Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 81 Burning
Chris Factory is an electronics assembly plant located in Watson District.

This factory is by no means small in Night City, with nearly two hundred workers employed there.

The electronic devices sold were not only sold locally, but also, thanks to Night City’s extremely low business taxes and labor costs, a variety of low-priced electronic devices of decent quality were sold to Northern and Southern California and other neighboring independent states.

Thanks to Night City's unique business conditions, the processing plant almost never lacks orders, and even has its own independent brand.

They would buy low-priced electronic components from some companies and assemble some low-priced electronic devices, such as mobile phones, iPads, and electronic screens. Their main profit came from the low-end markets that large companies found difficult to penetrate.

However, anyone familiar with this processing plant knows that...

The reason why this factory can sell its products at such low prices and still make a stable profit, even allowing the owner to make a fortune, is definitely not due to any technical or sales expertise.

Behind the low-cost products lies the blood and tears of countless child laborers sold into this profession.

Almost every year, Chris's factory "hires" a group of children aged 12-15 through various means.

These children come from various gangs, and some come from their parents.

Once they pass the medical examination, these children will be bought for around 1 euros and become workers on the assembly line.

These children are forced to work, and the management is almost like a prison. They get up at seven o'clock every morning, start work at eight o'clock, and finish get off work at nine o'clock in the evening, with only one day off per year.

As for salary and compensation? No.

Every child will have zero income until they turn eighteen, because most of their earnings will be forcibly taken by the factory under the pretext of learning 'technical skills' as tuition.

The remaining group was handed over to the 'monitor' who brought them here.

After they turn eighteen, they will sign a lifetime employment contract, with a monthly salary of less than 100 euros for the first 10 years, which will increase year by year thereafter.

However, unless they are lucky enough to be appreciated and promoted to a management position, most employees will leave unexpectedly on the eve of a salary increase. Some of them suddenly lose their ability to work, or are fired and asked for compensation due to an accident.

Some, even more tragically, died in accidents at the factory.

Want to leave? Then you'll have to accept a huge penalty for breach of contract; the factory will force you to pay at least 5 euros before you can leave.

Where does this 50,000 euros come from? Naturally, there will be kind 'gangs', such as the Vortex Gang in the Watson district, which will provide you with such a loan, which you must repay monthly.

If you can't repay your debts in the end, you can go back to work at the Whirlpool Gang's food processing plant, or become their 'experimental subject' for cybernetic enhancements and pay off your debts with your body.

This is the truth behind the high-quality, low-priced goods at Chris's factory, but in Night City, nobody cares.

Night City would be pleased that they've solved the residents' employment problem, and that the total value of their employment contracts looks like they'll even raise the average wage.

Large companies also dump some low-end products on processing plants, using their cheap production contracts to make a profit.

The gangs that control Night City are a guarantee of the number of factory workers.

This processing plant, which operates year-round, has been growing in Night City for nearly twenty years by feeding on the blood and tears of child laborers.

However, this cycle of everything is destined to come to an end today.

At this moment, the sky had only dimmed slightly. At dusk, the various old factories in Watson District were still operating at full capacity, releasing all kinds of exhaust fumes and smoke into the air. That pungent, smoky smell was a unique characteristic of Watson District.

Their previous vehicles had been sent to the old captain for a repaint and to have their vehicle registrations at the city hall changed. After the makeover, they could be returned to the garage as new cars.

So this time, Mercer and his group arrived in Watson District in a Sky Hera EC-D four-seater sedan that V had bought himself, which was equipped with bulletproof body and windows.

Upon arriving near the factory, everyone turned to look at Qiwei instead of taking any action.

This time, all operations will be directed by Qiwei, and everyone else will be there to act as her bodyguards.

V and Rebecca didn't know much about Kivi's past, only that she was a poor soul rescued by Mercer from a sex shop.

They didn't know why they came to the factory or why they wanted revenge, but they still followed without hesitation.

