17: Chapter 17 Your Kangde's takeout has arrived.

It had been less than 48 hours since the incident at the "Apex" apartment, and the tension in Lin Yi's heart had yet to ease. Yet, Jackie was already cheerfully accepting an urgent commission from Old Captain—to transport "sensitive cargo" from the industrial district of Santo Domingo to a designated location in Watson. The pay was generous, with only one requirement: get it done fast.

The cargo was a sealed metal box, not large, but ridiculously heavy. Old Captain had been vague, only hinting that it was an "industrial sample" that had leaked from a certain corporation.

The galena was driving along a remote elevated road connecting the two districts, with the never-extinguishing sea of neon lights of Night City below. Jackie was humming an off-key tune along with the car radio, while Lin Yi, feeling uneasy, repeatedly scanned the surrounding network environment.

Suddenly—

[Insight] fed back a piercing warning! [Multiple smart weapon lock-on signals detected! High-intensity threat targets appeared 500 meters ahead and 300 meters behind!]

As the warning sounded, three unmarked black armored off-road vehicles suddenly shot out from the intersections ahead and behind, silently sandwiching them like ghosts. The windows rolled down, revealing mounted rapid-fire machine guns and rocket launchers.

"Damn it!!" Jackie roared, slamming on the brakes and violently cranking the steering wheel. The galena drifted, narrowly avoiding the first round of warning machine-gun fire—bullets sparked a long trail across the asphalt.

"It's the corps." Lin Yi's heart tightened abruptly. His worst premonition had come true. The opponents were tactically rigorous, well-coordinated, and well-equipped; this was definitely not the style of a street gang.

A cold, electronically synthesized voice cut into the public channel: "Target vehicle, shut off your engine immediately and surrender the cargo and all personnel on board. Resistance is futile."

"Surrender your ass!!" Jackie roared, treating the galena like a rampaging rhino as he jerked the steering wheel, attempting to ram a path to safety. A shotgun extended from the window, firing wildly at the nearest off-road vehicle—most of the bullets were deflected by the thick armor, leaving only white marks.

The battle exploded in an instant.

Laser beams and armor-piercing rounds hailed down on the galena like rain. The armored body temporarily withstood most of the damage, but the windows were soon covered in cracks, and the hood was battered and dented.

Lin Yi forced himself to calm down, plugging his consciousness into "Baize" to attempt to hack the enemy's operating system.

[Attempting to hack enemy vehicle systems... Encountered high-level ICE barriers. Hacking difficulty: High. Estimated time: > 4 minutes.]

'Are you kidding me? In this situation, 4 minutes! Jackie and I will both die from heavy metal poisoning and first-degree burns.'

[Attempting to execute [Weapon Glitch]... Target protected by both strong signal shielding and physical safety locks. Failed.]

[Attempting to execute [Synapse Burnout]... Target personnel neural impedance is abnormally high, suspected to be equipped with high-level defensive cyberware. Power consumption surged, effectiveness significantly reduced.]

The enemy's hacking and hardware defense levels far exceeded expectations. Their ICE couldn't fully block "Baize," but it could stall—greatly dragging out time and draining resources.

"Damn it, the turtle shell is too hard!" Lin Yi gritted his teeth.

There were at least fifteen of them, divided into three teams, alternating shooting, covering, and closing in; their tactical execution was flawless. Kang Tao had really gone all out. If they kept dragging this out, they would sooner or later be ground to death in this godforsaken place.

He had to find a way to break the deadlock.

A flash of determination crossed Lin Yi's eyes; although it was against the rules, it was the only way to survive right now.

"Jackie! Help me hold them off for thirty seconds! I need absolute focus!" he roared.

"Thirty seconds?! I'll try my best to keep you alive for twenty-nine seconds!" Jackie's eyes were red as he switched the car to the autopilot mode Lin Yi had cobbled together, then scrambled to the back seat, tossing every smoke grenade and flashbang left in the car backward like they were free, trying to trade chaos for time.

Lin Yi closed his eyes, sinking all his consciousness into the cold cyberspace of "Baize."

[Warning: About to invoke limit-breaking computing power. Target: Area-of-effect high-intensity [Lockdown]. Scope: Targeted strike, three nearby vehicles and personnel. Target count: 18. Estimated power consumption: 60%. Duration: 30 minutes. Risk of short-term system peak overload and partial neural damage exists. Confirm?]

"Confirm!"

A chill far beyond anything he had experienced before, one that felt like it would freeze his soul, instantly swept through his brain, followed immediately by a burning sensation spreading up and down from the back of his neck. "Baize" emitted a high-frequency hum never heard before, the glow of the "red core" faintly visible through his skin, like a burning heart.

Hum~, a silent, destructive ripple of commands exploded outward with him at the center.

In an instant, the world seemed to have been pressed on the pause button.

The heavy weapons personnel aiming ahead suddenly froze, their fingers locked on the triggers. The drivers of the off-road vehicles pursuing from behind had hollow eyes, their vehicles losing control and crashing into the guardrails.

All the cleanup crew members who were firing, moving, or attempting to release hacking programs—in an instant, it was as if their strings had been pulled, and they kept their previous poses, collapsing straight down or slumping in their seats, and under the inertia of the high-speed vehicles, they shattered like glass objects.

Only the terror and disbelief remaining on their faces proved that everything that had just happened was real.

The elevated road plunged into dead silence instantly. Only the roar of the galena's engine and the hissing of smoke grenades remained.

"I... holy shit..." Jackie looked at the magical scene before him, his mouth agape, unable to speak for a long time.

Lin Yi coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face pale as paper. His temples felt like they were being drilled, and he slumped in his seat, completely drained. [Insight] ran automatically, scanning the scene. [All target life signs extinguished. Neural burnout.] The power of [Lockdown] far exceeded his imagination.

"Quick... Jackie..." he urged weakly, "We have to go back, clean up the traces at the scene... We can't leave any... traces related to us..."

Jackie snapped to, immediately getting out of the car. Anyone still breathing got a follow-up shot—two in the body, one in the head—and then, enduring his nausea, he began to dispose of the corpses and vehicles. Lin Yi forced himself to hold onto his last shred of energy, using the remaining computing power of "Baize" to completely paralyze and overwrite the black boxes and recording equipment of all enemy vehicles, while simultaneously forging a data record in the surrounding surveillance footage of a gang firefight having taken place there, replacing the original files.

After finishing all this, the two drove the scarred "galena"—like escaping hell—and quickly vanished into the night.

We are safe, for now.

But Lin Yi knew clearly that the greater the losses for Kang Tao, the more troublesome the next cleanup crew they sent would be.