"Everyone... Everyone... Shut up!!"

Shui Yue: "Holy cow, this guy can talk, I thought he was mute."

Brother Ni, with sharp eyes, noticed the elite monster's prosthetic eye glowing bright red, seemingly about to enter the second stage.

"Watch out!"

"You all will pay the price!!!"

The elite monster's female voice sounded like it was being interfered with, gradually transforming into an electronic tone, eerie and terrifying.

Everyone felt as if something had invaded their minds, each person suffering intensely.

Rough Five reacted immediately.

"She's launched a Demonic Puppet attack on us."

Before he could finish speaking, a fist slammed into the elite monster's head, the force so strong it caved in the iron skull.

The elite monster looked disbelievingly at the sharp-headed man in front, seemingly unaffected by her Demonic Puppet.

"You..."

Attempting to say something, yet another fist silenced her, extinguishing the red prosthetic eye, and she fainted.

With the elite monster down, the partially uploaded Demonic Puppet was swiftly neutralized from the players' minds when Lucy's program ran after Rough Five inserted the receiver into his neck.

Shui Yue patted his head, seemingly burning at 39°C, and muddily looked at Arnold.

"How come you're unharmed?"

"He didn't equip any cybernetic implants last time he came alive."

Lying on the ground, Sword Saint turned his head to explain.

"He heard steroids from the Animal Gang were strong, so he bought some to boost his attributes."

"What?"

Brother Ni was shocked; this guy's strength must be at 8 points.

"Are steroid star people really that powerful?"

Players originally scoffed at not using cybernetic implants and hitting the gym; what era is this?

Yet seeing Arnold like this, is there truly merit to it? Is the power of the Nine Dragons real?

Sword Saint quickly advised everyone not to do anything foolish.

"I warn you against overthinking; this stuff sacrifices intelligence. Nine out of ten Animal Gang members aren't bright, and occasionally a leader brings bad news. Most importantly..."

"Steroids lead to impotence."

Everyone flinched and quickly abandoned the idea, looking at Arnold with a mix of pity.

"Don't listen to his nonsense, alright? I'm not a fool."

Arnold rolled his eyes.

"Muscles gained from steroids won't carry into the next life; they're far inferior to cybernetic implants. Next life, I'll swap them."

At least Arnold didn't believe himself dumb; 2 intelligence was just a game attribute, proving nothing.

Voucher kicked the elite monster on the ground: "What to do with her, maybe just kill her."

Such murderous intent from Batman's group was a first; they all shook their heads.

"I think just bind her and torture her," Sword Saint cackled ominously, "inject her with an aphrodisiac, and..."

"First, there isn't such a potent aphrodisiac."

"Second, this game doesn't have that feature; you couldn't do it even if you wanted."

Brother Ni grabbed the person, addressing the assembled crowd:

"There's definitely a large hidden taskline behind her; best take her back to investigate."

"Those other cultists, apply for bounties with NCPD based on headcount, and distribute rewards and cybernetic money by combat score."

Lin Miao couldn't monitor everyone's task releases in real-time, so the system had a program for score calculation—activating during battle states and aggregating scores.

As players thought the situation was coming to an end, they didn't expect someone observing the scene from afar.

A company dog hidden in the shadows frowned at the players cleaning up the field, loading corpses and loot into cars.

"How was the ritual discovered? Did you leak information?"

A voice came through the communication network on the other side:

"Maybe just regular mercenary activities... Last time's matter wasn't cleanly resolved, some attention is inevitable."

The company dog was clearly dissatisfied with this answer.

"The reaction to this experiment was promising; we were about to welcome a new brethren, now she's captured, putting us at risk..."

They, or rather it, had operated in Night City and worldwide for a long time.

Even the Vortex Gang was merely a small organization infiltrated by them.

After all, Night City was aware of the Vortex Gang forcibly capturing and modifying disliked people; failure or exposure was minor.

Such sacrifices, forcibly blending multiple lost consciousness fragments, had low success rates for birthing fresh consciousness; finally nearing success, now intercepted.

Now, the group seemed intent on taking the host away...

"Can't let them leave..."

"But the risk of armed conflict is too high, attracting more attention..."

"Avoid direct contact, burn the area..."

"Her..."

"A newborn AI consciousness... gone is gone..."

"Okay."

The company dog seemed to reach some consensus with the other party, issuing instructions to those hidden, initiating actions.

The players were happily loading loot onto the car, corpses, guns, cybernetic implants...

Of course, the most valuable were the elite monster's equipment—several sets of mainframes and hacker cables.

Yet as Rough Five and a few players prepared to detach it to take away, a sharp whistling sound breaking the air reached their ears, accompanied by the lookout player's shout:

"R! P! G!"

Someone ambushed the players from the shadows; several rockets instantly engulfed the base, even reaching stored barrels inside.

Flames were roaring ferociously.

The opponent wasn't planning to stop.

Seconds after the first wave, the second quickly followed.

Several Chun Er-laden small trucks consecutively crashed into the base from all directions and exploded before players could react.

The intense fire and explosion sounds woke half of Watson District's sleeping residents; they clumsily descended from beds, opened curtains, and witnessed flames seemingly about to devour the world.

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