As the sensation of weightlessness vanished, Arthur's body was thrown back into the rear seat.
It took several seconds for his brain to recover from the recent scare.
That feeling just now was as if the world was about to leave him, and the period marking the end of life was almost connected.
In a trance, he felt as if his soul had returned to his body.
At this moment, everyone in the car, except David who was still driving seriously, looked at David with complex expressions.
"Just now, when you turned... did you have it under control?"
Finally, Arthur spoke with difficulty, asking the question everyone wanted to ask.
"Ah..."
David, being too focused, didn't immediately realize what Arthur was asking, and paused before continuing.
"Oh, just now? Although it was a last-minute plan, we had to try, didn't we?
Look behind us, because of what I just did, four unlucky Tyger Claws crashed into that building."
Sure enough, thick smoke was billowing from behind, clearly from those four unlucky guys.
It was just that their souls hadn't returned yet, so they hadn't noticed immediately.
"But did you ever consider what would happen if you failed?"
Arthur pressed on, unwilling to give up.
"Failed... failed..."
David thought seriously, his tone filled with uncertainty.
"Probably... maybe I would die?"
Hearing the answer, Arthur slumped back into his seat, vowing in his heart never to let David touch a steering wheel again.
The car sped on, but the remaining seven Tyger Claws were still in hot pursuit.
And due to the narrow roads of Japan town, the Tyger Claws' motorcycles had an advantage over the car, and the distance between them was gradually closing.
Arthur took out two gunmen within range, but the others, having witnessed Arthur's marksmanship, retreated into his blind spots, no longer giving him a chance to shoot.
"They're like a bunch of flies you can't shake off or kill."
After cursing angrily, Arthur withdrew his gaze and saw Jackie's stunned expression.
He looked as if he had seen the end of life.
But before Arthur could ask, he knew the reason—
Ahead, on the narrow road, a stretched bus completely blocked the way, leaving only a two-person wide gap beside it.
And on the other side of the gap was the Grand Central River.
The road ahead should have been impassable, but David showed no sign of slowing down.
"Kid, let's stop and deal with the guys behind..."
Arthur's words remained unfinished.
David sharply turned the wheel, the car body shook, and the side of the car facing the river directly lifted into the air.
Jackie, next to Arthur, was thrown directly onto him, and Lucy in front desperately gripped the handle above her head to steady herself.
The wheels on that side had no support, just spinning wildly in the air above the river.
They could all clearly feel the car swaying; it seemed to be floating in the air, undulating with the wind.
David's hands were frantically adjusting the steering wheel in front of him; he activated his Sandevistan, struggling to maintain the car's center of gravity.
He was driving this car like a two-wheeled motorcycle, maintaining the center of gravity directly above one of the wheels through repeated micro-adjustments.
Although it was a stretched bus, for a car traveling at this speed, it should have been an instant, but this instant felt so long.
Their lives were walking on a tightrope, entirely in the hands of a young man.
Finally, that slow-motion-like period ended, and all four wheels of the car returned to the ground.
But Arthur didn't use this time to recover; he immediately blurted out a question.
"Why didn't you just stop and take out the people behind us? Why didn't you put the wheels on that bus?"
David's response to Arthur was—his head directly plunged onto the steering wheel.
Lucy, beside him, quickly leaned over and barely managed to control the steering wheel with one hand.
"What's wrong with this guy?"
Arthur pulled the unconscious David from behind, to avoid troubling Lucy.
"He used Sandevistan too many times; his body couldn't handle the pressure, and he passed out."
Without David pressing the accelerator, the car slowly decelerated and finally stopped by the roadside.
Jackie threw the unconscious David into the back and sat in the driver's seat himself.
The car finally fell into the hands of a reliable person.
"What should we do in this situation? Does he need a Ripperdoc?"
Arthur threw David aside and asked Lucy.
"Yes, a Ripperdoc will do."
Lucy didn't turn her head; her gaze remained fixed on the window, her pretty face reflected in the Night City's reflection on the car window.
"When this guy wakes up, I'll definitely teach him a lesson."
And so, accompanied by a bumpy ride and the thudding sound of David's head hitting the window, the car drove into Chinatown.
It was late at night, so Arthur and the others had contacted Viktor in advance, and when they arrived, they successfully entered.
Jackie was the biggest, so he was responsible for carrying the unconscious David inside.
"It seems you've brought a new friend, a half-grown kid."
After dropping David onto the operating table, Jackie directly picked up the glass of liquor Viktor had left on the table and took a swig.
Arthur and Lucy followed him in, and hearing Viktor's words, Arthur replied.
"A nineteen-year-old kid. This guy has an implant called Sandevistan."
Nodding, Viktor directly flipped him over.
"This is... Militech's good stuff, 'Apogee' it seems. This kid can actually handle it."
Arthur came to Jackie's side, snatched the liquor from his hand, and took a swig himself.
"What, is this thing really awesome?"
"Very awesome, among the best. This is Militech's treasure.
Wait, this thing..."
Saying that, he walked to a micro-terminal nearby and brought up a dense array of data.
"This...
Do you remember the separated data chip you brought back? What this kid has installed seems to be what was recorded in it. The traces are very similar...
No! Not similar, they're exactly the same."
Arthur leaned against the wall, but Lucy walked over and stood in front of him.
The girl said nothing, just stood there, looking at something with a serious expression.
Frowning, Arthur tentatively held up the liquor bottle in his hand, and Lucy immediately nodded.
Reluctantly handing over the liquor, Arthur then returned to his conversation with Viktor.
"So, besides coincidence, what else is it good for?"
"It's very useful! You've been with me for a few days; what's the most troublesome part of installing a cyberware?"
Arthur recalled his experience as an assistant and said.
"Naturally, it's internal neural welding. Although I can't do it, that stuff looks annoying."
"At least you weren't watching for nothing. The human body's nerves are counted in billions, and we have no way of knowing the specific functions of many fiber nerves.
The design and installation of cyberware are all reverse-engineered from function, because those nerves with unknown functions cannot have their interfaces designed.
Therefore, the larger the area of the cyberware, the more complex the nerves involved, and the more fiber nerves with unknown functions there are.
Discarding unknown nerves means discarding unknown signals, which naturally creates risks.
This phenomenon is called cyberware neural degradation, and it's the main cause of cyberpsychosis."
Arthur was completely bewildered, but Lucy next to him had a serious expression.
"Viktor, you've been talking for a long time, but you haven't said what that chip does for this kid."
Smiling wryly and shaking his head, Viktor explained helplessly.
"When cyberware is designed, many speculative interfaces are designed.
And according to the data on that chip, I can help this kid connect those neural interfaces."
Seeing Arthur still looking confused, Viktor added impatiently.
"That data can help this kid reduce the burden brought by the cyberware!"
"So, it means he won't pass out as easily."
"Something like that, it has that effect."
Looking at Viktor's speechless expression, Arthur couldn't help but doubt his own intelligence, but after looking at Jackie next to him, he relaxed.
This guy was almost asleep; not a single word was getting through to him.
"This theory isn't very popular on the market; the immune system theory is the most widespread."
A voice suddenly interjected, and it was Lucy.
At this moment, she was playing with the empty liquor bottle in her hand, looking at Viktor with curiosity.