Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 334 Shadow (New Cybernetic Body DRAR·Shadow) (13)

时间：2076年9月4日，19：21分…

Location: Night City, Valley area.

Three months after the citywide arrest warrant was issued…

Wow!
The zipper was zipped up abruptly, accompanied by a snap of fingers. Several clanging weapons, wrapped in a black corporate military canvas bag, were lifted and tossed over someone's shoulder. The wide sleeves slipped down, revealing a smooth, ink-black prosthetic arm, a work of art, every part of it a masterpiece of aesthetic design…

Even though it's a combat prosthetic belonging to a certain girl, it appears somewhat slender despite conforming to human proportions.

Unexpectedly, it exudes a violent aesthetic that is unique to technological products, especially the silver-white, gold-stamped prosthetic serial number and biometric QR code covered with red and black colors, which give the "Gorilla Arm - Blackwall Type" a distinctive mark.

Beneath two black, light-changing hair clips was a gray-green hair color, tied in two ponytails, her chin resting on her hand, looking utterly bored.

This was the tenth time she had inspected the firearms…

If you could see this girl, you'd probably think she has a terrible temper.

……

"Snapped!"

Pink bubbles were gently blown up, bursting in the dim light, and then sucked back in by a cherry-like mouth, only to be blown out again.

The prosthetic eye, resembling a neon pink light, looked like a playful cat, and the prosthetic patterns on its face were indistinguishable from a cat's whiskers at this moment—clearly, blowing bubbles was a very fun activity for another slightly taller girl, who couldn't help but sway gently with her legs dangling, humming a light, melodious sound from her nose.

So, get away!

The radio, even with its volume turned down, was playing the same song.

Sweet, touching, no girl can resist this vibe.

"Hey."

The "rude" girl spoke bluntly, "We've been waiting here for ages, what on earth are Qiwei and the others doing? Didn't we agree that Rin would scout the area for us? Is the biotechnology team not passing through the Valley area today? Is it... another route? I knew it—that guy must have left the cleanup work to us!"

The resentment in her heart made her speak like a machine gun.

"Okay, Rebecca."

The girl gently coaxed, "Since he's asking us to wait patiently, he must have his reasons for doing this..."

"Hmm... Okay Sasha, even though I know you're lying to me, I'm happy to."

Rebecca habitually tucked her legs into her oversized jacket, only the neo-kitsch jacket, once made of a tacky material that resembled a raincoat, had been replaced with a conservative style made of bulletproof high-fiber.

The hot-tempered girl angrily bit the neckline fastener with her silver teeth. It was that guy who personally instructed her to wear it, saying that if she kept exposing herself, she would easily catch a cold!

It's not that easy to accidentally expose yourself...

Unless he actually saw it!
Thinking about this made the girl even angrier.

Sasha looked at Rebecca, who had slumped into a dejected ball of fluffy fur, and sighed softly.

It seems my attempt at comforting her was ineffective.

However, for a girl like Rebecca, battle means an adrenaline rush, an experience even more thrilling than Mewtwo. That's how her existence and life in this city are—unstoppable and unable to accept mediocrity.

"If you laugh now, I'll tell you a secret."

Sasha, smelling of the unique candy scent of a young girl, sat down next to Rebecca and gently rubbed her cheeks with her hands.

Rebecca, like a piece of clay, drooped her eyelids as Sasha rubbed her face.

"Ok?"

Sasha asked again.

Rebecca slumped into a chair like a wreck, swaying her prosthetic body which hadn't been used outside the training ground since it was turned on, and muttered, "Go ahead, go ahead... I bet it's another lame joke your sister told you."

Sasha shook her head, letting out a muffled groan that seemed to contradict her answer.

Rebecca thought for a moment, then finally managed to pull up her cheeks and make a funny face.

Sasha, amused, narrowed her eyes into slits, curving them like crescent moons.

"I overheard Miss Emma talking to Rin on the phone!"

Rebecca didn't think it was a secret; after all, that guy only cared about the company—well, and the women in the company, except for her.

"Guess... where the biotechnology spies meet?"

Upon hearing this, Rebecca immediately woke up... Could it be...?

