"What do you mean none of you have seen Jax?"
Jackie draped a coat over the beautiful woman in front of him. She looked miserable, her wrist twisted at an unnatural angle, her hair disheveled, half her face swollen, and blood at the corner of her mouth.
But that didn't diminish her beauty in the slightest.
Golden hair, a pretty face, and the embedded cyberware traces on her body were completely covered by her synthetic skin.
Honestly, she was a truly stunning beauty. A woman like her should be held gently and cherished.
So, Jackie genuinely couldn't understand what those beasts from the Tyger Claws were thinking.
"I truly haven't seen Jax. Our boss, Susie Q, said we had to handle this ourselves and couldn't rely on Jax for help.
And we never thought of turning Jax over in private. We all know that even if we did, the Tyger Claws wouldn't let us go."
"The Tyger Claws are a bunch of bastards, animals!"
Lina said to Jackie, her voice anxious.
"Damn it, what's going on here? Am I the first one to arrive?" Jackie crouched in front of Lina, rubbing his big head, completely bewildered by the situation.
Weren't they supposed to take on the Tyger Claws together?
Where were Jax and Maine's crew?!
"Wait, Jackie, by your tone, Jax… he's out?" Lina asked anxiously.
"Of course, that guy Jax planned to handle this by himself, and then we found out. Damn it, we're family, how could we let him run wild alone?" Jackie immediately said.
"Then he must have gone to Japantown!" Lina endured the pain, reaching out to press on Jackie's thigh, then pushed him: "You,
You hurry and help him. Knowing Jax, he definitely went to Japantown. He's always protected us; he's just that kind of person."
"Ah!"
Jackie instantly snapped awake.
That's right, when he talked to Maine, Maine's crew didn't specify a meeting point. They had Kiwi and Lucy, plus Sasha helping remotely, so finding Jax wouldn't be difficult. But what about him?
He had gone to the wrong destination!
Lina bit her lip and continued, "You, you should go quickly. He needs your help. I, I also need to tell Susie Q about this as soon as possible."
"But sister, in your condition…" Jackie hesitated. A moment later, he forcefully slapped himself. "Damn it, no matter what, I can't leave you here alone. In your current state, running into the Tyger Claws again would be too dangerous. This place is crawling with Tyger Claws right now."
"You know what? I already took out a dozen Tyger Claws punks on my way here," Jackie said, bending down to lift Lina.
"Once the Moxes arrive and take you, I'll go."
"But…"
"No buts. If it were Jax, he'd do the same," Jackie interrupted Lina, speaking seriously.
With that, he led Lina off the road and into an alley. The main street was too conspicuous and would attract unnecessary trouble.
Lina looked at Jackie gratefully and quickly dialed a number.
Less than ten minutes later, when a woman appeared wearing leopard print, black stockings, short-heeled boots, a punk hairstyle, and Mantis Blades exposed on both arms, Jackie knew his mission was complete.
"Well then, sister, your people are here, so I'll be going now," Jackie said immediately upon seeing her.
"Hey, I'm Anna, Anna Dynos. What's your name?" The voice of the clearly strong woman sounded from behind him.
Jackie turned his head and shouted, "Jackie!"
"Remember that name! Not only am I Jax's brother, but in the future, I'll also be a legend of Night City!"
Anna paused.
Jax's… brother.
Someone willing to get involved in this kind of situation, to join a fight between big gangs and corporations… a brother?
Jax, you've really found yourself some good friends.
In Japantown, news reporters had arrived at the scene immediately. As a reporter for Channel 54, Serena was shocked by the sight before her the moment she arrived.
"My god, how long has it been since I've seen a scene like this?"
Once a luxurious and beautiful district, a high-end entertainment area in Watson District, now half the street lay in ruins.
Bodies of Tyger Claws members lay on the ground, some headless, some missing arms, and some even split in two,
hanging on exposed rebar from collapsed walls.
Night City hadn't seen such a sight in many years. At least in Serena's career, the only other time was when those Maelstrom lunatics caused trouble, but after MAX-TAC intervened, Maelstrom quieted down for a good while.
At this moment, Japantown had been cordoned off by a police line, with a group of NCPD officers standing by, their faces grim and unfriendly.
