บท 231: Escalation
Ho-oh Nightclub
Jotaro took a deep hit of a drug called Shining.
Beside him, Akuhara supported his boss, Soto, who was leaning against the wall, barely able to stand at the nightclub entrance.
"...You, the so-called 'Demon' of the Tiger Claw gang, can't even pull off kidnapping an ordinary person?" Jotaro questioned.
"We tried our best," Akuhara responded, shaking his head. "But the enemy was formidable. They even had a powerful armored vehicle."
A vein bulged on Jotaro's forehead as he chuckled darkly, a laughter that could send chills down anyone's spine.
"Legendary Mackinaw, right? Are you seriously telling me it's invincible? If it were so incredible, why doesn't the Anti-Terror Squad use it?"
"I'm not lying. We gave it our all. Please, save Soto," Akuhara pleaded, laying Soto gently on the ground before prostrating himself.
"Save him?"
Jotaro grabbed a rifle from one of his subordinates and unleashed a volley of bullets.
Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The shots tore into Soto's already battered body, scattering flesh, cybernetic parts, and unidentifiable fluids everywhere.
Akuhara, startled by the gunfire, raised his head. The sight of his brutally slaughtered boss left him frozen in shock.
The next moment, Akuhara drew his katana in a flash of steel and wind, slashing straight toward Jotaro's throat!
But Jotaro didn't flinch. With a cold expression, he calmly raised his phone, showing surveillance footage on the screen: a woman tied to a chair.
"Julia, right? That little slut.
You thought I didn't know you were plotting to betray the gang?
If I hadn't convinced the boss to keep her alive, you'd both be dead already!"
Jotaro delivered a vicious kick to Akuhara's stomach, reopening his wounds as blood gushed out.
"Damn it! You're all talk and no action. Everything you do ends up like a dog chewing garbage!" he cursed, kicking Akuhara again and again. Akuhara, already riddled with injuries, collapsed in defeat, his joints buckling as he knelt in the puddle of Soto's blood, staring blankly into space.
Jotaro wiped the blood from his face and hands with a tissue handed to him by a subordinate, then threw it at Akuhara's face.
"Useless! I'll give you one last chance. Go inside, get your cybernetics replaced—they're all top-quality Arasaka gear—and finish the job.
Kill the target, and you can see your little girlfriend again.
Fail, and I'll personally show you Torture Compilation Volume 12 right now!"
With that, Jotaro left Ho-oh Nightclub, stepping into a stretch limousine.
"Did that soldier comply?" Jotaro asked his deputy, Ueno.
"No. He rejected the terms outright."
"Then tell him we surrender. Have him come to Ho-oh to pick up his daughter. Display the corpse at the entrance. Make sure the body parts are hung separately.
I've heard these old soldiers are prone to cyberpsychosis. Let's provoke him a bit.
If it gets out of hand... blow the place up. Is the C4 planted?"
"Yes, it's ready," Ueno confirmed.
"Good. Now let's head to Cloud Tops. Might as well enjoy myself—damn, we've got psychos on our trail," Jotaro muttered, making a phone call.
Incoming Call: The Chief
[Jotaro: Chief, I'm wrapping things up here. Can you arrange for me at Cloud Tops?]
[Chief: Little Jotaro, I'm not happy about this. You realize it's election season, right? All we care about is winning, and now you've stirred up such a mess?]
[Jotaro: Come on, Chief, isn't this all because of your department's meddling?]
[Chief: Enough with the Chief nonsense—I'm just the Deputy Chief! Handle your mess. I'll send a team to lock down the Megatower.]
[Jotaro: Sure thing. By the way, is that 'Desert Cook' really—]
[Chief: Yes, but not as dangerous as the rumors suggest. The plaza incident was pure luck—they were saved by some reptilian freak.]
[Jotaro: Why call him the Desert Cook?]
[Chief: Because he used to be a chef in the Badlands. That's it.]
Jotaro frowned. A chef? Who'd believe that crap?
The Deputy Chief's uncharacteristic admission hinted at something bigger.
Just as he pondered, Jotaro received another rare message.
Incoming Transmission: Weapon Supplier
[Supplier: We're providing free assistance. But you must follow our strategy. First, open Cloud Tops's network domain to our netrunner.]
[Jotaro: Impossible. Cloud Tops isn't solely mine.]
[Supplier: Figure it out. Succeed, and we'll compensate your losses. You have one minute to decide. Refuse, and all support to the Tiger Claw gang ends now.]
[Jotaro: Is this a choice? Fine, I'll do it!]
[Supplier: Good dog. Rewards will follow. Now, your informant's family has been infiltrated. Send a team to eliminate them.]
"Damn mutts," Jotaro muttered.
He was about to become a mole in his own gang.
"Ueno, lead a team to this location. Kill the targets. Drones will assist."
Meanwhile, in a cybernetic clinic in Watson District, David's crew lay on surgical tables, undergoing repairs.
Inside the cyber network, Lir monitored their cyberware systems, noticing erratic patterns in their drives.
When interfacing with the human body systems in cyberspace, the displayed data often looked strange. The more chaotic and outdated the drivers, the more bizarre the visuals became.
