The elevator slowed gradually.
They had reached the first-floor lobby.
With a soft hiss, the elevator doors slid open.
What came into view was not a squad of Arasaka soldiers, but Morel, drenched in blood from shoulder to hem.
"Ugh—hah, you scared the crap out of me…"
Jackie nearly flung the case out of his hands.
Even Luo Qi felt his heart skip before rolling his eyes.
"Where are Arasaka's special forces?"
"Taken care of."
Morel said no more and turned to lead the way.
Everywhere along the corridor were grotesquely mangled Arasaka corpses. Blood had splashed clear across the shamrock emblem on the walls, giving the whole scene a viciously mocking look. Even the cameras had not escaped. One after another had been smashed into sparking ruin, and Luo Qi even spotted one with a special-forces sidearm buried in it.
"¡Dios mío!…"
Jackie and V exchanged a glance, then looked fearfully at Luo Qi and Morel's backs.
"Did you do everything according to plan?" Luo Qi asked as he pressed the button for the parking level below ground.
Morel nodded. "I saw one Octant chase after it."
"Good."
"Attention! They've realized Saburo Arasaka isn't in the AV anymore!" T-Bug's voice finally came back over the channel, tight with anxiety.
"Bug? What happened on your end?" V asked at once.
"I flew it… toward the corp district…" T-Bug said, breath quickening. "They…"
There was the sound of a hand slamming onto a desk.
"Damn it. Fine, I broke that big toy you gave me."
During the time T-Bug had gone silent, she had been remotely piloting Saburo Arasaka's Rayfield Excalibur AV through Night City's airspace in a life-or-death chase with two Arasaka Octants that had realized something was wrong.
She had intended to pull off some kind of insane drift through the skyscrapers of Corpo Plaza, but she had not expected Arasaka Tower to be ringed with anti-air missiles. She overcompensated while evading, lost control, and ended up smashing the vehicle right into the front of Arasaka's headquarters.
"It's fine. The fact they didn't notice right away already bought us time," Luo Qi said, not sounding bothered in the slightest.
"More Arasaka reinforcements are heading over there. You need to get out now," T-Bug said as she started pulling feeds from nearby business cameras and hacking into NCPD communications. "NCPD's moving too. Be careful."
"We're leaving now." Luo Qi stepped out of the elevator, striding over the corpse of an Arasaka soldier sprawled in front of it. "V, the chip for that car—where is it? I've got an idea."
V's eyes flashed blue as he scanned the area. Finally his gaze fixed on one vehicle. "Emperor 620 Ragnar. All-wheel drive. Arasaka armored SUV model. It can tank most rifle rounds. Damn… what are you planning?"
"Delamain, proceed to a safe location and wait for us there," Luo Qi said.
"However, I would strongly advise you to board immediately," Delamain replied at his usual measured pace.
Luo Qi shook his head. "Please do as I say. Also, I suggest your company revise that idiotic rule about not changing routes mid-trip. Thanks."
Back then, Jackie had been trapped in a Delamain with no way to alter its route. If there had been a way to get him to Viktor, maybe he could have been saved.
Just like the bus from the news report—because its doors, windows, and temperature controls had malfunctioned, by the time it reached its stop every passenger inside had been found cooked alive.
That was the terrifying thing about AI. Without emergency overrides, the consequences could be catastrophic.
"Your suggestion has been received. Customer feedback has been recorded." Delamain revved its engine. "Vehicle activated. Choose Delamain, leave your troubles at the door."
"Quick, get in."
Luo Qi hurried the others into the Ragnar.
The instant the doors slammed shut, reinforcements arrived behind them. Arasaka soldiers started unloading on the tail of the Delamain combat cab ahead. Every bullet bounced harmlessly off its absurdly durable alloy and armored glass.
"V, follow Delamain," Luo Qi said, checking every direction.
V nodded and floored it, following the Delamain straight out of the garage.
