"Sigh, way too easy. No challenge at all. Seems like nothing can hold me back anymore."
Staring at the word "Clear" on the screen, Silver Wolf let out a sigh, a lament slipping out.
She'd spent the entire night and the following day grinding away, and finally, just as the sun was beginning to set, she finished the two games she'd been most interested in.
To be honest, the game plots and gameplay mechanics themselves were just okay. But the internet in this world was ridiculously advanced.
The game engine tech was terrifyingly powerful—whether it was hyper-realistic styles or classic anime aesthetics, it handled them flawlessly.
The characters in the games were practically indistinguishable from real people, with physics rendering every single strand of hair with perfect realism.
She'd actually considered trying out some PvP games from this world, but after a moment's thought, she decided against it. Knowing her own temper, if she started losing, she'd definitely resort to... other methods.
Using those tricks in single-player was one thing, but pulling them out in PvP? That'd just be toxic.
She really didn't feel like getting someone's mom kidnapped over a video game.
"Hmm... It's already this late..."
Crouched on the sofa, Silver Wolf stretched out with a big yawn. She blinked, noticing the sunset light spilling through the window cracks.
Seemed like it was almost time to meet up with Cole and the others.
She'd originally planned to catch some sleep, but she'd gotten so absorbed in the game she'd just played straight through until now.
Well, she wasn't feeling sleepy anyway. Might as well go take care of business.
Going without sleep for a day or two wasn't a big deal.
Though, thinking about it, the forms she'd taken across these different worlds were all capable of going a full month without rest. But still, sleeping had become such an ingrained habit over time that skipping it just felt... weird.
"Yeah? You finally called. So, wanna meet up?"
The moment Silver Wolf dialed Cole's number, he picked up instantly. She could tell he was anxious; he'd probably been sitting there, phone in hand, waiting for her call for a while.
"Mm, let's find a place to meet. I'm free now. Sound good?"
"No problem. How about we meet at The Afterlife?"
As the most famous bar in Night City, everyone and their mother knew where The Afterlife was. Choosing to meet there meant no worries about getting lost.
"Sure. I'll be right there."
Silver Wolf gave a nod, then walked straight out the door.
Outside, the sky was already blazing red. The sun was dipping behind the skyscrapers, and the daylight was gradually fading.
But in this city that never slept, nightfall didn't really mean much.
If anything, people seemed to become even more active after dark.
The streets were filled with exhausted salarymen. In a world like this, labor was the one thing never in short supply. These corporate drones, after a long day's work, still had to be ready to answer client calls at a moment's notice—they were treated no better than beasts of burden.
In times like these, holding down a stable job was tough, especially in Night City. It was also why the city was crawling with so many gangs and edgerunners.
"Hey, little lady! Wanna check out the goods? All top-brand, genuine stuff!"
Just as Silver Wolf was about to leave, a large black man squatting by the roadside called out to her. Spread out on a large cloth bundle in front of him were all sorts of luxury items.
In Night City, you'd sometimes find these mysterious pop-up shops run by vendors.
Their supply chains were stable, they never cheated anyone, and it was hard to buy knockoffs from them—mostly because they sourced their goods by robbing official stores.
"Only this much Eurodollars? I'll take this."
Silver Wolf hadn't planned on buying anything, but she spotted a controller with a really cool pattern and immediately decided to pay for it.
In Night City, these kinds of retro gadgets often cost more than some of the fancier gaming consoles. There weren't many manufacturers making controllers anymore.
After all, this was a world that could already create full-dive VRMMOs like Sword Art Online. Old-school peripherals like controllers had been mostly phased out.
After getting the controller, Silver Wolf casually tossed it into her system's inventory and headed towards The Afterlife.
The system's inventory was incredibly handy. It let her store daily essentials, or even some... local specialties from other worlds.
Of course, it couldn't hold special items with energetic properties—just small, mundane things.
Maybe the system was trying to prevent her from becoming an interdimensional smuggler?
Though, it probably had more to do with protecting the various worlds, right?
