Rosanne Kaplan, the only arms dealer in the Colorado District who caters to civilians, runs a shop called Lamar's Armory.
As an arms dealer, all her security systems are connected solely to her internal network, with no connection to the external web.
Moreover, this woman is extremely cautious, with no external cameras in sight—this means that hacking in from the outside is nearly impossible; you have to find an entry point from within the building.
However, inside, Leo didn't even have to think about it—there would definitely be 360-degree no-blind-spot turret machine guns.
If they tried a frontal assault, it would alert the 6th Street Gang, making it pointless. But if they planned to take Rosanne out quietly, those machine guns wouldn't be an easy obstacle to overcome.
Click—
The double doors automatically opened. Rosanne was a young-looking Mexican woman, wearing a white workout top, camouflage pants, and a camouflage headband.
A typical 6th Street Gang style, though she wasn't actually part of the gang.
She stood behind a barred counter, displaying the typical caution of an arms dealer.
"Welcome... Oh, Valenti..."
Her enthusiasm waned the moment she looked up.
No wonder—Jackie's appearance was also very gang-like: large tattoos exposed on his arms, a big gold chain hanging from his chest, and...
They were both Mexican.
However, she wasn't scared—the source of her confidence lay in the four turreted machine guns in the corners of the room.
If this big guy made any sudden moves, those turrets could turn him into mince meat in an instant—no exaggeration.
Whirr—
The turrets began to rotate.
With the dark barrels pointed at him, Jackie hadn't even said a word, yet his attitude had already shifted slightly.
Leo stepped forward from behind Jackie, and only then did Rosanne notice the scrawny guy following the big man.
"First of all, my brother here isn't with the Valentinos at the moment, we're just here to talk."
"That line again?"
"How's business lately?"
Rosanne rolled her eyes and threw her hands up. "People in Night City would rather starve than not go out armed with last-generation weapons. And especially in times like these—get to the point."
"I have a batch of hot merchandise. Can you move it? It's company goods, origin unknown."
Rosanne glanced at Leo and Jackie, shaking her head. "You're with the Valentinos. If 6th Street finds out I helped you, they'll skin me alive."
Yes, she didn't believe Leo's story at all—she'd bet her life that this big guy was with the Valentinos.
Meanwhile, V had been tracing her route ever since Leo walked in.
Rosanne's small building had only one entrance, like a fortress—it was a fortress, really.
However, perhaps to make life a little less stifling, she had added a small balcony on the side of the building on the first floor and another on the back on the second floor, just big enough for one person, and sealed with a large door.
At this height and distance, an ordinary person wouldn't be able to reach it, but for someone with enhanced cyberware, it was an easy jump.
"Not sure what view she's enjoying..."
V quickly leaped to the second-floor balcony. From there, she could see a junkyard stretching out behind the building, with a massive dam looming in the distance.
Built by Petrochem, the other side of the dam was a true "lake of garbage."
V scanned the metal door with her cybernetic eye—bad news, it was an old-fashioned iron door, locked with a padlock.
No way to hack it—and V was certain that if she opened it, it would trigger an alarm behind the door.
"Bad news, this door... too old."
On the other side, Leo kept his cool despite the news, though it did complicate things.
No wonder this woman was thriving here—her security setup was top-notch.
What else could be useful?
Leo focused on the computer behind Rosanne—with the 30x zoom of his Kiroshi optical implant, he could clearly see the small text on the bottom left corner of the 14-inch operating screen behind her.
"Militech Civilian ICE Ver.196.36352."
Leo remembered that the Militech Behemoth he had driven had a similar operating system version, Ver.526.523. Judging by Militech's version iteration speed, Rosanne's system was likely over a decade old.
It seemed Rosanne had full confidence in her physical firewall, opting not to upgrade her software system—perhaps because she couldn't sell anything better.
This version of software would take Leo less than a second to hack into; civilian-grade ICE and military-grade were entirely different beasts.
In his mind, Leo quickly calculated the dimensions of the entire building. From V breaking through the door to locating the equipment inside and moving to the connection point... it would take roughly 2 seconds. With the Kerenzikov cyberware activated, it could be cut down to around 1 second.
