When he pulled open the iron door, what greeted them was not a row of crude industrial machinery, but an elegantly furnished lounge area.
Japanese and Western styles had been blended here to near perfection. The swimming pool, though apparently unused for a long time, was still filled with crystal-clear water and kept spotless.
"We regret to inform you that Konpeki Plaza is now under full-building red alert. Please remain in your room and follow any instructions given by hotel staff."
The mechanical female voice repeated the announcement over and over. Even the lights embedded in the doorframes had turned red.
"We're checking the floor. Everything's normal." A voice drifted up from below. "Understood. Ending transmission."
"No one here either. Is this another drill or what?"
"If it were only a drill, why would Arasaka special forces be here?" the man who had been on the comms shot back.
"Special forces?"
"They're in the lobby. They're conducting a search—floor by floor."
After a few more words, the two of them moved farther away, and Luo Qi could no longer make out what they were saying.
"We need to move fast. Time isn't waiting for us." At a moment like this, Jackie's head was unexpectedly clear. "En silencio. You two go first. Carrying the case makes it awkward for me."
Luo Qi quickly slipped downstairs, pressed himself to the wall, and signaled for V and Jackie to hold position.
"Team Three has found signs of a netrunner intrusion and a combat drone. Unknown model," the security guard continued reporting. "The drones found a threat on the rooftop and engaged. Two units lost."
"Yorinobu Arasaka has already been evacuated. I repeat—Yorinobu Arasaka has already been evacuated."
Forget Yorinobu. Saburo Arasaka was dead as hell already.
Luo Qi touched the dog tag he'd swiped, then slowly drew the katana that had belonged to the man wearing it. He exchanged a glance with V.
One wet crunch, one sharp snap.
The two guards died ugly deaths.
"Hey, look what I found—a suppressor." Jackie set the case down and rummaged through the bodies, pulling out something useful. "Suppressors are the best thing we could've found right now."
"Wait, V, take this." Luo Qi stopped him and handed over the suppressed Kongou pistol from his belt. "Your aim's better than mine. You use it."
"Damn, damn, damn. I saw this thing in the braindance—Yorinobu Arasaka commemorative model."
Under Jackie's openly envious stare, V took the gun.
"Man, this is bullshit. I want a souvenir too." Jackie grumbled under his breath. "You two—one of you took the old man's sword, and the other got the son's gun…"
"There were clothes upstairs too, original Yorinobu scent included. You want those?" Luo Qi grinned. "Besides, didn't I already give you your present?"
"What present?" Now Jackie looked baffled.
Luo Qi sighed and patted him on the back. "You wouldn't get it. Forget it. Isn't the biggest souvenir already right there in your hands?"
Jackie glanced down at the Relic storage case and nodded.
"Once we finish this job, the three of us are washing our hands of this life for good—"
"Shut up. Stop raising death flags. Do you know how much work it took to save your ass?"
Luo Qi muttered something Jackie clearly didn't understand and kept creeping forward.
Two men were talking in the middle of the corridor. All three of them immediately flattened themselves behind the divider.
"Did you check the meditation room?"
"I did. Everything's normal."
"No suspicious signs at all? Everything normal?"
"Well… the door leading to the rooftop might be broken."
"Then check it again."
The rooftop door was broken? Which rooftop?
Luo Qi found the twisted layout of Konpeki Plaza impossible to follow. Back in the game, sneaking out of here had felt like navigating a damn maze.
Surely they didn't mean the rooftop attached to Yorinobu's suite. Even Adam Smasher wouldn't be left up there for long, much less ordinary guards.
Bzzz…
The glass door beside them gave off a strange jittering sound. It kept trying to close automatically, but never quite managed to shut.
"V, there's a camera ahead. Turn it off."
Luo Qi spoke in a whisper. V nodded, blue light flashing in his eyes. A few seconds later, the camera obediently retracted into its housing.
Luo Qi slipped forward in one clean motion, clamped a hand over the back-facing guard's mouth, snapped his neck, caught the falling weapon with the other hand, and dragged the body into the corner.
V followed right behind him and did the same to the netrunner standing by the planter, staring absently out at the rain.
"My turn."
Under V and Jackie's watchful eyes, Luo Qi planted both hands on the glass double doors that kept spasming uselessly.
After a light crack, he seemed to have broken some internal mechanism. The glass doors separated far enough to admit an adult.
Then he pushed open the only door in the wall beside them, looked up, and let out a delighted gasp.
"Oh, hell yes. Get over here."
They climbed the ladder inside a network shaft, shifted the cover at the top, and the rooftop of the meditation room came into view.
