Gearbound: Cyberpunk 2077

Chapter 174 - 174

Night had fallen. In the rest of Japantown, the night's festivities were just getting started, but this Shinto shrine in North Oak stood cold and deserted. Hardly anyone passed by on foot, and cars came only once every half hour or so.

A large torii gate stood open, flanked by two surveillance cameras angled for a full 360-degree view of the entrance. Hidden between them, an automated turret lay dormant—one wrong move would awaken it and unleash a lethal torrent of bullets on any intruder.

Leo, already clad in the Falchion, crept in from outside. His optical camouflage rendered him nearly invisible, though not perfectly so. The technology merely adapted the suit's color and brightness to match the surroundings, so if someone looked closely, they might notice a slight distortion in the air. Sticking to the shadows helped avoid that.

Before long, Leo reached the shrine's outer buildings. With a single step onto the wall and a push, he vaulted onto the rooftop. Crouching there, he looked down at a courtyard enclosed by several structures, serene and elegant. By day, it would be bustling with tourists. Now, the only activity came from armed members of the Tyger Claws standing guard.

He stood atop the roof of what looked like the shrine's purification station. Opposite him, across the courtyard, were the main buildings: the offering hall, the worship hall, and the inner sanctuary. Using his helmet's tactical display, Leo scanned the shrine's interior and swiftly identified the red silhouette labeled as Ken.

She was in a room inside the worship hall. He didn't head there right away, though. First, he planned to clear out the surveillance room in the shrine's administrative offices. If he simply snuck in and took Ken down silently, Wakako and the Tyger Claws would know immediately that Rogue was involved. Since Rogue wanted no part of this on the surface, Leo intended to make it look like a small-scale gang conflict, with Ken ending up as collateral damage.

The administrative offices stood right next to the purification station. After jumping down from the roof, Leo slipped over to a side door, opened it, and hurried inside, closing it behind him. Traditionally, such offices handled official shrine business: prayer services, donations, event planning.

Yet here, the place was filthy—trash strewn across the floor. He had barely shut the door when a Tyger Claw grunt rounded the corner, clearly heading off duty after a long shift at the monitors. The man, half-asleep, staggered right into what felt like an invisible wall, stumbling back in confusion. He blinked at the spot that should have been empty, only to see a figure in gleaming armor flicker into view.

Instantly, he tried to shout, but a flash of steel cut him off. His throat was nearly severed, and he slumped over, blood spurting everywhere. Leo glanced at himself, now visible again, and dragged the corpse into a trash bin.

That was the Falchion's optical camouflage drawback: any direct attack or impact disrupted the cloaking effect. Worse, it took about sixty seconds of cooldown to re-engage the suit's sensors after such a disruption. Leo didn't bother waiting. He pressed on, aware from his scan that the hallway led to a room normally used to greet visitors—currently empty—and that the surveillance room was on the right, guarded by three Tyger Claws.

He opened the door. All three Tyger Claws inside turned at the sound. In that instant, two rows of miniature launchers slid up from the armor around Leo's shoulders. Puffs of compressed air sent multiple smart shells sizzling across the room, leaving smoky trails. The three guards barely had time to register what was happening before getting torn apart.

Leo stepped over to the monitors, deleted every scrap of surveillance footage, then shut down all active cameras. Next, he planted a timed explosive beneath the console. Moving on, he entered the visitors' reception room and rigged another bomb there. Finally, he opened a window and jumped outside.

...

In a room near the worship hall, a woman wearing a black tank top, cargo pants, and combat boots was hammering away at a heavy sandbag with her fists. Her name was Ken. Sweat covered her pale skin, and her chest rose and fell with every breath. She lifted a bottle of water for a quick swig when a massive explosion shook the whole shrine. The bottle slipped from her hand, splashing water all over her.

Ken immediately crouched low, trying to figure out what was happening. She heard frantic footsteps and shouts outside, plus the echo of that explosion. It had to be an attack from a rival gang—most likely Maelstrom, who often clashed with the Tyger Claws over territory. Even so, bomb attacks on a stronghold were rare.

She had no intention of staying. Since Ken hadn't formally joined the Tyger Claws, she owed them nothing. She grabbed her Ajax assault rifle from the nearby rack, popped out the magazine to check it was full, and slammed it back in. Stooped low, she prepared to leave.

Suddenly, a figure lunged into the room. Her merc instincts kicked in, and she opened fire without hesitation. A burst of rounds streaked across the space. Yet the intruder didn't dodge—he simply charged forward and swung a punch. The impact felt like getting hit by a speeding truck. Ken's stomach seized up, and the world blurred around her.

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