Cyberpunk Bounty Hunter

Nanotech leaks, urban wasteland, rampant mutations, and corporate supremacy. In the collapsed order and cheap lives of New Shanghai, E-rank hunter Lu Chen struggles to survive. With overdue water bills, looming rent, and combat gear on the verge of failure, he takes on an E-rank hunting mission in an abandoned factory in the old port district, targeting the local mutant C-0117. What seems like an easy low-level task hides endless sorrow. After a hard-fought battle and defeating the mutant, Lu Chen unlocks a cruel truth from the residual memories in its core: the so-called out-of-control monster was just an ordinary man, Zhou Yuanshan, abandoned after being drained of value by neutralizing organisms while seeking medical treatment for his daughter. A hunt for survival reveals the dark truth of corporations treating lives like grass. Unexpectedly, the nanotech black mist released from the mutant fragments condenses into a new symbiotic life form. Lu Chen names it Rust Nail. With a broken exoskeleton as companion and a rusted creature as friend, the low-level hunter walks through the wasteland and darkness, fighting for survival while uncovering the truth behind nanotech mutations, holding onto humanity in the cold cyberpunk apocalypse, going against the current. — Description from novelcodex.org