The gun barrels spat fire, the sound was deafening, and hot shell casings littered the floor. The Scavengers yelled in excitement, their facial tattoos twisting.
In the hail of bullets, Arnold stumbled backward, nearly collapsing.
Suddenly, with a loud CRASH, a sofa came flying through the air, spinning. The Scavengers who saw this were terrified, scrambling to get out of the way.
The faux-leather sofa landed with a thud. Its wooden frame exploded into splinters, which, along with the impact, smashed the heads of two unlucky guys who couldn't get out of the way in time.
Arnold, riddled with bullet holes, charged out. Brandishing the shotgun, he began his harvest of the terrified Scavengers.
"BANG! BANG!"
Two Scavengers attempting to raise their guns were blasted to the ground, one with each shot, taking a nearby shelf down with them in a clatter.
"BANG!"
Another shot blew away a Scavenger trying to flee. The impact of the buckshot sent him airborne. He crashed face-first onto the ground, lifeless.
"Shit, open fire!"
The sound came from the side. Scavengers from the second floor were rushing down. They carried weapons and, seeing Arnold slaughtering their crew, immediately opened fire.
The bullet storm struck, tearing apart the TV and the wooden table. Arnold responded calmly amid the chaos, returning fire while retreating backward.
"Damn it, what kind of monster is this!"
The Scavengers who were still firing were utterly shocked.
This big man in black was taking so many bullets and acting like nothing had happened. What the hell? Was he completely wrapped in bulletproof armor?
Arnold retreated into the kitchen, using the door and the hallway's blind spots to fire several shots, forcing the rushing Scavengers to back off.
The kitchen had more than one door. A Scavenger, gun in hand, tried to sneak in through the back. Arnold, whose thermal senses had no blind spots, whirled around and blasted him in half. The bottom half of his body landed with a surprised look in his eyes; he died without figuring out how Arnold had spotted him.
The Scavengers surrounded the kitchen.
Their eyes were blood-red, furiously cursing and vowing to tear Arnold limb from limb. They were eager to charge in, barely restraining their impulse to storm the kitchen.
"Use a grenade!"
One Scavenger shouted.
Seeing the enemy "forced" into the kitchen, the Scavengers decided to throw in a grenade and blow Arnold to pieces.
But at that moment, Berry, her Kinetic Arm Guard flashing layers of blue light, rushed out.
Jumping over a wooden crate in the corner, Berry launched herself high into the air.
She held the "Vitamin B", her dark brown eyes rapidly analyzing and locking onto every Scavenger in the room.
Time froze at this instant.
Berry was airborne, her posture graceful and decisive, like a dolphin leaping from the water. Her short black hair floated in the air like seaweed, yet it couldn't hide the resolve in her dark eyes.
The next second, Berry pulled the trigger.
"BANG! BANG! BANG!"
With every shot, the Kinetic Arm Guard flashed blue. The massive recoil of the revolver was perfectly absorbed by the arm guard's damping mechanism. The only sensation transmitted to Berry was a slight vibration, no more than what you'd feel from a gaming controller.
Three bullets fired out simultaneously, splitting into three scattering lines that pierced the group of Scavengers.
The .357 handgun rounds, which packed the punch of a rifle, tore through the air and drilled into the crowd. Everything in their path was shredded. One bullet exploded a Scavenger's tattooed arm, and the projectile continued undeterred through the resulting blood mist.
It then drilled through the skull of a cursing Scavenger, spraying out red and white matter, and continued its high-speed trajectory, boring straight into the spine of a Scavenger who was facing away from the shot, shattering the chest bone and exiting through the chest. Finally, it struck the concrete wall, blasting a small crater where the warped slug was firmly embedded.
One bullet penetrated three people. The other two bullets achieved similar feats, one passing through three and the other through two, all earning a kill count far exceeding their cost.
Three bullets, eight lives.
This was the power of 14 points in the Reaction Attribute.
With the System's incredibly powerful enhancement, Berry possessed terrifying dynamic vision and mastery over firearms. While wielding her personally modified, high-power revolver, "Vitamin B," she was invincible.
In the air, Berry had already vaulted over the building's load-bearing beam, and her sightline was completely blocked by the pillar. Logically, Berry should have lost her chance to shoot, but the path of a powerhouse is to defy logic.
