Cyberpunk: The Relentless

"An… an explosion!"

When one of the employees glowing with blue light suddenly detonated—taking nearby colleagues with him—the rest of the Arasaka staff looked around at their fellow glowing coworkers with terror in their eyes.

Even if these first-floor banquet attendees didn't hold the highest positions within Arasaka Tower, anyone allowed into this hall was already top-tier talent. None of them were stupid. It didn't take long to realize—

The glowing ones were the bombs.

They were going to blow—and take others with them.

"Don't come any closer!"

The non-glowing employees shouted in panic at their flashing coworkers, afraid they'd get caught in the blast radius.

But their warnings fell on deaf ears. Those glowing employees, overwhelmed with terror and confusion, began staggering toward others—begging, "P-please… help me!"

"Everyone stay where you are and do not move!"

At Kenichirou's command, the Arasaka Special Operations Unit sprang into action. Already positioned around the room, they immediately raised their HJSH-18 Masamune kinetic rifles at the glowing individuals.

"Remain in place and wait for personnel to assess the situation. No one is to move. Every individual in this hall is a suspect. Any unauthorized action—will be met with lethal force."

The cold order came from the First Special Unit Captain—unlike V, whose command over the Second Unit was largely symbolic, this man was the one truly in charge of banquet security.

He had already allowed a hostile individual to slip through. If he didn't fix this now, he'd be fired—probably executed, too. He was desperate to redeem himself.

If he had to kill every non-department coworker here to cover up his failure, so be it.

Faced with Masamune barrels, the non-glowing employees reluctantly calmed down. But those glowing with blue light?

They were visibly breaking.

If not for the last flickers of Arasaka-drilled discipline reminding them they'd be gunned down without hesitation, they would've snapped already. Even so, their bodies trembled, jerking involuntarily—panic starting to override their reason.

The more frightened they became, the more they lost control. And it showed.

Seeing things stabilize a little, the Captain tried to keep things from escalating.

"Calm down. Medical teams are on their way. Our netrunner is working to regain system control. Engineers are already handling the power room. Just remain still and we'll resolve this quickly."

He didn't want to kill if he didn't have to. Sure, protocol gave him the right to eliminate everyone here under emergency codes, but most of these mid-level employees had family ties. Even if they didn't now, they'd marry into power sooner or later. Killing them—even by the book—would invite retaliation from all sides. And he wasn't ready for that.

Just as he exhaled slightly, he noticed something odd.

One of the previously stable employees—the blue glow on his chest had vanished.

The Captain's pupils shrank.

He quickly calculated the blast radius. Luckily, no one was near that man. If he blew, it wouldn't matter.

But…

He didn't explode.

Instead, he just lowered his head.

Was it over? Had the hacker neutralized the payload?

As the Captain thought that, the man suddenly raised his head—and in his synthetic eyes, flowing blue data shimmered.

What is that?!

A chill ran down the Captain's spine. He instinctively raised his weapon.

But the man was already sprinting toward him.

From crouch to full sprint—instantly.

Sandevistan: activated.

Sensing danger, the Captain triggered both his Sandevistan and Kerenzikov spinal reflex booster, pushing his reaction time to the limit.

Time slowed.

He stepped back, raised his rifle, and fired without hesitation.

The Masamune shredded the charging man in seconds. But just as his body crumpled, blue light surged from his mangled flesh.

BOOM.

Explosion.

And he wasn't the only one.

All around the room, others whose chests had glowed moments ago stopped blinking—and began to sprint toward nearby Arasaka agents.

Unlike the Captain, most of those agents didn't have Sandevistan reflex systems. They never stood a chance.

Blue fire erupted across the darkened hall, one explosion after another.

Just as control was returning—chaos struck again.

I should've killed them when I had the chance. Anyone suspicious should've been purged immediately.

Kenichirou bit back his regret as a cluster of blue-eyed employees locked onto him and began to charge.

But Kenichirou wasn't alone.

Jack, V, and Oliver—who had just relaxed a moment ago—now tensed up, raising their weapons again.

"I've done Braindances where you play the hero fighting zombies," Oliver muttered as he blew a glowing employee's head off. "Those zombies were infected with mind-control viruses… This? This is just as bad."

"If it's just regular employees, we're fine…" Jack said while firing. "At least they don't have top-tier combat cyberware. But I'm worried about—"

He didn't finish.

V's face went pale.

"Jack… you're cursed."

Because the First Unit Captain, who had just survived the first assault, had stopped moving.

Blue code now flickered across his eyes.

He slowly turned toward them.

"Watch out—it's a data infection!" Kenichirou shouted. "Someone—or something—is using these compromised bodies as vectors for localized digital spread! Close-range contagion!"

And if it wasn't a human hacker…

Was it an AI?

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🔥 Cyberpunk: The Relentless

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