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

Dodging bullets looks cool, but failing to do so is pure tragedy.

Leo nodded in agreement. He knew that the initial velocity of a rubber bullet was much slower than that of a real bullet, and its kinetic energy was incomparable. Dodging a rubber bullet was nothing special.

But... that doesn't stop him from being happy!

He was dodging bullets! He felt like he must have looked as cool as Neo from The Matrix!

V shook his head with amusement and took out the coin again.

"Let's continue, guess which side."

"front!"

Leo believes that perseverance will surely lead to victory!

Ding--

The coin flew into the air, making a pleasant chirping sound as it spun.

Landing—the opposite side...

"You lost again. Sigh, I really wanted to practice."

V quickly changed to a new magazine, her smile as radiant as summer flowers.

bang bang bang-

Another burst of bullets.

Having completed the warm-up and gained some insights, he dodged thirteen bullets, showing remarkable progress.

In the third coin toss, he gritted his teeth and continued to choose "heads".

Ding--

The flip side!

"Cheating! This must be cheating!"

Leo was stunned. He picked up the coin and put it in his hand.

"This time I'll throw the toss, and you guess! Don't even think about cheating!"

V rolled her eyes: "Fine, I'll guess heads then."

Ding--

Positive, positive!

"This is impossible!"

Leo is speechless. Could he be the legendary unlucky E?!

"I gave you a chance, but you didn't do it!"

Click.

V changed the magazine, hesitated for a moment, and tossed the pistol to him: "We agreed to spar, what's the point of me always being the sparring partner? I'll let you win, no need to thank me."

Leo held the gun handle, hesitated for a moment, and then walked towards the bar.

This was V's own choice, so it can't be considered that he took advantage of the situation!

The two stood in their positions again, this time it was V who was waiting to be "executed".

Leo tried hard to put on a serious expression, but he couldn't suppress the corners of his mouth: "Should I call out the attack direction?"

"No need, do you take me for—"

boom!

Before V could finish speaking, Leo immediately opened fire and launched a sneak attack.

Haha!

V-Shattering, Die! Die!!

The imagined scene of V being caught off guard and in a sorry state did not happen. She easily dodged the bullet aimed at her chest with a difficult move similar to a bridge.

Leo was greatly disappointed, but he was not discouraged and kept pulling the trigger.

Bang bang bang—click click—

With his ammo exhausted, V's record was dodging 15 bullets.

The other five... missed the target...

Leo was also desperate. He couldn't hit V with his first ten shots. He quickly realized that his aiming speed was too slow, giving her plenty of time to prepare.

Later, in order to increase the rate of fire, he abandoned aiming and fired randomly, at the cost of becoming a master of human outline, scattering bullets everywhere.

V looked at him and smiled without saying a word, his expression full of sarcasm.

"I'm not convinced, come again!"

Leo pulled out a coin and continued his "life-or-death" gamble with V!

Unknown Soldier: Chapter Sixty-Four - The Last Day Before Departure

The two of them used up all the rubber bullets V had bought in one afternoon.

Along the way, her old gun jammed a few times, but she fixed it herself each time.

In addition to the beginner mode where players had to report their location before firing, Leo also experienced the normal mode with no prompts and the hard mode with rapid-fire.

V later wanted to try a hell mode with closer range and rapid shooting, but he firmly refused.

He practiced these three modes for an entire afternoon, and he felt dizzy and his limbs were twitching and stinging.

Moreover, during the "bullet time" sequence, he repeatedly exerted too much force, resulting in minor muscle strains in his lower back.

"Let's focus all our efforts on treating Type 1 again. This time... let's use the whole tube."

"Does this really not count as drug abuse?"

"It's quite safe to use the full-strength treatment, just use it."

Leo took the medicine and inhaled it in one gulp.

The cool medicinal liquid enveloped his mouth and throat, quickly relieving his discomfort.

To be honest, after such a sweaty workout, his stress and anxiety were relieved.

"Let's practice some more tomorrow afternoon, and then come with me to the weapons shop the day after tomorrow morning. I need to stock up on some ammunition." Leo lay on the sofa, found the apartment's electronic room key, and quickly started operating it.

V was drinking water and resting when she suddenly received a notification text message.

Your access card (supplementary card) has been granted all permissions except for necessary restrictions. Please check.

"…What are you doing?"

After a few seconds of stunned silence, she awkwardly turned to look at Leo.

"I'm giving you access. You can use this house as you please while I'm gone, but if... ugh!"

Leo wanted to say something pessimistic, but before he could get into the mood, V jabbed him hard in the waist.

The sadness in my heart was instantly interrupted by the aches and pains.

