Chapter 299 - 278: Fast as the Wind!

Brick felt as if his scalp had been set on fire!

Both the Si Anweisitan and Krensky neural components kicked in simultaneously, and he leapt straight out of the car!

Crack!

Jumping from a vehicle tens of meters away, Brick managed to maintain his form, but he couldn’t stop his momentum at all!

His feet skidded across the ground, his body uncontrollably tumbling, even using the Sadara in his hand as a brake to stab into the earth!

A barely visible mark was scratched into the ground, sparks flying from under Brick’s boots as he slid several meters away!

"This motherf..."

He raised his head to see the van he’d just been in overturned by the roadside.

The shell of the vehicle had been melted through by a cannon round, leaving an exaggerated dent through the body of the car, and the driver had been grazed by the shell, leaving only half a head.

The shell, melted by the shell’s heat, dripped red liquid metal...

The Bimong Armored Vehicle came to a halt, and those Centaur Mechas extended some kind of suspension device from their feet, attaching to the exterior of the Bimong—

With this change, the Bimong had become a mobile artillery platform mounted with plasma gun turrets!

Brick quickly took cover behind a rock, spat out some saliva mixed with electrolyte, shook the Sadara Shotgun to ensure it was functioning properly—

"Royce! What’s going on! Why haven’t you hacked the vehicle yet! Royce?!"

Only then did Brick have time to look at the remaining Vortex Gang vehicles—

Royce, the big guy, looked at him with a complex expression in his eyes...

Of course, no one knew how those tactical prosthetic eyes, glowing red, could read emotions, but Brick suddenly felt something was wrong—

Royce dived back into the car, and his voice came through in Brick’s ear: "You dumbass! Go rob it yourself!"

Four cars were left, and the bodies of the members lay dismembered by the roadside. They were stunned for a moment, then saw Royce’s van driving away without looking back!

With that precedent set, another car was about to flee. Brick, quick as lightning, raised his hand and blew out the car’s tires with a shot!

"Run? Get a grip, motherfuckers! Nobody runs without my say-so! Isn’t taking this thing down a sweet deal..."

Boom!

Before he could finish his sentence, Brick heard the sound of artillery and immediately dropped to the ground—

The rock was blasted with a huge gash, the intense changes in temperature and the impact of kinetic energy causing the giant rock to split apart!

Just one round was enough to render the cover unusable, and military technology wasn’t limited to just one mecha!

Brick looked up to see another mecha aiming its cannon at an overturned Columbus Freight, with his underling Doom desperately struggling to climb out!

Seeing this, he panicked completely: "Boss, save me!!!"

"Damn, we’re screwed..."

Brick gripped his gun, ready to make a desperate charge—

Bang!

Suddenly, the Bimong Armored Vehicle lost control and headed straight for the roadside!

The two Centaur Mechas hanging on the vehicle instantly released their fasteners and jumped off before the vehicle tipped over!

Bang!

Brick, with his advanced sensors especially sensitive to the light spectrum, unmistakably caught a blue trail in the air—exceedingly overexposed—that left an ionized track of some kind of electromagnetic projectile!

He whipped his head around:

Through the flying sand, two motorcycles were speeding along at full throttle...

Too fast for Brick to comprehend!

They’re hitting 200 miles an hour!

This is Evil Land, not some racetrack for motorcycles!

...

As the praying mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole lurks behind.

In the distance of the battlefield, a military technology, self-use 95 unmanned drone was observing the melee, a spoil from the storming of the border checkpoint ICE.

They were mostly kept at Adkaduo Camp, and Lille was, of course, not refused when he wanted to use them.

It must be said that the Vortex Gang did have some tricks up their sleeves: first, they attacked with a mortar, not to mention the shells, and also brought some military-grade EMP bombs.

The military technology soldiers were hit so hard they were lost.

Soon Lille locked onto the two leading figures, one wearing a leather jacket, the other not.

Obviously, the one without a jacket was Brick, the current boss; the jacketed one was his underling Royce, who aspired to revolt.

However, the turning point came quickly: fully armed Centaur Mechas emerged from the Bimong cargo hold.

"...Looks like Mercedes’ colleagues are pretty bold, the guys inside the vehicle are armed to the teeth."

Lille, wearing VR control glasses, saw everything that was unfolding.

This was a robbery, and it was clear that Anthony, the young rascal, was certainly crafty enough in corporate affairs.

The Centaur Mechas, equipment of military technology used in wars, represented fully armed corporate soldiers appearing within Night City’s domain, even on Evil Land, and that was a very troublesome matter to handle—

According to the contract with Night City, they were indeed responsible for the security on Evil Land, but the firepower they could carry was limited.

