The pistol's barrel stared at Dex like a dead, black eye.
"Huh," the Sung-Jin guard mused, thumbing the safety off with a click that echoed louder than the klaxons upstairs. "Seen you on a few wanted posters."
Dex's Rocket Fist whined in response, its charge indicator blinking a desperate [2/3 REMAINING]. He swallowed. Two shots. One if I miss. And this guy's armor looks… His gaze flicked to the radiation symbols stenciled on the guard's pauldrons. …extremely flammable.
"Let's negotiate," Dex tried, raising his hands—slowly, like he was handling a live grenade. (Which, given his luck, he probably was.) "I've got… uh…" He patted his pockets. "A half-eaten protein bar and crippling debt?"
The guard didn't laugh. Worth a shot.
Then—the universe handed Dex a miracle.
A drop of water from the sprinklers above hit the guard's visor. He blinked.
That's all I need.
Dex slammed his fist into the floor—not to attack, but to activate the Tripwire Body skill he'd been cursing since Level 2.
Nothing happened.
Oh, come ON—
The guard sighed. "Pathetic." His finger tightened on the trigger—
FWUMP.
A mop bucket (victim of Dex's earlier crash) chose that moment to tip over, spilling greasy water across the floor. The guard's boot slid. His shot went wide, plasma scorching a hole in the wall where Dex's head had been.
Dex didn't question his luck. He lunged, swinging the Rocket Fist like a club—
CRACK.
The guard's helmet spun 90 degrees, visor now facing his own shoulder. "What the—?" He flailed, blinded.
Dex didn't wait. He grabbed a bottle of industrial cleaner off the shelf—"Biohazard Grade: Yes"—and hurled it.
The guard ducked.
The bottle shattered against the wall, releasing a neon-green cloud that smelled like regret and melted plastic.
NEW SKILL UNLOCKED:
"Improvised Toxin" (Passive)
[You've weaponized poor life choices. Congrats! Toxic clouds now blind enemies for 5 sec. Side effects: Coughing, existential dread]
The guard choked, clawing at his throat. Dex seized his chance—
"EAT FIST!" He fired the Rocket Fist's last charge—
BOOM. The punch connected—not with the guard, but with the cracked power core on his back.
The resulting radiation-fueled explosion blew out the walls, sent Dex skidding across the floor, and left the guard standing in his underwear, soot-covered and stunned.
Dex wheezed. "Sung-Jin… dress code's… real casual, huh?"
The guard opened his mouth—
THUD. He collapsed face-first into a puddle of toxic sludge.
The victory chime echoed in Dex's skull like a taunt.
[COMBAT ENDED: +5 LEVEL UP]
[NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: CYBER HACK LVL 1]
Dex didn't have time to celebrate. His HUD pulsed crimson, the HP bar frozen at 12% no matter how many healing syringes he jammed into his thigh. A glitching pixel-heart icon throbbed beside it, accompanied by scrolling text:
[HP LOCKED BY: VALENTINA LUCIANO]
[REASON: "You look cute struggling."]
"Ah, you sexy blonde bitch," Dex spat, wiping radioactive sludge from his lips. "When I get my hands on you, I'll—"
The wall exploded.
Not metaphorically—literally, in a shower of concrete and sparking wires as Pink Wolf came crashing through a ventilation shaft, her cybernetic claw buried deep in a guard's sternum. The man's dying scream cut off abruptly as she yanked, spraying Dex with a warm arc of synthetic blood.
"Does it look like I'm in the basement?" Dex ducked as the corpse she'd been riding slammed into a control panel behind him. "And where the hell is Spectre?"
Pink Wolf flicked gore from her claws. "Busy." She kicked a plasma rifle into Dex's chest. "Also, you're welcome."
Dex caught it on reflex—just in time to see three more Sung-Jin guards rounding the corner, their armor gleaming under emergency lights. His new skill notification blinked insistently:
[CYBER HACK LVL 1 ACTIVATED: TEMPORARY TECH OVERRIDE (5 SEC)]
[WARNING: HIGH PROBABILITY OF ATTRACTING VALENTINA'S ATTENTION]
"Perfect," Dex muttered. He raised the rifle—
Click.
The safety was still on.
"Motherfu—"
The lead guard's plasma cannon whined to life. Dex had half a second to process his impending vaporization before Pink Wolf's arm twitched. Not a flinch—a glitch, her cybernetic fingers seizing up as her whole limb jerked sideways like a marionette yanked by invisible strings.
Oh shit.
Her claw screamed through the air—not at the guards, but at Dex's throat.
He barely dodged, feeling the wind of its passage ruffle his hair. Pink Wolf's golden eyes widened in horror. "I'm not—she's in my arm—"
The plasma cannon fired.
Dex moved, but not fast enough. The blast grazed his shoulder, searing through synth-leather and flesh alike. He smelled his own burning skin before the pain hit—a white-hot brand pressed deep into muscle.
Somewhere in the static of his agony, his comms crackled to life.
"Dex—" Spectre's voice, but wrong, stretched thin and warped. "The core isn't just data—she's not in the system, she is the—"
[TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED]
Valentina's laughter filled his skull, sweet as poisoned honey. "Oops. Did I interrupt something important?"
Then the real pain began.