The hacker arrived before the bullet.

[Scan detected, cybernetic eye reboot 13%↑]

John received a notification.

It was as if a slender blade had been inserted into the port behind his ear, his vision instantly became blurry, with mosaics and fragments of red data constantly flickering.

Swish—

[Channel authorization invite/confirm]

Oulos pulled John into her subnet.

The skyscrapers and streets before him were instantly divided by deep green data.

Scarlet data chains shot from the sky towards them, shattering into code just within reach.

A brief standoff lasted for a few seconds.

[Warning: Hack terminated]

A pop-up window blocked the enemy hacker's intrusion, the data chains shifted to green, disintegrating along the path they came from.

Oulos's cybernetic eye flashed repeatedly, as if her soul had been drained.

Her consciousness was operating within the cyberspace.

John returned to normal, carrying her body and rushed out.

"Huff, huff..."

Oulos's expression was pained, her fingers gripping John tightly—portable devices have limited effects, without the deep diving suit the body's load was high, causing her temperature to constantly rise.

Whoosh—

Several black armored cars blocked their path.

Alloy RCH accelerated in the opposite direction, brushing past at extreme proximity, then directly leaped into Central Park.

A massive holographic projection circled high above, obstructing the hovercar's view.

Raqi Group's armored cars circled the garden in search.

A black motorcycle suddenly shot out from the steps, leaping over scattered shrubs, disappearing in the blink of an eye into the building's alleyways.

The armored cars were left behind in the square.

ECPD's red and blue lights began to flash, the city administration closed roads, police cars rushed from multiple directions to intercept Raqi Group's assassins.

[ECPD! Drop your weapons, now!]

Chengxin Square houses more than one company.

As the true core route of Eden City, its security measures and sensitivity to violence are also the highest.

The roar of vector engines grew distant amidst police broadcasts.

It did not give up the pursuit, instead it elevated its view, starting to rally more ground units for containment.

The Eastern People's arrogance had never reached this level.

The management style along with their actions had changed.

[Eden City - Chengxin Square Alley]

The black motorcycle overturned debris, speeding past amid the cries of vagrants and addicts.

Oulos was noticeably tense.

She clung to John, her fingers constantly gripping tightly.

Bang bang bang, bang.

A string of bullets grazed past the motorcycle, puncturing trash bins, shattered wall bricks rained into the puddles.

The hovercar dashed through gaps between buildings.

The sound of the vector engine lingered incessantly in their ears.

"F*ck, they're biting damn tight!"

[They're corporate soldiers, not on the same level as street thugs.]

[Standard equipment, coordinated actions.]

[If you don't get it, just recall how it felt when the Internet Surveillance team busted in.]

John's expression grew grim.

"Can you hack into the hovercar?"

[F*ck, John, do you think it's easy? A team of hackers awaits in cyberspace, I can't even touch the firewall, the equipment is too simplistic, my capabilities are limited.]

"Do you have any ideas?"

[Run, back to Dan Street Apartment.]

The Eastern People wouldn't brazenly invade the West District.

John revved up the motorcycle, increasing speed as he charged up the drainage ditch, diagonally cutting across the main road and plunging into the tunnel.

Dim yellow wall lights flashed past on both sides.

The motorcycle's engine echoed in the tunnel.

"Whew~ I guess we've temporarily shaken off the hovercar, what did you do? To make the Eastern People so anxious."

[It wasn't me, it was you.]

Oulos sent a file through the inner channel.

A pop-up displayed a photo of a corpse.

John glanced at it and recognized that it was the reporter they met at the Sex Doll Club in Owl Town.

Pierre Corado.

"Sh*t, he's dead?"

In the photo, Pierre lay dead-eyed, sprawled in an alley, organs and implants all gutted, his broadcasting station suit soaked in blood, tie and shirt a chaotic mess.

"Poor guy, his life was just starting to look up."

Pierre's death wasn't that surprising.

The information he leaked to the media subjected Raqi Industry's PR department to tremendous pressure.

Eastern People even drew up an assassination list.