After taking a deep breath, Qi Wei calmly said, "The targets of my revenge are the foreman, the manager, and the owner of this factory."

I know the workflow and factory structure inside, so just follow me and go in through the senior staff entrance at the back.

We don't need to carry out a massacre. We just need to go in quietly, win over the manager first, and then use his name to convene a meeting with the foremen and other management.

Then I'm going to burn this place down. As for the factory owner, I'm not sure if he's here today. If he isn't, I'll stay here and, when he gets the message and comes to check the scene, I'll personally shove his head in.

"I'll do as you say." Mercer had no objections. Even if she wanted to break in through the front gate, he would not hesitate to order V to drive the car through the front gate.

Qiwei nodded. Underneath her coat, in her tight black bodysuit, even before she started hacking, she felt her body subtly heating up and her heart pounding. The closer she got to the factory, the stronger an indescribable urge she felt.

Directing V to drive the car to the vicinity of the back door, Qiwei pushed open the door and got out.

Mercer and the others followed her to the back door of the factory, which appeared to be quite large.

As Qi Wei walked, she explained in a complicated tone, "The back door here is only for the management staff. It connects to the staff dormitory. See that two-story building?"

She looked up at the building, where most of the rooms were still dark, and said softly, "There are dozens of dormitories inside. Ten ordinary employees share a room, and each person is only given a bed. Electricity is only available from nine to eleven o'clock at night for washing up and using the toilet."

The area on the right side of the second floor, where the lights are still on, is the so-called management dormitory. They have single rooms with independent 24-hour hot water and electricity. My childhood dream was to move there from a ten-person dorm.

V asked cautiously, "You used to be here?"

"Yes, I was here before it was resold." Qiwei didn't hide anything, but just stared at the small building, especially the window that was still lit, shook her head, and walked to the back entrance.

The back gate was heavily guarded, with four security guards: two in the monitoring room and two standing guard at the gate. Each guard carried a rifle, and there were even two automatic gun emplacements at the gate.

"The security here looks even tighter than the Vortex Gang's," Rebecca remarked in amazement.

Qiwei simply watched all of this with a cold expression: "Because there was a mass escape incident in the past, several security guards and more than a dozen employees died, so the security here is now exceptionally tight."

But there's almost no security inside the building. They now use something like sex-coded chips to control employees. Anyone who dares to resist or disobey is simply rendered incapable of resistance with the chip, and then punished.

"Is this a prison or a factory? How did it get like this?" Rebecca was a little surprised. Actually, when she saw the employees and dormitories, her first reaction was that the factory seemed to offer pretty good benefits.

Jobs that include room and board are rare in Night City.

"Combined, it's a prison factory." Qi Wei sneered, summarizing the situation, before her prosthetic eye lit up.

Her methods were brutal and direct—hacking into the automatic turrets, seizing control, and then the two automatic turrets, which had been in standby mode, suddenly turned their guns and opened fire.

The two security guards standing guard at the gate were not even aware of what was happening when they were shot in two by machine gun bullets that suddenly came from behind.

The two security guards inside the security room realized that a hacker had arrived. They immediately hid under the table and tried to restart the security system, but the automatic machine gun had already turned its gun on the security room and started firing.

Their fate was naturally tragic—the automatic turret was called a turret precisely because the caliber of its machine gun was just like being hit by a cannonball to an ordinary person.

The bulletproof glass was shattered by several shots, and then the entire room was riddled with bullets. The two security guards only had time to let out a few miserable screams before even those screams were drowned out by the roar of the automatic machine gun.

Qiwei stopped what she was doing and walked in through the back door with a blank expression when the automatic machine gun ran out of bullets and made the clicking sound of automatic reloading.

Rebecca nudged Mercer's thigh with her elbow: "Won't the people inside find out?"

"She used the puppet program to block the communication inside. As for the gunshots, I estimate that everyone is still in the factory. Even if the gunshots from the back door get through, they may not alert anyone."

