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Chapter 324 c
🕑 Added 2025-07-18 15:01:08 +0000 UTCChapter 324 c
2-in-1-chapter
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He didn’t dare defy his father. His mother had died early, and in this household, the father was absolute.
Without looking at his son heading upstairs, Tanaka called in Marcus, who was waiting outside, via holo-call.
“Tanaka-san.”
“The principal should have explained the situation to you. Let’s hear it—what exactly happened?”
“It was two attackers who assaulted Master Katsuo. One of them was even a former Arasaka Academy student, named David Martinez.”
Tanaka frowned. “Attackers? How could Arasaka Academy allow attackers inside?”
“The female attacker who hurt Master Katsuo was brought in under David’s name as a relative.”
“Was there surveillance footage of the attack?”
Marcus answered respectfully: “No. The attack occurred in the faculty corridor, which did have cameras installed. But since most people preferred to use the elevators and didn’t want to waste time on the stairs, that corridor had gradually fallen out of use. Over time, the cameras there broke, and the school didn’t pay to repair them.”
Marcus paused, seeing Tanaka fall silent, and cautiously added: “Tanaka-san, should I speak with the principal and get David Martinez’s registration file?”
Marcus had worked for Tanaka for several years. Through this time, he’d come to understand that the relationship between father and son was strange and abnormal. So generally, Marcus did as much as he could to stop getting involved.
This time, however, things were different.
After all, Tanaka’s only son had been humiliated and assaulted—his knee blown out.
Marcus figured this was the right moment to act like a loyal subordinate. That couldn’t hurt.
When he went to pick up Katsuo, the principal had been sweating profusely and cursing that student David—now a former student, as he had already been expelled.
From what both the principal and Katsuo had said, Marcus already knew David was just a poor kid from a working-class family, with no background or support. Whoever was with him probably came from the same street-rat crowd.
That explained why they would dare attack Master Katsuo.
Trash like that didn’t even require deploying Arasaka’s Special Response Team. A few Tiger Claws thugs would suffice.
“Fine,” Tanaka nodded, his voice low. “Tomorrow, go to Arasaka Academy and get David’s registration file from the principal. Then pass his address to the Special Response Team—tell them to handle it cleanly.”
Marcus froze briefly, then nodded silently.
He thought: so the father really did care about his son after all.
If Tanaka had known Marcus’s thoughts, he would have scoffed.
Everything he was doing wasn’t out of care for his son—it was about saving face.
If Tanaka’s son had caused such a scene at Arasaka Academy, especially at the hands of some kid from a poor family, and he made no response, how would the other members of the academy’s board view him? How would Arasaka Tower’s executives and his own subordinates in R&D view him?
Tanaka didn’t care about his son’s life or death, but he cared about appearances.
If not for fear of public scrutiny, Tanaka never would have wanted a child at all. He only had one out of necessity, and even then, treated his son merely as a tool to enhance his own image—nothing more.
And as a tool, his son was expected to fulfill his purpose, not embarrass him like this.
“You can go now, Marcus.”
“Yes.”
Marcus nodded and was just about to leave when, suddenly, all the lights in the estate cut out—the room plunged into darkness.
At the same time, a gunshot rang out, followed by the screams of security outside.
“Enemy attack!”
“Where are they? I can’t see anything!”
Then another gunshot. Finally, one of the quicker security guards yelled: “Sniper!”
Marcus instinctively drew his Yukimura power pistol from the holster on his thigh and moved to shield Tanaka.
Both his and Tanaka’s Kiroshi optics had night vision, so even in darkness, they could still see their surroundings.
“Tanaka-san, the enemy has cut our power—but the backup generator should be kicking in.”
“It’s not a power cut—they tripped the main breaker. The enemy is already inside,” Tanaka said coldly.
As if to prove him right, three armed figures suddenly stormed in from another room.
Marcus raised his pistol and tried to fire—but he was just a beat too slow.
Before he could pull the trigger, the enemy’s bullet struck first.
*Tat-tat-tat, tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—*
The lead attacker’s Ajax power assault rifle spat fire as a burst of gunfire shredded Marcus’s body.
Meanwhile, Tanaka had already ducked behind Marcus the moment the attackers appeared, using his subordinate as a human shield.
As Marcus fell, Tanaka ripped two laser cutter grenades from his belt and hurled them toward the attackers.
The three intruders immediately scattered for cover, not daring to remain exposed.
The grenades floated in midair, emitting countless cutting beams, easily slicing deep grooves into the floor and walls.
While the attackers were distracted, Tanaka bolted behind a load-bearing column—far thicker than any regular wall, even tech weapons couldn’t punch through it in one go.
Feeling temporarily safe, Tanaka finally let out a breath and placed a call.
It was a direct line to Arasaka Tower’s Special Response Team.
As a senior executive of Arasaka’s R&D Division, he had the authority to summon SRT support directly.
Arasaka Tower, Arasaka’s corporate headquarters in Night City, was located in Corporate Plaza, south of Watson and north of Heywood’s Civic Center.
An SRT unit was always on standby at Arasaka Tower, ready for emergency deployments.
It would take them about five minutes to reach the estate from Corporate Plaza.
Tanaka was momentarily stunned by what happened next.
The call he tried to make was disconnected after just one second.
Despite no longer working in the field, Tanaka was a high-ranking executive at Arasaka, and he had spent part of his earlier career in field operations with an impressive record. So he reacted almost instantly.
This was the effect of a signal jammer.
The enemy was prepared.
Thinking back to the attacker who killed Marcus, wielding an Ajax kinetic assault rifle, Tanaka quickly suspected the attacker’s affiliation: Militech.
