Chapter 167 - 151: The Boss of Night City

"7 units—why so many! Find cover!"

Sol was getting pretty frantic—Pan’an wasn’t a newbie. How could she let the drones catch up?

But now wasn’t the time to lecture her. The priority was to take down the pursuing drones!

Military drones were deadly combat units, especially on flat terrain.

With their impressive mobility and lethal rapid-fire machine guns, these drones were a nightmare for most mercenaries—

Seven Griffin drones could wipe out most Wanderer convoys and mercenaries in Evil Land!

Bam!

Sol ducked behind cover as a raccoon dog gunshot rang out. The bullet left a jagged trail through the air, scattering light in odd patterns.

At a distance of several hundred meters, a single shot had obliterated a Griffin drone. Sol looked at Jack, who had fired the shot, and gave him a thumbs-up. "Nice shot."

However, one inspiring shot couldn’t halt the assault. After all, these were drones, not humans. A single shot wouldn’t scare them off.

The Griffin drones sped towards the camp, Pan’an watching helplessly from the car as they swooped overhead. In a panic, she slammed on the brakes and, before the car even stopped, let go of the steering wheel, leaping into the back seat to grab a rocket launcher!

Click!

The car jolted violently as it hit the ground, almost flipping over, but Pan’an quickly righted herself and stabilized the steering wheel—

Then she poked the rocket launcher out the window!

"Eat this!"

Boom!

The ground-to-air missile locked onto its target and hit it squarely!

Jack smacked his lips, "Gotta hand it to the Bright Family; they’re loaded. Even got ground-to-air missiles..."

But that was the only one.

Having taken those hits, the remaining five drones suddenly dispersed, weaving through the air, making it hard to aim at them!

Some Wanderers at the camp ran to the machine gun turret, firing wildly, but with little effect!

Others with rifles and shotguns struggled even more to hit the fast-approaching drones, which returned fire amidst the barrage of bullets!

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—

Bullets whizzed by, the accuracy low but the density high, hitting the gunner immediately!

The hail of bullets didn’t just hit the gunner but also left deep marks on the trailer behind him!

An alarm bell rang in Jack’s mind—

Lille was still in surgery!

The firepower of these drones was dense but not precise. The Wanderers’ trailer definitely couldn’t withstand the drones’ mini-guns!

Jack shouted at Sol, "Where’s your hacker?"

"She’s on it! Hang tight!"

Before Sol could respond, a tough woman in sunglasses was already fiddling with her display screen in a corner, trying to hack in—

But... it was challenging.

There are many scenarios in hacking. In the city, networks are everywhere, intertwined with wireless and wired networks, managed uniformly by the Jing Yuan-Grab curves.

But in the wasteland, it’s different, especially with drones that usually use fixed signal transmitters for wireless connections and remote control.

If there isn’t an interface, you’ll have to use a similar wireless signal transmitter to first connect to the same frequency, then compare protocols at the network layer and hunt for vulnerabilities.

But... it was quite difficult.

Another round of drones fired. Jack repositioned and fired a shot—but Griffin was too fast and high!

The sunlight messed with his vision. The drone’s rapid movements were hard to target!

As he aimed and fired, Jack almost got hit by a bullet!

"Can you hurry up?"

"Leave it to her; she’ll get it done!" Sol yelled back as he fired. "She’s our best hacker. Did tech support for Military Technology. If she can’t do it, we’re screwed!"

Carol felt immense pressure!

She was indeed a specialist in hacking military tech, having served with Military Technology during the Unification War!

But precisely because she was in the Unification War, she knew just how deadly these drones were!

Moreover, if Griffin managed to follow Pan’an, it almost guaranteed someone nearby was controlling these machines—

If they weren’t taken out too, the Tribe would remain at risk!

The wireless frequency bands used by Griffin drones constantly changed. Unless the user was also adept in hacking and communication tech, these frequency shifts had to be systematic, automatic—

But to grasp this pattern, her brain had to work faster.

She knew every wasted second increased the Tribe’s danger!

So she decisively swallowed a neural enhancement pharmaceutical!

Her nerves sparked with activity, thinking faster, Carol quickly inputted the captured frequency shifts into her monitoring screen—

The frequency band changes were fully visualized. She had to use fitting methods to derive a mathematical model for these changes...

And there would certainly be unfitted portions—only if the distortion rate stayed within the drone’s tech limits could stable command transmission and a potential hack succeed!

The fitting algorithm was a process demanding computational power, fundamental mathematical knowledge, and a lightning-fast stroke of insight!

Carol’s body temperature rose quickly. She reclined in her hacker chair, skin connected to the cooling system—

One try, two tries, three tries....

All failures!

Bam!

Jack hit a Griffin drone on its side. The raccoon dog’s powerful impact penetrated the drone, but it wasn’t enough to stop it immediately!

The drone spun wildly from the bullet’s kinetic force, the engines going haywire, tumbling towards the central tower of the Wanderer Camp!

That spot housed the solar panels powering the camp!

Crash—

A solar panel got hit, the massive battery panel started shaking—then fell!

It was heading straight for Carol’s workspace!

"Mierda!!" Jack cursed, dropping the raccoon dog and rushing towards the workspace!

Crunch!

The precarious battery panel crashed down, plunging the Adkaduo Camp into despair!

Boom!

Sparks flew as the panel smashed through tents and trailers, raising a cloud of dust!

"Es terrible (This is terrible)..."

The dire scene Adkaduo anticipated didn’t occur. Carol wasn’t crushed to bits.

Jack, like Atlas bearing the weight of the world, was bracing against the fallen solar panel.

His arms were wide open, holding up the nearly ten-meter-wide panel—

The panel itself wasn’t very dense, but its size and the fall from over ten meters made the impact severe for Jack.

The panel was almost pressing into his chest, held up solely by his strong, gorilla-like arms—

But clearly, Jack’s legs were straining, trembling violently, joints even appearing deformed.

The Adkaduo were awestruck, but the Griffin drones weren’t.

A drone took aim at Jack, about to fire—

Carol snapped out of her shock but still hadn’t completed the first stage of the hack!

Suddenly, her network showed a slew of errors, as if someone had seized control of all the camp’s facilities while she focused on the drones...

Carol’s face fell into despair...

But the next second, she noticed the drones in the sky sparking and smoking.

And not just one.

Several drones sparked and smoked in succession, powerlessly crashing—

Rattle—

Suddenly, the surgical trailer door burst open, Jack simultaneously lowering the solar panel.

V emerged boldly from inside, shouldering a raccoon dog, and said to Jack and the others, "Someone’s controlling the drones nearby. If we rush, we can catch them in the act."

The Adkaduo snapped to their senses, engines roaring to life.

With the hacker chair suddenly losing power and the recent shock, Carol stared blankly at the surgical trailer—

Lille stepped through the door, shaking off his coat.

"Emergency override, connecting to the network. You did good, Carol; without those few seconds, it would’ve been much tougher."