"Dang~!"
There was a teeth-grinding sound of metal collision, and the machete with a blade that was curled like a twist fell to the ground with a clang. The scavenger boss covered his right hand with a broken knuckle, his teeth trembling.
I looked at the tall black man's hand in shock and saw cold metal beneath the cut skin.
This guy is not a human!?
Before Lawrence's head, which had been smoked by too many leaves, could react to what was happening, the big man had already punched him and knocked him to the ground.
I was seeing stars and felt like my hands and feet were not my own.
Lawrence's vision was dim, and he helplessly scratched the ground to get up but was pulled up by a pair of large hands grabbing his clothes.
Then came the wind brought by the violent movement, and the sound of bones breaking bit by bit as they collided with the wall. Lawrence, with his head flattened, fell to the ground, hitting the wall, ending his sinful life, and went to hell with only half of his head left.
Bai Rui behind him didn't even raise her eyelids.
Just as she was going upstairs, Arnold's thermal sensing had already seen clearly the other party's wretched appearance hiding behind the crate, so the sneak attack naturally became a joke.
Stepping over this fool, Bai Rui opened the door and walked into the room which seemed a little cleaner.
There is a desk, a desk lamp, and a computer inside, but none of these matters. What's important is the safe in the room.
As soon as Bai Rui saw the safe, her eyes became fixed on it and she couldn't move her eyes away.
She could already smell the ink.
She pulled it open with one hand, and that fool didn't even lock it.
What's inside? Damn, needless to say, it's of course Bai Rui's favorite stacks of money.
Bai Rui picked up a cardboard box and stuffed rolls of banknotes into the box.
There were not only banknotes in it, but also many credit chips storing sums of money, as well as some small necklaces and jewelry, which must have been stolen from the victims.
But no matter what it was, Bai Rui accepted it all.
"What a strange thing this is."
Bai Rui turned over a chip, but it was not a credit chip. This thing was all black and looked more sophisticated and expensive, like a data bank used to store confidential information.
But, who cares.
After studying it for a while and not understanding it, Bai Rui threw it into the box. She would have plenty of time to study it when she got back.
"Something seems to be wrong."
After Bai Rui packed up all her belongings, she saw something wrong downstairs from Arnold's perspective while watching the surveillance camera.
Several cars stopped at the door and a group of armed men got out.
Was it the Scavenger's reinforcements? Or was it the NCPD agents who heard the gunshots?
Bai Rui closed the box and hung it on her waist, then she raised her gun and rushed downstairs with Arnold. She didn't want to be trapped on the second floor, where she would have nowhere to escape.
"Damn, Old Victor!?" Bai Rui just stuck her head out of the stairs with a gun in her hand, and saw an unexpected person appear at the door, the Ripperdoc Victor.
"Oh my god, Bai Rui!" Old Vic led the group and rushed in. He was shocked to see Bai Rui, but he was even more shocked by the corpses of scavengers on the ground. This place looked like it had just experienced a massacre.
"You did all this!?"
Old Vic and the armed men accompanying him were stunned, especially Old Vic, whose sunglasses were almost falling off his nose.
"It's just a small contribution." Seeing that it was a friendly army, Bai Rui stood up and walked down relaxedly.
"But, Old Vic, why are you here? And who are these people?" Bai Rui leaned against the stairs, looking at Old Vic and the people behind him, feeling very confused.
She didn't want to ask Old Vic for help. How did they know where to go and come here?
"You left in a hurry just now, and I was a little worried." Old Vic struggled to turn his gaze away from the corpses on the ground, looked at Bai Rui, and told her the reason why they came here.
"I have a buddy who makes a living in Kabuki. After asking him, I learned that the scavengers gathered here, and there were a lot of them. I was afraid of delaying you, but I didn't dare to call you, so I had to bring a few friends here to support you."
"Who knew we would hear gunshots when we got to the intersection? We hurried over here, but we didn't expect you to be able to handle so many scavengers by yourself. My God, Bai Rui, you are better than the mercenaries in the next life."
Only then did Victor recover from the shock of Bai Rui wiping out an entire group of scavengers alone.
"Of course, who am I? The future legend of Night City, the most ruthless and brutal mercenary, Bai Rui!"
Bai Rui put the box full of money under the driver's seat of the van, then leaned against the door to show off to Old Vic and the mercenaries who came to support her, but her face did not show the ferocity she boasted about.
"It's settled now. The car has been recovered, most of the goods have been recovered, and most importantly, the troublemaker is gone. From now on, Kabuki's prosthetic market is ours." Bai Rui patted the front of the car and said proudly to Old Vic.
