Muzzle flashes spat fire rapidly, the gunfire was deafening, and hot shell casings dropped everywhere. The Scavengers let out excited howls, causing the tattoos on their faces to twist.
In the rain of bullets, Arno repeatedly retreated, barely managing to stay on his feet.
Suddenly, with a crash, a sofa came flying through the air, spinning. The Scavengers who saw this were terrified, scrambling and crawling to get out of the way.
The imitation leather sofa landed with a thud, its wooden frame exploding into flying splinters, crushing the heads of two unlucky men who hadn't managed to escape.
Arno, covered in bullet holes, charged out, aimed his shotgun, and began harvesting the panicked Scavengers.
"Bang! Bang!"
Two Scavengers attempting to raise their guns were blasted to the ground, one shot each, also knocking over a nearby shelf, scattering items everywhere with a crash.
"Bang!"
Another shot blasted a fleeing Scavenger. The force of the buckshot sent his limbs flying, and he smashed face-first into the ground, silent.
"Shit, open fire!"
The sound came from the side; Scavengers from the second floor were charging down. They were armed, and seeing Arno wreaking havoc, they immediately pulled their triggers and opened fire.
The hail of bullets struck, sending debris flying from the TV and wooden table. Arno calmly handled the gunfire, returning fire while retreating backward.
"Damn it, what kind of monster is this!"
The eyes of the still-firing Scavengers were filled with shock.
This large man in black had taken so many bullets and seemed completely fine. What the hell, was he wrapped entirely in bulletproof armor?
Arno retreated into the kitchen, using the blind spot created by the doorway and hallway to fire several shots, forcing the attacking Scavengers back.
The kitchen had more than one door. A Scavenger holding a gun tried to sneak in through the back door. Arno, whose thermal vision covered all angles, turned and shot him in half. The lower half of his body, with surprised eyes, hit the ground. The man never knew how Arno found him.
Scavengers surrounded the kitchen.
Their eyes were bloodshot, and they frantically cursed, vowing to tear Arno inside to shreds. They were eager, barely restraining the impulse to rush into the kitchen.
"Use grenades!"
A Scavenger said.
Seeing that they had "forced" the enemy into the kitchen, the Scavengers wanted to throw in grenades and blow Arno to smithereens.
But at that moment, Berry, whose kinetic arm guard was flashing layers of blue light, charged out.
Stepping off a crate in the corner, Berry leaped high into the air.
She held "vitamin b." Her dark brown eyes rapidly flickered, quickly locking onto every Scavenger in the room.
Time stopped at this moment.
Berry's posture as she soared through the air was graceful and agile, like a dolphin leaping from the water. Her short black hair floated like seaweed, but it could not conceal the determination in her dark eyes.
The next second, Berry pulled the trigger.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
With each shot, the kinetic arm guard flashed blue, and the enormous recoil of the revolver was perfectly absorbed by the arm guard's braking device. Ultimately, Berry only felt a slight tremor, no more than the vibration of a game controller.
Three bullets fired simultaneously, scattering in three lines into the group of Scavengers.
The .357 pistol rounds, powerful enough to rival rifle bullets, tore through the air and plunged into the crowd. Everything in their path was shredded. One bullet blew off a Scavenger's tattooed arm, and its power remained undiminished in the burst of bloody mist.
It then pierced the skull of a cursing Scavenger, ejecting a splatter of red and white matter. The bullet continued its rapid flight, drilling straight into the spine of a Scavenger with his back turned, shattering his sternum and exiting through his chest, finally slamming into a concrete wall to create a small crater, with the twisted bullet firmly lodged within.
One bullet pierced three people; the other two bullets were similar, one passing through three people and the other through two, achieving results far exceeding their cost.
Three bullets, eight lives.
This was the power of the system's fourteen points of reaction.
Under the system's incredibly powerful enhancement, Berry possessed terrifying dynamic vision and mastery over firearms. Wielding the powerful revolver she had specially modified for herself—the "vitamin b"—she was invincible.
In mid-air, Berry had already cleared the building's support beam. Her gun sight was completely blocked by the beam, and ordinarily, Berry would have lost her chance to fire. But the path of a true powerhouse means defying convention.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Another three shots rang out, bullets ejecting consecutively.