As Mercer spoke, he looked around. Since the factory was in a remote location and there wasn't a soul in sight, there was no need to worry about anyone discovering it or calling the police.

Or even if they did discover it, Qiwei probably wouldn't care—this is Watson District, the northernmost industrial area of ​​Night City, and even if the NCPD arrived, it would probably be more than ten minutes later.

Qiwei walked inside without a word, picked up the conspicuous corpse at the door and threw it into the dilapidated security room to cover it up. Rebecca and V also helped out.

After concealing the truth for a while, so that at least no one would turn around and see that someone was dead while driving by, Qiwei walked straight into the dormitory building.

Mercer immediately followed, and Qiwei walked into the dormitory on the first floor, where only the lobby was lit, without looking back, and went up the stairs to the second floor.

Along the way, her gaze kept darting around, and the scene, exactly as she remembered, made her expression grow increasingly cold. She went up to the second floor and went inside, and soon stopped in front of a room.

At that moment, faint sounds of decadent music could still be heard from the room.

Qiwei simply knocked on the door.

Mercer and V exchanged glances. They stood on either side of the door, pressed against the wall, ready to act immediately if anything went wrong. Mercer, on the other hand, stepped back a few paces to keep watch over the quiet dormitory corridor.

The sounds inside suddenly stopped.

"Who?"

A man's somewhat flustered voice rang out.

Qiwei didn't say anything, but continued knocking on the door.

After a while, footsteps came from inside. The automatic door opened, and a middle-aged man with disheveled clothes appeared in the doorway.

Upon seeing Qiwei, he was taken aback, but then his expression suddenly became somewhat amused: "Oh, isn't this my little Qiwei? What, you can't stand staying at the sex doll shop anymore, and now you realize the importance of finding a man?"

Qi Wei tilted her head, staring intently at the man's face. Under his wary gaze, she picked up a pack of women's cigarettes, took one out, and asked, "Do you have a light?"

"Alright, stop pretending with me. Who are they? Let me tell you, if you're looking to cause me trouble, then you're in trouble."

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly screamed and fell backward as if he had been punched. Inside the one-bedroom apartment, a girl peeked out from the bedroom. As soon as she saw Qiwei, her expression changed drastically, and she immediately turned around and closed the apartment door.

Qiwei's prosthetic eye gleamed, revealing a mocking smile: "Only now do I understand just how weak a guy like you really is."

She placed one foot on the man in front of her, lowered her head slightly, and looked directly into his eyes: "Do you know how much I've suffered because of you?"

"I...I'm so sorry! I'll pay you back, okay? I apologize!"

The man then realized what had happened—he had been hacked, not just some minor online hacking, but someone had hacked him right in front of him using a fast hacking technique!

The speed was so fast that the program had already entered his brain before his brain-computer interface even started to alarm. This made the man realize in an instant that Qi Wei in front of him was no longer the same as before.

Moreover, the sight of V and Rebecca emerging from beside Qiwei at that moment made him acutely aware of the serious trouble he had gotten himself into.

This...this is a professional assassin squad!
"Heh," Qi Wei just sneered, and suddenly pulled something out from the back of the black customer service man's waist. The man thought it was a gun and instinctively shrank back in fright, but then he found that it was actually a Mewtwo headband.

"Rebecca, give me a hand, find something to tie him up."

As Qiwei spoke, Rebecca thought for a moment and chose the simplest and most brutal method: "How about breaking their limbs and tying their necks?"

“Okay.” Qiwei nodded and readily agreed.

"No, no, I..." the man screamed in terror as he crawled backward, trying to get away, but before he could finish speaking, Rebecca grabbed his two calves roughly and snapped them in two.

"Aaaaaah!!" He let out a shrill scream that was unlike anything in human form. The scream was so terrifying that even the girl hiding in the bedroom couldn't help but let out a suppressed sob.

V, with her keen hearing, warned, "It looks like she's about to jump off the building."

