Racing Against Time

Rosanne Kaplan, the only arms dealer in the Colorado District who caters to civilians, runs a shop called Lamar's Armory.

As an arms dealer, all her security systems are connected solely to her internal network, with no connection to the external web.

Moreover, this woman is extremely cautious, with no external cameras in sight—this means that hacking in from the outside is nearly impossible; you have to find an entry point from within the building.

However, inside, Leo didn't even have to think about it—there would definitely be 360-degree no-blind-spot turret machine guns.

If they tried a frontal assault, it would alert the 6th Street Gang, making it pointless. But if they planned to take Rosanne out quietly, those machine guns wouldn't be an easy obstacle to overcome.

Click—

The double doors automatically opened. Rosanne was a young-looking Mexican woman, wearing a white workout top, camouflage pants, and a camouflage headband.

A typical 6th Street Gang style, though she wasn't actually part of the gang.

She stood behind a barred counter, displaying the typical caution of an arms dealer.

"Welcome... Oh, Valenti..."

Her enthusiasm waned the moment she looked up.

No wonder—Jackie's appearance was also very gang-like: large tattoos exposed on his arms, a big gold chain hanging from his chest, and...

They were both Mexican.

However, she wasn't scared—the source of her confidence lay in the four turreted machine guns in the corners of the room.

If this big guy made any sudden moves, those turrets could turn him into mince meat in an instant—no exaggeration.

Whirr—

The turrets began to rotate.

With the dark barrels pointed at him, Jackie hadn't even said a word, yet his attitude had already shifted slightly.

Leo stepped forward from behind Jackie, and only then did Rosanne notice the scrawny guy following the big man.

"First of all, my brother here isn't with the Valentinos at the moment, we're just here to talk."

"That line again?"

"How's business lately?"

Rosanne rolled her eyes and threw her hands up. "People in Night City would rather starve than not go out armed with last-generation weapons. And especially in times like these—get to the point."

"I have a batch of hot merchandise. Can you move it? It's company goods, origin unknown."

Rosanne glanced at Leo and Jackie, shaking her head. "You're with the Valentinos. If 6th Street finds out I helped you, they'll skin me alive."

Yes, she didn't believe Leo's story at all—she'd bet her life that this big guy was with the Valentinos.

Meanwhile, V had been tracing her route ever since Leo walked in.

Rosanne's small building had only one entrance, like a fortress—it was a fortress, really.

However, perhaps to make life a little less stifling, she had added a small balcony on the side of the building on the first floor and another on the back on the second floor, just big enough for one person, and sealed with a large door.

At this height and distance, an ordinary person wouldn't be able to reach it, but for someone with enhanced cyberware, it was an easy jump.

"Not sure what view she's enjoying..."

V quickly leaped to the second-floor balcony. From there, she could see a junkyard stretching out behind the building, with a massive dam looming in the distance.

Built by Petrochem, the other side of the dam was a true "lake of garbage."

V scanned the metal door with her cybernetic eye—bad news, it was an old-fashioned iron door, locked with a padlock.

No way to hack it—and V was certain that if she opened it, it would trigger an alarm behind the door.

"Bad news, this door... too old."

On the other side, Leo kept his cool despite the news, though it did complicate things.

No wonder this woman was thriving here—her security setup was top-notch.

What else could be useful?

Leo focused on the computer behind Rosanne—with the 30x zoom of his Kiroshi optical implant, he could clearly see the small text on the bottom left corner of the 14-inch operating screen behind her.

"Militech Civilian ICE Ver.196.36352."

Leo remembered that the Militech Behemoth he had driven had a similar operating system version, Ver.526.523. Judging by Militech's version iteration speed, Rosanne's system was likely over a decade old.

It seemed Rosanne had full confidence in her physical firewall, opting not to upgrade her software system—perhaps because she couldn't sell anything better.

This version of software would take Leo less than a second to hack into; civilian-grade ICE and military-grade were entirely different beasts.

In his mind, Leo quickly calculated the dimensions of the entire building. From V breaking through the door to locating the equipment inside and moving to the connection point... it would take roughly 2 seconds. With the Kerenzikov cyberware activated, it could be cut down to around 1 second.

