"For real? You want me to go hammer Adam Smasher?"
David stared at Anthony's face, pointed at himself, still looking a little dazed. "Again?"
Anthony gave a firm, vigorous nod. "Yep."
For a moment, David opened his mouth as if to say something, then thought better of it. Anthony clapped him on the shoulder and spoke:
"Relax. You can definitely take him this time. You didn't win last time — which means Adam Smasher has gotten cocky. And pride always comes before a fall. So you've got this."
Apparently sensing that this simple bit of motivational spin wasn't going to cut it, Anthony paused for a moment, then pressed on:
"That said, sending you in is genuinely a last resort, so I'll do everything I can to make sure your support situation is completely sorted out beforehand."
"Won't the same trick from before work?" Lucy suddenly chimed in, and Anthony responded with a helpless look.
It wasn't that it wouldn't work at all — it was that he didn't dare gamble on it.
This was Adam Smasher, after all. A monster with a 97% cyberware modification rate and zero signs of cyberpsychosis. Against someone like that, Anthony had no way to gauge the strength of his soul.
[Lachimaeus's Roar] would definitely do something. But the question was: could it one-shot him?
If it couldn't, things would get very messy very quickly.
Given Lucy's build, if the follow-up [Soul Shatter] didn't land in time, there was a real chance Adam Smasher would snipe her first.
So to be safe, it was better to send in an upgraded David instead.
"Anyway, just trust yourself. Whatever happens, I've got your back — I won't let anything go wrong for either of you." Anthony repeated the assurance firmly, then after a brief pause, continued:
"Once this fight is over, we'll call the score settled, and you'll both be alive again. Then you two can go get married. Does saying it that way give you a little more motivation?"
"I somehow feel like, Mr. Smith, you're raising some seriously ominous flags right now."
David broke into a cold sweat as he said it. Anthony just shrugged.
In the end, after thinking it over, he decided not to say the rest of what had been on his mind.
He'd been about to say that after they got married and had kids, they could ask the chat group for parenting tips from the married members...
But when he actually thought it through, Anthony realized something was very wrong with that idea.
Parenting tips? From who, exactly?!
Looking at the married members in the group — Naruto's dad Namikaze Minato had died the moment Naruto was born; Yoriichi had apparently never had children from the start; Jonathan Joestar did have a kid, but his situation wasn't much better than Minato's.
And then there was the last remaining gentleman in the group: Himmel.
When everyone else had at least managed to end up with their beloved at some point, Himmel's status as a perpetual bachelor for all eternity was that much more painful to witness.
Honestly, you lot are a complete disgrace.
After lamenting this in his heart, Anthony finally composed himself, waved to Lucy and David, and spoke:
"Well then. I'm going to go collect Arasaka Yorinobu's generous sponsorship. Once I'm back, we'll get started on reviving David."
"And after that — we'll sit down and have a proper talk about the plan to blow up Arasaka Tower."
Anthony finished speaking with a cheerful smile spreading across his face. Then his form flickered, and the Stand known as Smith vanished from where he had been standing.
Boss Yorinobu Arasaka — generous to a fault. Boss Yorinobu Arasaka — an absolute legend!
When, three hours later, the payment from Yorinobu Arasaka arrived, those were the only thoughts left in Anthony's head.
Nothing else. Purely because the man had given so, so much.
The truth was, Anthony and Yorinobu had previously operated under a certain unspoken assumption: that this investment wouldn't be particularly large.
Because even though Anthony's reputation as a bomb maniac had been growing lately, his target was Arasaka Tower — a near-oligarchic corporation at the heart of Night City.
If you just walk up and declare you're going to blow up Arasaka Tower and kill their golden enforcer Adam Smasher, who in their right mind is going to believe you? And if someone actually gave you a lot of resources and you just took the money and ran — what then?
So both of them had tacitly assumed the same thing: this investment would be Yorinobu tossing out a casual, throwaway amount — just letting a little slip through the cracks of his fingers.
The kind of deal where, if it worked, you'd be laughing all the way to the bank, and if it didn't, you'd barely notice the loss.
But that was exactly where the problem lay.
It was painfully obvious that Anthony and Yorinobu had a very significant information gap on the specific definition of "a little slipping through the cracks."
What Anthony imagined as "a little": two or three fairly high-end gear sets, some psycho-suppressants, possibly some premium cyberware — roughly twenty or thirty thousand worth, enough to cover David's revival.