This time, the firing arc was wide, almost not aimed at the Scavengers.
The bullets struck the floor, or the walls, or the ceiling. These strange directions were miles away from the Scavengers' positions.
But this was definitely not Berry giving up; her eyes were eager, and a slight smile played on her lips.
The show had just begun.
The bullet heads struck the ground at an angle, ricocheting off the hard floor, changing direction, and shooting straight towards the Scavengers.
At this moment, the bullets from the ceiling and walls also ricocheted back, and the three bullets converged into the group of Scavengers.
Blood splattered, bullets hit the ground.
In the blink of an eye, several more Scavengers fell.
The golden-yellow casings clattered to the ground, Berry rolled and landed steadily, her gun barrel still steaming, the revolver's six shots perfectly expended.
"Damn it, there are enemies behind us too!"
By this time, the Scavengers, after more than ten people had fallen, finally realized someone was shooting them from behind. They then turned their weapons with terrified expressions.
But when they looked back, they only saw Berry standing up, smiling provocatively at them.
"Bang!"
Caught in a pincer attack.
Arno burst out of the kitchen like a tank, colliding with two or three Scavengers, then fired his shotgun repeatedly, taking down another three or four Scavengers. The circle of Scavengers was cleared, all lying sprawled on the ground.
Under Arno's strategy of feigning sleep to lure the enemy, the Scavengers were utterly defeated, dead or wounded, with no one left to resist.
Kicking away the weapons on the ground, Arno and Berry finished off the still-breathing Scavengers one by one, thus completely clearing the repair shop of Scavengers.
Too bad no 'mission complete' prompt popped up on her forehead.
Otherwise, Berry would have felt even more accomplished.
What to do next? Of course, collect the eurodollars.
With her previous experience, Berry knew that these Scavengers definitely had a large sum of eurodollars waiting for her in a safe somewhere.
On the first floor, three or four boxes of cyberware produced by Bai Rui Tech were found. It seemed some had been sold, leaving only these few boxes.
After moving the reclaimed cyberware into the van stolen from Viktor, Berry prepared to check the second floor.
For now, it was merely returning items to their rightful owner; Berry hadn't yet confiscated the Scavengers' ill-gotten gains.
Kicking aside a few obstructing corpses, the woman and the machine entity ascended the creaking iron staircase to the second floor of the repair shop.
Lawrence was very panicked right now.
As the boss of a group of Scavengers, he was competent because he was cruel and violent, and he could quickly offload the 'goods' he collected. His brothers all admired him.
He was proud of this, confident that he could lead his team to new glories.
Just recently, he had led his men to raid a batch of goods from a small Chinatown, simply because those shoddy pirated goods had caused a significant drop in his second-hand sales.
The robbery plan was so successful that it made him believe he was not far from becoming a legendary Mercenary in Night City.
But today, just after he finished his luxurious locust meal, two people broke into his disguised base—they used an auto repair shop to cover up their second-hand cyberware processing plant.
His brothers were quickly and thoroughly slaughtered. These guys even made sure to finish off those who had fallen, utterly ruthless.
And Lawrence, merely because he went down a few steps later, was spared from being shot to death.
He saw everything through the surveillance.
And now he was hiding behind a crate on the second floor, just waiting for those two bastards who ruined everything to come up.
One man and one woman, but the biggest threat was the man. Lawrence saw from the surveillance how this guy killed so many of his brothers with a cheap shotgun that even a dog wouldn't use.
He now gripped a long-handled machete, hidden in front of his 'office,' knowing that as soon as those two came up, they wouldn't be able to avoid him.
The plan was set: Lawrence intended to chop down the tall one first, then deal with the woman.
They were coming up; he could already hear their footsteps.
Clutching the hilt, Lawrence was incredibly nervous.
The footsteps grew closer, about to pass the crates.
"Hah!"
Lawrence shouted, and his serrated machete swung towards Arno's gun-wielding right hand.
As long as he took down this tall guy, he would win.
Lawrence's ugly face crumpled, his eyes gleaming with excitement.