“It’s okay, I’ve locked her program. It’s Mercer’s quick crack, she can’t do anything.”

Qiwei watched with a mocking expression as Rebecca broke the man's limbs and roughly used a blanket on the sofa to tie his neck to a corner of the sofa, effectively binding him to death.

He tried to turn around in agony, but only tightened the binding around his neck. With all four limbs broken and unable to exert any force, he could only let out pitiful howls, pleading, "Spare me! Please! Qiwei!"

"There's something you said that I think makes sense. I do now realize the importance of finding the right man."

Qiwei gazed at him intently and said softly, "This Super Dream Device is a modified version of the program he taught me. It's a black Super Dream that I specially selected for you in the Kabuki district. It can play several different exciting ways to die on a loop."

I modified the pain threshold setting for Mewtwo, which means that this Mewtwo device will allow you to experience 100% of your sensations and will not stop if you lose consciousness.

I'm curious, how many rounds can you last before you suffer brain death?

"No, no, I... I'm so sorry! Please, I still have my daughter, I still have..."

Before the man could finish speaking, Qi Wei roughly slammed the Dream Machine onto his head. Then, unusually, she clenched her fist and punched him hard in the mouth where he was still speaking.

"You still have the nerve to say you have a daughter? You beast! How old was I when you asked me to stay with you? Huh?" She said, angrily punching his face.

The man couldn't dodge; two of his front teeth were broken, and half of one was even embedded in Qi Wei's hand. She didn't understand the techniques of throwing a punch or hitting someone. Strictly speaking, this was the first time in her life that she had thrown a punch with all her might for herself.

But Qiwei didn't feel any pain. She just angrily grabbed his neck, making him look up at her: "Do you know what kind of life I live in a sex doll shop? You bastard!"
I will not only kill you, but I will also find your daughter and make her suffer the same fate I have endured! You beast, I want to watch you die with my own eyes!

"No, no, I beg you." Before he could finish speaking, tears streaming down his face, the Dream Machine was forcibly activated. The Dream Machine that Qi Wei had modified did not have an exit button.

Then, his eyes closed involuntarily. This was because his vision had switched to the dream world. The pain in reality temporarily disappeared, and in its place appeared a yellow-skinned man in a white suit.

The middle-aged man with yellow skin was speaking Japanese, but strangely, the man could understand what he was saying.

"Now, what we're about to give you is the ultimate in fiery pain! If you're curious about what it feels like to be scalded to death by hot oil, then you'd better be prepared!"
"My dear customers, please remember to lower your Mewtwo's pain editor, otherwise I'm worried you won't have the chance to see our next Death Mewtwo." The man in the white suit laughed loudly, and then Mewtwo's perspective turned left and right in horror until a bubbling gasoline drum appeared in front of it.

No. No. No!!

The man's groan flashed through the Super Dreamer as brainwaves, but the cold machine simply continued playing the Super Dream content as if it were a script.

At this moment, Qiwei was simply staring intently at the expression on the man's face in reality.

As he began to convulse violently, his mouth opened wide and he made a hissing sound, his whole body shaking as if he had been electrocuted, she revealed a cruel and gleeful smile, stood up, and casually pulled out the half-tooth embedded in the back of her hand and threw it aside.

After taking a deep breath, Qiwei stood up, turned and walked towards the bedroom. Her prosthetic eye gleamed. Cracking this kind of household electronic door switch was just a simple matter for her.

In less than three seconds, the electronic door clicked open, and Qiwei stepped inside. At that moment, the girl was lying on the ground, looking terrified and unable to move.

She was only wearing her underwear, and the bed was still a mess. One could imagine what she and the man had been doing in the room. There was also a somewhat unpleasant smell in the air.

"No, don't kill me. I didn't do anything, Qiwei, please." She pleaded.

Qiwei simply looked at her and said, "You were the one who encouraged me to persevere. But why are you lying here now?"

