Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 501: Four Months.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

As expected, the BEO commander wasn't very pleased with what Dante was implying. The air around her seemed to shift, and her gloved hands gained a faint red color.

"Relax, it's not like we're gonna go looking for other buyers," Dante smirked at her. "Though that will remain an option if you keep testing my patience."

"Your patience?"

"Right now, I'm the only point of contact. Piss me off enough times, and you won't like how things will turn out."

"... alright, I get it." Caroline seemed to give in, the tension surrounding her dispersing. "We won't be sending anyone from now on. You'll just kill and add them to the list of corpses, anyway."

"Good. Seems like you get it," Dante said.

"So?"

Dante paused, letting her question hang in the air. Only once her patience seemed to reach its limits did he speak up.

"The corpses will be priced at 80 million each. Might as well give them out for free, if you ask me."

"... that's it?" The commander looked at him with suspicion.

"Obviously not," Dante snorted. "Let's see…" Looking up, he pretended to try recalling something. "Each corpse will be 80 million Gold. The exchange will happen on the first of each month for the next four months."

"... what?"

"Yeah, that was the new condition," Dante said. "You will get one corpse every month. So long as you behave, that is."

"That's not what we agreed on!"

"We didn't agree on shit."

As the commander got agitated once more, Dante gave her a look that said he wasn't going to tolerate her BS anymore. Right now, he was the one making the rule. Whether the deal progressed or not depended on his mood, and the way he set it up ensured that things would remain this way for some time.

"You can just give up, if that's what you want," He said. "I can't guarantee that the corpses would still be around by the time you change your mind."

As he spoke, Caroline's right leg kept bouncing up and down. He really was testing her patience, and from the looks of it, she didn't have much left.

"I have no other choice, don't I?"

"Nope," Dante replied. "I would have offered to help but… I really hate your kind, you see."

Caroline regarded him for a few seconds.

"You seemed to get along pretty well with Silver Wind the other day."

That finally seemed to get him, seeing as his mood turned for the worse right away. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Is that what it looks like to you?"

As if his encounter with the furry hero and his team wasn't bad enough, Dante later learned that their orange-haired teammate had mentioned him in one of her social media posts. Apparently, he was now known as the gang boss who likes big chests. The fact that she called him cute didn't help his case at all.

"The first of each month for the next four months," Said Caroline. "It has already been some time, so…" the frown returned to her face. "Four months…"

A month for each corpse. That sounded reasonable until she remembered that there had been a fifth they hadn't discussed.

Looking up with a start, she found Dante smirking at her once more.

"Red Bull is still alive…"

"Took you long enough," Dante replied.

~[ ]~

The door closed, and the car drove off. Soon enough, the shadows of the oppressive megastructures vanished, and an expanse filled with colorful neon lights spread on either side.

For the first time since forever, Caroline found herself staring out of the car's window. Neo-Vatra was never a regular destination of hers, despite it being one of the largest cities in the Radmir Union. If not for their recent Ghost problems, she would never have stayed more than a couple of days.

The constantly cloudy sky felt unnatural to her—like the ceiling of a cage she unknowingly found herself in. Would she be able to escape this cage? With each day she spent inside it, the idea of getting away became more foreign to her.

"Ma'am," The driver's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "Would you like to head to the headquarters?"

By headquaters he meant the BEO branch here in this city, not the actual headquarters. Caroline gave it some thought, then looked down at the phone in her hand. She might not have been in a rush, but it might be better to take care of this matter right now.

"The warehouse from the other day," She said.

"Understood." The driver nodded, then turned his focus back to the wheel.

Caroline went back to staring out of the window, her thoughts veering back to the deal she had cut with the Cyberpunk. Four Months. That was the length of the truce they agreed on, though they hadn't called it exactly that. For the next few months, the BEO would stay away from him.

The youth was well aware of his position as the only clue to Ghost and the organization backing them. Whoever they are, this third faction had picked a fight against Eidolon and its Genomes—a fight they couldn't hope to win. That was the likely reason why they want to buy more time for themselves, something they wouldn't have needed to do if they remained in the shadows.

Did they underestimate the true power of the Genomes and rush their first move? Or could it be that they overestimated their own capabilities and fired the first shot only to realize they didn't have what it takes to win the war?

Whatever it might be, a war isn't something that can just be paused. The truce meant that they couldn't make direct attacks, but probing through different routes was still viable. There was one thing that complicated the whole matter—Red Bull.

The horned hero was a high-end Level 4, making him one of the most valuable Genomes known to the public. things would have been much easier if he had been dead, but with him as a hostage—a living hostage—they can't be too reckless when dealing with the Cyberpunk, at least not until the fur corpses are returned and they start negotiating the release of the living one.

They arrived at the warehouse before long. The place had been prepared a week earlier to serve as temporary storage for the Black Shield tech. Caroline had expected to see a caravan of trucks drive toward it when the day arrived, but it appears things were going to be different.

A number of people awaited her arrival at the entrance—Jordan Evans was among them. The other recognizable face all belonged to Flame Guard.

"What is this I'm hearing about a phone?" Thunder Strike asked, disapproval clear on his face. "Don't tell me he played you and got away with the money?"

"Now, let's not be hasty," Caroline made her exhaustion known with a very long sigh. "He had been very focused on trust. We should try to believe he would keep his word."

"Sounds like a very bad idea." Said Libertystar.

"Is Erebus here?" Caroline asked.

"Did you call me?"

The shadowy figure appeared right beside her, as if he had always been there. Caroline spared him a glance, then sighed again.

"Keep your eyes open," She said. "I want you to figure out how it works. It would be better if you could track it back to the source."

"What happened to trust?" The shadowy figure looked at her, his eyes now half circles.

"We were told nothing about this part," she said. "If this ends up exposing them, they can only blame themselves."