As Serena approached, she overheard two NCPD officers talking. She cleverly covered her microphone, avoiding recording their voices and bringing herself trouble.
A Channel 54 news reporter sounded impressive, but in reality, Serena was no different from these cops; they were all just working stiffs.
"Damn it, are we just going to stand here and watch?"
"If you want to die, then you can go in now, I won't stop you. But, what the hell are you thinking? Is it your sense of justice making you do this? Damn it, a bunch of cyberpsychos attacked the Tyger Claws. Psychos fighting gangs, even MAX-TAC doesn't get involved in this, and you want to?"
"Fuck you, there are civilians injured in there too! What kind of cops are we doing this?"
"Cops? Are you out of your mind? This is an order from above, Arasaka's will. Don't you know, intern, everything you eat and wear is paid for by the corporation. Now you want to go against them? What, you don't want to drink your afternoon tea in the office anymore?"
Serena listened with a strange expression, then stepped forward. She asked, "Can I go in?"
"Reporter? Damn, suit yourself, go in if you want, but I'm telling you, getting in is easy, getting out will be trouble!" A cop immediately shouted when he saw Serena.
Serena hesitated at his words.
The cop's meaning was clear: they had set up the cordon to prevent the street violence from affecting ordinary people. As for intervening… damn, they weren't idiots. So many people had already died. Rush in to maintain order? Maintain what order!
They wanted to live too.
"Boom!"
An explosion suddenly echoed from deep within Japantown.
Serena's body trembled. Looking up, Serena saw a low-rise building collapse.
At the same time, deep within Japantown, after the initial impact reached the interior, the battle had shifted from a highway slaughter to street fighting. Amidst the dense, varying-height buildings, Jax moved through them. He and Maine's crew had split up, each causing destruction to the Tyger Claws.
Listening to the voices of the three hackers in the team's comms, Jax's eyes flickered.
Sasha wasn't on-site; she was still in Dogtown. However, as a hacker, remote operations were her specialty.
Moreover, Sasha was currently at her sister's house, with access to hacking devices, which greatly enhanced her hacking abilities.
Therefore, she was currently investigating the objective of Jax's mission.
Just destroying the Tyger Claws, retaliating against them, wasn't enough.
The Tyger Claws had thousands of members. How could Jax possibly kill them all?
Thousands of people, how long would that take to kill?
Therefore, to inflict heavy damage on Japantown, while striking at the Tyger Claws, and eliminating the people who orchestrated this, as well as… the corporate individuals, that was Jax's true objective for this trip.
No matter how many gang members were killed, even if, even if all the Tyger Claws were truly wiped out, it wouldn't bring the same shock as killing a corporate executive dog.
Because they never cared about the lives of their subordinates, to truly make these high-and-mighty corporate dogs feel fear, they needed to realize that their own lives were genuinely threatened.
For example… Cuban activation?
"Found him, Jax, that bastard Faraday is in Clouds! I tracked his spending records."
"Clouds is that tall building to the left of your current location, no! Jax, Faraday seems to be near you right now!"
Jax turned to look at the direction Sasha indicated. In his hand, the Deep blue gun-blade weapon had been stained red with blood. He flicked the gun-blade, splattering blood, and it returned to its Deep blue hue.
Just as he looked up at the nearby high-rise buildings, Jax swiftly brought his blade back and simultaneously raised his left leg.
"Puff!"
The gun-blade met a Mantis Blade, and Jax's raised leg delivered a powerful kick to the attacker's stomach.
"Ugh!"
With a muffled grunt, the guy who attacked Jax flew backward, but in the next moment, his body twisted in mid-air and landed steadily on the ground.
"Cyan, are you alright?" A voice sounded from above.
Jax looked up and saw an Asian man wearing sunglasses and a high-end black suit standing on the horizontal bridge four meters above him.
He leaped down from a height of four or five meters, then blocked Jax's escape route.
Instantly, Jax was surrounded by men in black suits, both in front and behind him.
"He is indeed very strong, Lin, we need to be careful." In front, the white man with Mantis Blades on both hands spoke. As he spoke, he pressed a button on his chest, and two metal plates extended from the back of his head, forming a black helmet.