"I sold you because of him, I... I'm scared." The girl's voice trembled as she pleaded with Qiwei, "Please, stop my chip, it hurts so much."

As a factory worker, the working chip in her brain, modified from a sex doll chip, had been controlled by Qi Wei using a puppet program. At this moment, not only was she unable to move, but the chip also constantly stimulated various pain nerves, causing her great suffering.

"Is that so?" Qiwei just sneered, walked over, pinched her face, and looked seriously into her eyes: "Do you know what he said when he sold me?"

He said, "You shameless bitch, if you're not willing, there are plenty of others who are." It's hard to guess who that willing person will be.

Qiwei's fingers gripped her face tighter and tighter. To the girl, her appearance and voice were like the spitting of a venomous snake, sending chills down her spine.

"He's the type who changes partners all the time. You've been with him for years, and you still have to wear this kind of chip. You're really pathetic."

Qiwei's mocking words made the girl sob and cry. She turned her head and tried to beg for mercy from Rebecca, who looked young, behind Qiwei, hoping that her accomplice would let her go.

It has to be said that she was quite accurate in her assessment. Although Rebecca often appeared fierce, she was actually the softest-hearted one among Mercer's group.

However, even Rebecca, who had the softest heart, turned her head away indifferently at this moment, refusing to look at her at all.

"Please, I have no choice. I just don't want to die, I don't want to suffer."

She pleaded, "Gentlemen and ladies, please let me go. I really haven't done anything wrong. Look at what I've gained now! What kind of life am I living?"
The life I've been given is nothing more than being his private lover during his working hours. Please, Qiwei, have mercy on me. My life isn't any easier than yours.

Qiwei felt disgusted. She let go of her hand and pushed her aside forcefully, her prosthetic eye flashing: "Fine, I'll help you get rid of this."

"No, you filthy bitch, you can even get out of bed."

The girl's face changed repeatedly, and finally she broke down and started cursing. But before she could finish her sentence, it turned into a scream. Her brain-computer interface began to overheat and eventually burned her brain nerves.

The chips and electronic components in her brain began to ignite, which then set fire to her entire neck, with flames spreading upwards.

She wailed and cursed miserably in the fire, but not a single complete word could be heard.

"Tsk, she even has money to get plastic surgery. That face must have cost a fortune." V clicked his tongue, immediately seeing through the woman's lies.

Her head was burned like this, which is all thanks to the dense circuitry hidden under her skin. This kind of facial reconstruction surgery is usually only attempted by sex partners.

Qi Wei stood up with a cold expression, her lips tightly pressed together. After a while, she said, "Let's go, let's burn this factory down."

"How do we do it?" Rebecca asked cautiously. "Before setting the fire, we need to find a way to evacuate people, otherwise there are hundreds of people in this factory."

"I know," Qi Wei said expressionlessly.

Rebecca added, "I know, but if a large factory like this catches fire, the NCPD will definitely arrive very quickly, and there will definitely be a lot of people there."

"I'm here. I'll have Qimingxing lock down the alarm communications here. From now on, no alarm calls will be able to get through to the entire factory."

After Mercer finished speaking, Rebecca finally felt relieved: "Then where do we get fuel?"

“There’s a large amount of ethanol 2 stored in the backup generator room here,” Qiwei said, getting up and walking outside.

Mercer reached out and patted Rebecca's shoulder: "Don't worry, Qiwei has definitely thought about this for a long time. There won't be any problems. Just trust her."

"I know. Yeah, that's it."

Rebecca realized that asking such a question might seem like a sign of distrust towards Qiwei, so she could only tell the truth: "I'm just afraid she'll get emotional."

Qiwei did seem a bit unfamiliar just now—she was usually very quiet, but today she looked unexpectedly fierce.

"I'm very calm." Qi Wei even had the leisure to turn her head and give her a pleased smile. Then, she stood in the living room and watched the man suffer with a cheerful look in her eyes.

At this moment, the man in the living room was still under the influence of the Mewtwo Ring, his mouth agape as if he were screaming in agony.

