He's Playing You

Lucy's hand trembled, and she almost dropped the cigarette she was holding: "He's spotted us. Should we move?"

"What?! Okay." Kiwi was startled at first, then silent for a moment. "No need. Mann sent me a message saying they're all acquaintances, good friends."

"Is that so?" Lucy didn't say anything more, but looked solemnly at the three figures walking away in the distance.

On the other side, Chu Ke and the others were heading towards the southeast gate. David kept turning back, looking at the van in the distance.

"What's wrong?" V asked curiously. "Running into acquaintances?"

"Not really... I just feel like there are important people sitting in there." David was also a little puzzled, with an intuition telling him that the people in that van were extremely important to him.

Chu Ke glanced at David but didn't say anything.

That's your future wife, you silly kid.

So this is the sixth sense? Interesting.

The three arrived not far from the southeast gate, where they could see a huge iron gate embedded in a thick concrete wall, with electrified anti-climb barbed wire and surveillance cameras placed at intervals.

A transport truck with the Arasaka Corporation logo happened to arrive and parked in front of the gate. The driver got out of the truck and was registering and verifying with the gatekeeper.

"Now's the time. Find a way to get on the truck. I've already hacked into their biometric monitoring devices, so it won't trigger any alarms," a voice came from the earpiece.

"Phew."

David and V took a deep breath at the same time and activated the Sandevistan Technique.

In that instant, the world gradually slowed down in their eyes.

David's skill proficiency was not as good as V's. Even with the technique activated, there was still a delay in V's eyes.

V waved his hand in front of his eyes, and it took a while for David to react.

"Every time I try this, I feel like I'm awesome," V said with a satisfied voice, then seemed to remember something and turned to look at Chu Ke.

"Why are you looking at me?" Chu Ke asked him in confusion, his hands in his pockets, his smoothness even making V wonder if he hadn't activated the technique.

"Nothing, just being honest." V's lightheadedness gradually stabilized, and he pretended nothing had happened, actively adjusting to the same frequency as David.

"Let's go."

"Okay!" David excitedly shook his feet, and the two of them went forward together and climbed under the truck.

Because of their speed, they didn't attract the attention of the driver and security guard at all.

Chu Ke didn't care. As long as he wanted, he could only be seen by those he wanted to see him, so he followed along with his hands in his pockets and walked to the side of the truck.

He casually tickled V's armpit, who was hanging under the truck.

"Damn it, Chu Ge, stop it!" V whispered to Chu Ke through gritted teeth. "If I fall, I'll have to go all out!"

"Go all out then. As long as no one alive sees you, what's the difference between that and sneaking in?"

"...You're a bit too extreme. I'd say you've been playing too much Assassin's Creed."

"It's not that I'm extreme, it's that your playstyle is too cowardly. A cyberpunk punching bag, are you?"

V was silent for a moment, then asked, "This is fucking My World, not a real game where the wanted status automatically disappears after hiding for a while. Where am I supposed to run if I cause trouble?"

"Ehehe."

"...A bit nauseating, Chu Ge. Next, I'm going to insult a two-word game."

"Where are they?" Lucy was stunned again. She only saw the three people in front of her flicker, like the twitching of an old monitor screen, and then suddenly disappear.

However, the well-informed she managed to find a matching cyberware from her memory: "Sandevistan?"

"Most likely." Kiwi in the back seat nodded, she thought so too: "These people are all equipped with Sandevistan. It seems Mann has met some incredible friends."

Lucy didn't speak, only felt more and more uneasy.

Having such advanced cyberware, yet taking on such low-level jobs, is very strange.

Moreover, the young man with the spiky hair among the three gave her a very... strange feeling.

Was it someone she knew before?

The truck was registered and scanned.

Red light quickly swept across David and V's bodies. V, who was close to David, clearly heard David nervously swallowing.

Fortunately, the hacker team was strong enough, and the monitoring device did not alarm, but just skipped over the two.

The truck started slowly, and the airtight door opened.

From the perspective under the car, you can see the shoes of the security personnel walking by.

With a burst of shaking, the truck drove into the factory, and stopped again after a while.

Arrived at the unloading area.

V naturally had the map sent by the employer, and immediately greeted David to activate the Sandevistan Technique together. The two once again turned into afterimages, crawled out from under the car, and plunged into the corridor not far away, opened the employee locker room and drilled in.

Chu Ke had been waiting here for a long time.

"We're in the locker room." V said into the headset, "Is there enough time?"

"Yes, I found out that Arasaka Corporation's convoy also came to this factory today. You can put on clothes with logos. Next, I will temporarily insert your employee information, but it won't last too long. The firewall will self-check in ten minutes."

"Roger."

The two immediately found a few suits and put them on. David's figure was okay and he was from Arasaka Academy, he really had the flavor of a corporate dog; as for V, needless to say, he was originally from a corporate dog, this is just called the original skin returning.

Chu Ke looked at the two, shook his clothes, and a similar but more fitting suit was put on himself out of thin air.

Second-hand men's clothes, except for emergencies and gays, no one would want to wear them, and Chu Ke was no exception.

"Phew, so exciting!" David was doing this kind of thing for the first time, and it felt very much in line with his image of a spy.

However, David's expression was a bit strange when he put on Arasaka's suit in this way.

I don't know what his mother would think if she saw it.

"Let's go, to the host room." V took the lead and led David towards the door.

Chu Ke suddenly raised his eyebrows.

There's a show to watch.

V pressed on the doorknob and pushed hard.

Due to the temperature difference between the air inside and outside the house, a gust of hot air blew in along the outward-opening corridor, mixed with sand and dust, pouring into the cloakroom.

Along with the wind and sand, what entered V and David's eyes was a tall figure nearly three meters tall, whose entire body was so heavily cybernetically modified that it was difficult to tell if he was human.

Adam Smasher, Night City's legendary quality inspector, the true widowmaker, Rebecca-chan's manufacturer, the Hammer of Many.

The wind seemed to stop at this moment.

Adam Smasher turned his head to look at the three people in the dressing room, looked them up and down, and his cybernetic eyes began to scan: "You guys are also part of the tour group? I don't seem to remember there being three of you?"

David swallowed, not daring to say anything. During his training days in the space, he had learned all sorts of information from V, including this living legend, Adam Smasher.

We wanted to ask you, what the hell are you doing here?

"Yeah," V stared directly into Adam Smasher's red eyes. "Our names are on the list."

"..." Adam Smasher was silent for a moment, seemingly searching for something, before finally saying after a moment.

"Indeed, you're on it. Hurry up and go to the central control room."

David breathed a sigh of relief.

Just then, Adam suddenly revealed a cruel smile and raised a shoulder cannon at the three of them: "Just kidding, the two little rats outside the door have already been caught, and your heartbeat was really loud just now."

"Happy, aren't you? The illusion of getting away with it."

Immediately afterward, Adam Smasher was stunned.

In his expectation, the three people should have scurried away like rats, but at this moment, apart from that thorny kid who was panicking, the other two didn't even change their heart rate.

V slowly approached Chu Ke, covered his mouth with his hand, and whispered, "Chu Ge, he's messing with you."