I held onto the ledge as I peered through the open window at the two men facing away from me. Off to the side, a man and a woman were kneeling before them.
“Doctor, are you certain that this clinic is worth further investment? I lost a squad already, and this is proving to be quite a hassle. I won’t be able to cover up further damages and if the higher-up finds out, there’ll be hell to pay.” One of the men sitting down facing away from me said as he took a puff from some tube connected to the walls.
“Don’t worry, I’m confident in my assessment of the value of our target. We should be able to get quite a paycheck from it. All for ourselves too, the higher-ups wouldn’t have a clue. We can easily recruit replacements, let us wear them down using various harvester groups. They should all be looking forward to putting down their bogeyman once and for all.”
For some reason, the man that was called ‘Doctor’ sounded strangely familiar.
“Fine, but it’s up to you to convince the harvesters, Jim and his lackeys are still downstairs.”
“Understood, I will…”
I pulled myself up into the room as they continued their conversation. I’ve heard enough to confirm that these were the guys who were the perpetrators of the attack and not some other random thugs looking to kidnap Claire.
Unholstering my Suri, I walked closer and lined up a shot. By the time I dropped the two on the couch, the remaining two that were kneeling were halfway up as the bullets struck them.
+10 EXP
+10 EXP
+10 EXP
+10 EXP
Seeing how there were no cameras in the room, I came out of stealth and turned over the body of the man, who sounded familiar. I found an old man wearing a monocle, the one whom I sold some cybernetics to before…
I checked the other bodies for anything useful, then took pictures using my optics and sent them to Claire.
*These the two that were following you?*
Almost instantly, she responded. *Yep, that’s them.*
Before I could inspect the last body, the door suddenly slammed open.
“Sir, are you okay?!” The two guards I saw outside came rushing in with two people behind them carrying a first-aid kit.
The guards saw me and we all froze for a second before they brought their rifles up toward me as I ducked straight behind the couch, knocking over the whiskey glasses in the process.
Immediately, I reactivated the active camouflage and started crawling on all fours as the bullets started ripping through the couch.
The men stopped shooting and approached from both sides of the couch in sync.
“Where’d he go?”
“There’s something moving behind you!”
Unfortunately, it seemed like the stealth suit was still somewhat visible when people paid attention while I was moving. There was a lot of room for improvement, but that would have to wait.
The man tried to make a one-eighty turn but was interrupted by the roar of my railgun that successfully punched a hole straight through him. Not waiting to see the results, I continued pulling the trigger to ensure I got his partner behind him as well.
+10 EXP
+10 EXP
Once I saw the experience notification appear from above their heads, I turned to the door where the remaining duo who were carrying medical first aid equipment were but found them gone.
An obnoxiously loud alarm started resonating throughout the mansion so I didn’t bother to look for them.
With my element of surprise gone, I ran back to the empty room I was previously in and let my suit rest while I peered down from the window to scout out their movement. There wasn’t anything outside the building yet, so I called Thorne.
“Thorne, prepare the car. We’re leaving as soon as I get back.”
“Got it. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but they know there’s an intruder.”
“Their security detected you?!”
“The boss I zeroed probably had some health monitoring system or something…I should’ve known. Though there aren’t that many people here, from what I can tell. I’ll come as soon as my suit has cooled down.”
“What?” Thorne seemed to be talking to someone else and went quiet for a while. “There’s cars rolling in fast to your location! Get out of there quick!”
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I glanced over to the main gate of the mansion, where it was being slowly opened by the two guards there. A moment later, the loud roar of engines rang out as three cars sped their way onto the estate.
They immediately split off to surround the mansion. I had a clear view of one of the vehicles that came to a stop near my side of the building. There were several fully armed men in their red uniforms disembarked from the car, each looked ready for war. With my experience as a cybernetic surgeon, I could tell they all had quality cybernetics just from a glance. The way they carried themselves and moved showed they had proper training as well.
The group then split into two teams of three, with one team entering the building while the other set up defensively around their vehicle. I’m sure the same thing was happening where the other two vehicles were. I had to get out soon…
The gauge on the suit showed that it should be good for a little under two minutes before it needed to rest again. I should be able to make it out if I hurried.
With the camouflage’s assistance, I climbed down the building and started making my way out of the estate. I tried to keep my distance from the group keeping watch outside and moved straight for the fence I had jumped over previously.
While I passed their vehicle, I carefully monitored the men as I moved past them.
“Witness reports say the intruder was last seen using optical camo. Derek, you switch to thermal!” One of the men suddenly blurted out.
The man standing off to the side of the one who spoke began panning around the entire area.
