31. Confronting ACPA

"What is your name?"

Listening to Karl's voice, the target cradled in his arms in a bridal style remained silent for a moment. Just as Karl began to wonder if she had fainted from excessive blood loss, she used an extremely faint voice to ask for his name.

"Karl. My name is Karl, or you can call me KK."

Glancing down at the young woman in his arms, Karl said, "If you don't have the strength, stop talking. Save your breath, and your chances of survival might actually go up a bit."

"But Karl, aren't you saying these things to me right now precisely because you want me to say something..."

The girl's complexion turned a shade paler, but her expression suddenly grew serious. Then, as if she were speaking of something of utmost importance, she moved her lips—cherry red tinged with a stark pallor—and stated her name:

"My name is Haruko."

"Haruko?"

Noticing the girl's solemnity, Karl kept his pace steady while replying, "I remember that in Japanese, the meaning of Haruko shouldn't be much different from Chinese; it means the child of a sunny day. Were you born on a sunny day?"

"It contrasts quite a bit with Night City, which is always shrouded in gray, doesn't it?"

Haruko's smile, as if whenever she smiled, it was always so brilliant, replied, "Perhaps it's because of this mismatch that I ended up getting hurt."

"Superstition."

Karl wanted to display a trace of scorn, but facing Haruko's pale face—one that didn't match the multicolored lights of Night City in the slightest—he somehow couldn't muster that attitude.

"Hold on a little longer. We'll be there soon."

Karl desperately wanted to flag down a car by the roadside and shove Haruko straight into it to take her all the way to Konpeki Plaza. However, perhaps due to the gunfire from the two clashing sides in the distance being far too loud, not a single vehicle had approached along their entire route. The only car that had been heading in this direction rapidly turned its wheels the moment it heard the gunfire, executing a sharp drift before speeding away.

"Why bother having such good driving skills?!"

Making it impossible even to carjack someone; the civic standards in this city were simply abysmal.

Also, how many meters left?

The normal walking speed of an adult male is between 1.7 and 2 meters per second. Karl's pace was fast, and even with the added burden of carrying Haruko slowing him down, he was moving at nearly a jogging speed—about six meters per second. By his own estimation, his current location was still a little over a thousand meters away from Konpeki Plaza, meaning it would take roughly another two minutes to arrive.

Could Haruko hold on for two minutes?

Knowledge regarding Trauma Team protocols flashed through Karl's mind.

If a normal person is shot in the abdomen, as long as vital organs and major arteries are spared to prevent massive hemorrhage, they can generally last for about fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes. How much time had passed since the outbreak of combat until now? Factoring in the delays and dragging feet, how much time should he have left right now...

About eight minutes?

There was more than enough time.

Karl felt a slight pang of regret right now. When he had been watching Trauma Team braindances, he had only focused on the combat braindances. Looking back, he hadn't watched a single one related to medical treatment.

*Add one more lesson learned to the mercenary life.*

If only someone like Oliver had been the one to rescue the target. Relying on his medical expertise, he probably could have performed emergency stabilization instead of being like himself, too afraid to mess with the wound for fear of worsening the injury.

This thought of Karl's vanished very quickly.

Ten seconds later, he began to feel grateful that Oliver wasn't the one who came for the rescue.

Because if it had been Oliver, he wouldn't have been able to handle an opponent like this.

Looking at the massive figure that had suddenly appeared to block his path, Karl swallowed hard, his voice somewhat dry as he asked the Haruko in his arms, "Is this also a test?"

"Probably... not."

A depth of contemplation had already surfaced in Haruko's gaze. Then, this profound look quickly vanished, replaced by an expression that was difficult to describe. "It seems we're going to die together, Karl."

"Even though your eyes are very pretty, I hate corpos. Dying together? I'll pass."

Slowly, Karl set Haruko down by the flowerbed on the edge of the street, allowing her to maintain a seated posture leaning against the green foliage.

Even in the year 2075, the flowerbeds still contained actual living plants. He just wondered if they would be receiving a double dose of fertilizer today.

Karl's movements were steady, not causing Haruko any unnecessary pain. Only after carefully settling her down did he look toward the combat support armor standing two and a half meters tall, holding a machine cannon in both hands, and flash a smile.

[Machine Cannon]: A weapon with a caliber greater than 20mm utilizing a continuous-fire mechanism.

ACPA, ACPA. It really did show up.

Was this a case of thinking about something so much that one's wish actually came true?

"Cat and mouse?"

Karl didn't believe for a second that the pilot inside the ACPA armor had only just discovered they were being pursued. Judging by the unhurried way the opponent had stepped out to block their path, they had clearly let them reach this point intentionally before revealing themselves.

That morbid sense of humor—offering a glimpse of hope only to instantly snuff it out—what was it if not a cat playing with a mouse?

The pilot inside the ACPA armor glanced at Haruko, but Haruko's importance in his eyes seemed rather low at the moment. Despite her being the assassination target for this mission, he appeared far more interested in Karl.

He raised the machine cannon in his hands, but instead of aiming it at the target, he reached out with an armored mechanical glove to tap the muzzle of the weapon, then dragged his hand all the way down the middle of the barrel and stopped. Afterward, the fingers of that mechanical glove reached up to tap his fully enclosed helmet.

This gesture instantly made Karl realize who the pilot inside was.

A bullet piercing through a breech and then striking his head to blow it open—there was only ever one person whom Karl had treated that way.

"Looks like I really should have gone all out to slaughter you back then."

The armored pilot didn't speak. He simply slowly raised the machine cannon in his hands.

This was a small ritual of pleasure he enjoyed—watching his prey struggle desperately before death. The opponent's reaction was entirely unimportant.

Was the sentiment something along the lines of, "I'll let you die knowing why"?

Karl's breathing abruptly hitched, and he turned around and sprinted sideways.

Are you kidding me? Facing an ACPA with just his current cyberware and weapons?

He didn't have that kind of capability!

*Hmph, trying to escape?*

The mecha pilot had witnessed this exact scenario countless times in the past, and he was exceedingly practiced in handling it. Thus, almost the exact moment Karl turned around, he raised his machine cannon, fully intending to tear this coward—who was once again attempting to slip through his fingers—into shreds from behind.

Yet just as he raised the machine cannon, he noticed an object rolling toward him.

That was...

*A grenade?!*