Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 548: Act Like A Gang Boss.

Idiot C opened his eyes and looked behind him.

"What’s up?" Idiot D asked.

"I thought I heard someone scream just now..." idiot C frowned.

"You sure about that? I heard nothing?"

"Really?"

In a city where gunfire was common enough to be background noise, people screaming wasn’t anything to fret about.

"C’mon, get it done already!" Idiot D said. "The others probably went in by now!"

"Just give me a minute!"

Closing his eyes again, Idiot C Dove into the digital lock on the door to the apartment attached to the noodle shop. He was an expert when it came to cracking those, and the model he was dealing with could be called ancient at this point.

A click announced that the lock was now open, and the green glow on the screen confirmed it.

"Alright! I got-"

Excited, he turned to brag to his partner only to notice he was nowhere to be found. Though he had been focusing just now, it wasn’t to the extent that he wouldn’t notice someone walking away.

Looking down the dimly lit passage, its eeriness caused his skin to crawl. Though it occurred to him how silly it was to be afraid in such a situation, he couldn’t shake the strange sensation and sprang up to his feet.

"H-hey! Where the hell did you go?"

His partner went to join the others; that was the logical conclusion. Would that mean he has to handle the back exit on his own?

"Motherfu-"

Gritting his teeth, Idiot C was about to go check if his partner really did go to join the others. Blinding pain shot up through his right leg as he took the first step, and when he looked down, he found that he was leaning on a stump, as if he never had a foot connected to his leg.

Panic struck at that moment, and his shaking mouth spread open to release a horrified scream, but his voice never left his throat.

A glowing edge peeked out of his neck, exiting right below his Adam’s apple. An instant later, it spread out on either side, expanding the cut until it severed the neck completely.

Idiot C’s brain was still active at that point, but the horror made it impossible to understand what was happening to him. He didn’t sense it when the glowing edge cut through the rest of his body, dividing it neatly into smaller parts that collapsed like a house made from toy building blocks.

Each piece disappeared into thin air couple of feet above the ground.

The glowing edge retracted, and for a moment, the air shimmered, revealing a humanoid form, though nothing about it was human.

The door opened just then, and a green-haired girl peeked out.

"Oh, you’re done?" She asked, looking at an empty spot in the air.

[Yes. I have disposed of the invader.] A voice replied, its source invisible to the eye.

"Great! Can you come handle the two inside as well? I tried to keep it clean, but... well, who knew bones could pierce the skin from the inside."

[I will be there soon.]

"Don’t take too long!"

The door closed, and an audible sigh echoed through the desolate passage. Soon after, something else appeared in the desolate passage, though no one could see it, no matter how much they tried. It knelt down and picked the invisible box containing Idiot D’s remains, put it one hr done containing Idiot C, then carried them both, leaving right after. Once the boxes were gone, the color under them became visible again, and so did the red lines drawn by the blood that was spilled outside the box.

[Goddamn it...]

With a sigh, Volcan instructed his androids to clean the mess before anyone noticed. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

~[ ]~

Dante clicked his tongue, eliciting a confused glance from Riot. Volcan had just informed him about the thugs who went after Nobara and the Bowl of Fortune.

As expected, they belonged to Black Skull. Unlike the last time his favorite noodle shop was attacked, Nobara was there. Suzuka had left her clanker girlfriend there, too, and with two Volcan droids stationed there, he had nothing to worry about.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t pissed. Expecting a violent gang to avoid targeting the people close to their enemies was plain idiotic, which is why he had set up most of Volcan’s androids to guard people he didn’t want anyone to touch. He also instructed his resident AI to keep watch and inform him right away if anyone tries to play him.

’Maybe I should do the same...’

Black Skull members didn’t strike him as the kind to have families and loved ones. In a way, he saw him as no more than mobs in a video game, which wasn’t very strange after watching first-person perspective videos of a few dozen of them being shot dead.

Knowing what they do was another reason. It was a little difficult to see them as humans after seeing what happened to those kids.

"Alright, let’s get this over with."

With a sigh, Dante got out of the truck. Riot followed after him. Oliver was already waiting for them outside. Dante was sure he had seen him behind the wheel a second ago.

"Don’t do anything stupid."

"Yes, boss! You won’t even notice me in there!"

They were standing near the entrance to an old bar called the Rusty Cup. As he wondered where such a name came from, Dante noticed a few people running around, some of whom had that despicable tattoo on their left cheek. Some rushed into the bar, while others scattered to either side. It was unclear whether his presence or that of Riot had cases, but it didn’t really matter. They weren’t trying to sneak around, so he didn’t care if they got noticed.

"Alright, big dog," Dante said, turning to the giant standing beside him. "I’m gonna act like a gang boss from here on, so you handle beating the small fries."

"... You serious?" Riot asked.

"Of course I’m serious. Now, get on with it already."

Riot just stood there for a few seconds, and when he saw that Dante wasn’t charging his decision, the big guy gave up. He walked up to the entrance, grumbling all the while, then kicked the door as if it had been the one who caused his fall from grace.