"so, getaway, another way..."
Humming a tune as she tore down the highway through the Badlands, V looked like she was on vacation to anyone who didn't know better-
But who brought a lethal weapon like the Nekomata on vacation?
Lier handed Zhu Shen the Tanto Submachine Gun and said to V, "It's 2077. Who still hums weak little tunes like that? Let me give you something upbeat with a kick.
Work or don't, whatever you please~ Put on some custom-tailored threads..."
V raised an eyebrow. "What kind of weird song is that? And it's 2075! Did you time-travel or something?"
"You don't know shit. This is reggae..."
"Hey, something's coming up behind us!" Zhu Shen interrupted the two clowns. Lier was reliable when it came to getting things done, but he had to wonder whether the kid had spent too much time hanging around that street punk.
They were still being hunted-and by Militech troops, no less!
Three Octant drones appeared over the highway, their piercing sirens blaring.
V braced her Nekomata, muttering, "Time to get to work, Militech..."
Lier wasn't idle either. The instant they made contact, Nott sent him a message.
But Lier's hands kept working on his tablet-he was rewriting the Demon Nott had given him into a highly contagious, spreading Demon.
"Go ahead, kid. We're right behind you."
"Really?" Seeing that V was ready, Lier typed, "Eat shit."
Boom!
The Nekomata's powerful round punched straight through a drone's bulletproof shell. It crashed to the ground, scraping past the Militech armored vehicle close behind and leaving a trail of sparks across the road.
"You're dead!"
"Fuck you!" Lier fired back, then uploaded his freshly modified Demon before the other side could kick him off the network.
[First Demon program written] [Tech Points +100] [Current Tech Points: 276]
Unfortunately... this world also had specialized defensive programs designed specifically to counter Demon attacks, called ICE.
ICE would trigger during an intrusion, then trace it back and fry the invading hacker's brain!
Naturally, Militech personnel had that stuff!
Szzzt-bang!
The tablet in Lier's hands exploded. He hurriedly threw it away, narrowly escaping injury.
Zhu Shen glanced over and said, "Points for courage. If you'd hacked in through an implant, your head might look like that right now."
"And you were just telling me I should've installed an operating system sooner!" Lier complained. "If I had, that would've been me!"
Up on the roof, V shouted, "Shit! They've got rockets!"
At her shout, Zhu Shen thrust the hand holding the Tanto Submachine Gun out the window, steering with one hand and firing with the other-
Rockets hurtled toward the car. After leaving the Shingen submachine gun's barrel, the bullets actually curved through the air, blowing up several rockets like an interception system!
Bang!
V wasn't idle either. Her sniper round pierced the smoke and killed the driver of an armored vehicle with a single shot!
"One down, one to go-the drones are coming!"
She had barely finished shouting when bullets from the drones rained across the roof. V immediately raised a hand to shield her eyes!
She already had subdermal armor implanted beneath her skin. Small-caliber rounds like these didn't scare her at all!
Lier quickly switched to another tablet and immediately launched another intrusion against the drones!
ICE was effectively a one-shot trigger. He didn't believe the drones' software had it installed too!
The trouble was, the only Demon he had worked with was [Cyberware Malfunction], and now he was fighting drones!
Gritting his teeth, Lier grabbed two tablets, using one to write the Demon while launching a rapid breach on the other.
Zhu Shen raised an eyebrow at the sight-the kid could split his attention between two tasks. And... if this was his first time hacking, he was a genius!
"Controlling cyberware circuits and mechanical circuits has some overlap... here, found it. Change this, change that...
Militech's drone security isn't up to scratch... upload successful!"
With a bang, the drones on either side erupted with electrical current.
[First mechanical unit destroyed using a Demon] [Tech Points +200] [Current Tech Points: 476]
At the sight, Lier shouted excitedly, "I did it! I caused an electromagnetic short circuit!"
"We know, stop yelling! Those hotshots in Kabuki District could do that when they were six!"
V shouted as she changed magazines, but Militech's Behemoth armored vehicle was already closing in!
An angry roar came from inside it. "I told you to ram them! Are you fucking deaf?"
The driver trembled in terror. His commanding officer looked like a raging bull!
He slammed down on the accelerator!
Bang!
Unlike a cheap vehicle like the Columbus V340, the Behemoth Armored Vehicle was the most practical, cost-effective armored vehicle around. The impact nearly flipped their car!
Only then did V get a clear look at the man in the other vehicle's passenger seat-
"Fuck, it's Nott!"
Nott stripped off his clothes, exposing his fully cybernetically modified body!
Then he opened the door!
"You're asking for it!"
V pulled the trigger.
Bang!
V was certain she hadn't let her attention wander during the fight.
But she couldn't understand why Nott, who had been in the passenger seat an instant earlier, was suddenly beside her on the roof.
"Little rats-I should've killed you both a long time ago!"
Nott's massive body landed on the roof, blocking out the sunlight. Red-hot Mantis Blades sprang from both his arms-
Szzzt-
The car swerved into a sudden drift, shaking off the armored vehicle behind it. After being stepped on by a heavyweight like Nott and then struck by their car, the armored vehicle rolled onto its side at high speed.
Nott staggered, throwing off his slash. His Mantis Blade sliced through the roof as easily as cutting plastic.
"Hahahaha! A battlefield! I love it here!"
Nott roared, the skin on both his arms splitting open to expose the cooling vents beneath!
