Chapter 622 - 593: Wealth Comes from Danger

V moved with unimaginable speed,

Under Lille’s wheelchair was a set of roller skates dismantled from Da Mai’s transmission parts. These were equipped with the smallest units of graphene batteries, providing a certain degree of grip and power, but they could only offer acceleration for a brief moment—probably less than three minutes in combat.

However, when used in conjunction with the user’s excellent athletic abilities, they could reach impressive speeds even on the pothole-ridden roads of Dog Town, where every three steps there was a small pit, and every ten steps there was a big pit.

V was exactly the type of person with extraordinarily coordinated physical abilities.

Following Lille’s instructions, she might be unable to see anything in the black smoke, but she could receive clear route directives from Lille.

With one moving quickly and the other thinking fast, their cooperation was perfect, entirely unlike Matt and Fiona’s clumsy efforts. She could even dash out of pits with her eyes closed, possibly performing better than when she groped around with open eyes in the darkness.

[Lille: The Animal Gang can’t hold on.]

[Lille: The enemy is on the third floor, moving quickly, wielding a high-end custom cyborg rifle with an attached rocket launcher.]

"Wuhu!"

[Lille: Are you listening!]?

Using the imagery marked out by Lille, V pulled wires, skated on pipes and slopes, and with the strength of her two arms and roller skates, she flew out of the smoke!

The roller skates, upon landing, recklessly released all their power; the motor hummed before detaching to reduce weight, accelerating to nearly 100 kilometers per hour!

V felt as if she were flying at a low altitude!

[V: Heard you—]

From afar, V saw the gunfire atop the dilapidated building. She shot out her spider silk, grabbing the wall. Her powerful legs and tight abs contracted fiercely, leaping high. The roller skates clung to the wall, sliding vertically upward—

From the outside, it looked like she was drawing an arc in the air, the speed change as fluid as her movements...

With another kick to adjust the angular velocity, V completed the final act of this aerial stunt:

Two Mantis Blades popped out, reflecting red light in the sunset; her body spun, transferring force to the blades like a spinning top.

The blades sliced through the air with a sharp whooshing sound, elegant and deadly!

Twiki calmed down from his rage, pulling the trigger while simultaneously tossing his firearm forward, clearly abandoning the shot to leverage the recoil for something:

V’s pupils contracted—

This person’s reactions and movements were astonishingly quick, exceeding V’s expectations but highly suitable—

The Mantis Blades were targeting Twiki’s head, and V was certain the enemy couldn’t react in time: even if the brain caught up, the body couldn’t.

But machines could, and explosions could!

The gun itself couldn’t block the Mantis Blades, but this gun self-detonated!

Boom!

The high explosive bomb in the magazine detonated instantly, and the heatwave and shockwave forced V to retract her arms, flipping in the air before landing.

As the flames dissipated, V saw Twiki jumping straight off the building!

V cursed and was about to give chase when a low drone siren suddenly sounded from afar—

Buzz—

[Lille: Don’t chase, the Netherworld Dogs are here; save your energy and get to higher ground to see if there’re any usable weapons.]

[V: Netherworld Dogs? We’re not running?]

[Lille: No, not yet.]

[V: Damn, she got away...]

[Lille: That woman is not simple, forget it, get some cover.]

V retracted the Mantis Blades, spitting on the ground out of frustration.

This woman was certainly something else.

First, her reactions were unbelievably fast, fully keeping up with V’s lightning strike.

Second, in a very short reaction time, she immediately found a way to counter, which suggested she either had advanced neural implants or robust biological components, along with rich combat experience.

Moreover, she was very calm: Lille had clearly detected cyber-psychosis-like emotional fluctuations from her, yet she immediately stabilized, not just emotionally, but her exoskeleton and prosthetics didn’t malfunction either.

It was well-known that in Night City, cases of cyber-psychosis-induced insanity on the spot were all too common in such scenarios.

Finally, the self-detonation of her gun to escape left V some space to react and retreat; for herself, it wasn’t as simple:

In the last scene V saw, Twiki’s face had already melted from the heat, and bone and implants were visible beneath her skin, with many shrapnel pieces embedded...

To endure such injuries and retreat nonchalantly after her almost entire team was wiped out, considering the team’s combat strength and performance, Lille thought it couldn’t be described as merely professional—

At the very least, super-professional.

Bang.

Jack plopped down on a concrete block, shaking his arm: "That was quite a thrilling job."

Lille pulled out a snack from her wheelchair and tossed it over: "Indeed thrilling, it seems real professionals were waiting for us here—do you recognize that woman?"

Jack shook his head: "How would I know, I didn’t get a good look."

Then he wolfed down a food bar meant to last a regular soldier three days.

"Strange, I feel she wasn’t some no-name."

Bang!

Amid their chat and laughter, the Wild Man King knelt in front of Lille, pointing at Jack: "Boss, give me the steroids he’s taking and I’ll do anything."

"It’s... not time yet." Lille shook her head, "And it’s not just steroids, you saw the prosthetics I gave him."

"Prosthetics?!"

The Wild Man King couldn’t believe it: Jack’s arms couldn’t be seen as prosthetics wearing clothes and artificial skin!

The key was, she couldn’t smell the metallic and oily scent of excessive prosthetics!

"New model prosthetics—this job nets you an 80,000 bonus, we’ll talk about the rest later."

"Alright." The Wild Man King stood up after hearing this, glancing at the dilapidated building where V was hiding.

After a while, two bruised and bloodied big guys waved at her from the windowsill.

The Wild Man King gave a thumbs-up to these two big lugs and then silently found a place to sit.

Lille saw her demeanor and, after some thought, added: "I’ll add 20,000 more, this job was indeed challenging."

The Wild Man King looked up and laughed: "Sure, boss, first time experiencing voluntary pay raise."

Lille shrugged and looked at the large incoming Octant drone in the distance—

V had already found a spot by the wall, holding a rifle, posing a question.

[V: Shouldn’t we just run?]

[Lille: No running, we’re here, it’s time to meet this Dog Town boss formally.]

...

The Netherworld Dog unit approached, and people scattered, even the drugged-up junkies who could barely control their bodies would crawl away upon hearing this sound.

The combat site’s vicinity was even more desolate—

People love excitement by nature, but appreciating explosions up close wasn’t, except for those on duty.

In an unnoticed corner, as the sun set, a woman and a man hid behind a pillar, both sweating.

If Lille were here, he would recognize both of them—

Seen long ago during the capture of Yoshida Kurosaki: that Black Superdream dealer had hired two bodyguards from the new Soviet Union, the woman called Phantom, the man called Iron Hand.

Jack might not have instantly recognized Twiki, but they did.

Phantom’s expression was exaggerated: "Whoa... they annihilated Twiki’s squad?"

"Twiki isn’t dead yet." Iron Hand looked stern, but clearly, his shock was the same as Phantom’s, coldness actually masking stiffness, "Technically speaking, it wasn’t a total wipeout."

"You of all people?"

Honestly, after seeing Twiki launch an attack, they both presumed the famous Burger King would meet his end in Dog Town for his headstrong ways.

Never expected, never imagined, the one nearing their end might be a decades-old legend.

After much thought, Phantom suddenly said: "Why don’t we switch sides, our current employer isn’t too aggressive, sticking with them might get us some benefits. Jilafa would surely pay well for firsthand intel."

"Uh... I think the wise move would be staying far from the bomb, not taking a front-row seat."

"Idiot, fortune favors the bold! We’ll move in after the Netherworld Dogs leave!"