Chapter 50: Chapter 48 Crazy Six Street Gang (Seeking continued reading~)

The moment the chaos erupted, the guys in the Wild Wolf Pub drew their gear immediately, V somersaulted out—

However, the scene outside made her hesitate for a second—

Melissa, the hunched old woman, was already lying in a pool of blood, eyes wide open, lifeless.

Bam!

A bullet hit V’s shoulder, deflected by her thick subdermal armor.

The immense impact sent V stumbling, forcing her to a crouched position behind cover.

In an instant, the hail of bullets downed several members of the Valentino Gang, turning the scene into utter chaos!

"What the hell! Focus!" Lille yelled in her head, "Six guys in front of us, two of them have Ajax, I’ll mark their positions!"

"Got it! Jack, cover me!"

"Roger!"

Jack, who was still chatting with his mom, dashed out the moment he heard gunfire, and now he was on the side of the battlefield!

In both Jack and V’s view, the two enemies carrying Ajax Assault Rifles appeared simultaneously!

Jack immediately pulled out his pistol and fired at the marked targets. The loud bang startled the enemies, chunks of concrete were blasted off the wall, keeping the marked guys pinned down!

Ajax, crafted by Military Technology, was a staple of the Six Street Gang, durable and reliable.

As an assault rifle, a direct hit on V would be tough for even her subdermal armor to fully block!

But aside from that, no other weapon posed a threat to V—at least not now!

V pushed off the ground, the explosive power from her enhanced tendons launching her forward like a superman!

Krensky’s reaction enhancements allowed her to see and lock onto the enemies clearly!

In mid-air, V’s Night Pistol fired 14 rounds, and by the time she reached another cover, three bodies hit the ground with a thud.

"Shit! They’ve got military-grade prosthetics! Grab the grenades! Shoot and retreat!"

The Six Street Gang lost their nerve instantly; V showed combat skills far beyond a typical street thug!

Behind cover, a Six Street Gang assault trooper pulled out a grenade from his crotch, Lille marked it immediately—

"V, it’s on you!"

"Trust me on this, bro—"

V aimed and fired, hitting the grenade the moment it emerged from cover!

Boom!

Shrapnel flew, the guys from the Six Street Gang screamed, and the new recruit leading them was ice-cold with fear—

Shit, this was supposed to be a robbery, how the hell did they mess with someone like this!

"Retreat, retreat! Get the fuck out!"

But only he and another guy carrying an Ajax remained—turns out, the two with the strongest firepower didn’t even stand a chance!

The two panicked and jumped into a car, flooring the gas towards the intersection, ignoring the red light!

"We’ve been waiting for you..."

A blue flash flickered in Lille’s prosthetic eye—2077’s world, even a beat-up pickup was connected to the network!

At the intersection, a car that was originally planning to flee suddenly accelerated towards the middle, crashing into the side of the pickup!

In an instant, it turned into pandemonium. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Only then did they realize—the other side had a hacker!

"Fuck!"

By the time that guy came to his senses from the car crash, the unluckily driver in the front seat had already been crushed by the deformed vehicle.

He struggled to crawl out of the car, running in the opposite direction of the pub—

His eyes locked onto a nearby manhole cover—if he could reach it, if he could jump in, the hacker wouldn’t find him, they couldn’t find him, the sewage would wash him to the drainage pipe, straight towards Saint Domingo...

If he could just get there...

Click—

His prosthetic eye suddenly displayed a series of error messages, his bionic left leg froze, motionless.

His body began to heat up, mind growing foggy—

Then, his prosthetic eye shut down.

"It’s over..."

Bang!

Another car drove by, knocking him away completely, blood and prosthetic parts scattered all over.

At the intersection’s edge, three people watched from a distance, the trauma team hovercar’s sirens audible.

It got messy, but this was necessary. After all, this was Jack’s mom’s place.

"Bastards." Jack spat, relieved, "Thanks, man. If it weren’t for you guys, things would’ve gotten complicated."

"No need to mention it," V said while reloading her magazine, "Those Six Street bastards are getting more and more rampant. Wonder what Father plans to do."

Neither of them hid their disdain for the Six Street Gang.

Only Lille, watching the abandoned Six Street operative criticized by the trauma team, felt like the first piece of the puzzle had been placed.

Gang wars provided numerous chances to insert network data barrier nodes.

"Remember what I said, we need to bite off some chunks from the Six Street Gang."