"How many people did you kill?" Jackie asked in disbelief, plastered to the passenger-side window.
The road outside the garage was littered with dead Arasaka troops.
The scene was horrific. Rainwater had washed blood in every direction. The entire street had turned red.
"…"
Morel ignored Jackie completely.
Then, with a huge crash, a steel-wrapped figure burst out from the landscaped median lined with decorative night lights and smashed one fist into the front of Delamain's car, knocking its nose sideways.
After a brutal jolt, Delamain somehow managed to land back on all four wheels.
"Shit, it's Smasher!"
V slammed on the brakes so hard that everyone inside the Ragnar nearly got tossed around like dice.
"Road ahead blocked," Delamain announced, already reversing and ramming through the barricade behind it.
Two ordinary Arasaka cars went spinning away, and V's Emperor 620 Ragnar punched right through after the taxi.
As the engine climbed back up into a roar, the sound steadied everyone's nerves a little.
At that exact moment, Luo Qi rolled down the window, pulled out the sidearm he had taken off an Arasaka guard, and started firing in a clattering spray at the pavement just behind Delamain's rear bumper.
"I do not understand why you are doing this," Delamain said from the otherwise empty taxi.
"This is called misdirection!" Luo Qi shouted through gritted teeth into the wind.
On the empty night road, two cars were tearing forward one after the other.
To any observer, it looked exactly like Arasaka was chasing the people inside the front vehicle.
Who could possibly guess that the entire thing was staged?
"That's a good plan." V steadied the wheel and exhaled in relief.
Behind them, Konpeki Plaza and Arasaka's troops grew more distant as the two vehicles blended back into the night.
Unfortunately, trouble never comes alone.
Gunfire crackled again.
"One hostile aerial vehicle has locked onto us," Delamain warned.
Shots came screaming in from the sky behind them, inaccurate but persistent, slamming into Delamain's bodywork with sharp ricochets.
It was those hateful Arasaka Octants again, with two little Griffin drones flanking them.
"They locked onto you, not us," Luo Qi muttered.
He slammed a fresh magazine into the gun but did not lean out to return fire.
First, if he did that, the entire deception they had just set up would be ruined. Second, ordinary guns were essentially useless against armored gunships in the real world.
"Can't they just leave us the hell alone?" Jackie shouted.
"We made this much of a mess. Why would Arasaka leave us alone?" V snapped back.
Luo Qi placed a call.
"Yeah, it's Lucky. Right now. Get out here immediately." He checked the map on his PDA. "We're at the intersection of California and Cartwright. Wait for us at Clarendon. We're in an Arasaka Emperor 620 Ragnar. There may be a Delamain in front of us. One Arasaka Octant is on our tail."
He hung up.
"Lucky, who were you talking to?" Jackie asked.
"Regina's people. They'll come pick us up soon." Luo Qi looked up toward the Octant, worry flickering across his face. "V, head south."
V nodded.
Up ahead, the Delamain had already popped open the honeycomb launcher hidden in its trunk and was firing upward in constant bursts.
Now that was a real combat taxi—not just an armored turtle shell that left all the fighting to the passengers.
One of the smaller Griffin drones flying alongside the Octant was struck by cannon fire, exploded in a shower of sparks, hit the road, and rolled away trailing black smoke.
Delamain's roof was covered in fresh bullet scars, and yet somehow the inside of the vehicle still looked practically untouched.
Maybe the Octant's guns were too small-caliber. Maybe Delamain's armor was just that ridiculous. Either way, the steel can truly was absurdly tough—exactly what you would expect from a vehicle built to operate in active war zones.
Then a voice came over Luo Qi's earpiece. His expression lit up instantly. He stopped pretending to fire and ducked back into the car.
At the T-junction ahead, a chunky van rolled out from the turn.
"V, pull alongside that van. I'm jumping over."
"What?" V thought he had misheard him—or maybe simply could not believe it. "What are you doing?"
