Chapter 386 - 358: Appreciation

[Unbelievable... I’ve never seen anyone fight with such a method and such weapons.]

[Shingitai (mind, technique, body), the ultimate pleasure... I’m beginning to regret killing their hacker in such a crude way.]

[Exceptional creativity, my technology should also strive for a higher realm.]

In the authentic communication channel, his companion ceaselessly sent words of astonishment and admiration——

What happened on the main road was vividly seen by the observer, so brutal yet so full of skilled beauty, prompting generous words of admiration from the other party.

And this was precisely what caused some headaches for Authentic: his companion was quite obsessed with creating tools to deal with extreme environments.

The mercenary’s goal was to complete missions and make big money, while his companion’s goal differed slightly; money was just a necessary condition for designing new weapons, not the final goal.

If the commission was favorable for him to test new weapons, he would even pay out of his own pocket, caring even less about completion of the mission.

V’s killings repeatedly refreshed his understanding of the motorcycle’s functionality, whereas Jack was entirely a type to play it safe, where every bit of equipment’s performance was fully utilized.

Both were his favorite types of weapon users, it was just unfortunate that they weren’t his weapon users.

He could only repeatedly express his admiration.

[Masterpiece.]

[Work of art.]

[The pinnacle of technology... How did they create such a wonderful propulsion device?]

[Authentic: Even more impressive than a Floating Car engine?]

[In a sense, yes, this is a pure aerodynamics solution, no advanced fuel, no accidental materials piled up by endless funding, just...]

[I can see passion in that vehicle, these designs seem not originally intended for this.]

[Authentic: How can you tell?]

There was silence on the other end of the communication, he didn’t know how to explain this.

He could see that the strongest design of the car was not just the turbofans, or the explosive propulsion devices.

The overall vehicle’s exterior design, and details in the structural components meant for streamlining, were the real essence.

In the topic of ’speed,’ compared to the first motorcycle, humanity had made significant breakthroughs.

People had invented cars, sports cars, Floating Cars, airplanes, Supersonic Fighters...

If it was just about becoming faster, other machinery could easily be adopted, but in this motorcycle, he witnessed what is called ’craftsmanship.’

It was a strange obsession, pursuing the limits in a seemingly unnecessary direction.

Like wanting to fly, but not wanting to ride in an airplane, rather creating a pair of wings.

To see this, one needed the ability to imprint the overall structural design into one’s mind at a glance, and also complete rapid simulation calculations.

And the calculations and theoretic knowledge involved in aerodynamics designs were much more complex and extensive.

He couldn’t clearly explain why he could see so much at a glance.

So, he used his usual answer:

[Craftsman’s intuition.]

[Our sniper is too lousy, he’s already taken two shots, but the target hasn’t fallen at all.]

[Authentic: But with this kind of weather, isn’t it normal to miss?]

[It’s not normal, the ammunition uses a new design, it can ignite the primer even on rainy days, 6000 meters is completely within the range, he just purely missed.]

Authentic was speechless: The theoretical range, doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed within that range.

This explanation was somewhat far-fetched, even if the bullets were specially designed, the primer wouldn’t fail to ignite due to rain, but in such heavy rain, such strong wind...

An enemy at a 6000-meter position, in the viewfinder, would likely be so obscured that even high-precision observation equipment couldn’t see clearly.

A hit rate of 10% would already be good.

The plan wasn’t out of control, but the weather was not on their side.

He could vaguely guess his companion’s mental activity: converting the inner shock and new inspiration into dissatisfaction with the sniper.

Probably what was said earlier about regretting killing the opposing hacker also came from the heart, as now the intelligence suggested that the hacker had been crucial in the development of these equipments.

Regret and remorse.

The hacker most likely used a deep access method to dispatch, so a single EMP blast would be enough to burn through his central nervous system.

There’s only an extremely small chance he would survive—

A chance so small it’s negligible.

Boom!

The third shot rang out, and the signal that the mission was completed did not appear—clearly, it missed again.

[We can close the deals with IEC and EBM now.]

[Masato: What are you trying to say?]

[Forget about that sniper, if he succeeds, finding a route to escape won’t be a problem.]

[If he doesn’t succeed, he deserves to die.]

[Let’s find a qualified mercenary, technologically surpass them, I need a better user.]

[Masato: What about the gun?]

[Give it to them, my name is engraved on it, let them come find me.]

Masato shook his head and made no comment on this decision.

After all, this partner was often his mentor as well.

"Then let’s retreat, these lone wolves are too young..."

Hiss—

A straight beam of white light shone from the uneven buildings, stunning Masato, who was planning to retreat!

...

Shadows moved swiftly between buildings, and Lille’s nerves under his occipital bone itched and pained.

The Lizard Serum granted him powerful regeneration abilities; he could virtually survive as long as he breathed, but complete nerve regeneration was much more complicated.

These nerves would coarsely reconstruct, then due to this coarseness cause physical disarray, disordered nerves were devoured by immune cells, continuing to reconstruct, repeating the process, until finally stabilizing.

During this process, the prosthetic system could hardly work stably, because no one could survive such chaos.

So, he simply shut down most of the functions, with Little Octopus’s computing power mostly restricted to the exoskeleton octopus arms.

In the dark rainy night, vertical pupils saw extraordinarily clearly, and Lille simply took off the night vision goggles that had begun to flicker.

With the help of the octopus arms, he successfully reached the rooftop of a building.

Surrounded—

Boom!

The sound of gunfire echoed as bullets pierced the rain curtain.

Such brightness in most night-vision devices was just a faint flicker, but in Lille’s eyes now...

The nervous system of an organism has many wonders, such as now, with most prosthetic functions shut off, Lille’s brain gained a rather advanced night vision perspective.

In his view, those crucial non-luminous objects all turned into unrecognizable black, the brain as if gaining an AI function, automatically rendering those unimportant areas away.

And the insignificant light of the bullets, under such contrast, turned into meteor streaking across the night!

The trajectory became incredibly clear, and Lille immediately locked onto the sniper’s position—

"Got you..."

Two octopus arms fiercely plunged into the concrete below, and the last octopus arm, following Lille’s gaze, pointed in the direction where the sniper was hidden.

It was an abandoned unfinished building, such buildings in Saint Domingo could be seen everywhere.

The area around the building was all wasteland and a gathering place for vagabonds, indeed the hardest area to defend and the best sniping point.

The sniper was hiding behind those concrete walls.

The sniper might have some misconceptions about the concrete quality of Night City’s unfinished buildings, perfectly letting Lille test out new weapons.

[Weapon system restored...]

[Charging sniper mode.]