"Look around you! The corporation decides everything! Your clothes, your food, your home, even your transportation—it's all controlled by the corporation, even your birth and death!"
"I don't understand, why do you turn a blind eye to it?"
"Before I ever dealt with the corporation, yes, I was just a simple farmer. The worst, and the thing I hated most, was farming—
But ever since I got involved with the corporation, I lost my land, lost my water, and I spent a long time thinking about that soldier I killed—
Then I started building houses, but after years of work, I didn't get a single cent!
And now you're telling me that it's not those damned bastards' fault that they owe me money?
Why don't you suggest I go after Militech instead?"
Yeah, you could go after Militech—if you dare."
The audience jeered, and Ziggy-Q chuckled, "But you're a coward! You only pick on the easy targets!"
Hector's veins bulged, "Have you ever left the studio, Ziggy-Q? Have you ever stepped outside this fake, artificially lit studio and seen the sun?
When the sun shines on the land, and a family starts their day's work, hoping for a good harvest—
Since I got involved with those corporate bastards, I've spent every day longing for the days when I hated farming the most—
Yes, I'm an outlaw, I killed a corp dog when I was 24, I've robbed oil fields, hijacked cars, smuggled goods, I've done it all.
But every time I tried to be a good man—
I worked as a transporter for the corporation, but the pay wasn't even enough to cover fuel costs; I built houses in Pacifica, but the contractors never paid me; I tried to farm, but the corporation took my land away!"
He shakily stood up, "This world is messed up! Every time I get screwed, it's because of the corporation, and yet you all still demand evidence from me?
And what's this about preying on the weak?
Do you think I'm a child who'll be fooled by your rhetoric?!"
"This sounds like you're just making excuses for your illegal actions."
"Illegal actions, my ass! Did you ask for my vote when your council elections were held? Did you involve me when you made your laws?!"
"But it's the law that allows you to be here, and it's Night City's market that gives you a platform to speak. You should be thankful for these things!"
"Thankful?" Hector sneered, "You're good at pretending to care. You know what? I never make excuses—."
The gun pointed at Ziggy-Q, and for a moment, the host panicked.
But the gun was empty.
"So, if you had bullets, you'd even kill me? But what did I do? I invited you onto the show!
Inspector, please escort this lunatic out."
"Now, let me show you what happens when you insult a desperate nomad—"
Just as Inspector Krasko moved, Hector suddenly swung the gun, slamming the butt into her jaw!
The blow hit a nerve-dense area, sending Krasko's head reeling.
Hector followed up with a kick to Krasko's stomach, his strikes precise and fast, displaying the true nature of an old-school outlaw.
Maybe they didn't have the top-tier implants that the best mercenaries in Night City had, but their combat experience made them as formidable as the best warriors.
He had only been pretending to be in pain; in reality, he had used up all his neural suppressants before coming here.
Besides, how could physical pain compare to the guilt and struggle in his heart?
This scene startled Ziggy-Q, and Hector's next move terrified him even more—
Hector tore off all his ragged clothes, revealing his burnt and charred skin!
He reached into his own arm—yes, inside his arm!—and pulled out a bullet!
"Remember, this is my doing!"
Bang!
...
Bang!
V reacted instantly, activating her Sandevistan and yanking Jackie down!
Almost simultaneously, bullets pierced the reinforced glass of Biotechnica Tower, leaving deep black holes in the glass and walls—
They recognized these bullet holes—they were made by a Nekomata!
Leo shouted urgently, "Jackie—report!"
"Mierda! I'm fine! What the hell happened?!"
"That bitch tricked us!"
Koch was scared out of her mind. She had no idea how Leo suddenly caught on or that the people outside would start shooting—
But she knew she should run in the chaos!
Leo, watching Koch trying to escape, shouted angrily, "You tricked me and now you want to run—V!"
Koch shouted as she ran, "Don't kill me, I can be a hostage!"
V coldly raised her gun, "Gladly—"
Bang!
Achilles took a shot, blowing Koch's head clean off.
