Chapter 21

[Yes. But, if you were of no use to me, you might be lying in a one-eyed woman's clinic, or on a company's dissection table. Anyway, you'd be in some weird place, receiving treatment for cyberpsychosis. But I reckon it would've been too late by then.]

[Too late?]

[That's right, thank Old Wei. In the whole Night City, only he could save you in time. Now, come with me, it's your turn to help me.]

That guy released her from the chair and opened the iron door with his back to her.

[Don't be scared, I'm planning to blow up something.]

[...Are you underestimating me?]

So now, she stood here, firing a formidable thing into the sky.

Surrounding her were Arasaka soldiers who were aware of the threat and kept reinforcing.

"Drop your weapons and stop resisting immediately!"

Many dark gun muzzles were already aimed at her.

Regrets?

Maybe a little.

Mael somewhat regretted joining Militech—that was a place devoid of humanity.

"Swish-swish-swish-"

"Be careful! The target has disappeared!"

A shadow flashed past, and the panicked Arasaka squad leader who lost sight of the target from the crosshairs yelled.

He only saw the heavy launcher fall to the ground.

In an instant, a short, sharp blade swept across the gap between the armored neckband and the chin.

Bringing a thin, long streak of blood.

"Swish-swish-swish-swish-swish-!!!"

Continuous rapid steps, like a death-seeking wraith, grazed past the other soldiers.

Covering his neck, hot blood spurted out from his throat, mixing with the cold rain, hard to distinguish.

He was terrified.

As he lay on the damp ground, in the last few seconds before losing consciousness, the Arasaka soldier saw the ghostly black figure and the deep blue building behind her.

...

"Mael, how are you? I heard gunshots downstairs!"

Leaning against the few fortunately not completely torn bulletproof glass, Loki grabbed the ladder of the maintenance passage and slowly moved down.

"I'm fine..." Mael's cold voice came through, "Arasaka's reinforcements are almost here."

"How do you know?"

Mael was silent for a moment: "They're here now."

Loki: ...

Couldn't you say that earlier?!

That's Arasaka's elite squad, not the trash security of the Azure Tower.

Don't be so calm, damn it!

"Should I break out?" Mael asked.

"No, no, wait a moment." Loki hooked the cover of the ladder shaft with his toes and jumped down, "Start Delamain, and if there are no other problems, follow the plan."

"Bang! Crackling... alright."

Mael was in the middle of speaking when she kicked down the garage door and went back in.

She didn't even have time to hang up the phone as screams kept coming from the other end.

Loki shook his head, hoping she would remember the details he had explained. He was startled by a sudden figure appearing behind him.

"Ah! Who!?"

"It's me..." V was also startled, "We found a path here."

It turned out to be V and Jackie. Although they were the first to be safe, they didn't leave when they saw Loki left behind. Instead, they took the risk and stayed here.

They were surrounded by dim maintenance rooms, where Azure Tower's unseen pipelines, ventilation, and circuits ran.

"I saw those giant crabs just now..." Jackie squatted inside the iron door with a small crack, peeking out sneakily.

"Humming-"

The roaring noise passed outside the walls, the strong light from the searchlight swept in through the narrow gap like a broom and then moved along with the octant.

"Phew... where are we?" Loki wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his hair soaked.

"I don't know, but it seems to lead to the roof of Azure Tower." V said, "Arasaka Lai Xuan's suite is on the 100th floor, and these below are probably in the 90s."

After waiting for a while and confirming that the flying machines in the sky had gone far away, Loki sneaked out, hiding in the shadows of the humming ventilation machine.

"Damn... yes, it's here."

Loki looked for a while before he excitedly saw the red warning light coming through the grid skylight.

"Where is this?" Jackie also followed, his burly figure making people worry that he would be exposed in the next second.

"It's the place where you and V might have fallen and gotten hurt, but not anymore." Loki smiled and punched Jackie in the shoulder, "Come on, give me a hand."

Loki squatted at one corner of the skylight, and V grabbed the iron frame of the skylight on the left and right.

