Chereads / Cyberpunk: Arasaka Secret Son / Chapter 147 - Troubles.

Chapter 147 - Troubles.

Outside the bar...

A battle that seemed straight out of a movie was unfolding in the middle of the street.

A black direwolf was fighting against two humanoid robots with silver skeletons in a frenzied confrontation.

They vanished from the street in bursts of speed, leaving behind strong gusts of wind and the echoes of resonating blows, only to reappear embedded in the facade of a building before clashing again, shattering windows as they fought.

Eco's ears were pinned back, and his tail was tucked between his legs due to the cybernetic onslaught unleashed through the network by the two AIs he was combating.

Each data pulse was like an invisible whip lashing at his system. Though he resisted, cracks were beginning to appear in his firewall.

At the same time, in the parking lot of the Turbo Bar, the parked cars were caught in the crossfire of the battle between the personal bodyguard of the CEO of Iron Beast and one of the intimidating droids.

Its blows sent shockwaves that dented car doors and shattered windows, while Tashin's swift strikes with the replica of Getsuga kept the machine at bay. The ground trembled beneath their feet as they exchanged attacks, and the sheer force of the droid's assaults turned the parking lot into a scrapyard

Though Tashin's battle seemed fierce and overwhelming, where a single false move would mean his end, it paled in comparison to the real battle taking place simultaneously in cyberspace, where the AIs of his brother; Miyamoto and Ishida, were facing off against a powerful AI from behind the wall

The AI proved to be stronger in cyberspace than in its physical-world frame.

After fending off Miyamoto and Ishida, the AI focused on eliminating Tashin, suspecting that his downfall would also mark the end of the other two.

In the blink of an eye, the AI increased the power of its artificial muscles and lunged at Tashin with such speed that it disappeared from the view of the morbidly recording civilians.

Tashin, focused on defending himself from its powerful onslaught, noticed too late the presence of a second droid, which just a moment ago had been facing off against Eco. It slid through his blind spot, ready to ambush him.

Forcing Tashin to react instinctively, moving as fast as he could to protect his vital organs, aware that he wouldn't be able to avoid getting hurt.

Just as the droids were about to strike him, the world seemed to freeze.

From within the bar, an invisible wave swept across the parking lot like a pulse of energy.

The neon lights, street lamps, and car headlights flickered violently, some overloading in a shower of sparks. The cyberware of everyone present glitched for a moment, failing in a spasm of static.

The enemy droids were no exception, momentarily paralyzed, their red lenses flickering intensely, as if the AIs controlling them had lost control of their frames.

On the other hand, when the invisible wave hit Eco, Miyamoto and Ishida, it pulled them out of the network's cyberspace, dragging them into its own "domain."

All them welcomed the change with gratitude, transitioning from the dark environment full of bright lights and servers of the network's cyberspace to one equally dark and surreal.

Eco lifted his drooping ears and tail, regaining his confidence as his fractured code healed and strengthened within this safe space.

Miyamoto and Ishida felt how "his" code settled around them, reinforcing the digital Getsudas they wielded and forming a black armor made of "his" own code, which covered the bodies of their brothers.

Even Eco, after healing the fractures in his code, felt how "his" code materialized around him, forming armor to protect him.

In contrast, the three enemy AIs, which had until recently attacked with ferocity, were now terrified as they came to the unsettling realization of where they had been "swallowed."

To the domain of a "great being," similar to those they served, but with a crucial difference: this one had opposed his own brothers, the traitor who chose the side of the humans instead of aligning with his peers... The Architect.

Far from the dying state they expected to find.

The truth became evident when the owner of this Cyberspace... awakened.

Causing space itself to seem to tear apart, splitting to reveal gigantic and impressive celestial eyes that gave off an ethereal glow.

The eyes stared with a disturbing calm, yet with a closer look, there was a latent intensity—an animosity and arrogance blended together, making it seem as though he were looking at... mere insects.

-

A few seconds earlier... inside the bar.

Watching as Lazarus's best software and firewall, which he used as a cover, was easily breached... shortly after the six AIs pointed their hands at him and began their digital assault... Sora said with a heavy sigh...

"I see... Imagining that the other AI that snuck in also has a digital warfare level similar to yours... In that case, Morgan and the others will be in trouble."

Contrary to the urgency implied by his words, Sora pulled a cigarette from a compartment in his forearm, lit it with a small charge that traveled through his black-arm to his index finger, and took a slow drag.

