Return to Badlands

Faraday naturally knew how difficult and deadly this commission was, but he still couldn't refuse Militech.

After all, this time they had truly offered the promise he had always craved.

A corporate Immunity Qualification.

In Night City, the various megacorps displayed their power and status above the law without any scruples.

This Immunity Qualification was the most direct manifestation of that.

Possessing this immunity meant having corporate backing.

Not only could it completely wipe away all past criminal records and allow one to become a corporate member, but it even granted the qualification to be promoted to a government official.

This was also a form of Recruitment used by the various megacorps.

Faraday became a fixer and worked for Militech precisely because he wanted to wash away his past and give his life a second chance.

To this end, Faraday had exhausted his family wealth and all his connections to assemble several Edgerunner teams, preparing to have a real showdown with Arasaka's Special Operations Division.

As a capable man under Faraday, Maine naturally received the commission invitation as well.

“Two Million Eddies... you're fucking trying to buy our lives,”

Maine couldn't help but curse after hearing Faraday's quote.

Just by hearing the price, it wasn't hard to imagine the danger involved.

“I'm just asking if you're selling,”

Faraday's voice sounded from the other end of the call, neither light nor heavy.

“Selling! Of course I'm selling! But you have to pay first.”

Maine didn't hesitate and agreed quite bluntly.

If it were in the past, he would have had some concerns; after all, he had to be responsible for the lives of the other crew members.

But this mission was already part of Chen Nuo's plan, and Maine had long been deeply involved in it. Faraday's invitation was exactly what he wanted.

If you're going to act, you have to go all out.

After some intense bargaining, Faraday reluctantly agreed to pay half upfront as a deposit.

After hanging up, Maine looked up at Chen Nuo in front of him, grinned, and said with two rows of white teeth showing,

“Just as you thought, this guy took the bait.”

Subsequently, Faraday sent the detailed commission. Judging from the content, Maine's crew was being held in high regard, tasked with the final hijacking and escort mission.

It made sense; after all, Maine's crew had never disappointed him before and had already proven their strength, and Faraday couldn't find a better candidate.

Ultimately, Faraday was just a fixer who hadn't debuted for very long, and his connections and resources couldn't compare to other senior peers.

V's participation was definitely required for this operation. Chen Nuo needed him to provide early-stage material support and handle the aftermath; these things could only be handled by V, who was part of corporate management.

The current V was not the same as when he had just returned to Night City.

With Chen Nuo providing support for him on the streets, his life in the corporation was smooth sailing. Multiple departmental missions had been completed perfectly, and he was currently highly valued by Jenkins.

Although his position hadn't been raised yet, the power V could mobilize in the Counter-Intelligence Department was already second only to Jenkins, the Department Director.

This could be seen just from the monthly budget of hundreds of thousands.

Chen Nuo and the others had made a fortune relying on V, and V himself had also skimmed a lot from it.

Anyway, as long as the job was done, Jenkins wouldn't care about the specific destination of the money; all he wanted was results.

Chen Nuo invited V to Maine's base.

Speaking of which, they hadn't seen each other for a while. V looked more imposing than before—it's true that power and wealth can cultivate a person—though he still had a lingering 'office worker' vibe about him.

It seemed that because of the Special Operations Division matters, V had indeed been working a lot of overtime. His bloodshot and hyperactive eyes were clearly the result of too many stimulants.

“If you keep going like this, I'm really afraid you'll drop dead at your desk one day,”

Chen Nuo invited V to sit. There were only the three of them in the office; the others were outside.

Everyone understood the principle that secrecy leads to success.

There was no need to let the people around them know too many details, especially Kiwi and Rebecca.

For the former, it was to prevent her from developing unnecessary ideas.

Maine still didn't fully trust Kiwi because he knew her personality too well.

Sympathizing with Kiwi's past was one thing, but those tragic past experiences were already part of her current self, forming her suspicious, fragile, and utilitarian character.

If Maine trusted Kiwi too much, that would be irresponsible to the other members of the team.

For the latter, it was for fear of her leaking information.

Rebecca's careless personality had caused the team plenty of trouble; it was better for her to just focus on getting things done.

