Cyberpunk - Badland Madman [Cyberpunk 2077]

Cypher fell on his ass, not because he missed the man but because his jump broke the man's spine.

Bang!

He still killed him. But then, three seconds were over, and panic spread. He rolled away quickly, continuously spraying the SMG in their direction, gunning down half of them. But then they all retreated into multiple rooms.

"Atlas. Point me to the room where the captives are. Kill the rest, except for the boss."

[Third door to the right. Two Scavs inside.]

Without wasting time and stopping all his fun and games, he kicked the XBD studio's door. His night vision showed him the situation inside. A child, two women, and a man. All of them were huddled in a corner.

The two Scavs were…

Huh?

The two Scavs were lying on the floor, hands above their heads.

"We surrender!"

Cypher walked over to them with a scoff. "Like I give a shit."

Bang! Bang!

Quickly after that, Cypher fixed his tie, put away the guns, and walked towards the four captives. He waves his hands, smiling.

"No need to worry. You all are safe no—"

"Help!"

Cypher dumbly stared at them. Atlas had already turned the lights on in that room so they could see him.

[Cypher. You have a balaclava on, and you're covered in blood from head to toe.]

"Ah, you're right."

Cypher quickly removed the balaclava and showed his mostly clean face.

"Hey, don't freak out, alright? You're good. Just hang here. NCPD's gonna roll up and grab you soon," Cypher told them and walked out of the studio.

He headed towards the leader's room. Since the lights had turned on and the music was running at low, he reckoned all the others were dead. With his handgun at the ready, he let Atlas slide open the doors.

"Stay back!"

Cypher walked inside, following that voice. Right there, behind the grand table, was a single man, covered in chrome from head to toe. The entire jaw was fake, and fake pipes were going down the throat. It was a tall man, clearly enhanced with cyberware.

"Relax," Cypher said as he aimed the gun.

"You won't get anything from me! You won't!"

[Duck.]

Cypher's body moved on its own and ducked, used to following advice.

Poooof!

Right that instant, the Scav leader's entire body exploded from inside out, splattering everything across the room and raining down blood everywhere, covering Cypher again, this time his face as well, since he'd removed the mask.

"Ugh… That's nasty. What was that?"

[His employer had armed his implants with an explosive. He meant to destroy this room and take you with him. I stepped in at the precise moment and limited the damage to him only.]

"Fuck, thanks, Atlas. Anyway, what's the plan? Need me to chop the heads?"

[No. You will return to Lake Farm. I will deploy Delamain and bring Microbots here to collect the skulls.]

"Great!" Cypher yawned and holstered his gun. He turned on his heels and started making his way down. He had no need for the implants there; they were too dirty. He didn't bother checking the systems, as that was Atlas' job.

And he was extremely tired and wanted to sleep. He'd been working nonstop from party to T-Bug to Evelyn to Goldstein, and now ending it with a literal bang.

"Thirty-six kills. Gotta be a record if we could boast about this." Cypher muttered, grabbing a burrito from the first floor's kitchen where he'd first entered. Finally, he headed to the same door he'd entered from.

Wooosh!

He pressed the button on the door, and it slid open.

Cypher froze in place.

"NCPD! Hands above your head!"

"..."

Cypher blinked dumbly, still covered in blood from head to toe, even his face now. The situation didn't look good. He stared left and right. The entire walkway in front of him was filled with blue uniforms and hats. There were even some robots and… a fucking MaxTac AV hovering nearby?

"Hands above your goddamn head!"

Cypher took one last bite of the burrito and then let it drop, raising both his hands. Though deep inside, he was cursing.

"Atlas! You clanking bastard! You did this, didn't you? Why? You said you got the NCPD under control."

[You need street credibility and a reputation as a madman in this city. This was the ideal moment. Every Scav you killed in there was listed as wanted, each with a bounty attached. No laws were broken by your hand.]

"Still, man, a heads-up would've been nice. Now they're gonna haul me to the station to grill me, and I'm exhausted, dude."

