"Grrrraaaak—!"
With a brutal tearing noise, the motel's tightly shut diamond-pattern metal door was ripped open one-handed by the exosuit.
A joytoy in denim shorts who had been waiting at the entrance for customers took one look at Luo Qi, turned pale, and bolted.
This visitor clearly meant trouble.
He slowly climbed to the second floor, passed through a neon archway dripping with sexual innuendo, and stopped beside Room 204.
Luo Qi shot V a glance, then walked off in the opposite direction they had come from. V nodded and knocked on the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
No answer came, as if it were just an empty room with no one checked in.
V knocked again. "Open up. Let me in."
This time the door suddenly opened. A burly man in sunglasses stepped out, seized V by the arm, leaned out, and looked toward the stairwell.
No one was there.
"He's waiting."
Then he stepped aside, guarding the doorway.
That was one of Dexter's goons, a man named Oleg Darkevich. V and Jackie had seen him once before when they went to the Afterlife.
Pushing aside the cheap plastic bead curtain, they saw Dexter propped with one hand against the television. On the screen, the endless-talking Channel 54 anchorwoman was broadcasting news about Saburo Arasaka.
"Let us return to the biggest story of the week: the murder of Arasaka Corporation President and CEO Saburo Arasaka."
"According to reports, the head of the Japanese business giant was assassinated by unknown assailants inside the company-owned Konpeki Plaza hotel during what appeared to be a private family gathering. Saburo Arasaka's son, Yorinobu Arasaka, believes his father was murdered by one of the corporation's competitors, though his side has yet to provide evidence sufficient to support that claim."
"Market analysts suggest the assassination of the CEO may be a diversionary maneuver, drawing public attention away from the company's long-standing internal problems. After a short break, we will bring in experts to discuss Arasaka Corporation's strategy for overcoming this crisis."
Utter bullshit. Other than the fact that Saburo Arasaka was indeed dead, everything else was garbage.
Lies by the cartload, conspiracy theories, clickbait headlines… this was Night City's free media.
The only thing worth hearing was the objective fact that had actually happened. Every explanation layered on top of it was thick with agenda and manipulation.
"WNS, Channel 54, even the underground net… all of them are talking about you!" Dexter waved his cigar irritably, his tone hard as iron. "Where are the others? Still in the car?"
"You don't care whether we live or die, do you?" V stared at him coldly.
"You'd better watch your wording." Dexter raised his eyes. "Where's my chip?"
"Didn't get it," V said, sticking to the lines they had arranged beforehand.
"Hmph… that's at least some kind of good news." Dexter turned his back.
"Good news?" V asked in surprise.
Dexter paced while smoking, his voice full of fraying nerves. "Saburo Arasaka? Dead! Do you have any idea how enormous a mess you've dragged me into!?"
"You killed the fucking emperor! A fucking god!" Dexter flung his arm wide and growled. "Anybody with even the tiniest connection to this is fucking dead!"
"And whose garbage job was this!?" V finally exploded. "How the hell did you do your prep work, huh? Don't tell me you had no idea Saburo Arasaka was going to Konpeki Plaza!"
They had nearly died over and over again, terrified every second. If not for Luo Qi's backup plans, they would all be corpses several times over by now.
They had bled and fought their way through hell, and now this selfish fat bastard still had the nerve to threaten them.
"How the fuck was I supposed to know his personal schedule!?" Dexter shouted back, equally enraged. "And besides, who told you idiots to kill the old man!?"
"We didn't kill him!" V snapped through clenched teeth.
"Bullshit! Go tell that to the Arasaka ninjas hunting your asses!" Dexter crushed his cigar underfoot, furious beyond reason.
After a moment of silence, Dexter looked at V, then around the room. His voice abruptly calmed.
"All right. Everybody cool down. We gotta think strategically here." His massive body sank onto the sofa. "New place. New identities. But first…"
"Your face is a mess… blood all over it. The bathroom's over there. Wash up first."
V felt every hair on his body stand on end.
It was exactly like Lucky had said. Exactly.
"All right…"
He lowered his head and moved quietly into the bathroom.
Looking at his filthy, disheveled reflection in the mirror, V closed his eyes in exhaustion and braced both hands on the sink, letting out a pained sigh.
He turned on the tap. The water that came out smelled faintly strange, but it was at least clear enough.
He scooped up a handful of the cold water and splashed it across his hard, weathered face.
"V, you okay?"
Lucky.
"I'm exactly like you said…"
V lowered his brows, looked one last time at himself in the mirror, and forced a strange half-smile that wasn't really a smile.
"Don't be afraid. Even if the whole world sells you out, you've still got brothers like us."
Lucky's easy laughter came through the line.
"Okay."
V closed his eyes. The corners bent into crescents.
Meanwhile, in the main room—
"It's me…" Dexter was on the phone. "Yeah. The shuttle I booked."
"Tonight." He lit another cigar. "No, I can't wait till dawn. One seat. I can pay extra."
A moment later: "Spaceport. Platform Four. Got it…"
Suddenly, the door to Room 204 was kicked clean off its hinges.
Dexter hadn't even had time to turn around before the door smashed him flat to the floor.
Crash—bang—clatter.
"So where's our great boss planning to go?"
Luo Qi tore apart the ruined doorframe and strode in wearing a towering exosuit more than two meters tall, the top of it scraping the ceiling.
