Cyberpunk: Nirvana of Shoko Toyokawa

“…That wasn’t the right thing for me to do.”

Li Xi admitted it.

But she quickly skipped the subject and said:

"Stop chatting. How's the situation with the [Home Tracker]?"

Aine took a look at the information projected on her irises.

"No~ There has been no prompt."

The two had been searching for hours.

But there is no harvest yet.

“There’s none in this area.”

Li Xi fell into thought.

She whispered to herself:

"The effective radius of the [homing tracker] is 1km... The tic-tac-toe pattern is the better solution at the moment... Considering that some areas are not accessible to Tibetans, perhaps we can rule them out... No, what if I'm just not familiar with the terrain here... ? However, we can adjust the priority... Investigate areas with higher possibilities first... For example, locations with more buildings... Will this make the search faster? No, there may be omissions, and we have to consider that the lights may move spontaneously or be carried..."

Lixi tried to find the best answer.

However, the more she wanted to get the best result as quickly as possible, the more she felt like she was falling into a fog and couldn't see the direction ahead.

"Rikki, have we searched the area...Rikki?"

Behind her, seeing that Riki hadn’t moved, Aine hesitated for a moment and moved forward.

"Where to go next?" she asked.

"...Ahh."

Aiyin's question briefly freed Riki from the vicious circle of thinking.

In short, take one step forward and see what happens next.

"Move to the next area."

Lixi said.

She walked towards Aine.

Then, she picked up Aine sideways.

"Ready to go."

Lixi said.

"Thank you, Rikki~"

Aine placed her hand on Riki's neck.

She glanced at Lixi's face.

Li Xi frowned and looked unhappy.

Aiyin thought for a moment and said:

"This is my first time being carried by a princess~"

"……what?"

Li Xi was stunned for a moment.

"I feel a little embarrassed to be carried like a princess by Rikki!"

Aine said with a smile.

"What? We are searching now!" Li Xi's expression turned from tense to slightly annoyed, "Don't joke—"

"—Rikki said not to tense up, didn't he?"

Aine hooked her arms around Riki's neck and looked at him from below.

“Being tight is not a good approach,” she said.

"..."

Lixi paused.

“We’ll find it.” Aine added, “We’ll find Xiao Deng.”

“…Well.”

Li Xi tilted his head.

"Of course," she said.

The hydraulic joints in the feet began to work, making the distinctive noise of intake of air.

Aine realized that Riki was holding her hand with a little more strength.

"Hold on to me," Lixi said, "let's go to the next place."

……

The blue light flickered faintly in the darkness. The sounds of landing and taking off echoed across the city.

Riki and Aine began to move between cities.

The two of them climbed over the skirting wall at the bottom of the tall building.

Lixi didn't stop and continued to jump forward.

The night wind howled.

The two were unable to speak, so they switched to brain-computer communication.

【Aine: Eh? The distance moved is longer than I thought?】

[Lixi: The buildings next door are more densely packed. I checked the townhouse area over there first.]

[Aine: That’s farther. Why not use Soyorin’s car like before?]

[Lixi: If you keep using it, the fuel will run out.]

[Lixi: When leaving Xindi or being surrounded, we have to rely on its top speed. For this reason, we cannot consume too much fuel now. I plan to move on my own for sections within 10km.]

【Aine: I think the fuel is enough...】

[Li Xi: It is better to be careful. In this undeveloped area, vehicles are also resources. The place where we are parked now is already very hidden. It is dangerous to drive slowly following our search process.]

【Aine: Got it, sir~】

The two landed at the new search location.

"Well!"

Aine stretched her body and jumped out of Riki's arms.

"It's rare that Soyorin lends me the car, I want to drive it more often." She complained, "She usually never lets me drive..."

Aine looked at the brain-computer channel.

"...By the way, where is Soyorin?"

Aine and Riki have always communicated using the MyGO!!!!! team channel, which is also connected to the Internet.

However, it was always just the two of them.

The light shows the offline status.

Lenai was also offline—she hardly ever logged into the public channel outside of performances and rehearsals.

But strangely, Su Shi has been showing as offline.

This is a very rare situation for Su Shi, who usually stays online 24 hours a day.

“What did Soyorin do?” Aine said to herself, “Before she left, she said she would investigate using her own methods… She might have cut off the internet for a while…”

"Didn't you ask?"

Li Xi, who was walking in front, asked.

“At that time, I was in a hurry to catch up with Rikki!” Aine said, “I was also modifying the car afterwards… so I didn’t have a chance to ask!”

"You didn't even ask Su Shi's opinion before modifying the car?"

"I have asked about this! I have asked for consent - although it was indeed an emergency at the time -"

Aine was halfway through her words.

at this time.

beep.

"—!"

Aine saw a small dot light up on the interface of the [Home Tracker] on her retina.

Chapter 286: The protagonist is more like a villain

[Homing Tracker] is on!

This means that the light is only 1km away from where Aine is right now!

“Rikki!” Aine shouted immediately, “Found it!”

"what!"

Riki immediately grabbed Aine.

"Wow!"

Riki picked up Aine again, but this time, he carried half of her on his shoulders.

She was shorter than Aine, but this movement was not too strenuous for her.

"Which direction!?" Li Xi shouted.

"I just caught it—it should be three o'clock—"

Li Xi glanced over there.

It was a two-story building in a complex of townhouses.

It was also captured by Lixi's infrared capture software, and it was one of the places where scattered refugees and mercenaries were hiding.

Tsk!

Li Xi let out a loud click.

Houses with armed personnel stationed. More than one floor. Adjacent to other buildings. People in need of rescue.

This kind of place is classified as the highest danger level in the BCPD's evaluation criteria. At least a team of more than three commandos and two hackers are needed to conduct search and rescue activities in accordance with the regulations.

But now Li Xi has no support attackers or hackers around him.

She glanced at Aine.

"..."

Riki would not let Aine conduct such a high-risk assault.

Then, there is only one answer left.

Single-soldier assault.

A single soldier would attract the enemy's attention. Then, Aine would take the opportunity to search.

"Hold on tight!"

Lixi yelled.

“I can’t hold this position!”

Aiyin said anxiously.

But Lixi still jumped forward.

"Remember to protect your head later!"