[Leo: I get that your drivers are pirated, but how are they this incompatible?]
[Leo: David's is manageable, but Maine, your issue is more complicated than I expected. Why on earth are you using a gorilla-arm driver for a standard bionic arm?]
[Leo: Don't you know this will cause aiming deviations?]
[Maine: Uh... but I had my ripperdoc modify it. He said it'd work fine and even overclock.]
[Leo: That quack? What does he know about tech? Don't overclock if you don't understand it—it'll cause cyberpsychosis.]
Leo got to work adjusting the drivers.
Just then, the little octopus AI jumped out of its casing and pointed its tentacles at the group's cyberware.
[Octopus AI: Boss, can I give it a shot? After consuming that data earlier, I feel like I'm amazing at this! :D]
[Leo: Sure, go ahead and try.]
Leo thought for a moment and decided to let it give it a go.
As for why the octopus suddenly had this confidence, it might be linked to the braindance tech from before, which enriched its database on cyberware systems.
In cyberspace, Leo granted the octopus AI some computational power—but only in stages, learning from earlier incidents.
He watched the octopus AI grow more sophisticated with each step. Its tentacles gradually transformed into mechanical arms, resembling those of a living creature.
[Symbiotic AI Tendency Activated: Cyberware Driver Optimization]
[Description: This AI is designed to assist with cyberware movement, using artificial neural networks to optimize drivers. It gains enhancements by acquiring more data on cyberware performance and neural decoding.]
[Note: AIs with this tendency can directly integrate into cyberware to aid operation.]
Leo monitored the modifications made by the octopus AI. While impressive, there were still errors—some logical inconsistencies, others outright mistakes.
Since the octopus was still in its learning phase, Leo had to correct it continuously. He assigned the bulk of the fine-tuning tasks to the octopus while he began sharing the gathered intel with Maine's crew and the two police officers.
[Leo: Here's the situation.]
**[The kidnappings are the work of someone named Jae-hyun Lee. Besides abducting people off the streets, he also lures newcomers to Night City. The victims are sent to warehouses near Kabuki's outskirts, packed into shipping containers awaiting processing.
From there, they're split into two groups: one sent to a nightclub called Ho-oh for illicit trade and filming, the other to a club named Cloudtop. Ho-oh is on Elen Street, while leads on Cloudtop are murkier. I suspect it's in the H8 Megabuidling.
Since we've uncovered this much, we might as well raid both clubs.
Bad news: Just now, the NCPD deployed officers to seal off H8 Megabuidling. Looks like someone higher up is getting involved. We need to move fast—if the trail goes cold, all this work will have been for nothing.]**
The Octopus AI's driver upgrades were surprisingly swift. Before long, it had optimized everyone's systems.
Maine's improvement was the most noticeable: his cyberware's memory usage halved, and the occasional sluggishness disappeared. Testing his arm, he lifted his rifle and found his aim steady as a rock.
"This is insane," he said.
Rebecca and Pilar also tested their firearms, noticing a significant boost in responsiveness.
After some quick warmups, the team left the ripperdoc's clinic, fully geared up.
[Leo: If everything's good, head to Ho-oh and scout it out.]
[River: What about you?]
[Leo: There are drones outside. I'll take care of them first and find a way to keep the suits busy.]
As Leo prepared, he assembled a Nekomata sniper rifle, the parts laid out in a box. It was the perfect time to put it to use.
Hiding out in Evan's apartment, the trio spotted drones speeding toward them from a distance.
Once assembled, Leo handed the rifle to V. "I have a feeling tonight's events will turn Night City upside down again."
Taking the sniper rifle, V smirked. "When hasn't that been the case? Once we're done here, we'll break through NCPD's lines!"
Jackie crouched by the window, gripping a steel pipe. "That might not be a great idea. There are good cops among them."
"No problem. By the time we're done, only the bad ones will be left."
Saying this, Leo messaged a fixer.
[To: Regina]
[Leo: Got an urgent job. I have dirt on NCPD corruption and their ties to the Tyger Claws—directly copied from their database.]
[File Transfer]
[Regina: Where'd you get this? Is it legit?]
[Leo: You'll see it's legit when you read it. I might've tipped them off—they're probably heading to Cloudtop to erase evidence. Check if H8 Megabuidling's on the news for being sealed off.]
[Regina: Those bastards.]
[Leo: I know you've got media contacts. Leak this and make some noise.]
[Regina: And?]
[Leo: Warn the NCPD through me: don't risk your lives for this. Anyone staying at H8 Megabuidling doesn't need to.]
[Regina: You're something else. Fine, this one's on me. Be careful when you infiltrate.]
"Something else, huh?" Leo locked onto the incoming drones via CCTV. "This is just the beginning."
With V aiming the sniper and Jackie readying his pipe, they watched the swarm of drones approach.
Tonight, Watson was destined for chaos.
Far off, a maglev train emerged from the slums' elevated tracks, heading toward the corporate plaza.
V pulled the trigger.
The charged bullet shot forth from the ramshackle slums, tearing through the polluted skies of the decrepit district. It caught up with the train for a brief moment, then surged ahead, straight toward its target.
Boom! The drone exploded in a shower of fire and debris.
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