Chapter 55: Setting the Trap

Crack!
Arcs of electricity suddenly burst from Maine's arm!
"Watch out for the cameras! Find out where the netrunner is!"
The barefoot members of the Animals charging from the distance slapped loudly against the ground—
Just as Maine finished speaking, a heavyweight contender among the charging thugs slammed fiercely into him!
Maine fell backward, protecting his head, while the brute mounted his waist and delivered a heavy punch to Maine's face, shattering his sunglasses and sending them flying aside.
At that moment, a loud ringing filled Maine's eardrums...
Dorio, still dealing with the enemies in front of her, turned her head to see Maine knocked to the ground and quickly shifted her gun barrel to fire a shot at the brute.
The bullet burrowed into the flesh of the bulky Animal, causing his body to merely shift slightly.
Dorio pulled the trigger in succession, advancing slowly step by step. After taking several hits head-on, the brute collapsed heavily to his knees, blood spraying continuously from the multiple holes peppering his body.
Rebecca poked her head out from behind a thick pillar, and a few bullets instantly flew across to embed themselves in the pillar right in front of her, kicking up a flurry of dust and debris.
Driven back into cover, Rebecca gritted her teeth and shouted at Maine, "I'll go find them!"
She fired a few rounds from her small-caliber pistol at the enemy before it emitted the clicking sound of an empty chamber.
"Piece of junk gun!" Rebecca angrily shook the dust from her hair, discarded the black pistol, and reached out to grab a rifle from the corpse of a nearby Animal.
Utilizing her agility, she wriggled through a pile of stacked debris. Pilar, the closest to her, immediately noticed Rebecca's movement.
"Damn it! Was this part of the plan too? Why do they have a netrunner?"
Seeing his sister charge in recklessly, Pilar felt a tight knot in his chest and immediately threw out several grenades to provide covering fire for Rebecca.
Maine held down his malfunctioning arm, never expecting to run into a damn netrunner among the Animals.
"Where the hell is Lin Yue?!"
Dorio roared as she asked Maine. This was a completely unforeseen emergency—the Animals had too many personnel, and at this rate, their cyberware could be shut down by the netrunner at any second. The situation had become extremely passive, and the next step would be total defeat.
The arm hacked by the netrunner still had not regained any sensation, so Maine simply used his other functioning arm, firing his weapon while signaling Dorio to retreat behind cover.
A few bullets struck the ground right at Dorio's feet, but her sturdy frame possessed remarkable agility, and she narrowly dodged them by stepping onto a side steel plate.
Boom!
Triggered by the explosion of Pilar's grenade, a shelving unit that was already structurally unstable suddenly collapsed, completely sealing off the route Rebecca had burrowed into.
Pilar screamed, "We're completely screwed!"
...
Lin Yue kept his hands on the steering wheel. A minute ago, he had received a call from Maine—the tough bone of the Animals had not been cracked as expected.
They were struggling to hold their ground.
Just as Lin Yue had anticipated.
Lin Yue neither cursed nor panicked; instead, he told Maine to hold the line and then pressed his foot down hard, practically driving the accelerator through the floorboard.
The vehicle's speed surged abruptly. Water droplets flew off the tires, sending up a wisp of blue smoke as the car drifted into the intersection leading towards Pacifica.
"Angie, you can enter Dogtown to take control now—Marta is currently being stalled by our people. Split off a contingent to help our team. Don't leave a single member of Aye's business alive!"
"Remember our agreement."
Lin Yue spoke into the phone with an utterly flat tone, because this was a pre-arranged plan.
Dogtown was filled only with interwoven gang connections, Barghest, and scattered rogues.
And Lin Yue's goal was to seize the foundation of the gangs.
On the other end, Angie gave a firm reply, "Understood, Mr. Lin."
The call disconnected.
That Marta of the Animals had so many people was within expectations. But where did the netrunner come from? Could they have formed an alliance with the Voodoo Boys?
Lin Yue had never heard of such a precedent; they were likely mercenaries hired from elsewhere to do a job.
However, if even Slider's den couldn't stop him, the Animals certainly couldn't either.
Lin Yue let out a cold laugh. That "certain someone" in Dogtown really couldn't bear to let go of this business.
As he pondered, the sidewalks alongside the car were filled with scattered vagrants fleeing in all directions... Gunshots and explosions echoed from distant billboards and the overturned upper floors of dilapidated buildings.
Vroom!
Two black vans suddenly darted out beside Lin Yue's car, painted with the "Roaring Bear" insignia of the Animals.
They attempted to squeeze into the parking lot outside the shopping mall alongside Lin Yue.