"Hmph, should have expected it, after all, he's a guy who could kill his way here." Lin, the Asian youth, said as he also pressed a button. He continued coldly, "However, even so, he's not on our level. He's not from our world!"
The black helmet covered his face, and his high-end black suit ripped, revealing a black combat uniform underneath. At the same time, he gripped a red and black Katana in his hand.
Jax, vigilant, quickly performed an optical scan on the two individuals. [Name: Lin Kamimura]
[Organization: Arasaka (Senior Combat Agent)]
[Implants: Militech Sandevistan Mk.4 (Arasaka Plugin), Kerenzikov, Reinforced Tendons, Micro-Rotors, Subdermal Armor,
Full Resistance, Pain Editor, Optical Camo.]
[Crimes: No information recorded, insufficient clearance!]
[Name: Robert Cyan]
[Organization: Arasaka (Senior Combat Agent)]
[Implants: Militech Sandevistan Mk.4 (Arasaka Plugin), Synaptic Accelerator, Micro-Rotors, Bionic Joints, Internal Generator, Silver-grade Bone Marrow...]
[Crimes: No information recorded, insufficient clearance!]
Seeing this, Jax narrowed his eyes. These two guys were Arasaka's senior agents.
Could he now face opponents of this caliber?
Looking across Night City, among mercenaries, the cyberware equipped in these two, Jax hadn't even heard of, let alone seen. They were all high-end gear.
"Jax, I never thought you'd actually be so foolish."
Another voice sounded. On the horizontal bridge, a tall, thin man appeared, surrounded by several bodyguards.
He wore a plaid suit and red leather shoes, looking down at Jax.
The left half of his face had three eyes, stacked together, with red pupils, while the right half of his face was normal, with golden pupils.
"Faraday?" Jax recognized him immediately.
After joining Maine's crew, Jax had never met Faraday. Although Maine and Dorio had talked about Faraday, not long after Jax joined, the crew had already connected with Rogue.
So, naturally, there was no need to continue dealing with scum like Faraday.
But even though he hadn't met him, Jax was all too familiar with that face.
With that, Jax immediately fired a shot at Faraday at the fastest possible speed.
"Bang!"
A shot rang out, and a muffled grunt sounded from above. Faraday looked in horror at the bodyguard who had fallen in front of him. If the bodyguard hadn't rushed to block the shot for him, he might have died instantly!
With anger in his eyes, Faraday looked at Jax, then hid behind his bodyguard, shouting loudly, "You, you just wait to die!"
Brave in word, weak in deed… this was Faraday.
Jax looked disappointed. He had thought that shot might take out the arrogant fool Faraday directly.
Yes, in Jax's view, Faraday was a fool. He betrayed Militech to join Arasaka, which seemed to raise his status, moving to another large corporation to become a black hand.
But in reality, Faraday had merely become a disposable tool for Arasaka.
Besides, even if Faraday truly gained Arasaka's favor, would Militech just let him go?
Moreover, in Night City, while there were quite a few Fixers who exploited the Edgerunners under them, they were all low-level Fixers. The truly respectable, influential, and capable Fixers used Edgerunners as shields, protecting themselves with them when danger arose, but also cherishing and maintaining those shields during normal times.
Faraday, that bastard's performance in the anime, however, was that of a Fixer who constantly plotted how to exploit his mercenary subordinates for profit.
Jax looked at Faraday. If he didn't kill him, he'd kill him again!
You're the guy I'm looking for!
With a powerful leap upwards, Jax's hand already gripped the lower beam of the horizontal bridge. In Faraday's eyes, Jax suddenly vanished,
then appeared before him in the next instant. Seeing this, he immediately retreated, his body trembling as he screamed in terror.
But Jax failed to successfully flip onto the horizontal bridge and grab Faraday, as two dangerous presences had already locked onto him.
"Hmph!"
With an annoyed snort, Jax quickly glanced sideways and saw Kamimura Lin and Robert Cyan already in front of and behind him.
With their Sandevistans activated, these two Arasaka senior agents closed in on him with astonishing speed.
Jax's keen perception of danger allowed him to react swiftly.
