"Damn it!"
Sasha cursed under her breath and immediately pulled her head back.
The cyberpsycho had already noticed that there was still a survivor inside the store. He stepped forward, moving straight toward the shelves.
The sound of shelves toppling and goods crashing to the floor made Sasha's heart pound wildly. She was waiting for an opening.
Facing him head-on was completely unrealistic. Who knew what kind of bizarre cyberware a full-blown cyberpsycho might be packing? Even a shot to the head might not kill him right away.
"Everyone inside, hands up!"
A stern, righteous voice suddenly rang out from outside, accompanied by the blare of sirens.
Sasha's eyes widened in shock. Since when did the NCPD respond this fast?
What she didn't know was that it wasn't faster response times—it was pure coincidence. An NCPD patrol had just happened to pass by, and they had no idea the person inside was a cyberpsycho.
The people in the shop had died too quickly to call for help, and those outside only thought it was a robbery. And robberies… were practically routine in Night City.
The shout from outside instantly drew the cyberpsycho's attention. Seizing the moment, Sasha used her netrunning skills to unlock the store's back door, then shoved the shelf in front of her over with all her strength.
Crash!
The loud noise pulled the cyberpsycho's attention back again. Just as he raised his arm and aimed his palm cannon at Sasha, a gunshot rang out, followed by the sharp clang of metal.
The cyberpsycho froze, then stupidly lowered his head to look at his chest. A golden bullet was embedded in the metal plating there.
He immediately swung his weapon toward the entrance.
Boom!
An orange fireball erupted. The NCPD officer who had fired the shot was instantly reduced to a charred corpse. And that was with the shot missing slightly—if it had hit directly, there probably wouldn't have been anything left at all.
If the crowd outside had only been watching a robbery before, they now clearly realized something was very wrong. People scattered in all directions.
Night City residents had always avoided this kind of spectacle. It was a long-standing tradition—after all, people who liked watching this sort of thing usually didn't live very long.
At the same time, the NCPD control center detected the loss of an officer's life signal. The threat level was immediately raised, and additional units were dispatched to the scene.
"Huff… huff…"
Taking advantage of the cyberpsycho being distracted by the NCPD, Sasha bolted. Only after she was sure she had run far enough did she lean against a wall, gasping for air.
"That was way too close…"
Click!
Whoosh—
Boom!
A massive shockwave blasted her off her feet. Sasha was sent flying, rolling several times along the ground before scrambling back up, covered in dust and grime. She stared ahead in horror at the figure slowly approaching her.
It was the same cyberpsycho who had massacred the store.
"Why are you chasing me?!"
Sasha was on the verge of a breakdown. Based on how that thing had acted earlier, shouldn't it have just stood there blankly after losing its target? Why was it chasing her instead?!
What she didn't know was that after killing the NCPD officer, the onlookers at the entrance had vanished almost instantly. With no target left, the cyberpsycho remembered Sasha—and when he saw the open back door, he followed.
While Sasha was cursing under her breath, the cyberpsycho aimed at her again. She gritted her teeth, forced herself up, and ran to the side.
Whether because of his madness or not, the cyberpsycho's aim was terrible. Several shots skimmed past her, but the intense heat and flying debris still left her in agony.
Boom!
"Ah—!"
This time, she wasn't so lucky. The blast hit right beside her, the shockwave slamming her to the ground and tearing a horrifying wound into her calf.
Ignoring the searing pain and the dizziness flooding her head, Sasha clenched her teeth and forced herself back up. She couldn't collapse here.
The cyberpsycho showed no sympathy for her stubborn resistance. With a sharp click and the sound of a casing dropping, his palm cannon reloaded and locked onto her again.
"Roar!"
At that critical moment, a beastlike roar echoed through the street. Sasha instinctively glanced back—and saw a mechanical hound, its head shaped like a chainsaw and its body glowing red, leap forward and bite down hard on the cyberpsycho's arm.
"Looks like I didn't come too late."
A woman's voice sounded from ahead of her. Sasha looked up—and the moment she saw who it was, her strength gave out completely.
She passed out on the spot.
"Huh?"
Kiwi, who had just arrived, hurried forward and caught her, looking momentarily confused. Then she looked down at the girl in her arms—and froze.
This was the person Roland had been searching for all this time.
"Looks like… my luck isn't too bad."
Kiwi blinked, then quickly scanned Sasha's injuries before pulling out a healing serum and injecting it into her. After placing Sasha safely to the side, she finally turned her attention to the cyberpsycho.
He was still fighting the Fanged Hound—and clearly losing.
The Fanged Hound looked more like it was playing with its prey, savoring the thrill of the hunt.
"Fanged Hound, finish him."
At Kiwi's command, the hound's eyes flared bright red, and strands of crimson electricity rippled across its body.
Seeing this, the cyberpsycho tilted his head in confusion.
Whoosh—
A red arc flashed past.
The cyberpsycho's vision spun violently before he crashed to the ground. In front of him, he saw a body kneeling limply, collapsing in on itself.
In that instant, his final sliver of consciousness returned.
"So this is… how it ends… I'm sorry… my daughter…"
Then everything went dark.
Seeing this, Kiwi's eyes widened. She rushed forward and smacked the Fanged Hound on the head.
"That's not what I meant by 'finish him,' hey!"
"Whine…"
The Fanged Hound immediately lay down, letting out a pitiful whimper, as if blaming Kiwi for not being clear enough.
Kiwi covered her eyes with a headache, shook her head, then looked back at Sasha. Under the effects of the healing serum, Sasha's wounds had already healed, and her breathing was steady.
"Hm… not a total loss."
She paused for a moment.
"Let's take her back first."
...
(40 Chapters Ahead)
p@treon com / GhostParser