14: Chase

Zzz... Zzzzzz...

Damn it, Valentine, their firepower is too strong!

Our car can't take too many hits. If we don't want the car to be totaled and get caught by the Nightwalkers, we have to find a place with cover, then get out and fight them defensively.

Listen, Valentine, I know there's an abandoned Badlands town nearby, but we need to turn around and drive back to get there.

While turning around, you'll not only need to withstand the Nightwalkers' shooting but also harass them to prevent them from cutting us off. How about it, Valentine, do you have confidence?

Zzz... Zzzzzz...

...Fuck! Alright. To survive, this is the only way. I'll do my best to interfere with their shooting, just floor it and turn around!

Okay! I'll count to three.

One! Two! Three! Hold on tight, I'm going to drift turn!

Zzz... Zzzzzz...

Bang!... Bang! Bang!

...

Fang Yun listened to the voices coming from the car radio, and his whole body became excited.

It was really hard to find, driving for over ten kilometers, finally found someone.

To avoid Valentine's death, and also to avoid losing the signal source, Fang Yun quickly said:

'thunder', activate intelligent assisted driving mode. Turn on the vehicle radar, lock onto the signal source received by the broadcast, and begin tracking.

As soon as Fang Yun finished speaking, the intelligent driving control System installed on 'thunder' immediately responded to him with a mechanical and cold voice:

Respected driver, hello.

Intelligent assisted driving mode activated. Vehicle radar started.

Signal source locking... Locking complete.

Signal source movement path simulating... Simulation complete.

Beginning signal source tracking.

Shock absorption performance has been increased to maximum.

Please drive according to the prompts from the vehicle intelligent control System.

Please turn left, head north, and then steadily increase the vehicle speed to 150 kilometers/hour.

Estimated contact with the tracked signal source in 5 minutes.

Fang Yun followed the prompts from the 'thunder' vehicle intelligent control System, first turning left, then stepping on the accelerator, and began continuously increasing speed.

Because the shock absorption performance had been increased from the standard value used during the previous "stroll" to the maximum value, even though the vehicle speed was constantly increasing, Fang Yun did not feel the same significant bumps as before.

The 'thunder' vehicle radar had an electronic compass at the top that activated with the vehicle; buttons on the left and right sides for adjusting orientation, distance scale, and other information; multi-functional electronic data cable jacks at the bottom; and a display screen in the middle that could show orientation, distance scale, and other information, which was also the main part of the vehicle radar.

Fang Yun glanced at the vehicle radar. The radar's display screen glowed faintly. An arrow and four dots of light were constantly flashing on it.

The red arrow represented 'thunder', a white dot of light represented the car Valentine was in, and the remaining three red dots represented the three cars driven by the Nightwalkers who were chasing Valentine.

Since I can meet up with Valentine by driving north, and Valentine's direction of movement is changing towards the back right, it means that when Valentine encountered the Nightwalkers, they were originally moving towards the southeast.

Therefore, the southeast direction is the direction of Valentine's original delivery route.

That is to say, if Valentine picked up the goods from Night City and didn't change direction during the delivery, then the location of Night City should be northwest of the point where Valentine changed their direction of movement.

I was driving towards the northeast before, which means I might have indeed gone in the wrong direction.

Fortunately, I ran into Valentine, otherwise I might have truly 'missed' Night City.

While maintaining a speed of 150 kilometers/hour and driving rapidly, Fang Yun muttered to himself in a low voice:

Since I've encountered Valentine, the protagonist of 2077, and he's saved me from 'missing' Night City, I definitely have to go and rescue him.

'thunder' kicked up swirls of dust and sped towards the north.

Amidst the roar of the massive engine, Fang Yun's words were quietly drowned out.

Nightwalkers, mere chickens and dogs!

（ps: The time displayed by <Version Mechanism: Time Display> refers to the time in Night City in the cyberpunk 2077 World.

However, the coordinates displayed by <Version Mechanism: Coordinate Display> refer to the coordinates in the "coordinate System established by Fang Yun after selecting an origin point".

Previously, Fang Yun had only established a Cartesian coordinate System at the Shelter.

For the previous Fang Yun, a Cartesian coordinate System was sufficient.

However, once the coordinate coverage is expanded to the entire Earth, a Cartesian coordinate System is clearly not sufficient to accurately represent the coordinates Fang Yun needs.

Therefore, Fang Yun established a spherical coordinate System using the "intersection of the line connecting the geographic North Pole and geographic South Pole with the equatorial plane" as the origin, the "line connecting the geographic North Pole and geographic South Pole" as the Z-axis, the "intersection of the plane containing the Z-axis and the Shelter with the equatorial plane" as the X-axis, and the "line perpendicular to both the X-axis and the Z-axis" as the Y-axis.

Fang Yun named these two coordinate Systems the "Shelter Coordinate System" and the "Earth Coordinate System" respectively.

Because he didn't know his location, although Fang Yun knew his coordinates in the "Earth Coordinate System", he didn't know which location on Earth these coordinates corresponded to.

As for Night City, Fang Yun knew that Night City was roughly on the west coast of North America, but he didn't know the exact location, nor the corresponding coordinates in the "Earth Coordinate System".

Therefore, Fang Yun could not find Night City with the help of the coordinate display. This is also why Fang Yun chose a random direction to "try his luck" after leaving the Shelter.）

Time: October 16, 2075, evening. Location: Night City, Badlands.

On the wasteland of the Badlands, the strong wind blew incessantly, and dust was scattered everywhere in the air.

Under the increasingly dim sky, Valentine widened his eyes and looked behind the car.

Three Nightwalker vehicles, whose body outlines had already blurred into the surrounding landscape, were still following closely behind Valentine's car, biting down hard on Valentine.

The wind and sand constantly beat against the car windows, making a continuous low noise. In the past, this noise would only make Valentine feel sleepy, but now, this noise only made Valentine feel annoyed.

Toke, are we not there yet?!

Valentine loudly asked Toke, who was driving.

We should be close!

If it weren't for those damn Nightwalkers' overwhelming firepower, we would have only needed to make one big turn to get to that abandoned town I mentioned before!

But now, because we've made two big turns, it will take longer to reach that abandoned town!

Toke controlled the vehicle to dodge the Nightwalkers' shooting as much as possible, while loudly answering Valentine's question.

About how much longer?!

Toke quickly recalled the town's location and replied:

1 minute!

Valentine didn't speak again, but instead pulled his body back into the car, dodging a few stray bullets fired from behind.

Then, Valentine poked half his body back out of the car window, raised his hand, and fired two shots, "bang bang," at the Nightwalkers behind him.

The Nightwalker following Valentine's car cursed a few times, seemingly hit.

However, the Nightwalkers' offensive didn't slow down much, showing that Valentine's two shots didn't have much effect.

Damn it, the Nightwalker responsible for shooting must have installed subcutaneous armor, otherwise those two shots just now couldn't have failed to kill him.

Alright, Valentine, it's hard for us to eliminate these Nightwalkers now. So, we just need to avoid being caught by them.

Luckily, my thunder was just modified a few days ago with heavy protective armor plating, and luckily, the Nightwalkers chasing us aren't elites and don't have tech weapons, otherwise, we'd both be full of holes by now.

After we get to the town, we'll use the darkness to maneuver against them. I'll protect the cargo, and you'll take them out. With your marksmanship and your cyber-eye's night vision, you can definitely eliminate all of them easily!

Valentine continued firing to suppress the Nightwalkers behind him, while answering loudly:

You're right, let's do it!

Then, Valentine fired two shots, "bang bang," behind the car and said fiercely, "When we get to the town, see how I deal with them!"