032: Clipping the Tail

The nightlife on Sakura Cross Street was remarkably vibrant.

This meant that as the Silver Knight sped through, the streets were choked with cars and motorcycles, and the sidewalks were lined with screaming citizens. The smart ones hid behind neon signs, dodging the hail of machine-gun fire. Bullets shattered nearby storefronts, casings clattered and rolled across the wet, black asphalt, and the neon reflections in the puddles shivered from the impact.

Everything was lethal. John had provoked a genuine madman.

From the moment the Ghouls opened fire in the commercial district, it meant they could never return to their bloody factories along the coast to continue their criminal enterprises. The Owl Town gang would come knocking with guns in hand, chopping off every pair of hands that dared to break their rules.

But that was a problem for later.

Gino lay slumped in the passenger seat. Her cybernetic eyes were flickering incessantly; viral software was tearing through her firewalls, while her flesh bore the brunt of it all. At this rate, in another two blocks... the girl would suffer irreversible brain damage.

Traffic on the road had come to a standstill. Everyone simply watched the chase, while young men and women on the rooftops of shops cheered and threw debris down at the street. Utterly trashy behavior.

The Eisenberg supercar drifted beneath a neon sign, its front-left tire wobbling violently under the strain of high-speed maneuvers. Every turn carried the risk of a rollover. John was pushing to the absolute limit to buy time.

Having temporarily shaken his pursuers, John immediately dialed Rian Randall.

"Doc, I need your help."

[You sound loud as hell over there. Good grief, don't tell me you're calling me in the middle of a job?]

"Other stuff later. I've got a girl next to me who's about to kick the bucket. You're the ripperdoc I trust the most—help me save her."

[What's the situation?]

John gave a brief summary of what had happened in the cold storage. The doctor’s assessment matched his own.

[Excessive, incompatible software running simultaneously. Even though you pulled the chip, the data redundancy has already taken hold, and the extra parameters are replicating, consuming her processing power...]

"She's dying, Doc! Can you speak English for once?"

[The virus in her brain is killing her. Find some antivirus software and scrub it.]

"Shit!"

John couldn't help but curse. He was a stranger in this city; not to mention where he’d find antivirus software, Gino’s condition wouldn't last more than a few minutes.

And just as he feared, it happened.

Gino suddenly began to convulse, her cybernetic eyes turning white, showing signs of a short-circuit overload.

"Fuck it, no choice."

John steadied the steering wheel with his elbow, lifted his arm, bit the data cable out from his own wrist, and jammed it into the back of Gino’s neck.

[Bio-information scan in progress...]

[Confirm connection to data terminal? Confirmed.]

With a car screaming along at over two hundred miles per hour and the need to simultaneously control the "Blacklight" program, it felt like performing delicate surgery on a tightrope in high winds.

The Blacklight overwrote the program with ease. The electronic virus and redundant data were purged in an instant—cleaner than a brand-new chip. Even the factory-default firewall was wiped away in the process. John controlled it with surgical precision; one moment of distraction, and the Blacklight would turn Gino’s brain into mush—he had seen that happen at a back-alley clinic on the Far Shore Boulevard.

"Virus cleared. Now what?"

[Whoa, for real? You’re messing with me, right? You’ve got a naked girl in the passenger seat and you're carrying antivirus software? What kind of hobby is that!]

"Fuck you, Doc, I'm being hunted!"

[Alright, alright, don't get excited. If you really cleared the virus and she’s still breathing, she won’t kick it just yet. Bring her to me; there’s only so much I can do over the phone.]

"Thanks. I'll be there once I shake my tail."

John let out a slight sigh of relief and caught sight of the modified vehicles in his rearview mirror. A surge of anger rose within him. He yanked the wheel, veering onto the cross-district bridge, and adjusted his speed just enough to let the Ghouls keep up.

The side door of the van slid open.

Armed thugs roared as they opened fire, bullets raining down around the supercar. But not a single round penetrated the cabin. The Eisenberg was custom-fitted with top-tier plating and Plato’s honeycomb bulletproof glass. These Ghouls lacked heavy weaponry, and their rounds were the cheapest street-grade trash. If a passenger felt nervous, it would be an insult to the corporation’s technology.

John was nearing the end of the bridge.

He activated the Silver Knight’s roof-mounted machine gun, shredding the traffic lights. The electronic signals exploded, their metal casings denting and sparking. Simultaneously, all the surrounding spotlights flared to life at once.

The entire bridge was lit up like midday, blinding the Ghouls behind him, while the Eisenberg’s light-sensitive sensors adjusted instantly, leaving John unaffected.

The electronic signs began scrolling red warnings.

John floored the accelerator, the data on his dashboard redlining, and he streaked past the rising security bollards with a split second to spare. He eased off the gas, rolled down the window, and stuck a middle finger out into the gale-force wind.

The Ghouls’ two vehicles slammed into the alloy barriers one after the other, triggering massive explosions. Fireballs erupted into the sky, scattering body parts and metal debris everywhere.

"Scum."

John muttered as he leaned against the window.

The noisy night finally fell silent.

[Eden City - East District Commercial Street]

He carried the unconscious Gino to Rian Randall, followed by a check-up and emergency surgery.

The doctor was busy inside. John was left to notify the family—Vito Russell was incredibly grateful and promised to send someone to pick Gino up.

He hung up the phone and reviewed Gino’s scan results: She was clearly a hacker; she had many brain implants, but after this ordeal, they were all damaged. It was recommended to replace them all.

The doctor walked out, reeking of alcohol, and said to John, "The antivirus scrub was timely, and, well, very clean. Otherwise, she would’ve ended up brain-dead. What kind of software did you use?"

"Trade secret."

John didn't elaborate. He poured a drink into a glass and downed it in one gulp.

Dr. Rian sat down opposite him, handed over a chip, and said, "This is the control system from her neck. Even the most basic firewalls were scrubbed away. It felt wrong, so I took the liberty of pulling it out."

John reached out to press his hand over it, looking up at the doctor.

Rian Randall hugged his bottle, looking pained. He didn't look at the chip or John, nor did he press for more information.

"Thanks, Doc."

John tucked it away, an unspoken understanding between them.

As a token of thanks, he gave Rian a tip.

"All the implants in this girl's head need replacing, right? Install the most expensive gear you’ve got in the clinic. When the Black Gold gang comes to pick her up, slap the bill right in their faces. They’ll be more than willing to pay for someone they went to such lengths to save."

Dr. Rian’s eyes narrowed. He wiped his hands and returned to the operating room.

John smiled and poured himself another drink. "Put this on their tab, too."

He rested in the clinic for a while. Finding the room empty, he took out a special inhibitor and injected it.

A sense of pressure seemed to dissipate, and his body felt inexplicably lighter.

He waited for the text prompt to confirm destruction before pulling out the remains, hiding it in his inner pocket along with the control chip taken from Gino’s body.

The doctor worked through the entire night, giving it his all for the sake of the money. It actually made John a bit nervous. If he ended up giving the girl cyber-psychosis, the Black Gold gang would likely come charging in to kill them both. Fortunately, Rian was steady—he chose top-series factory parts, which were beyond reproach in terms of safety and purity.

After the injections, Gino began to stir.

She nearly went into a panic upon seeing the unfamiliar clinic, leaping around the operating room like a startled cat. John took some effort to calm her down, and only after she stepped out with the doctor to confirm things with her family over the phone did she finally settle.

Gino clutched her head, still feeling dizzy.

Suddenly, a string of prompts flashed before John’s eyes.

[Mission Progress Updated]

[Inquire about the details of Gino's EMP transmitter. (Not Yet Achieved)]