"If I remember right, it should be this door."
After feeling his way around outside All Foods for a good while, Luo Qi finally found the door from memory.
No matter what choices V and Jackie made before or after taking the Flathead, they would eventually come out through this door.
And at the same time, they would meet the late-arriving Militech representative—either the victorious Stout, or Gilchrist smirking like a man who'd gotten away with something.
But today, all of that was going to change.
Now that Meredith Stout had received V's message ahead of time, she would arrive earlier.
And Militech's assault would begin earlier too.
As for him…
Shing—
A sharp metallic ring cut through the air as a long, straight katana slid free of its sheath.
Today, Luo Qi was going to do the exact opposite of the original route—
and silently kill his way in from the other direction.
Click, click, click…
He tested the door. Locked.
Through the little pane of glass in the middle, his view was too narrow to tell whether anyone was inside.
Luo Qi looked around, confirmed the area was clear, then backed up a few meters, sprinted forward, and smashed the small door open with a kick.
The door tore loose from the lock, slammed against the wall, then bounced back.
"Huh!? What the hell!?"
A gang member crouched on the floor welding something jerked in alarm, turning toward the sunlight that had suddenly poured in through the kicked-open rear entrance.
He drew a pistol and slowly, carefully, crept over.
Then, with a wet shhk, a stranger holding a blade in both hands appeared right in front of him.
The sword was already buried deep in his chest.
Blood bubbled from his mouth and dribbled down.
Then he collapsed silently, bitterness still frozen on his face.
Luo Qi hauled the body up, dragged it into a dark corner, crouched low, and continued forward.
A huge open space.
Vehicles, crates, cables, equipment, and tools were scattered everywhere in absolute disorder. The ceiling rose eight or nine meters overhead, with many upper windows left open, letting sunlight spill freely into the grimy air and create visible shafts of light.
High on one wall was Maelstrom's graffiti emblem—
a hairy, skull-faced, many-eyed spider.
Its eyes glowed the same blood-red as Maelstrom's optical implants, while the shattered skull beneath symbolized cybernetic modification at any cost.
All the nearby doors were sealed shut. The only others were rusted iron grates that looked like they hadn't been opened in years. Luo Qi didn't dare use brute force again—causing a big disturbance here would be the same as announcing an intruder.
"Got it."
He saw there was no direct route to the second-floor catwalk, so he searched around, climbed a tall rack, then leapt outward, catching the second-floor railing and slowly hauling himself over.
He eased open the sliding door there and entered an even stranger section of the factory.
Machines and control units were scattered everywhere without any apparent logic. Colored work lights and signal lamps only illuminated fragments of the darkness. A few idle silhouettes wandered lazily through the area, sometimes leaning against walls for a break.
These were Maelstrom gangers.
Luo Qi could see the chrome across their faces—different degrees of mutilation and replacement—but every single one of them had their eyes turned into something grotesque, like aimless zombies drifting through a metal labyrinth.
There was a route here.
A stairway led down and went straight ahead, wide and direct—but it was full of people.
After groping around in the dark for a while, Luo Qi found another path instead: a pitch-black control room hidden in shadow. It clearly wasn't very important, and the automation level was high enough that the consoles were cluttered with liquor bottles and trash.
From there, a narrow maintenance-style path seemed to hang in midair, with a corridor behind it smelling faintly of mold.
Ahead was a cramped elevated catwalk ending in a locked door.
And directly below Luo Qi, several Maelstrom punks sat on crates talking, zoning out, or nodding off.
He didn't dare alert them.
Climbing over the railing, he stepped onto the tops of tall shelving units and edged along the wall with painstaking care.
Like a silent ghost.
"A camera!"
A small device mounted on the wall gave off a faint glow and swept rhythmically back and forth. If it detected anything unusual, the built-in AI would light the whole surrounding area up with red alarms.
And less than three meters in front of him stood a Maelstrom ganger with his back turned.
Luo Qi held his breath and, inch by inch—so slowly it was almost ridiculous—crept up the stairs.
Dark.
Too dark.
And still they didn't turn the damn lights on.
It was perfect for stealth, but it made seeing a misery.
One tiny zone was blindingly bright while everything else was pitch black. Stay here too long and your eyesight would be wrecked.
No wonder Maelstrom all ended up replacing their eyes, Luo Qi thought.
At the top of the stairs was a control platform packed with dials and surveillance equipment.
One enemy was bent over looking at the data.
The moment he lifted his head, his eyes met Luo Qi's.
Shhk—!
Luo Qi's blade flashed.
Blood sprayed across the entire console.
He caught the collapsing body, lowered it slowly, and dragged it aside. By now his hands and clothes were smeared red.
The severed artery in the neck had sprayed like a fountain. Even when using the computer, Luo Qi had to wipe the screen with his sleeve just to make out the information beneath the blood.
