"It really wasn't me! That guy, the one slumped over the data terminal, he's the boss."
The man's knees were completely shattered, and he sat limply on the ground, his hand strenuously pointing at a corpse.
Arthur followed his gaze to see a figure in a bright green jacket slumped over a micro-terminal, smoke rising from the bullet hole in his head.
"Never mind, that question isn't important.
Tell me! Where are the Biotechnica supplies?"
Arthur pointed his gun at the man's head again, asking fiercely.
"In the safe in that corner, the password is 9021, the item is a white metal box.
I've told you everything I know, please spare my life."
Upon hearing Arthur's question, the man spilled everything like a bamboo tube pouring out beans, a fawning smile on his face.
Arthur didn't hesitate; out of caution, he picked the man up and threw him in front of the safe.
"Open the box and take out the item."
Saying this, he and Jackie stood at a distance.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly. The man readily opened the box and pulled out a silver-white briefcase.
After careful observation, seeing that the man didn't try to find a weapon in the safe, Arthur and Jackie walked over.
Jackie snatched the box and cross-referenced it with the Priest's intel.
"No problem, it's it! Three hundred thousand!
It's almost too smooth to be true; I almost feel bad taking the money."
Jackie flipped the box back and forth, confirming with a nod.
"Although I don't know what those guys from David's crew did, it certainly made things easier for us."
Arthur smiled and took the box from Jackie's hand.
He intended to inspect it to ensure there were no tracking devices inside.
As Arthur moved, the box opened.
Inside lay three transparent vials of reagent and a chip of unknown purpose.
Arthur kicked away the so-called boss from the terminal and inserted the chip into the terminal.
As the data loading progress bar began to move, Arthur glanced at the Tyger Claws member cowering in the corner and asked,
"How did you get this? As far as I know, the Tyger Claws don't have a business of robbing corporations."
"We got this from the Maelstrom. We wouldn't dare provoke a corporation."
The man still maintained his 'tell-all' demeanor.
"Those lunatics who tear themselves apart and then install outdated prosthetics?
It seems those rats are still collaborating with the high-and-mighty corporations."
Jackie remarked.
The chip's read-write progress was complete, and Arthur immediately reviewed its contents.
As he read, his face gradually darkened.
"What a bunch of scum."
Extreme anger was suppressed in his hoarse voice.
"What's wrong? What's in there?"
Jackie also noticed Arthur's unusual behavior, walked towards the terminal, and asked.
"See for yourself."
The chip contained an experimental log.
It documented the human trials for those three vials of medicine.
Each vial represented several human lives.
Biotechnica was actually using the Maelstrom and Scavengers for live research.
"Hijo de, those Biotechnica bastards are animals."
Arthur was also extremely furious at this moment. He thought of the unknown drug in his own body, and now he could almost certainly confirm that it was from Biotechnica's drug experiments.
Slowly exhaling, Arthur silently pulled the chip from the terminal.
"We should go, Jackie."
Putting away the silver-white briefcase, Arthur fired a shot behind him without looking back, eliminating the sole survivor, and then walked out of the room.
The man had seen their faces; there was no need to keep him alive.
By the time they contacted Lucy via the neural network, they were already back in the car.
"What's the situation now?"
"Just now, a group of Tyger Claws went inside.
But I left something when I hacked the elevator, so they can't use it for a while. You probably have about five minutes left."
After a quick mental calculation, the time was completely sufficient, but now was not the time to delay. The two quickly found the entrance to the ventilation shaft and crawled in.
The duct was spacious, at least half a person wide, and the ventilation system was working, filling the duct with the smell of alcohol.
They quickly found the upward-leading duct. The two pushed against the walls, forcing themselves up, inch by inch.
The exit was located in a restroom. Arthur and Jackie jumped down, returning to ground level.
By this time, the five-minute limit had passed; moving up the ventilation shaft had taken them quite a bit of time.
Outside, a commotion could be heard, and Arthur keenly picked up on key information.
"Quick, the brothers downstairs say no one's there. They must have escaped through the ventilation shaft."
Judging by the noise, there were at least a dozen people outside.
But the restroom was cramped and offered little cover, making a fight here very disadvantageous.
However, Arthur quickly thought of a countermeasure. He pulled a bullet from his pocket, weighed it, and then threw it hard at the light on the ceiling.
It was just an ordinary civilian light, with no protection, and it shattered instantly upon impact.
The restroom plunged into darkness.
Pulling Jackie, the two pressed against the wall next to the door, waiting silently.
With a loud "bang," the restroom door was forced open, and a crowd rushed in.
"Where's the light? The light here... Damn, don't step on me."
"Who, who's there?"
"Me! It's me! Friendly."
"I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about those two."
"Which two?"
Everyone was puzzled, looking in the direction the man was pointing.
They saw two figures, their backs to the crowd, quietly leaving in the faint light of the hallway through the open restroom door.
"Fuck! Enemies! Quickly, chase them!"
Before he could finish speaking, the two quiet and composed figures had started running, disappearing around the corner.
The scene was comically silent for a moment, then came a chorus of enraged roars and the sound of running.
"These guys are babbling endlessly, what kind of gibberish are they speaking? It's really hard to listen to."
Even while fleeing for their lives, Jackie didn't forget to display his mouth.
"Gorilla language?
Although I don't understand it, I guess it's probably wishing us a long life, or to get rich."
Arthur's face showed disdain, clearly aimed at the group of screaming Tyger Claws members behind them.
By the time those guys saw Arthur and Jackie, the two had already reached the nightclub entrance.
Shooting down two members guarding the door, they burst out of there.
In his mind, Lucy's command sounded.
"Run east, the car is ready."
It was late at night, and the shops on both sides of the street had already drawn in most of the tourists looking for fun, but there were still quite a few scattered people.
After running east for about a few hundred meters, Arthur saw the car Jackie had stolen on the elevated highway.
Its back door was wide open, and the engine hummed as it idled.
That kid David was sitting in the driver's seat, shouting and waving at Arthur and Jackie.
Slipping into the car and slamming the door shut, Arthur patted the back of the driver's seat with both hands.
"Hurry up, the Tyger Claws aren't that easy to shake off."
As if to confirm Arthur's words, a Tyger Claws member chased out from the direction of the nightclub, pointing at Arthur's car and shouting,
"Quick! Those guys got into that car, don't let them get away."
As his words fell, the clamor of motorcycle engines started up one after another, like the snorting of mad bulls.
"Hold on tight, everyone!"
David roared.
The engine RPM didn't drop at all; he immediately engaged a gear, and after the tires screeched out a puff of white smoke on the ground, the car shot forward instantly.
This was Japantown, where the roads were not only narrow but also strangely shaped.
Not far ahead stood an abrupt building.
Watching the scenery ahead constantly enlarge, even a veteran like Arthur secretly held his breath.
"Kid, do you even know how to drive...?"
Before Arthur could finish his sentence, David sharply swerved to the right.
The car seemed to hit its own front wheel, lurching violently, the entire rear of the car lifted, almost overturning.
Fortunately, one front wheel gripped the ground firmly, and the car, like a compass, pivoted on that single tire, drawing a circle, before crashing back down to the ground.