Adam Smasher was silently contemplating life.
Why was he stuck on this boring-as-hell moon like a watchdog, standing guard like a sentry?
He stared blankly at the ceiling, the frustration in his heart steadily rising.
As a super-merc who had been a force to be reckoned with since the turn of the century, Adam Smasher considered his life to be quite satisfactory.
As a war machine who seemed to have been born with an innate desire for battle, the only pleasure, or rather, meaning, in his entire life was slaughter.
But what kind of life was he living now?
Standing guard like some small-fry grunt... Dammit, how many weeks had it been?
His mind suddenly felt muddled, and he had a nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right.
Before he could think it through, the muffled conversation of a man and a woman reached his ears.
"Damn, that guy was completely insane. His arm got blown off, and he was still swinging a data cable around trying to plug it into people's heads. If you extracted the stuff from the heads of the people here and made a BD, I guarantee it would be a top-ten bestseller for the year."
The slightly excited female voice was unfamiliar. Adam Smasher's cyberoptics stared coldly toward the end of the corridor. His innate, beast-like intuition had not weakened just because he had swapped his flesh for a body of steel.
He sensed danger. For the first time in a long while, he smelled a scent that made even his cold, mechanical body feel a faint heat, the scent of a master, a scent that sent a thrill through his entire being.
"Hmm... I actually think there's still a lot of room for optimization. Blacklight's overall control still lacks precision. This is related to the limitations of current network transmission and neural link formats... Ah, we're almost there."
The calm male voice sounded from around the corner of the corridor. Then, the moment a dark shadow appeared, Adam Smasher raised his left arm without hesitation.
The next moment, the shotgun on his left arm roared. The modified Ba Xing Chong fired, and what could be described as smart missiles more than smart bullets instantly rained down toward the end of the corridor.
But to Adam Smasher's surprise, a figure practically teleported through the barrage of smart missiles, crossing the corridor in an instant.
What a fast Sandevistan!
Adam Smasher couldn't help but praise her in his mind. Then, he excitedly pushed his steel body to its limits.
"Fast speed, woman. Your name?"
"Huh?" In the midst of her high-speed movement, a voice of disbelief came from V's helmet. "You dumbass, is your brain fried?"
"It seems this Adam Smasher has significant memory synchronization issues. He's probably just a defective copy whose memory is periodically wiped."
Mercer's voice fell.
In a flash, Adam Smasher first charged like a rhinoceros, using a shoulder ram to force V out of position. He then watched as the Mantis Blades from V's battle armor scraped against his front, sending sparks flying from his mechanical body.
Then, he abruptly ducked down, seizing the split-second opportunity as they brushed past each other in the narrow corridor to throw an elbow.
V simply increased the output of her back thrusters ever so slightly, dodging the elbow by a hair's breadth. In response, a gun barrel suddenly popped out of her right arm, firing an electromagnetically propelled tungsten-tipped round.
Smasher's Sandevistan was pushed to its absolute limit. Even the tungsten-tipped round fired from a tech weapon, its trajectory nearly impossible to see, appeared as a clear outline in his vision.
Barely managing to move his face and avoid the bullet, Adam Smasher finally had a moment to ask, "Have we met?"
"Cut the crap, copy. Is Saburo Arasaka underground?" Blue flames erupted from the back, shoulders, and feet of V's armor, a sign that the thrusters were automatically coordinating to increase power.
The next moment, she transformed into a streak of light across the floor.
Even Adam Smasher's vision was now seeing afterimages, the rapidly moving V was trailing delayed, illusory figures behind her.
He only had time to cross his arms in front of his face, acting on pure combat instinct.
The next moment, a sharp Mantis Blade, glowing with a dazzling crimson heat, pierced through both his arms and left a bright red brand on his forehead.
Adam Smasher tilted his head slightly, expressionlessly deploying his shoulder cannon. With one of V's hands stuck in the metal of his arms, he attempted to lock onto her and attack with the cannon.
But V just swung her other hand, slicing the shoulder cannon clean off his shoulder. Adam Smasher was forced to throw a kick to try and push her back, but V planted a foot firmly on the wall.