...

Six Street Gang was a major faction, their high-end combat capability quite notable even in Night City.

The reason was that the gang initially formed from a bunch of old-school American patriots, most of whom had participated in the Fourth Corporate War.

In other words, in the constantly turf-war-fought Night City, the founders of Six Street Gang were battle-hardened.

The gang’s original mission was to protect the residents of the Scenic Area, replacing the ineffective NCPD, but now, it had changed.

With their rigorous military training and highly organized conduct, NCPD couldn’t get a foothold in this territory.

They had indeed managed to supplant NCPD to an extent, with corporations even legislating the gang’s legality in the Scenic Area—as long as they didn’t overstep their bounds.

But later on, the Six Street Gang overstepped, controlling nearby Saint Domingo.

And that legislation had a major flaw—because the Scenic Area was technically under Valentino Gang’s actual control.

Due to recognizing the gang’s autonomy through corporate legislation, the Scenic Area turned into a Middle East of Night City, with Valentino and Six Street Gang at constant war.

Father would definitely agree to move against the Six Street Gang.

In fact, Father arrived ten minutes later, several dead Valentino gang members were here waiting for him to clean up.

"Thank you for handling these guys for me, otherwise, when Valentino’s reinforcements arrived, I’d suffer heavy losses.

Jack, this time was my mistake. I didn’t expect them to pull something like this."

Jack used to be with the Valentino gang, even a big shot, and Valentino valued bloodline and gang ties.

That’s why the Wild Wolf Pub could flourish in Haywood; you cover for me, I cover for you. It’s a unique Valentino rule, even if he’s no longer a gang member.

Jack just waved it off: "Don’t mention it, Father. It wasn’t your fault either, but the Six Street Gang is getting more audacious. Can’t we strike back?"

Father shook his head gently: "No more of that. Lille, you had something to discuss?"

"Yes, Father, we need to get rid of some goods—and a car."

"Oh? What kind of goods? Weapons, drugs, prosthetics, or something else?"

"Weapons—and tricky smart ones at that. You know, we came back from Atlanta."

Inside the pub, Lille and Father sat face to face.

After hearing what Lille said, Father gently rubbed his ring.

"That indeed sounds tricky. It might take a few weeks to move them."

Lille wasn’t explicit, and Father didn’t pry.

But the word Atlanta implied a lot—

First, there was a shootout between Kantao and Military Technology near Atlanta, a big incident.

An encounter of such scale was significant even by Night City standards, not to mention that it was in the Rust Belt, Atlanta.

Then...the people of Night City didn’t know, but the middlemen did:

Military Technology and Arasaka had operations at the wall. Details were unclear, but it was massive, even Mo Xi got involved.

Father had seen the beat-up car Lille was talking about—a clear Wanderer family make.

If Lille and V had crossed the border in it...that was sensitive.

Putting multiple clues together, and with Lille emphasizing "tricky," he made a guess.

Lille added, "That’s too long, Father. I need the money urgently—I can sell them myself."

"You?" For the first time, Father’s stoic face showed a hint of surprise, highlighting how shocked he was.

"Yes—Father, I can use the Six Street Gang’s channels, of course, not by ’borrowing’ them."

Father hesitated.

Behind Lille, V and Jack exchanged glances, both seeing the astonishment in each other’s eyes.

To their memory, Father was a stoic authority figure.

But now, his surprise, his hesitation were real, and there was...something else too.

Father paused, no longer for effect, but because he was genuinely thinking.

He was keen to see the Six Street Gang get hit, but Lille aiming to control these resources complicated things.

Who knew if Lille would become an unfriendly neighbor?

Competitors were enemies; if Lille wasn’t a mercenary, did Father still need to help him?

Father inquired, "This might be intrusive, but I must know, why are you so desperate to sell the goods? Too hot to handle?"

Faced with the question, Lille showed his urgency, placing his hands on the table.

"I’m dying, Father—I’m dying. Remember that Moore Technology hovercar that came in a few days ago? It brought me a lung and heart that I need. It cost me 300k. I’m out of money and out of time."

Father’s eyes flickered, discreetly observing Jack and V—they were equally surprised, but only surprised.

They seemed more shocked that Lille admitted it now.

Since he was dying...

Father stopped fidgeting with his ring and said, "The Six Street Gang does have such channels. I can provide you with some information on them, free of charge."