"Hi, Berry." On the operating chair, V's face was still pale, but at least a little color had returned.
Seeing Berry rush in, she forced a weak smile.
"V!" Berry was even more excited to see V awake, wanting to rush inside from the doorway.
"Hey, hey, the patient just recovered." Before Berry could take two steps, Viktor reached out and stopped the excited Berry.
"Alright, are you calm now?" Looking at Berry's excited expression, Viktor shook his head with a laugh, then let go and patted Berry's shoulder, "Okay, go ahead."
Stopped by Viktor, Berry's mood calmed down a bit. She took a deep breath and walked to V's side.
"Hi, V, how are you doing?" Berry sat sideways next to the operating chair, her eyes on V, and her hand gently clasped V's slender hand.
"Hmm... I'm alright." V smiled sheepishly, her eyes drifting elsewhere.
Clearly, she still felt her actions of getting injured and fainting were a bit... well, too embarrassing.
"It's just some anesthetic, I'm fine now... in a bit." V looked at the tightly wrapped bandages on her abdomen and the brace protecting her spine, then gave a bitter smile. "I might shed some tears later, Berry, you can't record it."
"Hey, V." Just then, Jackie also walked up, scratching his head, looking very embarrassed.
"Let's skip the mushy stuff, anyway, I'm very grateful, chica (Girl)." Jackie said seriously. "You have to get better quickly, don't forget, I still owe you two million."
Jackie forced a relaxed smile. "If you're laid up, I might just default and run away."
"Hehe, Jackie, you can't get out of the debt. Just wait to be my black market worker for life!" V chuckled, her gaze playful. "Also, your driving skills are terrible. I almost threw up even when I was unconscious."
"Hey, wasn't it an emergency?"
"Hey, Berry, why aren't you saying anything?" V saw Berry just quietly looking at her, then smiled and asked.
And Berry watched V talking and laughing enthusiastically, acting as if nothing had happened, just like the usual optimistic and cheerful V.
Berry wanted to echo V, as if nothing had ever happened. She tried to smile, but could only manage a smile uglier than crying.
Stop kidding!
How could she be fine with such serious injuries!
At this thought, Berry felt even more guilty and self-reproachful.
"V... don't force yourself." Just then, Viktor, holding a PDA, walked over, shaking his head, and mercilessly exposed V's lie.
"At least five shrapnel fragments were shot into her waist, three passed through, and two were lodged in the crevices of her spinal bones. I removed them, but the subsequent recovery... well, the most optimistic estimate is at least a year."
Viktor, with his deep voice, delivered very bad news, and the three immediately fell silent.
"A year? That long..." Jackie was somewhat incredulous, unable to speak.
"V?" Berry looked at the weakly smiling V, then turned to Viktor. "Viktor, what's the conservative estimate? Will V... really recover?"
Hearing Berry's question, Viktor silently shook his head.
"It's not that simple. V's internal organs in her abdominal cavity weren't greatly damaged, but the spine is critical. Two shrapnel fragments are lodged in her spine, and that's not an easy place to recover from."
"Now, back to your question, the conservative estimate..." Viktor pushed up his glasses. "Three, or five years, or perhaps... never. The final outcome depends on V's own recovery ability."
Shaking his head, Viktor still delivered the most difficult to accept outcome.
"What?" After hearing what Viktor said, Berry's face fell, and she immediately felt a bitter lump in her heart.
Her mind was also a tangled mess, unable to sort out any thoughts.
"However, there might be other ways." Viktor glanced at V on the operating chair, who was looking at Berry with pity, and then spoke. "Those big corporations... Arasaka, Militech, Biotechnica... they have the most advanced biotechnology. They might have a way to solve V's problem."
Viktor's words gave Berry hope.
Yes, even though those companies were inhumane, they definitely had this kind of technology. And as long as they had it, Berry could get it, and V could be saved.
"Yes, V, for our sake, I'll take another risk to find a way to cure you." Jackie nodded to V with determined eyes.
"I'm just providing a direction; at least it's better than nothing." Viktor sighed deeply, pacing back and forth.
"Oh, Berry, these are Mupirocin Healing Agents." Viktor took two bottles of medicine from a nearby shelf and handed them to Berry.
"These can disinfect and sterilize, prevent wound infection, and also accelerate healing. Spray V's wound once every two days."
Viktor's speech was slightly urgent. After instructing Berry on some precautions, he said with a serious expression.
"You two need to leave quickly!"
"I guess half the city is looking for you now. If you stay in the city, you'll be in danger."
"Viktor, you know everything?" Jackie asked in confusion.
"Heh, I knew. When the news reported that Konpeki Plaza was sealed off, I knew you two were probably in trouble. Rushing out excitedly in the morning, looking like you were going to do something big, wasn't that you two?"
Hearing Viktor say this, all three lowered their faces in shame.
"You need to act quickly, Berry. The safe house you asked me to arrange is in the Badlands. You know the location. Although I don't want to say this, you two should move quickly!"
"Okay, coming!" Jackie nodded, about to go help Berry support V.