The fixed turrets Rosanne used were something Leo had seen in Arasaka's tech expert courses— The machine guns were MK26s, with a fixed base he hadn't encountered before, but there was a display case in the shop showing a similar model base, which was one of Rosanne's wares.

Turn speed, lock speed, minimum firing time...

Leo quickly integrated all the data in his head, calculating that from the moment V breached the door to the alarm being triggered—

The iron door wasn't networked, so the alarm trigger had to be a physical sensor, with a minimum activation response time of 1 second.

The signal reaching the server for processing, and Rosanne's reaction time: 1 second.

Issuing a command and the machine gun firing: 1 second.

If they broke in by force, they would have 3 seconds to act, and in extreme conditions, they would need only 1.5 to 2 seconds to complete the operation.

If they could distract Rosanne, they might even gain extra time.

"V, breach the door, connect to the local network as fast as you can, and I'll hack in."

"Breach the door? But the machine guns..."

"That's why you have to be quick. If you're slow, Jackie and I are going to get turned into Swiss cheese—listen to my signal, I'm going to start talking tough now."

"Damn, you're crazy..."

As he sent the message, Leo placed his hand on the sales counter. "Forget 6th Street. From now on, you take orders from me."

Rosanne sneered and pointed at the machine guns in the corner. "Why should I? Just because you said so? Do you even realize what those machine guns can do? I don't rely on 6th Street alone—"

Before Rosanne could finish her sentence, Leo gave V the signal.

"Go."

Bang!

Though V still thought this was a dumb plan, she had developed the habit of trusting Leo after spending so much time with him.

But that didn't mean she wasn't nervous—on the contrary, she believed Leo wouldn't lie to her.

If she messed up, they'd really end up riddled with bullets!

In the first second, the Dying Night pistol blew the lock off the door. V kicked it open, triggering the pressure sensor behind it, and the signal began to transmit.

At 1.5 seconds, V spotted the server terminal glowing blue on the other side of the room. With the Kerenzikov cyberware activated, she reached the server in an instant and completed the connection.

Simultaneously, the alarm blared, and Rosanne's face turned pale. The machine guns rotated, beginning to warm up—

Leo received the data feed, his optical display showing the hacking protocol interface—the ICE version was indeed 196.35362.

By the minute seconds, Rosanne's reaction speed and the machine guns' activation were slightly faster than Leo had anticipated. The first bullet was fired, and Jackie gritted his teeth, shielding Leo with his body and raising both guns.

But the local network gate had already been breached.

Bang!

The MK26's terrifying firepower easily shredded the shelves and concrete in the shop, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Four bullets nearly hit their mark, but at the crucial moment, Leo froze the turret's rotation. The bullets were fired, but they didn't hit.

The machine guns' green indicator lights turned red, then aimed directly at Rosanne.

Leo hadn't moved an inch throughout the entire process.

As the dust settled, he simply tapped the table. "Consider this a warning. These toys are pretty good, but I'm not some cyberpsycho who resorts to killing right off the bat."

Click. Click-click...

The fixed turrets suddenly shook violently, electricity surging through them, sending out black smoke as parts began to fall off.

Rosanne watched in terror, her eyes wide open, not daring to blink!

Realizing she was still alive, Jackie finally opened his eyes. Seeing that the machine guns had all exploded, he turned around.

He wanted to curse to release some of his pent-up fear, but seeing Leo in this state, he swallowed the words and discreetly patted himself, confirming he wasn't imagining things.

Leo patted Jackie on the back and took the gun from his bewildered hand. He began to draw a line on the rusty iron table.

Screech—

A white line appeared on the table.

"Listen up, this isn't a negotiation, and there's no bargaining—this is your line. From now on, without my permission, you're not doing business here. Lamar's Armory is closed. As for when you can reopen, wait for my notification. Got it?"

Rosanne nodded quickly, tears welling up in her eyes.

After speaking, Leo sighed as if disappointed, then glanced around:

"How about this—you scared me today. Give me a crate of grenades, and we'll call it even."

Rosanne kept nodding, shaking her head more vigorously than she ever had in her life, feeling like she might break her neck.

But that didn't hide her inner terror—

She saw one of Leo's eyes flicker with the telltale blue light of data streams, while the other showed no change—

This guy's visual system is split! He's multitasking! And he claims he's not a cyberpsycho?!