Chapter 468 - 439: Digging a Pit

[Unstable Energy Outburst Countdown: 24 Hours]

Slap! Slap! Slap!

The hefty slap mercilessly hit DoomDoom’s face.

"Hmm...!"

The claws of the Octopus Arm opened and closed in front of him, clicking, and an electronic voice sounded, "Are you awake?"

"Eh?"

"Hurry and get ready to run, the NCPD has us cornered."

"Who’s speaking!"

Lille glanced at the guy, "Is your brain fried?"

"Oh... the NCPD... those troublemakers again..."

Lille observed the scene, feeling it was somewhat tricky.

The circumstances no longer allowed him to quietly maneuver around Night City Municipal and the NCPD.

From the beginning, he had planned to take everyone here with him—

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have signaled Jack and V to secure the mainframe, which he initially didn’t know was Jostar’s mother.

Forcibly disconnecting might burn out the brains of those still controlled...

Of course, after that wave of Electromagnetic Pulse, not many were left alive.

After the preliminary handling moments ago, there were still 64 living people disconnected from the mainframe’s network. Besides that, there might still be a hundred laborers lying in the darkness of the tunnel...

These people were easier to deal with, mainly because of the special Skill Chips in their bodies.

The tricky one was Jostar’s mother.

Click, click-click—

Seeing Lille staring at the massive mainframe, DoomDoom stood up on one leg, hopped in front of Lille:

"Big guy, why don’t you deal with me first; this leg of mine won’t be good for running later on."

"Even if you say so..."

Bang!

Suddenly, a robotic arm linked to the mainframe pinned down DoomDoom, took a prosthetic limb from the ground, and fitted it onto him.

Lille did not stop this action, as he discovered that it was the mainframe, specifically Jostar and his mother, that activated the surgical procedure.

"Damn it, what are you doing!"

"I don’t know either! Suddenly felt like giving you a prosthetics surgery!"

Jostar also shouted, but the only arm attached to his body wouldn’t stop moving—

The scene became somewhat surreal: the mainframe’s mechanical arms were performing a Full Body Prosthetics Transformation on Jostar, while Jostar was conducting prosthetic transformation on DoomDoom in return.

In other words, Jostar had also inherited the mainframe’s "relentless surgical machinery" function.

[Little Octopus: Big brother, how about we get aggressive? I can try to replicate part of the Soul Killer’s code to enhance recognition and directly insert it into Jostar’s brain, and then slowly separate it later.

It’s just, I’m not sure if shoving Jostar’s mom’s data directly into his brain might have any side effects.]

Hmm?

Lille paused for a moment, their original plan was to slowly pull Jostar’s mom out of the mainframe, making it difficult to disconnect everything directly and quietly take everyone away.

But if they could shove the core parts directly into Jostar’s brain, that would indeed be much more convenient.

It’s just...

Isn’t this just like Arasaka’s relic chip? Inserting one person’s consciousness directly into another’s brain?

[Lille: Directly insert it? Doesn’t it need to be coupled with some nanotechnology?]

[Little Octopus: I can’t do that either (￣▽￣*)ゞ]

[Little Octopus: Just carry a few specific chips and hardware to assist, and the remaining necessary mechanical arms for prosthetics surgery...

The total weight... is 164.63 kilograms, still a bit heavy, but definitely better than carrying all this room’s equipment out.]

"Aaaaah! You little brat, do you have a medical license to perform prosthetics surgery on me!"

"It’s not, bro, we don’t have this thing in our gang!!"

DoomDoom, pinned to the ground, wailed miserably, with his body even wrapped in an unknown liquid and dust—

The scene, compared to a surgery, looked more like a slaughterhouse, and if it were someone with a low level of cybernetic transformation getting off the table, they’d likely die from infection.

"Stop yelling." Lille jabbed an immunosuppressant into the underside of DoomDoom’s head, "I’ve checked for you, this leg is fine, don’t freak out.

Listen up, I’ll block the route they are coming from, and you dig in the direction I’ve marked."