Only after receiving reaffirmation in the other person's eyes did Rebecca feel a surge of energy, and she jumped up excitedly!
"Oh yeah!"

Sasha quickly grabbed the smug guy and put his hand to his mouth, shushing him repeatedly.

At this moment, on the bustling street, passersby were all staring curiously at a van that was swaying a few times.

"It's true."

The last rays of the setting sun shone into the carriage.

Falco, a heavy smoker, seemed to have a cigar constantly in his mouth. "When I drive, it's always a big scene."

"So you mean... that guy's coming tonight too?"

Rebecca blurted it out.

Falco paused for a moment, then squinted and comfortably lay back in his seat.

Sasha was also somewhat taken aback, a meaningful smile appearing on her face. "I never said he was coming."

This undoubtedly proves that gunmen are not necessarily very smart, and sometimes they are even a bit stupid.

"you…"

Sasha, with the cunning of a fox, leaned closer to Rebecca with her hands behind her back and shoulders down. "Hmm, so that's why you were in such a hurry to come out before the prosthetic body adaptation process was even complete. It's a shame, we really don't know if he's coming."

A drawn-out ending is a sign of deliberate mischief.

"Want to go home, honey? Play some games or something. Falco and I can handle things here."

Rebecca swore she was really angry.

She felt that Sasha had become increasingly worse ever since she was cured by Arasaka's technology...

"I do not want!"

Rebecca puffed out her fists, giving off a "I'm a superhero" look, "You can't do without me!"

After a period of playful banter, they all fell silent and awaited instructions to proceed.

"So is this retaliation for the last biotechnology attack on our Dogtown shipping location?"

Rebecca asked in a low voice.

Sasha nodded.

Actually, everyone has had a tough time lately.

World-class companies employ a variety of tactics to squeeze out a company. Even with a skilled manager like Emma at the helm, the company still teetered on the brink of collapse amidst overwhelming pressure. Ultimately, it was forced to lose the prime land in Watson District during a malicious business transaction, leaving it only permitted to operate in Taipingzhou.

The good news is that large tracts of land in the oceanfront area are considered DRAR's commercial land; the bad news is that a hectare of this land may not be worth as much as a toilet in the Night City Watson campus.

Seemingly determined to test whether DRAR would take action, they resorted to some irregular business practices to punish the Dreamers—but no company was willing to be the first to take military action, and without exception, none of the companies found any trace of that guy's existence; prototype fragments, human tissue, and other corroborating evidence were all missing…

The temperature at the center of that explosion was high enough to vaporize anything. Even though Rin's death was a foregone conclusion, these monstrous organizations, each with their own ulterior motives, were still watching each other closely.

Biotechnology was the first to be unable to resist.

Because a freelance journalist revealed that the biotechnology company's data on the painkiller Anshin was stolen by Rin, who worked for Arasaka Corporation in the early days of Night City, the controversy surrounding Anshin, which had just subsided, has reignited.

People regard this guy, who dared to steal assets right under the company's nose, then switch them out, and even reveal company secrets along the way, as a legend.

Some things cannot be investigated in detail. The traces of Rin's existence seem to be in every corner—like a ghost, or like a shadow that could appear at any time to assassinate them behind a large company.

Even though Rin started out in the company from any perspective, it didn't stop the hopeless lower class of Night City from regarding him as their only hero.

This is not the only serious incident involving biotechnology.

The numerous unexplained attacks against their company have all been investigated and clarified:

That was Rin's people retaliating after the Dogville incident...

This undoubtedly fueled the company's anger—their solution was still to silence people, but this time they chose an additional option: retaliation!
As the technology companies holding the most patents, biotechnology companies have plenty of money to throw at it.

But for the "big shots" who treated the Crystal Palace as their bedroom, every penny less money meant a greater anger. They couldn't understand how such incompetent orders could be carried out according to procedure, so they hired mercenaries not only from the local area but also from Europe, with even Lazarus showing some involvement...

The retaliatory action took place two weeks ago.

At that time, the dreamers were shipping goods along the river in Taipingzhou according to the agreement with Night City. The European cargo ships had barely docked when biotechnology took action—

It was an attack that was both expected and heartbreaking…

"Since it's an act of revenge, then let those weird old men who study corpses every day taste our bullets!"