A punch slammed into the iron beam under the pedestrian bridge where Faraday was. With a full-power punch, Jax's 10 points of physique made this punch like a cannonball, directly smashing the iron bridge.
Faraday, on the bridge, keenly sensed the danger and, with the help of his bodyguard, reached out and grabbed the broken iron frame, preventing himself from falling to the ground.
Facing the Mantis Blades of Saian attacking him, Jax, using the recoil from his punch, simultaneously flew backward and raised the gun-blade in his hand.
"Bang bang!"
He fired two kinetic bullets forward, hitting Saian's chest, but they only produced a shower of sparks; the black combat suit blocked the bullets.
Jax's body was still at a low altitude. He inverted the arm holding the gun-blade, flipping it downward and then thrusting it backward. Amidst the screeching clash of weapons, Jax felt a burning sensation on his back.
That was the effect of the thermal Katana. The gun-blade and Katana collided, producing a piercing shriek. Jax landed on the ground, then rushed to Kamimuralin's front and launched an attack.
After achieving the title, all of Jax's attributes increased by 0.5, which might not seem like much.
However, after an attribute reaches 10 points, every 0.1 increase is a significant change.
Therefore, Jax, whose Reaction, Tech, and Physique attributes were all close to 10 points, had long since ceased to be a normal person.
Are Arasaka agents powerful?
Of course, they are powerful. As high-ranking Arasaka agents, and high-ranking agents in the combat division, these guys don't have a high presence in the game because players control V!
V deals with Smasher like it's nothing!
But in Night City, high-ranking Arasaka agents are the top mercenaries on the street, powerful warriors with rich combat experience and equipped with the most advanced gear on the market.
To put it plainly, these two, if placed in the Badlands and working together seamlessly, could wipe out a small Badlands family.
Yet, even so, these two had nothing to do with legends, but with all their cyberware fully activated, their attribute values definitely exceeded 10 points.
Therefore, as soon as they clashed, Jax quickly realized that these two were simply an enhanced version of the Nightwalkers' leader duo.
So Jax did not act as carelessly as he had against the Nightwalkers duo before; after all, if those two worked together seamlessly, Jax would still get injured, let alone these two.
Saian and Kamimuralin coordinated their attacks, causing Jax a hint of annoyance.
Those who use Mantis Blades all seem to be the same damn way; they all like to ambush!
Just like they're learning from real mantises, attempting a one-hit kill. Therefore, compared to Kamimuralin, who used a Katana, Saian was more of a headache for Jax.
Fighting two against one, Jax's body fell backward.
His combat experience was far less seasoned than theirs. His ability to hold on until now without activating Potential Overdraft relied entirely on his Physique attribute.
Because activating cyberware inevitably brings side effects, Kamimuralin and Saian couldn't continuously activate their cyberware to maintain high speed and super-fast reactions.
And that is the drawback of cyberware!
"That's truly exaggerated. I used to think Mr. Tanaka was talking nonsense, but now I see he was right; there really are such monsters," Saian said, looking at Jax with shock, his voice muffled through his helmet after they separated.
Kamimuralin, however, was different. As a Japanese man, he had seen incredibly powerful teachers who didn't even have cyberware when he was training at headquarters, so he wasn't surprised by this.
"Let's go!" Kamimuralin, holding his Katana with both hands, swiftly charged at Jax.
Jax, meanwhile, retreated, narrowing his eyes and holding his gun-blade. He pulled the trigger, sending kinetic bullets flying out, disrupting Kamimuralin and Saian's movements, forcing them to continuously activate their Sandevistan.
And as the two closed in on him, Jax quickly raised his gun-blade, turning it into a sword!
At the same time, he unleashed his killer move!
Instead of fighting these two, getting seriously injured, and holding back his killer move, it would be better to just activate Potential Overdraft and instantly take out these two guys!
Jax didn't have that much time to waste arguing with these people!
He came to Japantown to kill!
As for the weakened state...
Interestingly, the new skill obtained from David, Potent Healing, could accelerate the recovery speed of Jax's weakened state.
Therefore, the negative effects of Potential Overdraft had become very minor for Jax now; the only point was that Potential Overdraft was a phased skill and couldn't be used constantly.