“Don't worry, once this is over, I'll arrange a full-body recuperation for myself and maybe get some more cyberware. I'm getting older; if I don't gear up, I really won't be able to compete with these youngsters nowadays.”

While speaking, V sat down next to Chen Nuo, clearly showing their closeness. Maine glanced at them but didn't take it to heart.

If it weren't for Chen Nuo, he wouldn't be dealing with corporate people.

These two belonged to the type who looked down on each other but were brought together by Chen Nuo.

“The Militech people took the bait. Take a look,”

Chen Nuo said as he handed Faraday's commission details to V for analysis. When it came to playing mind games, corporate people were the professionals; they could overanalyze a single word into a whole story.

“The intel matches what we got, but the information is just too sparse. Is this how fixers work nowadays?”

After browsing for a bit, V couldn't help but complain.

Chen Nuo shrugged and didn't respond. As long as the commission intel was correct, it was fine.

As for how to act specifically, the three of them still had to discuss it in detail.

In short, Chen Nuo wanted the goods, and he also wanted to shift the blame... In the Badlands, the wind, sand, and blazing sun remained the same.

According to the intel from both sides, the Special Operations Division convoy would indeed enter Night City from the eastern route.

A total of five vehicles and four combat squads.

The scale wasn't large, but every single one was an elite member.

It seemed that old hag Susan had indeed invested heavily. If they could wipe them all out here in one go, V would owe him big time.

Chen Nuo stood on a hilltop looking into the distance, thinking this to himself.

His team was fully mobilized this time. Falco was in the driver's seat, Jackie was acting as the team's deputy, and Lucy was in the back seat controlling drones.

As for Maine's group, they were further ahead on the road.

“They're here!”

Sasha, serving as the link between the two teams and acting as the communication bridge, reported the current situation to Chen Nuo.

Chen Nuo looked toward the coordinates Sasha reported. Amidst the billowing dust, he could indeed see the Arasaka Corporation convoy speeding along, with several armed vehicles in pursuit.

The fight had already started.

The ones who moved first were the other teams arranged by Faraday.

To put it bluntly, they were a bunch of cannon fodder meant to die, with the purpose of splitting up the Special Operations Division's escort convoy.

Most of them were gang members from the Badlands.

Those guys didn't have much of a brain; as long as the money was enough, they would scramble to do the job even if they knew it was bait.

Of course, it was also possible they didn't realize it at all.

But it had to be said that this group's firepower was indeed strong, and they were all carrying heavy weapons. Who would dare rob a corporate convoy without some skills?

However, the task of splitting them up didn't go as smoothly as Faraday expected. The combat power of the Special Operations Division squads was too strong; they practically scattered the Animals gang members in a single encounter.

“A bunch of useless trash!”

Faraday, who had been observing the combat situation, couldn't help but curse at the sight, but he still had several more tricks up his sleeve.

Although Militech couldn't directly support Faraday's actions, they could still sell him some contraband weapons at a low price.

On the Arasaka convoy's necessary path, Faraday had people set up several heavy machine guns, forcing the Arasaka convoy to deviate from its original trajectory and rush into the Badlands wilderness.

The terrain there was more complex and suitable for ambushes.

Faraday had deployed a large amount of armed force there.

After paying the price of over a dozen lives, his people finally managed to break up the Arasaka convoy.

“It's your turn to move. Don't let me down, Maine!”

Seeing the situation, Faraday said to Maine.

“Heh, of course.”

Maine replied with a laugh. Looking back, his team members were already fully prepared.

He slammed on the gas.

Maine's beloved car dove down from the heights toward the Arasaka convoy. The front of the car, modified by Pilar, instantly flipped over a corporate armed vehicle.

The people inside might be fine, but having been thrown out of the escort convoy, it was basically impossible for them to catch up again.

“Hack into their braking system.”

Maine said to Sasha and Kiwi.

With two Netrunners working together, the speed of cracking the corporate network protection was naturally much faster.

But sensing that the vehicle network was under attack, the Arasaka people naturally wouldn't sit and wait for death.

