[Gino: 3! 2! 1!]
The countdown began over the team channel.
A beeping sound came from the water gate of the abandoned sewer.
The city's electronic valve was blown up by Gino's bomb, and a massive torrent rushed out of the flood outlet.
"Fuck!"
"Ah—"
In the rain, the wails were unending.
A large amount of seawater poured into the sewer, lifting the Ghoul's armored truck.
Bang, bang, bang.
The sides of the dam lit up one after another.
Gino blew up the sewer's electronic control system!
The leaking neon strip got swept into the water, electrocuting the Ghouls on the truck into numbness, and before they could stabilize, the stream pushed them out of the sewer, triggering an even stronger explosion!
"Isn't this a bit over the top?"
John chuckled and asked back.
Silver Rider 577 raced forward, getting back onto a proper road before the backflowing seawater could catch up.
The supercar landed steadily.
But John's face was grim.
"Fuck, this is exactly what I was worried about..."
Buzz—
The explosion alerted the police patrol drones.
Two shadows of red and blue crisscrossed over the city sky.
[Gino: Damn it, what bad luck, the cops are onto us!]
Police sirens closed in from three blocks away.
And it didn't stop there.
The Ghouls that were killed were just the ones close by; the rest of the crazy bunch hadn't given up on revenge. More Ghouls were surging out of the dark corners of Sakura Cross Street.
Gaudy vehicles appeared one by one on the streets of Sakura Cross Street.
"Too many bugs! This won't end well today."
John could hear the screeching of brakes from all directions.
[Gino: Perfect, give ECPD some work to do!]
A set of new bombs were released in cyberspace.
Carefully compiled code spread through the onboard system, bouncing madly within the municipal network.
The "crime signal" of Silver Rider 577 was copied and projected onto the Ghouls' vehicles.
In the police communication channel of ECPD, it was instantly flooded with a string of [wanted coordinates], the dispatcher called for backup from half the city, starting to encircle and trap the Ghouls!
[Warning, hack detected/rejected]
"Wow~"
John watched, his heart pounding with excitement.
The hacker's moves were just like magic tricks.
But before he could compliment it, a strong virtual signal smashed into the local network.
The hovercars of the Special Action Team tore through the rain, pressing forward with massive red holo projections.
"Fuck, this won't be easy to handle!"
John braked sharply, skidding on the city's looped flyover, hiding the supercar under the road surface within seconds.
.
Boom—
A thunderous shot hit the road.
On the hovercars of the Special Action Team was a sniper, the heavy cannon electromagnetic sniper rifle punched through dozens of centimeters of concrete barriers.
John's tail drift was nearing its limit.
The tail fin of Silver Rider had a corner shattered.
He had seen how those god-like killers worked; if they got entangled, with ground support and aerial firepower coming at once, he might really be gunned down on the street.
The roar of vector engines echoed in the city sky.
The hovercar lowered its altitude, its heavy artillery began to mow down the area, shredding concrete barriers and metal poles like paper, with vending machines and neon signs exploding one after another!
"These maniacs, they're really ruthless!"
John gritted his teeth, his smile a bit grim, yet amidst his accelerating heartbeat, he felt a long-lost thrill.
For a moment.
He really regretted not bringing out Jurassic, wishing he could take the heavy weapon from the back of the armored vehicle and battle it out with SAT on Sakura Cross Street!
[Gino: Give me ten seconds!]
Gino called urgently on the channel.
She ended her deep dive state, unplugged her data cable, and connected the terminal to the vehicle's control panel, seemingly preparing something big.
"Open the window, get ready to run! Floor the gas pedal!"
Click.
The passenger window was unlocked.
Gino threw the terminal, flashing with a red light, into the sky!
Silver Rider roared through a mist of water.
Bang!
A bright light illuminated the entire street.
The SAT scanners turned into a patch of noise under the interference of the EMP pulse.
Countless magical constructs were released into the city network.
The holographic projections on the skyscrapers began to flicker and had a tendency to spread, eventually covering half the commercial street's advertisements with a virus!
A dynamic music started playing on Sakura Cross Street.
The sound grew louder, almost all electronic sound systems were contaminated, and it was spreading to other neighborhoods.
[Sorry, I can't come out of the screen.]
[(Japanese: Sorry, I can't come out of the screen~)]
[I'm a girl from the second dimension]
[(Japanese: I'm a girl from the second dimension~)]
A mischievous female voice resonated across the sky.
Street signs, fountain ads, skyscraper holographic projections, every remotely controlled screen was switched to a video of a cat girl dancing.
The lively and vivid voice blew away the martial gloom hanging over the city.
Laughter and cheers erupted in the streets, with many people trying to record videos as souvenirs, and the congested traffic jammed the ECPD's duty vehicles in the middle.
"Fuck! What the hell is happening!"
John looked at the colorful rearview mirror and asked.
Gino sat down in the passenger seat with relief, gazing at the urn in the back seat.
"The magical constructs woven with agave rope, along with some network vulnerabilities recorded in the terminal, he quietly buried them in the city network."
Gino smiled.
"He used to brag that one day he would give this fucked-up city a show, but he never got to use it while alive."
Chaos spread through the city.
John activated the crystal car's skin.
The surface of the supercar rippled with polygonal fragments, switching to a deep purple-red hue, blending in with the light pink dancing cat girls on the street.
The EMP momentarily paralyzed the police tracking system.
John discreetly passed through the blockade via a riverside path, heading onto the expressway, driving towards the northwest of the city.
As they moved away from Sakura Cross Street, the city grew quiet.
The two people in the car also fell silent.
The advertisements remained dense, and the industrial equipment roared tirelessly, leaving only the sound of rain and sirens on the black-gray highway.
[Eden City - Shanglang Road]
At night, the cemetery had only a few scattered homeless people.
John called based on the coupon information, requesting a tomb slot close to the core area.
Yes, a slot.
Here, centered around a commemorative sculpture, it expanded circle by circle outward, with each differently-sized wall made up of sealed metal slots.
The agave rope was lucky.
His ashes were near the core area, high enough that an electric lift was needed to reach it, reducing the chances of being vandalized.
John reviewed the cemetery contract, looking up to remind, "You can leave an electronic message too. Don't waste it; we spent money on this."
"Mm-hmm."
Gino tapped on the virtual screen.
[/ᐠ-˕-マⳊ]
"What's this?"
"A cat, can't you tell?"
"..."
"Heh, let it be then."
Gino got off the lift, looking up at his work,
John stood by, pulling out a cigarette box, sharing the last two cigarettes with her.
The mist drifted in the cool night breeze.
Up to this point.
This city completed the entire process from consuming to digesting its people.
A body.
A soul.
Thoroughly becoming remnants of neon splendor.
Dissipating with the wind.
"Here's something for you."
Gino handed over a mini-terminal in the dark, similar to the blown-up one but only palm-sized.
[Collectible: Black Box Plugin [Incomplete]]
[Description: The cyber weapon crafted by the hacker "Agave Rope" for defending against and countering rogue AI data attacks. The main code is complete, but details need refinement. Forced use carries the risk of burning the Network Access Vault.]
"Let's go."
Gino crushed the cigarette butt, hugged her cold arms, turned around, and left, opened the door of the Eisenberg, and got in.
[Sideline Mission: Affairs After Death (Completed)]
[Reward: Black Box Plugin [Incomplete], Medication - Anningle (Blue).]
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