Beyond it lay the curtain of rain, the penthouse suite visible above them. They could even see the ladder V and Jackie had climbed down earlier, along with the section of wall the Octant had blasted apart.
Back against glass, with lush greenery outside and polished wood underfoot—on a clear night, someone standing here and looking out would have had a spectacular view of Night City.
"The rich really do invent all kinds of nonsense," V muttered.
"Careful. Keep your heads down!"
Luo Qi suddenly warned them.
The walls and railings here were all made of transparent glass. On the opposite side of the building, Arasaka soldiers were pacing around with rifles in hand.
Looking more closely, they could also make out conference rooms, connecting corridors, whole swathes of the floor laid bare from above.
They were moving silently across the rooftop above the very level where they had once infiltrated and escaped.
"Jesus, this is intense."
Jackie kept peeking around, and every time he caught sight of a guard passing beneath a skylight, he sucked in a sharp breath.
"Shh…"
Luo Qi peered through an open window. Below was a chandelier-lit room, and inside stood a fully armored elite special forces soldier carrying a heavy machine gun.
They moved on. Just beyond the long corridor around the bend was an open ventilation access room.
Luo Qi poked his head inside and lit up. "There's a path in here!"
Stepping carefully over tarp-covered crates, they entered a relatively spacious storage room.
A few paper reports lay scattered across the desk, and beside them sat a car chip.
"Emperor 620 Ragnar. Arasaka vehicle." V picked up the chip and identified it at once.
"Keep it. Could come in handy," Jackie suggested.
Gritting his teeth, Luo Qi eased the doorknob open as quietly as possible and took a quick look outside. His eyes lit with excitement.
"Well?"
Facing the door, Luo Qi took a moment to steady his breathing, then gestured as calmly as he could.
"To my right, there's one guard and a camera—at the front desk with the terminal. Forward-right, there's another guard. And straight ahead, inside that glass enclosure, there's one big bastard with a machine gun. Looks like he's in charge."
"I'll take the camera and the guard," V volunteered. He was the best hacker among the three of them.
"I'll handle the boss-type," Jackie said the moment he raised his hand, but Luo Qi stopped him.
"He's got a helmet on, full heavy armor, and his neck's covered tight. Normal methods won't work. You take the guard."
"Then how are you doing it?" Jackie widened his eyes. "With just that sword?"
"Yeah. With just this sword." Luo Qi met his gaze. "You still don't know your brother by now?"
"Yeah, but I've never seen you actually use a blade before…" Jackie still looked unconvinced. "I'll come help as soon as I finish mine."
"Trust Lucky. He can do it," V said.
Luo Qi bumped fists with both of them. "V goes first, Jackie second, me third. Don't clog the doorway. Got it?"
The other two nodded.
"One, two, three, move!"
The instant he said "three," Luo Qi pulled the door open.
V shot out first. The moment he stepped through, he caught the camera in his sights, blue light flashing in his eyes.
Jackie dropped the case, lowered his head, and charged like a bull, wrapping the guard in a bear hug and snapping his neck with sheer weight and force.
Luo Qi waited until the two of them had cleared his path and removed the enemy lines of sight. Then he slipped the glass door open soundlessly, moved behind the heavily armored Arasaka assault commander, and swept his leg hard into the man's hip and lower back.
The man had been bent over his PDA, completely off guard. The kick sent him sprawling flat on his back.
Luo Qi didn't hesitate for an instant. He planted one foot on the man's visor, drew the blade, and drove it straight into the exposed throat.
Shhk—
Blood sprayed up to the ceiling and splashed across Luo Qi's face and hair.
"Damn it!"
He sheathed the katana and wiped wildly at his face, then searched the corpse and found an access token.
V and Jackie took one look at the private room, its glass walls painted in blood, and both decided they really did not want to comment on it.
"Come on. We're heading down."
With the token, the elevator answered immediately.
Now that they had the access credential, even a Konpeki Plaza in full lockdown could no longer keep them from moving freely.
The elevator descended slowly.
The three of them let out a long breath, as if they had just stepped into a save point.
"Heh… hehehe…"
The tension finally left Jackie's gun hand. He lowered it and started laughing.
"What are you laughing at?" V asked.
"Saburo Arasaka lived a hundred and fifty years, and then today—today of all days—this happens. If this isn't movie material, I don't know what is." Jackie patted the Relic case. "Once we get out of here, we're set for life."
"When you used to say things like that, I always felt like you were dying mid-sentence. This version of you is much better. A lot better."
Luo Qi stood there with his hands on his hips, thoroughly pleased with himself.
"Used to? Have I said that before?" Jackie asked, confused.
"No." Luo Qi shook his head. "And you never will."
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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