What Yorinobu imagined as "a little": if you like playing with bombs, just haul over whatever you can carry from the explosives stockpile in the armory. Then grab a few pieces of every kind of weapon — mount a few machine guns, throw in a full set of premium cyberware.
Pocket change, really!
When Johnny Silverhand had stormed Arasaka Tower back in the day, they'd had a small tactical nuclear warhead. Things didn't look that promising now, sure — but surely it couldn't be more pitiful than what Johnny Silverhand had to work with, right?
Load it all up. Get it all in!
The end result of this miscommunication was the mountain — no, a pile more absurd than any mountain — of equipment now stacked before Anthony.
After recycling everything, the total value came to exactly one hundred and ten thousand points worth of gear.
A single investment had nearly matched the total haul from three full days of desperate raiding combined.
When Anthony saw just how extravagantly Yorinobu had come through on his very first move, he genuinely felt his hands trembling slightly. He almost slipped, nearly let himself slide down that mental slope and thought: just take the beautiful windfall and vanish.
However, the reason he ultimately decided to keep pushing forward with blowing up Arasaka Tower wasn't any sense of obligation or responsibility.
It was more that he'd done the math and realized: if Yorinobu was this rich, then imagine how many points blowing up Arasaka Tower would actually net him afterward!
And so, gritting his teeth and stomping his foot, he made up his mind: since he'd already committed to this job, he might as well go all in and see it through completely.
All in!
With two hundred and fifty thousand points in hand for the first time ever, Anthony paused only briefly before making the decision to put every last bit of that steel on the blade where it mattered.
On one hand, he'd iterate and upgrade the Artificer's Body he was preparing for David. On the other hand, he'd use some of those points to strengthen himself as well.
Though Anthony had long since realized that upgrading his own abilities was an absolute money pit — even pouring in seventy or eighty thousand points would barely make a sound — he felt that certain abilities were still necessary for what lay ahead.
After doing a rough calculation, he figured it would come out to roughly seventy thousand points spent on himself. The remaining thirty thousand would go toward iterating the Artificer's Body for David.
And so, after completing the points recycling, Anthony didn't rush back to David's place. Instead, he started spending those points first.
Use up his own reserved seventy thousand before anything else. As a bonus, by the time he was done spending, it would be that much easier to go meet David again.
The first thing he had his eye on was a crafting blueprint. It came from the [Forge Core Upgrade Series] — easily the most expensive tier of all the blueprints Anthony had unlocked so far.
Currently, this series contained only three blueprints. The first was a plot upgrade — spending points to make the Forge Core more durable and expansive.
Not bad in itself, but Anthony had no use for it right now, so he skipped it immediately.
The second was the Level 2 Forge Core upgrade. The thing cost fifty thousand points on its own. Under normal circumstances, Anthony would have started building it without a second thought.
But the current problem was that this upgrade required a specific material.
[Shipborne Intelligent Life Form].
Only by meeting that condition could the Level 2 upgrade of the [River Styx Forge Core] be completed. So, despite being willing, Anthony found himself currently unable.
And so his gaze naturally fell on the third and final item.
[Phase Teleportation Engine]
[Description: Designed exclusively for use on mobile Forge Cores of the base-type. Capable of crossing world barriers to perform point-to-point retrieval and deployment.]
[Effect: Once forged, splits into a beacon and an engine. By dispatching beacons and spending points, objects can be two-way teleported between a beacon's location and the engine.]
[Blueprint Unlock Price: 5,000 points]
[Forging Price: 25,000 points]
The reason he'd set his sights on this device was simple enough.
The chat group's teleportation was more all-purpose, but ultimately lacked efficiency, and it didn't work on non-group members.
With this device, Anthony could efficiently retrieve things back to the River Styx. And even someone like Lucy — a non-member — could be brought back with it.
And further down the line, if he ever needed to deploy troops from the River Styx, a device that could airdrop things directly — just thinking about it was immensely satisfying.
And so, forging commenced immediately. A little over half an hour later, a massive teleportation chamber had been established on the River Styx's plot, with a large stack of beacons piled beside it.
Two hundred and twenty thousand points remaining. Subtract the one hundred and eighty thousand reserved for David, and he had another forty thousand to spend on his own ability upgrades — a drop in the ocean, but it would have to do.