His eyes instantly turned blood-red, and his body emanated heat. Jax's skin gave off waves of steam, and the exposed skin on his body took on an abnormal blood-red hue, as if his blood vessels were burning, seeping through his skin.
The next moment, Jax, whose three major attributes had already reached the threshold of a legend—no, one foot was already in the legendary domain—instantly vanished from Kamimuralin and Saian's sight.
In their perception of the world, Jax, whose speed was originally on par with theirs, perhaps a little faster, was now directly weaving through their vision!
The target named Jax was constantly flickering!
But the reactive neural cyberware within their bodies still allowed them to react under extreme conditions, despite their fear.
"Boom!"
Gun-blade clashed with Katana. A hint of fear flashed in Kamimuralin's eyes, and his hands ached. The moment the gun-blade touched the Katana, Kamimuralin felt a sharp pain in both hands. He knew the web of skin between his thumb and forefinger had torn!
The next moment, the hand holding the Katana went limp, and Kamimuralin's Arasaka-special Katana actually fell!
"Puff!"
Saian was experienced. Seeing Kamimuralin's body tremble, he knew Kamimuralin was at a disadvantage.
So he quickly appeared in front of Kamimuralin with his Mantis Blades, and the moment the Katana fell from Kamimuralin's hand,
Saian had already thrust out his arms to block the gun-blade, which had passed through Kamimuralin's hands and was now slashing towards Kamimuralin's head.
"Get out of my way!"
Under immense pressure, Saian fully activated the cyberware in his body. The eyeballs in his helmet began to shake, flash, and roll, and the power of all his implants was instantly maxed out.
Saian risked his life to save his partner; his only thought at that moment was that he would not let this person kill Lin!
The biggest difference between military and civilian implants lies in military implants' ability to break through limits and activate an overclocking mode. At this moment, Saian had activated his implant's overclocking mode.
But as soon as he collided with Jax, Saian felt a tickle in his throat. Under the opponent's immense force, he felt his entire body was about to fall apart.
With this much force, Saian felt like he had been hit by a maglev high-speed train!
The Mantis Blades let out a mournful cry, and Saian's left Mantis Blade even chipped off metal fragments.
Jax's eyes were blood-red. He raised his hand and delivered another swift downward slash.
Under the tremendous force, it created a shockwave, stirring up dust.
"Rumble!"
The ground centered around Jax, Kamimuralin, and Saian let out a loud roar, and dense, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface. He raised his hand again, and again, slashed downward!
All of this happened in less than a second. Three slashes, and Jax used his full strength for all three!
The next moment, Saian's eyeballs in his helmet rolled upward, and his shattered left Mantis Blade completely broke apart. On the ground, countless stones flew out.
"Rumble!"
The ground collapsed. Centered around the three, within a half-meter radius, a huge crater suddenly appeared.
Faraday in the distance saw this scene, his body trembling, his eyes filled with disbelief.
He didn't know what happened before the ground collapsed, but from his perspective, he could tell that Jax had actually suppressed two high-ranking Arasaka agents!
High-ranking combat agents who protected Arasaka executives—these were some of the world's top combat personnel, equipped with the best cyberware and gear!
They were actually defeated by someone?!
What a joke!
Jax was just a stray animal from the Moxes!
Faraday's body trembled, and he began to flee the scene, quickly sending out a voice message as he ran:
"Mr. Tanaka, please have all Tyger Claws members quickly come to Japantown!"
He didn't dare say that the high-ranking agents failed to stop Jax, because he was afraid Tanaka wouldn't come to the scene. If he didn't come, after Jax dealt with the Arasaka high-ranking agents, could the Tyger Claws and the few people around him protect his safety?
The answer was obvious!
Therefore, Faraday ran!
"Saian!" Kamimuralin retrieved his Katana, ambushing from Saian's side. His body shot through Saian like an arrow, slashing at Jax's neck with one strike.
The blood-red eyed Jax looked more like a villain than Kamimuralin and Saian. In Jax's perception of the world, Kamimuralin... "Slow, you are simply too slow!"