He seemed to hear battle cries, endless gunfire, and booming artillery!
V stared blankly at what had just happened-
If not for that sharp turn, her body would have been ripped in half just like the car!
"Fuck, fuck, fuck-"
Bang!
The Nekomata fired again. This time, V wasn't the only one shooting-even Zhu Shen, who was driving, had grown desperate!
The enemy had a Sandevistan! That was genuine military-grade cyberware! And it definitely wasn't an entry-level model!
The bullets seemed to form an airtight net, but the instant they opened fire, Nott moved too.
His massive body showed no trace of clumsiness now. Instead, he was as nimble as a fish.
The car was traveling at eighty kilometers per hour, with more than a dozen homing bullets and one deadly round in flight.
That would cause him some trouble, certainly-but only some.
Moving far faster than normal human perception could follow, Nott jumped off the car and dodged every bullet. When V looked over, she saw him kick off the ground!
His foot cracked the road beneath him!
"Too weak!"
Riiip!
His Mantis Blade sliced through the rear of the car from top to bottom, even sending it flying backward!
Boom!
The car hurtled backward, the world spinning around them.
The sliding car left a trail across the road, while Nott rolled once to shed all his momentum.
Lier and the others fared rather differently-
Zhu Shen was thrown from the car. A vertical shard of metal cut straight into him at his left collarbone, the wound extending down to his abdomen. He looked as though he had been split in half.
Lier was trapped inside the car, thoroughly dazed by the impact. The good news was that he was still alive.
In that instant, V had activated her Kerenzikov, but she had only barely managed to land, rolling several times across the ground.
Scrape-scrape-
Nott ground his Mantis Blades against each other as he advanced.
"I have to admit, you've got guts. On a battlefield, you'd make pretty decent soldiers."
"But..." Nott's voice turned cold. "You played me. Fucking hell, now I have to capture you myself."
Lier struggled upright. Just then, that tingling sensation returned.
Blood ran down his forehead and into his eyes-he refused to accept this.
He had arrogantly taken on a big job to make big money. Once he earned enough from it, he would have a foothold in this world.
Then he could gain access to more technology, more worlds-he would survive.
But...
He looked at Zhu Shen, who was kneeling on one knee-that fucking corpo dog hadn't told the truth.
Fine, he had anticipated something like this. But he hadn't expected things to get so bad, or their pursuer-Nott-to be so strong.
With fighting power like that, even some superheroes in the Marvel Universe probably couldn't beat him.
Bang!
Another Nekomata shot, but Nott dodged again.
V taunted him. "Hey, big guy, there's still someone alive over here. Know what I thought when I first saw you?
I thought, what a big dumb bastard. So proud of being someone's dog."
Lier looked at V. This street kid, this woman, was still smiling-even if she was forcing it.
But her hands were still strong, gripping her weapon tightly.
Lier froze-perhaps that was what he truly lacked.
To survive... he had to be resilient.
So... V, what are you going to do?
V cast a discreet glance at Lier. "Bet you didn't see this coming, huh? Time to unlock that potential."
Clack.
The Tanto Submachine Gun fell from Zhu Shen's hand, landing right in front of Lier.
"You've got some moves, girl. Too bad you picked the wrong side-you're next." Nott walked toward V as he spoke.
"Really? I've still got two rounds in this big rifle. Think your blades are faster, or my gun?" V betrayed no fear in her words, but sweat was already beading on her forehead.
"Oh? Let's find out..."
"Hoho, you're charging straight at me? Instead of running away, you're coming closer?"
Bang bang bang bang bang bang-
Almost simultaneously, gunfire rang out behind Nott.
He didn't need to turn around to know it was the Tanto Submachine Gun-but that kid had no Smart Link installed, not even adequate Basic Cyberware.
The recoil would make the gun difficult to control. Without cyberware support, the bullets had virtually no ability to correct their course.
So this is your plan? A pathetic combo attack like this?
Nott smiled, and time slowed around him-
Militech's Peregrine Falcon Sandevistan produced an effect akin to slowing time by seventy percent.
Even bullets weren't necessarily impossible to dodge-especially when these had no homing capability and were scattered all over the place.
He saw V sliding toward him, her movements unbelievably slow.
Nott suddenly felt like a cat playing with a mouse, except this mouse had apparently lost its mind in its final moments.
Thinking of cats reminded him of his first wife. His first wife had loved elegance and dancing.
Elegance, dancing... some wire must have crossed in his brain, because he suddenly remembered how clumsy he had been the first time he danced. He heard raucous laughter around him, like the howling of enemies on a battlefield...
After the dance, the world had spun, and screams had filled the air around him.
If he had danced a little better, would his first wife still be alive?
He suddenly straightened his body with elegance.
"Hoho, you're charging straight at me? Instead of running away, you're coming closer?"
"Then... let's end this."
Nott spread his arms and tilted his body, striking an elegant pose as though finishing a dance.
All he had to do was stand still, and V would slide right onto his Mantis Blades, never even knowing how she had died.
What he failed to notice, however, was that as V drew closer to him and entered the area covered by the hail of bullets, rounds grazed her skin and even struck her body...
Her movements grew increasingly precise-
Just as the Mantis Blades were about to cut V in half, the big sniper rifle that had been pointing elsewhere suddenly swung around, its muzzle aiming at his body!
"Impossible-"
Bang!
Before you continue