He'd thought about upgrading The Angler, but the next tier of upgrades required all sorts of miscellaneous materials he simply didn't have access to.
In the end, after going back and forth, he decided to return to upgrading his Artificer abilities.
Though he'd originally planned to boost some stats, right now in Night City, he couldn't think of a good reason to strengthen his Soul Force. He could leave that for later — right before heading into the Naruto world, a last-minute cram session to raise his Soul Strength would still be in time.
So, reserve about ten thousand points. Use thirty thousand to push his Artificer abilities up one tier.
Looking at the Artificer ability panel, in the vast grey expanse beyond the blueprints, a single ability was lit up. Anthony exhaled slowly and pressed it.
[Artificer Ability Awakening · Origin]
[Effect: Awakens your exclusive Artificer ability.]
[Upgrade Cost: 30,000 points]
In an instant, the moment Anthony's fingertip pressed down, he felt as though a massive hammer had slammed into his very soul. Involuntarily, his vision went dark.
When his sight finally returned, he looked around in a daze — and found himself standing in the middle of a vast and dark sea of stars.
And before him, something more immense than even that stellar sea — a giant with no discernible form or face — as if using the star-sea as an anvil and the cosmos itself as raw material, was forging the very heavens and earth as its own creation.
Then, as if catching sight of Anthony's gaze, the giant — who had existed in ages past and long since faded away — let the hammer fall, driving words one by one into Anthony's heart.
And so, like a symphonic hymn, a chant rose in Anthony's mind:
"That which is vast and unyielding — what shall the Artificer forge from it?"
"We who forge: let the furnace be our song!"
The great hammer fell again, and once more Anthony watched the scene before him shift. Phantom light and shadow drifted in, forming image after image in front of him.
Instinctively, a feeling rose in Anthony's heart.
It felt as though, if he simply reached out and touched one of these images, he could decide what ability he would awaken.
And so he focused, carefully studying the images before him.
In those countless scenes: one Artificer had poured their very heart and soul into transforming all of heaven and earth into an intricate mechanical world; another had built a creation so colossal it defied imagination, turning it into a great wall of war; yet another had simply turned themselves into a creation, pushing the Artificer's Body to its absolute limit.
There were so many.
That was Anthony's first reaction after seeing all of those visions.
The paths these Artificers had explored were as numerous as the hairs on an ox — overwhelming, dizzying, impossible to take in all at once.
So then — what was his own choice?
Anthony was still mulling it over when his gaze happened to catch a scene in one corner.
In that image, an Artificer ignited their Soul Flame — and the entire world began to burn in those flames, before being forged on the spot into an improvised creation.
The moment he saw that image, Anthony felt a powerful pull toward it. Without thinking, he reached out and touched it.
Not for any grand or lofty reason — purely because it felt, instinctively, like this particular approach to playing the Artificer would be extremely cost-effective.
And it seemed like it would be really good for making money too!
Look at everyone else — constantly forging this and forging that, always short on raw materials on one end, always running low on soul energy on the other.
And then look at this branch: just grab with one hand, and thank Mother Nature for her generous gifts. Raw materials? Pull them straight from the earth!
Now that was what he called frugal.
This spoke directly to Anthony's soul.
And so the vision shattered, and before Anthony the cold iron gleam of the River Styx reappeared. At the same time, text from the chat group surfaced across his retinas.
[You have unlocked the Artificer Core Ability · Origin Furnace]
[Artificer Core Ability · Origin Furnace]
[Description: Heaven and earth are callous — they treat all things as straw dogs. The Artificer is unbound — they treat heaven and earth as forge material.]
[Effect: You may perform forging on the vast majority of things in existence. By reforging other things, they serve as raw materials for your own crafting.]
This was exactly the effect Anthony had seen in that vision. Looking at it again now, he felt a wave of genuine delight wash over him.
After reading it over for a bit, he got to his feet, already forming a rough idea of how to use it.
Honestly speaking — here in Night City, there seemed to be no shortage of things to squeeze some residual value out of.
Anthony walked up beside the [Phase Teleportation Engine], picked up a beacon from the floor, and cast his gaze toward Night City where his Smith Stand was currently operating. He narrowed his eyes.
Ready? Let's go take a look at that residual value.
"Hasn't Mr. Smith come back yet?"
