Two Choices

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As the burly man pulled the trigger, countless bullets flew out like a surging swarm of bees, blasting through David's car windows.

Fortunately, David and his mother had noticed something was wrong a moment earlier and ducked down in advance.

They could only watch as a hail of bullets passed through both sides of their car windows and flew over their heads.

Clang! Clang! Clang! The bullets struck the Militech sedan, throwing up a few sparks before ricocheting away. They left several shallow dents but failed to penetrate the doors.

Naturally, the Militech people weren't going to sit there and take it. The driver floored the gas and sped out of the machine gun's firing range.

"Don't let them get away! Those corpo dogs' sedans are armored!"

The armed Black man roared. The bearded white man who had climbed out through the sunroof immediately raised the rocket launcher in his hands and aimed it at the Militech sedan ahead.

"Jackie, that white guy has the same hairstyle as you," V teased at the sight.

"Fine, I'll admit he's got pretty good taste in hairstyles." Seeing that the mother and son were largely unharmed, Jackie finally relaxed and took the opportunity to praise his own aesthetic sense.

Boom!

The rocket launcher fired. The rocket hit the rear of the Militech sedan and detonated, the massive impact flipping the car forward until it stood upright on its nose in the middle of the road.

The Beast Gang's sedan swerved aside, but David's family car behind it wasn't so lucky. It was struck by the Militech sedan and flipped over.

"Let's go. We're getting them out."

Bzzzt— Jackie immediately pulled over to the side and turned on the hazard lights.

The little yellow car had flipped completely upside down. Still inside, David painfully opened his eyes. Blood trickled down from his head, and through his rebooting cybernetic eye, he could see his mother lying motionless on the ground some distance away.

"Mom!" David shouted with all his strength as he tried to crawl out through the window.

Just then, a projection shone down. The Trauma Team AV that had been waiting in the sky slowly descended, and several Trauma Team paramedics filed out to locate the injured.

David let out a long breath, but the next second, the paramedic in front of him said something that filled him with despair.

"This one isn't a client. Neither is this woman. Leave them for the body wagon."

Then the paramedic hurried away.

"Hey! Hey!" David cried out urgently, trying to call the medic back.

"Mom, wake up! Get up, please!"

"Damn it, get up!"

David struggled desperately to get out, but his seat belt seemed to have jammed.

Just then, a shadow fell across David's blood-smeared face.

"Need a hand?"

David struggled to raise his head and saw a handsome young man smiling at him. His naturally curly hair was somewhat long, and there wasn't a single implant visible on his face. He looked as clean as a natural-born.

"Yes!" David answered quickly, only to see the young man take out a knife and begin cutting his seat belt. "No, save my mom first! She's over there!"

"Don't panic." Chu Ke shifted slightly, revealing the scene behind him. Only then did David see that his mother had already been helped up by a burly man and a white-haired girl. "My friends are handling things over there."

In the dim corridor, a few sparks spat from the emergency exit sign.

Chu Ke looked at the filthy cracks in the floor and the stubborn bloodstains that couldn't be scrubbed away. It was hard to imagine this was a hospital.

It was nothing more than an underground clinic.

David had brought them here, saying his mother knew someone here.

So Chu Ke and the others went along with it and brought David's unconscious mother over.

David's injuries weren't serious, only a mild concussion. After the doctor quickly bandaged the wound on David's head, he went to check on his mother.

At that moment, David sat quietly beside Chu Ke, staring at the floor, while V and Jackie claimed they needed to use the restroom and left first.

"Oh, I forgot to thank you." David snapped out of his daze and smiled gratefully at Chu Ke. "Once my mom wakes up, I'll pay you back for the medical bills."

The doctor here charged very little, but it was still more than David could currently afford. They had only chosen the cheapest package, and Chu Ke's group had paid in advance.

"It's fine." Chu Ke smiled. "Add me as a contact."

With his abilities, he had no need for a neural interface or cybernetic eyes. He could connect directly to the Net with his own body, then use Fundamental Forces to create a legitimate account.

"Sure!" After adding Chu Ke, David asked curiously, "By the way, how old are you, Brother Chu?"

He had just learned the names of the three people who had saved him and his mother. V, whom he had initially thought was a girl, was actually a man. When David had called him "miss," he had nearly gotten hit. David had no idea why V disliked it yet had altered his appearance to look feminine.

Maybe it was some kind of fetish.

"I'm eighteen this year." This body really was eighteen. As for his previous life? What a joke. A young man was always eighteen, okay? "Huh?" David was surprised too. From Chu Ke's bearing, he had assumed Chu Ke had gotten surgery to look younger. He hadn't expected them to be around the same age.

At that moment, footsteps sounded from the corridor. Chu Ke and David turned their heads to look. V had returned from supposedly going to the restroom.

There were a few blood splatters on him now, and each step he took left bloody footprints behind.

David was startled, but Chu Ke teased him as if he had expected it. "Finished taking care of your biological needs?"

"If killing scavengers counts as taking care of biological needs, then yeah, I'm done," V replied indifferently.

"Just tell me whether it felt good. By the way, where's Jackie?"

"There." V jerked his chin toward the operating room. "He's guarding the place."

"What exactly happened?" David was still completely lost.

"Why don't you go take a look yourself?"

Chu Ke stepped forward and kicked open the tightly shut door, revealing the emergency room beyond.

David had wanted to stop him, but after thinking it over, he hurriedly followed.

Inside the emergency room, the walls were covered in mottled bloodstains. Sealed plastic bags held all kinds of bloodied cyberware, while an open freezer nearby revealed dripping organs.

Fresh blood covered the floor. A group of white-coated people wearing masks lay in pools of blood, and David's mother was lying on the operating table in the middle of it all.

Jackie, who had supposedly gone to the restroom, was holding a gun to the head of a surviving "doctor," making him bandage David's mother's wounds.

David was no stranger to scenes like this. At a glance, he recognized that this wasn't an underground clinic at all—or rather, it was a front for scavengers who stole patients' organs and cyberware. His mother had been the next victim.

Fortunately, Jackie and V had stormed in beforehand, saving both him and his mother from tragedy.

"How is she?" Chu Ke asked Jackie.

"She's stable." The muscles on Jackie's face were twisted tight. "Maldito bruto! Damn animal!"

"That's good."

The next instant, Chu Ke somehow produced a pistol and shoved it into David's trembling hands.

"We have our own things to do. You have two choices now."

"First, shoot this damn scavenger, then come with us and take your mother to another hospital for further treatment."

"Second, we leave, and you and your mother stay here waiting for this surviving scavenger to call someone and continue his work. Of course, this time, you'll probably end up on the operating table with her."

That wraps things up. Updates will return to 4k tomorrow!

Try guessing what David will get from Chu Ke this time~ (∠ω<)⌒☆