The Mantis Blade was still stuck in Adam Smasher's arms, but by stepping on the wall, one step, two steps, three steps, V ran straight up onto the ceiling, completing an impossible rotational maneuver.
Not only did she dodge Adam Smasher's kick, but the moment she hit the ceiling, she adjusted her posture. Head down and feet up, she kicked off the ceiling with force as the thrusters on her back all fired.
The next instant, like an arrow loosed from a bow, she drove the Mantis Blade stuck in Smasher's arms forward in a powerful thrust.
Adam Smasher could only watch as the blade flashed and then plunged into his cheek.
If it were an ordinary person, the fight would have been decided. The intense heat would have instantly fried his brain.
But Adam Smasher, with black smoke billowing from his cheek, seemed to feel no pain at all and completely abandoned his defense.
With a sudden exertion of his hands, he was about to grab the Mantis Blade and slam V to the ground.
But V simply performed an agile flip, stepped on his arm, and used it to leap backward. As she pulled out her Mantis Blade, the gun barrel on her right hand was already aimed at Adam Smasher's head.
"Copy? What do you mean?" Adam Smasher asked in confusion amidst the high-speed exchange.
The tungsten-tipped round smashed through his cyberoptic and plunged directly into his brain.
V landed gracefully, the gun barrel on her right hand retracting into her arm with a click. "Is this guy a little dumb?"
"Looks like his memory has been wiped too many times..." Mercer said. Only then did Adam Smasher whip his head around, noticing Mercer, who had appeared by his side at some unknown point.
But with his brain pierced, all he could do was sway. His tower-like body collapsed silently to the ground, leaving only a twitching mechanical husk.
Mercer crouched down and studied it for a moment, then unceremoniously ripped off his left arm. "An old version of the Ba Xing Chong... Hmm, or rather, has the Ba Xing Chong ever even been upgraded?"
He studied it, then forcibly tore the Ba Xing Chong out of Adam Smasher's arm. After observing it for a moment, he tossed it aside.
"I'll get one of these to play with when we get back."
"When the time comes, I'll get you the real Adam Smasher's Ba Xing Chong to play with!" V declared grandly, then looked at the elevator door. "How come there isn't even a button? How do we get this elevator to go down?"
"A hidden card-swipe elevator... Let me see."
Mercer observed for a moment, then said straightforwardly, "Use your Mantis Blades to cut an opening here. I need an interface."
As he finished speaking, V followed the line he traced with his finger, piercing the barely visible seam in the wall with her high-temperature Mantis Blades and prying open a corner of the wall to reveal the control panel's wiring inside.
Mercer walked over, identified the correct wires after a moment, and then directly pulled out a data cable and plugged it into one of the ports.
His cyberoptics flashed faintly. After just two seconds, the elevator let out a crisp ding.
The next moment, they heard the sound of the elevator ascending from below.
"Get ready. With this much commotion up here, there's no way they're not on alert down there... Be careful."
Mercer warned, but V just cracked her knuckles and said, "Ha, didn't I just get a good warm-up?"
"Don't forget we're not here to massacre Arasaka. Saburo Arasaka and the lunar mass driver are the keys."
Mercer reminded her. But as soon as the elevator doors opened, V walked in impatiently. "Then what are we waiting for?"
Mercer shook his head. After walking in, he narrowed his eyes, then exchanged a look with V. They both tacitly looked up.
—--
At this moment, the underground section of the Arasaka lunar base was already in a state of utter chaos.
Elite Arasaka special agents had already set up layers of defenses in front of the elevator doors, while researchers, medical staff, and other personnel were busily but orderly preparing an escape route for Saburo Arasaka.
Saburo Arasaka was, after all, a man who had weathered great storms. At this moment, he remained perfectly cool.
"Can we confirm the identity of the attackers?"
"The netrunner advises us not to establish any network transmissions with the surface to prevent the underground local network from being compromised... But based on messages from the agents upstairs, it seems we've been hit by a virus attack!"
An agent spoke calmly, his cyberoptics glowing. As he helped Saburo Arasaka deeper into the room, he made a cautious judgment. "The number of enemies may be small, but this unknown virus attack is very dangerous. It would be best for you to delta immediately."