In the room, Lucy and David were waiting. After a long stretch of silence, Lucy suddenly spoke up. David blinked, thought about it for a moment.
"Uh, should be soon, right?"
The words had barely left his mouth when they both heard a thunderous, explosion-like hum. In an instant, smoke and dust billowed through the air.
"What the hell is that?!"
Lucy spun around sharply — and saw a beacon glowing with orange-yellow light slam down onto the floor, a small slip of paper stuck to its surface.
The handwriting was, of course, handwriting Lucy recognized immediately.
[Don't dawdle. Get here now.]
"Looks like it's time?"
David looked at the note, exchanged a glance with Lucy. They stared at each other for a moment — and then Lucy suddenly let out a small laugh, reached out, and grabbed the beacon.
David, in his soul state, leaned against the beacon.
The next moment, it was as though the entire world sank into a low, resonating hum of activation.
Lucy's vision went dark — but then just as quickly, brightened again. The scenery around her shifted abruptly, becoming crisp and clear.
It was like stripping away Night City's hazy, hallucinatory smog and arriving somewhere dreamlike and distant — somewhere real.
Gazing at the fantastically colorful, dreamlike river flowing before her, and the vast emptiness and sea of stars beyond, Lucy found herself stunned into stillness for a moment.
"It's beautiful."
She murmured softly at last.
"Glad you think so. After all — once this job is done, there's a good chance you'll be living here for a while."
All of a sudden, a young man's voice came from behind her. Lucy turned around — and saw a soul that looked just like David.
The soul was speaking to her:
"Welcome to the Primordial River, and to my Forge Core, the River Styx — David, Lucy."
While Lucy was still blinking in confusion, David was the first to react.
"Oh, so this is the Primordial River you mentioned before?"
"Mm-hm. Aside from things looking a bit restless in the distance lately, it's pretty nice here."
Anthony said it calmly, narrowing his eyes to glance at the far distance, then pulling his gaze back.
"Follow me, David. Time to prepare for your resurrection. Once you're revived, we head for Arasaka Tower."
"Wait — excuse me, who are you?"
It was at this point that Lucy finally caught up, asking instinctively. Anthony turned and smiled.
"Anthony. Or call me Smith — either works. He is me; I walk upon the earth as him."
"Feel free to look around. I hope you'll get used to it here."
Leaving that casual reply behind, Anthony grabbed David and walked off into the distance.
Once they reached the area beside his [Angler's Bronze Throne], Anthony waved a hand, pulled up the revival interface, looked at David, and suddenly asked:
"So — are you ready to come back?"
"Ready."
David answered without hesitation, with no idea whatsoever what kind of spectacle was waiting for him on the other side.
And so Anthony gave a nod and pressed the revival key.
In an instant, David felt as though his consciousness plunged into dead silence.
Vast quantities of soul energy converged, and Anthony, without the slightest hesitation, ignited his Soul Flame.
Forging begins!
The complete Artificer's Body known as [Terra] — in this moment, began to take shape.
Only, in the middle of the long forging process, Anthony opened the chat group.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: @Everyone — folks, David is about to be revived. I'm in the middle of forging his new body. Any suggestions?]
Though he'd already decided to throw in some personal touches, Anthony ultimately concluded that crowdsourcing ideas was the smarter move.
Because if he were left entirely to his own devices, Anthony was pretty sure he'd go completely off the rails and fill David with every kind of pocket and storage compartment imaginable, maximizing David's carrying capacity for supplies and loot.
Sure, that would make for excellent residual value utilization — but the problem was, if he actually went ahead and turned David into a David-bag, that seemed a little... off.
And so, after a brief moment of hesitation, Anthony cheerfully decided to toss this thorny problem back to the group members and let them sort it out.
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: He's being revived this fast? Well, even if you're asking for suggestions, there should at least be a general direction, right?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Right, once David's revived, he'll need to deal with an opponent called Adam Smasher. That guy is pretty tough — basically the enemy David had before.]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: Any mileage in adding some kind of instant teleport or blink ability?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Hm — actually, yeah, that could work.]
Setting aside the Sandevistan that David already had, if Anthony put some effort into it during the forge, a true teleport didn't seem entirely out of reach.
He'd picked up a fair bit of insight from forging the Phase Teleportation Engine, after all.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Adding it, adding it. Any other ideas?]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: Against an enemy, you should always look for ways to target their weakness. Do you have any strategy for that?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Should be doable. I'll throw in some soul-damage properties — that should do the trick.]
