Money

Si Ai said something to Sun Jack, but when she realized he couldn't hear anything, she pulled a Mechanical Cochlea from her thigh and fitted it into his ear.

"At that distance, you still dared to fire? Weren't you afraid you'd shake yourself to death?" Si Ai quickly began treating Sun Jack's other injuries.

"If I hadn't fired, I'd be the one dead." Sun Jack spoke with difficulty.

"Using a Combat Prosthetic of your caliber at close range can easily injure you, too. You'd better replace all your skin with heat-resistant, impact-proof stuff."

Sun Jack shook his head. "I'll think about it later."

If he had enough money to replace all his skin, would he really have needed to pawn his organs just to afford food?

After Si Ai gave him some emergency treatment, Sun Jack braced himself and looked around at the devastation.

The two AABs were completely wrecked. Vajra was waving at him from the sky, and the battered Taipai was crouched beside him, keeping watch. But Priest was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Priest?"

"Obviously, he went to find the Offline Server and dig up Rock Kid's dirt. Don't forget why we're here."

"It's finally over. Making a little money sure isn't easy," Sun Jack said to Taipai with a sigh.

But, very unusually, Taipai didn't answer. He just froze in place as if he'd shut down.

"What's wrong? Did you break?" Sun Jack pressed a hand against the wound in his stomach and patted Taipai's battered body.

Just then, a huge red exclamation mark appeared on Taipai's head screen. He immediately raised his gun and fired at Si Ai's left knee joint. Then he hoisted Sun Jack over his shoulder and charged out from beneath the rain shelter.

"Are you crazy?! What are you doing?!"

Sun Jack was about to struggle free when a black object hurtled toward him from behind like a cannonball.

Taipai twisted to the side, barely dodging the impact.

The object slammed into the dirt with tremendous force and became embedded in it. Only then did Sun Jack finally recognize it: the lower half of Priest's body.

The severed torso lay in the dirt like a tattered rag doll.

Sun Jack spun around in shock and looked toward the direction the body had come from. From the pitch-black Garage Door, one dark, ink-black AAB after another slowly emerged.

Taipai, being a robot, didn't hesitate. The instant the first AAB appeared, he was already carrying Sun Jack out from beneath the rain shelter.

But just as the two of them reached the downpour, Taipai's reverse-jointed feet screeched to a halt, carving two deep furrows into the soft grass.

Three AABs were crawling toward them through the rain, slowly closing in and blocking their path. They were surrounded.

"Song 6! What the hell is going on?! Didn't you say that guy only had Gao Feng Technology's Silver Annual Card? Why are there so many AABs?! Fuck!"

Faced with Sun Jack's questions, Song 6 sounded a little flustered, too. "Holy shit! How would I know? It's my first time working as a broker, too. Why are there so many AABs?! Thank god I didn't go. Ma D, that scared the hell out of me!"

Song 6 kept talking, but Sun Jack couldn't hear him anymore. All his attention was fixed on the nine AABs in front of him.

Nothing they said could change the situation now. As long as he survived, he'd have a chance to settle the score with Song 6PUS.

It was clear that all these AABs had undergone different modifications. Each had a different role, with hooks, blades, spirals, or pistons attached to its lower half. They all served different functions.

It seemed that, after the fight with Priest in the basement, two of the AABs had been badly damaged.

But even if all the AABs had been paralyzed from the waist down, Sun Jack and the others still wouldn't stand a chance. The difference in their strength was simply too great.

They'd paid a huge price just to deal with two of them earlier. Now Priest's fate was unknown, and both he and Si Ai were injured. How could they possibly handle so many AABs?

As for running, that was even less of an option. Speed was the AABs' greatest advantage.

"Wait a moment. I'll overload my arms, use maximum torque, and throw you as far as I can. Aim for that SUV. Get in and drive away," Taipai said in Sun Jack's ear.

"What about you?" Sun Jack asked.

"The moment you fly, I'll activate my self-destruct sequence and hold them back as long as possible."

With death staring him in the face, Sun Jack actually laughed. "You think I'd really survive if you did that?"

"Success probability: 1.35%. But that's better than nothing."

"Forget it. If we're going to die, we'll die together. And don't fucking make me drive. I failed my road test over summer break."

Sun Jack pulled out a Combat Potion and jabbed it into his neck. The weakness that had come from his injuries quickly faded.

Just as Sun Jack prepared to make a last stand, his eyes suddenly lit up. He'd thought of a plan.

The AABs hunched forward, their sharp Titanium Alloy claws digging into the dirt as they prepared to pounce and tear him apart. Sun Jack suddenly plunged one hand into his pocket.

"Wait! I have money!"

At Sun Jack's words, all the AABs abruptly stopped moving. Seeing this, Sun Jack's heart leapt. It was working!

He'd learned this trick from Song 6. He'd only meant to try it as a last resort, but he hadn't expected it to work so well.

With the AABs all stopped, Sun Jack bluffed, "I have money. There's enough in my account to buy our lives!"

The AABs had surrounded Sun Jack, but now they stood motionless. Maybe their AIs were too stupid to understand what he meant. Either way, they didn't attack.

Just as Sun Jack was preparing to press his advantage, a gentle female voice came from inside the nearest AAB. "Transferring you to Human Service. Please wait..."

Sun Jack had no time to think. A brief second later, the red camera on the AAB's head turned blue, and a weary man's voice came from its mouth.

"Hello, sir. Employee ID 1DW33 here. I'm happy to assist you. May I have your name?"

The voice sounded oddly familiar to Sun Jack. "Wait! Isn't that the Black Person who interviewed alongside me before?"

Sun Jack was stunned. So this was the kind of customer service job they'd applied for? He'd always thought it was a phone support position.

As Sun Jack frantically tried to figure out how he could use his brief acquaintance with the customer service agent to get out of this, a beam of blue light shot from the AAB's eye and scanned every last detail of him.

"Fuck you, you broke-ass bum. You're so broke you're selling your own flesh, and you're still pretending to be rich? You're wasting my work hours!"

The customer service agent hung up in disgust. Red light flared in the pupils of every AAB. They bared their jagged fangs and charged at Sun Jack and Taipai without hesitation.