Lin Yue jerked the steering wheel hard, slamming firmly against the vehicle on his right.
The two cars ground forward side by side, sparks erupting from deformed doors. With a steady hand braced by his gorilla arms, Lin Yue easily stabilized his steering wheel and forced the other vehicle into a makeshift residential shanty built by vagrants, triggering a massive chain of impacts—for a split second, the Animals' car flipped forward from back to front after striking an obstacle.
Lin Yue looked up, and in that moment, he could even see the distorted face of the driving Animal and the air-suspended decorations inside the cabin.
Bang, bang, bang!
The crumpled, deformed vehicle rolled all the way into the parking lot!
By then, the exterior of the parking lot was swarmed by Animals utilizing concrete walls and cover to fight—these were Marta's people, and Maine and his crew should currently be trapped near the mall entrance.
The car's body jolted violently as Lin Yue noticed another vehicle on the same side pulling up close to him.
In the passenger seat beside it, a ferocious, dark-skinned man aimed his gun dead at Lin Yue inside the driver's seat, pulled the trigger, and opened fire abruptly!
Lin Yue hurriedly hit the brakes, the scenery outside retreating backward as the Animals' vehicle impulsively charged straight into a pile of abandoned cars in the parking lot!
Lin Yue punched open the deformed door and [Charged] toward the wrecked cars, intending to eliminate them all before they could recover from the violent collision. One of the thugs, still somewhat conscious, shook his head and just as he looked up—
A cold, powerful hand clamped tightly around his throat!
Gripping his neck with the operating gorilla arms, Lin Yue delivered a devastating blow straight to his head!
Instantly, the skull exploded right where he stood like a rotten watermelon.
Splat!
The gorilla arms flexed with a mechanical whir, and Lin Yue tossed the corpse aside.
The remaining Animals felt a wave of warm liquid hit their faces—their boss was now headless!
"Damn it! Behind us!" the remaining Animals shouted, hurriedly organizing a counterattack.
The Animals in the courtyard heard the shouts and all turned their gazes toward Lin Yue's direction!
A dense barrage of gunfire began chasing at Lin Yue's heels.
His Reflexes-based [Elusive] perk allowed him to only be grazed by bullets against his subcutaneous armor, and like an agile eel, he slipped behind cover, drew his weapon, and began picking targets off one by one.
Just as bullets deflected off the ground finished off a few enemies, a massive wave of rapid gunfire suddenly erupted from behind!
The Animals in front, still searching for Lin Yue's position, simultaneously burst into bloody mists and fell like cut wheat.
Angie's people had arrived.
An oversized white brute among the Animals behind lowered his head to glance at Lin Yue, revealing a mouthful of yellowed teeth in a terrifying grin, and muttered darkly to the men behind him: "Friendly fire!"
When the Animals fought, they used whatever they could get their hands on—some wielded clubs as tall as people, others carried butcher knives, and even more swung construction sledgehammers!
Watching this pack of bear-like beasts charging forward, Lin Yue quickly placed a call to Maine.
Maine, still holding the line desperately in front, was tapped on the shoulder by Dorio. "What's going on? Are the Animals fighting among themselves?"
Maine looked at the situation outside, utterly bewildered. The pressure from being caught in a pincer attack had suddenly plummeted.
"Lin Yue!"
"There's a new batch of Animals in the back..."
Lin Yue replied, "They're the client's people, don't worry—"
"I'm right behind you!"
Maine on the other end of the line froze for a second, then turned his head to see Lin Yue wiping blood from his face amidst the throng of Animals.
Though the Animals beside him weren't numerous, every single one of them was fearless. Obstacles and enemy gunfire couldn't deter them in the slightest; shielding their faces with their arms, they charged head-first into the fray!
Buffeted and shaken by a passing Animal, Maine finally exhaled a breath of relief and suddenly burst into loud laughter. "Holy sh*t! You really pulled it off, we almost thought we were goners today!"
Dorio never expected the situation to shift so drastically. Having anticipated a botched mission, she finally relaxed from her intense state of hyper-vigilance, gasping deeply for fresh air.
Judging by Lin Yue's appearance, their employer must have known long ago that they couldn't take down Marta's faction alone, and simply intended for them to stall Marta while the Animals turned on each other.
Lin Yue surveyed the headcount. Today's play had been a calculated risk... Maine and his crew were fine for small-scale operations, but a boss like Marta with so many underlings was simply beyond their handling.
Let alone capturing Marta alive.
Fortunately, everything went according to plan.
Before anyone could speak further with Lin Yue, Pilar suddenly forced his way into the comms channel:
"We're done for."
"Maine, I can't reach Rebecca, dammit!"