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

It's blood...

Blood from our own people!

"Enemy attack——"

boom!

The tungsten-core armor-piercing bullet pierced through the center of his forehead, gently lifting his skull.

When his headless companion staggered and fell to the ground, the short, fat scavenger suddenly realized what was happening and scrambled to hide behind a metal box.

He opened the internal communication channel and roared hoarsely, "Enemy attack! Sniper!"

The leader's voice rang out quickly: "How many people are there!? Can you tell what faction they belong to!?"

"Bang—Clang—"

After the gunshots, the channel fell silent, with only the metallic echoes slowly lingering.

To a technical sniper rifle, that piece of metal was no different from cardboard. He hid inside and remained motionless, clearly underestimating V's shooting accuracy.

The first two-person patrol team was wiped out.

Another patrol team split into two groups on their way. The old man rushed back to the factory for help, while a newcomer was sent to investigate the situation.

The newcomer was really unwilling, but his fear of the boss still forced him to walk to the corner.

Peeking out rashly would be a bad idea, so he chose to crouch in the corner and use a small portable mirror to observe the situation outside.

It was midday, and the sun was shining brightly.

He strained to open his eyes wide, quickly checking the situation at the main entrance by reflection.

There was no one on the watchtower.

The entrance area... was deserted.

There was no one at the factory gate.

There are no enemies anywhere... wait, why is the side door open? Have the enemies already gotten in?!

The intense palpitations robbed him of the courage to continue observing; he wanted to return indoors and stay with his companions.

He turned around abruptly, and his forehead suddenly bumped into a cold, hard object.

Turning around in surprise, I realized it was the muzzle of a shotgun.

The boss also has a cheap, high-powered kinetic energy shotgun, but it doesn't seem to be this new...

His gaze shifted upwards, and he saw a burly man with a bun hairstyle, staring at him expressionlessly.

The new cleaner opened his mouth in terror, but his plea for mercy remained forever stuck in his throat.

boom--!

The sound of the shotgun firing was so loud, like the death knell.

The Cleaner's holographic projection mask, along with his head, neck, and most of his chest, was painted on the wall, looking from a distance like the Valentino gang's favorite red rose.

His last thought was—this gun barrel is fucking thick…

"V: Four dead, no other ground troops found, begin advance."

Jack: You're really loyal to leave one for me...

V: You were walking too slowly, so I covered for you. Where are the others?

"Mann: They eliminated three people in the alley and have already entered through the back door."

Vera: The two guards at the side gate tried to escape, but I beat them to a pulp.

Less than a minute into the battle, the Scavengers had already lost ten men. This was not a battle; it was a massacre!

V: Jack, hold the main entrance and wait for me to arrive before we push forward. L, you can go in now, but be careful of the slippery ground.

L: At least leave me one! It's a brand new gun, I have to fire it at least twice!

V: This is a newly bought gun too. Anyway, if you're going to be slow, I won't wait for you.

After the call ended, Leo was so anxious that he scratched his head and cheeks.

"I said... Rebecca, is it ready yet?"

Glug glug glug—Pfft!

Rebecca tilted her head back, rinsed her mouth with purified water, and spat out anything that shouldn't be in her teeth along with the water.

"Just wait a little longer..."

She finished speaking in a muffled voice, then rinsed her mouth several times until her breath no longer smelled of photinia before she was barely satisfied.

"Let me make this clear beforehand, it's not that I'm looking down on you. It's just that I can't stay silent later, and if my breath smells like this, it wouldn't be good if people found out we were doing this before the battle."

"Stop talking, stop talking..."

Leo feels extremely guilty right now, and always feels like he's let V down.

Of course, he also knew that this was a saintly buff unique to the Sage Time, and it would be fine after a while.

Seeing his awkward manner, Rebecca chuckled, casually tossed the empty water bottle aside, took out a piece of chewing gum, and quickly chewed it to further cover her breath.

To be honest, L's performance surprised her quite a bit—he seemed like a completely naive and innocent young man.

She couldn't imagine why a rich and powerful young master from the upper class would act so unfamiliar and ignorant in Night City, where people from the lower class openly played with electric cups on the street.

However... she didn't dislike it; in fact, she was somewhat interested in it.

"Consider this my deposit. Once you help me uncover the truth and bring the murderer to justice, I'll give you the very best. Of course, if you occasionally want to see me, just give me a call, and I can help you meet your needs in other ways."

Leo saw her stretch out her little hand and make a very unseemly up-and-down swaying motion, and speechlessly looked away... while adding her to his contact list.

"Let's go quickly, don't wait until the battle is over before we arrive."

Seeing her pick up the shotgun again, Leo also drew his Yinglong submachine gun and ran towards the Scavenger's stronghold.

Rebecca chased after him with a grin, her short legs running quite fast.

The two quickly crossed the road and headed towards the main entrance of the repair shop, without hearing a single gunshot.