"BANG! BANG! BANG!"
Another triple blast sounded, and three more bullets ripped from the cylinder.
This time, the shots were wildly inaccurate, barely aimed toward the Scavengers.
The bullets struck the floor, or the wall, or the ceiling—strange, impossible trajectories that were nowhere near the Scavengers' positions.
But this was not Berry giving up. Her eyes were sharp, and a faint smile played on her lips.
The real show was just beginning.
The slugs struck the ground at an angle, bouncing off the hard floor, diverting their direction, and flying straight toward the Scavengers.
At the same moment, the bullets that hit the ceiling and walls also ricocheted back. The three bullets converged, piercing the group of Scavengers.
Blood splattered as the bullets landed.
In a flash, several more Scavengers went down.
The brass casings clattered as they hit the floor. Berry completed a roll and landed steadily on her feet, the gun barrel smoking. The revolver's six shots were exactly used up.
"Shit, there's an enemy behind us!"
It was only now, after more than ten of them had fallen, that the Scavengers realized someone had been shooting at them from behind. They turned their weapons around in terror.
Only to see Berry standing up, smiling provocatively at them.
"BANG!"
A pincer attack.
Arnold burst out of the kitchen like a tank, colliding with two or three Scavengers. He then fired his shotgun repeatedly, dropping three or four more. The circle of Scavengers was emptied, all lying sprawled on the ground.
Under Arnold's strategy of feigning defeat to lure the enemy, the Scavengers were utterly defeated. Those who were not dead were wounded, and no one was left to resist.
Kicking the weapons away from the floor, Arnold and Berry delivered a final shot to every Scavenger who was still alive. With that, the Scavengers in the repair bay were thoroughly eliminated.
It was a shame that no "mission complete" notification popped up on her forehead.
Otherwise, Berry would have felt even more accomplished.
What was next? Of course, collecting the loot.
Having learned from the previous experience, Berry knew that these Scavengers definitely had a large amount of Eurodollars waiting for her in a safe somewhere.
On the first floor, three or four crates of BerryTech cyberware were found. It seemed some had been sold, leaving only these few boxes.
After loading the recovered cyberware into the driver's seat of the van that Old Vic had initially lost, Berry prepared to check the second floor.
For now, this was merely restitution. Berry still had to confiscate the Scavengers' ill-gotten gains.
Kicking aside a few corpses blocking the way, the woman and the machine ascended the creaking metal staircase to the repair bay's second floor.
Lawrence was panicking.
As the boss of a Scavenger crew, he was competent: he was cruel, violent, and capable of quickly moving the "cargo" he collected. His brothers respected him for it.
He was also proud of this, confident in leading his team to greater glory.
Just recently, he had led his men to steal a shipment from a Little Chinatown gang because their inferior pirated goods had caused a dip in the sales of his second-hand stock.
The robbery plan was so successful that it made him believe he was not far from becoming a Night City legend.
But today, just after he finished his luxurious cockroach meal, two people stormed his disguised base—they used the auto repair shop to hide their second-hand cyberware processing plant.
His brothers were swiftly and cleanly killed. These people were utterly brutal, giving a final shot to every downed man.
Lawrence had only avoided being shot to death because he had been a few steps slower to descend the stairs.
He watched everything on the monitors.
And now he was hiding behind a pile of crates on the second floor, waiting for the two bastards who ruined everything to come up.
A man and a woman, but the man was the biggest threat. Lawrence had seen on the monitor how this guy used a cheap, low-end shotgun that no one would use to kill so many of his brothers.
He was now gripping a long-handled machete, hidden in front of his "office." As long as those two came up, they wouldn't be able to avoid him.
The plan was set: Lawrence would first hack down the tall guy, then deal with the woman.
They were coming up. He could hear their footsteps now.
Clutching the handle of the machete, Lawrence was incredibly nervous.
The footsteps grew closer, about to pass the crates.
"Hah!"
Lawrence shouted, bringing the serrated machete down toward Arnold's shotgun-wielding right hand.
If he could just cut down this tall guy, he would win.
Lawrence's ugly face twisted into a snarl, his eyes shining with excitement.