Chapter 495 - 466: Shocking the World (Part 3) (Supplement)

The speedometer read 80 mph, the car body was swaying slightly in the storm.

That wasn’t fast, not even for Jack without the Si Anweisitan.

But given the sand waves, when someone in the car noticed something was amiss, they were already within twenty meters, too late for an ordinary person to react.

Human neural response is limited by its structure — while biological current nearly matches the speed of light when carrying information within the body, the transmission of signals between synapses still depends on chemical neurotransmitters that take time to diffuse within the internal environment before being detected by the next synapse.

Unless there was a way to bypass chemical transmission, replacing the entire process with electrical current.

That was one of the initial purposes behind the design of Si Anweisitan.

They might not be able to foresee the mines on the ground, but the moment something happened, the current from the Si Anweisitan would already be overriding the biological nerves, surpassing the speed of chemical neurotransmitter transmission.

The voltage of these currents was enough to allow them to leap across the tiny gaps between synapses, physically breaking through the human reaction speed limit.

The explosion couldn’t be prevented, but how to respond after the explosion was something one could indeed strive for.

The two attackers from the gang wore combat jackets, both with a crying blind man without eyes tattooed on their necks.

Around their waists was tied a long rope, clearly intended to help them reboard after combat.

But now, that had become their death warrant.

The mines were powerful, but the Chroni Titanium Armor Plate on the Mackinaw’s undercarriage was fully capable of withstanding such an impact. The armor bent slightly, the shock absorbed by the complex electromagnetic suspension and internal frame, distributing the force as evenly as possible across every load-bearing structure of the car.

So, the vehicle merely hesitated briefly, then almost flew parallel to the ground.

But the pickup truck ahead wasn’t so lucky, the explosion completely obliterated the vehicle’s chassis, flipping the rear end of the truck into the air!

If nothing was done, the two guys would be dragged off by the ropes, entangled in the wreckage, ending up a mixture of metal and flesh.

So, in that instant, they decisively untied the ropes. By the time the pull reached their end, they had already broken free, maintaining their original speed and lunging toward the Mackinaw’s front hood —

With that high speed, that extreme reaction, they both were inwardly boasting of their badassery.

Four strong, artificial limbs reached out for the bumper, but what they hadn’t anticipated was that someone else had the same reaction!

A gap opened in the front armored plate with Da Mai’s manipulation, perfectly timing with the Mantis Blade in V’s hand.

Thus, they never had the chance to grab hold of the hood. Rather, it was the Mantis Blade that caught them!

Bang!

One’s head slammed onto a blade, another’s chest was pierced by the Mantis Blade, slicing along the ribs toward the left side.

The two men crashed heavily against the front windshield armor, instantly splashing a large amount of unidentifiable liquid.

V withdrew the Mantis Blade, and the storm blew the two corpses to the sides, scattering them across the wasteland.

"Blind Crying Head, it’s ’Blood and Tears’," Lille explained while recording the kill in temporary storage. "They like to gouge out their victims’ eyes. Another killer gang, but an elite one.

They robbed a chemical warehouse... The mines weren’t theirs."

Blood and Tears, once a powerful gang renowned in the war zones during the era of gang rule, only accepted warriors with at least three years of combat experience.

In Night City, however, surviving three years in this business was rare. The long-lived were the wealthy, not necessarily skilled in combat, leading to the gang’s eventual decline.

"What a weird name." V placed the blades on the sides of the chair, where there were even cleaning devices for the weapons. "You sure have a talent for naming."

"I didn’t come up with it; the NCPD has decades-old traditions of giving weird names to most-wanted criminals."

Take Jack for example — he was one such victim.

"Mano, I..."

"Strap in, there’ll be more mines..."

Boom!

Another mine was triggered, causing a more noticeable shake, and the vehicle veered unexpectedly.

[Electromagnetic suspension dead zone warning]

[Chassis slightly deformed.]

Passively taking hits like this would result in damage surpassing expectations.

The best way to avoid them would be to drive off the road again. Lille had scanned all the competing vehicles — none had the capability to maintain high speeds outside the road during a sandstorm.

But that meant slowing down his speed.

If he didn’t break out of the storm first to reach the next section, it would all be for naught.