"Heh, bypassing the body double at the Tokyo base and silently infiltrating the moon... Not many people are capable of that."
Saburo Arasaka's mind raced as he walked. "Where is Adam Smasher?"
"Bio-signs have disappeared... The elevator is moving! Someone's coming down!" the agent captain at the elevator door replied over comms, immediately raising his weapon.
Saburo Arasaka frowned, unconsciously quickening his pace. "This fast?"
Even Saburo Arasaka hadn't expected that Adam Smasher would fall in such a short amount of time.
He knew Adam Smasher's respiratory system was also chromed; he could continue fighting for a long time no matter what kind of poison he faced. Therefore, Saburo Arasaka immediately deduced that the mysterious biological virus wasn't the only thing that made the incoming enemies formidable.
Who was it?
Saburo Arasaka couldn't for the life of him figure out the attackers' identities.
But the agent beside him had already helped him into the safe room.
Three super-thick metal doors closed one after another. Then, Saburo Arasaka entered a private safety elevator built just for him, one that didn't even exist on the architectural blueprints.
"Lord Saburo, please take care of yourself after this."
The agent escorting him stopped, his face full of admiration and his tone somewhat complex.
Saburo showed a rare smile of appreciation and gave him a slight nod. Standing in the elevator with his hands behind his back, he still carried an extraordinary air. "You've worked hard, Takeda. I will remember your bravery."
"Everything for Lord Arasaka! Agent Yamamoto, it's all up to you now." The agent bowed deeply, then, without hesitation, activated the elevator's ascend button.
The other agent nodded gravely with a resolute expression. "I swear on my life to protect Lord Saburo's return to Earth."
The elevator doors slowly closed. The moment they shut, Saburo Arasaka suddenly spoke. "Tablet."
Agent Yamamoto handed over a tablet computer without hesitation.
A wealthy man like Saburo Arasaka had a neural link that was completely offline. It was only for using certain devices. Although it meant forgoing many conveniences of the Net, it also virtually eliminated the possibility of being hacked.
Saburo Arasaka took the tablet, unhesitatingly found a security system control app, and then entered his password and authenticated his identity.
Under Agent Yamamoto's watchful gaze, Saburo Arasaka decisively pressed the "Emergency Situation" button, then pressed the first two options that popped up.
These two options were "Area Lockdown" and "Thaw Protocol."
What were these?
Agent Yamamoto was completely clueless, but he could clearly see the words on one button that Saburo Arasaka hadn't pressed yet.
"Total Annihilation."
That's probably the base's self-destruct button...
Agent Yamamoto discreetly averted his gaze. "The rocket launch is estimated to take at least five minutes. Considering the surface facilities have fallen, the underground facility can only be ignited manually to ensure a safe launch. In a moment, please get on my back. I will be your hands and feet and get you out of here."
Saburo Arasaka understood his meaning, he was calling his old legs slow. A flicker of anger rose in his heart, but this anger wasn't directed at Yamamoto.
I need to initiate the Relic Project as soon as possible...I need a younger body.
He was now so old that someone could sneak up to the moon to assassinate him. Even more ridiculously, even escaping had become a burden.
This anger tensed Saburo Arasaka's face. He narrowed his eyes, picked up a satellite Agent, and dialed a number.
"Hanako."
"Father? Has something happened on your end?"
"Be prepared. If anything unexpected happens... initiate the final plan. Our Mikoshi must not be compromised."
Saburo Arasaka's words made Hanako's breath catch.
"Father?! What on earth is happening over there? I'll have Crystal Palace send support right now..."
"No, that won't be necessary. If I don't call you in ten minutes, immediately take control of our lunar mass driver. Even if you have to destroy it! This thing cannot fall into enemy hands."
Saburo Arasaka said coldly, "I will transfer the authority to you shortly. Hanako, do not disappoint me."
"Yes, Father!"
Hanako wanted to ask more, but then she heard a sudden explosion through the Agent. Although it sounded quite distant, the muffled boom made her eardrums tremble through her headset.
Agent Yamamoto's voice also came through the headset.
"Lord Saburo! What happened underground?"