Military technology soldiers equipped with Centaur Mechas were a force that should not be making an appearance.

Compared to the temporary scapegoats pulled out by the Night Wandering Ghost, these soldiers were calmer and steadier when controlling their mechas—

V chewed on his gum, "Trouble?"

"Big trouble," Lille replied, "Last time we took on the Night Wandering Ghost, we had the advantage of the terrain and their drivers were cybernetic psychopaths, not this time."

"Can’t hack it?"

"I’ll try, but we definitely can’t bypass the ICE. They probably changed it, and I can’t find the version info."

"Go in hard?"

"Hard it is. I’ll mark the weak points in your prosthetic eyes. Getting closer works to our advantage. Find a way to take out the driver; once we drag this big toy along, it doesn’t have many downsides.

I’ll control the drones from here, see if I can hack into them."

After finishing, Lille cut off the personal link with V, and the connecting line retracted from the back of V’s hair.

Just now, Lille had sent the preloaded code of Little Octopus into V’s prosthetics so that Little Octopus could operate on V more conveniently.

"Upload’s done. Krensky might be sensitive, so watch out."

[File upload complete]

[Software loading completed...]

[Welcome to using me!]

"Got it... huh?" V doubted his own eyes, rubbed them, and then looked suspiciously at Lille.

Lille returned the odd look, "What are you looking at? Time to get to work!"

Though filled with doubts,

V did not ask further. No time for questions now—he spit out his gum, gripped the upper edge of the car window, pulled in his abdomen, and swung his legs outside through the window.

The 50 mph ride was bumpy over Evil Land, but she kept her hands and body steady.

In a flash, she flipped up to the roof, then jumped into the cargo hold.

Jack was already seated on the motorcycle, touching the twin turbines with an infatuated expression...

Hearing V get in, he spoke excitedly, "V, did you know, the Nazare ARCH was my first motorbike, when I bought it..."

V immediately raised her hand, "Hold on, not now. We aren’t at Wild Wolf having drinks, it’s time for work!"

"Right, right, I just wanted to share that when I bought the bike, it was packed! The money I had was..."

[Catapult start-up unit charging, countdown: 10 seconds]

As Jack rambled on, Lille estimated the distance, controlling the catapult device of the Mackinaw cargo hold to charge—

"Catapult in 10 seconds, if you don’t want to bite off your tongue, concentrate... I’m talking to you, Jack!"

[8...]

The fixtures beneath the motorcycle lifted, now supporting the bike’s frame.

As Lille’s voice fell, Jack also became silent, starting the motorcycle according to the HUD’s prompt—

Then he revved the throttle!

The roar resonated inside the cargo hold, almost deafening Jack and V, who could only focus intently on the prompts in their prosthetic eye HUDs.

[4...]

The Mackinaw’s speed had reached 60 mph, which might not sound fast, but over the uneven terrain of Evil Land, any other vehicle would have fallen apart!

The vehicle shook up and down as the throttle revved fiercely!

The wheels spun wildly in the air, turbines whirling crazily, as Lille matched the vehicle’s speed to the motorcycle’s wheel rotation—

Several nozzles extended from the bottom of the cargo hold, ready to unleash the power of alcohol!

[3...]

Jack and V exchanged a glance, sweat beading on their foreheads under the scorching sun, sharing a knowing smile—

[2...]

This badass piece of gear, this top-tier job, was way cooler than any sports car!

[1!]

[Catapult!]

The nozzles sprayed alcohol, a spark appeared at the nozzle, then the spark ignited a dramatic deflagration!

The impact was contained within the sturdy cargo hold, directed upward, the force, integrated by the turbines, created an enormous thrust!

Flames nearly climbed up the pants of V and Jack, but couldn’t catch up to their rising speed!

The Nazare motorcycle took to the air!

This outrageous thrust spiked their adrenaline, their veins throbbing with excitement!

They were flying!

The motorcycle instantly overtook the Mackinaw!

Inheriting the Mackinaw’s 60 mph speed and adding the explosive thrust, the inertial velocity matched the tire rotation in the blink of an eye, rocketing past 100 yards in less than half a second—and that was far from the limit!

The turbines kicked in as the motorcycle leapt into the air, with V and Jack following the HUD prompts to fire downward, the lift sparing them from the bumps, as if the air had smoothed out the ruts of the terrain!

The two motorcycles, like rockets, descended from the side of the Mackinaw and then charged towards the Military Technology convoy!

So fast it left no time to react!

"Wuhu!"

Their speed was like the wind!