The rules of each world were different. What if Silver Wolf accidentally brought something dangerous over from another world? That'd be a disaster.
Take the simplest example: if she'd kept a sample of the Herrscher of Corruption's virus from the previous world and brought it here, wouldn't she be practically invincible?
In a cyberpunk world, the destructive power of the Herrscher of Corruption would probably rival that of the Herrscher of Finality.
"Hey, you're finally here."
Soon, Silver Wolf arrived on the street outside The Afterlife. There, Cole and Genji stood waiting by the curb, dressed neatly and wearing hats.
Both were still wanted, so they couldn't afford to draw too much attention. The more conspicuous they were, the easier it'd be for someone to catch on.
Their plans couldn't afford to be leaked.
"Have you been waiting long?"
"Of course not. We just got here ourselves."
Cole chuckled and said, "Let's go. It's time to meet the Doctor."
"Mm."
Silver Wolf nodded without saying anything. The two men were clearly a bit excited; after contacting her, they'd come straight to The Afterlife's entrance to wait. The pile of cigarette butts at their feet suggested they'd been there for at least ten minutes.
But that really wasn't Silver Wolf's fault—the two were just too eager.
After witnessing her immense power, they'd basically abandoned all other plans. Their sole focus now was to recruit—no, rope—Silver Wolf onto their team.
But just as Cole and Genji were about to leave, a group of people emerged from the surroundings, gradually encircling them and subtly cutting off all escape routes.
"Something we can help you with, pal? I don't recall our crew causin' you any trouble."
Seeing these thugs blocking their path, Cole felt a surge of irritation, but he kept his tone calm.
Under normal circumstances, Cole would've already drawn his gun and blown these guys away. But today, the most important thing was getting Silver Wolf to meet the Doctor.
"Our business ain't with you two. Scram if you don't wanna die."
The leader, a man, spoke impatiently. As he did, all their eyes turned toward Silver Wolf.
"You've got some nerve, huh? You know we're with the 6th Street Gang, and you still dare to make a move? You lookin' down on us or somethin'?"
His gaze was vicious as he glared at Silver Wolf, a pistol gripped in his hand. He didn't raise it yet, though. In his view, with so many of them surrounding her, how this played out was entirely up to them.
"6th Street Gang? Who's that?"
Silver Wolf tilted her head, looking puzzled at the man in front of her.
She sifted through her memories, and then it flashed back to her—those two guys who'd tried to block her way after she left the bar that other day.
After finding out one of them was from the 6th Street Gang, instead of silencing him, she'd deliberately let him catch a glimpse of her.
At the time, Silver Wolf had been thinking of baiting them into a sting, but afterward, she'd completely forgotten about it.
Honestly, she'd forgotten this whole mess even existed.
"Excellent. A side quest finally popped up." Silver Wolf looked at the crowd surrounding her with growing excitement.
"Need me to handle this?" Cole glanced at Silver Wolf, seeking her opinion.
"Of course not. This is my side quest. Wouldn't it be boring if you butted in?" Silver Wolf replied enthusiastically.
"If you apologize to my buddy right now, I might consider letting you live." The man, still gripping his pistol, narrowed his eyes at Silver Wolf.
"How boring. Come at me together. Any other time, I might've been interested in playing with you, but right now, I've got other things to do. This is a time-limited challenge."
Silver Wolf chewed her bubble gum, looking at the man and the gang members behind him.
"Lookin' to die! Fine then, go to hell!"
This was, after all, right outside The Afterlife, on a public street. The man didn't want to cause trouble or use his gun if he could avoid it. So, he pulled a knife from his waist, intending to take Silver Wolf down with it.
Even though gangs ran wild, they still had to pay some basic respect to Night City's rules. In the eyes of the real heavyweights, gangs were ultimately small-time.
But his movements were far too slow. In Silver Wolf's eyes, everything he did looked like it was happening in slow motion.
No Sandevistan, but the effect was similar.
In fact, in the world of Honkai: Star Rail, what kind of enemies hadn't Silver Wolf faced?
