Chapter 318: Mercenaries

Words : 1240 Updated : Oct 15th, 2025

Jimmy Kurosaki—infamous and widely known master of braindance noir—holds in his hands an insanely popular series called Edgerunners. This series mainly documents the combat behavior of cyberpsychos during their psychotic episodes. The intense action is designed to jolt the viewer's nerves, usually ending with a highly stimulating death. No braindance hits harder than a noir braindance that ends in death. After experiencing such extreme stimulation, many people find other videos no longer affect their nerves; eventually, they become addicted. "This time, our target is to take down this braindance master. David, your turn to explain." As V spoke, she kept glancing at Leo, who sat dazed in the car like his brain had been fried. She was used to Leo being like this, but this time was different— They'd already brought him out, and yet he was still acting like this? So she directly passed the job of explaining to David. "Uh, Jimmy's vids sell pretty widely. I bought a few myself and even sold them back in school. The guy's rich—loaded, actually—especially in the noir braindance circles." David hesitated, looking at V, slumped near the car. C'mon, big sis, aren't you guys the ones supposed to plan the missions? I'm just a grunt! And honestly, he didn't even know why they were going after Jimmy. Was this about busting his braindance black market? Still, he decided to bite the bullet and keep talking. "Jimmy should be alone in the Ember Club right now. I'll go in and draw his attention, and then Maine grabs him from behind." "Sounds like a tight plan." Maine nodded repeatedly. "Let's do it." So David and the crew loaded up and drove to the Ember Club's underground parking lot— Worth noting: they were now also driving a Mackinaw, Adacado's standard model, but with more colorful graffiti and full Night City flair. Meanwhile, in the temporary Mackinaw, V was staring blankly with her dead-fish eyes, lightly slapping Leo's face—but Leo still looked like a dead fish. Jackie said, "They're going in. We're not?" "Let them build some experience." V started shaking Leo more violently. "Wake up! Don't tell me your brain's really fried!" [Leo: Quiet. I'm working.] [David: Scanning Jimmy. Be careful—he might have gear we don't know about.] [Maine: That cautious? I thought you were just gonna distract him and we'd jump him?] [David: Being careful doesn't hurt. Jimmy's got cash—rich folks get access to some crazy high-end hardware.] Jimmy was dressed in a stylish fur coat, embedded with soft fibers mimicking real hair. His nose and chin had chrome implants, their polished surfaces glinting under the lights. Through the deep V of his coat, you could see his pecs had also been replaced with some sort of glittering chrome cyberware. With a metallic nose bridge, chin, various earrings, facial studs, and a pair of cyber-eyes devoid of emotion, his pupils weren't even human-like—just rings of shifting digital lenses. Just as he was about to get into his sports car, a Mackinaw rumbled into the underground lot. The digital rings in Jimmy's cyber-eyes froze instantly. Wait—a Mackinaw just rolled into Ember Club? [Jimmy: Something's off.] [Phantom: No kidding. Isn't that the best-selling ride in Night City now? What a tacky car.] The Mackinaw's window cracked open as David's scanner fed Jimmy's image data into the network. Two netrunners bridged it into the OCT netspace to match it against intelligence databases— And they did find something interesting. A small device with knobs and buttons was mounted beneath Jimmy's seat, and his eyes were identified as a known model. [Suspected Equipment: EMP Power Modulation Valve] [Description: A compact control device that adjusts EMP intensity and range.] [Suspected Cyber-Eyes: Kiroshi"OmniVision" Optic] [Description: High-end Kiroshi eyes, featuring panoramic processing software to provide 360-degree vision.] [Note: This set includes an abnormal number of eyes—may include implants in the back of the head, back, heels, or thighs.] With that intel locked down, David's car pulled into the spot beside Jimmy's. But just as he opened the door, his scanner suddenly picked up Jimmy's hand moving toward the EMP dial. Those concentric circles in Jimmy's eyes froze—he was staring coldly at the car. Something's wrong—he's too alert! In that split second, David made his decision. He slammed the door shut, triggered the armored bulletproof shields, and cut off all communications— [David: Kill the comms!] BZZZZT— A harsh electric buzzing rang in everyone's heads inside the car. The vehicle's armored shell formed an imperfect Faraday cage—unable to fully block the EMP, but enough to shield most frequencies. They were hit with a wave of nausea and disorientation, but not enough to knock them out or stop them from fighting back. Both netrunners instantly lost all comms and were left confused. David immediately shouted to the others in the car: "Move!" BANG! Both doors of the Mackinaw burst open at the same time. A flicker of surprise crossed Jimmy's face. Fighting through a wave of dizziness, David activated his Sandevistan, intending to take Jimmy down in one go. But in the slowed world, he saw Jimmy's sports car door swing open—and two pistols already aimed at him and Maine! "Tch." With no choice, he threw himself sideways, shoving Maine out of the line of fire! BANG! Bullets slammed into the Mackinaw's armored paneling and ricocheted. The shooter looked mildly surprised—but didn't have time to stay that way. Because everyone in the Mackinaw was already drawing their weapons—all high-powered shotguns! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Gunfire erupted, shells rattled off the car doors, and Jimmy ducked into his vehicle. The engine roared to life! VROOOM! The tires screeched as the sports car launched from the garage in a burst of speed! [Comms Restored] [David: Jimmy's on the run! He's got backup!] From the ground, Maine lifted his head and raised his left arm toward the fleeing car— The thick forearm split open, revealing a projectile launcher system! BOOM! The round launched straight at the underside of the exhaust, exploding in a fiery blast that traveled up the tailpipe—igniting the leaking trace amounts of Methanol-2 fuel. The entire car was blown airborne! "A genuine launcher really hits different, even if it's secondhand." Maine looked down at his gear. If he'd been using his old junk launcher, the EMP alone would've jammed the thing—if it didn't just blow up in his hand. WHAM! At the garage entrance, V and Jackie looked up—just in time to see the car flip mid-air and crash out of the garage in a fireball! "Whoa, that escalated fast." Jackie slid from the passenger seat into the driver's side. V smacked Leo's face hard: "That idiot ran! MOVE already!" But just as the vehicle revved up— On the street just outside the garage, in a G240 parked curbside, a burly man raised his arm— It was a cybernetic limb, with exposed mechanical joints—rougher and bulkier than any biomimetic arm, especially compared to Maine's launcher. Around his wrist were six mini launch pods, all locking onto the Mackinaw. And what it fired— was a 30mm high-explosive rocket. FWOOOOSH! V's ears caught the whistling scream of an incoming rocket! BOOM!

Chapter 318: Mercenaries

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