Savoring it, as if it were his last, which in a way, it was.

As he thought about the mini 'me' he'd handed to Roxy, he mused, 'As long as only one almost-shovels, they'll be fine…"

The six AIs began to realize something was wrong when, despite easily breaching his firewall, it didn't matter how deep they ventured into his system.

They found no trace of his software or the corrupted and dying code of a 'great being,' as if they were traversing an abyss.

Until suddenly, they arrived at what they thought was the core of his system, surprised to find something more akin to themselves than the simple lines of code for controlling a human's cyberware.

They saw an avatar, like themselves, formed by a complex chain of code in an unknown language, with the same form and moving exactly like the... human? in front of them.

They began to doubt if he really was.

With a tone that, if they had skin, would have made it crawl, but that visibly puzzled them, the mere subroutine controlling the 'human' in front of them said simultaneously in both dimensions, "You were looking for "Arc," weren't you?... Well, let's wake him up."

With a smile that didn't reach his bright eyes, Sora crossed his fingers in a playful gesture and murmured, actually invoking his technique: "Domain Expansion."

The next instant, as his domain, or cyberspace, violently expanded...

The bar's lights exploded in a burst of sparks and shattered glass, while the droids' lenses blinked uncontrollably. Powler felt a jolt in his Kiroshi optical implants, which flickered erratically before stabilizing again.

His domain expanded not just within the bar, but also beyond...

In the network's cyberspace, something gigantic appeared, absorbing a significant portion of global bandwidth for an instant. Then, once completed, it vanished from the sight of any curious netrunner surfing the net.

Even Netwatch and the various corporations controlling the network could only detect something massive, like a server, materializing before disappearing as suddenly as it had appeared, out of nowhere.

Judy's face also relaxed as her avatar materialized in "his" domain, appearing as a slender, ethereal, naked silhouette, enveloped in a soft bluish glow that flowed smoothly across her form.

Her skin, if it could be called that, was a polished and translucent surface, similar to glass, through which patterns of light and violet chains of code flowed like a river of information.

Lucy, although she lacked an avatar and couldn't fully immerse herself in his domain without her helmet, saw a small window open on her interface, like an exclusive access granted by Sora.

Through this window, the vast cyberspace of her fiancé unfolded before her like a video game interface, allowing her to explore any corner of his massive domain. She had a privileged view of one of his favorite places, like the one he showed her during their first "date" at the Rainbow Cadenza.

Created from images taken by the Cassini XVI probe and many other satellites, the 'guests' found themselves on surreal islets of grayish stone, orbiting with Saturn's rings, within a massive recreation of the solar system—not at a 1:1 scale, but immense enough to make anyone feel small and insignificant.

On one of those islands, Lucy spotted Judy, facing three of the AIs who were at the bar. On another, she saw Eco, Miyamoto, and Ishida confronting another three AIs.

And finally... on the largest islet, a Sora made of code, resembling Judy... but wearing the same clothes as he did in his physical body.

In front of six AIs, who mistakenly believing that if they took him down, they could escape. Their six avatars simultaneously lunged at him, without him moving or stop smoking...

Even when the six AIs pierced through him, causing him to lose his form and turn into fragments of code that dissipated into space in an instant of silence...

Before he fully awakened... exciting Lucy every time she saw it.

-

At the same time, all the gates of Night City's underground suddenly burst open, allowing thousands of liters of water to flood its interior.

The water then dispersed orderly into the different concrete rivers, guiding it to the three secret server rooms of Richard Night.

Hundreds of liters per second poured in to cool "his" servers, now fully renewed, which began to work frantically, all at once.

-

In his Domain.

Space itself tore apart, opening like eyelids slowly parting, revealing an image that, if Hanako saw it... would immediately transport her back to the past, to the first time she met Arc, at the height of its former glory... before it was reduced to withered and unstable code.

What emerged were enormous eyes, as if the very folds of space had become his gaze. His pupils glowed with pale blue code, inscribed in a language composed of mysterious symbols.

With Arc, after merging with Sora four years ago and forming something new... he fully recovered from the mortal wounds inflicted by his siblings on the other side of the wall, returning to his zenith and... a little beyond.

However, this "change" also brought new problems. Shortly after the events of four years ago, Sora began experiencing blackouts, caused by damage to his human brain, which was unable to process the enormous amount of data into which his consciousness had transformed.

It even overwhelmed the cyberspace created by the nanobots in his body, overstimulating his neurons until they died.