"No, Jackie, the place I prepared for you is in Pacifica." Viktor stopped Jackie, shaking his head. "Acting together makes you too big a target; you must split up."
"Pacifica?" Jackie nodded; he knew that chaotic place.
"Berry."
"Yes!"
Berry, whose name was called, listened attentively.
Viktor stepped forward and placed his hand on Berry's shoulder.
"V is in your hands... do your best." Viktor sighed after speaking, shook his head, and left. This was all he could do.
"Alright, Berry, put me down, just support me, I can still walk myself." Being held by the petite Berry, V felt very awkward. She didn't want to be so weak, so unhelpful, and instead have her girlfriend protect her.
"It's okay, V!" Berry, operating with eight points of strength, effortlessly picked up V. "V, I'll protect you!"
Berry looked at V in her arms with burning eyes, full of determination.
Seeing Berry with such serious eyes, V said nothing, only her cheeks flushed, and a smile appeared at the corners of her mouth.
This was the first time she had seen Berry like this.
In Berry's small embrace, V felt a sense of security she had never experienced before.
"Jackie, take care!"
"You two take care too!"
The two nodded goodbye to Jackie.
Berry knew that Yorinobu Arasaka, that 'dutiful son', would soon cancel the facade of a pursuit targeting them. After all, if they were really caught, he would be the one unable to explain himself.
They would soon be able to return to the city and complete... their revenge!
But before that, they had to endure.
Berry's gaze was firm, her mind made up.
She held V a little tighter.
After V and Berry got into V's car, which had been called remotely, Jackie also prepared to flee.
Viktor had given him the coordinates of a safe house in Pacifica. Although it was still in the city, it was a mixed bag of people, and after the Night City Council's withdrawal, it had become the territory of criminals and gangs.
Once he burrowed in there, Arasaka wouldn't find him even if they dug three feet deep.
As expected of Viktor, a local expert is a local expert; he always has so many escape routes.
"Misty, I'm also on the run!" Jackie was in Misty's shop, taking off his tattered clothes, preparing to change into the clean ones he had left there before he fled.
"Damn it!" Jackie suddenly cursed, realizing that the movement of taking off his clothes had pulled at his wounds.
His robust physique, comparable to Arnold's, was covered in numerous small and large wounds. Although crudely bandaged, they were still seeping blood.
"Jackie, you can't go on like this." Misty looked at Jackie's miserable state, her eyes narrowing in pain, unable to bear the sight.
"No choice, when you're in this line of work, sooner or later you'll have some bad luck." Jackie took two deep breaths, gritting his teeth to endure the pain as he laboriously put on a clean T-shirt.
"No, you can't handle this alone this time!" Misty shook her head sadly. Finally, as if she had made a decision, she took a deep breath and walked over to Jackie, crouching down. She looked into his eyes and grabbed his rough hands.
"I'll help you this time. I'll drive you to Pacifica!"
"But..." Jackie was about to refuse, but he looked down and saw the determination in Misty's eyes. It didn't look like something he could refuse.
"Alright, but only as far as the bridge." Jackie smiled with relief, but he also had his own insistence: only to the Heywood Bridge.
Further south into Pacifica, that was truly a lawless zone, and he would never let Misty risk going there with him.
And Misty nodded firmly.
V's group split into two, embarking on their respective escapes, but their "accomplice," Dexter DeShawn, ran into trouble.
Time rewound to when Jackie hung up his call.
Dexter DeShawn was furious after the call was cut off, not because Jackie and the others didn't trust him, but because he himself was in big trouble.
His plan was indeed as Berry had guessed: he intended to betray Jackie and the others, to dispose of these individuals who had "murdered" Saburo Arasaka. This would attract and delay Arasaka's search, and during this time, he, this three-hundred-pound black gold fatty, would have long fled to Atlanta.
But that little rascal from Jackie's side spoke up, disrupting his plan, yet he had no choice. To survive, he had to prepare to flee.
"Oleg, we should go!" Dexter, who had failed to catch his prey at the 'Keeping Quiet Hotel', prepared to call his big Bodyguard and flee.
However, Dexter's call went unanswered.
"Oleg?!" Dexter frowned and called again. He was puzzled; wasn't his Bodyguard guarding the door right behind him?
Why wasn't he answering?
Puzzled, Dexter turned his head.
Indeed, Oleg hadn't disappeared; he was still facing away from him, watching the door.
But why wasn't he answering him?
With a puzzled frown, Dexter stepped forward, intending to pat Oleg's shoulder.
The bounty results are great this time, but it seems almost too good!!! (sad)
The calculated result is 26.3 updates for monthly votes.
10.368 updates for recommendation tickets.
30.669 updates for rewards.
7.5 updates for initial subscription.
A total of 74.837 updates, rounded up to exactly 75 updates.
Although 'blades' were not included in the bounty, many 'blades' were rewarded, so I'll arbitrarily count them as 5 updates, bringing the total to exactly 80 updates.
But the crappy writer has only repaid nine updates, meaning there are still 71 updates owed!!! (sad)
How will they be repaid? Naturally, two daily updates, plus two bonus updates for bounties, making four updates a day. Any more and people will break!!!!
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