Chapter 82: Ghost-Class Power Armor!
Chapter 82: Ghost-Class Power Armor!
"Mr. Li Ang, I have something to tell you."
Shortly after the Ronin Titan set off, Alt Cunningham, who had been wandering through cyberspace for some time, finally walked into the command center and explained everything to Li Ang.
From contacting Maman Brigitte of the Voodoo Boys to Dexter DeShawn acting as the middleman to reach V and Jackie Welles, and finally, their attempt to steal the Relic chip being discovered, she laid out all the details.
When Li Ang learned that Alt was the mastermind behind the Relic chip heist, his feelings became complicated—a mix of anger and resignation.
On one hand, he was upset that Alt had deliberately kept him in the dark. On the other, what could have been resolved through negotiation ended up as a chaotic, out-of-control mess under her direction.
It was no wonder he felt something was off about tonight's events—it turned out the problem had come from within his own ranks.
Of all the possibilities, Li Ang had never imagined Alt would resort to working with the Voodoo Boys.
"Li Ang, I'm sorry. I was wrong to act on my own. I'm willing to accept any punishment from the company, but for now, please give me a chance to make amends."
Alt Cunningham, her face filled with remorse, sincerely apologized to Li Ang. She knew that no amount of explanation could undo her actions—only making up for her mistakes would ease her guilt.
"Where are those mercenaries, V and Jackie? Are they still alive?"
Li Ang no longer wanted to debate right or wrong with Alt. What mattered now was the status of V and Jackie—key players in this debacle.
To be honest, Li Ang was caught off guard. Who could have anticipated that V, the living reaper of Night City, and Jackie Welles, the son of Heywood, would emerge in such a manner?
Now that they were caught in this life-or-death vortex, Li Ang had to get them out, no matter what.
"The Trauma Team has already contacted us. They've confirmed that they retrieved someone named Jackie Welles. He's out of critical condition but still unconscious," Alt reported.
"I asked if they found the Relic chip on him. They said Jackie only had a Trauma Team membership chip—nothing else."
"As for V, he managed to escape the chaos in a Delamain AI cab. He's probably safe by now."
Alt Cunningham, who had taken over LA Corp's AI network, had already accessed V's status through the Queen of Hearts implant connected to the Delamain subnet.
With these key pieces of information, Li Ang finally pieced together the entire chain of events.
The Trauma Team chip he had gifted Misty had been passed to Jackie Welles, allowing Jackie to be saved after being shot.
Since there was no Relic chip found in Jackie's brain, it could only mean one thing—the chip was now embedded in V's head!
Damn…
Li Ang immediately felt a sinking dread. If V went running to that treacherous middleman, Dexter DeShawn, at this moment, it would be a death sentence.
Worse, if V accidentally triggered the Relic chip's functionality, causing Johnny Silverhand's engram to upload into his brain, even LA Corp wouldn't be capable of extracting the data completely.
"You, contact Maman Brigitte of the Voodoo Boys right now. Tell her to warn Dexter DeShawn not to harm V, or he won't get a single penny from this deal."
Li Ang urgently ordered Alt.
"If DeShawn is afraid of getting into trouble, tell him LA Corp guarantees his safety, as long as he delivers V unharmed!"
Li Ang's greatest fear was that DeShawn, acting out of self-preservation, might put a bullet in V's head.
If that happened, the Relic chip would irreversibly activate, resulting in two different consciousnesses fighting for control in one body!
Li Ang deliberately instructed alt to inform the other party about the key detail of "LA Corporation." His intent was to make Deshawn realize that V was someone highly regarded by LA Corporation, hoping this would deter him from acting recklessly.
"Understood. I'll handle it right away!"
With that, alt immediately returned to the network control room. Using a deep-dive device, he entered cyberspace to deliver Li Ang's message to Mama Brigitte, the leader of the Voodoo Boys.
Faced with an unending stream of tricky and chaotic troubles, Li Ang felt an unprecedented pressure weighing heavily on him.
"Let's hope there's still time to fix everything..."
Li Ang murmured to himself. At this point, all he could do was handle each issue to the best of his ability and leave the rest to fate.
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The ground around the Azure Tower was littered with smoking, high-temperature shell casings. A torrential downpour of bullets rained down from the sky in a frenzy.
As Reed's helicopter wobbled its way from the rooftop to the ground, it was immediately surrounded by AST power armor squads.
"Drop your weapons, or you'll be executed on the spot!"
Mann shouted through a loudspeaker. Most of LA Corporation's mercenary forces had already arrived, and now all that was left was to restore order to the chaos.
Seeing the mech units around them—like a jungle of steel—along with intelligence agency operatives and the elite power-armored members of MetaCorp, everyone felt a chill run down their spines.
They knew their game was over, and escape was no longer an option.
"Reed, Myers has abandoned us. We should surrender before it's too late," Alex said, after repeatedly calling Myers without receiving any response.
At last, she realized that she was nothing more than a pawn in this interception operation, disposable once she failed to complete her mission.
"If we can't finish the job, the only fate awaiting us is being ruthlessly discarded!"
"The bastards have already sailed off with the warship. The helicopters meant to back us up won't be coming. Reed, it looks like we're done for."
Alex closed her eyes in despair, awaiting the inevitable approach of LA Corporation's power armor squads.
The feeling of being abandoned by one's organization was far worse than the pain of a gunshot wound. She couldn't understand why she'd risked her life in the first place.
At this moment, Reed slumped to the ground, his eyes vacant. He, too, couldn't comprehend why Myers could have arranged for their extraction yet chose instead to abandon them in this death trap.
"Forget it... we surrender."
With those words, Reed removed the heavy power armor from his body, revealing his sweat-soaked frame. He looked wearily at the heavily armed LA Corporation squads and raised his hands as he walked toward them.
However, before Reed and Alex could take more than a few steps, a bloodthirsty Adam Smasher appeared, hot on their heels!
Everyone looked up to see an Arasaka helicopter descending slowly, carrying the power-armored Adam Smasher. Like dropping a bomb, the helicopter released him with a deafening crash.
Boom!
A cloud of dust rose as the massive figure landed with a heavy thud. Wearing a samurai demon mask, the towering 3.4-meter, 1.2-ton Arasaka Oni power armor was now donned by Adam Smasher.
This cutting-edge mech, newly developed by Arasaka Corporation, had been equipped by Adam Smasher not just to hunt down Reed and his team but also to test its combat capabilities.
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