This was not a case of the duration ending, but rather a forced remote shutdown of all cyberware. Not only the nanomachines, but all implants became unusable.
Even worse, his bank accounts and all his Arasaka internal access privileges were completely wiped clean. This made Takemura Goro's blood boil. Decades of hard work and effort were wiped away in an instant, like returning to before liberation.
Bullets were fired chaotically over their heads, riddling everything with holes. Through his tactical optics, Leo scanned the enemies in the opposite building, occupying different rooms on different floors.
Once the tactical optics locked onto the enemy's positions, Leo immediately stood up. Bullets struck the Falchion blade, but only sparked off harmlessly.
Leo fired several shots toward the opposite side, then without even checking the results, pulled V up from the ground and dragged her rushing out of the room.
"Get up, Jackie! Move!"
After Leo fired those few shots, no more bullets came from the opposite building.
Takemura cautiously poked his head out from beneath the window to look. He saw that the enemies had all been shot in the head and were already dead.
...
Every megabuilding was like a small society of its own.
At this time, it should have been bustling with life.
However, when the three of them rushed out of the room, everything outside was eerily silent.
The hallway was deserted. Further away, the grand lobby area, usually filled with convenience stores, street vendors, and boxing gyms, was completely empty.
V and Jackie's faces turned grim.
Leo, however, remained calm and pointed toward the stairs.
"We take the stairs."
"But won't the elevator get us to the ground faster?"
"It'll also be easier to get ambushed."
The two no longer argued and followed behind Leo.
Suddenly, V turned her head and found that Takemura Goro had also followed them. Jackie instinctively raised his gun at him.
Takemura quickly raised his hands in surrender, "Wait, truce for now."
"Why should we trust you?"
"You were trying to drag us back just now!"
V and Jackie clearly didn't believe him.
But Leo simply tossed him a pneumatic injector.
"This isn't free. Once we're safe, remember to wire me the money."
"Thank you," Takemura said seriously.
It was only then that V and Jackie noticed Takemura was wounded. One hand was pressed against his abdomen, and the other, which caught the injector, was covered in blood.
"You..."
Jackie realized things weren't that simple.
"Enough, it's not safe here. Let's move."
Leo led the way, with V and Jackie following closely behind, Takemura bringing up the rear.
The two sides who had been fighting to the death just moments ago had now formed a strange temporary alliance.
After descending two floors, Leo suddenly pulled out his Techtronika SMG and opened fire. Bullets pierced through the walls and handrails, hitting soldiers from Arasaka's Special Rapid Response Team lying in ambush below.
A squad of soldiers originally waiting to ambush them was caught off guard by Leo's preemptive strike. Over a dozen fully armed soldiers were wiped out within moments.
But it wasn't over yet.
Just as Leo emptied his SMG magazine and hadn't yet reloaded, a figure stepped onto the wall, moving like a gecko, sprinting at high speed. The figure then pounced ferociously toward the seemingly defenseless Leo.
It was an Arasaka cyberninja, part of the special execution force "Troy," clad entirely in military-grade combat cyberware, looking terrifying beyond words.
However, Leo's left hand triggered the blade holster's mechanism with a pull.
With a bang, the blade shot out, striking the Arasaka ninja's face dead-on. The ninja had no time to dodge, and was hit squarely, flipping backward midair and crashing hard to the ground.
Before he could get up, a steel-clad foot stomped heavily on his neck—
Crack!
The ninja's eyes bulged grotesquely before he fell silent.
This was only the first wave of intercepting enemies, not the last. The Special Rapid Response Team mixed with Arasaka's special assassination unit "Troy" attacked from all sides.
Leo used the Falchion to carve a bloody path through them.
V and Jackie, working together, managed to take down quite a few enemies as well.
As for Takemura Goro, whether it was due to his "redeemed" status or simply being outmatched, he stayed at the back, only firing opportunistic shots and not daring to fight on the front lines alongside Leo.
V and Jackie occasionally shot him disdainful looks, but Takemura pretended not to notice, shrinking back and playing the coward.
Thus, the group finally reached the ground floor and entered the underground parking lot. The vast parking lot was brightly lit but nearly empty, with only a few lonely cars parked here and there.
Takemura, thinking he could finally be useful, hurried ahead.
"My car's right here!"
But Leo shook his head.
"Jackie, call Delamain."
"Why not take my car? It's a supercar! We could lose the pursuers faster!"
Takemura's accent became even more ridiculous when he got flustered, unintentionally easing the tense atmosphere a bit.
Leo glanced at him, "Your car's rigged with a bomb."
"What?!" Takemura's face froze.
"You stayed upstairs the whole time. If you were them, wouldn't you have tampered with your car?"
Takemura's expression was one of disbelief but, realizing they were about to escape, he finally understood.
Arasaka's assaults grew even fiercer. But in the open layout of the parking garage, it suited Leo just as much.
In a blink, Leo's figure vanished from his spot, reappearing behind an Arasaka soldier. The blade in his hand sliced cleanly, sending the soldier's head flying into the air.
Then he repeated the move, rapidly eliminating soldiers from other ambush points.
If he hadn't been wearing exoskeleton armor, such reckless charges would have been impossible. But now, clad in armor, he wasn't afraid to storm headfirst into a rain of bullets.
Gunfire mixed with desperate screams.
Leo became a whirlwind of death, cutting through the Arasaka forces. The gunfire thinned out and eventually stopped.
It wasn't long before the Delamain taxi arrived.
The three quickly jumped into the car. Takemura looked back regretfully at the supercar he had spent a fortune on, taking out loans to buy. Gritting his teeth, he too climbed into the Delamain cab Jackie had called.
Once everyone was inside, the cab sped away from the megabuilding's parking lot.
However, Arasaka's forces were unwilling to give up.
Several Arasaka ninjas riding motorcycles revved after them, bullets raining down on the Delamain taxi, striking its body and windows with loud clanging noises.
Inside, everyone except Leo instinctively ducked down and covered their heads.