Cyberpunk: I'm Not a Scavenger - Chapter 78: Breaking Bad (Patreon)

Shota Kosugi stormed out of the basement with two underlings, ready for a fight. What he found upstairs stopped him in his tracks.

The repair shop was a wreck. All three of his lookouts had been beaten black and blue and were now pinned to the floor beneath someone's boot.

"Boss! Help!"

The thug with the pompadour stretched out a hand toward Shota, wailing as though he'd just seen his savior.

Useless idiots!

Shota cursed inwardly. Still, the fact that the three were alive eased his nerves a little.

He raised his pistol toward Pantheon and his companions. The two men behind him drew their weapons as well.

"Who the fuck are you? Don't you know this is Tyger Claws territory?"

Pantheon obligingly raised both hands in mock surrender. He glanced at the intrusion progress bar on his retinal display and kept talking to buy time.

"Easy, choom. Your boys were giving us lousy service, so I gave them a few pointers."

"Fuck you! Who the hell asked for your opinion?"

Shota sneered. He was just getting ready to teach the three a lesson when his vision went completely black.

Shit!

Something was wrong. He tried to fire a shot to warn the people below, but even with the trigger pulled all the way back, his gun didn't respond.

[Weapon Glitch], choom.

"Lucy-chan, your skills are finally getting somewhere."

Pantheon tossed out the teasing remark and cracked Shota over the head with the butt of his gun, knocking him unconscious.

Jackie wasn't about to be outdone. He drove his massive fist into one henchman's stomach, then followed with a sharp chop that dropped him cleanly.

Rebecca was no less agile without her beloved shotgun. She slid into the last thug's legs, swept him off his feet, and smashed her Slaught-O-Matic against his temple.

His eyes rolled back, and he passed out.

"That's it? Way too easy!"

Jackie grinned as he trussed up the three men with cable ties like tightly wrapped parcels.

"That was just the appetizer. The main course is still downstairs."

Pantheon came over to check their faces. Sure enough, these were the three Tyger Claws who had murdered the dolls.

"Jackie, make those knots tight. Wouldn't want my presents running away."

Jackie gave him an OK sign and even tied a neat bow around Shota.

Down in the laboratory, Vincent had heard no more trouble upstairs and assumed Shota had dealt with it. He sent a message.

[What's happening up there? Got everything under control?]

A reply came a few seconds later.

[Just a few drunk idiots. Beat them up and chased them off.]

Vincent nodded and returned his attention to his work.

Unseen by him, several T.I.M. spiders had already slipped into the lab through the ventilation ducts and stairwell. Lucy had taken control of the cameras and concealed alarms, rendering them useless.

Upstairs, Pantheon pulled a cylindrical device about half a meter tall out of his backpack and installed it directly above the lab.

"Lucy?"

"Doors and windows sealed. All communication lines are under our control. They've got nowhere to run."

Pantheon grinned and pressed the sonic oscillator's activation button.

"Fire it up. Let's give those bastards a little wake-up call!"

Bzzzz.

Infrasonic waves, too low in frequency for human ears to hear, traveled through the walls and ventilation ducts into the underground laboratory. They reverberated through the already cramped space.

"Ugh!"

A gang member carrying a barrel of raw materials suddenly felt all the strength drain from his body. His hands relaxed involuntarily, and the heavy barrel rolled away. Moments later, he collapsed too.

"Urgh! Why the hell do I feel so sick?"

Vincent tore off his respirator. His head buzzed as though he'd been thrown into a spinning washing machine, waves of dizziness crashing through his skull.

He staggered against a workbench, his cybernetic eyes glowing faintly as he fought the nausea long enough to send one last message.

[Help]

But Pantheon had no intention of letting the warning get through. Lucy was already intercepting outgoing messages.

While maintaining the communications blockade, she also sent regular status signals to Tyger Claws headquarters so that everything appeared normal.

By the time the gang realized something was wrong, Pantheon's team would be long gone.

Even the elite Tyger Claws guards inside the lab couldn't withstand the powerful infrasonic assault. They reeled helplessly, too weak even to lift their weapons.

One elite guard, equipped with a battlefield protection kit, managed to endure the first wave behind a hardened barrier designed to withstand concussion grenades.

Two electrified Mantis Blades sprang from his transformed arms as he charged toward the laboratory entrance.

Bang! Bang!

Two high-strength nano-webs shot into his path. With the neural acceleration provided by his Kerenzikov, he barely dodged them, only to be caught by the next two volleys.

The webs had been designed specifically to stop blade-wielding assassins like him. The more he struggled, the tighter they bound him, until he could only watch helplessly as his comrades fell.

Within minutes, all resistance in the underground laboratory had been eliminated.

"Come on. Time to go downstairs and collect our catch."

Pantheon watched the scene on his monitor, thoroughly pleased with himself.

The three put on specialized gas masks and soundproof headphones before heading down, eager to get started.

Rebecca charged ahead and kicked in the basement door. Jackie picked up a large sledgehammer and followed her like an enormous guardian statue.

There weren't many people still breathing in the lab. By the time Pantheon crossed the room, he'd collected a sizable amount of Essence.

Vincent slumped against three enormous storage tanks, his unfocused eyes following the approaching trio.

He seemed to want to say something, but Pantheon gave him no chance.

"Urgh!"

[Detected trait: [Breaking Bad] (Green)]

[Breaking Bad] (Green)

Description: My chemistry teacher cooks meth.

Effect: Technical Ability +2. Special effect: Enhances chemical aptitude in certain specialized fields.

Why did he always get such bizarre traits?

Oh, well. The attribute bonus didn't overlap with his others, so he might as well keep it.

"King, what do we do with all this?"

Jackie stared glumly at the warehouse full of chemicals and the three huge tanks of finished Glitter.

Pantheon was troubled by the same question. Then [Breaking Bad] quietly went to work in his head, and an idea came to him.

"Jackie, throw this in, then this, then that. Mix it all up a little, and every drop of this Glitter will be ruined."

Under his instructions, Glitter worth tens of millions of eddies was quickly rendered worthless, reduced to useless chemical waste.

So even a seemingly ridiculous trait could come in handy.

"As for the equipment..."

Pantheon looked around the laboratory with a faint smile.

"Lucy, call El Capitán. Tell him to send over a few big trucks. We're emptying this place today!"

As for the remaining Tyger Claws thugs, Pantheon turned the matter over in his mind and came up with another idea.

"Call Officer Han, too. Tell him I've got a big present for him."