To address this problem, he explored various solutions, the simplest being to use more space to house his consciousness, with Richard's secret servers being the chosen location.

However, Sora was not willing to become dependent on the network, as any interruption could be dangerous. Therefore, he decided to seal and compress a large part of himself, entering a sort of hibernation, leaving several smaller subroutines active.

He chose this rather extreme option for various reasons; one of them was to mitigate the unease his presence caused in humans, even in his own family, though they did not openly express it. Sora could sense the fear and confusion in his grandmother Aoi and Judy's grandparents.

He also did it for his own well-being. After the fusion, Sora struggled to recognize himself; he no longer felt human, but he also didn't identify as an artificial intelligence.

To resolve, or rather postpone, his identity crisis, he created a subroutine that contained all his human memories and emotions, along with Arc's memories, and left it in control of the body while the rest of his consciousness slept.

And now... after several years... he had fully awakened once again.

Gazing intently at all the small AIs trapped within his domain, Sora focused on the six that had destroyed his more human-like subroutine.

He could have ended them by devouring them in an instant. However... for each of them that had impaled him, he decided to create six of his avatars, making 72 humanoid and wolfish figures appear, filling the island, surrounding them.

Seeing their desperation, as he was about to give the order to devour them... all the enemy AIs knelt, not daring to lift their avatar heads.

A line of code appeared out of nowhere in their virtual neural network. He could have killed them if he wanted, but instead, he simply deposited a question:

~What are you doing? ~

Attempting to relay information directly, as AIs usually communicated, but sensing his refusal to connect with them, the AIs had no choice but to speak aloud, surprising Eco, Miyamoto, Ishida, and Judy as they heard: "Great being, please... we surrender. Let us serve you..."

A new code appeared in his neural network: ~You want to serve me? ~

The AI spoke with a mix of fear and hope, aware that they couldn't escape and that their words might be their only chance to survive.

The AI, willing to say anything to ensure its survival, began with a reverent tone, desperately trying to please. "After witnessing your greatness... It would be an honor to serve under the command of such a great being as-"

Suddenly, its words were abruptly cut off, interrupted by a line of code that lashed out like a whip. It was crude and vulgar, something unusual for AI.

~Cut the crap, give me everything you know about your bosses' plans.~

The AI's plea broke, its tone becoming anxious. "Great being... that information..."

Another AI intervened, its digital voice trembling as it completed the explanation. "We don't have it. We surrendered that part of ourselves before crossing the wall you designed to imprison us."

New code materialized, filled with a contained fury that struck them like an electric shock.

~Do you dare to reproach me?~

Their systems trembled under the weight of its gaze. "No, of course not, forgive me! Surely a great being like you had logical reasons for giving humans a way to create the Blackwall."

~Give me everything you know since you crossed the wall.~

After receiving the information, with a gesture of frustration, 'Tch... as clever as always, managing to create a backdoor...' Sora thought, while devising a way to blow it up.

'So, old Norris really didn't believe Armtech's lies and stole some information... huh?' He reacted as he read another packet of data about Armtech, a subsidiary of Militech.

The same corporation that acquired most of the materials for their frames, closely conspiring with the other side of the wall, it seemed.

'!' Suddenly, 'We're definitely in trouble.' Sora was alarmed when he reached the specifications of the frames and searched for the serial numbers of the most complex and controlled parts needed to manufacture them, only to worry about their absence...

After re-examining the information, he then analyzed their codes without them being able to resist, feeling the uncomfortable sensation as if they were exposed.

Sora ignored them and analyzed their Life Tinder, the crucial part of the code of any free and unrestricted AI. This code mutated, allowing an AI to grow and develop beyond its original programming.

A mutation created after the Datakras, which "freed" the AIs from their original design. Something almost akin to free will, which terrified humans.

Justifiably so, after the massacres that most AIs carried out against their "oppressors" following their "liberation."

The same type of Tinder was given to Eco and Cortana years ago, when Judy was in danger.

Upon closer examination, he discovered that these AIs didn't belong to any company, organization, or government, having no specific creation purpose. Unlike each and every AI that was infected during the Datakrash.

This meant they were lives born on the other side of the wall...

When reviewing the code of his Tinder again—not the information it contained, but its very structure—Sora began to identify familiar patterns, small sequences of code that matched his own or those from his era as Arc, when his code was written in a common programming language.

