A few street punks could never have imagined that a simple mugging would spiral into this many accidents, one after another, and this fast.
At first, they had wanted to rob that limping middle-aged man, only for some young guy out on a night run to step in and help him leave.
That had already pissed them off.
So they had shifted their target to the young man instead, ready to teach him what happened to people who stuck their noses where they did not belong.
They had just pulled out their weapons and cornered him, with the odds clearly in their favor, and were about to finish the job.
Then a streak of icy blue light shot down from the slope above like a meteor.
In the blink of an eye, the target they were trying to rob got snatched away right in front of them.
As for the little Black punk with dreadlocks, the hand holding his knife was suddenly wrapped in fine, silent strands of golden Monowire and instantly sliced into several sections that dropped to the ground before he even had time to scream in pain.
The sudden speed of the whole thing stunned them.
They stood there dumbfounded for two full seconds before snapping out of it and looking downhill.
There, they saw it.
A silver-haired girl in sportswear was gripping the shopping cart with both hands, one foot planted on the lower crossbar, sprinting downhill at terrifying speed.
And Kai was right inside the cart.
Straight up kidnapped.
The Scav wearing the custom mask raised his gun and fired several shots in the direction the silver-haired girl was racing away.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
But the distance widened too fast. By the time the bullets flew out, there was no way to tell if they had done anything. The silver-haired girl kept pushing the cart, her figure already on the verge of disappearing from view.
The street punks cursed in fury.
"Fuck! Somebody actually stole our mark right in front of us? You wanna die?!"
"Boss, what do we do now? Do we chase them or not?"
"Yeah, boss, that guy looked pretty healthy. His kidneys could probably sell for a good price!"
"Ahhh! It hurts, boss, my hand!"
The masked Scav ignored the other punks.
He walked straight to a modified pickup parked nearby, got in, and started the engine. The remaining four punks jumped onto the back with practiced ease.
He slammed the accelerator.
Smoke burst from the exhaust as the truck tore downhill in pursuit.
At that moment, Kai himself was still completely confused.
He was curled up inside the shopping cart, facing the sky, both hands gripping the metal bars on either side while his legs swung helplessly in the air.
He had no idea what had just happened.
One second ago, he was being threatened by a Scav and a few punks who wanted to carve him up for organs.
The next second, he was stuffed into a shopping cart and carried off.
The last time he had traveled in a posture like this was probably when he was a child.
The cart's four thin wheels rattled violently over the pavement, making Kai's scalp go numb from the vibrations.
All he could hear was the shaking metal basket, as if it might come apart at any second, along with the gunshots that had cracked out behind them.
Cars screamed past on the road, gusts of wind whipping by one after another as the cart swerved left and right to avoid traffic.
Kai felt like he was lying flat on a roller coaster.
Only this one had no safety restraints whatsoever.
It was plunging straight downhill.
Dangerous.
Thrilling.
The streetlights and electronic billboard screens on both sides of the road cast flashes of yellow and deep blue, passing over his eyes in bursts of brightness and darkness.
But what truly filled Kai's vision was the face above him.
Familiar.
And unfamiliar.
Familiar because the girl's short hair danced wildly in the wind, the neon glow from the city lights washing over it and turning its pale pink base into streaks of icy blue.
Unfamiliar because she was laughing with a kind of wild abandon, crazed and utterly free, as if this life-or-death sprint was giving her a thrill she had never felt before.
The girl's neon-colored eyes burned bright, fearless against the wind.
The silver-haired girl drove the shopping cart, carrying Kai downhill in the wrong direction, forcing the passing cars to blare their horns at them.
Suddenly
Clang!
One of the cart's wheels hit a stone, and the front end bounced sharply into the air.
Under the force of inertia, Kai's whole body nearly launched out of the cart.
He had seen more than enough bullets and gunfire in his life, but being flung out of a roller-coaster ride midair was absolutely a first.
The silver-haired girl fought to steady the cart with one hand while slamming the other hard against Kai's chest, shoving him back down into the metal basket.
The cart's four wheels hit the ground again, throwing off a few sparks.
The whole frame shook violently for several moments before finally stabilizing.
Kai dropped back into the basket, still shaken, only to hear the silver-haired girl laugh wildly.
"Ha! This is amazing!"
Her grin was reckless and unrestrained, like she was genuinely enjoying the thrill of turning a shopping cart into a high-speed vehicle.
Kai was convinced she was doing this on purpose.
That smile felt very, very bad.
Like there was some kind of revenge in it.
Then he remembered.
Could it be because he had caught her red-handed on that train that day?
So even though she had acted like they were even, she had secretly kept score and was now finally cashing it in by hijacking him during an organ-harvesting mugging and turning it into a shopping-cart race.
I thought we said we were even. Why are you still keeping a secret tab?
Of course, that was just Kai's wild imagination.
Mostly because he was currently lying in a shopping cart and did not dare move.
If they really flipped over, his flesh-and-blood body probably would not survive it well.
Even though the speeding cart had stabilized, the silver-haired girl showed no sign of slowing down.
If anything, her lips curled into an even smugger smile.
That smile made Kai's heart lurch.
What else are you planning?
Then, with a quick, agile motion that looked absurdly difficult, the silver-haired girl flipped herself around. She gripped the metal handle of the basket with both hands while spreading her long legs to brace against the two front corners of the cart.
In other words, she changed from pushing the cart to lying prone over the frame and driving it backwards.
"Uh..."
Kai was completely dumbfounded by what he was seeing and could not find words for several seconds.
Hello, can I get out now?
This was way too insane.
She was literally driving with her life on the line.
And not even in a car.
In a metal shopping cart.
Kai was deeply worried that the combined weight of two people might make the whole thing collapse at any moment.
One of them was lying in the basket.
The other was stretched across the frame.
Kai could already catch the scent of her flying silver hair at the tip of his nose.
Her wild laughter drowned out every other sound around them.
Still laughing recklessly, the silver-haired girl glanced back now and then, jerking the cart sharply left or right to dodge speeding traffic.
At this kind of speed, one mistake was all it would take for Kai to start over in the next life.
"Hahaha!"
The girl's eyes shone brighter and brighter with excitement. Then she turned back and happened to lock eyes with Kai.
Seeing her like this, Kai's mind filled with all kinds of thoughts.
Was this really the same cold, tsundere girl?
How was she this crazy?
Could this cart stop already?
But the silver-haired girl showed absolutely no concern for Kai's feelings. It was as if she truly saw herself as the master of this iron basket on wheels, living out a speed-filled life of her own.
Before Kai could even ask to get off, he suddenly heard the sound of bullets scraping past beside them in sparks.
Kai: "???"
(End of Chapter)
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