Royce's death caused chaos throughout the entire factory.
Flashing red lights blinked everywhere, and piercing alarms rang incessantly. The corridors were filled with the curses and stomping of Maelstrom members, who were searching for the three troublemakers inside the factory.
"Quickly! Lock the main gates! Don't let the enemy slip out!"
In the back warehouse, several Maelstrom members jammed the roller door exit and pulled down the iron curtains on all the windows. The factory's defense system entered Level One Alert, ensuring not even a fly could escape.
"Grab your weapons and gear! We're going to hunt down those three bastards!"
After securing the gate, several Maelstrom members grabbed their firearms, ready to return and search for the enemies.
"Boom!!!"
Striking first, the gang members only managed to hear the sound of an explosion before the resulting blast wave instantly threw them all into the chaotic piles of cargo.
As the dust kicked up by the blast settled, Arno, his arm cannon smoking, stepped over the ruins and strode through the hole in the roller door.
"You motherfucker are..." A Maelstrom member on the ground, spitting blood, grabbed his gun and struggled to stand. Arno brought his heavy foot down with a clang, splattering blood as the man's head burst into a puddle of paste.
"Open fire! Kill that guy!"
Drawn by the explosion, a group of Maelstrom members rushed out onto the scaffolding on the second floor of the workshop, raising their guns and opening intense fire on Arno.
Bullets hammered against Arno's body, kicking up small sparks.
Arno turned his head, walked through the hail of bullets toward a pile of cargo, and picked up an entirely black Heavy Machine Gun.
"Shit, run!" Seeing the Heavy Machine Gun in Arno's hands, the Maelstrom members on the second floor were so terrified their cyberware eyes flickered. They grabbed their guns and tried to flee.
But Arno had already gripped the thick ammunition belt and aimed the muzzle at the second-floor scaffolding.
"Deng deng deng deng~!!!"
Intense muzzle flashes erupted. The Heavy Machine Gun's fire tore through everything visible. The Maelstrom members who couldn't escape were instantly shredded into several pieces by the machine gun's savage bullets, turning into viscous minced meat before they hit the ground.
Scaffolding, walls... debris and chunks of concrete rained down. The Maelstrom members who had managed to hide behind containers were not spared, as the containers were blown apart into fragments.
Arno's feet were rooted to the metal floor like iron clamps. Golden bullet casings continuously dropped, forming a pile around his feet.
The powerful recoil of the Heavy Machine Gun couldn't make him retreat a single step. The muzzle flame spat out more urgently, the fire turning almost reddish-blue, and the barrel glowed red hot, as if it had just been pulled from a furnace.
All this only stopped when the ammunition belt ran out, and the firing mechanism clicked empty after the last bullet was fired.
By then, there was no one left alive in the entire workshop, only the cooling gun barrel emitting white smoke.
The battle at the back door concluded, but V and her two companions, located in the middle of the complex factory area, were still in the midst of their tense escape.
"Bang! Bang!"
"V, are you done yet!" Firing two consecutive shots, Berry knocked down two Maelstrom members pursuing them through the corridor, calling out anxiously.
"Almost..." V looked anxious, her eyes flickering with yellow and white light. She was clearly cracking the factory's defense system. The progress bar moved steadily forward, finally closing just as the pursuing enemies were about to flood the corridor. "Done!"
With V's exclamation, the metal door behind them slammed shut, blocking the pursuers outside. Cursing and gunfire faintly drifted from behind the door, but the heavy metal barrier prevented the enemies from entering anytime soon.
"Shit, we almost got cornered." Jackie gasped, cursed, and swapped the magazine in his assault rifle. "This job is fucking intense."
"Where are we? How far is the exit?" V stood up, looking around. There were precise instruments and still-running turbines everywhere. It was some part of the factory, but she didn't know its specific function.
"Heaven knows, maybe the control room or something." Jackie wiped the sweat from his brow and signaled for the two women to keep moving. "Let's go, V, Berry. We can't stop. We need to get out of this hellhole fast."
"Wait, look, what's this?" As V circled a glass cabinet, she saw something like a pager sitting on a nearby table.
"A detonator, armed." V frowned, fiddled with it twice, and disarmed the explosives. She didn't know where the bomb was, maybe right on their path, and she certainly didn't want to step on a mine.
Wait, it seemed like she had forgotten something.
Watching V's actions, Berry finally remembered: wasn't this the place in the game where they rescued Brick, the former Maelstrom leader?
Maelstrom's original leader was Brick, but after being overthrown by his own trusted subordinate and friend, he was imprisoned. Of course, Royce didn't spare him just because he didn't want to kill him; he needed Brick to lure out the gang members who were still loyal to him.
So, Brick was confined to a dark room, surrounded by bombs and his own waste, forced to listen to Royce boast about which of his loyal subordinates had been dragged out and thrown into the boiler next.
He was truly unlucky.
"Hey, the bomb light is off! Is anyone out there? Come here! Hurry up!" At that moment, the trio also heard faint cries for help.
The three exchanged glances, followed the sound, opened a glass door, and found a locked electronic door in a corner. The voice was coming from inside.
"The encryption level on this keypad is too high. I can't crack it." V scanned the door, frowning as she stated the difficulty.
"It's fine, the password is here." But then Berry found the password in an open email on a nearby computer desk.
[Brick was blown away to check on the cage
The password is 9691
Don't you dare spread this around]
Following the instructions, the tightly locked electronic door opened as expected.
"Damn it... I was waiting so long my hair almost turned white." A guy who was clearly Maelstrom, sitting on a steel pipe in the corner, complained when he saw V and the other two arrive.
"Oh, then I guess we're your saviors," V said, raising an eyebrow at Brick.
"That debt is huge, brother," Jackie chimed in.
"Hold your horses, alright? I won't forget you, but I really don't have time right now," Brick said, shaking his neck. "If we meet again in the future, I'll definitely look out for you."
"Brick, aren't you the boss of Maelstrom? Can you tell your people to stop?" Berry said, putting away her gun and addressing Brick.
To be honest, she had always been curious. In the game, after rescuing Brick, logically, V and Jackie should have been able to walk out of the factory with impunity with just one command from him. Why did they still have to fight pointlessly?
"Hmph, where is Royce?" Brick's red cyberware scanned the three of them. They clearly weren't Maelstrom members, so Brick was very curious. Although Royce was indeed trash, it shouldn't have been so easy for three Mercenaries to just kill their way in.
"We took him out," V said carelessly, shrugging.
"Shit... I wanted to take him out myself, but whatever," Brick shook his head and continued. "You guys leave the factory. I'll find a pager and contact the subordinates still loyal to me. It's time to deal with those damned traitors!"
Brick was filled with rage. It seemed that imprisonment had not extinguished the ferocity of a gang boss.
V and Berry exchanged nods.
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