Rebecca was furious whenever she thought about what happened that day.

"Without any warning or indication."

Sasha also sighed.

Fortunately, the biotechnology's goal was clear: to impact the arms sector of Dreamers' main business. Suppliers, who had finally stabilized, began a new round of evaluations after this attack. Such losses were considerable, and everyone was worried and distressed about it for a long time, with some even getting less than 24 hours of sleep a week.

"We lost so many people..."

Rebecca was furious when she thought about it. Actually, she had been quite happy during those months. At least the company atmosphere was harmonious, and everyone liked this clumsy girl wherever she went. Half of the chaos in the company park was caused by her.

Rather than calling Dreamers a company, it's more like a desert oasis in this city, where there are no decisions made against human nature for the sake of profit, and no excessive working hours.

The company's hiring process is also very simple—

That is, let's talk about Brandon, who has become the main AI controller for a subsidiary of Dreamers Company...

Rebecca couldn't remember the technical terms, but she knew that Brandon could judge a person's overall character from their behavior and speech, in other words, he could tell if someone was good or bad.
In short, people are complex...

For example, Rebecca thinks there are a few annoying people in the company.

They were rather rude in their speech, but fairly diligent in their work; Rebecca didn't like them.

But they were all dead.

They died in that attack; some were engulfed in flames while trying to save their cargo. In Night City's ossuary, there wasn't even enough space for a single item except for a Dreamers Corporation badge...

Sasha's eyes also gleamed with hatred.

However, people will continue to die in Night City.

It's not the point that's hard to let go of, but rather the methods these companies use.

That's why they came.

Falco squinted at the crowd gathering in the small square with containers piled up not far from the street corner. It seemed that a rock bar singer was holding a concert here. Among the ten street rock kids, a few were just scoundrels who were short of money to pick up girls, but as long as the songs were loud enough, making some money from drinks wouldn't be a problem.

"It might not be a bad thing."

Falco watched the members busily setting up instruments on the makeshift shipping containers.

Suddenly, a dark face appeared beside me.

Rebecca was clearly very unhappy with Falco's remarks, which came from an older man.

Ignoring Falco's piercing gaze beside him, he said in a deep voice, "This inaction has clearly caused the company's alliance to crumble on its own. They thought that without a forward-thinking public enemy like Rin, they would naturally choose to return to the dog-eat-dog situation—"

"Haven't you noticed? The media in Night City have been arguing fiercely lately, all over trivial matters involving corporate espionage."

"Some reasons, if you keep looking for them, can easily turn into trouble..."

At this moment, Sasha also walked from the back of the carriage, which was filled with equipment, to the front and put her hand on Rebecca's shoulder. "In short, since they can't find Rin, they've started to fight amongst themselves. The company's patience is worse than we thought."

Falco sneered.

"Of course, if we join forces, we'll earn less every day. Those bloodsucking companies won't tolerate that. It's already a testament to their patience that they only started biting each other after more than two weeks."

Rebecca had a knowing look on her face.

Now she understood; Rin was probably waiting for an opportunity.

"We used Arasaka's information, and Ms. V deserves a lot of credit for that."

"The biotechnology intelligence agents who came from Europe tonight are orchestrating a commercial operation targeting military technology—"

Sasha knew that Rebecca never looked at intelligence information, so she could only explain it to her in detail.

"Wait, didn't I remember they were wearing the same pair of pants?"

Falco chuckled.

"Biotechnology is the cash cow for military technology, and they're already very dissatisfied. You're still young—if you had been born a few decades earlier, you might have seen Arasaka and biotechnology working hand in hand!"

it is more than words.

"Tonight, let them fight like dogs, and let the next guy who tries to take a piece of our flesh pay the price."

Sasha's tone was no longer gentle; it sounded more like that of a warrior.

"Maybe he's already here."

Sasha smiled, her eyes filled with longing as she watched the crowd slowly gathering in the small square.

Falco laughed, "Get ready to watch the show..."

"Of course I'm talking about the rock kids' show."

……

……

(End of this chapter)