Not quite the same as the Ripple's special effect against vampires, but soul-damage properties should still be pretty solid, right?
Come to think of it, the budget was still healthy — might as well make it a permanent, built-in soul-strike ability!
Just transplant a few characteristics from the Stellar River series and slot them in. The Stellar River series even had a corresponding operations manual for exactly that.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Budget's still good — bring more ideas, urgently needed.]
[The Demon King's Strictest Father: Boost some stats.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Approved. What else?]
[Himmel's Successor, Frieren's Warrior: If you're going into a fight against an enemy, you've got to look cool doing it.]
[Himmel's Successor, Frieren's Warrior: Mm, come to think of it, I've always had a soft spot for that thing where you can transform mid-battle? Sometimes we'd encounter enemies from the Demon King's army that could do it, and I always wondered what that effect would feel like on the friendly side.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Adding adding adding, can do, bring more!]
[City Ghost: I'm not much good on the combat side of things, but adding in some kind of ability that amplifies with willpower would probably be good, right?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Actually yeah, psychokinetic force — amplifying the Artificer's Body's strength based on the state of one's soul. I can forge that.]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: I don't have any ideas worth mentioning there. But lately my soul, enshrined in the Book Blade, has been receiving incense offerings and has recovered somewhat.]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: Let me contribute some effort then.]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith has sent Lord of the White Holy Throne a one-time item · Incense-Blessed Book Blade Projection]
[Incense-Blessed Book Blade Projection]
[Effect: A projection that carries a trace of Jie's Authority. Though its power is limited due to being sourced from merely a certain amount of incense offerings, it still has its uses.]
Staring at the gift Jie had just rocketed over, Anthony was momentarily taken aback — then immediately realized exactly what this thing could do.
Combined with his own [Origin Furnace] ability, he could actually give David an extremely faint concept-erasure effect!
In practical terms, it would probably manifest as: damage dealt by David would be extraordinarily difficult to heal, requiring nearly ten times the normal effort to recover from.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: OK, I think that's about enough.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: All of this combined feels like the power level has started to hit liftoff.]
Though the budget was a little tight, Anthony carefully tallied up everything he'd crowdsourced and the bits he'd pulled together from the group — and looked at how David's abilities had changed.
In short: a 100% cyberware modification rate super-Cybertan, capable of teleportation, whose every hit carried soul-damage true damage, who could transform directly into a second phase, who was already a monstrous stat-stick by nature, who somehow also had psychokinetic force — and whose own emotions toward Adam Smasher could fully trigger the psychokinetic amplification — and, most terrifyingly of all, any wounds he inflicted were irreversible.
After running through the full list, even Anthony couldn't help but feel a surge of awe.
So at the end of all this... did they just build Adam Smasher his own daddy?
But hey. A daddy was good.
Actually — after spending ninety thousand points to build this entire legendary kit, if David still somehow failed to be absolutely broken, then Anthony's entire career as an Artificer could go ahead and hang itself.
What, you ask why Cyberpunk cyberware can sell for so much money and still not come anywhere near this level of performance?
Well, if it could match this performance, what would that make me as an Artificer?
And now, looking at David standing before him — as someone who had genuinely once watched all of Edgerunners in one sitting — Anthony just wanted to laugh.
Things were different now. V wasn't needed anymore.
Fast-forward to: Adam Smasher, I could kill you a thousand times and it still wouldn't be enough!
Right now, staking his dignity as an Artificer on the line!
A flame seemed to ignite in Anthony's eyes. Behind him, his Soul Flame blazed, the [Origin Furnace] roared, wrapping the Book Blade and David's soul together entirely.
And so the [Terra] series Artificer's Body, after Anthony's extreme souped-up overhaul, successfully upgraded to its pro max edition!
Forging begins!
The bold, rugged lines of [Terra] took shape — but were altered back into David's own physical form by the power of the chat group's [Perfect Resurrection].
Yet even so, its fundamental nature as an Artificer's Body in terms of raw stats shone through with striking clarity.
Then came all the upgrade modules Anthony had promised. One by one, fueled by points, each was forged in with ease.
[Stat Boost Module], [Soul Damage Module], [Transformation Module], [Phase Teleportation], [Soul Wave Amplification Module], [Special Weapon · Book Blade Module]...
