Pain.
It was the only thing Lena could properly feel.
Only a few hours earlier, she had been an ordinary office worker preparing to return home, turn on her computer, and disappear into a video game for the evening.
Now she sat inside a battered Thorton Galena with a hole through her shoulder, an RT-46 Burya in her hand, and the blood of several Arasaka agents on her conscience.
Blood continued soaking through her clothes.
During the chase, adrenaline had suppressed the worst of the injury.
Now that the shooting had stopped, the pain returned like a tidal wave.
Lena looked down at her left shoulder.
The Nekomata’s projectile had passed completely through it.
Even with her skeletal reinforcement preventing the bullet from shattering her shoulder blade, the damage was far worse than an ordinary gunshot wound.
Muscle had been torn apart.
The surrounding flesh burned, while every movement sent a deep, grinding agony through her shoulder.
It was another reminder that this world wasn’t a game.
Getting shot meant pain.
Surviving the bullet didn’t make the injury disappear.
Fortunately, the General Augmentation continued supporting the damaged area.
Reinforced muscle fibers tightened around the wound, reducing blood loss, while stabilized neural signals prevented the injury from overwhelming the rest of her body.
It could keep Lena alive.
It couldn’t stop the pain.
Valerie opened the center console and retrieved a hemostatic bandage and an airhypo.
Her eyes were slightly red as she leaned over to bind Lena’s shoulder.
“What’s in this?” Lena asked, hoping conversation might distract her.
“Coagulant and a mild painkiller.
Hold it against your chest and press both sides.”
Lena positioned the airhypo as instructed.
A sharp hiss sounded.
Cold medication entered her body, and numbness spread from her chest toward the wounded shoulder.
The bleeding slowed, though the pain remained strong enough to make her vision tremble.
“These Arasaka agents were incredibly dedicated,” Lena muttered.
“They lost almost everyone and still kept coming.”
Jackie brought the Galena to a stop and looked back at her.
“If they returned after failing, the corp would make them wish they’d died here.”
He glanced toward the burning wreckage behind them.
“Arasaka doesn’t pay soldiers to survive.
It pays them to finish the job.”
Lena holstered the Burya and pushed open the passenger door.
Valerie immediately moved around the car to support her.
“We need to clear the battlefield,” Lena said.
“We don’t know whether reinforcements are coming.”
She looked at Jackie.
“Stay with the Galena.
Keep the engine running and watch the road.
If anything appears, we leave immediately.”
Jackie patted the steering wheel.
“Don’t worry.
Just make it quick.”
Lena and Valerie returned to the wrecked Arasaka vehicles.
They approached the SUV Valerie had taken down during the collision.
Its front end had crumpled against a pile of industrial machinery, and smoke escaped from beneath the hood.
Valerie pulled open one of the warped doors.
“Tch.”
She searched through the agents’ equipment before shaking her head.
“Couple of rifles, pistols, and some ammunition.
Nothing special.”
Lena examined the bodies.
Most of their cyberware had been destroyed during the firefight.
Broken metal protruded from gunshot wounds, while severed cables and shattered interfaces mixed with blood and tissue.
Implants that might once have been worth thousands of eddies were now little more than scrap.
“The chrome is wrecked,” Valerie said.
“Even a scav wouldn’t pay much for this.”
She stood and pointed toward another vehicle.
“I’ll check the next one.”
“Go ahead.”
Once Valerie moved away, Lena crouched beside the first corpse. New chapters come out on g.com first.
She pressed her right hand against an exposed cyberware interface and issued a silent command.
Salvage.
A notification appeared.
[Damaged cyberware detected]
[Converting salvageable structures into components]
[Tier 1 Item Components obtained: 13]
The corpse’s visible implants didn’t disappear.
The external shells and ruined wiring remained embedded in the body, but the system extracted whatever functional material remained inside them.
Lena moved to the other dead agents.
[Tier 2 Item Components obtained: 14]
[Tier 1 Item Components obtained: 18]
For anyone else, the damaged cyberware would have been nearly worthless.
For Lena, every ruined implant could become material for crafting and upgrades.
The real prize, however, waited in the next SUV.
Valerie had already opened its rear door.
The driver was slumped over the steering wheel with part of his head missing.
Behind him sat the Arasaka sniper who had nearly killed Lena.
A Burya round had torn open his chest.
Another had entered between his eyebrows and destroyed the back of his skull.
He was unquestionably dead.
The rest of his body, however, remained remarkably intact.
Valerie scanned him and whistled.
“This guy was loaded.”
She examined the interface ports around his temple before looking over the armored sections beneath his skin.
“Corpo rats get all the good toys.
His chrome is worth more than everything we owned back with the Bakkers.”
Valerie tapped one of the ports.
“Shame neither of us knows how to extract it.
A ripperdoc could charge more than the hardware is worth.”
Lena stepped closer and rested her hand against the corpse.
Salvage.
The interface appeared.
[Multiple intact cyberware systems detected]
[Begin extraction?]