Among the bounty hunters who came after the Stellaron Hunters for the reward, there were plenty of powerful ones—even legends spoken of across entire star sectors.
But, well, the bounty amount and actual strength didn't always match up.
Once, a bounty hunter managed to capture someone with a bounty similar to Silver Wolf's and thought that meant they could take her on in a one-on-one fight.
And then... well, there was no 'then.'
Compared to someone like Silver Wolf, who could waltz in and out of corporate headquarters on Pier Point like it was her own bathroom, that bounty hunter was still out of their league.
But since they were somewhat decent, Silver Wolf just toyed with them a little. She didn't kill them—just posted their browser history and some... private purchase records online. A little personal privacy in exchange for their life—sounded like a fair deal, right?
Sometimes Silver Wolf marveled at her own kindness.
Now that she thought about it, she hadn't heard any news about that bounty hunter in the cosmos since then...
They must've made enough money and retired. Yeah, that had to be it!
Even in the middle of a tense battle, Silver Wolf's mind was wandering off on tangents.
Noticing her distraction, the man snorted coldly. "Daring to space out in a fight? Die!"
A bloodthirsty glint flashed in his eyes as he charged at Silver Wolf.
But the next moment, he froze in confusion.
His dagger struck Silver Wolf's chest dead-on, yet the feeling was all wrong.
Even though the blade had sunk into her chest, there was no resistance—as if he hadn't hit a living person, but a projection.
"Is that all you've got? You're wasting my time." Silver Wolf raised an eyebrow, looking at the flustered man before speaking.
People in this world didn't deserve her sympathy. In the short time she'd been here, Silver Wolf had already killed more people than she had in an entire year in the Honkai-verse. All you could say was that this world really had no sense of honor.
"What the hell is this?"
Seeing this bizarre scene and Silver Wolf's impatient expression, the man stopped holding back.
He realized that if he didn't use his gun now, he'd probably end up dead right here.
"Die, damn you!!!"
He raised his pistol, pulled the trigger, and emptied the entire magazine in a frantic roar.
Yet, eerily, every single bullet hung suspended in the air just ten centimeters from Silver Wolf, unable to advance another millimeter.
It was as if time had stopped. From Silver Wolf's perspective, she could even see the spiral trails of white smoke left by the bullets as they spiraled through the rifling.
"Finished? My turn, then!"
Silver Wolf smiled slightly, then casually waved her hand. In an instant, all the bullets rebounded straight back toward the man.
Thump...
A series of bloody holes erupted from the man's body. His cybernetically enhanced frame offered no resistance against such absolute force. In mere moments, he collapsed to the ground, gasping for air but unable to make a sound.
His lungs were punctured, his throat shredded by the overwhelming power. The man could feel his life slipping away, but his body was already stripped of all strength.
"Huh? Killing you like this seems too merciful. Given what you've done, being sliced up for three days straight wouldn't be enough. Ah, well, who am I to deny my own kindness?"
She casually pulled up the man's records and found he'd committed plenty of atrocities.
Among the gangs of Night City, if you rounded up ten members and executed them all, there'd definitely be some innocent ones. But if you executed nine out of ten, you'd still have some who slipped through the net.
"Boss! Damn it, you're dead!"
Seeing their leader taken down so easily by Silver Wolf, the surrounding gang members panicked and immediately drew their guns, ready to attack.
But someone was faster than them!
In an instant, Cole drew and fired—six shots, six headshots, six gang members down. Genji moved just as swiftly, unsheathing the long blade from his back and darting through the remaining gang members at blinding speed—dealing one lethal strike after another!
His movements were clean and fluid, without the slightest hesitation.
"Iaido? Cool!"
Seeing this, Silver Wolf gave a thumbs-up and nodded at the two. Her long-dormant inner fangirl was suddenly reawakening!
"Alright, partner, time to go. If the cops show up, it'll get messy."
Adjusting his cowboy hat, Cole said calmly, "I expect the Doctor has waited long enough."
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.