Cyberpunk Maniac

Sniper rifles, assault rifles, and all other long-barreled rifles have become military-grade equipment these days, strictly controlled. Once you're caught on surveillance footage with a long gun, you'll be tracked and monitored, with fines at the very least.

After all, nobody can guarantee whether what you're holding is an antique bird gun or a Gauss magnetic track cannon disguised as a cello.

Therefore, without registration and monitoring by the security system and without special permission, even the NCPA has no authority to use heavy-duty gear; smart burst guns are about as far as they can go. Otherwise, they wouldn't be so easily bullied by these gangs.

On the other hand, the black market's arsenal is always upgrading, especially with the Whirlpool Gang, who own a whole bunch of military factories, piecing together all sorts of light and heavy firepower from scraps.

So, Li Pan turned and ran, because the firepower from the other side was just too damn intense—at least a reinforced platoon, and he simply couldn't make it through head-on.

And what irritated him the most was that these Cyber Lunatics from the Whirlpool Gang stopped chasing after a wild barrage!

They didn't follow into the alleyways of the district shouting threats; they just voluntarily retreated and continued to block the roads. They even called for reinforcements, including two full vans, and a large group of men hunkered down to defend strictly, almost like trench warfare. Made gave him not a single chance!

Damn it! When did this crazy bunch start showing such discipline??

Now Li Pan was truly out of options. If he couldn't lure the enemy out and take potshots in the alleys, there was no way he'd win against so many guns, even if he blew a head off with every shot; he likely wouldn't have enough bullets.

It seemed he had no choice but to risk the sewers.

Having seen the blueprint of Warehouse 7, Li Pan knew that the Celestial Company had left a secret passage in the warehouse, based on the old sewer system of Night City. After all, a clever rabbit has three burrows, and in case of a siege, it was critical to be able to shift the monster's resources urgently.

But that also seemed to be how the Whirlpool Gang, those cockroach and rat sewer dwellers, found an opportunity to target them.

Regardless of whether the other party was acting on someone's orders from behind the scenes or simply crawled out of the sewers and decided to hit a big warehouse on a whim,

Either scenario likely meant that the New Tokyo Sewers were filled with Whirlpool Gang members. Although the sewer system was complex, if he happened to run into them, it would be a chaotic gunfight in a confined space. Li Pan wouldn't have the chance to dodge and weave in the open, take a cold shot, and then simply run away if things went south.

But he had no choice but to take the risk, not only because of the risk posed by the monster itself, but also because Big Bear, that pile of iron giant with a military prosthesis, was considered a treasure in the eyes of the Whirlpool Gang. If he delayed, it was likely that Big Bear would have been dismantled without a single hair left.

Li Pan wasn't exactly a good person, but having been in Night City for so long, after having sent out so many resumes and begged so many people, only Big Bear was willing to lend him a hand.

Whether it was pulling him into a fire pit or not, shouldn't he at least go and see with his own eyes whether the other party was alive or dead?

Alive, one should be seen; dead, one should be viewed. Otherwise, the system would directly declare him missing, and not a single penny of compensation could be claimed.

And so, Li Pan pulled out a piece of tattered canvas from the trash to drape over himself, smeared his face with mud and grease, disguised as a vagrant, and following the route map he had seen at the company, he entered the sewers.

Calling it a sewer, it wasn't a typical gutter but rather a spacious flood drain. Both sides had passages for maintenance drones to pass. After all, located next to the Pacific Ocean and in an earthquake-prone area, the construction below had to be extremely sturdy.

It was said that the sewer system was planned from the era of the first Neo Tokyo. At that time, Earth 0791 was in the midst of the cold war era of competing power blocs, and the sewers also doubled as bomb shelters and nuclear war defensive structures. As such, apart from the regular drainage routes, there were also many secret military and civilian passages and civil defense works.

