Chapter 57 Hacker Threat

Marta brought her heavy fists down in a crushing blow, pressing like a solid steel plate that pinned Lin Yue in place, rendering him entirely unable to move.

The Animals had earned their notorious reputation and carved out a fearsome name in Night City largely thanks to these brutes whose raw, biological flesh far surpassed standard cybernetic enhancements.

Inside the transparent tubes running down Marta’s back, massive doses of stimulants were frantically pumped directly into her bloodstream. Feeling as though he was reaching his absolute limit, Lin Yue reached back and locked a death grip around Marta’s wrist!

"Can you still move, Rebecca? Fall back first!"

Before Lin Yue could even finish his sentence, Marta’s arms suddenly surged with raw power. Lin Yue was hoisted clean off the ground in an instant, and then she violently hurled him sideways against the concrete wall!

The immense momentum made it impossible for Lin Yue to adjust his posture mid-air; he had to brace his arms hard against the wall behind him to prevent his spine from snapping upon impact. The very second he struck the wall, spiderweb-like cracks began to radiate outward from the palms of his hands, and his cyberware emitted a strained, groaning hiss of overload.

Rebecca’s malfunctioning cyberware was slowly beginning to reboot, and she hurriedly warned Lin Yue to watch out for the security camera overhead.

Lin Yue drew his pistol and fired two rapid shots; the camera shattered instantly into pieces!

Whoosh!

Despite her massive bulk, Marta’s agility was far from sluggish. The split second she threw Lin Yue aside, she closed the distance right in front of him, unleashing a vicious punch intended to knock him out cold.

Lin Yue hastily crossed his arms to guard his head, but the sheer force of the blow knocked the pistol right out of his hand.

Left with no other choice, he was forced to go toe-to-toe with the beast-like brawler. Relying on the close-quarters combat training he had acquired in the Militech Death Squads, he launched a ferocious assault on Marta’s lower body, wrapping around her movements like a deadly viper clinging tightly to her steps.

Marta let out a low, guttural roar as she leaped into the air and brought her fists down in a sledgehammer blow.

Their fists collided with a resounding crash. Lin Yue staggered backward, a searing wave of soreness shooting up his entire arm.

Gorilla Arms were designed to boost combat adrenaline, and combined with his pain editor, Lin Yue shouldn't have been able to feel a thing.

Yet even with his cyberware absorbing the shock, the previously even match began to tilt slightly in Marta's favor as her anger mounted—this combat-obsessed member of the Animals was a living, breathing vessel born for stimulants.

Dragging her malfunctioning body across the floor, Rebecca crawled toward the pistol Lin Yue had dropped, grabbing it with every ounce of remaining strength.

Her crosshair wavered unsteadily as she aimed it directly at Marta's back.

"Damned netrunner!" Rebecca felt as though the bones in both of her arms had simultaneously turned to jelly, and her fingers refused to obey her commands.

Bang!

The trigger was pulled amidst the shaking. Because Rebecca lacked a ballistic coprocessor, the ricocheting bullet bounced off the ground, missed Marta entirely, and whizzed past Lin Yue, grazing dangerously close to his cheek.

"..."

Lin Yue pressed his lips into a thin line, breaking out in a cold sweat.

What the hell was that?!

Realizing this pistol was a kinetic weapon she simply couldn't control, Rebecca gritted her teeth, discarded Lin Yue’s handgun, and grabbed an assault rifle instead.

Knowing he had to buy Rebecca an opening, Lin Yue relentlessly unleashed a flurry of heavy punches to keep Marta pinned down. The longer his arms operated, the hotter they grew, and his muscular endurance steadily plummeted.

Just as Lin Yue felt his arms about to give out completely!

Bang, bang, bang!

A sustained burst of gunfire swept upward from the waist to the upper torso. With her cyberware still malfunctioning, Rebecca couldn't compensate for the recoil, but several rounds managed to burrow deep into Marta’s thick, muscular back.

Marta’s movements froze for a fraction of a second.

