"Boss, boss! You're back! Trouble, big trouble!"
The moment Li Pan walked back into the office with the chest, Spider-18 came rushing at him, flailing its arms, nearly scaring him into cardiac arrest.
"Huh? The market dropped again?!"
18 hesitated for a beat.
"N-no, not really…"
Li Pan's heartbeat graph was beginning to look like a stock chart.
"Then what?"
"Boss, it's serious this time! Our employee team went dark! Rama's in trouble!"
Li Pan shoved the chest into 18's manipulators with an annoyed grunt.
"Don't make a fuss. Employees going missing is normal around here. Rama needs the experience anyway. Today I met a kid about his age—already out in the field hunting monsters."
"Right. Check ACA's ships and shuttles. See if they've registered any warehouses or offices. Store the chest in the Blue Zone."
"But the Bottle really said Rama's in trouble!"
The Bottle? Oh, that one. Fine, might as well check.
The porcelain bottle Rama had brought back was kept with him in the logistics storeroom "because it was afraid of the dark." That counted as containment procedure.
Li Pan followed 18 there. The blue-and-white vase rested by Rama's floor bedding. Li Pan tapped it.
"Hey, what's wrong now?"
With a pop, a human head poked out.
"Rama's in troubleeeeee!!"
"Holy—!!" Li Pan yelled.
18 tilted its head. "Boss, you sure shout loud."
"Scared the hell out of me! What the fuck is this?!"
Li Pan had seen plenty of monsters and gore, but a random head shooting out of a bottle still made him nearly fire off a Nine Yin Dragonblast.
Closer inspection showed it wasn't physical, more like a spirit-form: a pale, faceless blob barely sketched into the outline of a head. Mouth, throat, and vocal cords were fully grown though, connected to the bottle's neck, allowing it to vibrate airflow and "speak." No wonder 18 could hear it.
"What the hell kind of monster is this?!"
Li Pan drew his sword, tempted to chop it off.
The head sensed his intent, ducked back into the vase like a hermit crab, screaming nonstop:
"Rama's in troubleeeeee! Rama's in troubleeeeee!"
18 shrugged. "See? That's what it keeps saying."
Li Pan frowned.
"You can't contact Rama? What about A-Qi? Doesn't its chassis have a tracking chip?"
18 replied,
"Mr007 is offline too. You sent them to recruit that fighter. Their signals disappeared two hours ago in Tianlong Gang turf. According to NCPA bulletins, there was a shootout—East Castle Society attacked, probably retaliating for that raid. They might be using battlefield-grade jammers."
"East Castle Society? Already striking back? They just got wrecked."
Still, it made sense. To keep their gangs united, they might pick an easier target like Tianlong instead of confronting Ye Corp head-on.
"…Rama should be fine. He's in a company suit—gangsters shouldn't be able to touch him. And A-Qi's with him… Fine. We'll go provide backup. Call it daily grind. Bring the Bottle too, in case it loses control."
"Oh boy, a field op!"
18 happily loaded up with an absurd arsenal—machine guns, rocket launchers, grenade pods, swarm missiles—clanking after Li Pan toward the hovercar.
Li Pan checked the tactical map. This time the fighting was in Tianlong Slum, the gangland sprawl at the border of four districts—Transit, Old City, Port, and Industrial. A no-man's-land of half-finished buildings and shanties, filled with migrant laborers and carved up by gangs. NCPA never patrolled it. Tianlong had the most turf there, so the place bore their name.
Li Pan had once lived there himself, scraping by until he couldn't anymore. No gang protection meant constant beatings and stolen wares. He'd ended up gutting fish at the Peace Hotel just to survive. Best not to dwell on it.
"So this building is Tianlong's base? Plan's simple: we split up, pinch from both sides, meet at the signal-loss point, and storm in together. Got it?"
18 nodded.
Li Pan suited up in full SBS combat armor, twin smart rifles linked to his Fuxi-15 chip, a heavy shotgun, and a pile of grenades. He authorized 18's entire loadout.
"Plenty of civilians here. Avoid unnecessary casualties—use smart ammo only. Bounty system's synced; finish off targets with prices on their heads. …Wait. Why the hell are you carrying a Gravity Hammer?"