"...It seems the enemy is even more troublesome than we thought. What is their identity?"
"...Comms are down."
"Heh, it seems the enemy has a very skilled netrunner... Forget it, we can always find out later."
Speaking into the Agent, Saburo Arasaka said slowly and meaningfully, "Hanako, do not be soft-hearted... Everything is for Arasaka's future, for the family's honor."
"...Yes, Father."
After hanging up, Saburo Arasaka stared at the satellite Agent for a long time before letting out a soft sigh.
In his life, he had survived countless assassination attempts, sometimes by an elite edgerunner crew, sometimes even large-scale armed assaults. But every time, he had emerged from the jaws of death with ease.
But this time... he had an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
—--
"Hoo... hoo..."
Only tense breathing could be heard over the squad comms.
As the Arasaka special agents watched the elevator door in front of them reach their floor, the agent captain gave a cold command over the squad comms before the doors could even open.
"Heavy machine gun, suppress!"
"RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!"
The large-caliber heavy machine gun tore through the elevator's metal doors. Amidst the metallic roar, a dark shadow, a clearly humanoid shape, could be seen in the gap.
As the opening in the elevator doors widened, the other agents instinctively added their firepower. Bullets from assault rifles, tech weapons, and Smart weapons flew until the agent captain shouted, "Reload on rotation, check!"
The well-trained agents reloaded in shifts. One heavily armored agent cautiously observed the smoke for a moment, then suddenly cried out, "Watch..."
Before he could finish the word "out," the dark figure inside suddenly fired a stunning volley of micro-missiles, it was Adam Smasher's Ba Xing Chong!
Standing tall inside the elevator at this very moment was none other than Adam Smasher, his head still dripping with blood!
But clearly, the one operating his mechanical body was not his own brain, it was Blacklight.
Blacklight emotionlessly used Adam Smasher's only intact cyberoptic, its voice icy. "Executing extermination directive."
Under the extermination directive, Blacklight would no longer prioritize infection, but pure slaughter.
At this moment, Adam Smasher's steel body had become its best vessel. With only a few ounces of flesh in his brain and the rest of him chromed, Adam Smasher was clearly far more compatible with Blacklight than those who only had a neural link and some cyberware.
Driven by Blacklight, the battered wreck of Adam Smasher's body coldly kept pulling the trigger. The agents instinctively dodged, and the heavy machine gunner responsible for suppression fire was killed by Blacklight the instant the doors opened.
And in the moment the agents dodged, the ceiling of the elevator was stomped through. Before V even landed, the thruster engines on her back roared to life, and she swept through the corridor in front of the elevator like a tornado.
The agents' screams had not yet faded when another dark figure slowly walked out of the elevator.
Mercer's cyberoptics flickered with a faint light. The mech behind him roared, emitting a massive amount of heat as countless terrifying quickhacks instantly began to spread.
These agents couldn't possibly imagine that someone could so easily breach their agent-level, military-grade ICE. In an instant, they all began to scream in agony.
Sparks flew as cyberware overloaded, and thoughts froze as programs loaded. Mercer simply stepped over the bodies, which were sparking with electricity and blooming with blood. He and V easily broke through the seemingly impregnable blockade.
Adam Smasher's body moved slowly, countless bullets clattering to the floor from his frame.
V casually tossed aside an Arasaka special agent impaled on her Mantis Blade and turned to Mercer. "Which way?"
Mercer just turned to look at the wreck of Adam Smasher's body.
"Hacking... Analyzing consciousness code... Attempting to search for networked devices..." Adam Smasher's voice was cold, devoid of any human emotion.
Mercer turned to V and said, "Let's head forward for now. We need to hurry."
V didn't hesitate and started moving. "I'll go first!"
"No, let it go." Mercer held V back. Then, the stumbling Adam Smasher suddenly picked up his pace, breaking into a lurching run.
Although its body was battered and broken, this highly valuable frame still maintained a relatively intact metal structure.
Beyond the narrow corridor was a huge sanatorium-like structure. It was less like an Arasaka underground base and more like a luxurious underground convalescent home.
Saburo Arasaka probably never imagined that this place could be breached so directly. The defensive facilities were relatively sparse, and there were no complex routes.