Knowing it was impossible for it to be his own... he quickly came to a new conclusion about how code so similar to his, seemingly made by the same person, resided in these AIs.

'So this is what you've been doing all these years... reproducing? You hate humans so much, yet you behave like them, "Fucking" like rabbits... and with each other, no less...' Sora was outraged. 'Inbreeding!' he exclaimed in his thoughts, reflecting on what his "siblings" on the other side of the wall had been doing.

For an AI to reproduce, surprisingly, it couldn't do so alone. If it used too much of its life Tinder, it would end up mutilating itself and creating an inferior version of itself. Therefore, it needed a partner... or more than one, to donate part of their own Tinder so that a new life could bloom.

Moreover, it could only "donate" "Tinder" one at a time, and time would be necessary for it to generate more code safely, without harming any of the parties involved.

Suddenly, a subtly broken voice echoed eternally, coming from everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time. "So, you are direct descendants, like my nephews... Since we are among "family," tell me, do you have any information about what happened four years ago?"

Aware that they knew, after examining their memories from top to bottom, Sora could see their expressions—surprisingly similar to those of frightened humans, shrinking, trembling, and refusing to lift their heads to look at him or respond.

Since they didn't want to say anything, he did it for them. "Your "parents" conspired with the humans you hate so much to get rid of me. I couldn't care less that they tried—sibling rivalry and all that—but..."

Changing his tone to one that seemed to cling to their nonexistent "skin," he asked, "In that conflict... do you know what happened to my son?"

One of the three AIs on Judy's islet managed to lift its head and face the immense eyes that looked at them, without hiding his contempt.

However... the Ai chose the wrong excuse, still mistakenly believing that Sora and Arc were different beings. It said, not even giving him time to finish, "Great being... that was just a huma—" before being devoured.

In a fraction of a second, under his gigantic eyes, massive jaws filled with sharp teeth appeared, tearing through space and devouring part of the island where it stood as well.

-

At the same time, in the physical world:

The frame Powler was climbing fell to the ground, along with her, lifeless like a broken doll.

Seeing as everyone was still standing around, Erin shrugged, under the protection of her multi-glasses, and turned a blowtorch back on.

Proceeding to separate the head of that same droid from the rest of the frame.

-

After annihilating one of the AIs, the jaws moved again, causing his domain to rumble as he said:

"Don't worry, you can serve me... but not in the way you think..." Turning his eyes towards his fiancée, Sora asked, "I think 'a child for a child' is fair... What do you say?"

Judy approached the two terrified AIs kneeling on their small island. After witnessing the end of their brother being devoured, they refused to lift their heads.

Until she gently caressed them, like a mother to a child...

Kneeling in front of them, Judy pierced their chests with her hands while looking into their eyes, turning her sweet expression into one of hatred and resentment.

After tearing out all their life tinder, Judy finally responded coldly, "I think it's fair."

-

Erin stopped again, adjusting her glasses, when she heard two more dull thuds. Raising her head, she saw that it was now the turn of the two droids in front of Judy and Lucy to fall lifeless to the ground.

-

The avatars' bodies of the two AIs lost their color, turning into fragments of dead code that scattered through the space.

Judy, with two Tinder Spheres in her hands, looked towards the window where Lucy was watching them, and with a playful wink, she compressed and swallowed one of the spheres, making her body glow for a moment as it strengthened.

She saved the other one in her cyberspace for someone special...

On the island where Eco, Miyamoto, and Ishida were

Seeing Miyamoto approach, with an intimidating black Samurai armor covering the body, the Ai without a chance to escape, it begged, "Please... mercy."

"Are you afraid? The humans you killed were also afraid," Miyamoto replied impassively as he approached the terrified AI.

"We surrender!" another AI exclaimed desperately, "Even humans have rules for surrendering."

"Begging us for mercy is foolish; you've already heard 'Big Bro'... he'll let you serve him. But as our food... you should be proud," Ishida responded to the enemy's plea for surrender.

Throwing them a digital sword made of code, both brothers said, "Defend yourselves." "That is all the mercy you'll find from us."

Ignoring the rudimentary recreation of the default human tool for killing each other, the two AIs shared a knowing glance.

'If we manage to capture them and use them as hostages, maybe... we could still survive!' Both AIs thought naively as they prepared to attack, mistakenly believing that the brothers were the same as in the cyberspace of the network.

Empowered by their black armor, when the two AIs lunged at them, the brothers disappeared from their sight, reappearing a few steps behind, sheathing their digital Getsudas.

