Goodnight, Corpo Plaza

"You—"

Rory didn't have time to say more!

This shouldn't be happening!

According to her calculations, V's Sandevistan should only provide a mere 20% time-dilation effect, a low-grade version compared to the experimental Sandevistan used by MaxTac, which could achieve an 80% time-dilation effect!

In the earlier fight, she hadn't even pushed her power to the limit!

But now, even with her Sandevistan maxed out, she was barely keeping up with V's speed!

Cyberpsychosis might cause overclocking in implants, but this level of performance couldn't be explained by mere overclocking!

V was moving with incredible speed, and her dual Mantis Blades were already at Rory's face!

Rory instinctively blocked, but V's strength had also surged! Not just fast, but fierce! After the initial strike, V didn't continue slashing but quickly shifted her momentum, kicking Rory away!

Normally, after exerting force, there's a moment to gather strength again, which is why experienced fighters don't strike with all their might—

But V wasn't normal now! She had lost all reason!

Even after sending Rory flying, she didn't stop moving! Her cybernetic joints deformed under such inhuman biomechanics, but they held up for this attack, closely following the airborne Rory!

They fought in a zone where time seemed to stand still for everyone else!

They zipped past #0054, who was forced to activate his Sandevistan, but he couldn't keep up with V!

V's unnatural movements twisted and broke her knee joint, but it left Rory with no time to block the incoming Mantis Blades!

Rory felt a chill in her heart as the Mantis Blades slashed into her body!

It's over!

That was her thought.

But reality can be cruel—

V, in her cyberpsychotic state, exhibited superhuman reflexes and speed, but her blades still had to obey the laws of physics.

After repeated clashes with Rory's heated Mantis Blades, the pressure and high temperature had already brought V's blades to the brink of breaking.

As the blade struck Rory's shoulder—or rather, her subdermal armor—the Mantis Blade snapped.

And V's speed fluctuated, beginning to slow down rapidly, allowing #0054 to catch up and deliver a punch to V's back—

Rory felt a rush of relief—

And then she witnessed something unbelievable!

V twisted away from #0054's punch, and the broken half of her blade suddenly flew back into her hands, tightly gripped by her makeshift gloves—

The blade pierced through #0054's abdomen and continued upwards, finally lodging near his collarbone!

The whole sequence took just one or two seconds from Jackie's perspective.

He saw V disappear from where she stood, rushing towards Rory, then #0054 vanished as well, and all three reappeared outside the door—

With #0054 impaled by the blade, and the Mantis Blade was no longer extended from V's forearm but held in her hand.

Splurt!

Blood gushed out like a fountain, splattering on the walls.

#0054 collapsed to his knees, his spinal implant instinctively trying to keep him upright—but it was clear he could no longer move.

Rory finally snapped out of it, utterly shocked—

How could this happen?

But after all this, V also collapsed to the ground—

It was clear she was utterly spent.

Rory stared in disbelief at V, who had been a goddess of death just a moment ago, now looking so helpless.

Her lips seemed to be moving, mumbling something, but even with her extremely sensitive hearing, Rory couldn't make out what V was saying.

"…Simply—unbelievable. Headquarters, you won't believe what I just went through… This woman—suspect A, you're going to love her."

V had lost the ability to move—Rory was all too familiar with this state because she herself had been in it when MaxTac captured her.

Back when Rory first succumbed to cyberpsychosis, the first thing she did was kill MaxTac's hacker.

She had to be physically beaten into submission, her implants completely shut down before she was arrested.

Of course, the details of that fight were no longer in her memory, supposedly part of the cyberpsychosis treatment.

HQ would likely do the same to V.

Rory started contacting Militech for cleanup—there was still a mystery to solve: why had Militech suddenly gone silent?

No, it wasn't just Militech; the NCPD channel seemed to have gone quiet as well.

"Militech, respond."

"Ghost!"

"Mother—"

"Lizardman! It's a Lizardman!"

"Monster!"

Listening to the chaotic communication on the channel, Rory's brow furrowed—

"Militech, what the hell are you doing? Militech Major #3389, what are you doing?"

No response.

Yet her sensitive auditory system seemed to pick up sounds from elsewhere in the building—was that… glass shattering and screams?

Jackie looked at the motionless V, feeling an unexpected wave of sadness.

But no one cared about her emotions or thoughts.

Jackie glanced at the big guy standing beside him; he was just standing there, dazed.

"Well, that's it. But at least it's MaxTac who got us."

Splurt!

A spurt of blood shot out, leaving Jackie stunned.

He saw… some kind of white claw piercing through the big guy's chest?

The over 300-kilogram giant was impaled by the claw, which then squeezed, causing blood to splatter everywhere.

Then it slowly lifted—

Peeking past the big guy, Jackie was utterly dumbfounded—

A… green-scaled, terrifying-clawed, black-slitted-eyed…

Ghost!

"Mierda!"

Jackie was so scared he ignored his broken bones and tried to crawl away, but the icy claw grabbed his leg!

Outside the door, Rory's frown deepened— The Militech guys were screaming like ghosts, and now the enemy was doing it too?

"#0034, what are you…"

Rory saw a monster charging at her!

[Implant Malfunction: Sandevistan Locked, Repair in Progress—]

Rory couldn't activate her Sandevistan and could only try to dodge to the side, but that monster—it had a tail!

Boom!

The tail whipped her chest, the force so immense it sent her crashing through a wall!