[They will do no such thing. They will smile, greet you properly, take pictures, and treat you like royalty. I will oversee the optics on the Net and within the media as we proceed. For this night, however, you will sleep at the station.]

"How can you trust them?"

[I don't. But I hold their life, their darkest secrets hostage. And they love money.]

Cypher sighed and slowly got down on his knee and fell forward, surrendering. Immediately two NCPD officers jumped on him, snatched his guns away and put the cuffs on him.

"Hey! Who touched my ass!" Cypher jokingly barked. "It's a multimillion dollar ass."

A policeman laughed with him.

"We know, Mr. Blackwell."

Ah, they know my name.

####

Panam Palmer was in Charter Hills, having finished an early morning delivery gig. With some light munchies, she relaxed in her truck, seat reclined, and listened to the radio while wondering about her life.

"Gooooood morning, Night City! Yesterday's body-count lottery rounded out to a solid 'n' sturdy eighty! Thirty-six outta Kabuki! Thanks to our favorite new corpo boss, Cypher Blackwell, the Scav Hunter! The Club Atlantis is open again…"

"Pfffff~!"

Panam ended up spraying her coffee all over her dashboard and hastened to fix her seat. She grabbed her Agent quickly and searched the CitiNet for this shocking news. As soon as she visited the News 54 website, all she saw was Cypher Blackwell's face.

But instead of being handcuffed, Cypher was standing between four cops, all of them were smiling as if it was a group photo. Cypher was in the same suit as the party, but now it was covered in blood.

"There's a video?!" Panam saw the website tell that a video of the shootout was circulating on the unregulated websites. There was also talks of a BD.

It didn't take long for Panam to go to one of those websites. This one was used mostly by Nomads to post their Wraith hunting, and other crazy gigs. There, at the top, she found a new video posted a few hours ago with over a million views already.

As soon as she clicked, she heard loud music. Most of the video was shot through a night vision filter, and it seemed to be security footage. Right there was Cypher, shooting down enemies with ease which was too damn precise to be human. It was as if Cypher had absolute spatial awareness and full control over his own body and surroundings. Saving himself, crouching, rolling, and…

"Stopping bullets with a jacket? What?!"

She watched as Cypher took insanely accurate shots in ways one wouldn't imagine. Cypher blocked bullets with his suit jacket. It was intense and so fast-paced. Then came the top floor, and she saw Cypher jump on one man's shoulder and shoot his head, then jump on another, and on a third, before gracefully falling to the ground and kept shooting.

Even in close quarters, Cypher dealt with the Scavs with ease.

"He's… too good at this. What is even happening?"

Panam watched in silence, with slight numbness, as the final scene happened in which the Scav boss simply offed himself. "W-Why do this?"

She watched the video again and then read the news. Nearly the entire front page was about Cypher Blackwell, from the picture of the shootout to the photos of the club. There was also talk about Obsidian's new products and an upcoming bulletproof clothing line.

"Is he still at the station?"

Curious, she dialed Cypher's number on the holo. As expected, it didn't connect. But just a few minutes later, she received a text reply, asking her to pick him up from Kabuki's police station.

"He's at the station."

She quickly put away the food she was eating and stepped on the gas, returning to the main highway. It was morning traffic, so it took her time, especially with that big truck. She crossed Japantown West, over the bridge, and reached Kabuki. The police station was at Pinewood St South.

Just as she stopped in front of the station, she saw Cypher walk out, his suit jacket in one hand, bloodstained, his face clean, and the other hand holding a bento box. She didn't get out and let him climb into the passenger seat.

"Morning, gorgeous. Appreciate you coming to grab me."

"Are you okay?" Panam asked, real concern on her face. "I saw the video."

"What video?"

______________________

Check out Cypher X Panam, Cypher X Gloria, Cypher X Judy NSFW ART, and advance chapters at [email protected]/MrPlotThickens Or Subscribestar.adult/mrplotthickens

Advance chapters on [PATREON] are in long-form format. I have 8 long chapters of this story on P@treon. That's equal to 26-30 NovelFire chapters.