A hostage? Yeah, right.
Koch's presence in Biotechnica Tower had led Leo to misjudge—he thought she hadn't been abandoned yet!
Moreover, the previous company dogs Leo had dealt with had all been ready to screw the corporation over from the start, which made Leo lower his guard—
If Murphy, Kuno, and Morton were all disloyal to the company, why would Koch remain loyal after everything?
But Koch was indeed loyal to the end!
The equipment had been in Biotechnica Tower all along, and she had requested to deploy it without reporting any malfunctions, which naturally raised suspicions!
The corporation had already decided to throw Koch under the bus, but she thought she could still salvage the situation, so she didn't buy into the big promises Leo had made!
She gambled everything on pulling off a major success this time!
However, in the end, she was left with no value at all—no value to the corporation and no value to Leo!
"What now?!"
"Run! Get inside the building!"
Leo hurriedly ran to Koch's corpse and pulled out an access badge from her clothes—her privileges had been heavily restricted, so she had to rely on an access badge to stay in the building.
Whoosh—
Blinding white light flooded the office, illuminating the entire room—
The roaring wind and the deafening sound of floating engines filled the air as the Manticore rapidly ascended!
"Shit."
"Stop gawking and run!!"
Leo screamed over the comms as V and Jackie stood frozen, staring in shock.
"You two idiots—waiting to be shredded by the Manticore's autocannons?!"
At Leo's urging, the two turned and bolted through the office door—just as the Manticore rose to their level!
Koch's office was spacious, but less than 30 meters deep.
For a hovering armored vehicle, that distance was close enough to see every detail on its body—
A Militech soldier crouched on the side of the VTOL, pulling the trigger and opening fire!
The thick reinforced glass was punctured with several bullet holes and then shattered under the impact of large-caliber rounds!
The bullets tore through the glass, slamming into the walls with the sound of a heavy hammer striking the surface!
Leo and his team could even feel bullets whizzing past behind them!
The trio sprinted at full speed, with bullets chasing them—thankfully, it took some effort to punch through Biotechnica's reinforced glass.
And since they were already inside the building, continuous firing wasn't feasible—the efficiency was too low—
After all, this was Biotechnica's corporate tower.
The Manticore approached the shattered glass, and a heavily-built Militech soldier mustered all his strength and jumped out, crashing through the already fractured glass!
"We've entered Biotechnica Tower, deploying soldiers now."
"Roger that—Biotechnica Tower's internal defense system is activated. Be sure to identify allied combat drones. The MaxTac hackers have integrated into the coordinated combat network."
Several well-equipped soldiers jumped out of the VTOL, guns at the ready, advancing quickly into the building, while others began setting up rappel gear on the walls.
"Copy that, tracking the target."
Outside the building, another Manticore hovered at the same height as the Militech one.
But this VTOL had the words "MAX-TAC" painted on its side.
Inside the vehicle were four heavily armed super-soldiers—
But they didn't seem eager to engage directly in the battle. One sniper, after setting up his rifle, let out a disappointed "Tsk."
"Haha, you missed!"
A giant soldier laughed, patting the sniper on the shoulder.
Then he turned to the woman sitting with her arms crossed in the chair and asked, "Lieutenant Rory, why don't we go in and take care of those guys? Give us something to have fun with."
"There's no evidence of a cyberpsycho incident. The enemy might just be small-time crooks. HQ wants us to wait and see, only providing limited support.
It looks like a case of corp-on-corp action—honestly, I'm more curious how those small-timers got in. Keep an eye on the walls."
A few seconds later, the hacker in charge of network security for the unit spoke up with a puzzled tone.
"Rather...interesting..."
Beep—Beep—Beep—
[Biotechnica Tower is entering lockdown mode. Combat drones will be activated. Please stay where you are and do not move.]
[Biotechnica Tower is entering lockdown mode…]
"What do we do now? I just counted at least 100 armed soldiers stationed downstairs! And that's not even counting those two Manticores!"