Spotting the exact window of opportunity, Lin Yue triggered his reflexes perk and delivered a devastating uppercut straight to Marta’s chin!

Crack!—

Following a sharp, bone-chilling snap, Marta staggered backward a few steps before crashing heavily to the floor!

Steam hissed from vents along Lin Yue’s forearms, and his optical display flashed warning signals indicating that his Gorilla Arms were dangerously close to overheating.

Rebecca unleashed another sustained volley of gunfire into the motionless body of Marta on the floor, muttering curses under her breath. Lin Yue watched as Marta twitched a few times under the onslaught before finally falling completely silent.

This absolute monster of a woman was terrifying, Lin Yue thought, still shaken by the close call.

Rebecca wanted to check if the brute was truly dead, but the moment she inched closer, the eyes on Marta’s grotesque face snapped wide open, her golden irises glaring viciously straight at Rebecca.

Her words were slurred and indistinct due to the blood pooling in her mouth: "Hands was right... you all should have just died."

Lin Yue’s heart tightened as he hauled back his fist and charged forward!

Damn it, this was the exact moment he cursed himself for not being able to install a Sandevistan.

Before Rebecca could react, Marta grabbed her by the wrist. Ignoring the bullets Rebecca pumped directly into her, Marta’s thick arms suddenly surged with horrific strength, and Rebecca’s arm was violently ripped straight off—

Rip!

Her limb was nearly torn entirely from her shoulder!

"Damn it!" Lin Yue slammed a furious punch directly into Marta’s head, caving in half of her skull and sending a spray of bone fragments and brain matter flying.

Lin Yue deeply regretted not landing one more definitive blow to utterly obliterate this bitch earlier.

Seeing that Marta was finally dead for good, he hurried over to Rebecca's side. Her left arm hung limply at her side, blood spurting continuously from the torn sleeve of her jacket.

"Idiot! Go deal with the netrunner, I can walk myself!" Rebecca clutched her arm, which was now held together by barely a shred of flesh and skin, her face twisted in agony as she harshly urged Lin Yue onward.

The agonizing sensation of torn nerves hammered away at Rebecca’s brain like a sledgehammer. Seeing Lin Yue pick up a weapon and dash without hesitation straight into the netrunner’s server room ahead, Rebecca finally let out a breath she was holding, though the blood welling up in her mouth refused to stop.

That earlier collision had been utterly fatal to her cyberware.

Her footsteps turning unsteadily, she could only slide down the wall until she was sitting on the floor, wrapping one arm around her knees as she stared blankly ahead, gasping for air.

Hum~

The security camera inside the netrunner’s studio shifted position. Lin Yue’s self-ICE detected the rapid intrusion attempt, and he instantly raised his gun and shattered the lens.

The automatic sliding door outside offered no resistance either; the brutal strength of his Gorilla Arms made him feel more like a demolition crew than a solo.

The netrunner scanned Lin Yue’s cyberware signature, spat out a curse, and immediately disconnected, pulling the network cable from the back of his neck before ejecting the encrypted data chip from his system—the chip containing the downloaded intelligence and the payout from Hands.

Boom!

The heavy door groaned under the strain as an arm thrust violently through the widening gap.

Panicked and out of his mind, the netrunner instinctively drew his pistol and fired straight at the intrusive limb. Most of the rounds pinged off harmlessly as if striking solid armor, with only one or two managing to pierce the flesh.

The sheet metal buckled outward, and the sight of Lin Yue squeezing his way through the gap nearly scared the netrunner to wetting his pants.

"What the hell are you?!"

The netrunner roared with a trembling voice as he scrambled backward toward the inner panic room. Lin Yue raised his weapon and shot him straight in the calf!

The netrunner’s eyes flared red, and the rapid-hacking progress bar instantly materialized within Lin Yue’s field of vision.

Watching Lin Yue slowly advance toward him, the netrunner finally received confirmation that his remote countermeasures had uploaded!—

"How do you like that?!"

