Chapter 18: Plundering and Retreat

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From the viewpoint he extracted, Moser saw that Lucy and the others had already scavenged from the warehouse the items he wanted. Individual soldier survival kits, mechanical repair kits, and, according to the annotations Moser had input into his cybernetic eye, each of them had at least one Arisaka JKE-X2 Kenshin technical pistol.

This pistol used electromagnetic propulsion to fire tungsten-tipped rounds, boasting excellent armor-piercing capabilities. It required a brief charge to fire a double shot, and the bullets could even cause lethal damage through walls.

Additionally, each person carried an HJSH-18 Authentic, a classic Arisaka kinetic rifle. Aside from the somewhat unpleasant inherited three-round burst mode, it was an extremely user-friendly weapon with a built-in holographic sight, chambered for precise 7.62mm armor-piercing rounds and was very easy to maintain.

They were also equipped with various types of grenades, and each carried three magazines per gun, plus an extra pack of ammunition as a supply.

Even so, the group of young hackers was thoroughly exhausted. Kyoko was even gritting her teeth to drag her pack along. Moser suddenly slapped his forehead, remembering to have the robot, which had been idly standing by, lend a hand.

“The hovercar’s arriving. Hand the gear over to the robot to carry it to the entrance. You don’t need to engage in any firefights. Also, get me a large storage hard drive, quickly. I’ve gathered a lot of data—normal chips just can’t hold it all.”

Moser appeared out of nowhere. This time Lucy wasn’t startled but immediately nodded in agreement.

“I’ll get it. Should I connect it to your server?”

“Just find any networked facility. The whole base is under my control now.”

“Understood.” Lucy turned and left to fetch it.

“The rest of you, rest quickly, eat something, drink some water. Help me remove the agent’s prosthetics—no, I’ll do it myself with the robot. Just hand me the refrigerated container.”

Moser decided to spare the pale-faced young hackers from the grim task; if he did it himself, he was afraid they might vomit outright.

Besides, he felt nothing now—in fact, he felt great.

Kyoko quickly nodded; looking at the pixelated fragments in her vision made her nauseous, and she couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to dissect someone herself.

Tetsuya Daichi and Leon also sighed in relief. To be honest, they didn’t want to see the floor of the base’s first level littered with corpses. They merely swallowed hard and found a place to sit and rest.

Then, a robot dropped its weapon, picked up the refrigerated container from the ground, and took the surgical knife Kyoko always carried—retrieved from the infirmary on his orders.

The robot went to the twisted agent captain.

Moser controlled the robot to ruthlessly cut open the agent’s back, inspecting the experimental Steinweiss cybernetic parts embedded within. He sighed regretfully:

“The neural connections are badly burned, some parts twisted by himself. Even if repaired, they’ll probably break easily... No point using it on our side. I’ll practice with it on the way and then find a buyer to sell it off.”

“This isn’t a prototype, but it’s lab-grade tech, so it should fetch some money. Just can’t sell it casually—save it for Dogtown.”

After roughly cutting open the Steinweiss parts and removing them, Moser tossed them into the refrigerated container and set the temperature.

Next, he examined the agent’s hands with another ruthless dissection, then nodded:

“These are usable and can be sold later… What a pity. If I had monomolecular wire, I’d really like to try out a mantis blade.”

“Anyone want it?”

Moser’s virtual avatar stood beside the operating robot and looked at them. The group of kids shook their heads vigorously, afraid he’d suggest installing it on them next.

“Alright, keep it for sale. These are rare items. Pack them together—selling even on the black market should easily bring over two hundred thousand.”

Satisfied, Moser placed the parts inside. They hadn’t found much money from the children’s search for monetary chips, only scattered ones totaling just over two thousand euros.

Currently, they only had an Arisaka bank account, which would definitely be suspended later, so they couldn’t transfer funds from the deceased’s brain-machine interfaces or their virtual wallets... what a pity.

Thinking of this, Moser used the remaining security robot in the room to search the aunt’s bedroom. Sure enough, no monetary chips were present, but there was a specially customized Kenshin pistol.

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The color scheme was still the classic black-and-red combination. Compared to the regular version, a red stripe ran along the gun body.

The grip was engraved with a cherry blossom pattern. In a game, this would surely be an immortal-grade weapon, probably called... Kenshin: Cherry Blossom Falling?

Moser had the robot in the room take it along as well, sending it down directly via the elevator—it was worth the effort.

Though he felt a bit embarrassed—he had just said this was the last time... ah well, look at the mess.

Next time, better search completely before making such promises.

Moser quietly waited for Lucy to connect the portable hard drive to the network, then immediately uploaded all the critical data he’d scavenged.