As he spoke, the Octopus Arm picked up a dirt and rust-laden impact drill from the ground, along with other essential tools lined up beside him.

"Dig a hole? This seems a bit..."

"If I tell you to dig, just dig." After finishing his sentence, Lille turned to look at Jostar, whose body was essentially fully assembled. It seemed that he was ready for the prosthetics surgery, having just been equipped with a multifunctional arm that could house various tools.

An arm mixed with artificial muscle and synthetic fiber bionic nerves...

"Kid."

"Yes, sir?"

"I’m going to use a special technique to pull your mom out of the mainframe. The hallucinations you see will increase, and it’s very likely that you will keep seeing them in the future."

Jostar shook his head, "That’s not a hallucination, that’s a memory."

Lille hesitated—

In medical terms, memories that can be seen and heard are hallucinations.

"...Did you hear what I just said? I’m going to pull your mom out, but you need to carry the whole chamber away. It weighs 164 kilograms."

"Ah? I can’t carry that much?"

"Jack!"

Hiss—

The power armor emitted a venting noise as Jack stepped out of the armor.

After removing the gauntlets and other components, only the lower half of the power armor remained.

Lille transmitted all the armor data into the mainframe; as expected, Jostar’s mom immediately included this armor into the surgical procedure...

No wonder the Brain Demon Gang could master the technology of multiple full-body cyborgs.

Click!

The power armor connected to the empty lower limbs, with motors and batteries continuously being stuffed in.

Jostar felt his brain starting to heat up, as if some more complex process was underway.

There were many doubts about the plan, such as why the NCPD, which was fine before, suddenly wanted to block them, forcing them to dig tunnels to escape, and why his head was heating up...

But before he could ask, Lille cut him off with a single sentence.

"From now on, it’s your turn to take care of your mom."

Jostar looked at his mom inside the integration capsule; the corners of her mouth slightly covered by white matter seemed to be smiling, her hands slightly bent, as if holding something.

A vision abruptly appeared before his eyes, featuring his mom in a way he had never seen her before.

The background was a dirty, messy, rundown room, the sort a vagabond might inhabit. His mom looked dirty, her hair was ordinary, her clothes were tattered, and the corners of her eyes were somewhat deformed, her exposed fingers appeared to have three extra digits.

However, what she held in her arms was notably clean.

Inside was a healthy baby.

"Hirokazu, you must grow up healthy and strong."

...

"Senator Perares, this area is very dangerous, we..."

"I know, I appreciate your efforts. I’ve heard about the Brain Demon Gang; they have caused a lot of trouble for the city’s safety. I need to come here to see for myself, maybe you need some support."

Bang!

Two Centaur Mechas exited from the pickup truck, the driver fully armed and wrapped in some sort of heavy armor, his face unclear.

The combat power of the Centaur Mecha was indeed strong, but those who knew what to look for would focus on the person in the vehicle.

Reaver was somewhat at a loss—he wasn’t the type skilled at dealing with politicians.

Old Han, who was adept in dealing with them, was quietly watching from the side.

Just as he was still thinking about how to stall Perares to buy Lille some time, the ground suddenly shook again.

The building, a symbol of the Brain Demon Gang’s old haunt suddenly tilted noticeably, and in the next second, the deformed doors that could no longer pass through were suddenly smashed open by a tremendous force!

Boom—

The Centaur Mecha raised its shield in front of Perares, the flying debris hitting it, as if a shower of stones had started.

At this moment, the entire building began to sink!

As if calculated with precision, the building did not massively tilt to either side but sank straight down noticeably.

Dust and smoke rose everywhere.

Three figures emerged from the dust, their clothes stained with some blood and dust, but nobody thought they looked disheveled.

Perares watched as Lille slowly walked out, a barely discernible dissatisfaction flashing in his eyes.

Once the dust and smoke had completely cleared, Lille also stood in front of the two Centaur Mechas—

"It’s done, but they were somewhat tricky."