Surveillance system—
shutdown.
The camera nearest him folded inward and went dead like an obedient little insect.
Plan complete.
Luo Qi let out a long breath.
This was way too damn intense.
Going this deep into enemy territory alone was not an exaggeration.
If he hadn't built up nerves of steel over the past six months, his legs would probably be too weak to hold him up.
He steadied himself.
After moving through a winding, gut-narrow passage, he finally reached a place he recognized all too well.
The thunder of huge engines, the grinding racket of industrial machinery, the constant roar of people shouting—
this was the assembly hall where they mass-produced those disgusting "meat bags."
All sorts of mystery flesh and additives were mixed together into a revolting sludge.
In 2077, whether a business had morals or not, almost everyone used synthetic meat.
The only difference was whether they used regulated, decent-grade synthetic meat—or dirty workshop sludge like this.
Luo Qi passed silently along the catwalk, keeping himself hidden among the moving materials. When nobody was looking, he slipped down along the corner, using stacked boxes as cover until he reached a glass door.
This was it.
His spirits lifted. He drew the katana, eased the door open, and closed in on the two enemies ahead with their backs turned.
Crack—!
Shhk!!
In a single instant, steel flashed.
Both enemies fell.
With most people, cutting through someone cleanly could go wrong unless they were strong enough, which was why most infiltration specialists preferred knives.
But Luo Qi's strength was absurd.
One swing, and heads came off.
Avoiding the obvious cameras, he followed memory and arrived outside another room.
Overhead, the ventilation system roared softly. Fans turned with a lazy hum while air rushed through the ducts.
He stopped in front of a sealed pneumatic door marked with a radiation warning.
Inside, slumped against some boxes, was a listless figure that hadn't moved at all.
"Hey… Brick?"
Luo Qi perked up immediately and tapped the door lightly.
"Hey, you! Hey—hey! Get me out of here!"
A muffled voice came from inside, but the man had definitely seen him.
Infrared trip mine.
Door keypad.
Immobile prisoner.
This was Brick—the former Maelstrom boss Royce had overthrown.
The code was in the room next door.
Luo Qi slipped in like he had done it a hundred times before, opened the laptop, disabled the monitoring program first, then found the message Royce had sent to his two confidants, Dum Dum and Totentanz, buried at the bottom of the inbox.
[Brick got sent to cage duty.
Code is 9691.
Don't fucking spread it around.]
"Heh heh…"
Luo Qi grinned, closed the laptop, and quietly pocketed the detonator lying on the desk.
Done.
The door opened with a click.
"Careful! If I move even a centimeter away from that beam, nobody's finding me in one piece. It's tied to a mine," Brick warned urgently.
Luo Qi just smiled, pulled out the detonator, and under Brick's tense stare, shut the laser off.
"Fuck… thought I'd go gray before getting out of here."
Brick sagged with relief and immediately shifted away from the danger zone.
"So—how long's Royce had you in here?" Luo Qi asked.
"No idea anymore. More than a week. A few loyal guys snuck me some food, then Royce threw them in a microwave and made me watch." Brick spat bitterly. "Who are you? Who sent you?"
"Me? Nobody special. I came along with my brothers." Luo Qi answered casually. "We're here for the Flathead. Dexter already paid for it, but Royce decided to back out."
"Shit… that sick bastard." Brick spat on the floor.
"How many men do you still have that you trust?"
"Less than half. But if I walk out there right now, maybe two-thirds will come with me." Brick's five eyes blinked with confidence. "People fear Royce. They don't follow him. This is my place."
Luo Qi almost wanted to make a dumb joke—
but now was not the time.
"Good. We'll deal with Royce," he said. "Militech's virus is going to hit any second, and they've got numbers. Take every man still willing to follow you and run."
Brick stared at him, his optical replacements flickering.
"Why are you helping me?"
"Simple." Luo Qi planted the katana point-down against the floor. "First, compared to Royce, you count as almost normal. Second, you're the kind of guy who values loyalty, so I trust you more. Third, if I run into any Maelstrom idiots down the line who can't be reasoned with, maybe you'll return the favor."
"Fine. I won't forget you or your brothers. If we meet again, I'll back you."
Brick thumped his chest.
He had spent years in Maelstrom, and for all the gang's insanity, he was still someone who believed in underworld rules and obligations. His branch of Maelstrom clearly ran very differently from Royce's.
Still a piece of shit, sure—
but at least a more normal kind of piece of shit.
Click—
In an instant, every light and machine around them died.
Darkness swallowed everything.
"Move! Militech's in the system! Grab the men still loyal to you—and don't take the back way!"
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 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 119)
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?" (Chapter79)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter125)
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 73
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 55
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 66
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 63
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 55
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 31
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 31
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 31
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