The nightlife on Sakura Cross Street is quite vibrant.
This means that when Silver Rider speeds through, the streets are filled with cars and motorcycles, citizens screaming and shouting on both sides of the road, and the smart ones hiding behind signs to avoid machine gun fire.
Bullets shattered the surrounding shop windows, casings rolled on the wet black pavement, and the neon lights in the puddles trembled slightly from the shock.
Everything is so deadly.
John had provoked a real madman.
From the moment the Ghoul fired in the commercial district, it meant they could never return to the bloody factory by the coast to continue their criminal activities.
The Owl Town gang would come armed, and chop off those hands that broke the rules.
But that was later.
Gino slumped in the passenger seat, her prosthetic eye flickering continuously, virus software battling the firewall, while her body endured everything on its own.
Probably in just two more blocks...
The girl would cause irreversible brain damage.
The cars on the road all stopped.
Everyone just watched them chase, young men and women on shop rooftops cheering and throwing things onto the street.
Lousy quality.
Eisenberg's supercar drifted under the sign, its left front wheel shaking wildly at high speeds, each turn holding the risk of losing control and flipping over.
Driving to such an extreme is to buy time.
John temporarily shook off the pursuers and immediately called Ryan Randall.
"Doctor, I need your help."
[It sounds really noisy over there; good lord, are you calling me in the middle of work?]
"We'll talk about other things later. There's a girl next to me who's about to die. You're the prosthetic body doctor I trust the most. Help me save her."
[What's the situation?]
John briefly recapped the situation in the cold storage.
The doctor's deduction was roughly the same.
[Excessive and incompatible software running simultaneously. Although you removed the chip, data redundancy has occurred, and the extra parameters continue to replicate, occupying computation...]
"She's going to die, doctor! Can you speak in layman's terms?"
[The virus in her head is urgent; find antivirus software to clean it up.]
"Sh*t!"
John couldn't help cursing.
This place is unfamiliar; not to mention where to find antivirus software. Gino's physical condition might only last a few more minutes.
What you fear comes.
Gino suddenly started convulsing, her prosthetic eye turned white, showing signs of overload and short-circuiting.
"F*ck it, whatever comes."
John used his elbow to stabilize the steering wheel, lifted his arm, bit out his own data cable from his wrist, and inserted it into the back of Gino's neck.
[Biometric scanning in progress...]
[Confirm connection to data terminal? Confirmed.]
At over two hundred miles an hour, John had to multitask controlling Black Light, feeling like he was performing delicate surgery on a high wire.
Black Light easily overwrote the program.
The electronic virus and redundant data were instantly purged, cleaner than a new chip, even the factory firewall was cleared together.
John carefully monitored it; if he got distracted, Black Light could blow Gino's brain into mush—he'd done such things in the black-market clinic on Beyond Avenue.
"Virus is cleared. What's next?"
[Pfft, are you kidding me…naked chick in the car and antivirus software on hand? What a kink!]
"F*cking squid, doctor, I'm being chased!"
[Alright, alright, don't get agitated. If you truly cleared the virus and she can breathe normally, she won't die for now. Bring her to me; there's only so much I can do over the phone.]
"Thanks, let me lose the tail."
John slightly relaxed, seeing a modified vehicle in the rearview mirror.
He felt rage bubbling inside him, directly turning around and rushing onto the cross-district bridge, controlling the speed to allow the Ghouls to catch up.
The side door of the van whooshed open.
Armed bandits roared and shot at him, bullets raining around the supercar.
But not a single bullet hit inside the car.
Eisenberg had been modified—equipped with top-tier armor, Plato's honeycomb bulletproof glass, these Ghouls lacked heavy firepower, and the bullets were the cheapest street commodities.
If the passengers felt nervous, it showed disrespect for the company's technology.
John was about to reach the end of the bridge.
He activated the Silver Rider's onboard machine guns, spraying micro bullets on the traffic lights.
The electronic signal lights were shot out, the metal casing dented and crackling, while all the surrounding spotlights turned on instantly.
The entire bridge was as bright as daylight, blinding the Ghouls behind while Eisenberg, equipped with light-sensing control, remained unaffected.
Electronic screens started rolling out red warnings.
John maxed out the speed, the dashboard data soared, barely slipping through just before the barricades rose.
He released the gas pedal, rolled down the window, and extended a middle finger against the wind.
The two vehicles of the Ghouls successively crashed into the alloy barricades, erupting in a massive explosion, fireballs shooting skyward, and fragments of corpses and metal debris scattered everywhere.
"Scum."
John cursed leaning against the car window.
The noisy night finally quieted down.
[Eden City-East District Commercial Street]
He found Ryan Randall holding the unconscious Gino, followed by examination and emergency surgery.
The doctor was busy inside.
John was responsible for notifying the family—Vito Russell was very grateful, stating he'd send someone to bring Gino home.
He hung up the phone and checked Gino's scan results:
She must have gone the hacker's route, with many implants in her brain, but after this ordeal, they were somewhat damaged, advisable to replace them all.
The doctor came out smelling of alcohol, and said to John, "The antivirus was timely, um, and clean too; otherwise, she would have been brain dead. What software did you use?"
"Commercial secret."
John didn't explain, pouring and chugging a drink.
Ryan the doctor sat down opposite, handed over a chip, and said, "This is the control system from her neck. Even the most basic firewall was wiped; I felt something wasn't right, so I took the liberty of removing it."
John pressed his hand on it, looking up at the doctor.
Ryan Randall clutched a bottle of whiskey lovingly, not looking at the chip or John and didn't probe further.
"Thanks, doctor."
John discreetly put it away.
As a token of appreciation, he gave Ryan a tip.
"The girl needs all the implants in her head replaced, right? Install the most expensive stuff in your clinic for her. When the Black Gold Gang comes to pick her up, just slap the bill in their faces. They've gone through so much trouble to save her; they'd surely be willing to pay."
Ryan the doctor squinted, wiped his hands, and returned to the operating room.
John chuckled and poured himself another drink. "This stuff goes on their tab too."
He took a short break in the clinic, and when no one was around, he took out a Special Inhibitor and injected himself.
It felt like some pressure was released, and his body inexplicably relaxed a lot.
He waited until the message notification was destroyed before pulling out the remnants, tucking it together with the control chip removed from Gino back into his inner pocket.
The doctor truly worked all night, giving his all to earn.
It even made John a bit nervous.
If they accidentally turned her into a cyber psycho, the Black Gold Gang might charge at them.
Luckily, Ryan had a knack—with original factory goods from the same series, there was no problem with safety and purity.
After Gino was injected with the treatment medication, she gradually woke up.
She almost had a stress reaction upon seeing the strange clinic environment, jumping around the operating room like a startled cat.
John took some effort to calm her down and stepped out with the doctor, letting her call home to confirm before she finally calmed down.
Gino held her head, feeling dizzy.
John suddenly had a series of prompts flash on his face.
[Mission Progress Update]
[Inquire Gino about the details of the EMP Emitter. (Unachieved)]