156: Sincere Notice (20250407)

Starting tomorrow, the author will be working like a dog.

After starting work, my schedule will change, and I might not be able to maintain the current update speed. I will try to update once a day, and if I owe any chapters, I will keep track and make them up the next day or find time later.

As of today, I owe three chapters.

I won't forget the updates I owe (though I can't say exactly when I'll make them up (muttering)).

As I said before, this book will not stop updating, nor will it have a bad ending. But I might owe updates (heavy.jpg).

Above, I hope all the Reader Lords will understand.

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Valentine's ordinary day (*):

The night wind, carrying the pungent smell of industrial waste, swept across the rooftop, making Valentine's black tactical trench coat flap loudly.

He knelt on one knee in the shadow of the rusted water tower, his cybernetic eye flashing with a faint blue light, the holographic map sent by Dakota constantly refreshing on his retina.

The New Dawn Auction House, three hundred meters away, was brightly lit, eight sets of searchlights sweeping through the dust, illuminating the fifty meters around the building in minute detail.

"Militech has put the budget for three mobile teams on this one."

Dakota's hoarse, smoky voice came through the earpiece; the mixed-race woman in the holographic projection was toying with an antique revolver.

"That 'Ares Model V' neural amplifier in the vault, they want to destroy all prototypes the night before the weapons exhibition. Remember, don't let the New Dawn people activate the self-destruct protocol."

Valentine's tactical glove brushed against the serrated handle of the pulse knife at his waist; the nanofiber woven touch layer transmitted a slight vibration.

He squinted at the dense red dots on the scan interface.

"Twelve Animals members."

These bio-modified giants were patrolling the outer wall, carrying miniguns.

More troublesome was the Voodoo Boys' hexagonal Hacker matrix, the data torrent weaving spiderweb-like traps in the encrypted channel.

The moment the searchlights turned to the northwest corner, Valentine leaped off the rooftop.

The Sandiwestan implant buzzed, and the world suddenly plunged into a thick, slow-motion state.

The magnetic-attaching cloak he deployed during his descent scraped against the concrete wall, creating purplish-blue electric arcs, and the cushioning gel in his boot soles absorbed the impact, stopping him precisely three meters from the ground.

His optical camouflage skin began to synchronize with the environment's color, and even the rise and fall of his chest during breathing were perfectly concealed by the ripple-like mimicry.

Moving along the base of the wall, Valentine could clearly hear the conversation of the Animals guards two meters away.

"I heard that thing can let a normal person tear apart a mech with their bare hands?"

A rough voice with a heavy metal accent said.

"If you ask me, they should put it on us brothers and just flatten those cyber-freaks in Pacifica."

"Ha, I think you're just dreaming. Leaving aside whether the advertisement for this thing is true or false, even if it is true, it's impossible for a normal person to install it. You have to be exceptionally gifted."

Filtering out the guards' chatter.

A red warning light flashed across Valentine's retina – a motion sensor was installed in the drainpipe fifteen meters ahead.

He pulled out the bio-key he had dug from a Voodoo Boy traitor's skull; a swarm of disposable liquid nanobots oozing from his fingertip immediately drilled into the sensor interface.

As the key began authentication, Valentine felt a burning pain in his temple, and fragments of the traitor's dying memories suddenly flashed: Haitian curses in the heavy rain, the attack route on a holographic sandbox, and the constantly changing password in the vault's iris lock...

"Alarm disarmed."

As a mechanical female voice sounded in his mind, the rusted metal gate silently slid open.

The moment Valentine flashed in, the Sandiwestan overclocked again, his figure turning into a blurry static in the surveillance cameras.

...

The sight in the core area of the auction house made Valentine's pupils contract.

Inside a seven-meter-high bulletproof glass cylinder, the Ares Model V floated in liquid nitrogen, its chrome alloy skeleton entwined with bio-neural bundles, like the heart of a mythical Titan.

Twenty New Dawn executives in suits and ties surrounded a holographic projection, their company badges on their collars glowing coldly in the dark, like a pack of hyenas circling prey.

"The self-destruct protocol is bound to everyone's bio-signals."

The chief engineer's cybernetic eye scanned the crowd.

"In case of intrusion, seven people simultaneously need iris authentication to stop the countdown. Now please proceed to..."

Before he could finish, Valentine's EMP grenade exploded on the dome.

Blue-white electric arcs spread like a spiderweb, all the lights suddenly went out, and before the emergency system's red light could turn on, Valentine had already shattered the glass cylinder.

The moment the cryogenic liquid nitrogen gushed out, his subcutaneous injector automatically activated an antifreeze agent, and the carbonized grapple hook in his left cybernetic arm sprang out, firmly latching onto the Ares Model V.

...

"He's in Zone B3!"

Amidst the rising and falling alarms, Valentine heard the roar of Animals combat boots crushing floor tiles.

The Sandiwestan was frequently issuing warnings.

He rammed open the access panel leading to the underground pipes; behind him came the roar of miniguns shredding concrete.

Voodoo Boy data assassins were inversely hacking his neural link, error pop-ups constantly flashing on his retina.

By the time Valentine burst into the sandstorm raging in the Badlands, his left shoulder was already scorched by an electromagnetic round.

Dakota's AV swept past fifty meters overhead, a magnetic grapple hook precisely latching onto his tactical belt.

The moment the hatch closed, three rockets exploded into a cloud of fire behind the vehicle.

"3 minutes and 47 seconds faster than expected. Awesome, Valentine."

Dakota tossed him a medical spray; Militech's transfer record was flashing on the holographic screen.

"They're willing to pay a 20% premium for the intact prototype."

Valentine tossed the Ares Model V into the shockproof case, looking at the five extra zeros after the number and lightly chuckled.

"Nothing much, just a small job."

As the AV broke through the clouds, a muffled explosion like thunder came from the direction of the New Dawn Auction House.

Dakota pulled up a news interface – the headline "Militech Exercise Mistakenly Hits Civilian Facility" was scrolling.

Valentine closed his eyes and leaned back in the seat, the data code of the neural amplifier still flowing at the edge of his vision.