The fixed turrets Rosanne used were something Leo had seen in Arasaka's tech expert courses— The machine guns were MK26s, with a fixed base he hadn't encountered before, but there was a display case in the shop showing a similar model base, which was one of Rosanne's wares.
Turn speed, lock speed, minimum firing time...
Leo quickly integrated all the data in his head, calculating that from the moment V breached the door to the alarm being triggered—
The iron door wasn't networked, so the alarm trigger had to be a physical sensor, with a minimum activation response time of 1 second.
The signal reaching the server for processing, and Rosanne's reaction time: 1 second.
Issuing a command and the machine gun firing: 1 second.
If they broke in by force, they would have 3 seconds to act, and in extreme conditions, they would need only 1.5 to 2 seconds to complete the operation.
If they could distract Rosanne, they might even gain extra time.
"V, breach the door, connect to the local network as fast as you can, and I'll hack in."
"Breach the door? But the machine guns..."
"That's why you have to be quick. If you're slow, Jackie and I are going to get turned into Swiss cheese—listen to my signal, I'm going to start talking tough now."
"Damn, you're crazy..."
As he sent the message, Leo placed his hand on the sales counter. "Forget 6th Street. From now on, you take orders from me."
Rosanne sneered and pointed at the machine guns in the corner. "Why should I? Just because you said so? Do you even realize what those machine guns can do? I don't rely on 6th Street alone—"
Before Rosanne could finish her sentence, Leo gave V the signal.
"Go."
Bang!
Though V still thought this was a dumb plan, she had developed the habit of trusting Leo after spending so much time with him.
But that didn't mean she wasn't nervous—on the contrary, she believed Leo wouldn't lie to her.
If she messed up, they'd really end up riddled with bullets!
In the first second, the Dying Night pistol blew the lock off the door. V kicked it open, triggering the pressure sensor behind it, and the signal began to transmit.
At 1.5 seconds, V spotted the server terminal glowing blue on the other side of the room. With the Kerenzikov cyberware activated, she reached the server in an instant and completed the connection.
Simultaneously, the alarm blared, and Rosanne's face turned pale. The machine guns rotated, beginning to warm up—
Leo received the data feed, his optical display showing the hacking protocol interface—the ICE version was indeed 196.35362.
By the minute seconds, Rosanne's reaction speed and the machine guns' activation were slightly faster than Leo had anticipated. The first bullet was fired, and Jackie gritted his teeth, shielding Leo with his body and raising both guns.
But the local network gate had already been breached.
Bang!
The MK26's terrifying firepower easily shredded the shelves and concrete in the shop, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Four bullets nearly hit their mark, but at the crucial moment, Leo froze the turret's rotation. The bullets were fired, but they didn't hit.
The machine guns' green indicator lights turned red, then aimed directly at Rosanne.
Leo hadn't moved an inch throughout the entire process.
As the dust settled, he simply tapped the table. "Consider this a warning. These toys are pretty good, but I'm not some cyberpsycho who resorts to killing right off the bat."
Click. Click-click...
The fixed turrets suddenly shook violently, electricity surging through them, sending out black smoke as parts began to fall off.
Rosanne watched in terror, her eyes wide open, not daring to blink!
Realizing she was still alive, Jackie finally opened his eyes. Seeing that the machine guns had all exploded, he turned around.
He wanted to curse to release some of his pent-up fear, but seeing Leo in this state, he swallowed the words and discreetly patted himself, confirming he wasn't imagining things.
Leo patted Jackie on the back and took the gun from his bewildered hand. He began to draw a line on the rusty iron table.
Screech—
A white line appeared on the table.
"Listen up, this isn't a negotiation, and there's no bargaining—this is your line. From now on, without my permission, you're not doing business here. Lamar's Armory is closed. As for when you can reopen, wait for my notification. Got it?"
Rosanne nodded quickly, tears welling up in her eyes.
After speaking, Leo sighed as if disappointed, then glanced around:
"How about this—you scared me today. Give me a crate of grenades, and we'll call it even."
Rosanne kept nodding, shaking her head more vigorously than she ever had in her life, feeling like she might break her neck.
But that didn't hide her inner terror—
She saw one of Leo's eyes flicker with the telltale blue light of data streams, while the other showed no change—
This guy's visual system is split! He's multitasking! And he claims he's not a cyberpsycho?!