Lin Yue’s body gave a slight shudder as electric arcs and sparks spat out from the seams of his cyberware, providing the terrified netrunner a brief moment of false relief.

Yet the scene that followed was one the netrunner would never forget for the rest of his life: his cutting-edge hack had done nothing more than cause Lin Yue to pause his stride for a mere half-second.

"Damn it, you're running ICE?!"

Lin Yue kicked the gun out of the netrunner’s hand, carefully calibrating his strength before landing two successive punches squarely in the man’s eyes, instantly bursting them in a spray of blood and buzzing electricity.

Without eyes, how were you supposed to upload anything?

Lin Yue squatted down, ignoring the netrunner’s piercing screams. "Let me ask you a question. Has Hands found Angie’s location?"

"You think I'm going to tell you a damn thing? In your dreams, you—"

Lin Yue jammed his fingers hard into the netrunner’s collarbone, pressing down with ruthless, crushing force—a interrogation technique Militech operatives were intimately familiar with.

The netrunner let out a shrill shriek of agony.

Lin Yue kept the pressure applied for a full half-minute until the man’s collarbone visibly splintered.

"Does it hurt? If it hurts, then you'd better start talking, dumbass."

Cold sweat streamed down the netrunner’s forehead as his jaw trembled and he shook his head frantically. "It's... it's not my fault! Angie's location was easy to track down, we found it ten minutes ago—seriously! It was Hands's orders, I was just following instructions!"

Ah... Lin Yue’s gaze darkened.

He had managed to extract so much valuable information from V this time, and he was just a hair's breadth away from securing this entire sector.

Right now, Lin Yue could only pray that Angie had what it took to weather this storm on her own.

That old fox Hands was thoroughly untrustworthy; he wasn't going to spit out a single morsel of the fat pie he had claimed, fiercely protecting Marta to the bitter end.

Just as Lin Yue was deep in thought, the netrunner frantically screamed out:

"Don't kill me! I know you're the one moving against Hands! Your comms were tapped ages ago, you know that right? I heard every single conversation between you and Angie, and... and I even know you've got ties to Arasaka... Hey, listen! Let me go, and I'll keep your secret!—"

"I swear it!"

Lin Yue paused, momentarily stunned. Comms were that dangerous? V had told him those setups were reasonably secure.

It looked like he would have to find a completely new communications protocol from now on.

Besides... why did this netrunner’s desperate threats feel so bizarrely familiar?

Damn it, wasn't this the exact same playbook he always used?

Lin Yue let out a cold laugh. "You happen to know so much. And then what?"

He guessed the netrunner was going to threaten to leak the information straight to Hands and expose him... blah, blah, blah, it was always the same tired script.

Sure enough, the netrunner babbled through a long-winded string of threats, chattering endlessly until Lin Yue’s head began to throb. Believing Lin Yue might back down since he couldn't see his expression, the man slowly regained a sliver of confidence.

"In Night City, you really don't want to mess with us netrunners!"

Realizing the guy completely misread the room, Lin Yue replied, "Buddy, why do you think I had the guts to steal from Hands in the first place? And besides, I've even pissed off the Voodoo Boys, so what the hell are you supposed to be?!"

The netrunner froze in place. Without hesitation, Lin Yue clamped his hand around the man's throat and squeezed with explosive force.

Crack—!

With a muffled crunch, the netrunner’s larynx and cervical vertebrae were utterly crushed by Lin Yue’s grip.

Lin Yue wore a peculiar expression on his face.

"You even learned that from me."

Cursing under his breath, he stripped the encrypted data chip from the dead netrunner's body, stood up, and fired a few rounds point-blank into the server racks, finally terminating the signal jamming loop.

Remembering Rebecca’s critical condition, Lin Yue didn't waste another second. Without a moment's hesitation, he turned and sprinted back out at full speed...

...

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[Endurance]: A melee combat mechanic in the game. Both blocking and attacking consume stamina, which regenerates when out of combat. Here it can simply be understood as the capacity for continuous muscular exertion.