Sacrifice

"V—MaxTac!"

Leo's voice snapped V out of her killing spree. She quickly turned around, just in time to see a MaxTac operative, brandishing a red-hot Mantis Blade, lunging at her!

Clang!

The immense pressure bore down on the Mantis Blades, and both combatants in Sandevistan mode could even see the expressions on each other's faces.

Rory saw defiance and fury in V's eyes, while V noticed the grin on this woman's lips.

One was a street kid who used combat as a means to survive; the other was a MaxTac inspector who relished the thrill of the hunt.

Their first clash left Rory quite satisfied!

The hum of the blades, the rush of air, the surge of adrenaline—

An exhilarating opponent!

V bent her knees under Rory's pressure, and Rory, using the momentum, flipped herself above V and slashed down fiercely!

[Adhesion Status: Out of Control!]

The immense force exceeded the limits of V's magnetic grip, causing her to slide downward rapidly!

Rory, on the other hand, jumped slightly, her red-hot Mantis Blade piercing into the glass, slicing it as she rapidly descended under the force of gravity!

The sound of shattering glass echoed like a chain of explosions!

On the other side, the big MaxTac operative on the VTOL opened fire with a machine gun!

Jackie and Leo, hearing the gunfire behind them, could only keep smashing the glass.

Finally, just as the bullets hit the glass, it shattered!

Boom!

Leo and Jackie crashed through! V, using her webbing to latch onto the wall, swung back inside the building—

Finally, the trio reached the Project Nightingale laboratory.

This entire floor was filled with classified labs, some not even listed in the building's records, aside from Project Nightingale.

But things hadn't improved—or rather, the situation had spiraled further out of control.

MaxTac's involvement had come sooner than expected—this meant one thing: both MaxTac and Biotechnica had taken a serious interest in them.

Leo struggled to his feet and looked over at Jackie—

"Cough... Leo, you okay?"

"Jackie..."

Leo was stunned—

Jackie had been hit.

The heavy machine gun had pierced through his subdermal armor, and he had already taken several hits before.

The bullet had lodged in his back; the good news was it hadn't gone through.

"It's nothing... way better than last time."

Jackie clenched his fists and got up from the ground, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth.

V had also tumbled into the building, rolling twice on the ground before coming to a stop in front of Leo.

Leo, sharp-eyed, noticed something unusual about V—her Mantis Blade was still extended, and there was residual heat at the point where the blades had clashed.

The MaxTac slash had caused irreparable damage to the blade. Although V wasn't technically inclined, she must have noticed the abnormality during the fight.

Running out of options.

"What now?"

"Now..."

Leo looked around the lab, forming a bold idea.

The pressure from being exposed was enormous—Leo wasn't the kind to get carried away by a brief advantage.

He knew that their edge over Militech was based on certain conditions, and he also knew that this advantage wouldn't last long.

In the end, being exposed wasn't part of the plan.

When things go off-script, you need a solution that's just as off-script—

Like a real Lizardman.

But with MaxTac chasing them, there was no time to operate the lab and servers.

"Now we run, split up. V, you're the only one here who stands a chance in a one-on-one fight. Jackie, just keep them occupied."

"And you?" V suddenly asked, "You're the most likely to die if we split up. What are you going to do?"

Leo snapped back, "Did you forget Atlanta? It's not like I can't protect myself. On the contrary, I can take out their hacker. Stop asking questions and run!"

V and Jackie sensed something off, but they instinctively chose to trust Leo.

"Alright—don't die, all of you." V glanced at Leo one more time, "Especially you, kid."

"Then let's move—routes are marked."

The three immediately split up.

Seeing the trio swing into the building, Rory controlled her Mantis Blades, paused by the wall, and signaled the fire support to cease shooting.

The darkness didn't hinder their vision; the tactical goggles gave them a clear view.

The three had split up, which was a good thing—it seemed they had been scared into retreat.

"Minimize damage; the stuff in this room seems valuable—Biotechnica's orders.

The suspects have split up, perfect, let's test their strength.

I'll take the woman, the big guy for the big guy, and the one with little presence, 0054, you handle him.

Command—Suspect A has high potential, further combat testing required. Second team, stay alert, and enter with Militech.

Militech, targets are scattered, the big one's been hit, you can move in."

"Copy."

The Manticore VTOL docked by the window, and the three MaxTac operatives jumped into the building.

Militech forces also rappelled into the building.

With MaxTac's involvement, the trio's advantage in individual combat strength vanished, and from this point on, it was a real cat-and-mouse game.

This floor was vast, roughly divided into power supply, lab, server storage, and administrative areas.

Leo and the others had swung into the administrative area; after splitting up, Leo headed towards the lab area, explaining their mission to Jackie and V as he ran.

"V, once you get to the power area, pull the breakers, then upload the daemon I gave you. If we're lucky, we can trigger a large-scale EMP;

Jackie, the server area is straightforward, but when V blows the breakers, there will be a high-intensity power surge, make use of it."

Bang!

A bullet shattered the lab glass, taking out a desk next to Leo, leaving a blackened hole.

Leo dove behind cover—another second and the magnetic rail round would have blown him apart!

Clearly, the one pursuing him was the sniper, MaxTac's designated marksman.

But now he'd switched his weapon to Achilles—a popular rifle in high-end markets and a standard issue for MaxTac.

"Suspect A, surrender now, and you'll still have a chance for legal defense. If you continue to resist, you'll be treated as a cyberpsycho according to Night City's Cyberpsycho Handling Regulations," a loud broadcast rang.

"Oh, so MaxTac can talk after all?" Leo mocked, raising his rifle and firing a full clip of Yinglong.