Rosanne was scared out of her wits for a reason—
Multitasking was one aspect, but the other reason was that although the Militech software system was an outdated version, cracking it in a fraction of a second was virtually impossible!
Leo was able to pull it off entirely because of his incredibly powerful brain, absurdly large RAM, and the fact that he had encountered higher versions of ICE, specifically military-grade ones.
Although he hadn't directly tried to crack a military-grade ICE before, he had at least seen it.
To build the network barriers, Leo had been studying the basic principles and common architectures of ICE for a while, which reminded him of that Behemoth.
Sure, he didn't understand much back then, but that didn't mean he couldn't memorize it.
Even though the versions differed by hundreds of iterations, the logic hadn't changed much; it was mostly about stacking resources.
So, breaking through was quick and efficient—but from Rosanne's perspective, it was completely different.
To her, Leo wasn't just a cyberpsycho; he was a cyberpsycho who knew network tech!
Well, to be precise, he wasn't entirely a cyberpsycho, but that made it even scarier:
Imagine one day, you're suddenly harassed by an escaped mental patient. At first, you're just trying to humor him.
Then he suddenly pulls out a textbook on advanced mathematics and starts explaining it in detail, even talking about mathematical analysis you've never studied—
Then he pulls out an ID card and says he's actually a professor from the university next door! Here to help you catch up on your math grades...
"Holy crap! That was insane, Leo!"
Jackie's eyes were practically sparkling.
V, who was driving, grumbled, "Insane? More like crazy! You two would've been toast if you'd been a second slower!"
Leo continued to shake his head nonchalantly, "Seemed extreme, but I had it under control. You wouldn't understand."
V shot a glance at Leo in the passenger seat and then gave him a solid smack on the back—
Slap.
V made a face, shaking her hand, "Geez, you're drenched in sweat, dude."
"You don't get it. This is the heat from high-speed processing!"
Leo wasn't lying; in that split second, even the tension from the machine guns aiming at him was mitigated by [Heart of Evolution].
Tension? No way, everything was just part of the normal flow.
However, to V and Jackie, this wasn't a 9/10 risk; it was at least a 10/10 gamble.
"Alright, alright! Damn it! Why do you love showing off so much?"
"Showing off is good, showing off is great!" Jackie was still excited, "Did you manage to record it? I need to see how badass we looked!"
"Actually, I did." Leo waved the data shard in his hand, "We'll review it later. For now, let's see where Rosanne was delivering those goods to the Six Street Gang."
As Leo waved the shard, V couldn't help but glance at it enviously.
It was hard to tell if she was just annoyed that she hadn't been the one to show off this time.
The car headed towards the Badlands.
Yes, their target was in the Badlands.
There wasn't anything particularly special in Rosanne's ledgers; to be fair, in the arms dealing business, she was relatively ethical.
Her main clients were the poor farmers of Colorado Ranch, some Six Street Gang rookies, and a few broke workers.
Though the goods she sold weren't cutting-edge, they were reasonably priced and reliable.
As for herself, she held a B-level technical specialist license, capable of repairing and modifying guns, setting up defense systems, and even selling off almost-scrapped cars to Nomads.
With her skills and knowledge of the rules, the Six Street Gang maintained a delicate balance with her.
As for Kang Tao's weapons, she truly couldn't handle them well—she had no ties with any corporations, and her clients and suppliers were all broke folks who saw trash as treasure.
To move such goods, she would have to rely on the Nomads' smuggling routes, but even they seemed to be out of the game lately.
But more importantly, Leo left behind some breadcrumbs in the network to prepare for building his data walls.
"I'm sending you both a program for your systems, to help cover our tracks."
"Got it."
They both replied in unison, accepting the file Leo had designed.
"And here are some suspicious chat logs from Rosanne's database. If you're interested, take a look, but I've already marked the target on your maps."
In Rosanne's database, there was a recent communication record with the Six Street Gang.
...
January 1st: "Rosanne Kaplan: The Red Ocher guys are all sick. Most of my routes are down. You'll have to send your own people."
"Gelf Sharabi: Why not get other Nomads?"
"Rosanne Kaplan: The other Nomads don't want to come to the city; there's a plague going on, remember?"
"Gelf Sharabi: Fine, I'll handle the delivery myself."
