"Bastard!"
The cyberpsycho's eyes locked onto the black-haired young man who appeared at the corner. Without hesitation, she raised her Crushed Kinetic Shotgun.
"Pong!"
A deafening roar erupted as the bullet struck the steel passageway, sending out a sharp, metallic hum. The clash of metal against metal reverberated through the entire structure, making the factory tremble.
Iron, being one of the best conductors of sound, carried the tremors far and wide. The noise reached every corner of the building—naturally including Kai, who, realizing his handgun was useless at close range, immediately turned and ran.
"Shit, was that a shotgun in his hands just now? If I had known, I would've aimed for that instead."
Cursing under his breath, Kai heard the enemy's footsteps growing clearer from the other side of the corner and regretted that he wasn't running faster.
He had only intended to finish the job, but now he had gotten himself into a disaster. Facing an enemy armed with a shotgun and subdermal armor in the narrow corridor, Kai could already picture his own gruesome end.
Oliver had used up all the grenades while setting traps earlier—if only he had saved one, Kai might have stood a chance of fighting back.
The spot where Kai and his team had paused earlier wasn't far from the passage. In just a few steps, Kai caught sight of Jackie and Oliver, who was supporting him. They had clearly heard the metal clash echoing through the corridor and realized something had gone wrong.
"Run!"
Slamming on the brakes, Kai stuffed his Lexington into his holster. As he slid forward, he grabbed the Copperhead from where he had propped it against the wall earlier. He had initially dismissed it as too long and cumbersome for the tight corridor, but now—
I take back what I said. This thing's exactly what I need.
An assault rifle might be unwieldy at a corner, but in a straight passageway, he only needed to spray bullets in a straight line.
Hearing Kai's warning, Jackie and Oliver didn't hesitate. Jackie helped Oliver limp away, while Kai unleashed a relentless hail of bullets behind them.
The cyberpsycho could ignore Lexington's bullets thanks to her subdermal armor, but against the Copperhead? Even she wasn't arrogant enough to take it head-on.
She had been just about to close the distance where her shotgun would be deadly, but the barrage of bullets forced her back around the corner. Watching the golden-haired man—who had killed her brother—disappear into the distance, while the shooter continued to suppress her without pause, her humiliation burned. She clenched her teeth so hard she nearly shattered them.
"I refuse to believe you won't run out of ammo, you little shit! You and that bastard Oliver are dead!"
She glanced back, snatched a discontinued Jade Echo handgun from a fallen subordinate, and prepared to rush out the moment the Copper Viper's gunfire stopped—to tear that bastard apart.
"Oliver, she just called your name. You know her?"
Jackie, hearing the mix of rage and hatred in the enemy's voice, shot Oliver a puzzled look. He hadn't expected to run into one of Oliver's "acquaintances" on this mission.
"Hell if I know. I was in Watson for the first time yesterday! No clue what this is about."
Oliver looked equally baffled. The voice was completely unfamiliar—how could he have possibly pissed someone off?
"Less talking, more running! I'm almost out of ammo!"
Kai's shout made them both shut up and focus on escaping. They didn't know the full situation, but if Kai was this anxious, their pursuer had to be extremely dangerous.
Shouldn't have started a fight here in the first place.
Kai silently memorized his first lesson from this mercenary job.
He stopped firing.
Out of bullets?
That was the cyberpsycho's first thought. She peeked around the corner—
BANG BANG BANG!
Gunfire erupted again, shredding the exposed half of her "body" into pieces.
Kai's heart sank. Even though his bullets had torn that figure into four chunks, he knew that if the Copperhead could do that much damage, it wasn't flesh and blood.
Lesson two.
Kai tossed the empty Copperhead aside, drew his Lexington, and fired a few shots over his shoulder as he ran.
"He still has bullets left?"
The cyberpsycho had been about to charge out, thinking Kai was finally out of ammo. But when the gunfire rang out again, she halted.
"He's even using a second fake-out… Almost fell for it."
But something still felt off.
She had used a Copperhead before. Unless it was heavily modified, it should've been out of ammo after firing for that long.
And the sound…
Something about the gunfire felt wrong.
A second later, rage flared up in her chest.
This sound… This fucking sound!
It was unmistakable. Back when she and her brother had survived at the very bottom of society, before she had joined the Maelstrom gang—this was the very sound of the gun they had relied on to survive.
And just moments ago, it had been pounding in her head.
"You little shit! You tricked me with a Lexington?!"
The cyberpsycho charged out from behind cover, Jade Echo in one hand, Crushed Kinetic Shotgun in the other. But all she saw was Kai's silhouette disappearing at the end of the passage.
"Bastard!"
Fooled twice now, her fury boiled over. Her cybernetic eyes glowed an even deeper red, illuminating the dim corridor like blood.
She had held back to avoid getting injured before dealing with Oliver.
But now? Now she was going to kill that black-haired bastard too.
Even if the Copperhead kept firing, she didn't care anymore.
Her subdermal armor could take two hits—she'd just tank them and charge.
Kill.
The desire for murder consumed her. The microcurrents running through the neural implants in her spine hummed as they pushed her body to the limit—her speed surged forward.