"Pira, Adcardo’s side is already engaging with the Night Wanderers. Get the setup ready."
After receiving the message from Adcardo, Mann didn’t dare to delay for even a second. According to the intel from that side, there were as many as twelve modified vehicles and five large oil tankers heading their way.
The combined weight could crush their entire team into meat paste without leaving a trace of bone fragments.
"Understood, leave it to me. You can rest easy."
Pira gave Mann a thumbs up. Although he usually wasn’t serious, as the team’s technical expert, his work was quality assured.
He took a few metal boxes out of the trunk and tossed them onto the road ahead, each six meters apart, then activated them. On each side of the boxes, two rows of hollow spikes popped out, followed by a scattering of loose spikes.
These were specialized for tire puncturing. Even if there were liquid-filled inner tubes, it wouldn’t help; they’d stick to the tires and continuously deflate them.
Of course, just these alone wouldn’t stop the convoy; they needed something bigger!
They drove two nearly scrapped clunkers acquired from the old captain into the middle of the road, looped several barriers around them, and hung a road maintenance sign to deter traffic. It looked pretty convincing.
Besides these, a truck covered with an oilcloth was parked by the roadside. Who knows what’s inside it.
The Night Wanderers’ convoy was divided into four sections. Apart from the tail section cut off by Adcardo, the convoy included the middle tankers and the leading advance guard, as well as four cars at the front acting as path-clearers and mine layers.
The reconnaissance unit spotted the barriers and signs at the intersection from a distance.
"Boss, the road ahead has signs up. It looks like it’s under maintenance."
"Maintenance my ass! Just crash through it! Run them down!" Paul was almost ready to pry open the reporter’s skull to see if it was full of shit.
They had scouted the retreat route before the operation and knew this road had no issues. Besides, which company in Night City would be so kind as to repair a road dozens of kilometers away from the city?
Did the patrol crew all die? Why wasn’t there any information?
It was definitely Adcardo’s doing.
Seeing the four modified vehicles charging without slowing down, clearly intent on smashing through the barriers, Mann’s team, who had been observing from behind the cars, didn’t hesitate. Short Rebecca mounted a heavy machine gun and unleashed a barrage, laughing amidst the ejected shells and muzzle flashes. The bullets riddled the windshield with cracks.
The Night Wanderers returned fire swiftly, but given the hundred-meter distance between the two sides, it was a pointless exchange.
A Night Wanderer, half his body out of the vehicle and firing at Mann’s team, suddenly noticed the rows of spikes on the road.
"Tire spikes! Damn it, brake! Brake!"
The sharp spikes pierced the outer tires; after a series of bangs, the lead vehicle had three tires burst simultaneously, causing it to flip over and slide across the road, sparking and rolling for dozens of meters before finally crashing into a utility pole and stopping.
The following three vehicles, having the lead vehicle clear the mines, were less affected, mostly only losing one tire each. But with this situation, who would dare advance further? They quickly braked to a halt, disembarked, and engaged Mann’s team in close combat.
The vehicle-mounted heavy machine guns roared deafeningly. .50 caliber bullets easily pierced the car bodies, even causing the concrete barricades to explode.
Without a sniper to take out the machine gunners, even Mann wouldn’t dare retaliate under such fire, especially with their machine guns shielded by bulletproof steel plates.
Frustrated at being suppressed by enemy fire, Rebecca shouted, "Qiwei!"
"Alright~ Alright~ Got it."
Qiwei leisurely unplugged the data cable connected to the Night Wanderers’ patrol unit. After all, if the patrol didn’t send Paul an "All OK" message on time, he would definitely get suspicious. Now that the fight had started, this guy was useless anyway.
After disconnecting, Qiwei shifted her focus through the gap in the car window to the gunner pinning her team down with machine gun fire.
Perhaps Qiwei’s talents weren’t on par with Lucy’s, but her combat experience and equipment were undoubtedly superior to her opponent’s.
Within a second, she breached the opponent’s feeble firewall, uploaded the Demonic Puppet, and overloaded the cybernetic ocular components.
The gunner felt as if he’d stared straight into a flashbang; his entire field of view turned a hazy white, making stable shooting impossible.
Meanwhile, Qiwei’s virus spread through the Night Wanderers’ network connections, causing periodic overloads and reboots of several Night Wanderers’ cybernetic eyes. Combined with the flashbangs tossed by Pira, their firing net suddenly had gaps.
Catching this fleeting opportunity, the team promptly retaliated.
Night Wanderers attempting to rush closer were immediately knocked down by two punches from Doryo. Mann stood up and fired three rounds from his left-hand launcher, blasting three Night Wanderers to bits; Rebecca’s machine gun was a death sentence to anyone in her sights, unleashing a mad sweep on the gunner.
Their strength was indeed formidable, and their coordination was excellent.
But if that was all, Paul, who had now appeared in the field of view, wouldn’t care. At worst, he would crush Mann and his team along with his own people, ordering the driver to floor it.
As Pira saw the convoy approaching, he cheerfully strode to the vehicle covered in oilcloth, used his large hands to pull down the cloth, revealing what was hidden underneath.