Compensation and Loyalty

11. Compensation and Loyalty

Under Carl's gaze, the Psycho Squad members standing in place did not hesitate for long.

When the first group of teammates roared and charged at Carl, commands and orders quickly rang out beneath their masks. Then, they moved.

Had they chosen to join their teammates in attacking Carl and the others?

No.

These Psycho Squad members who still retained some semblance of reason had not forgotten their duty.

What was their duty?

Fight violence with violence. Eliminate Cyberpsychosis.

And was there any Cyberpsychosis here now?

Yes.

The shifting indoor lights cast blood-red patches across the Psycho Squad's uniforms, their figures flickering through the smoke of gunfire like grim reapers.

Fight violence with violence. Eliminate Cyberpsychosis. This duty, drilled into every Psycho Squad member upon joining, now burned in their minds.

Was there any Cyberpsychosis now?

The answer from their visor scanners was cold and certain: yes.

Beneath identical tactical helmets, once-familiar call signs were turning into crazed howls.

But what of it? To the Psycho Squad, dealing with deranged teammates was as commonplace as replacing damaged cyberware. Their record chips contained hundreds of similar cleanup operations, each one as precise as removing defective products from an assembly line.

Even if the number of cyberpsychos who had lost control tonight had surpassed every historical peak, the Psycho Squad's fingers remained as steady as precision hydraulic machinery, without the slightest tremor.

Their bodies were swallowed by Optical Camouflage, turning into blurred, distorted patches of light. Only when Mantis Blades snapped out did their edges refract a cold glint of death beneath the neon—and faster than the blades were the smart SMGs that had already locked on.

Before the hum of their chambers could spread, bullets had already torn through the air.

As though endowed with malicious life, those