"Keep parallel to the van! I'm jumping over!" Luo Qi shouted again.
"All right!"
V had no idea what Luo Qi was planning, but by this point nobody questioned his decisions anymore.
From the preparation phase all the way through the escape, Luo Qi's planning had been absolutely critical.
No one doubted him now.
"Hold steady. I'm jumping."
Luo Qi climbed out the window and onto the roof of the Ragnar, then sighted the open sliding side door of the van, accounted for a little forward drift, and launched himself.
His forearms smashed into the van's door frame with a loud bang, and his whole body slammed straight inside.
Pure Jackie Chan behavior.
"I made it!" Luo Qi shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Holy shit, that was a real stunt! You belong in movies!" Jackie yelled right along with him.
"So what now?" V asked, wrenching the steering wheel into the turn.
The three vehicles rounded the big curve at Clarendon and entered the southern coastal road of Watson.
Here, the three bridges crossing the bay and even the rail line had all been blocked by NCPD. The bridges were crawling with cops.
"I'm about to show you something really beautiful!"
Luo Qi shoved open the van's rear door and climbed into the exoskeleton bolted into the cargo bay.
"That's the Militech exosuit, isn't it?" V stole one stunned glance at it before forcing his eyes back to the road.
"Yep. If it kneels down, it'll fit inside a van."
Luo Qi was panting as he forced his limbs into position.
"And now… heh… now it becomes a fixed gun turret!"
It was a desperate solution, but he had no better one. The thermal cannon and power core were integrated into the frame. He had no tools and no skilled technician to detach and mount them on the van's roof, so this was the only option.
The thermal cannon lifted and bumped against the van's roof, lining itself up on the Arasaka Octant chasing them above.
He squeezed the trigger.
The barrel began glowing with a furious red heat as the charge built up.
"Eat shit!"
The front armor of the Octant melted almost instantly. Circuit boards and control systems were ruined, its flight posture collapsed, and it plummeted to the street with an enormous crash, tumbling into a wreck.
The second shot punched straight through one of the little Griffin drones flitting nearby.
T-Bug let out a low whistle over the channel.
"Oh hell yes!" Jackie pumped both fists.
V let out a long breath. "We finally shook them."
A combat taxi, an armored SUV, and a grimy old van tore through the empty streets of Little China.
Their tires hissed over the soaked road.
"Careful—NCPD's deployed MaxTac. Arasaka must've called them in," T-Bug warned suddenly.
"Arasaka calling the cops… somehow that sounds wrong." Luo Qi laughed tiredly as he hauled himself back out of the exoskeleton and told the van driver, "Follow that taxi ahead. We're going to the No-Tell Motel."
After less than ten minutes of weaving through Night City's backstreets, they pulled into a filthy parking lot.
A few homeless people lurked nearby, their sour-smelling bedding stuffed under overhangs beside piles of trash. Rusted-out car husks lined the curb, and the motel's pink neon cast the rain in a grimy, eerie glow.
"Wait."
V stopped everyone from getting out and patched an incoming call into the shared channel.
"What the hell happened? The news is full of Konpeki," Evelyn Parker's voice came over the line.
"Saburo Arasaka got murdered by his own son. What else do you think happened?" Jackie clearly had no liking for her.
"Where are you now? Did you get out? What about the Relic?" Evelyn asked urgently.
At that point Luo Qi stopped V and spoke instead. "The Relic's with us. We're going to see Dexter."
"No. Don't go to him." Evelyn's voice dropped at once. "I can't talk freely where I am… but listen—ditch him. I'll give you half."
Half meant fifty percent. Compared to the thirty-five they were supposed to get, that extra fifteen was an astronomical amount.
"We'll think about it." Luo Qi signaled to V to cut the call.
"What is it, Lucky?" V asked, not understanding.
"In Night City, ditching a fixer is never a good idea," Jackie said.
