After the explosion, as the dust slowly settled, Jackie and V, who had been hiding in the shadows with their ears covered, finally raised their faces, covered in white ash and sweat, and looked blankly at the hall that had been plowed over.
There were no mechs left, only three charred iron frames burning fiercely in the middle of the hall, and this meant...
"Fuck, Arno is dead!" Jackie cried, slamming his fist into a pile of debris, drawing blood, and tears streamed down his face, wetting the dust on the ground.
"Jackie…" V, clutching her injured arm, stumbled over, hunching her body, and placed a hand on Jackie's grief-stricken shoulder.
Although she was also very sad about Arno's death.
This place was too dangerous, it wasn't the time for mourning.
"We need to get out of here fast, Arasaka's people will be here soon."
Without speaking, only shaking his head, Jackie laboriously stood up from the ruins.
The dead have found peace, but the living must continue to fall.
They had to escape this hellhole quickly.
"Berry…" V dialed Berry's phone.
"Already on my way!" Berry replied calmly.
As soon as she encountered the three mechs, she had already driven towards Konpeki Plaza, shrouded in the dark night's clouds. In just half a minute, she would be able to get there and pick up V and the others.
Despite this, Berry's heart was still uneasy. Although the danger had been eliminated by Arno's self-destruction, a shadow still hung over her heart, heavy with a bad premonition.
Faster, even faster!
Looking at the utterly dark and eerie building, Berry was incredibly anxious, pressing the accelerator to its limit.
"Damn it, V, look, Arno is still alive!"
In the ruins, Jackie suddenly cried out in surprise.
As the two were about to escape, they saw a metal head lying on the ground, which must have been ejected during the explosion. And this head, wasn't it Arno's metal skull?
"Fuck, Arno, are you okay?" Jackie knelt on the dust, cradling Arno's metal skull, making it face him.
The red light in the skull's eye sockets was still flickering faintly, blinking on and off, like a dying candle in the wind, ready to extinguish at any moment.
Meanwhile, Berry, who was driving, also looked bewilderedly at Arno's re-appearing video feed, and Jackie's cautious big face in front of the feed.
"That's great!" Seeing the light still in Arno's eyes, Jackie exclaimed in surprise.
Fortunately, his buddy had been completely converted into metal, otherwise, if only his head was left, he would definitely be dead. Unlike now, where his eyeballs could still glow, which surely meant he was still alive.
In Jackie's perception, Arno was a guy who had undergone super-high-level cyberware modification, like Adam Smasher, and he never thought of him as a robot.
"A miracle! This is truly a miracle!" V, carrying the box, walked over, her tired face also filled with surprise. After all, even if only a head was left, her brother was still alive, and that was the best thing.
Arno's flickering red light was directed at Jackie, and his mouth slightly opened.
Although it was difficult to discern expressions on a skeletal metal head, Arno still offered his own explanation.
"He's smiling, V, he says he's fine!" Jackie turned back to V excitedly, but V looked at Arno's metal head with a solemn expression.
If he was smiling, would he need to open and close his mouth so many times?
V felt confused, looking at Arno's constantly opening and closing mouth and flickering red light, she felt very strange and uneasy. Suddenly, she widened her eyes and opened her mouth.
"Jackie, get the fuck out of the way!!!"
V's eyes widened, and her body almost instantly sprang up, pulling Jackie, who still had surprise on his face, to roll aside.
The next second, a dull explosive sound rang out, and a burst of metal shrapnel swept across the spot where they had just stood, kicking up a pile of dust.
Then came another thud, a heavy object landed with force, kicking up even more dust.
"Is this the confidence you motherfuckers have to rampage in my building!!!!!"
A deep, eerie metallic synthesized voice sounded. A massive black mechanical body broke through the mist and walked forward, its pitch-black metal cybernetic limb grabbing Jackie from the ground and pulling him close.
"You're dead!!!!! Little bugs!!!!!"
Beneath the pale, disgusting fleshy brain case was half a mechanical face, with bulging, crimson cybernetic eyes glaring fiercely.
With a sudden forceful throw, Jackie flew backward, landing with a clang in the rubble of sand and stone, immediately crying out in pain.
"Jackie!" V, who had fallen to the ground on the other side, saw this and urgently called out, gripping the ground.
"Fuck, it's Adam Smasher!" Jackie coughed up blood, gasping in pain, but his eyes were filled with fear for the tall humanoid figure.
"Fuck, now we're really screwed, Adam Smasher is here!"
Jackie reached out with a trembling hand, trying to pick up the assault rifle beside him, filled with despair, but he hadn't given up resisting.
At this moment, the nearly three-meter-tall humanoid black metal machine stepped back across the floor to Arno's fallen head, and in the terrified eyes of Jackie and V, it raised its foot.
"This is what happens to you!!!!! Meatbags!!!!!"
Adam Smasher's crimson eyeballs writhed, sweeping over the two people lying on the ground like meat worms. He stomped down hard with his foot, and Arno's metal head instantly exploded into a pile of fragments.
"No!!!!!"
With the abrupt cessation of Jackie and V's cries, Berry also lost sight of Arno.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck!!!"
Berry, driving the car, cursed repeatedly in anger.
Why the hell was Adam Smasher there, why the hell at this very moment.
"V! V!, can you hear me?"
"Jackie! Jackie!?"
"Answer me, damn it!!!"
V and Jackie's communication was also cut off. Berry, completely cut off from information from the building, was trembling with anxiety.
Berry bit her lower lip until it bled, and pressed the accelerator to the floor.
No! No! Hammersmith, you won't get away with this.
Thinking of Jackie and V facing the inhumanly powerful Hammersmith inside, Berry tensed up completely, her heart almost pounding out of her chest.
The current Jackie and V absolutely cannot defeat Hammersmith. It's impossible. If this continues, if this continues, they will really die!!!
Berry's heart felt like it was tumbling and suffering in the lava of Purgatory.
Why the hell can't this car go any faster!
She roared frantically in pain.
Finally, after the agonizing Life-or-death Race, the main entrance was right before her eyes!!!
"This is a restricted area! Vehicles are prohibited!"
The area around the building had been cordoned off. Armored vehicles belonging to Arasaka Corporation were everywhere, along with teams of Special Forces deploying. In front of the cordon and barbed wire, the heavily armored Special Operations Personnel raised their assault rifles upon seeing the black MPV charging straight toward them like thunder.
"Last warning! Stop!"
The charging vehicle did not slow down in the slightest. The roar of the engine drowned out all surrounding noise. All the corporate forces outside looked toward the direction the vehicle was coming from.
"Fire!"
The warning was ineffective, and the Special Operations Personnel immediately pulled the triggers.
"Da da da da da~!!!"
Intense gunfire and flashes erupted.
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