"This is Biotechnica Tower! They actually opened fire directly!"
Jackie asked as he ran, and V, annoyed by the questions, snapped back, "Stop talking! Shoot anyone you see!"
"V, don't take it out on me."
As they ran, Leo accessed the building's structural data that he had just copied from Koch's computer—
"Target marked—there might be a few… Their hacker has tapped in, switching accounts."
With Biotechnica Tower forced into manual emergency mode, Leo had to continuously switch between unsecured access ports to issue commands and retrieve information.
Morton had provided Leo with 13 employee accounts, and it was clear that the enemy hacker had figured out they had entered through the windows.
But the enemy didn't know exactly which accounts Leo had, so they were plugging gaps in the network as they found them.
This was real-time cyber warfare, not a scripted battle like deploying daemons. In this environment, no one had spare computational power to run quick-break daemons.
The computational power of hackers played a significant role—
Leo's expression turned serious.
The enemy hacker was exceptionally skilled, either naturally gifted or heavily augmented, or perhaps both.
However, in cyber defense, the weaker side often doesn't realize they're the one that is losing until it's too late.
Despite the intermittent flow of robot deployment information within the building, Leo still managed to get the data he needed—
Even though there were differences in neural implants, Leo was still slightly ahead in practical terms!
"Jackie, V, target location uploaded, get ready to fire!"
The two rushed forward, raising their Achilles precision rifles—
Two combat drones rounded the corner, but before they could lock onto their targets, they were taken out with a single shot each!
However, just as the trio rounded the corner, they were met with gunfire!
Bang bang bang—!
The heavy sound of bullets piercing glass mixed with the shattering and falling of broken glass!
Leo quickly ramped up the power of his Sandevistan, doubling both his processing speed and reaction time.
V and Leo both ducked behind cover almost instantly!
Jackie took two solid hits, stumbled to the ground, and clumsily retreated behind a pillar, frantically checking his body—
"Jackie?"
"Damn… I'm fine." Jackie checked the spots where he had been hit, and his clothes were already singed by the electromagnetic rounds.
Fortunately, although the enemy was also using Achilles rifles, the bullets lost a lot of kinetic energy after piercing the reinforced glass, failing to penetrate the subdermal armor and only leaving dents.
Realizing this, Leo suddenly shouted, "V, toss the Nekomata to Jackie! They can't get through Jackie's armor—Jackie, give us some cover!"
Jackie and V quickly swapped weapons, with Jackie receiving the Nekomata sniper rifle. The violent rounds instantly punched through the glass—
Bang!
A soldier fell to the ground, their bullets proving ineffective against Jackie's reinforced armor.
With this strategy in mind, V's actions became bolder.
She activated her Sandevistan, dual-wielded pistols, and slid to the edge of the glass, firing almost point-blank!
Bang bang!
Two more soldiers fell, creating a temporary lull in the firefight, allowing Leo to dash through the combat zone and aim his Yinglong at the elevator—
The elevator doors dinged open, revealing four neatly arranged Kang Tao drones inside, only to be met with a burst of Kang Tao smart bullets.
A small EMP detonated inside the elevator. While the Yinglong's bullets were a bit soft for drones, the EMP's lethal power was undeniable, causing all four drones to collapse, and the elevator went dark!
With the soldiers by the windows taken out, Jackie and V caught up, and the trio immediately rushed into the stairwell, heading for the 78th floor.
Their target was on the 79th floor, but floors above the 79th were restricted to top-tier access levels, only available to high-ranking personnel like Koch—
Unfortunately, Koch had already been ordered to go home, and her access had been revoked long ago. Even the access badge she had obtained only worked up to the 78th floor.
For now, they had to reach the 78th floor and then figure out a way up.
V quickly caught up with Leo, "Damn it—you didn't mention there'd be an ambush by the windows!"
"That's Militech's own men, not on Biotechnica's subnet."
This indicated that Militech's hacker and Biotechnica's hacker were operating on two separate networks, with Militech's hacker acting as a bridge, connecting the two combat networks.
