Lancelot lifted Xu Ling with one hand, utterly at ease.
Xu Ling's face turned deep red, the whites of her eyes rolling upward as her body trembled like a dehydrated fish.
Her fragile neck creaked in Lancelot's grip, as if it would snap at any second.
"Xu Ling!"
Kurt Hansen shouted, but a steel pipe had pierced his body—he couldn't move.
Fortunately, Alex still could.
She activated her Sandevistan, flashing forward in an instant. A dagger plunged into Lancelot's chest, and in the same motion she wrenched Xu Ling back.
"Hah…"
Everyone exhaled in relief.
They thought Lancelot was dead.
But he casually pulled the dagger from his chest, tossed it aside, and looked at them as if nothing had happened.
He smiled and crooked a finger.
"Come on. I'll give you a chance to resist. All of you—together."
Stabbed through the heart and still alive?
What kind of monster was this?!
Alex said to Xu Ling, "Hide."
Xu Ling nodded, murmured "Be careful," and retreated to Kurt Hansen's side.
Reed and Panam climbed out of the vehicle and joined Alex.
Lancelot watched them with a polite smile, even lifting a hand to gesture for them to attack first.
Fine.
Alex didn't hold back.
She triggered Sandevistan again and blinked forward—this time aiming to take Lancelot's head.
But the military dagger that cut through time itself was caught firmly between two fingers.
With the entire world frozen, Lancelot even winked at her.
Shit—this guy has it too…
Lancelot punched Alex in the abdomen.
Blood sprayed from her mouth as she was sent flying.
Reed drew and fired, but Lancelot was faster.
Gunshots rang out together—
Reed took three rounds and collapsed.
"Motherfucker!" Panam had already braced her Overwatch sniper rifle and pulled the trigger.
The massive round tore out of the muzzle in a blaze of fire. At this range, she didn't believe anyone could dodge it.
Lancelot didn't.
Because he didn't need to.
He casually waved his hand—
Pop.
A spark burst in midair, and the sniper round was swatted aside like a mosquito.
"What the—"
Lancelot stepped forward and kicked.
Panam raised Overwatch to block—but with a sharp crack, the rifle snapped in half, parts flying everywhere. Panam was sent flying, vomiting blood, unable to rise again.
"Trash. All of you are trash."
Lancelot laughed wildly, head thrown back.
But before the laughter faded—
A black shadow fell from the sky.
David overrode flesh with will, driving the cyber-skeleton, and smashed a steel fist into Lancelot's face.
BOOM!
The ground shattered.
"AAAAAAAH!!!"
David roared.
Lancelot's skin split apart inch by inch, revealing metal bones beneath. He twisted his waist, raised his arm, and punched back.
"Gah!"
Blood burst from David's mouth and nose.
The 74-ton cyber-frame was sent flying, plowing through trees before slamming into a rock wall.
Sparks flew from the metal. The flesh was mangled.
David's head drooped—life or death unknown.
"Let me correct myself," Lancelot said, touching his metallic face and grinning.
"You're trash… but at least entertaining trash."
He walked toward Xu Ling under their furious gazes.
Xu Ling drew her black baton, the blade snapping out, and took her stance.
"Hahahaha!" Lancelot burst out laughing.
"General Xu, seriously? You're going to fight me?"
"Go on. Cut my forehead. I won't fight back. If you leave even a white scratch on my metal skull, I'll admit defeat."
So Xu Ling cut.
She knew she couldn't win.
But she would never stop fighting.
Lancelot truly didn't counterattack.
He even spread his arms wide and leaned his head forward.
Then—
BOOM!
Lancelot was blasted backward.
"What?!"
Everyone froze.
Xu Ling froze too—her blade hadn't even reached him yet.
"What the hell…?"
Dazed, Lancelot struggled to open his eyes.
Behind Xu Ling stood Song So-mi, battered and bloodied.
"Fuck me," she limped forward.
"My whole life's had beef with aircraft."
She planted herself in front of Xu Ling.
"Want to kill General Xu? Go through me first!"
"Bitch!" Lancelot lunged—
So-mi's eyes flared blue.
