"F*ck!"

John suddenly appeared from the smoke and dust.

He gripped a piece of steel picked up from the ground, bursting with brute force, aimed directly at the center of the mechanical compound eye and smashed it with all his might.

Bang.

The sound of metal clashing echoed in the empty building.

The drone was struck into a calibration imbalance.

Without pausing, John discarded the bent steel rod and pulled out a smart mini submachine gun tucked in his belt.

Cobalt-blue bullets dispersed the settling smoke.

John didn't press the attack; instead, he fired while sprinting toward the corridor railing.

Uriel was too agile in the complex terrain.

If John retraced his steps, he'd surely be shot dead in the construction site; now he could only risk it all and find the quickest path downstairs.

He raised his hand to undo the magnetic buckle, pulling out the crossbody bag to grip it backward.

Buzz, buzz buzz——

Uriel hadn't suffered fatal damage, already readjusting its flight posture from the aftermath of the smash and shooting.

John glanced at it out of the corner of his eye and reached the end of the corridor.

Without a moment's hesitation, he stepped onto the railing and jumped right off the hundred-meter-high floor.

The night wind howled, lifting his work jacket.

Messiah's Eye quickly contracted; the chip calculated jump distances and reliable landing spots among surrounding objects. Due to the short time airborne, Sianweistan activated automatically, making everything in his view slow down.

The clamor was stripped away by sensory processors.

Eden City loomed deep blue from above.

The brilliant neon lights reflecting off the steel jungle had an unspeakable coldness.

John leaped a distance of over ten meters, landing on a swinging crane arm.

He rolled on the steel platform, nearly slipping off, lowering his body to sprint wildly on the moving lifting equipment.

The drone burst through the dust.

Smart bullets tore through the night, laying a dense sheet of sparks along the crane arm.

[Gino: What are you doing, John!]

[Agave Rope: Holy sh*t! You're too loud now, it's raining iron filings on the site, everyone's looking up.]

[Voice Channel/Silence]

John muted the voice.

In a spot over a hundred meters high from the ground, beneath him an openwork, over a meter-wide moving crane arm, with battle drones in pursuit, he truly had no spare brain space to listen to his teammates' exclamations.

He sprinted to the top of the tower crane, pulled out a gun to fire, and jumped into the driver's seat through the broken glass gap.

The tower crane was unmanned.

Smart bullets embedded through the gap into the control panel and equipment box.

[Warning! You are destroying company assets, the Raqi Group will record your criminal behavior and reserve legal rights, you...]

Buzz buzz buzz——

The municipal drone didn't hesitate at all.

Smart bullets ricocheted within the narrow space.

John's scratches increased in number, yet he still curled up in a corner, searching for the only exit on the floor.

He punched fiercely, smashing the lock, raised his gun, and broke the power supply lock.

Whoosh~

The maintenance hatch on the floor opened.

The night wind rushed in impetuously.

John looked down and saw a vertical ladder encased in steel, the road connecting the tower crane to the ground.

He turned the backpack lock around, jumping right into it.

The quality of Agave Rope's backpack was excellent; hackers all liked high-tensile materials, and inside was lined with a smooth electromagnetic isolation fabric.

John used it as a rappelling device, substituting for his arms to contact the stairs.

Buzz buzz buzz——

The backpack and ladder were rapidly grinding, the metal buckles blackened to red, with faint signs of burning through.

[High-Fall Warning: 12m/s (decelerating)]

John descended from a hundred meters high, the roar of wind rising below him in the narrow space, the narrow metal inside the crane arm lay ahead, with red flashing lights set at intervals.

He had no professional rappelling equipment in hand, relying entirely on the backpack buckles and the high-tensile fabric being scorched by friction.

Adrenaline secreted.

Crunch——

The metal ladder suddenly emitted a terrifying sound.

John jerked his head up, seeing above him streams of smoke and cobalt-blue bullet glows, while inside the ladder, lack of maintenance led to part of the steel structure and fixtures nearing collapse.

"F*ck!"

He desperately tightened the rope to slow his descent.

Boom——

The backpack strap finally burned through.

John's wrists collided with great force, causing his body to spin out of control in the narrow passage.

[Subcutaneous Armor: spine...]

[Subcutaneous Armor: waist...]

At that moment, he didn't care about the pain, scraping wildly, with synthetic leather around his palms torn open by the metal edges, exposing metal plates and muscle fibers, the deepest wounds even showing alloy structure.

"F*ck, huff, huff~"

John caught hold of a fixture before plummeting to his death.

He gasped desperately for air, enduring the pain of internal organ shock and muscle tearing, scrambling out from the edge of the climbing frame.

Rumble——

Falling metal fragments and ladder structures dropped from the passageway, passing by with massive clouds of dust and terrifying gusts.

By his estimate, the ground was merely over a dozen meters away; he swiftly climbed downward, turned, jumped to land, rolled to dissipate force, and then in the construction crew's gaze, dashed across barriers, ultimately vanishing into a passageway.

Swoosh——

Cries of surprise and curses arose behind him.

The municipal drone also arrived on the ground, deploying a scanning system to conduct a personnel sweep on site, unfolding a red data grid, attempting to locate a target.

Tap tap tap.

In a pit five to six meters deep from the ground.

John waded through water, rejoining Gino according to the voice channel's instruction.

Agave Rope received the scorched backpack, startled to the point his mouth twitched.

"Damn, that was like a f*cking suicide jump!"

"Bandage up first, it'd be best to scan the prosthetic body for damage, let me know if there are any disconnections."

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