All modules loaded!
At last, every effort made here announced its result.
A dead soul had risen again from beneath the earth!
The roar of the Origin Furnace gradually subsided, and David's figure slowly emerged from within it. On the surface, he looked completely unchanged from before.
But in the next moment, as David stepped forward, he nearly stumbled from the sheer surge of power flooding through him.
Immediately after, the [Terra] cyberware covering his entire body went haywire — all manner of weapons shot out with a cacophony of mechanical clatter, heavy armor began layering over every surface, and one small compartment even popped out a [Lachimaeus's Roar]...
The cold gleam of iron filled the air. Anthony sighed and spoke:
"Get it under control, David. Take some time to get familiar with your body."
"I'm trying!"
David shouted through gritted teeth, straining with every ounce of focus. Slowly, all the chaotic weapons retracted. It took quite a while, but David finally got the hang of it.
And so everything miscellaneous was put away, David let out a long breath, and returned to his original appearance.
"How does it feel?"
Anthony snapped his fingers and turned to ask David. David clenched his fist, feeling a strength he had never possessed even in his previous life, and broke into a smile:
"Never felt better, Mr. Anthony."
"And — I finally believe the hundred percent cyberware rate now."
Even though there wasn't a single original cell left in his body, David felt more mentally sharp and alive than he ever had before.
The cyberpsychosis even felt further away than ever — which was, honestly, absolutely ridiculous.
"It's fine — a hundred percent cyberware rate doesn't really mean anything for you anymore."
Anthony said casually, turning to walk away.
To be real about it — the way David was right now, decked out in a full legendary kit with targeted soul-damage properties, Adam Smasher, the so-called legendary killing machine, was about to be used as a speed bump.
What, Adam Smasher, the legendary paper shredder? Don't make six-item David laugh.
As far as Anthony was concerned, David right now was basically a speed bump on the side of the road.
Honestly, even if a fully built V with 100% cyberware showed up, they probably still couldn't take on the current David.
"Come with me."
Anthony said softly, drifting ahead. David followed — and saw Lucy walking toward them.
The moment Lucy laid eyes on David, her pupils contracted sharply. Then, almost instantly, she lunged forward, throwing her arms around him on instinct.
David caught her. Then, he heard Lucy's voice, muffled and choked with tears against his chest.
"I'm so glad, David."
She buried her head gently against the young man's chest and said:
"I can finally hold you for real."
David said nothing. He just pressed his lips together and held Lucy tightly, until Anthony beside them had eaten his fill of secondhand sweetness and finally spoke, helpless:
"Alright, you two lovebirds, that's probably enough."
"You'll have all the time in the world for this later. Nobody here is going to tell you what to do — that's the freedom I promised you."
"But right now, the two of you — before you embrace that freedom, you've still got unfinished business to take care of first, haven't you?"
Anthony finished speaking, spread his hands, and two beacons dropped into his palms — then vanished in the next instant.
The beacons had coordinate-locking functionality. Anthony had already slipped them into the places where they needed to be.
"Off you go, you two. Arasaka Tower is waiting."
And so Anthony pointed at the Phase Teleportation Engine behind him, cleared his throat, and said cheerfully:
"Now then, let me lay out the plan."
"Simply put, I'm calling it: Operation Classified Arasaka Tower Search-Strike-Extract."
"Your mission is to loot everything you can get your hands on inside, smash every enemy you encounter along the way, then carry what you've found to the beacon's location and extract directly. Once you're out, go right back in for another run!"
"Search successfully, fight your way through, get out clean — remember those three points."
"Oh, and one last thing — don't forget to kill Adam Smasher and bring him back."
Looking at the ever-brightening smile spreading across Anthony's face, David and Lucy snapped out of their brief daze — and were promptly pushed in front of the Phase Teleportation Engine.
Then they heard Anthony's calm words:
"Keep in mind: when the moment is right, reinforcements will arrive on your end."
"Your backup will always be right behind you."
Reinforcements? Still more of them?
Is it a group member?
While David was still standing there puzzling it over, the teleportation activated. In an instant, the light before him went dark, and David's expression turned grave.
Forget it. At this point, there was no use overthinking it...
Adam Smasher — I clawed my way back from hell!
Now — Operation One: Arasaka Tower Search-Strike-Extract begins!
____
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