Lena confirmed immediately.
The system connected to the implants through her Virtual Body.
Internal cyberware vanished without incisions or sprays of blood, leaving only empty access points and nonfunctional external interfaces behind.
Four new items appeared in her inventory.
[Tier 3 Kerenzikov]
[Tier 2 Titanium Bones]
[Tier 2 Light Subdermal Armor]
[Tier 2 Blood Pump]
Lena’s eyes brightened.
She had struck the jackpot.
The Tier 3 Kerenzikov alone was more valuable than everything they had possessed that morning.
A Sandevistan accelerated the user’s entire body into a state of extreme speed.
Once activated, ordinary movement appeared slow, giving its user enough time to reposition, shoot, or engage in close combat before most opponents could respond.
The Kerenzikov worked differently.
It enhanced perception and reflexes during sudden combat movement, especially while aiming, sliding, or evading.
It wouldn’t allow Lena to sprint through a battlefield like someone using a high-grade Sandevistan, but it could grant her several precious moments of heightened perception during a gunfight.
She would recognize the movement of an enemy’s weapon.
Adjust her aim.
Dodge.
Return fire.
To an ordinary person, the difference might last only an instant.
For a mercenary, an instant could determine who walked away.
Valerie suddenly frowned.
“That’s strange.”
Lena closed the interface.
“What is?”
“I detected multiple implants a moment ago.”
Valerie searched the corpse again, running her fingers over the empty access ports.
“Now I’m only reading the external interfaces.
Where did the internal hardware go?”
Lena glanced at the body and kept her expression neutral.
The rounds probably destroyed the internal components.”
“All of them?”
“Tech rounds generate a powerful electromagnetic discharge.
If the implants were already damaged, their cores might have burned out after his circulatory system stopped supporting them.”
Valerie wasn’t knowledgeable enough about cyberware extraction to challenge the explanation.
After another scan, she sighed.
“What a waste.”
Lena said nothing.
The supposedly wasted implants rested safely inside her inventory.
She turned her attention toward the rear seat.
A black rifle lay across the bloodstained cushion.
The weapon that had nearly killed her.
A Tsunami Nekomata.
Lena picked it up with her right hand.
The rifle’s metal frame felt cold against her palm.
Its weight immediately reminded her that this wasn’t a weapon model without physical substance.
It was a real killing tool, heavy enough to require proper handling and powerful enough to punch through vehicles and walls.
Tech weapons used electromagnetic acceleration to propel specialized projectiles at extreme velocity.
When fully charged, their rounds possessed devastating penetration.
The Nekomata was one of the most recognizable examples.
Its long electromagnetic rails ran along both sides of the barrel, concentrating tremendous force into each shot.
Ordinary cover offered little protection.
Doors, thin walls, vehicle panels, and light armor could all be penetrated.
The hole through Lena’s shoulder was proof of that.
She checked the rifle carefully.
The weapon had survived the crash with only minor exterior damage.
Its power system remained stable, and the optics responded when she activated them.
[Tsunami Nekomata]
[Category: Tech Precision Rifle]
[Condition: Functional]
[Ammunition remaining: 3]
The Nekomata’s power came with limitations.
It was heavy, required time to charge, and demanded precise aim.
In close-range combat, a shooter who missed the first shot might not survive long enough to fire another.
In the right hands and at the right distance, however, it could kill targets who believed themselves safely hidden behind cover.
Lena carried the rifle back toward the Galena.
Valerie took part of its weight while keeping an arm around Lena’s waist.
“You sure you can keep going?”
“I’ll survive.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“We clear the area, get paid, and find a ripperdoc.”
Valerie looked unconvinced but didn’t argue.
They approached the SUV containing the netrunner.
His body rested against the rear window, blood covering his chest and neck.
Valerie’s shots had killed him without damaging his skull, leaving the cyberdeck intact.
Lena crouched beside the corpse.
She placed her hand near the interface at the base of his head.
[Intact cyberware detected]
[Tier 2 Arasaka MK.2 Cyberdeck]
A detailed description unfolded.
The Arasaka MK.2 was corporate-grade hardware designed for field operatives.
Compared with common civilian cyberdecks, it offered superior processing capability, stronger neural stability, and direct integration with nearby electronic networks.
Once installed, Lena could use her Kiroshi optics to scan connected devices, access cameras and terminals, inspect network architecture, and synchronize collected information directly with her visual interface.
The cyberdeck had one obvious limitation.
It was only hardware.
Lena possessed no offensive quickhacks to install on it.
She couldn’t overheat an enemy’s implants, disable their weapons, corrupt their optics, or force their cyberware to malfunction.
Not yet.
For now, the Arasaka MK.2 would serve as a battlefield intelligence tool—one that could identify connected devices, reveal security systems, and help her understand the digital terrain surrounding her.
Lena selected the extraction command.
[Salvage Tier 2 Arasaka MK.2 Cyberdeck?]
A smile slowly appeared on her face.
“Yes.”