Afterwards, with multiple rebuilds following various disasters, a series of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear wars, and biohazards, with numerous cycles of destruction and reconstruction, and due to the struggle for this lucrative construction contract causing frequent changes in contractors, the sewer topology has become increasingly complex, beyond the control of public safety systems.

So, when the Ye Corporation was rebuilding Night City, they found Neo Tokyo to be so damn chaotic that they decided to start fresh. They specifically constructed an artificial alloy island to serve as the Downtown District, also as a precaution against those pests emerging from underneath to stir trouble.

Thus, various marginalized individuals rejected by mainstream society were able to proudly hide within the sewers, which could rightfully be called the Inner World of Night City, the Tokyo Underground City.

And Celestial Company is even older; can you believe it was founded at the end of the 21st century? That's literally one of the very first batches of Celestial companies.

So here at branch 0791, although the office area of Celestial Company could be moved to the corporate park in the Downtown District, those old warehouses for containing Monsters couldn't be so easily relocated; all forty-two warehouses were still in the old town area.

Li Pan grew up in the slums too, but apart from the streets and military school, at most he had worked in a garbage dump. As for something as legit as the 'Inner World' like the New Tokyo Sewers, he really hadn't had any contact with it before.

It's no exaggeration to say that here, cyber psychosis is a minor issue. Every person hiding in this darkness has been involved in major crimes or capital offenses. They must stay hidden from security system surveillance, otherwise, if they show their heads, a squad of Cerberus heavy mecha cavalry would descend from the sky, killing without question.

Li Pan also cautiously proceeded along the maintenance passage of the engineering robots, with the Xingtian System providing limited access to the drainage inspection and lighting systems as guidance, so he wouldn't get lost. And his luck hadn't been all bad; not only did he find the secret passage entrance, but there were also no Whirlpool Gang members guarding the door nearby.

But strictly speaking, his luck wasn't that good either.

The secret passage entrance already had a 'Monster' in it.

But it wasn't the kind of monster TheM would be interested in; it was just a purely alive... um, dead monster.

Li Pan aimed his gun and squatted for a while before confirming that the thing was indeed dead.

How to put it, this thing looked like a huge rat at first glance, but upon closer inspection, somewhat resembled a human, and from another angle, somewhat resembled a dog, with sparse black hairs all over its body, reeking of decayed innards, an unbearable stench.

Li Pan, covering his nose and mouth, cautiously approached for a closer look.

Had this thing stood up, it would have probably been around one meter eighty or just over two meters tall. Its eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and body shape were similar to humans, but its facial features and limbs were severely twisted. The structure of its hand claws, ankles, and knees was grossly deformed. Rather than human, it was closer to some kind of carnivorous animal. Its body was all muscle, and the decaying skull at the location of its nose and mouth protruded outward, again giving it a resemblance to a dog.

The cause of death for this monster seemed to be a blade wound, without any obvious gunshot holes. Slashed from shoulder to abdomen, its skin and innards were cleanly cut open. By now, they were swarming with a layer of flies and maggots. A sharp stake was plunged into its chest, deep into the ground, nailing the monster alive right there in the sewers.

What the hell is this? A Bio-Monster? A Modified Human? Why would it die right at the secret entrance to the company's warehouse? And who killed it?

If the innards were still intact, then it was probably not the handiwork of the Whirlpool Gang. But a stake in the heart? What kind of psycho killer uses this method of murder...

Hiss... don't tell me that psycho killer has already entered the warehouse through the secret passage... if that's the case, they're almost certainly after what's in Warehouse 7, right?

Li Pan became more vigilant, stepped over the rotting flesh and swarm of insects, and cautiously entered the drainpipe with his pistol raised, his heart pounding wildly.

What a mess on my first day of overtime, and it looks like dealing with the Whirlpool Gang would be damn straightforward. This civilian pistol of mine can't even penetrate armor; it's probably useless. Sigh, had I known, I would have chosen the Muramasa level four Mantis Blade during my prosthetic modification earlier...

But now I can only play with the cards I have at hand.