She swept one hand down.
Dark red lightning slammed from the sky, crushing Lancelot back to the ground.
System errors flooded in.
Cyberware malfunctioned.
Pain surged.
Internal temperature spiked.
"Alt!" Lancelot screamed internally.
"Hyperlink established. Allocating compute to block intrusion."
Seconds later, Lancelot staggered upright—still advancing through the red-black current.
So-mi's face went pale.
She raised her other hand, intensifying the hack. The current thickened—but Lancelot only staggered back a few steps before pushing forward again.
"That's impossible! What's that shadow in your head?!" So-mi shouted.
Lancelot swatted her away like garbage.
She slammed into a tree—bones cracking audibly.
"The Blackwall?" Lancelot roared, face twisted.
"It's trash in front of me!"
Slash.
Xu Ling attacked.
But Lancelot caught the blade effortlessly.
She yanked—it wouldn't budge.
Lancelot smiled cruelly.
"General Xu, let's see who saves you this time."
Xu Ling was ready to accept her fate—
When a sonic boom thundered across the sky.
A heteromorphic unit, wrapped in supersonic white vapor, screamed in.
Without stopping, it fired high-energy beams from both hands.
Heat and shockwaves blasted Xu Ling away.
Lancelot was driven to his knees.
The unit followed the beam down, left hand firing, right hand forming a blade—
And stabbed straight through Lancelot's chest.
For the first time, the monster screamed in pain.
"AAAAH!!!"
Sparks erupted. Parts scattered.
Yellow oil sprayed from Lancelot's mouth.
Oil?
"I abandoned fragile flesh long ago," Lancelot snarled.
"You should've blown my head off!"
He struck with both fists—
A thunderous impact.
Light flared across the unit's body.
It was blasted away, crashing lifelessly.
Night City · Control Center
Chaos erupted.
"The heteromorphic unit sustained massive shock—remote module offline!"
"Restart it!" Sasha shouted.
"Restarted—no response! Physical damage confirmed, remote repair impossible!"
"Damn it!"
Sasha slammed the console, watching helplessly as Lancelot advanced on Xu Ling.
The heteromorphic unit required immense processing power.
Only V could truly pilot it.
To compensate, Nakamura Kayo had installed a remote module and assembled twelve elite netrunners to jointly operate it—barely achieving 62% combat output.
It had dominated AI legions.
Yet it fell to Lancelot.
Sasha slumped back.
Is Xu Ling doomed? Is this humanity's darkest day?
Suddenly, the control center erupted.
"President Sasha! Look—the unit moved! It's moving again!"
Sasha snapped up.
The fallen unit was standing—slowly, deliberately.
"Remote module restored?" someone asked.
"No! Module still offline!"
"Then who's controlling it?!"
Silence fell.
Everyone thought of the same impossible answer—
Too precious to say aloud.
Lancelot sneered.
"Scrap metal getting back up?"
He punched—
The unit caught his fist.
Then—
CRACK!
It smashed its head into Lancelot's nose.
A kick followed—straight to the groin.
The psychological shock made Lancelot double over.
The unit's fist, already cocked, slammed down on his face—
Sending him skidding across the ground.
That seamless, brutal combo wasn't something twelve netrunners could perform.
And besides them—
Only one person in the world could control the unit.
Remove every impossible answer.
The remaining one—no matter how absurd—was the truth.
Xu Ling walked up, voice trembling.
"Sister V…?"
All eyes held their breath.
The unit pointed behind her.
"Wrong direction, silly."
Xu Ling turned.
So did everyone else.
V rolled in on a tiny electric scooter, J riding pillion, wobbling along.
...
...
Xu Ling exploded.
"Why the hell did you ride that here?!"
"I wanted to drive the Caliburn," V said, hopping off.
"But this is the Korean Peninsula—only scooters like this. And hey, it rides smooth as hell. Fits any alley. Slow, yeah, but way more practical than corpo supercars."
"You ruined your aura!" Xu Ling snapped.
"Aura?" V grinned.
"Relax. Car or no car—I'm still the savior."
Xu Ling froze—then laughed.
Hansen laughed.
Alex laughed.