That little bastard laying the mines had incredibly good luck, finding the situation perfectly suited for his strategy.

He had to take that guy out.

But to take down that kid in such conditions... as Lille had said before, they could only rely on instinct in combat.

Thinking of this, Lille said, "Use a motorcycle to make a lightning assault."

As soon as Jack and V heard this, they weren’t sleepy anymore.

...

Boom!

Explosions kept sounding off behind them, and the people in the vehicle all split their sides with laughter.

This was a Thunder Power’s Colby Peak, also a pickup truck, but a light-duty one, and its engine was a high-powered one they had stolen.

Together with all-wheel drive, off-road tires, and other configurations, it was very suitable for speeding on the Evil Land Highway.

Their original strategy was to get to the front and lay mines, overturn as many as they could, and if they couldn’t handle it, simply drop out of the race; just making an appearance was a big win, and dropping out midway was not a shame—

This was the strategy.

A few days earlier, they had undertaken a job from the Brain Demon Gang to steal a scrapped West Tuan model 66, and right after they hooked up the car, the Brain Demon Gang said they didn’t need it anymore. The engine from the car could still be used with some repair work, so they took that as payment.

Unexpectedly, they were actually able to put it to use.

Patching things up, installing the West Tuan’s thousand-horsepower engine into this Colby Peak felt incredibly exhilarating; although it was a bit unstable in a sandstorm, in these circumstances, speed was power.

A thousand-horsepower vehicle on this stretch of Evil Land couldn’t be caught by anyone.

"Haha, truly, the heavens are watching, favoring those who use their brains..."

"A bunch of brainless idiots, just a little thinking from us brothers and we have them crushed beneath our hooves!"

The guy in the cargo bed, continuously laying mines, was wearing a pair of goggles. These goggles were technical tools commonly used by professionals, and the driver had a pair too, just not worn on his eyes at the moment.

After the driver made his ’crushed beneath our hooves’ declaration, he immediately thought of the scene where they would be the first to rush to the city entrance.

Maybe some clever people would think of taking a different path, but going off the main road meant being slow.

They could still be the first to break through.

As long as they were the first to rush out, their mission for the day would be more than accomplished: appear at the starting line, run a complete segment, and create a cliff-like gap with the cars behind...

As long as they were the first to break out, their intellect would be recognized, and they might even get hordes of corporate dogs begging them to develop new toys, thus starting them on the path of an inventor...

No more being called freaks from then on! They would be inventors! Deadly inventors!

Boom...

Another indistinct explosion sound came from behind, the Colby Peak serpentined on the road, and the driver even took one hand off the wheel, dancing with joy:

"Haha! I laugh at those Hamburgers with no plan, the heavens couldn’t be more beautiful!"

In his excitement, he completely failed to notice what was happening behind him:

Limited visibility works both ways.

The brother in the cargo bed, who hadn’t stopped dropping mines, noticed explosions of light simultaneously on both sides of the road—

That was odd, he didn’t remember laying the mines that far off, did he?

Why did it feel like they had spread off the road?

Boom!

An explosion erupted at his side, and he saw an unforgettable scene that also happened to be his last:

In the midst of the sandstorm, a woman clad in a black light jacket soared out from the brownish storm on a flaming, smoke-billowing motorcycle, which was even airborne.

She was like a Valkyrie riding a white steed straight out of a mythological game.

And why could he tell it was a woman even though she was wearing a thick mask and reinforced exoskeleton?

He just felt she had to be a woman.

He turned to run, his vision shifting; he just managed to see over the roof of the vehicle and spotted the same type of motorbike crashing towards the main driver’s window at high speed.

The massive... other Valkyrie seemed to be holding a rocket, which smashed through the window armor, and a warm liquid flew out of the window.

He felt a discordant warmth on his face and exclaimed, Those are some badass toys.

That’s when he noticed something: he was on the back of the cargo bed, so how could he possibly see over the roof of the car?

The next second, his consciousness went offline forever, his head carried away by the wild wind into the sky.

"Awesome!"

V expressed his feelings against the storm, nodded at Jack, who gave a thumbs-up in response, and the two followed the plan, slowing down and disappearing into the sandstorm.

Legend Mackinaw was about to start overtaking.