"Ouch! Ouch! What are you doing?!"

V was even more dissatisfied than him: "Stop saying those unlucky things, I don't like to hear them! As a mercenary, the worst thing is to say things like death or life, it's even more unlucky than 'I'll retire after this job'."

Leo clutched his waist and sighed helplessly: "Alright, you should be able to tell that I'm just nervous, not scared."

"Ah."

V gave a faint reply.

She had noticed Leo's psychological changes over the past few days. He was no longer like he was when he first arrived in Night City—looking like he might collapse at any moment.

But... she was still somewhat unhappy.

It's awful to finally find a reliable employer... or rather, a partner, only to take the benefits without being able to help at all...

After a moment of silence, Leo reorganized his thoughts:

"When I'm not around, you can use this place as a meeting point. From now on, we'll be going on missions together, so please communicate and coordinate with each other to avoid any mishaps during operations."

"Alright, alright. The three of us have been around Night City for almost as long as you're old. We know how to handle relationships between team members."

“But aren’t you a lone wolf?” Leo glanced at her.

V snorted softly: "I may be a lone wolf, but I've seen other mercenary teams. Besides, Jack is definitely good at setting the tone for a team; he used to be the leader of the Valentino gang."

"That's true... By the way, keep a close eye on Sasha. From what I've gathered, she seems quite reliable. But you can't judge a book by its cover, so what if she's not..."

"Okay, leave it to me."

The two sat on the sofa watching TV together, chatting idly.

outside the window,

Night fell quietly, and the disturbing gunshots echoed softly in the evening breeze.

The City of Night... a city that truly comes alive at night.

*

2 month 23 day.

morning,

On a whim, Leo invited his friends to his apartment for a get-together.

The atmosphere was very harmonious, and even Sasha became more talkative.

They ate the snacks Leo bought while listening to him talk about his plans to return to China.

"I can still contact you online after I get back. Just send me a text message if you need anything, and I'll reply when I see it. Please don't call me; I'm not sure if it will be convenient for me to answer."

V and Jack nodded slightly.

Sasha's eyes widened, looking like a curious kitten: "Are you sure? Night City is quite far from where you are."

Seeing the puzzled looks on her two companions' faces, she kindly explained.

Since the original Internet was destroyed by the legendary hacker Bartmouth, direct access to the original Internet has become extremely dangerous, as it is easily vulnerable to attacks from mobile AI.

Most countries in the world basically operate independently, using local area networks (LANs) instead of the internet.

Aside from the truly elite, only a small percentage of corporate employees frequently move between different networks.

The two men, who were better at using their hands than their brains, only vaguely understood what was going on, knowing that contacting them from Leo's hometown seemed to be quite a difficult task.

Of course, Leo also discussed this issue with Chunbai.

She made a very firm promise that she could use the server room in the Singularity Space as a transit point to connect networks in different worlds and regions.

This can be achieved with just a "local" server as an information terminal.

In fact, she had secretly modified the two computers in the apartment into information terminals. If needed, she could even fake Leo's biosignals, making organizations like the trauma team tracking him believe he was still in Night City.

With that confidence in mind, Leo was naturally full of confidence: "Don't worry, I've taken care of everything, and we can communicate with each other in real time from there."

"That's pretty impressive; that level of authority is definitely extraordinary."

Sasha gave him a deep look, becoming even more curious about this mysterious middleman who had appeared out of nowhere.

For security reasons, the "walls" between countries are very thick, and the kind of thing he's talking about can't be done without a certain level of authority.

Leo smiled smugly and skipped the topic: "No need to worry about the internet, let's talk about something else first. Jack, if I smuggled a batch of high-end liquor from China, do you think we could cooperate with the priest?"

Jack hadn't expected to have anything to do with him here. He paused for a moment, then thought about it carefully:

"Smuggling high-end liquor... there's nothing wrong with the goods themselves; Night City has no shortage of buyers. As for the priest... he used to be the pastor of the Valentino gang, and he was highly respected by the gang members. You're looking for him because you want to do business with the Valentino gang?"

“That’s right. I plan to sell high-end wines, so I need to find wealthy buyers. This business is extremely profitable, and we definitely can’t handle it on our own. We need to find some outside help.”

"Um……"

Jack fell into deep thought.

V suddenly interjected, "Sebastian Ibarra, I actually know him quite well. He took good care of me when I first started out. If you ask me, he's the most reliable of all Heywood's middlemen. Working with him is definitely better than working with anyone else."

A few seconds later, Jack nodded in agreement: "I agree. My mom and I both have some connections with the priest. If we go and work with him, the risk will be much lower."