[Both of us surely have names on it, and quite high, you know? The relationship between mercenaries and intermediaries is quite subtle, in their view, I'm the mastermind, and you're just doing the dirty work.]

"Alright."

John felt a bit helpless yet somewhat grateful.

Ouros could have ignored everything, but she still indirectly shielded him from a lot of attention from above.

[Don't get sentimental, John. I have my own reasons for coming to Eden City, and aligning interests with you is to find out who's orchestrating these coincidences. So, for now, you can't die...]

Buzz, buzz buzz—

The roar from the back of the tunnel interrupted the conversation.

John immediately shut off unnecessary information, focusing on driving, leaving only the rear camera of the Alloy RCH on.

A team of motorcycle assassins appeared behind.

Conspicuous tight black uniforms, signature modified glaives, the tunnel's halo and information sliding off their glowing helmets.

Each bike had a partner on the back.

From a distance, they locked onto John, raising their hands in unison, ejecting mantis blades with electrical arcs from their arms.

Rat-a-tat-tat—

Gunfire echoed in the tunnel, flying bullets shattered wall lights.

"F*ck!"

John shifted gears, the speed soared once more.

The gunshots startled the normally driving vehicles, brakes screeching and horns blaring, fleeing drivers clogged the road haphazardly.

[Hold on, I'm looking for an opening.]

She forced herself to calm down, diving deep on a motorcycle doing two hundred miles per hour.

A hovercar hovered overhead.

The cyberspace was littered with puppet traps.

The professional equipment and their numbers were at a disadvantage.

[The situation is dire, I can't take on the entire network security team alone, maybe I can try hacking into their vehicles...damn, no real opportunity.]

"I get it."

[What?]

Ouros was discussing hacking skills, not knowing what John understood.

But the next second.

[Uh—]

The Alloy RCH suddenly accelerated forward.

Ouros' eyes slowly widened.

Her body tensed uncontrollably—the speed already broke three hundred and kept climbing.

The Alloy RCH accelerated through the congested area.

John's cybernetic eye rotated and focused, always slipping through just before the road completely closed off.

The peripheral scenery became blurred.

Ouros could clearly feel her mechanical heart pumping, the surrounding traffic flowing by with a slight suction effect.

The motorcycle assassins didn't expect it either.

But they reacted quickly, adjusting and catching up in no time, their hybrid motorbikes emitting a brand-new roaring sound, seemingly having lifted some sort of restriction.

"Try it now!"

[Sorry, what?]

Ouros snapped back to reality, entered cyberspace, and discovered a series of subtle vulnerabilities in the enemy's vehicle systems.

She instantly got a clear idea.

The enemies lifted the auxiliary programs and performance limits on their bikes to catch up with John.

[Alright, gotcha!]

Ouros exploited the identified vulnerabilities.

The leading motorcycle stalled instantly, the blue glow on the console turned red, and then the brakes locked up, turning it into a rolling bomb at high speed.

The driver crashed into the chaotic traffic.

The helmet scraped out inconsistent black marks, cybernetic limbs tore through leather jackets, blood and flesh splattered around explosively.

The broken mantis blade was kicked up by the wheels.

Whoosh—

The following motorcycle assassin dodged swiftly.

It scraped past several Raft Splitting Glaives, plunging into an innocent sedan, causing the driver to jerk the steering wheel in panic, resulting in a chain-reaction collision, sealing the tunnel completely.

Whoosh—

The view suddenly opened up.

Ouros straightened up as if relieved, raising her head slightly, the wild wind on the overpass blowing her eyes shut.

Near car lights.

Distant neon.

Blue and white police drones crisscrossing the sky.

...

The collision behind them triggered an explosion.

Thick smoke and flames erupted, compressed through the tunnel.

Ouros patted her disheveled hair and turned, the rapid switch in view causing some dizziness, the scene before her was hazy and not very clear.

As a middleman.

She was more accustomed to strategizing behind the scenes.

But before becoming a legend in others' words.

She also struggled on the streets, brushed past bullets, hearing the fierce wind howl...

As if every light particle was boiling.

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