The moment Silver Wolf kicked the door open, she was met with the sight of over a dozen hulking men outfitted with all sorts of cyberware.
"S-so many people?"
Gloria couldn't help but feel a surge of panic at the scene.
"David."
"Here."
David looked towards Silver Wolf.
"Protect your mom. Make sure they don't take her."
A flicker of excitement crossed the girl's face as she spoke.
"Right!"
David nodded, his expression turning serious as he moved to shield Gloria behind him.
Still, something felt off. The way Silver Wolf phrased that... did it sound a bit like an insult?
"In all the years this hospital's been running, nobody's dared to cause trouble. Looks like you've got a death wish!"
The thugs outside, seeing only a young girl, a student like David, and a seemingly defenseless woman like Gloria, snorted in contempt.
"Those useless lumps couldn't even handle these scraps... Whatever, I'll do it myself."
The lead brute, a vicious grin plastered on his face, slowly strode up to Silver Wolf. The others just stood by, looking on with amusement.
No one thought a little girl could pose any threat to a grown man, especially one who didn't even seem to be carrying a gun.
But the next moment...
Thwump!
Silver Wolf simply exhaled onto her fist, then threw a sudden, sharp punch. Everyone watched as the brute was sent flying backward in an instant.
He slammed into the wall not far away with enough force to visibly dent the surface.
"I came prepared, you know," Silver Wolf said, raising an eyebrow.
The power of Ether Editing wasn't just about digitizing people. It could modify reality's very data. For instance, Silver Wolf's usual punch packed about ten kilograms of force.
By using Ether Editing to multiply her own data a hundredfold, that single blow now delivered a thousand kilograms of force—enough to turn a normal person's brains to paste.
People in this world, with their widespread cybernetic enhancements, were naturally a bit tougher, but there were limits. With just one punch, Silver Wolf made every man present understand the new reality.
This harmless, even cute-looking little girl was a monster!
"Shoot! Shoot! Kill them all!"
Another thug immediately roared.
The amusement vanished. They raised their submachine guns.
As gang members, getting their hands on this kind of hardware was child's play.
"Waaah! Let's talk about this!"
Gloria, seeing this, instinctively pulled David into a tight embrace, squeezing her eyes shut.
Only David, nestled in her arms, watched wide-eyed.
In that moment, it was as if he could see the trajectories of the bullets. He saw them swarming towards them, cutting off every escape route. In the next second, they'd be riddled with holes.
Yet, Silver Wolf's power far exceeded David's imagination. With just a casual wave of her hand, the bullets veered off course mid-air.
"This is your marksmanship? If this is all you've got, you're not keeping me here."
The wind from the bullets whipped past Silver Wolf's cheeks, but she didn't even blink. She just looked at the group with a faint smile.
"Dammit... What the hell is going on!"
The thugs stared, a mix of anger and rising fear in their hearts. This was just wrong. They were confident in their aim; at this range, they could've hit Silver Wolf and the others even blindfolded.
Yet every single bullet had whizzed harmlessly past their bodies.
Such dense firepower, and not a scratch on any of them.
The pain she'd anticipated never came. Gloria opened her eyes and witnessed the miraculous scene.
In her arms, David stared, transfixed, as the storm of bullets passed them by. The feeling was strangely intoxicating. This was something you could never learn in school.
"Done? My turn now."
Only after the enemies had emptied their entire magazines did Silver Wolf speak up, her gaze sweeping over them.
In the next instant, she gestured, and two pixel-like points of light appeared in the air. Then, rotors, a drone's fuselage—all constructed themselves mid-air out of nothing.
"What is this?"
The thugs were bewildered once more.
And then...
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!
A dense barrage of fire erupted from the toy-like drones.
In an instant, bullets tore through the space, and flesh and blood flew.
This time, Silver Wolf wasn't merciful enough to digitize them. Under her control, the drones deliberately avoided vital spots. They aimed purely for places that would cause maximum pain without delivering instant death.
This hospital had ruined who knows how many lives over the years. If you lined up everyone who worked here, executing all ten might catch an innocent, but killing nine out of ten would definitely let some guilty slip through the net.
In moments, the hospital's courtyard was awash with blood and filled with the sounds of agonized wails.
"Don't just stand there. Let's go. Unless you want to wait for more respawns. If more show up, you handle them yourselves."
Seeing the stunned David and Gloria, Silver Wolf reminded them, then headed for the exit.
"C-coming!"
Gloria, jolted into action, quickly grabbed David and followed.
After leaving the black-market hospital behind, a Delamain taxi was already waiting by the roadside.