He couldn’t understand why Militech would suddenly send assassins to take his life.
Was it because of that prototype Sandevistan?
The so-called prototype Sandevistan was the one now in Leo’s possession—a clean unit with its kill-switches removed.
But Tanaka didn’t know that the implant was currently with Leo. What he did know was that this prototype Sandevistan originated from Militech.
Militech had used their own soldiers as guinea pigs, implanting this experimental cyberware without informing them beforehand, purely to collect test data.
Tanaka didn’t have informants inside Militech, but that didn’t stop him from reaching this conclusion.
The reason was simple: Arasaka did the same thing.
They carefully selected “samples” from their Special Assault Forces soldiers, turning them into hosts for prototype implants. When these subjects had been pushed beyond their limits and had no remaining value, they were eliminated, with their deaths explained away as accidents.
Gunfire outside the mansion, mixed with shouts, curses, and screams from the security detail, snapped Tanaka back to reality—and made him realize that there were more than just the three intruders inside the residence.
His mind raced for an escape plan.
But one idea after another was dismissed immediately.
The mansion’s internal defenses could have helped, but the attackers had shut down the main breaker on the mansion’s external wall. All systems lost power along with the lights, leaving nothing to stop the invaders.
That left only one option: kill the intruders.
Tanaka pulled out a flashbang—his last grenade.
He tossed it. As it detonated, he stamped hard on the ground and launched himself forward like an arrow fired from a bow, charging straight at Leo, who appeared to be the leader.
He could tell that these enemies were elite. In a firefight, he would certainly be at a disadvantage.
So he closed the distance—this would be close combat.
And not to boast, but his fighting skills exceeded even those of Special Assault Forces soldiers.
*Boom!*
His punch collided with Leo’s crossed arms in a guard position, and the force generated a visible shockwave in the air.
Leo was driven backward, sliding several meters across the floor.
Tanaka knew better than to allow distance to open up. If he did, the other two would attack.
He pressed forward—
But then Leo vanished before his eyes.
“Too slow.”
Leo’s voice came from beside him.
Before Tanaka could react, Leo stepped past him, and the red blade of Murasama sliced through his neck.
Tanaka’s head hit the floor as his body collapsed.
Leo flicked the blood from his blade and sheathed Murasama.
“There’s still one left—upstairs.”
At that moment, a shout came from outside the mansion.
“Mr. Tanaka? Mr. Tanaka!”
The sound of fighting had finally alerted the outer security.
“V, go upstairs and deal with Tanaka Katsuo. Lucy, we’ll hold this position.”
Neither woman objected.
V swapped to a fresh magazine in her rifle and moved quickly up the stairs.
Leo and Lucy took cover on opposite sides of the main hall’s entrance, hidden from view from outside.
Through his tactical goggles, Leo saw a four-man security squad rapidly approaching the mansion. Two additional teams were maneuvering from two other directions, flanking toward the hill where Panam was hidden.
Although the signal jammer was still interfering with communications, they had planned in advance: the moment the lights went out, Panam was to open fire on the mansion’s external security. If they pursued her, she was to escape immediately.
Her hiding spot was about 500 meters from Tanaka’s mansion.
As long as she fled before they reached her position, she could escape.
Leo turned his attention back to the approaching four-man squad.
His tactical goggles and Lucy’s Kiroshi optics allowed them to see perfectly in the dark. The blackout had no effect on them.
Leo gave Lucy a hand signal, and they silently waited for the four guards to step inside.
The guards had night vision gear but no high-end Kiroshi optics, so they could only see that Tanaka and Marcus lay dead on the floor—and that moment of shock was all Leo and Lucy needed.
Leo drew Murasama once again and decapitated the last guard in line.
He stepped forward and ran Murasama through the heart of the second guard.
Lucy raised her pistol and shot the remaining two in the head.
Moments later, V came down from upstairs.
“All clear. I put two extra rounds in Tanaka Katsuo’s head.”
Leo nodded and issued new orders.
“V, go draw back the squads chasing Panam. Lucy, let’s set up laser trip mines and give them a big surprise.”
Both women nodded and moved.
Leo handed a laser trip mine to Lucy, who ran to place it just out of sight at the entrance—a perfect blind spot from outside but unavoidable when entering.
Leo placed his last laser trip mine under Tanaka’s body, using the corpse as concealment. Anyone checking the body would trigger it.
As Leo and Lucy worked, V jogged to the balcony and unshouldered the Achilles tech precision rifle.
The Achilles wasn’t a sniper rifle, but at this short range—a few hundred meters—it would do the job.
V charged up the rifle to full power, centered an Arasaka guard’s back in the scope, and fired.
The high-energy round hit instantly, launching the guard into the air. His corpse landed heavily right in front of his comrades.
The security squads chasing Panam froze in shock.
They hadn’t expected the attack to come from behind.
That meant they were under attack from both sides—and the person they were supposed to protect was already in danger.
Without hesitation, the squads abandoned their pursuit and turned back toward the mansion.
As V dropped another Arasaka guard, she called out toward the house: “They’re coming back!”
Leo and Lucy sprinted out from the mansion.
“All done. Time to go.”
The three of them sprinted toward the point where they had originally infiltrated using grappling hooks.
Leo covered while V and Lucy rappelled down first, then he followed.
The slope there was steep enough to block line of sight—the returning guards would have no way of knowing they had escaped down this route.
But they weren’t safe yet.
From the moment the signal jammer was deployed, a few minutes had passed—and it was no longer active.
Once those security squads returned to the mansion and found Tanaka and his son dead, they would certainly call in the Special Assault Team.