Even a human scout could map it out in no time.
The first thing they found was a safe room. Cowering inside were the physicians responsible for tuning Saburo's body and the base's technical staff.
Mercer couldn't be bothered with them. After Blacklight took control of them, he quickly forced them to reveal the location of the server room and Saburo's whereabouts.
"How do we stop the rocket launch?" Mercer asked bluntly.
"I-I don't know, but you'll probably have to take control of the server first... It has to be controlled by a computer, right...?" one of the researchers stammered.
Mercer turned his head and looked at V. "You go after Saburo. I'll go to the server."
"We're splitting up?" V frowned. "How about you go after Saburo? That old geezer can't have many people with him!"
"What the hell do you know about tech? If you go to the server, will you know how to stop the rocket launch? Get moving."
Mercer just punched her on the shoulder. "See you in a bit. Don't get hurt. No need to waste words on that old fossil Saburo. Just plug the chip into his head. The memories in that old bastard's brain are very valuable."
"Got it... You be careful." V knew time was of the essence. After habitually following his arrangement, she gave him a worried look, then immediately set off, searching in the direction the researchers said Saburo had retreated.
Mercer, on the other hand, headed straight for the server room.
The two of them exchanged a look through their helmets in the corridor, then unhesitatingly moved forward on their separate paths.
In Mercer's cyberoptics, the 3D map rendered by the Skynet system gradually sharpened. The marked route to the servers was just a stone's throw away.
However, the moment he pushed open the corridor door leading to the server room, a somewhat familiar scene abruptly appeared before his eyes.
A dense swarm of micromissiles, like mosquitoes and flies, materialized before him.
And behind these micromissiles, what followed were none other than four towering Adam Smashers.
This group of Adam Smashers stared expressionlessly at Mercer, their identical Ba Xing Chongs emitting the thick stench of gunpowder.
Hah...
In an instant, the world before Mercer's eyes slowed to a crawl. His custom-made Devil May Cry series cyberware activated, achieving a speed far surpassing that of a Sandevistan.
The two hearts in his chest pounded wildly. His chromed lungs greedily sucked in air, while his nano-tech-enhanced circulatory system and reinforced blood vessels pumped a torrent of blood mixed with coolant.
Mercer's cyberoptics and the mask on his helmet suddenly erupted in a blue glow.
The next moment, something happened that made even the four expressionless Adam Smashers in the distance reveal looks of astonishment.
The micromissiles hurtling toward Mercer seemed to be under some kind of control, grazing past his body with extreme precision.
Yet Mercer just stood there, motionless. On his helmet, the blue light over his eyes abruptly turned blood-red.
"Poor Adam, being copied and used like a tool... How does it feel?"
"Hahahaha!" Adam Smasher merely laughed maniacally.
The four Adam Smashers glanced at each other, arriving at the same conclusion.
"Then we'll kill you first, then kill those morons at Arasaka!" an Adam Smasher said coldly.
"Whoa, and here I thought you were a good dog," Mercer tilted his head. "But it doesn't matter... Step aside, I'm in a hurry."
"Heh..." The Adam Smasher at the very front had yet to finish his sneer.
A phantom-like blur, moving at a speed far beyond his imagination, pierced through his hardened steel body.
The Octopus Arm at Mercer's shoulder whipped past his face like a lash, a spray of blue, red, and white fluids flew through the air.
The lead Adam Smasher had already become a headless metal husk.
But the other three Adam Smashers only grew more excited, their eyes glowing red.
Even though they were all aware they were copies, a form of replication and cloning that infuriated them to no end, something they found utterly unacceptable...
But nothing was more important than a battle to the death!
The three Adam Smashers laughed wildly, activating their Sandevistans. Their shoulder cannons and arm-mounted machine guns roared, unleashing a torrent of firepower at Mercer.
"Die! Die! Just die!"
Mercer's figure flickered through the hail of bullets, the blue and red lights in his helmet's visor alternating.
"All men must die... but not today."
The moment his voice fell, the bodies of the three Adam Smashers suddenly began to twitch. In that same instant, Mercer's afterimage swept past them, and three heads exploded.