"Hey, have you been discovered? Looks like you can't stay any longer!"
Hearing Kingpin's words, 2B's expression flickered with annoyance. With a sudden surge of force from her powerful hand, she wrenched free of his grip and hurled him backward—sending the massive crime lord crashing into the helicopter behind her.
Kingpin was already enormous in stature, but 2B possessed extraordinary strength. According to Loren's calculations, her reinforced frame could unleash at least three tons of force in a single burst.
That kind of power rivaled even a superhero like Captain America—and far surpassed anything Kingpin could muster.
"Haaaargh!!" The impact knocked the wind out of him, and he spat a mouthful of blood before collapsing in a heap on the ground. His once-commanding presence was gone; he looked broken, pitiful—nothing like the feared underworld emperor he claimed to be.
"You should know you're no match for me right now," 2B said coldly. "The best option is to stop struggling. My boss told me someone of your caliber shouldn't be involved in something like the murder of the Morgan family patriarch. That means there's a more powerful force pulling your strings. Tell me who's behind this. If you speak the truth, I'll make your death quick and painless."
"Hahaha!" Kingpin coughed out a bitter laugh. "Do you really think I, Kingpin, am the kind of man who fears death?"
"Of course not," 2B replied. "But my boss also said you're a devoted husband and father. I doubt you'd want your wife and son to suffer the same fate you've just endured."
"How dare you!" Kingpin snarled, his voice trembling with rage. "You lay one finger on them, and you break the one rule even the underworld respects!"
"You murdered my boss's parents," 2B shot back. "And now you expect others to honor your so-called rules? Isn't that a little ridiculous?"
Kingpin fell silent. He couldn't argue—he knew she was right. He'd been the first to cross that line, sending killers after innocent family members. Now, pleading for mercy on behalf of his own loved ones, he sounded like a hypocrite even to himself.
His shoulders slumped. "If you swear you won't touch them… I'll tell you everything I know."
"Good," 2B said. "That's what a wise man would do. I give you my word. Speak."
"Alright," Kingpin rasped. "The mastermind behind all this is…"
Bang!
A bullet tore through the air from an unseen sniper and struck Kingpin square between the eyes, killing him instantly.
Blood sprayed across 2B's face—she'd been standing too close to avoid the gore.
The attack was so sudden that even a general-purpose combat android like 2B hadn't had time to react. But the shooter wasn't finished.
Another bullet screamed toward her—this one aimed directly at her forehead.
This time, however, she was ready. Instinct took over. She twisted her body mid-motion and rolled aside, narrowly evading the shot.
But the assassin had no intention of letting her escape. Two more rounds followed in rapid succession, each one laser-precise, targeting the space between her eyes with lethal intent.
Yet 2B was built for war. Her combat reflexes far exceeded human limits.
In a blur of motion, she drew her katana. Two sharp flashes of steel split the air—and the bullets—clean in half.
At the same time, she quickly analyzed the bullet's trajectory. In just a moment, she roughly calculated the location of the sniper who had attacked from concealment.
Now, as long as the sniper dared to fire another shot, she would be absolutely certain of his exact position. Once she pinpointed it, that would be the end of him.
But what she hadn't expected was that the fourth bullet never came. That meant the sniper might have realized he'd been exposed—and was already preparing to evacuate.
Without hesitation, 2B abandoned Kingpin's body and leapt from the roof of the Kingpin Building to another rooftop dozens of meters away.
She then raced toward the location she'd estimated, moving at the speed of the wind. At the same time, she deployed her anti-gravity drone—Pod—to scout ahead, searching desperately for any trace of the sniper.
Based on her assessment, the sniper must have been sent by whoever was pulling Kingpin's strings, aiming to silence him before he could reveal their identities.
If she caught that damn sniper, she might extract the mastermind's identity from him.
This was her last chance today. If she missed it, the investigation would stall—and she'd fail to complete the mission Loren had assigned her.
And that was unacceptable. She had been created by Loren to solve his problems and fulfill his every need. If she couldn't do that, her existence would be meaningless.
She refused to accept meaninglessness. She had to find the sniper—and finish the mission.
After swiftly leaping across several buildings, she landed in front of a slightly dilapidated structure—the approximate location where she believed the sniper had been.
It was only an estimate; she couldn't confirm his exact position with certainty.
But just then, the anti-gravity drone she'd sent ahead captured footage of the sniper moving to a new position. Seeing the image on her display, 2B couldn't help but curl her lips into a bloodthirsty smile.
She launched herself forward like a cannonball, hurtling straight toward the room where the man was hiding.
Her steel-reinforced body smashed through the glass window without slowing, landing directly in front of the sniper just as he was about to flee.
"I found you!" 2B grinned, her pale hand snapping out like a claw to seize his throat. If she got a solid grip, he'd be dead—or at least broken beyond recovery.
But the man wasn't some amateur. He swung his sniper rifle up in a split-second block, halting her strike.
In the same motion, he yanked a pistol from his waist and aimed point-blank—just centimeters from her head.
Yet 2B was faster. Her palm slammed down on the muzzle a fraction of a second earlier, stopping the shot with nothing but her bare hand.