Chapter 42: Engagement

"Oh... hidden in a place like this. No wonder it was such a pain to find."

Gazing at the cluster of abandoned buildings not far away, Milton scratched his head and sighed. "This hundred-thousand-credit job really isn't easy to earn. I finally found a decent movie, the lead was just about to get down to business, and then I suddenly get called out."

"Sigh, it's ruined my mood."

Yet, despite his words, a smile crept onto Milton's face as he looked ahead.

He snapped his fingers, and the case at his feet opened silently. A dark silver quadcopter drone ascended, linking with his cybernetic eye. At that moment, Milton's field of vision split into two screens: one providing an aerial view from above, the other looking straight ahead.

Following his command, the drone rose high into the sky, hovering quietly as its camera, set to surveillance mode, scanned the area below.

Milton had watched the footage Kenge provided. That guy's performance didn't look like that of a novice; he clearly had some tricks up his sleeve. Milton didn't want the target to see things going south and use the complex terrain to escape.

Only then would he find it troublesome.

Of course, if the target were bolder—no, better yet, even bolder—and intended to resist to the end, refusing to retreat, then it would actually make things easier for him.

"Sigh... and I have to take him alive."

Thinking of this, Milton couldn't help but sigh again.

He wiped the black monomolecular tactical blade he had drawn. Due to its matte coating, the sixty-centimeter single-edged blade didn't shine with the chilling light of a legendary weapon, but its edge, crafted from carbon-nitride hexagonal crystals, was still capable of slicing through blast shields with ease.

"Kenge, don't you know how much I hate troublesome tasks?"

With a final sigh, a smile returned to Milton's face.

He gripped his blade and walked toward the distant buildings, neither too fast nor too slow.

His cybernetic eye's "thermal imaging mode" activated, and the world transformed. Amidst the icy blue, a fiery red humanoid silhouette appeared, glaringly prominent.

—Found you.

Milton grinned.

He stopped, his body sinking slightly.

The next moment, powered by the "thrusters" implanted in his legs, Milton turned into a streak of light, covering twenty meters in an instant and crashing into the abandoned building ahead!

But the opening line he had prepared remained unspoken.

Almost the moment Milton landed, a blinding tongue of flame erupted within the dim, cold space!

Milton only had time to raise his hands, his torso not yet finished twisting, when the steel-core bullets tore through the air, ripping away a large chunk of the bionic skin on his right arm!

Only then did the delayed, deafening roar of gunfire follow.

No, not just one.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The gunshots, linked in a single line, exploded within the room. In an instant, five more steel-core bullets were fired!

But Milton dodged!

Paying the price of taking another steel-core bullet and injuring his shoulder, he finally bought enough reaction time to weave through the remaining four shots, avoiding them all!

—Boom!

The next instant, a roar and a flash of fire, far louder than the gunfire, erupted into the sky. Countless metal fragments blasted outward by kinetic energy turned the surrounding concrete walls into a honeycomb.

Amidst the thunderous noise of the fragmentation grenade and the dust clouds it kicked up, two more shots rang out!

Ignoring the wounds from the metal shards that hadn't been fully blocked, Milton let out a roar, dodged one bullet, and pushed his cybernetic eye to its limit.

He then channeled his strength through his completely replaced cybernetic arm, drawing his blade and rising! He managed to hack and shatter the other bullet!

But the kinetic energy packed within still forced his body back two steps.

Consequently, hidden deep within the thick rubble piled up from construction debris, a tripwire as thin as a hair was triggered.

—Zzzzt!

Indigo-colored electric arcs bloomed in an instant. An EMP grenade leaped from the ruins and detonated! A shockwave of electromagnetic pulses surged outward!

Along with the nine gunshots that seemed to be everywhere, seizing the opportunity once more.

In Milton's cybernetic vision, crimson error windows caused by the EMP popped up frantically. He had installed anti-interference components in the critical parts of his body, but how could he completely block a point-blank EMP grenade? It was impossible to be unaffected!

But Milton was a seasoned mercenary after all.

The name "Iguana" was something he had earned through blood.

In this instant, forcing his dampened cybernetic limbs to operate, Milton lunged back, raised his left arm, and held his blade horizontally with his right hand, dodging two shots and blocking the other seven! None hit his vitals!

But the price was high.

The blade blocked two, while the remaining five were absorbed by his left arm.

Taking all five steel-core bullets—no, they weren't all steel-core; three of them were large-caliber armor-piercing rounds.

Under such a barrage of firepower, Milton's left arm was nearly totaled. Sparks sputtered from the cracked bionic skin and the exposed mechanical parts beneath, and large sections of circuitry were scorched and shattered.

As for the carbon muscle fibers, metal skeleton, and synthetic neural networks within... having lost the auxiliary support of the former, they were now like dead weight, hanging limply.

A figure slowly emerged from the thick, swirling dust.

Milton gasped, raising his head.

The young man in a black coat stopped ten meters away, watching the man who looked utterly wretched before him.

"Limiting my movement with bullets, forcing me to move in the direction you wanted, and then triggering a pre-set tripwire..."

"...So, the drifter who sent the photo was acting under your orders?"

"Heh, I won't bother asking a stupid question like 'How did you know I was looking for you?'"

Milton grinned, though it seemed to pull at his wounds, twisting his expression. "But I really didn't expect you to choose to fight back instead of hiding or running."

"Let me think... just one question."

Milton spat out a mouthful of blood and stared fixedly at the other man. "What exactly is your identity? Heh, with this level of combat strategy and composure... an orphanage kid? Heh heh."

"My identity? As you can see, I am just Song Shi." Song Shi spread his hands and smiled. "Also... you can stop trying to stall for time with chatter."

The young man pointed upward. "I've initiated 'communications silence.' Your messages won't go out, and neither will any remote request for drone support."

As if in response to his words, a dull thud echoed from outside.

In his cybernetic eye, the drone's shared vision vanished, leaving only darkness.

Looking at the "Signal Lost" and "Network Disconnected" icons in his status bar, Milton remained silent for a few seconds.

Slowly, his shoulders began to shake.

Until finally, the man burst into laughter.

He gripped his black blade with his only remaining hand and assumed a close-quarters combat stance—even though he hadn't brought a rifle on this trip due to the "live capture" and "portability" requirements, he still carried a handgun at his waist.

Within easy reach.

But Milton chose not to draw the gun.

With only one hand left, he had to choose between the blade and the gun; in such close proximity, once the fight started, the opponent would never give him the time to switch.

—His own combat plan had already failed once.

If he had used his cybernetic body to tank the bullets at the very beginning instead of dodging, and simply forced his way in, this lightly-modified body of his opponent's wouldn't have been able to stop him. How had he ended up like this in the blink of an eye?

"Come—"

Milton sneered, first using his blade to sever his ruined left arm, then standing tall.

In the reflection of his pupils, the young man ahead took off his coat and tossed it aside, revealing the exoskeleton bracers he had already equipped.

Watching the wretched yet ferocious man not far away, Song Shi slowly began to smile as well.

Amidst the silently igniting crimson-gold flames, he rotated his folding shovel and pointed it forward.

"—Come."