Reed laughed.
Panam laughed so hard she pounded the ground.
V laughed with them.
Night City's control center erupted in cheers.
Sasha cursed softly—"idiot, dumbass"—while tears streamed down her face.
"I've waited a long time, V," Lancelot snarled, standing again.
"Who the fuck are you?" V blinked.
His face was wrecked, chest blown open, exposed machinery—like an old Terminator flick.
"That's Lancelot," Xu Ling said.
"Huh? Didn't I cripple him already?"
V tilted her head. "Whatever. I'll just do it again."
"Wait," Alex said, standing.
"Let me. I think I can win this time."
"No," Reed said.
"Let me. I won't miss again."
"I'll melt his metal brain," So-mi spat blood.
The cyber-skeleton crashed down.
"No," David growled.
"Let me fight him one-on-one."
Even Hansen yelled,
"Everyone back off! Let me crush his balls myself!"
Smack.
Xu Ling slapped Hansen.
"Shut the fuck up."
The mood lightened.
With V back, morale didn't just return—
It surged.
"I get how you feel," V said seriously.
"But let me handle this. This is my apology for leaving you behind."
They exchanged looks.
The answer was obvious.
"Go, V!" Hansen roared.
"Beat him for me too! And remember—crush his balls!"
Smack.
"Shut. Up."
Lancelot advanced grimly.
V locked her scooter, stepped forward.
They sized each other up.
V sneered and beckoned.
"Come on. Let's see how much you've grown."
Lancelot charged and threw a punch.
V met it head-on.
Rapid punches collided, sonic booms shrieking. Everyone clamped their ears.
Night City watched in disbelief—the ground cracking under pure human melee.
Lancelot, barely human anymore, unleashed a whip kick—
V leaned back, caught his ankle, and slammed him down.
"Damn it!" Hansen yelled.
"That was a perfect chance to crush his balls!"
"Shut up!"
Lancelot couldn't believe it.
After all he'd sacrificed—after all that suffering—
Why was V still above him?
Why was she always stronger?!
He roared, chaining kicks to force V back, flipping upright, pushing all cyberware to max.
Heavy punches rained down.
V blocked solidly—
Then Lancelot switched to a grab and hurled her toward a cliff.
V twisted midair, feet landing first, settling into a Tifa squat against the rock face.
"Hmm. Interesting—but not much."
Lancelot exploded in rage.
He charged.
V looked up—iron fist incoming.
"I punch through tanks!"
The punch shattered rock.
V vanished.
Using debris as cover, she weaved through the dust, appeared behind him—
Elbow driving into his lower back.
CRUNCH.
Oil and parts sprayed from Lancelot's mouth.
His body folded into a "<" shape.
Last time, V broke his natural spine.
This time, she broke his mechanical one.
Nothing had changed.
Without V, he could rule the world.
With V back—
He could only be stepped on.
Lancelot lay in the mud, questioning existence.
Alt spoke in his mind.
"Run. Your win probability is down to 4%. You cannot defeat V."
That sentence stabbed deeper than any blade.
"No!" he screamed.
"I won't run! I'm the strongest! I'll kill V myself!"
V stepped on his face.
She drew a knife and drove it toward his eye socket.
Chest blown open didn't kill him—
So destroy the brain.
V's experience came from tens of millions of players.
As long as there's a health bar—
Even gods die.
Steel meant nothing.
The blade descended.
Lancelot broke.
"All pride evaporated.
"ALT—SAVE ME!"
BOOM.
His fusion battery overloaded.
The blast threw V back.
When she rose—
Lancelot's head had detached, flames blasting from the neck as it fled skyward like a drone.
V blinked.
Even with countless players' experience, she'd never seen that escape tactic.
She reached for her scooter keys—
So-mi screamed, clutching her head.
Fearing a net attack, V abandoned the chase and stayed to protect them.
Sasha's voice burst through comms.
"V—just now, the lunar mass driver fired again. It destroyed an Earth satellite designated 'Black Knight.'"
"So what?" V shrugged.
"As long as it's not crashing into Earth."
J went pale.
"The Blackwall servers… were on that satellite."