His body would tremble violently from time to time, then shiver and remain motionless, endlessly cycling through pain, waiting for the inevitable end of brain death.

The reason why Black Super Dream is called Black Super Dream is partly because its content is dark and not legitimate.

On the other hand, because its content is too stimulating, some of which may even exceed the limits of human nerve tolerance, even those who crave excitement will not set the realism of Mewtwo too high.

Some people even block out pain, just to experience emotional shocks like 'despair'.

This man clearly didn't receive that treatment. To ensure that this pain met her needs, Qiwei even personally experienced some of it, all to guarantee that the man's death would be painful enough.

A 100% authentic death experience, with various ways to die constantly looping – this is the kind of death many sunglasses enthusiasts dream of.

According to them, dying once in this way is equivalent to dying ten times, gaining ten extra lives for free!

Qiwei took another cigarette from the pack and grabbed the lighter from the living room. This classic metal-cased fuel lighter was quite expensive, with a beautiful angel metal pattern on its silver metal casing.

After lighting the cigarette with a lighter, she put it into the small pocket behind her black shop.

"Let's go."

Qiwei took one last look at the man who was still convulsing and transmitted a timed program to his brain-computer interface. When the time was up, as long as the brain-computer interface was still functioning, it would burn his head to ensure that he would die.

Then, she strode away, leading Moser and the others out of the dormitory building.

"Is there no one else in this building?" Rebecca looked around.

"No, he's the factory manager now. Given his style, those foremen still have to stay at the factory to supervise the workers."

Qiwei laughed mockingly: "That's why no matter how loudly he screams, no one can save his life. Ha, what a pity. It would be better if he could suffer in front of everyone."

She shook her head, then skillfully led the group through the factory's side gate.

As Qiwei walked, she looked around. Everything here was exactly the same as she remembered, only it had become more old and disgusting.

But thanks to this, she easily led Mercer and the others to the security room inside the factory. After dealing with the security personnel inside, she took over access to all the factory's equipment.

Qiwei used her security server privileges to send out an emergency meeting message. The foremen and junior managers looked at each other in bewilderment and hurriedly gathered in the meeting room at the back of the factory.

Once she confirmed that the management team had all arrived in the conference room, Qiwei didn't even need to leave the room. She simply looked at the people gathered in the conference room with a blank expression and then transmitted the puppet program directly to them through the factory's server.

The local server automatically started working, sending out the puppet packages one by one. Those guys who didn't even have ICE and were still connected to the server's intranet started screaming and yelling, clutching their heads and arms and screaming in agony.

This method of automatically uploading data via a server is based on the same principle as what Mercer did in Arasaka. Although it is impossible to accurately mobilize computing power for a precise attack because there is no deep dive, it is still sufficient.

Since no one else can save them, Qiwei has plenty of time to deal with them one by one.

Rebecca and V looked at each other in disbelief: "It's that simple? It feels like we could have just stayed put. Such a big factory, and it's solved like this?"

"This is all thanks to Mercer's universal hacking program. Whether it's a door or a server, as long as you upload the program, you can get access. To be honest, if this program were sold, it would probably be worth hundreds of thousands of euros."

Qiwei unplugged the cable connected to the server, and then casually pressed the emergency alarm button on the security server.

Suddenly, all the equipment in the factory stopped, and the workers were stunned for a moment before quickly running outside, guided by the voice prompts of the evacuation procedure built into the emergency alarm.

Then, Qiwei calmly led her people to the room where the backup generator was located and retrieved several barrels of ethanol-2 fuel oil, which she then poured down the corridor into the factory area.

"What a pity. If we could take these devices with us, they could probably save Mercer a lot of money, right?"

As Rui Beika spoke, he suddenly felt a pang of heartache—he should have called more people and brought a truck. Since burning it would be a waste anyway, he might as well have just robbed it and taken it all away.

