"A brother's pride's gotta be protected, Jackie. But only this once," V said, agreeing.
That was what he said.
But Luo Qi would bet money that even if Jackie asked again next time, V would still hand over the keys without hesitation.
Jackie let out a long breath. Going straight from a firefight to a date—one kind of pressure was simply turning into another.
"Ah… savior of my life, V, thanks. Otherwise… how about I drive you two home first?"
Luo Qi and V rented apartments close to each other, on the same floor in fact. The place was a dump, but it was cheap, and they could watch each other's backs.
"Then you drive. I'm wiped," V said after exchanging a look with Luo Qi.
"Oh, right. Almost forgot. I should call Wakako—tell her the job's done." Jackie pressed the elevator button.
"I'll do it." V made the call, and it was answered within seconds.
Okada Wakako's half-dead, deliberately affected voice came through.
"Ahem! V? Well? Is the client still breathing?"
"Of course. Didn't you say you wanted her alive?" V replied casually.
"Wonderful. Your payment is with me—you can come collect it anytime. Right now, even. Though I imagine… at the moment, all you really want is to go home and rest, yes?"
"NCPD has sealed off Watson. The whole district is under lockdown. If you don't want to get stuck behind the cordon, you'd better move quickly."
"Thanks for the warning. I'll come by in a little while," V said, then ended the call.
It wasn't exactly hatred, but it definitely wasn't fondness either. That was how all three of them felt about the strange but razor-sharp old fixer.
"So what exactly are they locking the district down for?" Luo Qi asked curiously.
He had never played far enough into the game to know what all this fuss was about.
Watson only reopened after Jackie died in the original story.
Maybe he just hadn't paid attention back then, but whatever the case, it clearly wasn't something as simple as one cop getting killed.
Something like that might bring in more police, maybe even MaxTac—
but it definitely wouldn't justify sealing off an entire district.
"No idea," V said, shaking his head.
"Maybe some big shot got caught cheating," Jackie joked.
Then again, maybe not.
The reason might sound ridiculous, but for the people at the top, even something absurd could be tied to all kinds of secrets they couldn't afford to let out.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 172)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 116)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter119)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 66
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 52
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 55
The Way the Umamusume Look at 42
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 40
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 36
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 30
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 26
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 26
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