"Yeah, yeah, I never thought of it." Old Vic pushed his sunglasses and said with emotion.
He had originally planned to come out and help Bai Rui, but he didn't expect this guy to be so powerful. Apart from witnessing Bai Rui's victory, he couldn't help at all.
Young people nowadays are really amazing.
Old Victor sighed and felt that he was indeed a remnant of the old era.
"By the way, Old Vic, won't you introduce your friends to me?" Bai Rui raised her eyebrows and felt a little puzzled when she saw the gunmen looking at her eagerly.
Am I so great that I deserve such praise?
"Oh, them." Old Vic, who had come to his senses, smiled at the gunmen. "Rather than saying they were helping me, it would be more accurate to say they were here to look for you, the boss of the Beehive Group, Bai Rui."
"Huh?" Bai Rui raised her eyebrows and looked at the laughing Old Vic with confusion in her eyes.
She was a little confused about the current situation. These people came to see her? What did this mean?
"Several of them are my patients, and also users of the prosthetics you made..." Looking at Bai Rui's puzzled eyes, Old Vic began to explain.
These gunmen are all veterans of the Fourth Corporate War.
Night City's veterans are a mess.
In order to achieve victory during the war, the company abused psychotropic drugs on these soldiers and installed high-powered military prostheses that were extremely harmful to their bodies. However, after the war, these veterans were kicked away.
The pension promised before the war and the post-war medical treatment were all gone.
Many veterans are not only poor but also suffer from mental oppression and drug withdrawal reactions brought by prosthetics. In order to numb their painful nerves, many of them use tranquilizers many times and become dependent on them.
The veterans who are unable to make ends meet cannot afford the high cost of medication and prosthetic maintenance, so they have no choice but to join gangs and sell their weapons for a living in exchange for cheap sedatives to numb their painful nerves.
But there are also many veterans who are unwilling to fight with gangs and choose to do manual labor, such as serving as security guards, construction workers, etc., making a living by selling hard labor and enduring the pain of prosthetics and drug withdrawal reactions alone in shabby rental houses at night.
Many people could not bear the mental pressure for a long time and turned into cyber psychos, killing people in the streets.
Police officers in Night City have publicly stated that at least four out of every ten cyberpsychosis cases are committed by veterans.
For this reason, the people of Night City are increasingly discriminating against and hating these veterans, and their situation is becoming increasingly difficult.
Victor dealt with something similar.
As a prosthetic doctor, he helps some poor veterans maintain their prosthetics and disinfect them regularly at a relatively fair price.
However, this is only a temporary solution and not a fundamental solution. If these soldiers do not replace their military prostheses used specifically for war from head to toe, they will get into trouble sooner or later.
Either they commit suicide under torture, or they turn into cyber psychos and go on a killing spree.
But now, Bai Rui's prosthesis seems to have some effect.
Several retired soldiers who had no money to replace regular prostheses used Bai Rui's handmade Xibei products, but found that this half-plastic and half-metal prosthesis was gentler and did not put as much pressure on their nerves as other prostheses.
Therefore, it is normal for them to be grateful to Bai Rui for creating these prosthetics.
"That's all I know. Why don't you let them tell you in person?" Victor turned to a gunman with a prosthetic right hand and said, "Anthony, didn't you want to thank Bai Rui in person? Now's your chance."
As soon as Old Vic finished speaking, Anthony, looking excited, took a few steps forward. "You must be the famous Bai Rui, right? Thank you so much."
"My arm used to drive me crazy, but now I can finally sleep at night thanks to the prosthesis you made."
The man's tone was sincere and he didn't sound like he was joking, and the expressions of the other people were mostly the same.
It seems that the prosthesis I made has some unexpected therapeutic effects.
Looking at the man's milky white metallic prosthetic limb, Bai Rui was a little surprised.
This was indeed made by her. The prosthesis looks whiter because she used some hard ceramics instead of metal, but the efficacy should have nothing to do with this.
Her guess was that when she used artificial neural circuits with the help of the system, part of the command source for the prosthetic drive was moved to the skeletal brake and spinal nerve center, which greatly reduced the pressure on the brain nerves.
This design is actually a complicated and backward design. Its only benefit is that it reduces the cost of artificial neural circuits because there is no need for so many of them.
But unexpectedly, this backward design became a life-saving straw for the retired soldiers, which was something Bai Rui had never thought of.
However, Bai Rui did not speak, because looking at Anthony's excited expression, it was obvious that he had not finished speaking.
"Please let us work under you!"
The words were so shocking that Bai Rui almost choked when she heard them.