Chapter 673 - 644: Hell Storm

Bang!

Just as Hansen had expressed his concern for Lille, the backup server behind Lille exploded!

And he was all too familiar with that kind of explosion: their equipment would emit black and red lightning when attacked by roving AIs, exactly like when Lille was operating just now!

Years of indoctrination had associated such phenomena with the unknown, the mystical, and the powerful, which made Hansen nervous:

"What now?"

"The Black Wall... The company used its own equipment to implement the Black Wall, and now the intensity here is a bit high... Can you still use your communication?"

Only AI servers completely enclosed in a Faraday cage could avoid being scanned by the Black Wall, and the Munemasa from a minute ago was obviously not one of them.

So a backup of Munemasa from one minute prior was waiting in Marvel World for Lille to restart.

Hansen’s brows furrowed, and he looked toward his subordinate Garg who swallowed hard and shook his head:

They were now under joint pressure from military technology and the Arasaka, attacked by both a former big brother and his rival, meaning those who knew them best were attacking them!

Technically and in terms of equipment strength, they were completely overpowered, which meant the network was utterly useless!

Even the OCT domain of the Burger King criminal organization lost most of its communication capabilities due to electromagnetic shielding:

The already limited cross-dimensional communication traffic available to Lille was not intended to support large-scale communications, always used only for encryption methods and emergency communications—it couldn’t support such massive communication needs!

The saying "With great power comes great destruction" was apt here; breaking the encryption of cross-dimensional communications was impossible for the company, but indiscriminately wrecking it was not out of the question, as long as they threw enough resources at it.

Now, Lille too had a shadow in his heart:

He personally hoped the world would become better, and did not believe that concepts like faith, love, and peace were utterly useless.

However, the fact was: those things were not sufficient conditions for maintaining a large organization.

He could lend a hand in pushing someone during negotiations, but it all rested on a certain material basis.

The company’s full mobilization, in a sense, was far more terrifying than the Terrorist Mobile Team: in Night City, being a criminal meant having food, opposing a company meant having food, but opposing many companies?

You might not even have food to eat.

Lille had already provided the criminal organization with the most basic production capabilities, but in the face of such formations, the criminal groups, still in their self-sufficiency and scrappy phase, might easily be destroyed by the company’s fear and promises.

Whoosh—

The roaring of the engine sounded as the Mackinaw Floating Shadow descended by the window ledge, and Hansen, hiding behind cover, shouted:

"I knew that car was your doing, can this damn car really fly?"

"Don’t know if it can fly—"

Bang!

A blue electromagnetic bullet trail streaked across the sky, making a deep hole in the side armor of the Mackinaw Floating Shadow—

The Chroni Titanium Armor was nearly penetrated!

Hansen jerked, "My sniper... damn it, they were ready!"

"No shit, it’s not like it’s your first time dealing with them, get in the car—"

As soon as Lille finished speaking, Hansen saw Jack toss a wheelchair that weighed over a hundred kilograms, along with the person in it, onto the car like shooting a basketball!

Bang!

The wheelchair landed on the vehicle, and both the car and wheelchair shook, perfectly absorbing the force.

Jack and V got straight into the car, the engine revved up, and only then did Hansen react, leaping aboard with a fishlike jump!

Bang.

"Damn it..."

"Stop cursing, there’s a super stereo in the car—"

[Da Mai: Netherworld Dog!]

Before Lille could finish, Da Mai demonstrated its super stereo, which immediately disrupted the communication, waking up the confused Netherworld Dogs!

This stereo had no advantage other than being loud, the sound quality was so poor that it seemed to be scraped by metal plates, the pitch was erratic, and there was a creepy staccato effect...

But it was indeed very energizing!

Hansen instantly snapped to attention and leaned over the communication console:

[Da Mai: I’m Kurt Hansen, all stationed troops in the town head to construction site number three for defense immediately, secure the gates, don’t let anyone near—]

[Da Mai: I am Kurt Hansen...]

After shouting thrice in succession, Da Mai flew at high speed through the sky while Hansen was standing outside the open door, holding onto a safety handle, ensuring all the soldiers could see him.

This was an extremely dangerous move, but he had no choice:

The damn loudspeaker didn’t even have a chance of transmitting his voice clearly!

As a military force, even though many were still in disarray, the Netherworld Dogs could be seen slowly regaining organization and moving toward the construction site Hansen mentioned.

But just as visible, Hansen saw deserters.

"...fuck his grandmother..." Hansen cursed under his breath, lifting his head to look beyond Dog Town:

He could see the company’s drones covering the sky, and even though the ground wasn’t visible, he knew the magnitude would be enormous!

If his Netherworld Dogs were like this, then those disorganized rabble from Burger King...

"The Netherworld Dogs won’t hold them back for long!"

"I know!" Lille didn’t let an ounce of unease show, "I know—"

"Those drones... motherfucker—"

Hansen grabbed the walkie-talkie:

[Da Mai: Northwest direction, anti-air squad! Open fire on the drones!]

Whoosh!

Inside the Sapphire Blue Nightclub, mini anti-air missiles were launched like a downpour following Hansen’s order, tracing red arcs through the night sky, all flying towards the swarm of drones!

Boom!

The curtain of explosions formed a barrier of flames, completely blocking the first wave of drones!

"Fucking awesome, bro!" Jack gave a thumbs up.

Hansen swore loudly, "Awesome your ass, awesome, did you even listen to what I said! The Netherworld Dogs can’t hold out much longer!"

"Watch your language!" Lille yelled back, "We have our own men here!"

"Do you think..."

Boom!

The bridge to Taiping State suddenly exploded violently, with thick black smoke and flames lighting up the dark Taiping State in an instant!

Lille felt a rush of joy, but he remained outwardly calm, "Didn’t I just say it! Now focus on the task at hand!"

Hansen put away the astonishment he felt inside and pointed to the construction site on the ground where the Netherworld Dogs were—

That was the excavation site of Little Beidou, an abandoned unfinished building that seemed unremarkable.

"That’s the place—" Hansen shouted, "Do you really think it’ll work?"

"I think..." Lille paused, looking at Hansen, "I think there’s a good chance..."

[Da Mai: Enemy spotted!]

Whoosh—

The immense engine noise of Da Mai made it hard to be aware of the surroundings.

But Da Mai itself was an AI, it wouldn’t miss such a detail:

Behind them, a high-speed floating car dropped a bomb!

A bomb was deployed toward the building—

Hansen, equipped with Si Anweisitan prosthetics, instantly entered a reactive state—

With the ultra-fast response and the Tactical Commander’s prosthetic eye, the combination of two prosthetics allowed him to identify the bomb:

[HTB—57A "Hell Storm" Thermo-baric Bomb]

[Description: Military technology manufactured, octogen-2 mixed semi-solid fuel]

[Total weight: 3400 kilograms]

[Blast yield: 44 tons TNT equivalent]

[Direct blast radius: 500 meters]

"Pull up!!!!"