If Leo could breach that hacker's gateway, he could use them as a springboard to hack into Militech's systems.
This kind of bridging demonstrated the hacker's confidence.
And they had every reason to be confident; MaxTac had the most advanced ICE as firewalls, so as long as the hacker didn't screw up and MaxTac's headquarters wasn't physically compromised, they were virtually untouchable.
"Damn it… so what if they've got good gear? Twelve drones outside the stairwell, positions marked, prepare to take a detour!"
The instructions appeared in Jackie and V's cyberoptics—
The two immediately tossed their weapons, switched to their Achilles rifles, and charged out of the stairwell, firing instantly!
Smart bullets and railgun rounds fired to the left, while the trio quickly ducked into a room on the right.
The precise firepower deployment left the line of defense vulnerable on the right, forcing the drones to reposition—
All the drones in the building were converging on them, making a direct assault impossible!
But Leo only needed to buy a few seconds.
Jackie switched back to the Sadara, aimed at a nearby wall, and fired—according to the building's structural diagram, this wall was weaker and easier to breach!
Bang!
The bullet turned the wall into Swiss cheese, then Jackie holstered his weapon, and with a powerful punch from his Gorilla Arms—
Boom!
He smashed a large hole through the wall!
The drone's line of defense tightened, but the trio had no intention of taking the normal route!
This unconventional path wasn't accounted for in the defense plans! The hacker had to spend time readjusting the defenses—
But he was a hacker, not a battlefield commander!
The trio's advance was slow yet steady, and despite all the drones being deployed, they always found a gap!
Boom!
Another wall was breached as the trio burst into an office near the outer wall.
The Manticore reached the windows again, but the trio didn't stop, smashing through the door and continuing deeper inside.
This building was massive, and the Manticore was being led in circles—they would take a long time to fly across the building!
The enemy was not being contained by the encirclement!
The commander on the VTOL cursed loudly, "What the hell is going on? What are these hackers doing?
It feels like we're running around naked on the battlefield! Why aren't the containment doors being deployed?!"
Explosions rocked Biotechnica Tower.
On the MaxTac VTOL, Inspector Rory asked with great interest:
"So many of you can't handle a few small-time crooks? What's going on inside?"
The hacker frowned, though it was hidden under the tactical visor covering his eyes.
"There's a hacker on the other side, and they've got Biotechnica's access codes. Their processing speed is incredible, and Biotechnica's hacker can't stop them. The containment doors are stuck, only the stairwells and elevators are sealed.
I can't trace the intrusion route, but I can tell the hacker is using the building's personnel to gather troop deployment information.
Their tactical knowledge is impressive, and their combat skills are strong. Militech's men might not be able to take them down—before they run out of ammo."
Upon hearing this, a smile tugged at the corners of Inspector Rory's only visible part of her face.
"Impressive."
Yes, everyone in the vehicle found it amusing, not alarming.
Even the Militech commander who was cursing felt more embarrassed than concerned.
After all, the enemy consisted of only three people.
Once their position was exposed, no matter how they infiltrated, they couldn't leave quietly using the same method.
The external forces weren't entering the building out of consideration for Biotechnica itself, maintaining relative restraint.
But once the enemy left the building, they'd have to face the full lockdown forces on the ground, not to mention the two Manticores in the air—they wouldn't let them go.
As for the battle inside, there were only three of them, how much ammo could they have? Their advantage had a time limit.
To be honest, Inspector Rory was eager to get in on the action, but the corporation had its own plans—though things were different now.
The collateral damage was likely increasing, and Biotechnica might change its mind.
Moreover—these three were formidable fighters, exactly the kind of talent MaxTac needed.
"HQ, the target's combat capabilities need reassessment. Requesting permission for early engagement."
Rory then told the hacker, "Forget about what's happening inside for now. Connect with the investigative unit, I want to know what they've been up to outside."
The hacker complied, his armored suit retracting to reveal large heat sinks across his back.
He then connected to the deep-dive interface.
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