I hesitated for a moment to decide on which gun to draw, but seeing their armor, I opted for the safer option and drew my railgun, as I wasn’t confident in my aim to target the gaps.
Please don’t look behind you. Focus on the mansion.
The man scanned left and right around the mansion, but then started panning his entire body around. Just a moment before I entered his vision, I pulled the trigger.
+10 EXP
Immediately, the loud boom of the projectile breaking the sound barrier rang out, alerting everyone, especially the other two armed men beside me.
Swinging toward the one who had spoken earlier, I pulled the trigger. By the time I turned to the last person, I was staring down at the barrel of his gun. Two gunshots rang out at the same time.
+10 EXP
I watched the experience notification fade from above his head as he dropped.
Phew, that could’ve gone a lot worse… Now I had to book it before their backup arrives. Fortunately, there happened to be a perfect getaway car right here.
I ran toward the car, but after taking my first step, my body screamed out in searing pain. I looked down to see blood flowing out of a small hole from my torso.
Not this shit again…
There was no time. I didn’t want to be here for a second longer, so I grit my teeth and rushed into the car as fast as I could. Upon entering the driver’s seat, I found the keys conveniently already plugged in.
Every car I’d seen in this world used a traditional key. It seemed like electronic keys were rare, as you had to keep the security on it up-to-date or it would easily get hacked.
With the pedal to the metal, I accelerated at full speed toward the gate. I watched as the two gate guards turned toward the noise of my approaching vehicle from their booth beside the now-closed gate. They came out and motioned for the vehicle to slow down, but their expression changed when they noticed the vehicle had sped up instead.
There was no time to inspect the vehicle. They could have an anti-theft tracker on it, so I chose to take no chances. I pulled the pin to a grenade I had been carrying and dropped it on the dashboard before diving out of the vehicle.
I made sure my prosthetic arm took the brunt of the impact and rolled to disperse the impact as best as I could.
A moment later, a tremendous boom almost deafened me, along with the residual shockwaves. I forced my groaning body to get up and found the two guards lying on the ground, writhing around in agony. I quickly put them out of their misery and inspected the gate, which was now a scene of flaming, deformed metal entangled together.
+10 EXP
+10 EXP
There were engine noises coming from the mansion, but with the gate wrecked, they would have trouble following me in their vehicles. I leaped over the fence and dashed back into the city.
It was painful to take every step, but I found my car after a short jog.
“Go! Start driving!” I called out immediately upon throwing myself into the backseat.
“Holy shit, you’re bleeding,” Claire exclaimed beside me. “Where’s the first aid kit?”
“There’s one in the back!” Thorne quickly responded, holding onto the wheel tightly despite it being on auto drive.
“Calm down! I have one on me here. Claire, do you see an exit wound?” I turned my back towards her.
She held onto my sides and leaned down, “Umm… there’s a hole about the same size as the one in the front.”
“Perfect.” The poor defensive property of the suit turned out to be a boon somehow. The round they shot me with cleanly overpenetrated my flimsy defenses.
I stabbed myself with the stim to stop the bleeding and started applying the combat gauze to my wound.
“Rollo, should I take us to a hospital?”
Taking a quick glance around, I saw no one pursuing, “No, bring us back to the clinic.”
Although a cybernetic clinic definitely wasn’t the first place to go when injured, it still was stocked with equipment and nanomachine injections that helped close wounds and deal with holes in the body.
The hospital may be watched now if they were still pursuing and honestly, the medical fees in this world counted as horror stories in itself from what I heard.
It felt like it took no time at all to arrive at the clinic, and my two employees helped me out into one of the operating rooms.
The scan began once I was seated, and I started calibrating for the small operation my nanomachine would have to do. The two of them just stood by and watched, as they didn’t know how to help.
It was a little sketchy to have to do this myself. There was a reason why computers were called incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid, while humans were incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Despite the small operations, it was not reassuring at all to leave it all to the computer, if only I had an AI to control this or something.
As if able to read my worried expression, Claire stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder, “Is everything okay? Can we help somehow?”
I took another look at the damage the scans showed; it didn’t hit any important organs and what was damaged, the nanomachine could put back together. The wound should heal fine, with no aftereffects.
Simulating the steps I would normally do and potential incidents, I compiled a quick tutorial using my SAID and sent it over.
“Here. Although the machine should do everything, follow these instructions in case anything happens,” I muttered, as I struggled to keep my eyes open.
Claire stilled for a moment with a serious look in her eyes before nodding, “Got it. You can rely on me!”
I weakly nodded before I grabbed the mask and breathed in the anesthetic.
Lights out.