"Good evening, Ma'am. A pleasure to serve you," a moderate voice emanated from the screen on the back of the front seat, belonging to a bald, digitally rendered man.
The Delamain taxi had no driver; it was entirely operated by the AI known as Delamain.
"So this is a Delamain? I've never seen one up close before..." David, once inside the car, began excitedly examining the vehicle's interior.
Delamain wasn't cheap. He and his mom usually used their own beat-up old car when going out. But now, even that clunker was totaled.
"Tell me your address."
Silver Wolf lounged casually in the plush passenger seat, speaking to the pair behind her.
"Ma'am, please fasten your seatbelt..." No sooner had the words left the AI's mouth than the screen flickered slightly, and Delamain simply moved on from the topic.
"To... to our house?" Gloria looked at Silver Wolf, somewhat taken aback.
"Of course we're going to your place. Where else? I helped you out this much; you're not going to stiff me on a meal, are you?"
Silver Wolf rolled her eyes at the two behind her.
"Of course not! Sorry, sorry," Gloria hurriedly replied.
Their home wasn't too far. Half an hour later, Silver Wolf got out of the car.
They were in a rundown residential area. A stark contrast to the neon lights and skyscrapers from before, this place reeked of decay and poverty. Graffiti covered the street corners, and the environment was far from clean. Grey apartment blocks exuded an oppressive atmosphere.
On a nearby blue storage container, Silver Wolf could even make out a man standing stark naked on the street, boldly indulging his exhibitionist tendencies, a headset covering his eyes as he immersed himself in some VR world.
Guess you could say Night City had its own... unique charm.
Silver Wolf paid the surroundings no mind, simply following Gloria out of the elevator and up to an apartment door.
"Huh?"
Gloria pressed her hand to the fingerprint lock, only for a red warning to flash: Rent Overdue.
She shot an embarrassed look at David.
They couldn't very well have their guest climb in through the window, could they?
The atmosphere suddenly grew awkward.
Watching this, Silver Wolf, standing behind them, couldn't help but facepalm internally.
Just how broke are you guys? No wonder Mom here went to a black-market organ-harvesting clinic instead of a proper hospital after getting hurt...
Silver Wolf sighed.
Might as well finish what she started.
She flicked her fingers slightly. Instantly, the lock indicator turned green, and the door clicked open.
"Eh? Must be a glitch? Haha, sorry about that. This old place is always acting up..." Laughing it off awkwardly, Gloria ushered Silver Wolf and David inside.
"Ha, sorry the place is such a mess. Work's been busy, not much time to clean..."
Gloria scratched her head, looking at the cluttered room.
Nobody usually visited, so it was fine with just her and David. But with a guest, it was a bit embarrassing.
"Don't worry about it. I'm not picky..." Silver Wolf said, taking a seat on a nearby chair.
Fortunately, while messy, the apartment was at least clean enough for her to sit down.
"Alright, now can someone tell me? What exactly happened back there?"
Once seated, Gloria looked at the two, her expression turning serious.
"Mom, it was like this."
David quickly launched into the story, explaining everything from the car accident and his coma, to meeting Silver Wolf, and discovering the evidence of the clinic's organ trafficking.
"So... if Miss Silver Wolf hadn't found out, I'd probably have been stripped for parts and cremated by now?"
After hearing David's account, a look of fear crossed Gloria's face as she looked at him. It wasn't fear for her own near-death experience, but fear for what would have happened to David if she'd died.
She knew her own son.
If she died, David's schooling would definitely be over. He might even... go down a bad path.
After all, Gloria knew David had a thing for those illegal braindances.
Even fresh from a brush with death, Gloria's concern was entirely for David, paying little mind to her own close call.
"You two chat, I'll go prepare some food. There's still some stuff in the fridge."
Checking the time, Gloria stood up and left David and Silver Wolf alone.
However, looking at Silver Wolf, who was now engrossed in her phone at the table, David wasn't sure how to start a conversation.
Besides, Silver Wolf seemed to be in the middle of an intense game; he didn't want to bother her.
Bored, he started wandering around the room. His eyes inadvertently fell upon the cybernetic implant lying in the corner.
This particular piece of chrome was special. David didn't know the details, but he knew its origin.
If he installed this... could he become stronger? Strong enough that people wouldn't look down on him...
David pondered silently.
He'd always listened to his mother, but the constant bullying at school and the things he'd seen had fostered his own private thoughts.
Still, for his mother's sake, he forced those other ideas down.
Living your life, besides your own desires, the expectations of family can be a heavy chain. For David, this chain came from his family, and from himself.
David wanted to quit school and find work, but Gloria had refused, wanting him to graduate properly and get a job at a corp.