"One, two, three, push-"

The two of them exerted all their strength, finally bending the not-so-sturdy iron frame like opening a can.

"Damn, I didn't know I was that strong." V flexed his wrist, surprised.

"The strength isn't high, and it can be smashed, maybe it's made of aluminum alloy." Loki shook his head.

Even a luxury place like Azure Tower had corners cut in construction.

"You two watch how I go down, one by one." Loki said, clinging to the edge, lowering his legs, loosening his hands, dropping a few dozen centimeters, and landing steadily on the square ventilation duct.

Holding onto the pipe beneath his feet, he dropped vertically, stepped on the bottom iron mesh, and crouched down with his weight as a cushion.

"V, you come down first."

Loki, who had successfully landed, looked up at the two people above and gestured. His whole body was illuminated by the red light, looking extremely festive.

With his nimble moves, V stepped onto the duct, took the Relic box from Jackie's hand, and gently let go, allowing it to free fall into Loki's open arms.

"Nice, let's go."

Loki stepped back a few paces to give V some space, then saw Jackie come crashing down like a meteor, sitting on the iron mesh with a "bang." V and Loki pointed at Jackie, both annoyed and amused, as they helped him up.

"Be careful, we must stay hidden from now on."

Pulling open the iron door, they were greeted not by rough industrial equipment, but by a finely decorated rest area.

Japanese and Western styles were well-balanced here. The long-unused swimming pool was still filled with clear water, cleaned spotlessly.

"I'm sorry to inform you that Azure Tower has initiated a full-building red alert. Please stay in your room and follow any instructions from our hotel staff."

The mechanical female voice repeated constantly, even the lighting on the door frame had turned red.

"Checking the floor, everything's normal." A voice came from downstairs, "Understood, call over."

"Nobody's here, is it another drill?"

"If it's just a drill, why are Arasaka's special forces here?" The one who had just called questioned back.

"Special forces?"

"They're in the lobby. They're going to search—floor by floor."

After a couple of sentences, the two walked away, and Loki couldn't hear the rest.

"We have to hurry, time waits for no one." Jackie's mind was clear at this moment, "En silencio (Be quiet), you two go ahead, it's inconvenient for me to carry the box."

Loki quickly went downstairs, pressing himself against the wall, gesturing for V and Jackie not to move.

"Team 3 found traces of hacker and combat robot intrusion, model unknown." The security staff member continued reporting, "Drones detected threats on the top floor, engaged, encountered resistance, and lost two units."

"Arasaka Lai Xuan has been evacuated from the scene. I repeat—Arasaka Lai Xuan has been evacuated."

Forget about Arasaka Lai Xuan, Arasaka Saburo was already dead.

Loki touched the dog tag he had taken and slowly pulled out the sword of the dog tag's owner, giving V a glance from the other side of the hiding spot.

With a "pfft" and a "crack," the two security personnel met rather unsettling ends.

"Hey, look what I found—silencers." Jackie put down the box and found some good stuff on their bodies, "Silencers are most useful now."

"Hold on, V, take this." Loki called out to V and handed him the silenced Kongou he had taken from his waist, "You're a better shot than me, use this."

"Wow, I saw this in the Braindance, Arasaka Lai Xuan commemorative edition."

V accepted the weapon under Jackie's envious gaze.

"Damn, that's not fair. I want a souvenir too." Jackie muttered quietly, "Both of you, one has the old man's sword, and the other has the son's gun..."

"Just now, there were Lai Xuan's original clothes and pants upstairs, do you want them?" Loki joked, "Besides, didn't I just give you a gift?"

"What gift?" Now it was Jackie's turn to be puzzled.

"Sigh... You wouldn't understand." Loki patted Jackie's back, "Forget it, isn't the biggest souvenir in your hand right now?"

Jackie looked down at the storage box containing the Relic and nodded.

"After we finish this job, the three of us will retire from the business..."

"Shut up, don't jinx it. Do you know how hard it was for me to save you?"