"We have nowhere to use it for the time being if we take it away. The amount of electricity required by such large equipment is beyond what our base can handle, and it also requires professional workers to operate. So we'll just have to accept the loss."

Mercer didn't care at all. Some jobs were done to make money, while others weren't. If burning these things would make Qiwei feel better, he wouldn't feel bad about it.

Qiwei turned to look at Mercer and smiled apologetically, "I had forgotten about that before."

"It's nothing, just a bunch of old-fashioned equipment. Besides, this stuff must have caused you a lot of trouble." Mercer smiled and looked at the old equipment covered in signs of wear and tear.

Qiwei sighed. All the fuel had already been poured out. With just one spark, the factory would become a living hell.

To avoid any accidents, she could only lead everyone out through the side door while whispering, "We suffered a lot. At first, we had to learn simple assembly line work, and if we made a mistake, we would be beaten."

They won't hit your hands because they still need you to work, so they'll just pull your legs so that it doesn't affect you sitting down and continuing to work on the assembly line.

Once you become proficient at the operation, your workload will increase, ensuring you are exhausted to the limit every day. Once, the woman next to me was so tired that she had low blood sugar, became dizzy, and fell on the assembly line.

Before anyone could react, her hand was caught in the machine's conveyor belt. When she was pulled out, her arm was completely mangled. The company not only refused to pay compensation, but also demanded she pay damages. I never saw her again after that.

As Qiwei walked, she said softly, "Almost every machine here has been associated with human lives. Some died from overwork, while others committed suicide by using the machines due to mental illness."

Someone once tried to burn the entire factory down, intending to take the owner with them, but the result was just a few more security guards and a secondhand set of fire-fighting equipment.

Qi Wei smiled, but her eyes were cold: "It's a pity that the boss didn't come to work today, otherwise I would have thrown him into the machine and burned him to ashes along with his machine."

She let out a long sigh of regret. Unlike Rebecca, Qiwei only felt an indescribable sense of exhilaration in her revenge.

The group left the factory and returned to their car. As Qiwei lit another cigarette for the lady, she activated the overclocking program left on the server.

All the machines in the factory started running at overclocked speeds without anyone in the factory. Perhaps a spark was ignited by a collision of metal parts, or a short circuit occurred in a circuit. In any case, in less than a minute, thick smoke rose into the factory.

Two minutes later, towering flames erupted and engulfed the sky and the earth.

The raging fire consumed everything, its red glow reflecting in the sky, as if painting a fiery sunset for the soon-to-be-dark night.

Qiwei simply sat in the car, calmly gazing at the flames burning in the distance.

In that instant, she felt an indescribable sense of relief.

It was as if even his shameful past had been burned away at this moment.

"Thank you, Mercer."

Qiwei said softly.

Mercer's prosthetic eye gleamed slightly, and upon hearing this, he merely smiled and said, "Didn't you do this all by yourself? We didn't help at all."

"Without your quick cracking program, I'm afraid I would have had to go through a lot of trouble just to get in smoothly. Anyway, thanks."

Qiwei spoke softly, a faint smile on her face, her pupils reflecting the firelight of the factory. After a long while, she whispered, "Let's go."

"Not urgent."

Mercer smiled and winked at her.

In the distance, a luxury car is speeding towards us.

"Didn't you want to see the factory owner burn down with the factory?"

"I briefly borrowed that guy's communication system in the dorm and notified him that something had happened at the factory, asking him to come over right away. Wasn't his timing perfect?"

Mercer laughed loudly, and then Qiwei saw that the luxury car seemed to have suddenly lost control, accelerating and accelerating, and finally, it drove directly towards the factory that was engulfed in flames.

The car window was opened halfway, just enough for Qiwei to see the terrified expression on the factory owner's face as he sat in the back seat.

"Let them burn together."

Mercer smirked and gestured for V to start the car: "But now we need to get out of here."

In the distance, a group of NCPD police cars sped towards them with their sirens blaring.

(End of this chapter)