TN: Make sure to go back and check the chapter past chapter I put in a missing chapter that I forgot to do last week, and the two chapter i miss these two week]
Name: "Ronin" — R1 Type
Category: Full-body cybernetic conversion; high-speed mobility and 3D combat specialization
Equipment: Auxiliary static adhesion system, bio-cable three-dimensional maneuver gear, reinforced Achilles tendons, basic Sandevistan (7% pseudo time-dilation effect), current-augmented motors
Description: The basic Sandevistan increases neural response speed by 7%, but that figure is based on full-body cybernetic conversion.
Jump-line cyber reflex pathways efficiently transmit through genetically engineered lizard-fiber artificial muscles, delivering an extremely fast response.
As your first full-body cyberware design, it clearly has many shortcomings. But this means every cyberware manufacturer will have to start taking this unknown full-body conversion seriously.
Tech Points Awarded: 2500
Current Tech Points: 17500
The Tyger Claws lay hidden in shadow, cloaked in electromagnetic shielding capes Leo had prepared for them.
They were called "cloaks," but in reality they were soft metallic Faraday meshes connected to the ground beneath them, forming localized Faraday cages that blocked electromagnetic interference.
The tradeoff was brutal.
They were completely cut off from the outside world.
No tactical comms.
In the Cyberpunk era, that kind of isolation was suffocating.
Every Tyger Claw hiding along the overpasses and buildings was handpicked inner circle. The first shot would be Maekawa's.
He hadn't fought personally in a long time.
But once upon a time, he had been the deadliest blade in Japantown.
In the darkness before him stood an electronic camouflage panel—reading environmental data and mirroring it, temperature-syncing to blend seamlessly.
In high-speed combat, it was nearly impossible to detect.
The engine noise drew closer.
Maekawa grew calmer.
The Ronin was a true full-body conversion.
Its tech list didn't look flashy. Second-gen cyberware integrated into a simplified full-body frame. Plenty of experimental elements still visible.
But it was clean.
Minimal.
When he closed his eyes, he could hear the wind clearly.
No electromagnetic hum in his ears.
It reminded him of gentler days—
When he was a child in Chiba.
Dark nights.
A few peaceful evenings with family, making wishes.
Wishing tomorrow would be better.
Wishing they could escape hell.
At first, the goal had seemed simple.
Train the body.
Sharpen the mind.
Cut down anyone who stood in the way.
But as society grew more complex, as families expanded into businesses and legacies—
Love, hatred, ideals—
All blurred.
Tonight was different.
Tonight he would vent.
Zzt—
A faint current rippled across the Faraday surface.
The hiss pierced his ears.
His katana slid free.
Maekawa threw off the cloak and dropped.
Bang.
The Ronin's 110-kilogram frame drove all its weight into the blade tip.
The monomolecular edge pierced the Mackinaw's roof without resistance.
Tyger Claws leapt from the bridge sides in perfect synchronization, RPG launchers firing in unison.
The skybridge turned into fireworks.
The convoy burst from the flames.
From the elevated ramp into the city proper.
Motorcycles dove from both flanks, mimicking V's aerial style—
But this wasn't surprise.
Under Muramasa's influence, the mercenaries had entered frenzy mode.
Boom—
Within the firelight, Maekawa saw a Centaur mech pivot instantly, blade sweeping across his path.
He launched upward.
The car beneath him was cleaved open like a tin can.
The mech had already begun retreating mid-swing.
Maekawa missed.
Behind him—air displacement.
He dropped low and rolled.
The ambushed mercs were not panicking.
They instantly identified Tyger Claws and counterattacked.
Maekawa rose.
Ahead, a Samson full-body conversion held a heavy machine gun, sliding on a car door panel like a shield-surfing executioner, spraying bullets.
A Tyger Claw rider chased him, reinforced tendons propelling him upward, plunging a blade deep into the Samson's cervical joint.
The brute did not fall.
Instead, he swung the machine gun like a club and smashed it into the rider's skull.
The first clash ended in mutual imbalance.
The two locked onto each other's cybernetic frames, roaring like beasts.
"AAAAAAAH!"
"AAAAAAAH!"
Bang.
They slid at high speed into a traffic light pole.
The Samson died.
The Tyger Claw followed moments later—fried by exposed current arcing from the broken signal.
Leo had designed resistance systems.
But once armor was breached, Muramasa could shut down their cyberware instantly.
Maekawa snapped back to the present.
Ahead, two sports cars had locked bumpers, both sides shoving rifles into each other's cabins and firing point-blank.
Bang.
A Nekomata round punched through the enemy driver's skull.
The car lost control and veered.
Maekawa grabbed the Claw vehicle and climbed in.
The driver was dying.
Dozens of bullet holes.
The man blinked at him once.
Then went still.
"You did well. I'll finish this run."
Maekawa dragged him out and took the seat, two corpses still inside.
Tyger Claw full-body conversions were ferocious.
But any breach allowed Muramasa intrusion.
Soon, the Centaur rigs began breaking through again.
The good news—
The Centaurs were scarred.
Oil leaking.
Sparks flickering.
"We're going to win!" Maekawa shouted.
"Peerless under heaven—"
"Shut up!" Mackinaw's amplified voice cut through the chaos. "Move!"
Jet engine noise roared overhead.
A garbage collection drone crossed the skyline—similar to Zetatech's Hauberk urban recycler units.
But this one wasn't collecting trash bins.
It carried armored crates.
The bay doors opened.
A swarm deployment.
Twenty-plus drones dropped in coordinated release.
Uniform shapes.
Each released micro-missiles.
Indiscriminate.
Targeting everything on the roadway.
Maekawa felt cold oil in his veins.
The car trembled through explosions.
Leo and Jackie weaved below.
Only V made the most reckless move yet.
She noticed the drone's flight altitude was low.
The Boiling Thunder shot up the wall.
Micro-missiles chased.
No safe retreat path remained.
V leapt.
Her mantis blade stabbed into the drone's core.
Boom.
She began to fall.
From above, she saw what others could not:
Two Centaur rigs.
One ripping parts off the other.
Drones locking onto the chassis surface.
Then—
They unfolded.
Merged.
Reconfigured.
Becoming part of the Centaur's structure.
Expanding it.
Upgrading it.
It was assembling in real time.
(End of chapter)