"That's not the reason." Luo Qi shook his head. "Originally, stealing the Relic was supposed to be a clean operation. Before Yorinobu—or even Arasaka as a whole—could react, the Relic would already be in the client's hands."
"But now something much bigger has happened. Saburo Arasaka is dead. Murdered." Luo Qi looked at them both. "Do you think Yorinobu's going to admit he strangled him himself? Of course not. That means it all gets pinned on us."
"Then the Relic…" Jackie stared.
Luo Qi leaned back against the seat, looking utterly exhausted.
"This is the last time I'll ever be able to see ahead like this… Dexter? He's going to sell us out."
"What?" V said, unable to believe it.
"No way," Jackie muttered, equally stunned.
"Bug, you're listening, right?" Luo Qi asked softly, eyes closed.
There was no answer.
"…"
"You've known Dexter for years," Luo Qi continued, sorting through the chaos in his head. "Since before he vanished for those two years, right? Jackie. V. Now do you understand why it was the three of us who got sent to Konpeki?"
"Son of a bitch! That dog-bastard planned this from the start!" Jackie erupted.
In other words, from the very beginning, Dexter had never intended to pay them.
"Are you sure?" V asked, clinging to the smallest scrap of hope.
Luo Qi answered with his eyes alone.
V exhaled and pulled his pistol from his pocket, chambering a round.
"Bug. You knew too, didn't you?" Luo Qi said quietly, without anger or sorrow. "Fixers grab whatever clients they can, hire the cheapest idiots to do the work, then dump the bodies in a landfill…"
"Stop." T-Bug cut him off. "Dexter and I have talked about this before. And I've been watching him—he might've been planning to dump me too. Besides, why do you think I've been working so hard from the start? As long as we've got the Relic, there'll always be buyers."
"So what are you saying?" V asked.
"If Dexter means to sell us out, then he's not getting any goodwill from me either," T-Bug said heavily. "If he doesn't, then we part ways clean and get paid. If he does… well. Then we'll deal with that."
"I'm afraid on this one point, I'm more certain than anything else," Luo Qi said with a bitter smile. "Looks like your luxury apartment fund is getting delayed."
"But right now, the real issue isn't the Relic. It's Yorinobu Arasaka."
V and Jackie both looked at him in confusion. Even Morel, who had remained silent the whole time, turned her eyes toward him.
"No matter how valuable, advanced, and unique the Relic is, it still came out of an Arasaka lab. Which means Arasaka can reproduce it." Luo Qi stared out the window at the city lights far beyond. "A single Relic might sell for one hundred million, several hundred million, maybe more—because nobody else has one. But for Arasaka to remake something it has already created? That's trivial. Anything money can solve is not a real problem for them, and Arasaka controls hundreds of billions of eurodollars."
"What Yorinobu has to face next isn't us. It's a brutal internal corporate war." Luo Qi shook his head. "We're just ordinary people. We can't even begin to imagine what that kind of struggle inside a transnational financial empire looks like. But if even a sliver of that pressure leaks out between their fingers, it could destroy the lives of hundreds or thousands of normal people."
"Then we kill them first," V said coldly, gripping his gun.
"Standing against Arasaka… hell, before all this, I wouldn't even have dared to think it." Jackie laughed weakly. "These last few days feel like a dream."
"I don't care either way," Morel said flatly. "Militech. Arasaka. Same thing."
"You people are unbelievable…" T-Bug sighed. "Figure out what you're doing right now first. Dexter's still waiting for you."
Luo Qi stepped out of the vehicle, cut the restraints on the van, climbed back into the exosuit, and waved off the bored driver, signaling that he could leave. Then he turned to the others.
"There's still one thing left to do. And on this, I'm completely confident."
"What?" V asked.
Luo Qi raised the exosuit's thermal cannon in his right arm and the bulletproof shield in his left.
"We go grind Dexter Deshawn, that fat pig, into paste."
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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