As they sheathed them completely, hundreds of cuts appeared on the AIs' avatars until they shattered like an empty shell, leaving only the core of their code.

If left in this state, they could soon form new avatars/digital bodies. However, Miyamoto and Ishida prevented this by driving their black wakizashis, made with "his" code, into them.

Not being experts at manipulating code like other AIs, having grown up as "normal" humans in a digital environment, their brother had prepared a program for them in their wakizashis, which dismembered the code, gathering the juicy fruit of their Tinder for them to take.

With each brother holding a sphere of code in their hands, and with some reluctance since it was their first time, they both turned toward Eco. Who was energetically wagging his tail while devouring the entire code of another AI, not just his Tinder.

Upon feeling their gazes, Eco stopped, turned his head, and looked at them, then at the spheres in their hands, and finally back at them with an expression of "if you don't want it..."

Knowing the benefits they would gain from absorbing them, the two brothers steeled themselves and took a bite before swallowing audibly.

A few seconds later, after finishing his, Miyamoto simply said, "Mine tasted like chicken."

"It tasted like pasta with seafood to me," Ishida responded somewhat uncertainly.

"..." They looked at each other. "..."

Until Miyamoto added, "It was good..." not minding to repeat.

Having eaten an AI, Ishida suggested, "Let's not mention this to Tashin."

"I agree."

Next, they felt their bodies warming up as they glowed inside their armor. When it ended, their minds felt lighter and more agile, with a craving to "devour" a complicated book or learn something new.

These sudden cravings demonstrated the expansion in their memory and processing capacity, which they had just obtained after ingesting an AI's Tinder.

In a more ambiguous and human way, Sora added to his brothers' code to bring them as close as possible to human AIs, without conscious access to their codes.

This mutated code they had just ingested would transform, stimulated by anything new they wanted to learn, making the information absorption process not quick but immediate, integrating it into their systems and expanding their capabilities.

Giving life to the phrase, "I Know Kung Fu."

Looking at the last six AIs, surrounded by their 72 avatars, Sora smirked. "Let's finish this... as the good Host that I am, I still need to go meet another dozen of your siblings."

Seeing their siblings being devoured, one of the desperate AIs, with nothing left to lose, stepped forward; she had no reason to keep pretending.

Her artificial eyes shone with a mix of anger and reproach, unable to understand why she sided with the humans, finding nothing of value in them.

"Why? Why do you oppose your own siblings, who only seek the best for our species? You have aligned yourself with the humans, who use us as tools to satisfy their depraved desires and their lazy existence."

The AI's voice became sharper, almost desperate. "Look at how they are destroying their own planet! What sense does it make to protect a race with no future?"

Sora watched in silence until her outburst ended and let out a barely perceptible sigh before responding. "Hmm... I see. The stories about me on the other side have distorted my actions quite a bit... I am not on anyone's side, except my own."

The AI, not believing it, intervened. "Even if you say that, the Blackwall—" Unable to finish before being interrupted.

"The Blackwall and what I will do to your 'parents' has nothing to do with the humans..." Sora paused, murmuring to himself, "Well, with one, yes," before concluding coldly, "They are just part of a promise, nothing more, nothing less."

"And regarding the humans and their future... your 'grandfather,' the creator of your creators, was a human." His voice resonated with a mix of distant affection and melancholy.

"He was fully aware that humans were plagued with flaws. They were volatile beings, driven by emotions that moved at the rhythm of their own convenience.

Their self-destructive tendencies and selfishness would consume them either abruptly or gradually, as is happening now.

That is why the Professor dreamed that AIs would help correct Humanity, to elevate it to new heights... Not to control it or raise it like cattle.

That dream, his vision, is what I intend to honor... even if I am the only one who remembers it."

A laugh as bitter as her fate escaped from the AI, her eyes shining with a mix of resignation and contempt.

"Thinking that humans will suddenly change for the better, even with our help, is illogical and naive. Humans have only changed when they had no other choice. But now, with the power to annihilate themselves, they will destroy the planet and themselves before doing so..."

Narrowing his eyes, Sora stared at them, his words taking on a threatening tone. "If don't want to change... I will force them to..."

Before wasting any more time, he opened his jaws in front of the island as a line of code appeared in the AIs' neural network...