The Gravity Hammer was a banned military cluster munition that created a localized supergravity field, raining down tungsten projectiles like hail. Illegal in peacetime.
"Found it in Tech Department's old stockpile. Figured I'd use it."
"Hell no! Fire one of those here and half the block collapses! Leave it in the car!"
"…Okay."
Li Pan sighed as he noticed more contraband—swarm missiles, Vulcan cannons, hot-wire lasers, even biohazard shells.
"You brought ALL this? What the hell were you planning? To fight ME?!"
"Uh… couldn't put it back. No access anymore since… last time."
"Unbelievable. Trying to get me arrested by the Ethics Committee, huh?!"
"Uh—battlefield's here. I'll go ahead!"
Spider-18 leapt out of the car.
"Damn brat…"
Li Pan followed, bounding between rooftops with powered exoskeleton strength. With smart rifles, he didn't even need to aim—just point, and tracking rounds homed in on enemy signals, crippling targets in bursts.
Ammo was expensive, but company reimbursements made it bearable. The East Castle gunmen, outfitted like elite mercenaries with demon masks and military kit, were worth solid bounties.
Li Pan mowed down a squad, scooped 14,000 credits in bounties, and realized these were the Takatsugi Oni Troops—the East Castle Society's militant wing, led by Takatsugi himself.
Kobayashi had mentioned the East Castle faction split between the Yagyū and the Takatsugi. With Yagyū negotiating peace and Oda collapsing, Takatsugi rallied the militant faction to unite the gangs.
Didn't matter. Li Pan wasn't here for politics. He gleefully farmed bounties, blasting Oni Troops and random thugs alike. With qi cultivation sharpening his senses, he now had a kind of "x-ray hack," sensing enemies through walls by their breath and heartbeat. Combined with SBS armor and smart ammo, it was pure slaughter.
By the time he rendezvoused with 18, he'd cleared 100,000 credits' worth. The Oni Troops withdrew, leaving only local rabble.
18, with its eight limbs, had already hacked the building, zapping guards with tasers and frying the circuits. It was far more efficient—if only Ethics allowed full combat robots, these drones would dominate any battlefield.
"Boss, found Rama and Mr007."
"Really? Then why didn't you help them? Are they hurt?"
"Uh… no. They're playing mahjong."
"…What?"
Indeed, inside a shabby public game room, Rama was sweating bullets at a mahjong table, playing against old men and women, while A-Qi spectated.
Li Pan stormed in. "What the hell are you doing?! Why weren't you online?"
A-Qi stood and bowed.
"Boss, Mr. Liu said if we play a few rounds, he'll join. But no robots allowed—cheating, he said. Rama had to play. Want some herbal tea?"
"…Sure."
The Bottle shrieked, "Troubleeeeee!"
Liu Heitu slammed the tiles down, laughing. "Hu! Pay up! Pay up!"
The old ladies scolded Rama. "Why'd you discard that?! You fed him again! Fool!"
So that was the "trouble."
Rama whimpered, "Boss, I lost everything…"
Heitu grinned ear to ear.
"No leaving! We agreed—four more rounds! My luck's too good tonight!"
Li Pan sighed. "Don't worry, business expense. I'll cover it. How much?"
A-Qi calculated. "About twenty thousand."
Li Pan's eyebrow twitched. He hoped the old man was worth the recruitment price.
18 was already bored. "Boss, forget it. Let's go hunt more monsters. I saw some big ones nearby. Look!"
It played back a video: gangs trading in an underground lot, only to shoot each other in confusion as 18 skittered past. Li Pan's eyes lit up.
"These guys… Asura-kai? That's the Asura Phantom I missed before! And the others—the East Castle Oni Troops, led by none other than Yagyū Inujirō!"
Li Pan's grin spread wide.
"Perfect. Jackpot!"
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⚠️ 30 CHAPTERS AHEAD — I'm Not a Cyberpsycho ⚠️
The system says: Kill.Mercs obey. Corporates obey. Monsters obey.One man didn't.
🧠💀 "I'm not a cyberpsycho. I just think... differently."
💥 High-voltage cyberpunk. Urban warfare. AI paranoia.Read 30 chapters ahead, only on Patreon.
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