"Heh, you and I are not on the same level at all! I am not from your world!" A slightly crazed voice came from Jax's mouth. Under Potential Overdraft, Jax's emotions were also affected, becoming more expressive and violent.
Just as a hint of fear appeared in Kamimuralin's eyes, Jax's left hand had already grabbed Kamimuralin's arm holding the Katana. Even with neural cyberware, he couldn't keep up with Jax's speed.
Then, with a heavy pull and push, Jax directly slammed Kamimuralin away.
"Whoosh—" A black shadow whistled past, and Kamimuralin flew backward.
Jax once again raised the gun-blade in his hand. The azure gun-blade cut a blue arc through the air, stirring up dust and debris. Jax brought the blade down with a heavy strike.
Like a knife cutting through tofu, in front of Jax, a blue light pierced through Saian's body, splitting him in two. Saian... slowly fell!
"No! Damn it, you dare to kill Saian, you dare to kill an Arasaka agent, you know you..." Kamimuralin, whose body had slumped against the wall, just regained consciousness and saw Saian in two halves.
Inside Saian's two halves, besides a small amount of flesh and internal organs, a large amount of metallic machinery was exposed.
Seeing this, Kamimuralin immediately let out a roar.
When had Arasaka agents ever suffered such a loss?
But a hand suddenly grabbed his chin. Without the Sandevistan's boost, Kamimuralin didn't even notice when Jax appeared in front of him.
The hand exerted force, directly crushing Kamimuralin's jaw, rendering him speechless.
It was Jax who appeared before him. He placed his foot on the wall next to Kamimuralin's head, Jax's left hand gripping Kamimuralin's jaw, his right hand slowly raising the gun-blade.
"It's your turn."
"You know what? Not only do I dare to kill Arasaka agents, I also dare to kill your Arasaka executives. Too bad, you won't get to see that scene."
"Puff!"
The gun-blade descended, then was pulled out. Kamimuralin's head was pierced through, making him look like Erlang Shen, and then his eyes slowly became lifeless.
His last thought was of Director Arthur of the Counter-Intelligence Department: You call this just a physically strong ordinary person?
At this moment, all of this happened in less than twenty seconds.
Buzz! Buzz!!!
An armed helicopter hovered over Japantown. Serena, strapped at the waist, looked into the camera and spoke loudly.
She had to speak loudly, otherwise the helicopter's noise would drown out her voice.
"Right now, what you are seeing is Japantown under attack! According to our understanding, the cause of this attack is a group of edgerunners, known as Maine's crew.
As you can all see, this street has been severely damaged, with an estimated death and injury count exceeding one hundred, and these lawless hooligans are still continuing to endanger this community!
But the strange thing is, the heavily damaged commercial areas are all shops within the Tyger Claws' jurisdiction. Therefore,
I judge this to be a premeditated act of revenge. Maine's crew is retaliating against the Tyger Claws, and they deliberately spared ordinary residents.
Instead, it was the Tyger Claws who harmed the innocent local populace. But regardless, these terrorists should also face judgment!
At this moment, the NCPD has set up a cordon! But they do not intend to directly intervene in this horrific act of violence. From their mouths, I learned that this incident is a gang war.
However, if this continues, not only this street but half of Japantown will be affected!"
Serena explained methodically, while also controlling the camera to film the scene below, tracking the movements of Maine's crew.
And very quickly, Serena found them.
"Oh my god! Look, what is that!"
Serena saw a black shadow flash across the camera, blinked, and quickly pulled the camera, adjusting the focus towards the houses deep within Japantown.
She saw a figure constantly leaping across the intricate houses of Japantown, moving at an extremely fast speed.
"That's a person, that's actually a person!"
Under the high-speed camera's capture, Serena clearly saw the black shadow.
It was a person with black hair, tall and slender, but his face was unclear. It seemed he had a camera scrambler on him.
But even so... this was already explosive news!
A person, parkouring and traversing across rooftops?
"Quick, we have to catch him!"
Serena said loudly, and the person controlling the helicopter quickly turned the nose of the aircraft, flying deeper into Japantown.
But the next moment, the black shadow disappeared into the buildings.
Serena blinked, and disappointed words came from her mouth:
"Damn it, we lost him!"