Players Invade Cyberpunk

Faraday put down the newspaper, all four eyes closed simultaneously.

"I've known him for over ten years, he knows very well what the outcome of his actions will be."

At that moment, the subway entered a tunnel, and the surrounding light suddenly dimmed.

A breeze blew through the train carriage, and when the subway emerged from the tunnel, a data chip appeared out of thin air in Faraday's hand.

"The needed intel is in hand, get ready to disembark."

After speaking, he stood up from the subway seat eagerly, as if he had endured being there for too long. At this moment, it was still visible that a blanket was laid over the seat.

The bodyguard beside him skillfully picked up the blanket, folded it neatly, and put it into a pocket.

Faraday reached out to grab the subway's handrail, but when his hand hovered over it, a flash of disgust appeared in his eyes, and he withdrew his hand. After adjusting his suit and tie, he simply stood still by the door until the subway stopped, then jostled his way out of the crowd at the door, escorted by his bodyguard.

————

Back at the promotional department of the office bar, his mind was still full of thoughts of that four-eyed guy.

Acting all high and mighty, nothing but a prick.

He almost instinctively disliked those who put on airs all day long.

Everyone's got the same head on two shoulders, who do you think you are?

Especially in Night City, such emotions were further amplified, after all, there were no rules or regulations to bind them here — if they wanted to do you, they'd do you.

The Truth Department noticed Little Brother's displeasure too and simply dragged him to Sea Superman Studio to see their new gear.

This nickname was given by the players, but Arthur Clarke himself surely wouldn't acknowledge it.

There were not just five mechanics in the studio as initially — it had expanded to over twenty members, more than ten of whom were player mechanic apprentices. They were all busy wrestling with their works, and the whole studio was filled with clanking sounds like a blacksmith's shop.

This also included the yet-to-graduate Mantou.

She was swinging her right arm in front of an exoskeleton.

The rugged mechanical-style exoskeleton looked like an iron skeleton frame, with wires coiled around it like blood vessels — it had a bit of a T800 vibe, and it was larger than before.

The right arm had a player-designed light machine gun connected to it.

Originally intended to be 5.8MM caliber, but after multiple rounds of combat, the players realized this small-caliber rifle was fine for low-level skirmishes, dealing with gangs and such, but was clearly underpowered for high-level battles against advanced defense prosthetics.

For instance, the last encounter with the Adam Heavy Hammer — the players' rifles barely scratched it; only those large-caliber machine guns and battle rifles could threaten such highly modified beings.

And the power armor soldiers have defense capabilities above Adam Heavy Hammer.

As a result, the initially finished design had to be redeveloped, and now they've opted for the traditional 7.62*51 full-power rounds.

The drawback, though, was a reduced ammo capacity and higher weight, but it was the only solution — they couldn't possibly have players spraying something like the Adam Heavy Hammer with small rounds like water, right?

As for the heavy machine gun, they simply brought out the United States' heirloom .50 machine gun, which was only slightly smaller than the Type 31 heavy machine gun.

Mantou held the circuit board, adjusted the position, and then lowered the mechanical visor she wore on her forehead. The rotating axis connecting the arm bone and the machine gun was subtly self-adjusting.

As Mantou pressed the switch on the circuit board.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The machine gun mounted on the arm bone fired automatically under the electronic trigger's control.

The thumb-thick steel shell casings clattered to the ground, and the exoskeleton and dummy double used as targets were instantly riddled with holes.

Seeing this, the promotional department instantly forgot about the four-eyed guy and immediately rushed over to Mantou.

"Sis, dear sis, can this thing be mounted on our equipment?"

"Your equipment?"

Mantou looked at the cloak cockroaches and shook her head directly.

"Impossible, the size requirement is too small, the arm can't mount the rotating module."

To ensure authenticity, the Hell Diver's power armor only had a layer of shell, not much larger than a real person — how could it possibly have a machine gun mounted on the arm?

"Slightly bigger would be fine too, we're not picky."

The promotional department rubbed his hands, imagining himself causing havoc with this equipment.

He still remembered the scene of being crushed by Huang Ban's power armor last time.

Mantou took off the tactical goggles, which contained similar components to the prosthetic eye fire control plugins currently available on the market, but the mechanics did not yet have the tech to miniaturize it down to the size of a fingernail.

"This thing is planned to be listed on the official store; you can just bring your exoskeleton over for us to modify, for a modification fee, of course."

"If you know anyone, you can also buy it and install it yourself."

Not every player interested in mechanics was in the studio, after all, the studio had very strict requirements — it was completely impossible, and not permissible, to produce something like Jianxue and the others' 'floating welded car' discovery last time.

The studio's products, regardless of their performance, had to be producible in mass and safe.

The promotional department nodded continuously, ready to pay, but was halted by the Truth Department.

"Any other toys besides the machine gun?"

The Truth Department noticed there were still quite a few things piled in the corner.

"They're universal,"

Mantou also noticed the Truth Department's gaze and stated bluntly,

"These are firepower modules for the door frame robots, compatible with exoskeletons; multi-barrel rocket nests, grenade launchers, and electric-controlled machine guns can all be installed."

Mantou also pointed to the dangerous Wanderer and Eureka Raiders parked to the side, like giants in slumber.

"If you've got the money, they can be mounted on those too."

The Truth Department shook his head repeatedly,

Kidding, just outfitting one Wanderer involved pouring in tens of thousands of red barrels, and it was still just a showpiece, impressive but useless.

Two maids piloting these things wouldn't even manage a fight, they'd almost destroyed several tables — why would he need this stuff?

Cloak Cockroaches