Outside the base, cameras finally caught sight of the hovercar. Moser promptly controlled the security robots and drones on the first floor to enter combat readiness.

He ran an enemy-friend identification scan, changed their permissions, granting them automatic target-seeking abilities, and then began preparing for the final battle.

...

“Captain, the message received confirms entry through Cargo Entrance No. 2 as planned.”

“Understood. Prepare for landing.”

A black hovercar bearing the white Arisaka company logo slowly descended. As the massive metal gates rose, the hovercar driver habitually drove into the inspection zone at the entrance.

He instinctively glanced over but found the usually strict guard posts manned only by two robots today, arousing his suspicion.

The driver asked by voice:

“Where are the security personnel stationed here?”

“By order of Director Tanino, all security, agents, and related staff must undergo a second security inspection today.

Security is temporarily monitored by security equipment. Please proceed to the unloading zone after inspection and await the reception team to complete the handover as per protocol.”

The robots’ cold voice ended, and the red scanning laser finally ceased.

“Identity verification failed. Driver, please shut off the engine and disembark with passengers for identification.”

“What the hell—is this right? Captain, why don’t you call the director?”

The driver hesitated.

The transport team leader had already frowned and messaged but only received one reply:

[Director Tanino: I’m in a meeting. Today the entire base undergoes a second inspection. Please leave a message if necessary.]

That seemed consistent... it couldn’t be that Director Tanino’s contacts had been hacked, right?

Thinking this, the transport leader nodded and ordered the driver to shut down the engine. Fully armed, they disembarked.

Before he could make sense of what was happening, two robots had already aimed their weapons at his head.

Before he could react, faster than the robots raising their guns, bullets from an automated machine gun mounted behind him shredded his head in an instant.

In horror, he realized all his prosthetics had been locked by authority—Director Tanino’s authority locked his prosthetics!?

The other two agents and the driver were riddled with bullets by security robots and airborne drones with no chance to resist.

“Moser! What’s the next move?”

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The well-prepared young hackers rushed out hurriedly, while several robots and drones hiding in the shadows helped carry the heavy load.

Moser’s virtual avatar appeared:

“Open the driver’s seat, connect the personal data cable. I’ll hack in using your relic chips. Then, you just sit in the hovercar, pack the gear, and check my prosthetics.”

“Got it!”

Lucy crawled into the cockpit and connected the data line.

The others immediately began moving the gear. Kyoko, lacking strength, went up first to help him examine the transported prosthetics.

There were five high-grade bulletproof refrigerated containers, each about the size of a storage box. Before Kyoko could ask, Moser sent her the container passwords, taken from Director Tanino’s emails.

Kyoko opened and inspected them once, then checked the count:

“All here, nothing missing.”

“Good. No matter how you pack these, they’re huge...” Moser looked at the now fully loaded hovercar compartment with a sigh.

The hovercar was the most common Arisaka model, with only a single driver’s seat and four passenger seats, plus a small trunk.

Two people and five containers would be plenty of space, but now it was four people plus a ton of gear...

Fortunately, the trunk was still empty. They shoved the less fragile luggage in there, stacking the prosthetic refrigerated containers among the seats. Luckily, they were kids; squeezing in, they all fit.

Moser quickly used Lucy’s connection to the hovercar to hack the system, then ordered:

“Sit tight in the back seats. I’ll send a robot with someone—you throw him in and bring him along.

Keep him unconscious at all times. He must never wake up, but he can’t die. Just unconscious. I’ll be there soon.”

“Roger.” Lucy and the others replied—they had already noticed the secretary Inoue, still unconscious, being carried by the robot.

Then, Moser began uploading automatic programs to the server to keep everyone’s networks off, buying as much time before discovery as possible.

Next, he immediately started locking all employees’ doors.

He hadn’t done this earlier because locking doors made noise. If anyone was connected to a subnet or had special alarm channels, he might not have been able to monitor it all.

After all, no cameras directly linked to employee bedrooms existed. Arisaka wasn’t that extreme as to monitor every employee while sleeping. Closing doors meant Moser lost perception of those rooms.

But now it didn’t matter. Even if alarms triggered and Arisaka personnel came to investigate, he’d be long gone.

Finally, he set a self-destruct program on the server.

After some thought, he opted for a trigger-based system.

If any locked employee door was opened or other network signals appeared, the server would overload and burn itself out.

He also selectively formatted the server, deleting all precious data and logs.

While deleting the files, his gaze lingered briefly on the employee archives.

Although Lucy’s data flashed by quickly, some special data within her profile, more than the other hackers, caught his attention.

So, Moser opened Lucy’s file to review it, and the information he found made his brow furrow slightly.