Since the goal was to make money, he obviously had to do it with as much style as possible.
Blue light flashed in Arthur’s eyes as he looked at the Scavengers ahead, heavy guns in hand and murder in their eyes.
“Nothing but a bunch of amateurs,” Arthur muttered.
He pulled out a grenade and tossed it high into the air as a probing gesture.
“Holy shit, grenade!” One of the Scavengers paled in terror.
This basement was their hideout.
Using explosives in their own base would destroy the gang’s stash—and even if they took out the intruder, they’d end up on the operating table, getting chopped up for parts to pay off the damages.
Like Arthur gave a damn.
He would’ve loved nothing more than to level this illegal den of scum to the ground.
Arthur entered cyberspace, his mind accelerating into overdrive.
Everything before him slowed to a crawl.
He watched the Scavengers scatter in utter panic, tumbling over one another as they scrambled frantically for cover.
“Too slow!
Time to settle some old scores,” Arthur quipped.
With stylish precision, he drew his gun and shot the grenade right out of the air.
The mid-air detonation packed an even deadlier punch, blasting the Scavengers who had just rushed out in a tight cluster off their feet.
“Fuck!
I’m bleeding everywhere!
Jesus, it hurts!
Help me, someone help me!” A lucky survivor sobbed, watching blood spurt from multiple shrapnel wounds as he screamed frantically into the gang’s comm net.
“Take a deep breath.
It won’t hurt in a second.”
The surviving Scavenger looked up to see Arthur looking down at him with a cigarette hanging from his lips and a pleasant smile on his face.
Fear seized the man’s throat, choking back his screams.
*Bang.*
Arthur pulled the trigger.
The first wave of Scavengers—the ones who had rushed forward most aggressively—were wiped out entirely.
“Dammit, he’s a fucking pro!
Everyone take cover!
Where’s the netrunner?
Nata!
Hack his cyberware!”
A security camera in the basement panned to Arthur, who was taking a casual stroll through the compound as if he owned the place.
“Holy shit, he doesn’t have cyberware—no, wait!
Someone top-tier is masking him!
I can’t hack him!” In the eyes of Nata, the Scavenger netrunner, Arthur’s cyberware signature was wildly shifting, surrounded by ICE thicker than a fortress wall.
It was as if he had a corp-grade Data Fortress guarding him round-the-clock.
“Fuck it!
Get the grenades!
Niegojin, grab that Militech 31 heavy machine gun we paid through the nose for!
Forget about protecting the goods—kill this bastard!” The Scavenger boss was growing desperate.
If they couldn’t settle this cheap, they’d go all out and blast this intruder straight to hell.
“Oh?
Came up with a brilliant plan, did you?” Arthur was listening in on the Scavengers’ comm channel the entire time.
Their netrunner was as amateurish as a corp suit, so dogmatic in her routine that she hadn’t even noticed he was patched in.
*Bang!
Bang!
Bang!*
Three rapid gunshots shattered the security cameras in the basement, plunging Arthur back into the shadows and out of everyone’s sight.
“Dammit, where did he go?
Gojin, Old Micah, you two move up and scout!” With the cameras destroyed, the Scavenger boss decided to use live bodies to flush him out.
???
*Scout who?
Why don’t you ask us to slay Nanook the Aeon of Destruction while you’re at it?*
“Move it!
Move your fuckin’ ass, or I’ll blow both you dumbasses away myself!” The boss barked, and Niegojin immediately aimed his heavy machine gun right at the two meat shields.
Well, power rules the roost.
Even after joining a gang as a Scavenger, working stiffs still got squeezed dry by the boss.
Gojin and Old Micah covered each other, advancing with slow, steady steps—mostly slow.
The Scavenger boss didn’t dare push them too hard.
Nobody here was a saint; if the rest of the crew mutinied, things would get ugly fast.
Arthur almost laughed watching the internal strife.
“Gojin?
Old Micah?
Looks like your boss doesn’t consider you part of the family at all.”
*You think we don’t know that?
We were with the deputy boss, and you blew him sky-high outside!
What are we supposed to do?
We’re desperate here!*
“Listen up, you dumb…
hero!
Our boss has set up the heavy machine gun and loaded up on grenades!
I advise you to drop your weapons and surrender—we promise not to kill you!” Gojin’s shouting sounded like a call for surrender, but in reality, he was feeding Arthur their positions.
“That’s right!
Over a dozen of us are dug in at every vantage point!
Step inside and you’re a dead man!
You’d better run fast while you can, or the bullets won’t be merciful and you’ll die a nasty death!” Old Micah was quite the character himself.
To save his own skin, he made it abundantly clear that no one was flanking, practically begging Arthur to beat a hasty retreat.
“What the hell are you two babbling about?
Use your cybereyes!
Scan him!” Veins popped on the boss’s forehead.
Still, if this terrifying intruder was willing to walk away on his own, it would be a blessing—at least the basement equipment would be saved.
