The commotion had come from inside the house—followed by a deafening explosion.
Goodwin prided himself on the quality control of all the electronic devices in his home. He had no habit of keeping outdated junk around either.
Even the oldest appliance wouldn't just spontaneously explode—that was absurd.
Which left only one possibility: he had an "uninvited guest."
The enemy was in the shadows while he was in the open. Staring at the tightly shut bedroom door, Goodwin didn't rush out immediately. In such a short time, he couldn't figure out why anyone would choose this moment to infiltrate his home.
A corporate rival? A personal enemy? Or just some petty thief?
The home security system hadn't been triggered. The automated turrets outside hadn't reacted either… Did the intruder have a netrunner backing them up?
After a long moment of thought, Goodwin's face darkened as he tried dialing out.
But the call got no response at all. The outgoing signal vanished like a stone sinking into the sea.
It seemed these intruders were using a comms jammer.
Still standing in place, Goodwin glanced at the blonde woman lying on the bed. The poor thing looked utterly confused, clearly having no idea what was happening.
Obviously, this wasn't her doing.
Which meant the other side had gone through all this trouble for one reason—their target was him.
As a senior executive of Moore Technologies, Goodwin would never keep any important company secrets at home. All valuable research data was stored in the company's secure database.
No halfway competent employee would keep critical files at home either.
If someone was stupid enough to do so and the company found out—especially if it caused losses—they'd better learn how to "commit suicide by shooting themselves in the back a dozen times."
Goodwin scanned the room. No handy weapons, no firearms. Naturally, he wouldn't keep heavy ordnance in such a private space.
After one last glance at the blonde woman, he picked up a stool and smashed it into the surveillance camera in the room, destroying it.
Then he grabbed a syringe of anesthetic and, without hesitation, injected it into the woman's arm.
The blonde felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her. Her body was already weak, and now she could no longer fight the pull of sleep. Her eyelids closed, and she sank into unconsciousness.
…
The bedroom door burst open, and a figure stepped inside.
Kitagawa Hiroshi scanned the room, frowning.
The middle-aged man was nowhere to be seen.
"Sasha, what the hell? Where'd he go?"
"I don't know," Sasha replied, worry in her voice. "He smashed the only camera in the room, then the feed went dark. I've still got access to the other cameras in the house, but there's no sign of him."
"And I suggest you get out of there, fast. That blast earlier definitely drew the building's security's attention. You won't have much time before they lock the place down."
"I know." Kitagawa's expression was grim as he cast one last, reluctant look around.
The room was small, with nowhere to hide. Everything inside could be taken in at a glance—and yet, somehow, a grown man had vanished.
Time was running out; he couldn't search any longer.
The plan had been to use the explosion to lure the target out, or at least scare him into showing himself. But the bastard had kept calm, staying put.
Forced to act, Kitagawa had kicked the door in—but now he worried the man might have used the opportunity to set up an ambush.
What he hadn't expected was for the target to pull off a full-blown disappearing act.
Not wasting another second, Kitagawa strode to the operating table, hefted the unconscious blonde onto his shoulder like cargo, adjusted the backpack on his back, and headed out of the room at a brisk pace.
Some time after he left, a "doll" in the corner of the room suddenly unfolded—like a flower blooming from the inside out.
From within stepped a middle-aged man with gray-white hair.
Goodwin.
He stood there silently, his face as dark as storm clouds, staring at the doorway without a word.
…
Carrying the blonde, Kitagawa walked boldly out through the front door of the apartment.
The so-called "basic protective measure" of the residence—what Sasha had called its first line of defense—was now nothing more than a doorway blown apart by explosives.
In any era, brute-force physical methods were always reliable.
Reaching the elevator lobby, Kitagawa spotted David, who had been waiting nervously for some time. The kid's eyes darted around, tense and on edge, as if expecting enemies to burst in at any moment.
He was hammering the elevator button to keep it on their floor, and only relaxed when Kitagawa finally appeared.
"What's the plan? Where are we running to?" David asked anxiously.
He'd been muted from speaking on the comms earlier, unable to join the conversation between Kitagawa and Sasha, but she hadn't completely booted him from the channel—so he'd still heard everything.
Bored out of his mind in the suite, David had been urged by Sasha to come help in a simple but critical way—
—hold the elevator at the top floor.
He'd taken the job without hesitation, keeping the elevator here for several minutes, all the while nervously waiting for Hiroshi.
"Fourth floor—the suite Lin-kun rented. We're jumping out the window from there," Kitagawa said without pause, stepping into the elevator.
David followed, tense. Seeing Kitagawa press the button for the third floor instead, he blurted out, "Wait, that's the third floor… That's still pretty high. Can we really jump from there?"
"You think Lin-kun rented that place just so we'd have entry access to this building?" Kitagawa smirked.
"He even planned our escape route?" David's eyes went wide.
"Of course," Kitagawa replied with a cold smile, as if disappointed by David's lack of vision.
As the elevator descended to the third floor, Sasha chimed in: there was already a security team posted at the building's front entrance, lightly armed for now—but if they got stalled, reinforcements would be on the way.
So there was no point debating escape routes. Alone, Kitagawa could probably punch through. But with an unconscious woman over one shoulder and a rookie tagging along, the risk wasn't worth it.
The elevator doors opened. They encountered no resistance along the way—saving them a few bullets.
At their suite, Kitagawa went straight to the window, scanning outside.
The third floor wasn't too high. With his cyberware and skills, he could land unharmed. There were no AC units or metal grilles to get in the way.
"I'll go first. David, you toss her down to me after. I'll catch her, then you jump," Kitagawa ordered.
"Got it."
Setting the blonde aside, Kitagawa vaulted out effortlessly, landing with ease. He reached up with his cybernetic arm to catch the woman as David dropped her down.
Then, as David swung one leg over the sill to jump himself, he glanced down—and froze.
Kitagawa, carrying the woman, was already sprinting away at full tilt, more than ten meters down the street.
"Whoa—wait for me!"
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MY CYBERPUNK 2077 SIMULATOR
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