The terrifying impact deformed her subdermal armor and damaged her internal organs!

Her vision dimmed, and through the crumbling wall, the only thing she could see was a pair of eyes—

Black slits, golden sclera, and faint scales—

The eyes of a true cold-blooded predator!

"HQ, unidentified lifeform—"

Crash! A large chunk of the wall collapsed onto her, burying her completely.

The Lizardman was none other than Leo—he didn't bother checking if Rory was dead and immediately slung V over one shoulder.

On his left shoulder was V, and on his right, Jackie—who was screaming as if he'd seen a ghost!

"Mierda!"

"Shut up, it's me!"

Leo's voice was raspy and low, his lizard tongue affecting his speech, making some words hard to pronounce.

But somehow, to Jackie, it sounded like: "I'm going to eat you!"

Jackie screamed even louder!

Leo, exasperated, grabbed the Yinglong from a nearby sack and handed it to Jackie—

Seeing the weapon, Jackie paused for a moment, then tears welled up—

"Leo… you've already been eaten…"

"Idiot!"

The simple word, the clear insult, brought Jackie back to his senses—such a familiar feeling.

Finally, he took a good look at Leo, then glanced at the nearby sack—

A sack made of Militech bulletproof fabric, crudely stitched together—it looked like a sack, and it seemed you could strap it on.

Uh… why did it feel like they were robbing the place?

Well, that's what they were here to do, after all.

Leo, carrying both of them, reached the circuit breaker. Before his implants could fail under the pressure of his rapidly growing flesh, he inserted his personal link.

The lizard DNA was causing his body to grow rapidly, evolving him almost completely into a Lizardman. His entire body swelled like an overinflated balloon.

But Leo managed to retain most of his humanoid shape—thanks to the fact that his cells were constantly being destroyed.

Leo had anticipated this issue before injecting the serum—the Lizard Serum altering his DNA was one thing, but it would also change his body structure, which was fatal for his implants.

Part of a ripperdoc's job is to adjust implants based on a patient's size and build, making them fit the surgical target.

Now, Leo's transformation wasn't just about growing bigger; his muscle density was increasing, his body structure, even his cellular structure, was rapidly changing!

It would eventually render all his implants useless!

But fortunately, he could destroy himself at a high rate.

The Sandevistan was operating at full speed, burning through a vast amount of nerve cells every second.

The Lizard Serum gave him incredible regenerative abilities, but it had its limits. At this moment, most of its effects were focused on repairing the burnt and damaged nerve cells.

So while he had grown claws and a powerful tail, he still looked more human than not.

Leveraging the overclocked processing power and the data exchange channel from hacking #0064, as well as the Militech soldiers he took out upon waking, Leo had already compromised Militech's communication network.

The Militech commander had been receiving false information all along, and Rory had mistaken auditory signals for communication signals.

Their last communication was that Leo was dead, Jackie and V were cornered, and everyone thought they had won.

Now, Leo was planning something big.

The power supply on the 79th floor of the Biotechnica building was robust enough—sufficient to create an EMP blast that could cripple the entire Corpo Plaza.

Rory was right—creating such an EMP blast required considerable computing power and a skilled hacker.

Leo had both, and he even had a dedicated cross-dimensional server for running the Blackout Daemon.

As the program started tinkering with the wiring, Jackie suddenly asked in a small voice, "Leo? My good buddy?"

Leo glanced at him coldly and then nodded.

It wasn't that he wanted to be cold; it's just that cold-blooded animals have that kind of gaze.

It wasn't that he didn't want to send Jackie a message either; it's just that his neural interface was partially damaged, so he had to sacrifice some functions.

Leo pulled the circuit breaker while tearing off a few pieces of metal plates and iron rods, connecting them into a cage.

The three of them were inside this metal cage as Leo raised the Nekomata sniper rifle, aiming it out the window.

One eye observed the real world, while the other watched the cyberspace.

Cyberspace operated on a special protocol, essentially a visual and interactive space created by the electrical resistance and other basic circuit information in reality.

In theory, by manipulating the variable resistors in the space, it was possible to bypass certain safety valves connected to this floor, and once bypassed, all the current could flow into a specific circuit.

And if this process was completed in an instant, it could trigger a large-scale EMP.

In cyberspace, the Biotechnica hacker, who had been resting for a while, suddenly witnessed a terrifying scene: The entire space began to tremble and warp.

He used all his strength to try and stabilize it, to prevent the cyberspace from becoming unstable. But compared to the rapid and fierce attacks, his efforts were merely a drop in the ocean!

Outside the window, the Manticore continued to ascend, nearing the windowsill—

"Time to turn off the lights—"

Zzz—

Violent currents, under Leo's precise control, grew stronger and stronger, reaching an unimaginable peak within milliseconds.

The intense current fluctuations generated a powerful magnetic field, and the amplified magnetic field produced electromagnetic waves that burst out into the surrounding space!

The first thing to disappear was the giant holographic goldfish swimming in the plaza's center, followed by the streetlights, the building lights, and the holographic billboards pointing skyward—

Equipment shut down, cables burned out, communication severed!

The Corpo Plaza, a symbol of Night City's freedom and prosperity, was utterly paralyzed—

Darkness fell.

The Manticore floating vehicle ascended, its cockpit perfectly aligned with the barrel of the Nekomata sniper rifle.

"Good night, Corporate Plaza."