January 3rd: "Gelf Sharabi: Another shipment crossing the border in three days. Everything set up?"
"Rosanne Kaplan: What are you moving this time? Why the big deal?"
"Gelf Sharabi: Don't ask stupid questions. If you don't want the Six Street Gang sending you a bullet, just do your job. If word gets out, you'll regret it."
"Rosanne Kaplan: Transporting goods under a citizen's name without telling them what it is? Which old American law is that?"
"Gelf Sharabi: Screw you, it's the Defense Production Act!"
"Rosanne Kaplan: Fine, got it. High-value classified military goods... Just hope Militech doesn't come knocking."
"Gelf Sharabi: They won't. And if they do, I'll blow your head off!"
"Rosanne Kaplan: Haha, blow my head off and see how your 'military court' handles it when the goods don't arrive."
January 6th: "Gelf Sharabi: Smuggling's not that hard. If you're short on hands, call us. Ditch the Nomads; we're old friends, and we keep it in the family."
"Rosanne Kaplan: No way. Don't think you can get cozy with me. Who considers you family?"
"Gelf Sharabi: Whatever, smuggling will be frequent in the coming days. The next shipment is in two days."
...
Clearly, the Six Street Gang had an ongoing deal with Rosanne, using her name to secretly transport goods into the city.
This route had been busy lately, with the next shipment happening tomorrow.
Leo took some time to plant a few backdoors into Rosanne's database and hacked into the traffic system on Woodhaven Street, keeping an eye on her in case she did something foolish.
After all that, the three of them headed towards the Badlands.
V turned down the radio volume, "So we're going to hijack this convoy—but I don't get it. Why use Rosanne's name for the transport?"
"To prevent exactly what's happening now—obviously for cover. Everyone knows that Lamar's Armory isn't affiliated with the Six Street Gang, so their enemies would naturally be misled."
This old-school trick was actually quite effective and commonly used.
It seemed that the Six Street Gang was pulling out all the stops to take over Valentino's business, but Padre wasn't stupid; he must have noticed something was off.
Now, the Six Street Gang was in for some trouble, with three fierce predators on their tail.
"The next shipment should be crossing the border soon. We'll intercept them in the Badlands. Double-check the map, and ask if you have any questions."
"Got it—anything else, boss?" V replied with mock politeness.
"Yeah, turn up the A/C; it's cold in the Badlands at night."
With that, Leo pulled out his Yinglong submachine gun.
This time, he needed to test out his new implants and this fine Kang Tao weapon.
...
Six hours later, under a starry sky.
"Achoo!"
Five Villefort Columbus V340 cargo trucks maintained their formation on the highway.
These were the most common cargo trucks in Night City, favored by mid- to low-tier transport companies.
But the people inside didn't look like they worked for a transport company.
They were all dressed similarly, in work pants, bulletproof vests, and cool-looking sunglasses, with stars and stripes or bald eagle patches on their shoulders.
Each of them held a reliable weapon, mostly long guns.
"Damn, it's cold. The Badlands suck—hot as hell during the day, freezing at night."
In the lead truck, the man in the passenger seat, wearing a beret, had a cybernetic arm that gleamed menacingly.
"Chief," the rookie driver called out.
"How many times have I told you, don't call me Chief—I'm a squad leader! We're soldiers, got it?!"
"Uh, squad leader, the rear car reports that there's a Rattler following us."
"Let it follow. It's just a piece of junk, probably another Nomad coming into town to buy meds. Don't get all jumpy.
Do you really think that car's going to suddenly sprout a Shingen submachine gun, with Kang Tao soldiers popping out to shove grenades down our throats? Get real, just drive, and don't let those Red Ocher idiots die on us, or there goes our bonus!"
"Got it."
Before the rookie could finish his sentence, he saw the Rattler floor the gas pedal and pull up alongside the convoy—
Then, the passenger pulled out a Shingen submachine gun!
"Holy crap! A Shingen!"
Bang! The Shingen's bullets precisely hit the tires of several trucks, the deafening sound of blowouts echoed through the night—
The convoy was instantly thrown into chaos!
"Ambush!!!"
The truck spun out of control, the rookie screamed at the top of his lungs, when suddenly something blocked his mouth—
He saw the squad leader lifting his foot, looking at him in terror, "Oh crap! A grenade!"
Boom!