"V, do it."
The goon who had been waiting outside the bathroom door to ambush V raised his gun—but at that exact moment the bathroom door opened.
V put one bullet straight through his back. It punched clean through his chest.
"Uh—who are you? I didn't kill Saburo Arasaka, it was him, it was all him…"
Dexter writhed across the floor like a three-hundred-pound grub.
"No, no, no, little Dexter."
Luo Qi grinned savagely, walked over, crushed the dead goon's skull under several hundred kilos of alloy foot, then snatched Dexter up like a chicken and pinned him to the wall with one claw.
"Today, I came here specifically for you…"
…
"Target location reached."
On that rainy night, a MaxTac armored AV arrived at the intersection of Elan South Street.
On the corner glowed the No-Tell Motel, bathed in its lurid pink light.
One MaxTac officer equipped with a pair of triple-mounted external optical arrays stood below the second floor.
"Beginning target sea—"
BOOM!
CRASH!
The sudden blast cut off her transmission.
She looked up.
A section of the second-floor wall had burst outward in a storm of dust.
Flying glass, shattered concrete, twisted air-conditioning units, bent venetian blinds…
All kinds of debris rained down onto the street.
Among it all rolled one enormous black pig of a man, tumbling a very, very long way down the road.
She lowered her gaze and looked at the hole blasted open in the wall.
Standing there was a Militech exosuit.
Inside it, a young man drenched head to toe in blood.
"Target confirmed. Threat elimination authorized."
All six of her eyes glowed with an eerie green light.
Whoosh—
CLANG!
In an instant, the MaxTac officer in black gear shot upward.
Metal rang against metal.
In a storm of sparks, a translucent red shield stopped her lethal blade cold.
"Get down!"
Luo Qi slammed her back with the thermal cannon mounted on his right arm.
"V, take them and run! MaxTac's here!"
V stood behind him, breathing hard, fists covered in blood. "What about you?"
"Stop wasting time. You can't handle—"
Bang!
CLANG—!
Luo Qi barely managed to raise the shield before a kick smashed into the leg of the exosuit and drove him to one knee.
The cold gleam of a mantis blade was already at his throat.
The cannon's muzzle began to glow with blistering heat.
Whoosh!
But the phantom-like figure vanished instantly, narrowly avoiding the point-blank blast.
The MaxTac officer flipped backward and landed hanging from the jagged edge of the hole in the wall.
Seeing the opening, Luo Qi gritted his teeth, surged forward, and tried to kick her back down.
"Heh—ha!!"
BAM!
But the exosuit's speed was still its fatal flaw. Before he could fully accelerate, the woman used her monstrous strength to whip herself back up with a backflip and kick him square in the chest.
Shit!
For a split second, Luo Qi could not breathe. The impact was like being hit by a car. His vision blacked out, and he staggered backward.
The exosuit's back slammed into the wall with a heavy thud.
What kind of monster strength was that?
Luo Qi raised the cannon with difficulty and fired straight into the floor beneath them.
BOOM!
The entire floor gave way. Both him and the exosuit dropped five meters, smashing down onto the road outside the motel.
Chunks of concrete kept falling after them.
"AAAAAH—whoosh!"
BANG!
Luo Qi roared and fired a charged shot at the enemy while she was still off balance.
Whoosh—
She vanished again. The red blast obliterated the concrete bridge railing by the roadside, spraying shattered fragments everywhere.
She was impossible to track, like a ghost. One absurdly long mantis blade carved murderous arcs through the air.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The unbroken torrent of slashes cracked the shield again and again until even that bullet-deflecting defense was webbed with fractures.
Crack.
A very bad sound.
Luo Qi rammed forward with the shield, buying himself less than a second, and fired the thermal cannon again.
The enemy retreated over ten meters—but the exosuit began to tremble violently.
Looking down, Luo Qi saw that the thermal cannon's energy core had been punched clean through by the mantis blade. Molten, lava-like fuel was leaking out and becoming catastrophically unstable.
Damn it!
Luo Qi raised the cannon and aimed forward.
The locked-on MaxTac officer instantly began moving at high speed—but Luo Qi did not pull the trigger. Instead, he used the opening to dive out of the exosuit and flee.
CLANG!
A mantis blade tore through the air and arrived screaming toward him.
Luo Qi drew Satori, reversed his grip with both hands, and barely managed to parry her one-handed strike.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Dragged into close quarters, the enemy pressed him without the slightest intention of disengaging. Luo Qi scrambled to defend himself amid a storm of sparks and flashing steel.
Even the air itself seemed sharp enough to cut.
"Hah!!"
Then a foot slammed into the charging enemy's abdomen, hitting the thick armored plate there and kicking her violently backward.
That kick was payback for yours!
She stumbled several steps before regaining her balance.
What monstrous strength!
Inside her head, frenzy and confusion raged like a hurricane at sea. A devil long buried in her body was beginning to awaken under the intensity and cruelty of the fight.
But the man opposite her, the one holding the katana—he was retreating?
There was even the slightest trace of a smug smile on his face?
Still dazed, she shook her head and lowered her body like a stalking leopard.
But behind her now came a spreading warmth, and a fizzing sound like a power line shorting out.
She slowly turned.
The exosuit, now glowing a furious red from the inside, had begun to shine with blinding intensity.
BOOOOOOOM—!!!!
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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