In American comics, all your teammates are the main characters and bosses

Chapter 171: Mann's Team

So fast that you can’t even see its shadow?
After hearing the scavenger's words, Mann and Callio looked at each other, with a hint of doubt in their eyes.

The Santo Domingo area has now become the most watched area in Night City. Not to mention the helicopters cruising around the periphery, just among the crowd below, they found many members belonging to various companies.

It was obvious that they wanted to get into the vicinity of the apartment building and make contact with Armstrong. Even if they couldn't pull Armstrong into their camp, they had to find a way to determine the company group that Armstrong belonged to. Only in this way could they effectively formulate the next response plan. Whether it was a strong attack in the name of illegal mercenaries or an invasion by corporate hackers, it would become a feasible plan.

But now, even though there were fully armed top mercenaries and security experts around them, they were still just observing and discussing from the periphery, and had no intention of going over to make direct contact.

"That might be the reason." Callio said solemnly, "There might be more than one super-standard cyborg like Armstrong here."

"No wonder Gloria asked us to come here directly..." Hearing this, Mann took a deep breath and said, "Then there is no need to prepare any follow-up plans. Let's go together."

"Why? This is too dangerous!" Qiwei, a hacker on the team, frowned and protested: "If the opponent has this level of prosthesis, then the corresponding anti-intrusion module cannot easily invade. In a frontal battle, I can't provide much firepower support."

"..." As a substitute hacker, Lucy didn't say anything because Arasaka's mobile team was not far away, which made her feel tremendous pressure.

Rebecca, on the other hand, didn't care at all. She sat in the back seat with a pair of gorilla arms excitedly clenching the heavy machine gun in her hands:

"Hahaha! Don't be afraid! With my firepower support, it'll be no problem!"

"No problem!" Qiwei said speechlessly, "That monster named Armstrong was not hurt by the missile attack. Do you know how much the heavy kinetic sniper rifle fully equipped with power enhancement accessories is worth? That shot can even penetrate a tank! In the end, it didn't even break the skin."

"He's at the same level as Armstrong... Even if he's a little lower than Armstrong, it can't be much lower. He's also fast, so I doubt we'll be killed before we even see each other! I say, let's go now. There's no need to take the risk!"

"Can we get away? If they really wanted to kill us, our bodies would have been placed in front of them by now, right?"

Mann took a deep breath and said, "I now understand that when we received the call, we had no choice... Just accept your fate. This is the fate of nobody like us in Night City. Instead of waiting here, we might as well just go in."

As he spoke, Mann opened the car door and walked towards the apartment building.

Seeing this, everyone looked at each other and followed. Only Lucy thought for a long time, but finally followed.

This might be an opportunity...

The actions of Mann's team unsurprisingly attracted the attention of many people. After confirming that Mann's team had just arrived, the crowd around the periphery began to discuss.

"Here comes another group of fearless people..."

"Maybe you didn't see those bodies? Get your video ready to capture as many deaths as possible!"

"Look how they died!"

People were talking about it, which made the people in Mann's team feel a little depressed. But they didn't say anything, just kept moving forward in silence. When Mann's team was halfway through the journey, they still hadn't been attacked. Soon, the crowd began to make some noise.

“Why weren’t they attacked?”

"Has the alert been lifted?"

"Removed? Who wants to try?"

"..."

"Damn it, a bunch of cowards who dare not even move! I'll go first!" A young man who seemed to be in an unstable mental state squeezed out of the crowd and said with a bit of confusion in his eyes: "The ground is full of advanced prosthetics! The brave ones will die of overeating! The timid ones will die of starvation!"

There is no money left to buy immunosuppressants. For young people, the choice is either to become a cyberpsychopath and be killed by the terrorist squad, or to take a gamble here.

Thinking of this, the young man took a step forward. But before he could take two steps, a flash of cold light appeared, and the young man, who was originally walking fast, was directly chopped into pieces in the process of moving forward.

Seeing that the young man who was not far from the cyberpsychopath was turned into countless pieces in an instant, Mann's team and others who were originally moving forward at a steady speed couldn't help but stop. They all felt a chill spreading from the coccyx along the spine, which made them shudder.

He killed the guy who crossed the line so easily, then he and others...

But just as they froze in place, not knowing whether to move forward, a female figure in silver armor appeared in front of them. It was none other than the war lord Diana who was pulled out by Ron to serve as a temporary guard.

Without the kindness and compassion that Wonder Woman should have in the normal timeline, War Lord Diana's face was full of dissatisfaction and irritability - she was having a great time wrestling with Hela in Helheim, but was suddenly pulled out and asked to work overtime.

Overtime is annoying enough, and the black-hearted boss Ron doesn't pay overtime. If you refuse to work overtime, you will be made to manage logistics and prohibited from participating in front-line combat. Naturally, Diana is not in a good mood now.

With a cold snort, Diana said indifferently: "You have been summoned. If you want to leave, leave quickly. If not, get out."

"Let's go, let's go now!"

Sensing the unpleasant atmosphere around Diana, Mann and the others nodded quickly, then trotted towards the apartment building quickly.

Turning around and looking at the cameras locked on her, Diana showed a hint of annoyance. Then she threw her round shield, followed by a series of afterimages, and a roar broke out in the crowd.

Without caring about the damage caused by the explosion, Diana turned around and disappeared again - this group of weaklings couldn't even make Diana want to fight.

