"What happened?"
The gunfire from downstairs naturally alerted the attackers on the fifth floor. At the very least, they could tell the difference between gunfire from below and gunfire from the floor beneath them.
"Someone came up?"
"How is that possible? None of the mines or sensors from the first to third floors were triggered!"
"Number Three has lost all vital signs. Someone's downstairs!"
"Get to the stairs!"
There were three attackers upstairs. Aside from the rocket launchers beside them, already emptied of rockets, each of them carried a Shingen Smart Submachine Gun. They had been happily spraying the mercenaries below, who were desperately scrambling for cover, when someone unexpectedly slipped up right beside them.
"Stop attacking the mercenaries. Deal with whoever came up first!"
Just as the attackers were about to move, the floor beneath their feet suddenly bulged upward. Then the blast wave from an explosion swept up from below and engulfed them.
After the gunfire began, the attackers spent one second determining where it had come from, another second confirming the death of Number Three on the fourth floor, and two more seconds deciding to head for the stairs and deal with the intruder. They had wasted a full four seconds, and four seconds were enough for Carl to do many things.
Such as slicing through a lampshade with Monomolecular Wire, pulling the pin from a grenade, and tossing it into the light fixture above her head.
One should return courtesy with courtesy. They had blasted her with rocket launchers, so she had merely returned the favor with a grenade.
Carl felt she was simply too virtuous.
Amid the flames spreading across the fifth floor, two attackers died on the spot. Even Carl, who had rushed onto the fifth floor, had not expected that.
"Too tightly packed. Die together."
Looking at the sole attacker still lying there and gasping, his right hand blown off and his Shingen nowhere to be found, Carl raised the Shingen she had just picked up to prevent him from having the strength to launch a final counterattack.
"Only three? Fewer than I expected."
Gunfire rang out, and the last attacker on this floor sank into a deep "sleep."
"Oliver, they're all asleep."
Keeping the squad comms open, Carl immediately gave Oliver and Jack the good news after clearing the enemies from the floor.
"We're exchanging fire with them while using vehicles and houses as cover. Carl, there's a sniper on the third floor of the apartment building across from you. He's already used a Kitsune Sniper Rifle to blow the heads off three people. Can you deal with him?"
"A Kitsune Sniper Rifle?"
Tsunami Kitsune: A precision tech sniper rifle. Though it required frequent maintenance, the Tungsten Nail Rounds it fired could pierce the thickest armor and walls, smashing a Titanium Skeleton to pieces. No one could rest easy in the face of its power. Due to its threat level, sales of this rifle were tightly regulated. Unless one worked for a corporation or the government, it was nearly impossible for an ordinary mercenary to get one.
In other words, the people who could get their hands on this gun were mostly corporate or government personnel.
Thinking of the expensive Shingen Smart Weapons and the rocket bombardment, Carl felt these attackers were being far too excessive.
With this kind of capability, why not wait for us mercenaries to arrive and attack the professional security personnel instead? Why use it all on us mercenaries?
Or was someone else handling the security personnel, while these people were enough to deal with them?
As she thought, Carl walked to the apartment's blown-open balcony and looked toward the third floor of the apartment building opposite her. Sure enough, there was a sniper holding a Kitsune Sniper Rifle, draped in a cloak, his glowing red cybernetic eyes continuously locking onto the mercenaries below.
Wasn't a sniper supposed to change positions after every shot? Why wasn't this guy moving?
As Carl thought that, she saw bullets fired by the mercenaries below strike the sniper. Yet the bullets actually bounced off his "body."
Something's wrong. That thing is...
Through the bullet holes in the cloak, Carl saw what lay beneath. Judging from the pitted "body" reflecting a metallic sheen, that thing was actually an Exoskeleton Combat Suit.
Carl had once seen exoskeleton clothing in a clothing store in northern Watson District, but those exoskeleton garments were generally expensive, offered poor protection, and required additional cyberware connections to function. They could not compare in the slightest to the Exoskeleton Combat Suit worn by this sniper.
Most likely military-grade gear again.
Damn it. Even if us mercenaries all knew this was a deadly job, did it have to be this deadly?
Just as Carl was wondering whether to throw a grenade over, one of the mercenaries below had the same idea. He pulled a grenade from his waist, rushed out of cover, and raised his arm to throw it toward the sniper. His courageous act turned him into a corpse missing its head and upper body the instant the grenade left his hand.
The grenade that mercenary had placed such high hopes on was scanned by the sniper's cybernetic eyes in midair, then detonated with a single shot.
As the sniper raised his rifle, his gaze lifted as well. Then his red eyes flashed, and he scanned Carl.
"Damn it!"
Without hesitation, Carl rolled backward. The next instant, the balcony where she had been standing was shattered by the massive impact of a bullet. A stone balcony two meters long and one meter wide was so fragile before the Kitsune's round. After the bullet passed through, its intact form was gone, leaving only a pile of stone fragments crashing down below.
That bullet did not merely shatter the balcony. Its penetrating power also punched straight through the fifth-floor ceiling of the apartment building. After rolling aside, Carl looked up and could actually see Night City's sky, horribly polluted by light, through the huge hole blasted into the ceiling.
"Oliver, that sniper has an exoskeleton! A military-grade exoskeleton!"
"What? Military-grade? I knew this job was deadly."
Oliver seemed to be in a firefight as well. After he cursed, Jack's voice came over the comms. "Carl, if it's military-grade exoskeleton armor, keep yourself safe first. Maine, Oliver, and I are moving toward that apartment building. We'll be there soon. We'll take him out then. Just support us from upstairs."
"There are mines and sensors on the stairs. It won't be easy to get up there. And that sniper rifle—Jack, your Subdermal Armor can't stop it."
Carl holstered the Shingen submachine gun at her waist and drew Kenshin.
"Let me try first. I haven't even fired a shot, and he already gave me one. I really can't swallow that."
"What are you planning, Carl?"
Jack heard something off in Carl's tone.
"I'm planning a Wild West duel."
If getting hit meant death, then she just had to avoid getting hit.
What was the big deal? It was just a no-hit run.
Carl jumped down through the shattered floors until she reached the third floor. Then, listening to the gunfire, she acted the moment she heard the Kitsune fire again.
She did something utterly reckless.
After firing a shot from Kenshin to shatter the obstruction on the third-floor balcony, she broke into a sprint.
With shattered stone flying everywhere, Carl stepped onto the edge of the balcony and then launched herself into the air.
"Hello."
In midair, Carl raised her gun a step faster than the sniper raised his Kitsune.
Before you continue