Gojin and Old Micah exchanged a helpless look.
Having no choice, one peeked out nervously from behind a window frame while the other cautiously surveyed the room from behind a doorway.
And Arthur?
He hadn’t even bothered to hide.
With his left hand jammed in his pocket, he spun the Colt Python around his right index finger.
His brim was pulled low, casting a shadow that covered half his face, revealing only a wide, sinister grin that remained surprisingly elegant.
“Holy shit, he’s right outside the door!” Gojin and Old Micah yanked their heads back at lightning speed, terrified of taking a bullet to the skull.
“Listen up inside!
You are surrounded!
Drop your weapons and surrender, and maybe I’ll leave your bodies intact!
Otherwise, when I step inside, I’m making a pyramid out of your heads!” Arthur strolled forward with deliberate slowness, the click of his riding boots against the hard floor striking terror into their hearts.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?!” The Scavenger boss bellowed.
“Everyone, push forward!
We’ve got over a dozen guns on one guy—we can drown him in lead!” As the crew surged ahead, the boss took a quick step back, putting everyone between himself and the door.
Was there any honor or camaraderie among Scavengers?
Of course not.
If they had a heart, they wouldn’t be Scavengers.
Through his tracking grid, Arthur (Ruan Xian) watched the Scavenger boss fall back toward their netrunner.
It was obvious the coward was getting ready to cut and run with the cash.
But it didn’t matter.
Leaving required one of two things: killing Arthur, or getting killed by him.
*Twelve hotheads left.
Two bursts ought to do it—say, 0.5 seconds.* Arthur had no intention of testing whether the heavy machine gun could pierce his defenses; there was no point.
Besides, he didn’t want his clothes shredded—that would ruin the aesthetic for whoever ended up buying the braindance.
With a double-jump, he vaulted onto the overhead pipes on the right, kicked open a grate with a swift slide, and dropped cleanly into the inner room.
The Scavengers were still nervously aiming at the door and windows.
For low-level gangers, the fact that they hadn’t fled on sight meant they were practically top tier.
“It’s high noon…”
Arthur pulled the trigger rapidly.
This Colt Python was retrofitted with a hair-trigger mechanism that gave it an insanely fast response time—faster even than Ruan Xian’s initial calculations.
Factoring in the reload time via the Spirit World, he unleashed twelve rounds in a mere 0.4 seconds.
“Aaargh!
My eyes!
Fuck!” Under Arthur’s guided fan-fire, every single bullet drilled straight through their eyes.
Yet somehow, despite this, Niegojin was still alive.
Arthur dropped down from the pipe and walked up to Niegojin.
A scan with his cybereye revealed that the brute actually had a Second Heart installed.
However, compared to his bulky frame, this Second Heart was noticeably tiny.
“I can’t imagine what kind of idiot shoves someone else’s heart into their own chest.
Do you hear it cursing you in your sleep?” Arthur pulled out a grenade, yanked the pin, and shoved it straight into Niegojin’s mouth.
“Be grateful, dumbass.
I usually don’t pull the pin.
Let’s see if that stolen Second Heart can save you once your head gets blown off.” Arthur adjusted his hat and stepped behind a wall.
“Three, two, boom.”
Accompanied by the muffle of the explosion, Arthur flicked open his lighter and lit the cigarette between his lips.
He didn’t actually smoke; it was purely for style, a little prop to play with.
He leaned out to check.
It seemed a Second Heart couldn’t regenerate a blown-off head.
Niegojin was dead as a doornail now.
“Hey, Nata, get up!” The Scavenger boss rapped on his netrunner’s visor before turning around to crack open the safe.
“What is it, Dad?” Nata removed her netrunner helmet, revealing a striking, beautiful face.
“Don’t ask, I’ll explain later!
Transfer all the gang’s funds to your account immediately!
We have to run!” Without time for details, the boss swept up every credchip in the safe, grabbed Nata’s arm, and bolted.
“Slow down, Dad!
Slow down!
The money’s transferred—where are we going?” Nata nearly tripped as he dragged her along.
“Out through Charles’s place first, then take his car to Kabuki.
We’ll find Wakako Okada—she’ll arrange for us to get out of the city!” The boss sprinted ahead, pulling his daughter behind him.
The father and daughter rushed up the basement stairs, only to be stopped cold by the back door of the small clinic.
“Fuck!
Why won’t it open?!
Nata, do something!”
“Don’t panic, Dad, let me try.” Nata attempted to hotwire the door lock, but it was futile.
No amount of technical skill or netrunning trickery was opening this door.
Short of possessing 20 Body to tear it off its hinges using good old Newtonian physics, their only option was waiting for Arthur to unlock it.
“Done playing around?
I don’t have time to stand here watching you mess about.” Arthur had actually been standing at the staircase landing watching them for a while now.
The father and daughter had simply been too preoccupied to notice.