119

Looking at the two questionable dishes on the table, Lin Chao's hand, holding the chopsticks, trembled slightly.

God help him.

He hadn't even trembled this much the first time he held a gun.

"Lin, I didn't expect you to come back so quickly, so I only made these two," V said shyly, twisting a lock of her hair.

"Or... I can go make something else?"

"No need!" Lin Chao quickly raised his hand to stop V's horrifying suggestion.

"I, uh... actually—Oh, right! I already ate on the way here. Hahaha!" Lin Chao scratched his head and gave an awkward laugh.

"Oh, okay then. That's fine."

Lin Chao nodded repeatedly. "I'll just watch you two eat. Especially you, Huohuo."

"You'd better eat a lot. No wasting food," he added with a smiling squint at Lin Huohuo, the threat in his eyes painfully obvious.

Don't you love eating? Leave anything on your plate and I'm telling on you!

He finally had a chance to get back at her and he wasn't going to let it go to waste.

Lin Huohuo's eye twitched, then she rolled her eyes and looked at V.

"V, it's your first time cooking—why not let this jerk be your test subject?"

"He's got a big appetite. Let him be the hero here."

"Hm, you're right," V nodded thoughtfully and turned toward the kitchen. "Lin, just give me a minute, I'll whip up something just for you."

"Uh... that's really not necessary, V! I'm not that hungry—"

"Hm?" V turned her head slightly, a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"So you're saying... my food's disgusting?"

Lin Chao's heart skipped a beat. He frantically shook his head.

"No, no! What I meant was... it looks amazing! Really! You put your heart into it!"

"Hmph... that's better."

V walked into the kitchen satisfied, leaving Lin Chao alone at the table, staring at the two dishes and silently regretting his life choices.

Damn it... the old saying's right—doing harm to others always comes back to you.

Soon, V returned with her special creation for Lin Chao.

"Tiramisu... with braised pork. Since you've already eaten, just have a little dessert!"

Looking at the layered dessert covered in creamy frosting... and meat chunks... Lin Chao nearly blacked out.

Who puts these things together?

This wasn't "fusion cuisine"—this was confusion cuisine.

Still, faced with V's eager expression, Lin Chao had no choice but to bite the bullet—and the bizarre dessert.

As he choked down the salty-sweet-greasy tiramisu monstrosity, he struggled to maintain a neutral expression.

To be perfectly honest, at this point, he'd rather storm Militech headquarters again.

The meal finally ended.

The three sat on the sofa and chatted about the last couple of days.

"Hey, dirtbag—did I hear right that you blew up Militech headquarters?" Lin Huohuo asked, clearly impressed.

Thanks to Kangtao's tight intel network, she'd gotten the scoop the moment Lin Chao's deed hit the news.

Even V turned her head, looking at Lin Chao in surprise.

"You were behind that nuclear explosion they mentioned this morning?"

Lin Chao nodded. "Yeah, I went out yesterday to handle that."

"Damn, you're insane," Lin Huohuo muttered, shaking her head.

She wasn't exactly shocked anymore. After all, she'd seen firsthand his memory-absorbing and body-assimilating abilities. She'd even guessed he was capable of something like this.

What surprised her was that he'd actually gone and done something that would reshape the world.

Lin Chao shrugged. "What could I do? Canthus sent everything to Donald."

"And those Militech guys? Total warmongers. Rather than wait and gamble that they'd try a soft approach, I figured I'd strike first."

Lin Huohuo nodded, deep in thought.

She suspected there was another reason too—a not-so-subtle warning to Kangtao.

He probably wouldn't stay with them much longer.

After all, with power like his, he had no need to play nice with any megacorp.

Kangtao's executives surely realized this by now. They'd probably issue orders soon...

That thought made Lin Huohuo's heart feel a bit heavy.

"I'm gonna go lie down upstairs for a bit," she muttered.

Watching her retreating figure, V asked, "Is Huohuo okay? She seems... off."

"Eh, probably just her time of the month," Lin Chao said casually, scratching his head.

"No way. Her cycle just ended, so it's not that."

"Don't worry about her," Lin Chao said, shifting closer. "Since she's off napping, why don't we... finish what we started last night?"

"Lin! It's broad daylight!"

"So? Nobody else is around."

"Oh, you're so impatient—fine, but we're going upstairs..."

Meanwhile, as the day wore on, the Militech disaster spiraled further out of control.

Kangtao's stock surge and calculated PR campaign pushed Militech's market value down from 1.2 trillion euros to 1 trillion.

200 billion evaporated in a single day!

That was nearly 17% of the company's total assets—an unprecedented plunge in corporate history.

Predictably, companies like Kangtao and Arasaka saw small gains, fueled by investor panic.

But what puzzled some observers was that Arasaka—Militech's longstanding rival—didn't seize the opportunity to strike while the iron was hot.

Some speculated that Arasaka's leaders were following their so-called Bushido code and didn't want to attack an enemy at its weakest.

While preparing dinner and browsing the news on a kitchen screen, Lin Chao sneered.

Bushido code, huh?

No—he knew exactly what was going on.

It was Lai Xuan.

The man feared that pushing Militech too hard now would ruin his larger plan—using them to destroy Arasaka from the inside.

Without Militech, Lai Xuan's whole strategy fell apart.

Sure, Kangtao could be a candidate too, but they were too steady, too calm—not nearly aggressive enough to provoke a war.

And Lin Chao?

As powerful as he was, he wasn't the only one pulling strings. Massive conglomerates like Arasaka didn't bow to one man's will.

Even with influence, if he made a truly outrageous move, the other board members—whose profits were on the line—would never just sit back and watch.

Just then, Lin Chao's comms pinged.

It was Goro Takemura.

"Lin, are you back in Night City?"

"Yeah, got back early this morning. What's up—got a new plan?" Lin Chao asked with a grin.

He already had a feeling what this was about.

If the story was still following its usual arc, this had to be about the Tyger Claws and their mysterious connection to the Arasaka legacy...