V randomly chose a road, heading onto the bridge towards Santo Domingo, with two Arasaka SUVs following closely behind.
Jackie: "That's strange, how did they catch up? We just left, there were no pursuers. Damn! They're shooting!"
V's car wasn't designed for combat; it had no protection. Jingxuan and Jackie couldn't hesitate for a second and immediately returned fire.
This caused all other cars on the bridge to pull over and stop.
Everyone in Night City was too familiar with it; street gunfights were commonplace.
The safest way to survive was to pull over, which reduced the chance of being hit by bullets and minimized the possibility of a collision.
Jingxuan had already leaned out of the car window, firing several shots, not knowing where they landed. She anxiously said:
"V! Drive steadier!"
V ignored her. Drive steadier? What a joke! How could he drive steadily at a time like this? It was a car chase and gunfight, alright.
Jackie hit an Arasaka agent as their positions constantly shifted.
Doggy: "See, this is a technical issue. Jackie can hit people. Don't be stubborn, let me handle it."
Jingxuan was reluctant, struggling internally for 2 seconds, but still handed it over to Doggy.
As soon as he came online, he took down two, and by then, no one was showing their head from the rear Arasaka SUV.
"Jingxuan, in this kind of mobile combat, don't expect to hit with one shot. You need to fire one or two shots first, observe the sparks when the bullets hit the vehicle, and then adjust your aiming point."
The sub-consciousness Jingxuan was displeased; she only knew basic combat skills:
"I'm a hacker, alright? Don't expect so much from me."
Then, Doggy demonstrated the technique of correcting bullet trajectories by observing sparks, killing the driver of the pursuing car.
This scared the other SUV, which stopped its pursuit.
Doggy and Jackie pulled back into the car. Jackie was extremely excited:
"Woohoo! With Jingxuan here, Arasaka is no threat!"
Doggy felt Jackie's mindset was wrong. He was worried his teammates would take Arasaka for granted:
"Jackie, don't think that way. You're over-glamorizing my role. Is it because we survived Adam Smasher in Arasaka Tower yesterday that you're getting so cocky? If it weren't for Maine, we would have been massacred at the very beginning, and I wouldn't have had the chance to create Adam Smasher's dynamic weakness map on the spot. If we hadn't set up a large number of weapons in advance at the entrance, we wouldn't have been able to contend with him for so long, and in the end, we only escaped thanks to Trauma Team. Don't overestimate our own strength."
Jackie fell silent, his expression blank, deep in thought:
"You're right, Chica, I got a bit carried away. I even forgot the mercenary code."
V: "What's wrong, Jingxuan? You seem a bit different today."
Doggy realized he had said too much and quickly switched back to Jingxuan. Jingxuan had sweat on her forehead:
"Uh-huh, hehe, I was just getting a bit carried away... Hehe, how was that? Pretty impressive, right?"
Jackie: "No, no, what you said made a lot of sense. I've learned something."
V: "Just now at Lizzie's, Jackie lectured me, and now Jackie is being lectured by Jingxuan... So does that mean I'm the most childish one?"
Just as the atmosphere relaxed for a short while, a chilling alarm blared!
Everyone in Night City knew this alarm, which was accompanied by a long rectangle of red light projected in front of their car, flashing warning words.
And all this commotion was caused by the Atlas AV hovering above them.
Jackie cursed again:
"Damn it! MAX-TAC?!"
Jingxuan: "We're dead! V! Drive faster!"
Jackie: "Holy shit! Why is MAX-TAC out?!"
The three of them had good reason to worry. It was clear they were coming for them; the red box kept flashing in front of V's car at a synchronized speed.
And V was already at full throttle!
V was also sweating profusely: "That Abernathy actually has such a strong connection with NCPD. I thought it was just a rumor."
Jackie: "Hey, don't marvel now! Our four-wheeled vehicle can't outrun an AV. Hurry back to Li Scenic Area! There's an underground tunnel on the way back!"
Jackie meant that the AV couldn't follow them into the tunnel. V understood perfectly and turned, choosing the downhill route.
The AV above followed effortlessly, and rifles had already begun firing at them!
V sharply turned the steering wheel, avoiding the first wave of attacks.
V dodged the second wave well too, but one bullet pierced the car roof, grazing the chip insertion port on the back of Jingxuan's head.
It was a shallow graze, not bleeding much.
Doggy: "Damn, this is how MAX-TAC operates. They just open fire directly, without even signaling us to stop. They skip all the procedures, a bunch of violent criminals with badges! They're really f***ing..."
Doggy's voice abruptly cut off. Jingxuan touched the area slightly below her ear, where there wasn't much blood from the bullet graze.
It seemed to have caused physical damage to Doggy, and Doggy had genuinely gone offline.
Jingxuan felt panicked. All this time, as long as Doggy was there, they always managed to turn danger into safety.
She usually found him verbose, but he actually glitched out at such a critical moment?
Jingxuan quickly restarted the system and ran a diagnostic.
V started showing off his driving skills, trying to stay as close as possible to other civilian cars:
"They wouldn't shoot innocent civilians without a second thought, would they?"
This indeed worked, significantly reducing the frequency of fire from above.
V relied on his flashy driving to reach the tunnel entrance. After entering a short distance, V surprisingly stopped the car.
Jackie asked, puzzled: "What's wrong? Why stop here?"
V: "This is a one-way path. Following their thought process, they'll definitely go to the other end to block us at the Li Scenic Area exit. I plan to return the way we came to Santo Domingo. Are you kidding? If we get stopped and have a ground battle with MAX-TAC, our survival rate approaches 0%."
Jingxuan: "Are they treating us like cyberpsychos?"
V: "Yes, we've been tagged. I'm sorry, Jingxuan, Jackie. I dragged you into Arasaka Corporation's internal struggle."
Jackie patted V's shoulder: "What nonsense are you talking about? How could we abandon you? After this is over, you should resign immediately."
Jingxuan: "Wait! What does 'tagged' mean? Is your chip being located?"
V looked horrified: "Yes, yes... So going back to Santo Domingo is meaningless... They know our exact location... This is truly f***ed."
Jackie's eyes darted around:
"Hmph, it's not like there's no way."
Both women looked at Jackie simultaneously; he seemed to have an idea:
"Have you ever considered taking V's chip out? The tracking follows the chip. Also, V's boss's rival should have private connections with the Ye Family, right? That's why they can get NCPD to mobilize MAX-TAC to deal with us..."
Jingxuan interrupted Jackie: "Alright, Jackie! I didn't expect you to think of that. Don't you two find one thing strange? Isn't MAX-TAC's behavior a bit out of character?"
V: "Now that you mention it, it is a bit strange. My car isn't bulletproof, and no matter how much I swerve like a snake, the target is still quite large, yet we haven't died... Jackie is right, the tracking follows my chip, and MAX-TAC deliberately didn't kill us... Their goal is to get my chip, and it has to be intact. Jenkins's plan is all on my chip."
Jackie: "You're right. So my idea is for you, V, to take out your chip and give it to me. Jingxuan and I will play a game of cat and mouse with them. And you, V, without the chip, you won't be tracked. You can randomly hijack a car in the tunnel and go to Arasaka Tower yourself. Deal with that rival in your company, or use your boss's connections to call off MAX-TAC."