Oh, Lucy

Only then did the report of the Cat Mat Tech Sniper Rifle finally drift over.

Almost everyone in the room blanched in shock.

Almost, because the instant that Sixth Street Gang member was sent flying, Su Xiao and Jack sprang into action.

Su Xiao kicked the man behind him in the calf, forcing him to his knees.

Then he drove his knee upward, slamming it into the man's face.

As the man clutched his face and howled, Su Xiao drew the pistol from his holster and sent him to the afterlife with two quick shots.

On the other side, Jack struck at the same time.

He elbowed another Sixth Street Gang member in the head, then grabbed the man's head with both hands while he was dazed and gave it a vicious twist.

A sharp crack rang out as bone snapped.

Malmer reacted quickly.

He raised his gun at Su Xiao.

But before he could pull the trigger-

V's covering shot reached him first.

A spray of blood erupted from his hand.

Blood, shredded flesh, and pieces of the shattered pistol flew everywhere.

Su Xiao pounced like a cheetah.

His Power Gauntlet slammed into Malmer's chest.

The blow sent him flying.

Nearly every bone in Malmer's chest had probably been shattered.

But he was a veteran with Military-grade cyberware implanted in his body, making him far tougher than an ordinary person.

An ordinary person could never have survived that punch from the Power Gauntlet, yet he actually managed to get back up and tried to fight back.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Su Xiao crossed his arms in front of him, lowered his head, and charged.

Bullets struck his Power Gauntlets, scattering sparks.

Without his dominant hand, Malmer's accuracy had suffered badly.

Su Xiao closed in and kicked the pistol out of Malmer's hand.

Then he grabbed Malmer's head with his Power Gauntlet and lifted him off the floor.

He pressed him against the wall, then dragged him hard to the side.

A deep groove was gouged into the wall, filled with horrifying streaks of blood.

Su Xiao let go.

Malmer's corpse slid down the wall to the floor, already lifeless.

The Sixth Street Gang reinforcements stationed near the shady hotel heard the gunfire too.

But before they could act-

A dense hail of bullets suddenly became a torrent of metal, tearing through the walls and sweeping in from every direction.

The Sixth Street Gang was caught completely off guard.

Earlier, when Su Xiao and Jack went to the shady hotel, they had scanned the Sixth Street Gang's deployment with their Tactical Goggles and shared the footage with Padre's men.

Padre's men had quietly moved into ambush positions nearby.

When V opened fire to cover Su Xiao and Jack, they launched their attack at the same time.

After receiving Tech Weapons from Su Xiao, Padre had put most of them on the market and kept a few to upgrade his men's arsenal.

They had all switched to Tech Weapons or Smart Weapons bought from major corporations at steep prices.

Tech Weapons could easily penetrate obstacles such as walls.

Smart Weapons could not shoot through walls, but they could automatically track enemies.

With the scan footage Su Xiao provided, countless bullets instantly engulfed the Sixth Street Gang's forces.

Ambushed without warning, the Sixth Street Gang suffered devastating casualties and descended into chaos.

Malmer had once said that the Sixth Street Gang consisted of military veterans, disillusioned former NCPD officers, fired corporate security personnel, and civilians who had received crash courses in combat.

In truth, the first three groups were small, while the last made up the bulk of their numbers.

Otherwise, the Sixth Street Gang would have dominated Night City long ago, rather than failing to take even The Glen.

These civilians with nothing but basic combat training were much like the Minutemen of the American Revolutionary War.

They held out under the hail of gunfire for only about a minute before their morale broke and they were routed.

Apart from a handful of lucky survivors who managed to escape, everyone else was killed.

Miraculously, not a single one of Padre's men died. Only a few suffered grazing wounds from stray bullets.

It was nothing short of an epic victory.

By the time the battle outside ended, Su Xiao and Ja-

ck had also finished off Malmer's remaining men.

Upstairs in the shady hotel, the two found Fidel still alive.

They gave him emergency treatment.

Then Jack carried him out of the shady hotel on his back.

They met up with Padre's men and handed Fidel over to them.

After expressing their thanks, the men left with Fidel.

Su Xiao, V, and Jack headed to the Wolf Bar together.

They celebrated properly and unwound after the exhausting day.

The next day, Su Xiao received Padre's token of gratitude:

Twenty thousand euros each for him, V, and Jack.

A few days after the battle ended-

The Sixth Street Gang members who had escaped spread the full story of the fight.

At first, no one paid much attention.

Street shootouts were an everyday occurrence in Night City. What was there to care about?

They soon realized they were wrong.

Because this clash between the Sixth Street Gang and Padre's men had been anything but ordinary.

Of the Sixth Street Gang's eighty-odd men, only a few had escaped.

All the rest had died there.

Not a single one of Padre's men had been killed.

According to an anonymous insider, Padre's men owed their formidable combat strength to an upgrade in their weapons.

And it was all thanks to Padre's partnership with a gunsmith.

In just a few days, the rumor spread throughout Night City.

It left all the city's major gangs drooling with envy.

They all began setting their sights on this rumored gunsmith.

But those ideas soon fizzled out.

When Padre returned the Sixth Street Gang's bodies, some busybody recorded it as a braindance and distributed it.

Among them was the corpse of Sixth Street Gang officer Malmer, whose death had been particularly gruesome. His head looked as though it had been ground against the floor.

Even more terrifying, this had not been the work of Padre's men.

The gunsmith had done it.

Word had it that the gunsmith had not lost so much as a single hair.

The gangs that had been plotting something immediately fell silent.

Nope. Too scary.

Of course, the Corp Dogs who had sold out Padre's men met bad ends too.

One morning, a cleaner discovered them stuffed into sacks and dumped in a trash bin.

Their bodies had long since gone cold.

Chapter 44: Oh, Lucy

The next day.

Through the windows of the speeding elevated train, torrential rain could be seen pouring outside.

The world was a haze of gray.

On the roads below, there were far fewer cars and pedestrians.

Taking the elevated train was definitely the right choice.

When Su Xiao woke that morning, he had noticed that the sky looked ominous.

He had decided not to drive to the Wolf Bar himself.

Instead, he took the elevated train.

Sure enough, shortly after the train departed, a torrential downpour came crashing down.

It gave Night City a thorough washing.

Night City's elevated trains were short, with only three cars.

Passengers wore all kinds of outfits, since the elevated train was much cheaper than a taxi.

At this hour, though, most of its passengers were Corp Dogs rushing to work.

Out of professional habit as a mercenary, he instinctively surveyed his surroundings.

Just as he was about to look away, he happened to spot someone he knew aboard the train.

Lucy stood behind a man in a suit who was holding a handrail and facing the window.

She casually tucked her hair behind her ear.

At the same time, she seized the chip that popped out of the back of the suited man's neck.

Success on the first try.

Then Lucy set her sights on her next victim.

It was a Corp Dog standing in front of the exit doors.

He held a briefcase in one hand and a phone in the other.

Whatever was on his phone had him completely engrossed.

He never noticed Lucy approaching from behind.

Lucy walked up beside him.

She pretended to study the elevated train's route map on the smart display.

Then she walked past the Corp Dog as though by chance.

Using the same trick, she swiftly snatched the chip as it popped out.

And so, using the same method, Lucy stole her way from the third car at the rear all the way to the first car at the front.