From Gotham to Night City, my infamy is known to all.

“Bard… Ha, that’s right, this guy threatened to kill me yesterday.”

Leo remembered that fierce-looking face, poked at it twice with his toe, and looked disgusted.

“Sasha, retrieve his biomonitoring data and see what’s wrong with him.”

"Coming!"

Sasha skipped and jumped out of the car and plugged the laptop's data cable into the port behind Bud's ear.

Death Wish stood gracefully on her shoulder, scrutinizing the mercenaries with a critical eye.

It's already strange enough for a cat to have such human-like eyes, but what's even more terrifying is that the battle-hardened mercenaries actually felt a strong threat from this cybernetically modified cat.

The sight of a dagger held against one's neck, exuding a chilling killing intent that could sever blood vessels at any moment, made many people tense up.

As expected of L, even raising a cat is this amazing...

Sasha quickly extracted Bard's data, which was then evaluated by Pure White, who posted the results in the team channel.

"Pure White: Interesting. This person does have cyberpsychosis, but his symptoms are much milder than those published online. It's more like he was already on the verge of collapse when someone pushed him further, catalyzing the development of cyberpsychosis."

Leo: Did you get the hacking plugin?

"Pure White: No, the other party is an expert. The anti-cracking program is perfect. I only got a part of the data, which can only be used for reference."

Leo: So, his skill level is very high?

"Pure White: Extremely high, second only to Bartmos among the hackers I've encountered."

Sasha: Wow! That's incredible! They must be super agents of the internet surveillance system, right? I heard they can remotely access cyberspace within a certain range and even fight against runaway AI!

Leo: He's so strong... Is it possible to get in touch with him? Try to win him over.

"Pure White: The other party refuses to communicate and is very secretive. They are probably out earning some extra money and won't easily reveal their identity."

Leo: Never mind then, let's deal with the immediate problem first.

His thoughts returned to reality, and he saw the uneasy mercenaries.

If he were to say something like, "Budd isn't cyberpsychotic," this group of people would probably go crazy.

Oh well, it's just a small amount of money; consider it a good deed to befriend that super hacker.

"That's right, it is indeed cyberpsychosis."

"call--"

Many people breathed a sigh of relief.

That incredibly skilled hacker asked for 75. If Bard was only worth 50, they would have to give up all the bounty for killing the small boss and beg the other party to be lenient.

Leo smiled calmly: "Alright, 150 million, how are you going to divide it?"

Mann, speaking on behalf of the group, said: "Just give it to me directly. We've already discussed the distribution plan, so we can just split it up. That hacker gave me a virtual account and asked me to transfer the money to him."

"Row."

Leo readily initiated the transfer to Mann without even blinking.

When Mann received the money, his first reaction wasn't happiness, but relief. He quickly transferred the hacker's share of the money to him.

Then he turned to look at his car.

The members of the other three mercenary squads also nervously looked back.

A dozen seconds later, the car door opened again, and the four members dressed as hackers all had expressions of relief on their faces. Among them was Qiwei from Mann's team.

"Huff...huff..." she gasped for breath, patting her chest. "That person was actually quite trustworthy. I thought she'd burn our brains out before she left, to prevent any future trouble..."

"Don't say such things."

Mann scolded her, but his tone was not harsh.

Leo's eyes lit up: "Her? Are you sure she's a woman?"

"I think it's more likely to be a woman, judging from the choice of words and the feeling I get from it."

Qiwei took out a cigarette from her pocket, lit it, and took a deep drag to calm herself.

Leo looked at the other hackers, and another woman among the three nodded in agreement with Qiwei's assessment.

In an instant, Leo thought of a name and decided to discuss it with Chunbai later.

From these hackers, he learned about the mysterious hacker's domineering methods—she forcibly hacked into the network access boxes of four hackers and threatened them that if they didn't obey, she would use "collateral damage" to shut down the mercenary team's accounts.

Fortunately, the outcome wasn't bad; they successfully completed their mission and sent that living devil away...

As the mercenaries shared their joy at surviving the ordeal and making a fortune, Leo reached out to Rebecca: "Rebecca, lend me your shotgun."

Rebecca was originally looking at V, or more precisely, at the blue Achilles precision rifle in her hand.

The gift she gave to Leo yesterday has now appeared in the hands of the red-haired mercenary. Is this really the legal wife...?

Hearing Leo's words, she raised the shotgun hanging at her waist in surprise: "This one? Sure, but I have to warn you, the recoil of this gun is ridiculously strong, it can send a person flying."

"It's okay, I know."

Leo continued to reach out.

He certainly knew that the "Ironclad" shotgun was very powerful; in the game, that gun could even act as a "parachute" and a "booster."

Seeing that he insisted, Rebecca obediently took the gun and threw it to him.

Snapped.

Leo caught it and played with it for a few moments with great interest.

What a wonderful collectible!

It's a pity this is Rebecca's beloved gun, otherwise he really would have liked to keep it.

With a click, he cocked the gun, held it with both hands, and aimed it at Bud's head.

The mercenaries looked at him blankly, astonished.

What is this going to do?

boom--

Iron Gallbladder let out a deafening roar befitting its name.

