Chapter 528 - 499: Underground Emperor

Time reverted to the very end of the second second.

At the start of this second, V was disrupted and believed she had adopted a defensive posture, while Munemasa began to act.

Without visual sensor input, it was difficult for Munemasa to confirm V’s subsequent movements.

So V only thought she had switched to a defensive stance, but in reality...

Little Octopus swung V’s arms in the air, scrambled V’s auditory information, and commenced high-speed calculations.

Although the encounter was rapid, it wasn’t faster than the speed of sound—

At the end of the second second, V’s left hand ejected the Mantis Blade, blocking Munemasa’s path of motion...

It might have been a bit slow, but not by much, as the two Mantis Blades cut into Munemasa’s midsection forming a skewed ’V’!

The blades pierced through the outer layer, and the electric current began its assault, instantly causing both of Munemasa’s legs to lose control, completely off-balance in the air...

What followed was a rocket explosion!

Boom!

V was blasted away, the momentary high-power and loss of sensation made her struggle to comprehend what had just happened—

In mid-air, she hastily shot out Spider Silk to pull herself back, while Jack was completely thrown off by the Centaur Mecha, his fists slamming hard into the ground, causing a cobweb-like pattern of cracks to spread!

Dust scattered everywhere, and she turned anxiously, eager to see the outcome of her recent blunder, but her body was uncooperative, weak, and in the end, she could only cling to the Spider Silk, passively returning to the wall.

[Little Octopus: "Mom, I’ve almost burned through all the remaining electricity and fuel in the prosthetics."]

[Little Octopus: "But don’t worry, our tactics are working."]

V’s brain, somewhat starved of blood due to the prosthetics entering a low power mode, shook her head and looked towards the ground.

Then she was stunned:

Munemasa’s lower body had been completely torn off, the rest of his body propelled forward by the rocket explosion, crashing face-first into the ground—

Leaving behind a section of his lower leg, the remaining piece fell to the ground with a heavy thud, scattering all around.

And Da Mai had not managed to avoid the situation as Munemasa had anticipated; the Armored vehicle drifted harshly, smashing into the jumping rear leg of the Centaur War Machine!

Both the large and the small had crashed face-first, but Munemasa quickly cleared the abnormal current while sliding, his blade stabbing fiercely into the road to stop the slide.

The Centaur War Machine also struggled to its feet...

But the battle was a series of connected events.

The sudden situation forced Munemasa to recalculate, adjusting the priority of the Centaur War Machine, but in the less than a second of sliding, the second wave of attack was already brewing—

The impact of Jack hitting the road was massive, and he would endure similar recoil, the forces causing him some concussion, dimness before his eyes, and an emptiness in his head; he knew he was in combat but couldn’t remember what to do.

The brief amnesia caused by the concussion might recover in an instant, but that instant is usually disastrous.

Ironically, the major impacts recently suffered are more likely to recover first—

The greatest recent shock to Jack was not shooting a kneeling, pleading Full Body Cyborg, which resulted in his self-destruction.

The coincidence lay in the fact that because of this incident, the barrel of his Hammer-30 was slightly bent by the explosion, saving them one High Explosive Armor-Piercing Bullet...

After Jack had fired all his standard equipment of 14mm Shellless Bullets, this became the last round of ammunition in the punch daggers.

It was also the weapon Lille on the Centaur War Machine had adjusted for him just now.

It could undoubtedly blow up the Centaur War Machine.

With his gauntlets stuck in the road, Jack disconnected the power supply to them and activated the Lizard Rage component, the tremendous force snapping the junction between the gauntlets and his Power Armor—

The gauntlets were replaceable, and were designed to withstand pressure, not resistance to pulling!

Crack!

With a light snap, Jack pulled out his hands, his fists bared at the front of the Power Armor, raised to strike at the massive Centaur War Machine!

The firing mechanism was not included at the end of the collision gauntlets, but rather at the front of the forearm—

It was damaged, but still functional!

The target was large, the distance was short, no need for aiming!

Boom!

The bullet was fired, and the enormous recoil from the High Explosive Armor-Piercing Bullet pushed Jack harshly to the ground as flames scorched painfully across his face!

But the outcome was effective!

The bullet struck the backside of the Centaur War Machine, the impact igniting a colossal flame, the projectile piercing the armor and hitting the Machine’s interior, setting off a chain of explosions!

In an instant, the over three-meter-tall Centaur War Machine lost power, and Munemasa could only watch his vehicle burst into flames and kneel in defeat.

