Mission Complete

## Chapter 18 18. Mission Complete

Watching the face full of cybernetic eye implants explode in front of him, Karl shook his head, his body twisting to the side.

"Hey, you alright, KK!"

Oliver, faster than Jack, quickly supported Karl, looking at the Maelstrom member whose face had blossomed open, a bit taken aback. "That really does look like a blood flower blooming."

"Almost died there."

Karl felt an intense pain in his face, and his hand seemed to be dislocated. The Crusher's power and recoil were both too exaggerated. He only fired one shot, and his hands went numb.

"Let's get you up, Karl."

Jack came over to help Karl up, seeing his crooked nose and the torn cheek exposing bloody cross-sections. He reached out and pressed on Karl's nose.

"Bear with it."

Then, without giving Karl a chance to react, Jack forcefully snapped it. Karl felt a click in his head, and his nose was reset.

"Augh!"

The sharp pain made Karl scream, "Damn it, Jack, couldn't you give me a warning?!"

"Warning makes it hurt more."

Jack said with experience, a simple smile appearing on his face despite Karl's miserable expression. "How do you feel now?"

"Better, at least it's just pain, not throbbing."

Grimacing, Karl glanced at the fallen Maelstrom member and said, "Judging by the quality of his subdermal armor, this guy might be the leader of the Maelstrom here. Regular thugs probably can't afford subdermal armor that can withstand Copperhead shots. Maybe we can catch our breath for a bit."

"No wonder this job was worth 100,000 eddies. Damn, I thought that Corpo Dog was being generous, but it's this tough bastard. Copperhead couldn't even penetrate it. This thing costs at least 30,000 eddies." Jack changed his previous term for the employer, reverting back to Corpo Dog.

"It's okay, we've taken care of most of it. Now we just need to find the box and destroy it, and the remaining 70,000 eddies will be ours. We can split it up, and you'll have enough money to get some decent subdermal armor."

Karl patted Jack's shoulder. "But after we find the thing, we need to hurry and get Old Vic to treat us."

"Let's do as you say."

Oliver picked up the Crusher that Karl had dropped after firing it. "We can also try jacking into the corpses of those guys to see if we can grab the money from their personal accounts. Hopefully, their heads aren't too damaged, or we won't be able to read them, like this one."

"That might not work. I put a bullet in everyone's head."

Karl shrugged. "Speaking of which, why was that woman chasing you? Some romantic debt you owe?"

"Who knows? Anyway, they're all dead. Can't ask them. If they were alive, we could try to find a hacker to read the data."

While chatting, the three of them moved quickly. Jack, with his injured leg, went back along the way to pick up guns to sell, while Oliver and Karl, whose mobility wasn't an issue aside from a painful face, searched for the computer in the factory to access and read the records about the box.

It took Karl half an hour to find a computer on the first floor of the factory. Although he didn't find any information about the mission, he did see some interesting things.

It was a record of Maelstrom's recent attacks on various corporations and conflicts with various gangs.

'Maelstrom caused trouble in Kabuki District again yesterday,' these were the words Karl heard from the announcer when he first arrived in this world. Add to that the Sixth Street Gang's gun shipment being hijacked, which involved Oliver, and the Corpo Dog's box being stolen in this mission, and then factor in this series of records on the computer...

Maelstrom was preparing something, and it might be something big.

But that had nothing to do with him.

He was just a nobody who had arrived in Night City only two days ago and couldn't get involved in the affairs of a large gang with a total of more than 1,300 people. Although he had killed Maelstrom members, accumulating about twenty or so, it was still too few compared to their total number.

'I found the box.'

Oliver's communication came, along with the relevant location. After receiving the communication, Karl disconnected from the computer and casually fired a shot from Lexington to destroy its data.

Not for concealment, since their situation had already been exposed on the surveillance cameras, but just to test the power of the gun.

Lexington couldn't penetrate subdermal armor, but it had the ability to destroy computers. But judging by the way the bullet got stuck in the computer after hitting it...

'It's just passable.'

The penetration wasn't enough; maybe he really needed to get a new gun.

In his heart, Karl was already prepared to abandon this 'old flame' that he had only gotten two days ago.

When he arrived at Oliver's location, Jack had already arrived before him, and the box, identical to the one in the employer's information, was right in front of them.

Karl nodded to the two of them and then dialed the employer's number. After a few seconds, it was connected.

"How's the mission going?"

This number seemed to be a special one that the employer had set up specifically for this mission. As soon as it was dialed, they knew it was Karl calling.

"We've got the box. Do you need to verify it?"

"What does the box look like?"

Karl observed the box and reported the relevant data and the feature of the red flower pattern on the box.

"That's the box. Destroy it."

"Understood."

Karl nodded to Oliver, who walked to the access point in the room and connected to the room's surveillance system with their own access point to start recording.

Then Karl took a few steps back, Jack tied a few grenades to the side of the box, placed the box in a corner away from them, pulled the pins in one breath, and ran.

Five seconds later, the grenades exploded, and the box was blown to pieces. In the last split-second image before the explosion, Karl seemed to see some strip-shaped data chips inside, but all of this turned into ashes or fragments with the exploding fireball.

Oliver waited a moment, then unplugged the connection cable, transferring the video file to Karl, who forwarded it to their employer.

A dozen or so seconds later, Karl's call with the employer ended.

'You did a great job on this mission, no unnecessary curiosity, I'm very satisfied.'

Along with this message, Karl received a notification that seventy thousand eddies had been deposited into his account.

This employer was decisive, paying upon completion, honestly a pretty good employer.

"How'd it go?"

Oliver glanced at the debris, curious about the contents of the box, but more concerned with the payout.

"It's in, transferring your shares now."

The next second, Oliver received a notification that he had received twenty-three thousand three hundred eddies, and so did Jack.

"That leaves an extra hundred eddies that's hard to split evenly, let's use it for dinner, we can find a good restaurant tonight."

"I happen to know a few good places."

Jack agreed with Karl's suggestion, but added, "Just so you know, a hundred eddies might not be enough to cover it, I'll transfer some more."

"Forget it, I'll cover the extra."

With Karl's casual wave, their small team's first mission came to an end.

Mission reward:

One hundred thousand eddies.

P.S. I'll adjust the cyberware based on my own feeling, and the prices of other things as well, after all, the rewards for missions in the game and in the anime are too different, I hope you understand.