The shotgun shells flew out, and dozens of small projectiles exploded in the air, completely blasting Bard's head apart.

The red and white substances instantly stained the ground, emitting a strong smell of blood.

The loud noise carried far and wide, attracting company employees and homeless people in the distance to peer out and watch.

The mercenaries were completely dumbfounded.

"Thanks, here's your gun back."

Leo was very glad that he was holding the gun with both hands and had installed a titanium skeleton beforehand, otherwise he might have been injured by the recoil.

Iron Gallbladder traced an arc as it flew toward Rebecca.

The cybernetic loli had been in a daze until the gun hit her and slowly fell, at which point she snapped out of her reverie and grabbed it.

She blinked her beautiful tricolor eyes, her small face filled with blankness: "You... how could you kill him? No, no, you... spent 150 million euros just to shoot him with your own hands!?"

Just for this… 150 million euros!?

Did his money fall from the sky, or did he use ghost money? How could he be so extravagant!?

The mercenaries shared similar thoughts.

They assumed that Leo wanted to capture Bard alive to establish his authority in front of his subordinates, and that he would at least hold a victory celebration, give a speech, and then execute him in public.

I never expected that he would be killed so casually.

Even the gun was borrowed.

If they took a picture and told outsiders that the headless corpse on the ground was Bard, the leader of the Night Wanderers, probably no one would believe them.

He was the leader of a criminal gang of over a thousand people; his death was far too casual...

Leo realized they had misunderstood and quickly explained, "I'm not a bloodthirsty person. I captured living cyberpsychotic patients to send them to specialized hospitals to research ways to cure this mental illness. But—"

He looked down at Bard, his brows furrowing in disgust. "This man is the founder of the Night Wanderers. It's no exaggeration to say he's utterly wicked. I can't be bothered to save someone like him. Letting him breathe even one more breath would be a waste of Earth's resources."

"..."

The mercenaries fell silent.

They could barely accept this explanation, but... wasn't L a bloodthirsty person? Did he say that without any moral qualms?

In just one month, more than a thousand people died indirectly at his hands. This speed of killing would make him a formidable figure even in wartime.

This is more than just bloodthirsty; it's downright bloodthirsty!

Leo didn't care what they thought, and casually waved his hand at Panan, who was watching from the sidelines: "Find a few people and throw this corpse into the crematorium to burn it too."

After saying that, he looked at Mann and the others and said, "Do you have anything else to do? If not, I'll be going now. It's almost dinnertime."

Mann licked his lips, suddenly feeling like a harmless good guy compared to him: "Uh, nothing else. You go first, we plan to head back to the abandoned factory. The Night Wanderers are leaderless now, I reckon your men are about to launch their final attack, we want to join them for another assault."

"Well, be careful."

Leo casually gave a word of advice, then turned and walked toward the assailant's bulletproof car.

The mercenaries exchanged glances, then looked at Bard, who seemed to be lying on the side of the road, and suddenly, as if on cue, took out their phones and quickly snapped a few photos.

Their gossip instincts were burning fiercely, and they had already figured out how to boast about their personal experiences today.

L is a ruthless killer with a strong desire for revenge. He'll spend 150 million to kidnap someone if they insult him, and then casually shoot them dead.

How vindictive they are, and how incredibly wealthy they are!

With just a little artistic embellishment, these eyewitnesses will undoubtedly be the coolest guys in the bar for the next few days or even weeks!

Leo didn't turn around, maintaining a cool demeanor as he returned to his car.

Then, the two cars drove out of Shijishan one after the other, heading towards the city.

On the way, he pretended to close his eyes to rest, but actually chatted with Chunbai.

[Pure White, do you think that female hacker might be Nightingale? Did she arrive in Night City ahead of schedule?]

[Probably not. Given her status in New America, it's unlikely she'd be so short of money as to need to earn extra cash. And with her skills, she probably wouldn't even consider such a small amount.]

[Who could it be? This level of hacking skill doesn't match any of the hackers in the game "Group M Flirting (5) 88 Cold VII6".]

T-Bug doesn't have that ability, Ultraman does, but the possibility of her doing so is basically zero.

No, actually there is one.

Pure White offered a different answer.

[V, who takes the hacker route, is definitely skilled enough.]

V! ?

Leo's finger twitched.

Yeah...and V!

Could it be Company V?

A generous reward will surely attract brave men; could it be that a big fish has actually been caught?!

It's a pity the other party refused to contact them, otherwise he would have spent money to bring hackers of that level into his team.

[We have a way to contact them—]

"what happened to you?"

V's concerned voice rang in his ear, and then her hand covered Leo's hand.

Feeling the faint warmth from the back of his hand, Leo opened his eyes and explained, "It's nothing, I just regret not being able to connect with that super hacker."

Once again, his blunt truth bypassed V's intuitive judgment.

"People with that level of skill are probably top-tier elites trained by large companies, or cyber police agents. They're likely just looking to make a quick buck and wouldn't easily expose their identities."

"Yes...that's why I feel it's a pity. It's not easy to find such a talented person, but I can't use him."

Leo sighed a few times and then steered the conversation toward tomorrow's tasks.

Shortly afterward, the vehicle arrived at Hongfeng Pass.