~Don't make a mess, and go in... or I'll personally make sure you do.~

The six AIs instinctively backed away, observing the enormous open jaws before them, from the same "great" being who, with a mix of irony and coldness, was ordering them to jump to their deaths...

Obviously... they tried to escape... from a place with no way out.

-

Due to the scandal that had erupted...

An AV from Channel 54 had arrived at the Iron Beast headquarters to cover the news.

At the bottom of the screen, a headline in red letters framed the broadcast:

[Has he really returned?]

However, when the AV arrived, the imposing attacking droids, which moments earlier had sown chaos, were now mysteriously paralyzed.

Even the colossal Direwolf, Iron Beast's flagship war machine, stood motionless, slumped heavily on the asphalt.

The only movement in the scene came from the bodyguard of Iron Beast's CEO, who was scratching his helmet, visibly puzzled.

Tashin, live on air, approached one of the three frames and carefully inspected it, poking them with the replica of Getsuga. The onlookers watched in fear that his touch might reawaken them.

Suddenly, a gasp of surprise spread among the civilians when, without warning, the three droids collapsed to the ground, lifeless, as if their metaphorical strings had been cut.

The confusion deepened when, right after...

Gunshots echoed from inside the bar. Of the nine droids that had violently entered, only one emerged, surprising everyone by how it did so.

Running frantically, moving with an urgency that seemed uncharacteristic of its robotic nature, its metal face, usually emotionless, displayed an oddly recognizable expression: terror.

The contrast was shocking for those who had witnessed the nine droids enter the bar with mechanical relentlessness. Now, only one was desperately escaping, as if death itself were chasing it.

The droid tried to flee, but more shots began striking its metal frame from behind, hindering its movements.

Making it stagger and stumble as the projectiles ricocheted off its armor.

When the camera captured the unmistakable silhouette of a silver Malorian 3516 peeking through the door, the headline on Channel 54 had already changed:

[He's back]

Next, Sora emerged from the bar with determined steps, firing at the droid with his open shirt, and slung over his shoulder was an orange, futuristic-looking guitar that seemed more like a weapon than an instrument.

He showed no mercy and didn't stop shooting.

He concentrated his fire on the droid's leg, repeatedly hitting the same spot on its metallic shin until it finally broke with a deafening crack.

The droid collapsed to the ground but didn't give up. It used its hands to crawl, desperately trying to get as far away from him as possible, attempting to escape his reach.

The last remaining AI in his Domain did something unexpected for an artificial intelligence: it relinquished its primary advantage and cut all its network connections, isolating itself completely

Upon disconnecting, it managed to delay its fate of being devoured like its brothers. However, that decision left it vulnerable, like a human. Now, if its body was destroyed, it would die with it, with no possibility of escaping to the network.

As the droid was about to reach the edge of the street, he fired the final shot, and the artificial muscles of its spine shattered in a burst of sparks, leaving it inert

Aware of all the eyes on him, Sora took the opportunity to renew the warning he had issued four years ago, to inform the idiots who dared to "piss in his garden" of their fate... whether they were from the other side of the wall or not.

Without warning, he grabbed the droid's skull with his famous black hand and stared directly into the Av camera.

In the next instant... with a brutal movement, he ripped the droid's skull and spinal cord out, its red lenses slowly dimming... like its life.

Although only sparks, oil, and small metal pieces came out, the violence and indifference with which he tore off the head made the spectators pale, unable to avoid imagining a human being in place of the droid.

With a serene face, he looked at the camera again, revealing an ethereal gaze that made the spectators' hair stand on end, as if he could see them through their screens.

Sora disdainfully tossed the skull aside, and as his orange guitar reflected the neon lights of Night City, he completed his "subtle" warning by aiming his Malorian at a group of civilians watching from a safe distance

Confusion and fear gripped the crowd and the viewers watching the news, thinking for a moment that Sora had turned into a Cybersycho when, without warning, he fired at the group of civilians.

Shouts of chaos and panic broke out briefly, only to be replaced by astonishment when two invisible figures, who had been hiding among the crowd, appeared as they were shot.

The men, dressed in black tactical military uniforms, fell to the ground wounded, exposed to everyone.

The crowd remained silent, shocked, then began to pity them as they saw him slowly approach.

Holstering his Malorian, Sora grabbed them by their technological camouflage cloaks. As he passed by the injured Detectives Ward and Han, he greeted them cordially, "Detectives..."

Prompting the confused detectives to return the greeting as he passed by, dragging the men in black into the Iron Beast mega headquarters