Chapter 106: Chapter 81: Black Light
John was sure he had been shot through.
Pain seeped through every nerve with each breath.
The Harbor Company tactical team fired back, the voice channel filled with various information.
The medic dove into the cover circle.
He unfastened John’s bulletproof vest, skillfully staunching the bleeding, checking for bullet fragments, and treating the wound.
"Prepare for surgery."
The medic’s prosthetic eye flickered, the diagnosis was grim, yet just as he was about to link the life-support equipment...
John raised his hand to stop him.
He was drenched in cold sweat, his face pale, yet his mind was clear—the Internet Surveillance might have come for Black Light, and if any physical hack was detected now, things would become very bad.
"Do you want to die?"
The medic frowned, staring at John.
Eden, wearing a tactical vest, walked into the encirclement, stepping over John’s spilled blood to look down at him.
"What have you done?"
"I... don’t... know."
John did not shirk Eden’s scrutiny.
The Harbor Company had already fired back—the Internet Surveillance agents were forced back completely, and the hovercar carrying the sniper had its glass shattered.
John had not been killed by a sniper.
Both the Internet Surveillance and ECPD could only stop here.
Neither side wanted a conflict to escalate.
The strategic operations team backed the Harbor Company; the shot that pierced the shield earlier could be interpreted as an assault.
According to the Eden City Emergency Handling Act:
Eden Weitz could legally retaliate and escalate the situation, demanding support from the special operations team.
By then...
The entire street would be on lockdown.
A group of legal cyber maniacs would descend from the sky, imagine what those top-tier prosthetic body-equipped gods of death would do?
Their deployment success rate was as high as ninety percent.
Casualty rates were one hundred percent.
The police didn’t have the same pay rates as the Internet Surveillance agents, nor did they want to die in a nonsensical capture operation.
Thus, both sides reached a deadlock.
The atmosphere turned somewhat ambiguous.
ECPD turned the direction of patrol cars, using drones and hover patrol cars to block the route of the Internet Surveillance, urging them to calm down...
Doing so was also to stabilize Eden Weitz’s emotions.
The Internet Surveillance sensibly retreated to a safe distance, preparing to contact their leader for further negotiations.
John lay at the doorstep of the Harbor Company, forcefully keeping himself conscious through excessive medication.
"I know... Eden, uh... whatever charges the Internet Surveillance pins on me, I have to hear them on the spot... I don’t dare entrust my life to anyone."
Eden frowned.
"Do you have the right to negotiate?"
"Indeed... I don’t... unless you kill me."
John bore the pain, slightly raising the Vodka revolver clenched in his hand.
He tried to hand it to Eden.
"I... I don’t want to be sent to the operating room..."
The Harbor Company had no reason to start a war with Internet Surveillance.
John knew, wanting to give up and the will that had supported his escape to this point was slipping away.
The drugs held his last thread of life.
Eden did not take the weapon; instead, he stood up, pulling out his own sidearm and pointing it at John—in that brief moment of eye contact, he read a lot.
It was a fear of being captured alive.
What would Internet Surveillance do?
Suddenly targeted by such a massive organization felt like being swallowed whole by a giant beast, whether stepping onto the operating table or into a surveillance-embedded cell...
For John.
The unknown was harder to accept than death.
Beep beep~
The patrol car gave a short honk.
The leader of the Internet Surveillance operation walked out.
Tinfoil initiated a scan and murmured, "From the Internet Surveillance Office, the access capsule level is very high, the codename state police is quite intimidating in cyberspace."
The other party raised both hands, slowly moving forward.
Eden didn’t shoot John, holstered his gun and turned to face the Internet Surveillance negotiator.
The medic turned John’s head.
He pulled out an injection agent, directly stabbing it in, after initiating a bio-scan, he gave a diagnosis.
"Forty minutes, death beyond time limit."
John felt his heart violently squeezing, along with the pain, dissipating was also the control over his body.
He scanned the incoming information.
[Name: State Police [Codename]]
[Faction: Internet Surveillance]
[Scanning: TCC-R Network Access Capsule [Experimental], Plugin retrieval failed, Messiah’s Eye [Odin’s Gaze], etc...]
[Bounty: Deleted]
[Files: Deleted]
John suddenly realized this was the leader who had taken over the pursuit operation on the Internet Surveillance channel.
The state police sensed something too.
He looked at John, his prosthetic eye beginning to flicker.
"Thanks... damn it!"
Tinfoil cursed, then quickly removed the amplification module from the back of her neck.
She said to Eden.
"The State Police moved, and his methods are strong, he’s already covered the company, hell, not just that, the entire street’s network has been detached from the public domain, all the hackers inside were kicked out of cyberspace with one kick, hurry and cut the power, or even the automatic turrets will be controlled by him."
The state police nonchalantly pulled a huge move.
Wisps of white smoke emitted from his coat, like he just stepped out of a sauna.
John’s vision swirled with chaos.
The state police’s information was obscured, even with a re-scan, it only showed [UNKNOW].
John could only observe the guy with his bare eyes:
He wore a white shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, no tie, fitted in a black leather deep diving suit.
"Touch the network again, and I’ll shoot."
Eden seemed to recognize him, his expression turning grim.
The Harbor team immediately lowered their entire set of smart firearms, putting on helmets with ICE firmware, switching to kinetic weapons.
They reacted swiftly, ready and waiting.