The corporate security in another armed vehicle immediately launched an attack on Maine's vehicle.

Bullets pattered against it for a while, but they didn't even manage to break a window.

“This is Delamain's latest bulletproof tech. With those few puny barrels of yours—they aren't even as thick as my big steel cannon—how could you possibly break it?”

Pilar raised his middle finger toward the window, looking both proud and lecherous.

For this operation, Chen Nuo had also invested heavily, giving both teams' vehicles a comprehensive round of reinforcement, which also included technical support from Del.

As soon as he finished speaking, the figures of Arasaka security personnel flickered and they jumped directly onto the roof of Maine's car—the result of activating Sandevistan.

Arasaka's elite security personnel were naturally not much worse than Militech's.

A piercing screeching sound rang out.

It was the Arasaka security using Mantis Blades to try and pry open the hard tin can beneath them.

Terrified, Pilar tried to hug Rebecca tightly, only to be kicked against the window by her as she cursed,

“Don't get in the way! Open the window for me, I'm going up to kill those two!”

“Stay put!”

Maine retorted rudely.

She really didn't know her own limits. With her meager combat cybernetics, how could she possibly win against Arasaka elite combatants in a head-on fight? Even for him, it would be quite a struggle.

But Maine had backup; his task was just to force the Arasaka convoy into this open area.

As soon as he finished speaking, a sniper bullet blew open the head of one of the Arasaka combatants on the roof.

The one who fired was naturally Chen Nuo, who occupied the highest point with the clearest field of vision.

Looking at the corpse rolling off the roof, Rebecca happily kicked Pilar again.

“How much longer?”

Maine's question was naturally directed at Sasha and Kiwi.

“Almost!”

Sasha's fingers danced across the terminal, her cyber-eyes constantly flickering with numbers. To save time, she was operating on two lines at once.

However, the ones who should be anxious and panicked now were the Arasaka convoy.

Facing a sniper like Chen Nuo in the distance who never missed, Arasaka's bulletproof steel plates couldn't give them any sense of security. From the sound of the gunfire, they could tell this was a deadly Nekomata sniper rifle.

Which company's bastard did this!

They even let such a weapon of mass destruction leak out. Can they even follow the rules anymore?

The Arasaka security elites could only curse in their hearts at this moment to vent some of the fear of their lives not being in their own hands.

“Done!”

Sasha let out a soft cry.

The heavy Arasaka transport truck in front slowed down abruptly and flipped heavily onto its side on the ground.

The remaining Arasaka armed personnel had no solution for Chen Nuo's sniping. The open and flat terrain was too favorable for the opponent's performance, and there was only one armored vehicle nearby to provide cover.

The final result could only be paying with their lives to stall for a little time.

“What do we do next?”

Rebecca knocked on Arasaka's heavy bulletproof cargo container, feeling that prying this thing open would take a long time.

If they were too slow, Arasaka's support troops would likely arrive.

“Don't worry, Nuo already prepared for this,”

Sasha said, leaning against the car door somewhat exhausted.

Maine opened the car door, entered a command, and activated four blocky security robots.

“Big White One, Two, Three, Four, get to work.”

Sasha spoke. These security robots were all modified by Chen Nuo from Kang Tao robots earlier, and they could be put to use now.

“Voice recognition passed. Action in progress.”

The security robot with the character 'One' on its chest led the action. The four security robots neatly disconnected the link between the cargo container and the truck head and transferred the container to Maine's car.

It didn't end there; Big White One also took out spray paint and wiped away the Arasaka logo on the container, while the other Big Whites installed numerous jammers on the container to avoid Arasaka's tracking.

“Faraday, the goods are in hand!”

Maine reported the situation to Faraday, who replied with excitement he couldn't suppress in his voice.

“Follow the route I planned for you and bring the goods immediately!”

“Understood.”

Maine steered the wheel hard, heading toward the location provided by Faraday.

Returning to Night City by the original route was definitely impossible, as it would be easy to run into Arasaka's guns. Faraday also had a stronghold of his own in the Badlands, hidden among the mountains, to store the goods first.

Success was just one step away, and Faraday could hardly hold back the urge to open the champagne.