Cyberpunk: I didn't cheat.

Chapter 104 Trap

Click!

A prosthetic cell was inserted into the brain-computer interface.

A few seconds later.

The prosthetic capacity chip popped out.

This is the fourth one this month. The prosthetic capacity chip is working. Vito feels like he has returned to when he first came to Night City, and the things that have been weighing on his mind are being dispelled.

Vito stretched and checked the message sent by the middleman.

[Wakako Okada: Here comes Vito, an elite employee of a company who has fallen into a trap set by someone else. Fortunately, he has a loyal subordinate who is willing to spend real money to save his boss. The money is not small, but the job is not easy.]

So, are you going to answer? If you do, I'll send you the attachment. I hope you remember I was impatient.

Vito replied to Wakako Okada.

[Of course I'll accept! At least the joss paper can be washed and exchanged for some loose change.]

Wakako immediately sent an attachment along with a smiling emoticon.

Vito got up and walked around a single-soldier exoskeleton armor, which he had assembled from grasshopper armor after completing the commission from Tommasino. As he walked out of the newly added room in the repair shop, Vito saw Li Ying lying in a chair undergoing chip training in military technology.

Vito didn't disturb her and went out to the mission location.

This mission isn't too big; it doesn't require the action team and hackers to work together to break in.

Vito drove his Type 66 Dangerous Drive, blasting a body temperature radio, speeding through the streets. Occasionally, he would give Night City residents who were slow to start moving at the green light a full-speed sprint with his puppet.

As Vito headed to the mission location, Valerie, the target of the mission, was waking up in a room with cold, tiled walls.

After the Zhu Ying incident, the Night City's Arasaka Counterintelligence Department was deemed incompetent. Her superior, Jenkins, was heavily criticized, many people were demoted, and half of her subordinates were replaced.

Valerie recognized the new recruits; they were former members of the security department. The security department had discovered Kim Yeon, who had almost been beaten into a Shang Yang-like state on the East City Road, and retrieved the company's confidential information. Many people were promoted as a result.

All of this had nothing to do with the counterintelligence department; they were held back by false coordinates throughout the process, constantly transmitting useless information to the action team.

Sato Yoshitaka, from the security side, has always loved to cause trouble for the counterintelligence department. This time, he even got Jenkins' rival, Abernathy, involved. Although Sato Yoshitaka died in the Zhu Ying subsidiary operation, his subordinates inherited his determination to cause trouble.

Valerie's life wasn't easy either; she protected her capable assistant Anne Cornwall, but she herself was often suppressed.

Jenkins wouldn't sit idly by. He received a secret tip that a gang member had dirt on Yoshitaka Sato and his direct superior, Rintaro. So he sent Valerie to get her hands on the dirt as leverage in the company's power struggle.

When Valerie arrived, her contact showed her a video of Mewtwo. Without thinking much, Valerie put the Mewtwo headband on her head. When she woke up, she was lying in this room.

Her trauma group members' signals were not blocked, but Valerie frowned and looked serious, perhaps indicating that her captors didn't care at all.

"Oh? You're awake? Open the door and come out, it's unlocked."

Valerie tried to call for backup, but her communication was disabled.

"It's that damn Mewtwo!"

Valerie cursed inwardly.

She opened the door and found herself in a luxurious penthouse apartment with a private garden on the top floor of a skyscraper.

A man is sitting on the sofa in the middle of the living room.

The man was in his forties, with a refined appearance and slightly graying temples. He held a cigar between his fingers, leaned back casually, and looked at her with gentle eyes. He seemed like a debonair business tycoon, showing no trace of the kidnapper's violence.

The man waved to Valerie, his smile polite and just right.

"Please have a seat. I apologize for inviting such a beautiful lady to my humble abode in this manner. Let me introduce myself. My name is Pan Xianming."

"V."

Valerie noticed that Pan Xianming was the only person in the room, so she sat down on the sofa to see what he was up to.

"What would you like to drink?"

"No need. Just say what you want to say. Bringing me here doesn't seem like you're offering me a drink."

Pan Xianming chuckled softly, stood up, and slowly walked to her. His gaze lingered on her face, seemingly restrained, yet it thoroughly scrutinized her from head to toe, carrying an almost greedy scrutiny, which was perfectly concealed beneath a refined smile.

"I know you've had a rough time in the counterintelligence department lately."

He spoke slowly and casually, yet his words precisely struck Valerie's sore spot.

"Someone is constantly suppressing you, undermining your power, and even trying to kick you out of the core department. Everything you've done with all your might has become a stepping stone for others, including your boss Jenkins. Isn't he about to lose his temper?"

Valerie frowned slightly. This man had thoroughly investigated her situation, but why would he set this up?

"I can help you."

Pan Xianming bent down, his tone suddenly becoming sincere, as if he were a savior extending a helping hand.

"I have enough connections and resources to clear away all obstacles in the counterintelligence department against you, secure your core position, and even help you go further and obtain all the power and status you desire. In this city, there is nothing that I, Pan Xianming, cannot accomplish."

He spoke casually, yet with an undeniable confidence; his condescending kindness was so hypocritical it was nauseating.

Valerie hated this way of speaking; even after years of working at Arasaka Corporation, she felt a sense of nausea.

What do you want?

Hearing this, Pan Xianming's smile deepened. He straightened up, his back to the French windows, and the light and shadow fell on his face, half bright and half hidden in shadow, completely tearing away that layer of refined pretense.

He looked at Valerie with no longer any pretense in his eyes; it was naked possessiveness, a twisted obsession, a madness that regarded beautiful things as private treasures.

"I collect all the most beautiful things in the world: precious jewelry, rare works of art, top-tier real estate, and you are the one I want to collect. Your appearance and abilities qualify you for my collection."

"Damn it! You pervert!"

Pan Xianming wasn't angry. He gently rubbed his fingertips, and his face once again wore that fake, gentle smile, his tone seductive.

"As long as you promise me that you will stay by my side and be my person, all the troubles of the counterintelligence department will disappear, and you will have ten times more power than you have now."

I will give you endless luxury and elevate you to even greater heights, but you must remember that everything you have belongs only to me.

He stood there, looking at Valerie on the sofa with a cold expression, seemingly waiting for her answer in a gentlemanly manner.

But the oppressive aura emanating from him silently proclaimed that, whether she liked it or not, he had already added her to his collection list. This seemingly equal transaction was merely an excuse for him to satisfy his perverse collecting desires. Beneath the gentle exterior lay a paranoid and sinister desire for control.

Valerie couldn't take it anymore. Although she was known for her hacking skills in Arasaka, she was also quite good at fighting. Now she was going to clench her fists and smash the head of this perverted dog in front of her.

"Wow, your company's employees are way more twisted than I imagined. Collecting? Where did you pick up this stamp collecting obsession?"

Pan Xianming's pretense was shattered, and he looked coldly at the source of the voice.

"Who are you? How did you get in?"

"Huh? Me?"

Vito strolled leisurely into the living room, fiddling with the euro in his hand.

"I came in through the main door."

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