Not only that, the streets were deathly silent; not only were there no passersby, but even vehicles seemed to have vanished from the area.

The citizens of Night City clearly share the same racial traits as the citizens of Gotham City—upon hearing gunfire, they immediately seek cover and flee, never meddling in others' affairs.

Entering the repair shop through the open side door, the faint smell of blood in the air jolted him from his previous erotic reverie.

"Hey, this way!"

V waved to them from the factory entrance, and Jack was standing there too.

Leo walked toward her in a daze—having just been exploited twice by Rebecca, he felt inexplicably guilty whenever he saw V.

Fortunately, this was a battlefield, and V clearly interpreted his nervousness as something else: "Look how nervous you are, I told you not to come. Come here, you've stepped on something dirty."

Leo looked down and saw that his heel was standing in a pool of blood.

Before his brain could react, he instinctively took a step back, and it seemed like he stepped on something, which popped with a "plop" sound.

He numbly lifted his foot to check, and there was a deflated lump of flesh stuck to the sole of his shoe... Who's so rude, throwing their eyes around like that...?

First Glimpse of Talent: Chapter 149 The Great Purge (Part Two)

His gaze shifted, and he saw a cleaner who was physically "fallen down" beside him.

The short, stout man, who was supposed to be hiding behind the metal box, is now headless, with only his tongue still in the correct position above his neck.

I must say, this design is quite unique...

Leo thought he would be scared, or at least feel disgusted, but he wasn't.

He calmly stepped forward, tapped his shoe lightly, knocked out the eyeball, and then casually rubbed the sole of his shoe on the ground.

These shoes are no longer acceptable—that's his strongest thought right now.

"Huh? Aren't you afraid? I thought you'd never seen a dead person before, so you should be scared."

V had already walked over and was observing him curiously.

The strange feeling of facing death overcame his unease, and Leo found himself able to face V with composure again: "I thought I would be scared, but I don't seem to be... Come to think of it, it's probably because I don't see these guys as one of my own kind."

He looked back at the corpse and confirmed that feeling once again.

"Those alien beings that feed on their own kind are, in my eyes, just ghouls, merely because they look like humans. I feel more disgust for them than fear."

boom!

He raised his hand and shot another piece off his neck, but Leo continued forward nonchalantly.

There's still a lot of filth hiding in the factory. Let's get rid of it quickly so he can find a place to change his shoes.

V glanced casually at Rebecca behind him, noticing her "looking around warily," before turning his attention back to Leo.

The four met in front of the factory.

Leo looked at the tightly closed metal roller shutter door, gestured a few times, and then spoke on the communication channel—

L: What's the situation now?

"V: We have blocked both of the main exits, and the enemy is holed up inside, calling for reinforcements."

L: Can they still get reinforcements?

"Pure White: Of course not. Both the signal and electronic equipment are under my control. Let me show you the live footage from the basement~"

The camera received the video signal, and the scene changed.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

A dark basement.

Surgical supplies were piled up haphazardly, and there were faint red bloodstains on the floor.

The pale light barely illuminated a small area, casting distorted shadows.

A tall, overweight man with a fleshy face paced back and forth in the room, impatiently brandishing a shotgun.

His appearance was more like that of a butcher than a cleaner.

After pacing around a few times, he couldn't help but yell at his underlings with a frustrated expression, "Is it still not done? What are the other outposts around here saying?"

The bald henchman stammered, "Boss, we were attacked...we...we...we can...hear...hear..."

"Fuck! Just shut up already!"

Snapped!

The burly man slapped him, miraculously curing his stutter.

"...I heard gunshots!"

After he finished speaking, the bald henchman covered his face, trembling, and didn't dare to look at his fierce boss.

"All the outposts have been attacked...!?"

The boss's expression was extremely unpleasant, his already ugly features contorted in pain.

To become the leader of the cleaners, he relied not only on his ruthlessness and barbarity, but also on his cunning and unbridled nature.

He was well aware of the seriousness of the simultaneous attack on multiple outposts.

It's important to understand that while the Cleaners are nominally a large and widely distributed force, they are actually quite fragmented, with little connection between their various small groups, and sometimes they are even competitors.

Attacking so many places at the same time is not as simple as ordinary citizens pooling money to hire mercenaries for revenge.

Did some idiot stronghold capture some big shot?

There was no point in overthinking, so he quickly made a judgment: "Hey, have you contacted the mercenaries you've worked with before?"

Another scantily clad female cleaner shook her head in fear.

"Then call the police!" the leader exclaimed urgently. "Call the NCPD and say we've been attacked by illegal mercenaries! Even if we all get arrested, we can still get out by spending some money to smooth things over!"

Of course, what he didn't say was that he himself could get out, but these underlings were not worth wasting his savings on.

There are plenty of people on the street willing to do dirty work; you can easily form a new group by simply pulling a few together.

The female cleaner quickly dialed the NCPD emergency number, but could not get through.