On the other hand, although Diana destroyed many cameras, some of the images were still transmitted. Watching Mann's team enter the apartment building, a new round of discussions broke out in many high-rise buildings in Night City.

After entering the apartment building, Mann nervously contacted Gloria. "I'm here, where to go next?"

"Come to the twenty-ninth floor."

"it is good."

Arriving at the 29th floor, Gloria had been waiting for a long time. When she saw Mann, she first greeted him warmly, then asked Mann and others to come to her apartment and said:

"Wait a moment, Mr. Ron will be here soon."

"Mr. Ron?"

After hearing Gloria's words, Mann and the others looked at each other, and then Mann said nervously: "Mr. Ron is...?"

"I'm not really sure, actually." Gloria said a little embarrassedly, "But Mr. Ron and Armstrong are both from the World Tree Company, and Mr. Armstrong seems to be Mr. Ron's subordinate. I don't know the details, but it sounds like it's a special field department."

Gloria explained, "Mr. Rowan is the supervisor of the field division, and Mr. Armstrong is the enforcement officer, like the safety specialist for the trauma team."

Upon hearing this, Mann and the others also grumbled. Although they did not say anything for a while, yellow spots were flashing in their eyes, and it was obvious that they were having a heated discussion in the team voice chat.

Qiwei: "World Tree Company? Has anyone of you heard of this company? Why don't I have any impression of it?!"

Rebecca: "Huh? Are you asking me? How should I know? You are obviously the hacker of our team..."

Lucy: "I seem to have heard of it somewhere, but it's just a small company in the European Community that's responsible for urban cleaning. It can't be the company that Armstrong and Ron belong to!"

Callio: "A company that can develop prosthetics of this level is definitely not a small company. Let's not discuss it too much, let's see why Gloria asked us to come here!"

After hearing Cario's idea, Mann and the others nodded. Just when they finished the team communication and regained their vision, they saw Gloria squatting in front of Lucy with an excited look on her face, her eyes sparkling, as if she was looking at her daughter-in-law.

"Uh...hello?"

Lucy shifted her body a little uncomfortable. In response, Gloria laughed and said, "It's okay, it's okay. I heard from Mr. Ron that you used to work for the Arasaka Group, right? Why did you resign? Did you encounter any problems?"

When Gloria heard Ron say that the girls in World Tree Company had very high standards and that her son, who was still in the internship period, had difficulty making friends, she rationally lowered her standards. Lucy and Rebecca, who had experience in previous large companies and had received Ron's assurance and approval, naturally became Gloria's first choices.

Well, although one of them has become a trainee hacker in the mercenary team, and the other is a heavy firepower player in the mercenary team, and is a street kid, but they are valued by a "big man" like Ron, and reason tells Gloria that these two are the right match for David.

After hearing Gloria's words, Lucy's eyes widened suddenly. Not only Lucy, but also Mann and others beside her showed a look of doubt after hearing Gloria's words.

Qiwei, in particular, narrowed her eyes subconsciously. As a hacker, she had sneaked into the internal networks of large and small companies to steal information. She was also well aware of the dirty deeds of some large companies. It was precisely because of this that Qiwei had a deeper understanding of the saying "No one in Night City is trustworthy" than Mann and others.

At the same time, she was also very clear about how powerful the big companies were... Knowing their dirty laundry was useless because they had a hundred ways to easily smooth over the storm.

"Arasaka...Network...Hacker." Jingjing muttered a few words, and then Qiwei nodded and said, "No wonder, Lucy, your network skills are so superb... No wonder, I should have thought of it earlier."

Every time Qiwei said something, Lucy's expression turned paler. In the end, she looked pale.

Gloria, on the other hand, said with a puzzled look on her face: "Uh...what's going on? Your expressions seem a little off? Is there something wrong?"

"It's okay, it's just some personal matters within the team." Qiwei shrugged. Anyway, let's talk about this later.

The most important thing now is to figure out what the company called "World Tree" is. Anyway, Qiwei doesn't believe it's just a European Community cleaning company.

Just as they were preparing to hold a three-judge trial in the team voice chat, a loose voice suddenly came from the side.

"Oh, everyone is here so soon? That's great. I don't have to go look for them later."

Hearing this voice, Gloria nodded excitedly and said, "Mr. Ron is here."

Hearing this, Mann and the others stood up subconsciously. But they looked around and didn't see anyone else. At this moment, the voice sounded again.

"Oh, I forgot you can't see this side."

They also encountered a clear cutting mark in the space beside them. As the mark gradually spread, a complete world appeared in everyone's sight through the cut 'portal'.

It was a slightly dim place, not a city, but an endless wilderness. The sky was a dark red, and the ground was a barren brown. No matter how you looked at it, it felt lifeless. Yet, on such a piece of land, there were crowded pedestrians everywhere, constantly building something.

The person closest to the crowd was an Asian man wearing a black leather windbreaker. The voice came from this man.

He should be Ron, right? Asian? Could he be from Kangtao Company? Qiwei was a little unsure for a moment.

But what attracted more attention than Ron was the "large pool" of things floating next to Ron.

It seemed like a dissected human body, hanging in the air. Although the organs, bones, and muscles had been completely separated, and even the tiny nerves were exposed to the air, the heart was still beating, and even the eyeballs were rolling back and forth, which was particularly creepy just to look at.

Then, the teeth exposed to the air opened and closed, and he shouted at Gloria:
"mom!"

(End of this chapter)