The chaos was over.

Half of the factory was collapsed.

The rest was teetering on the edge.

John surfaced, wiped his face, and crawled out from the smoke-filled, spark-sprinkled ruins.

As he searched for his motorcycle, he checked his firearm.

Triangular Maple had undergone harsh environment tests.

The performance was unaffected.

John mounted the Alloy RCH, the tires spinning at high speed, tracing a black line across the gravel and bloodstains.

Owl Town Gang and the police would soon surround the streets.

John accelerated, rushing out of the riverbank area, not daring to linger, aiming straight for the high-priced crossing bridge to leave Sakura Cross Street.

Even as he fled, he didn't forget to chastise Kenichi Sora.

"Fuck, you're just a show-off idiot, isn't the noise big enough yet? Now look, city-wide congestion along with industrial equipment explosions, ECPD can no longer play blind man!"

The city's tolerance for mercenaries had limits.

The more overboard you go, the more serious the cops become, and if things spiral out of control, triggering a cyberpsychosis alert, it would bring in the Special Event Handling Action Team.

Their methods are more ruthless than any gang.

Don't provoke corporate dogs, especially don't provoke SAT.

This is a lesson every criminal in Eden City has learned from piles of minced meat.

The motorcycle roared.

The rapidly racing street scenes compressed in the field of view, only faint data text floated at the edges.

Police sirens spread across Sakura Cross Street.

John glanced back on the overpass:

Glaive Motorcycles roared, armored vehicles bearing gang insignias patrolled everywhere, the coastal shallows were already surrounded by ECPD and Owl Town Gang.

The most distressing situation occurred:

The broadcast on the overpass began looping, due to city crimes and destructive public incidents, several cross-district bridges were officially locked down and controlled.

"Goddammit, fear what you may—here we are, trapped in the Eastern People's territory."

[Is it really bad?]

"In the worst-case scenario, we'll have to take on the whole Owl Town Gang ourselves, then get flooded by bullets, and tossed into an acid tank!"

The cops were slacking, but they could pull small tricks.

For example, like now, keeping "trouble" contained internally, letting criminals digest it themselves, neither directly intervening in gang wars nor concluding conflicts easily.

[Mission objective updated]

[Force through the blockade. (Optional)]

[Find other channels. (Optional)]

"I've got a way."

John took control of the body and dialed a phone.

[Contact - Barry Kit [Video Call]]

The Eden City Lieutenant Colonel in body armor appeared on the edge of the vision pop-up.

He was seated in the driver's seat.

The sunlight outside the car was bleak.

Red and white police lights incessantly swept over.

[John, state your business.]

"Are you the one in charge of the cops at Sakura Cross Street?"

[Oh, coming to me for perversion of justice now.]

"I took a job from the Black Gold Gang, was working on Eastern People's territory, things wrapped up, and also said hello to a few Ghouls."

The Alloy RCH tore through the streets.

John's voice was distorted by the wind.

Barry raised a cup of coffee, brows furrowed, appearing to suddenly understand but unwilling to get involved.

[So you disturbed the hornet's nest.]

"Just work, I don't want to clash with ECPD, how about you open a door, and we stay out of trouble?"

John's tone was relaxed.

Barry didn't rush to agree.

He slowly took a sip of coffee, his gaze drifting outside the car window, trying to interpret something amidst the blue-white police lights.

The in-car radio emitted static.

Shortly after, Barry initiated a call, instructing in a serious tone over the police channel.

[Attention dispatch center, sudden event in area E4-15, status A level, lethal weapons involved, officers near the cross-district bridge in district E immediately support, awaiting response.]

After speaking, Barry lay back on the driver's seat.

He adjusted his seat, wore his sunglasses, extended his hands behind his neck, feeling a sense of relaxed leisure amidst busy hours.

Officers responded over the radio.

Barry didn't say anything more.

John understood.

He hung up the phone, changed direction, and sped toward the cross-district checkpoint numbered E.

From afar.

They could already see the queue of cars before the barricade.

The police had established a temporary passage. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Four armored vehicles.

Two drones.

The elevated screen was scrolling with exclamation marks, and the holographic projection of red alert was imprinted on the wet asphalt road.

Industrial vapors wafted up to the bridge.

A stretch of taillights slowly blurred amidst the honking.

The road was blocked.

[This setup doesn't seem to have any intention of letting up, did you really negotiate with the cops?]

Kenichi Sora felt uncertain.

But John hesitated not, deliberately creating a roar to catch the attention of some cops in the distance.

[Detected scan… no signs of hacking.]

He drove the Alloy RCH into a temporary passage specially left aside.

The drivers waiting in line first cursed, then realizing that the black motorcycle didn't slow down and was basically forcing through the checkpoint, they quickly withdrew, raised their windows, fearing splatter from stray bullets and blood.

The police lights began to flash.

The cops placed their hands on their guns.

Several automated turrets turned simultaneously.

The drone's scanning grids gathered from all directions, warning lights activated, then abruptly turned green just a second before the conflict broke out.

The stakes on the road descended.

The motorcycle hurdled past the checkpoint.

No gunfire, no reprimand, the ECPD's open gap swiftly closed after John's passage.

The previous confrontation seemed more like assistance in suppressing those grumbling drivers.

[Whew~ really works, you've got quite the connections.]

Sora was just about to take over the body.

John smirked.

Barry was a rogue cop, also a top official in the Sakura Cross Street's ECPD region.

He suited John's taste very well.

[So Barry's a good guy?]

"Only a roaming AI would ask such a question, anyone who becomes an ECPD Lieutenant Colonel couldn't be decent, but... Eden City is a muddy swamp, even if you want to do some good, you have to dirty your hands."

[Quite complicated.]

"That's life, mercenaries clench their fists, and the seepage between the fingers is always dirty blood."

John twisted the motorcycle throttle, the engine roaring as it dashed into the last tunnel segment of the cross-district bridge.

The wind turned sharp.

The roar of the vehicle compressed against walls on either side of the tunnel, making the world feel narrowed.

Flickering holographic fish projections on both sides.

Lights connecting into lines.

John raised the motorcycle's front.

The Alloy RCH lifted and descended the steep slope, finally merging into the traffic flow of the West District.

All Eastern People's style decorations vanished.

The afternoon sun in the West District remained bleak.

John turned onto the elevated bridge, looking back at the heavily industrial styled and American graffiti-covered streets, the distant Sakura Cross Street seemed like a different world.

The neon colors dissolved in the haze.

Skyscrapers loomed like fortresses with glassy sheen, layers amassed overhead, with intermittent sirens and faint gunshots disappearing into background noise.

Life or death speed, geisha, ghoul, blood under neon lights all faded away.

Bzz.

The Alloy RCH snorted as it turned into the underground parking of Bolago Club.

John took the elevator, with his identity information displayed on the panel.

The floor level in the elevator was even higher than last time.

He arrived at the building garden with a helipad.

A central boxing arena beneath him.

Now it's daytime, holographic projections appear only at night, through the glass windows, beneath the evening sun, only gradually fading strip ads visible.

Exit the elevator carriage.

Here was a stark contrast from the environment downstairs, first, a magnificent gallery, dim and tranquil, with music and soft laughter mixed with perfume wafting in the air.

John walked on a silent carpet, almost soundless, like a shadowy assassin, eyes crossing the railing, seeing a group of wealthy elites smiling and conversing in a luminous hall.

Purple and pink light strips broke the dullness.

Their attire, drinks, even the music echoing in the lounge, formed an invisible barrier, silently marking the city's class divide.

Here lay an office belonging to Bone Shards.

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