But without surveillance cameras to assist, the smart bullets' targeting was weak, relying only on pre-set trajectories to track.

This level of targeting was useless against #0054, who was equipped with Sandevistan.

Bullets curved through the air, and #0054's body flickered, the rounds passing harmlessly through.

"Pathetic weapon."

If not for the EMP trigger in the bullets, #0054 wouldn't have bothered dodging. His synthetic material armor and subdermal plating could easily block Yinglong's rounds.

Leo had expected this outcome.

He pressed on towards the lab area—here, the walls were replaced with electrochromic glass, which was opaque when unpowered.

Dim and cramped.

Biotechnica was reluctant to grant MaxTac lower-level access, and MaxTac preferred the floor remain dark to prevent Leo from gaining any more access.

After all, they weren't regular Militech soldiers; they didn't need robotic assistance, lighting, or surveillance.

Bang! A bullet missed, shattering the lab glass beside Leo, forcing him to duck behind a pillar.

It was clear that this MaxTac member wasn't looking for a quick kill; instead, he seemed to be testing Leo's limits.

"So, you're the hacker? Or maybe the tech specialist? Show me what you've got."

Leo hid behind cover, breathing heavily as he reloaded.

He didn't have any tricks; in the end, the only thing that got him this far was so-called tech and knowledge.

Physically, he was just a weakling on the verge of collapse.

Leo raised his hand, holding the trigger, and fired—

Suddenly, #0054's voice rang in his ear: "...Or is this all you've got?"

Leo's blood ran cold—his opponent had gotten behind him!

He turned, but #0054 grabbed his throat with one hand!

"Gah—"

The enemy's grip was so strong that Leo could barely breathe. He used all his strength to smash the butt of his rifle against the enemy, but the weak blow didn't even make him flinch.

It was like hitting a steel plate.

#0054 tilted his head in confusion.

"You're really this weak? Even hackers need strong bodies for cyberware implantation. What are you hiding? Check what cyberware he has."

The last part was directed at the hacker on the Scorpion.

The hacker replied, "I'm in, scanning...not that impressive, Biotechnica's hackers must be useless, no signs of military-grade ICE.

Funny thing, you know, I found a similar target profile in the criminal database.

You know what they're called? Big Shot Burgerking! Haha, I think they really are cyberpsychos!"

Apparently eager to show off his skills, the hacker's voice even echoed inside Leo's head!

Leo's face, now turning purple, suddenly broke into a strained smile—

"It's Burgerking Big Shots Squad, you idiot."

Red text appeared in the system! That mysterious Sandevistan's power surged.

Every neuron was devoted to processing, and Leo's already enhanced neurons and brain cells were now operating at full capacity under Sandevistan's stimulation!

Even without a deep-dive interface, Leo could enter cyberspace—

In an instant, massive processing power formed the most common ICE, utilizing servers from another world to run at full throttle!

The hacker who had breached his system was caught completely off guard, dragged into the newly constructed ICE—

The sudden spike in computational load caused his body temperature to skyrocket, with all his cooling cyberware kicking in, steam billowing out! "No way—I'm being attacked!"

Pzzzt!

The ICE server on the Manticore started smoking as well.

#0054 sensed something was wrong. In his vision, Leo's body temperature spiked!

This surge lasted less than a second before #0054 moved to finish Leo off, only to see his head slump to the side—

Leo's world went dark.

Thud.

#0054 released his grip, and Leo's body fell to the ground.

"Dead...? 0064, you still online?"

"Ugh...I...I..."

On the Scorpion, the hacker, slumped in his chair, eyes vacant, body convulsing violently as if having a seizure.

He tried to speak but couldn't form words.

He tried to type, but he realized he didn't recognize the letters—

He felt he should know every letter, but in reality, he had no idea what they were.

It was a strange sensation.

Panic spread through him; he knew what these symptoms were, but he couldn't remember anything, only the overwhelming fear!

His world shook violently, even hallucinations began, everything turning upside down—

Thud.

His head slumped to the side, and he fell from his seat.

Every MaxTac member received an alert: [MaxTac Hacker #0064 has triggered the Cyberpsycho Protocol, recovery team required.]

[Final Biometric Data: Extensive neural burn, physiological signals disrupted, consciousness lost, monitoring failed.]

Combat Channel:

Inspector Rory: "Report status."

MaxTac Sniper #0054: "#0064 was hit by ICE after breaching the enemy network, neural burn."

Inspector Rory: "Impossible, the network signals are jammed, they couldn't have connected to an ICE server, what about Suspect A?"

MaxTac Sniper #0054: "The ICE seems to be integrated into Suspect C's body. His temperature spiked momentarily."

MaxTac Sniper #0054: "I tried to save #0064 by killing Suspect C, but he died beforehand, likely from cyberware overload."

Inspector Rory: "Suspect C's combat evaluation?"

MaxTac Sniper #0054: "Extremely low cyberware integration, equipped with an unfamiliar spinal cyberware, likely a biological ICE server."

MaxTac Sniper #0054: "His body was weak, looked like he was on the brink of death. Now, it seems he was just a decoy, a human ICE server put in place by the hacker."

MaxTac Sniper #0054: "#0064 fell for it."

Inspector Rory: "Seems like there's another hacker hidden in the building, no wonder #0064 couldn't find traces of remote intrusion."

Inspector Rory: "That's a nasty trick. Leave the body, someone will come to handle it."

MaxTac Sniper #0054: "Understood."

0054 turned and left after receiving the order.

…

After he was gone… 

Leo's fingers twitched slightly!