It wasn't a bad plan. In this world, the best job an ordinary person could hope for was working for a corporation.
She just maybe overlooked how David himself felt about it.
"If you're thinking about installing that thing, I'd advise you to drop the idea, kid."
Nearby, glancing at the implant in David's hands, Silver Wolf spoke up flatly.
"Why?"
David was curious.
"You can't handle it. I can see you've got some talent, but that's all it is—'some'. Truth is, you're just a slightly above-average nobody. My words might sound harsh, but it's the truth. In this world, unless a miracle happens, some things are hard to change. Like you operating that implant without any side effects."
Silver Wolf looked at David.
"The original owner of that piece went psycho. You'd eventually lose your mind too; it's just a matter of time. Fate's always fair with you people. Everything has a price, secretly tagged by destiny."
As she spoke, she chewed on her bubblegum. Then, under David's gaze, pop! The bubble burst, covering her mouth.
"How do you know?"
David was puzzled.
"I'm the one who took out its previous owner. Didn't expect the thing to end up in your hands, though. Interesting."
The former owner of the implant was the cyberpsycho from that illegal braindance David had watched.
Hearing this, David's eyes widened in shock.
So, the person countless people in Night City had speculated about, the one who took down that psycho, was Silver Wolf?
Then again, considering her unbelievable skills earlier, it didn't seem so surprising after all.
--+--
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless one for some. Yorinobu Arasaka, head of the Arasaka Corporation, son of the legendary Saburo Arasaka, sat in his top-floor office within Arasaka Tower.
As the uncrowned king of Night City, few things could get Yorinobu truly excited these days.
Aside from his favorite joytoys, today's matter was one of them.
Standing before his desk was a woman.
"Have you found her? That person." Yorinobu asked.
"Apologies, Yorinobu-sama. The target is an exceptionally powerful netrunner. She has erased all traces of herself. We have exerted our full efforts, but we have yet to locate her."
In the eyes of others, this woman was a high-ranking Arasaka executive. But before Yorinobu Arasaka, she was like a fresh recruit. As she spoke, sweat beaded on her forehead.
"Useless! All of you! Incompetent!"
Just as expected, her report was met with Yorinobu's furious shouts.
"The company spends a fortune on you all, and you're telling me you can't find one person in a full day?"
Yorinobu's anger burned. He'd seen that illegal braindance that had taken the city by storm.
He'd even had his people analyze it, confirming it hadn't been tampered with. Meaning, the footage of that shadowy figure taking down the former soldier-turned-cyberpsycho was real!
That person truly possessed that god-like, special ability!
Yorinobu coveted that power intensely and had no intention of letting its owner slip away.
Yet his so-called elite team had spent an entire day without finding a single trace of that shadow. They were utterly useless!
"Apologies, Yorinobu-sama! The perpetrator is an extremely powerful netrunner. In our pursuit, we've already lost several of our top runners, all equipped with Militech's finest cyberdecks!"
The woman looked at Yorinobu, terrified, her voice urgent.
"I don't want to hear your excuses. I want to know: have you found the person? If not, when will you? However strong she is, can she stand against all of Night City? Against the full might of Arasaka? If not, then find her!"
Yorinobu looked at the woman with a cold sneer.
"I... I understand, sir. Please, grant me a little more time. We will find that person, and... deliver her to you personally."
The woman hurriedly pledged, her ample chest heaving with the motion.
Hearing her vow, Yorinobu's expression softened slightly.
He settled into his chair and gestured for the woman to come closer.
Understanding what the tyrant wanted, a practiced smile appeared on the woman's face as she approached Yorinobu. She knelt gracefully before him.
The next moment, his hand roughly pushed her head down. Muffled gags and the sound of straining soon followed.
--+--
Back in David's apartment.
Silver Wolf didn't stay long. After a decent-tasting dinner, she prepared to leave.
Regarding the implant, Silver Wolf didn't say much, nor did she claim ownership just because she'd killed its previous user. She simply left David a phone number.
"If anything comes up, you can contact me later. Though, I kinda hope you never have to dial this number."
Silver Wolf's gaze was deep, impossible to read.
"I understand. Take care, Miss Silver Wolf."
Gloria politely saw Silver Wolf out, then slowly closed the door. She turned to see David looking at the Sandevistan implant in his hands.
"Give it up. I won't let you go down that road. It's too dangerous. Besides, that implant is already spoken for. Once we sort things out, I'm handing it over."
"Yeah, I know, Mom."
Not wanting to worry his mother further, David nodded in agreement.
--+--
Out on the street, Silver Wolf suddenly paused. She could feel it—someone was looking for her.
"Interesting. Hope you don't disappoint me."
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.