Legend Mackinaw came around the corner, facing Munemasa—

Da Mai, the car, came to a halt, Lille also exited the Octopus Arm control state, his three mechanical arms went limp, and he seemed somewhat unsteady on his legs alone.

Three people were stationed: one on the car, dragging three mechanical arms, one clinging to the walls of the buildings on either side, and one climbing out of the big hole he had created.

The colossal Centaur War Machine lay fallen and ablaze, Munemasa’s upper torso stood isolated in the street, supported by his arms.

Honestly, with just his upper body—and four arms at that—Munemasa could still move; he could fight if necessary.

But he certainly couldn’t beat these three.

Moreover, having lost half of his body, along with a mass of wires burnt by Little Octopus, his overall power capacity had drastically reduced.

Reduced power meant reduced combat capability.

Across a distance of about sixty meters, Munemasa looked at Lille and then to his side—

At the end of the road was a bend, and beyond the bend lay the entrance to the Rebirth Night Club.

He suddenly spoke for the first time, "Why choose there as the end point?"

Munemasa turned his head to stare at Lille.

He had never been to Rebirth.

While replacing the claw heads on the Octopus Arm behind him, Lille spoke in a quiet voice, knowing Munemasa could read lips, "The others like it there."

Boom—

The roar of Da Mai’s engine resonated once again; Munemasa’s auditory, olfactory, and infrared sensors—among others—could all tell that the armored vehicle was truly nearing its last legs.

The fuel in the tank was perhaps less than 10%, the electrical platform was completely damaged, with only the reliable, but simple and imprecise mechanical control device remaining.

This kind of vehicle couldn’t employ smart driving, unless it had an inside... an AI that could drive like a human.

Well, well.

It seemed like three people, but in reality, it was just two, accompanied by two AIs, plus one thing that was neither human nor AI.

Munemasa adjusted his stance, each hand clutching a high-temperature short blade, crawling on the ground ready to spring forward with the aid of his arms, while the additional mechanical arms on his shoulders were fitted with some kind of high-temperature welding torch.

The final sprint didn’t involve much calculation.

There weren’t many tools left at his disposal.

Without the need for much description, what ultimately unfolded was Munemasa launching his final assault toward Da Mai, his compensatory arms flashing with electricity, jumping off the ground, with flames jetting from the extra arms on his shoulders.

He didn’t jump low, in fact, he leaped over two meters high.

The speed wasn’t slow, but it obviously lacked variation.

A sharp blade head attached to a thin wire shot out from the center of the Octopus claw, viciously piercing Munemasa’s body, halting his forward momentum, a surge of powerful electric current flooding in virtually paralyzing Munemasa’s thought processes.

Then the Octopus Arm casually snatched away Munemasa, who was now just an upper torso.

Capturing a rogue AI is a tough job, but such a clean capture was indeed rare.

A sense of defeat, an emotion an AI shouldn’t possess, blossomed within Munemasa’s heart...

"Did I allow you to have a good time?"

"No."

Lille shook his head.

No way around it, the effect of Evolution Heart was that all artificial creations couldn’t cause any psychological impact on him.

V and Jack were grabbed back onto the vehicle by Lille’s Octopus Arm; the prosthetics were completely out of power, out of fuel, heads dizzy yet bursting with excitement.

"Haha, if someone told me a few years ago that I could book the entire Rebirth for myself, I would have slapped them twice and told them to stop making fun of me..."

Jack was lying in the cargo hold, V placed by Lille in the passenger seat, also half-reclining.

"This isn’t just about Rebirth, today we pretty much booked the whole Night City."

As they spoke, V’s legs casually rested on Lille’s shoulder; broken mechanical toes wriggled out of torn shoes, almost brushing Lille’s face.

Lille glanced at her, her pants and clothing tattered, exposing a body beneath just as battered and scarred.

It would have to do for today.

A high-definition drone at several hundred meters altitude captured this final battle.

Half of Night City plunged into darkness amid the ongoing conflict, the chain of explosions putting everyone on edge, even the commentators on the radio, at this most crucial moment when they should have been passionately announcing the result, fell collectively silent.

Following the latter half of the race, they didn’t understand what had happened and dared not speculate unwisely, even the usually boisterous Stan pretended to sip on water.

Outside the Rebirth Night Club, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, this century-old establishment had never been so deserted...

And yet, it had never been so lively.

The stuff of legends, Mackinaw carried its master, as the loyal underworld of Night City welcomed their Emperor.

The visible spoils were Munemasa, but more importantly, the unseen treasures were also firmly in hand—

"This job’s done."

[Unstable energy is about to erupt——]