Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 136 - 136 119 Highway 90

136: Chapter 119: Highway 90 136: Chapter 119: Highway 90 Li Xiaomin drove a large truck along Highway 90.

The red cab was hauling a huge container, struggling over the uneven roads, pitted and potholed as if the ground were wounded everywhere.

Due to the poor road conditions, the vehicle’s speed was severely limited.

This highway had fallen into disrepair over the years, as the Yongsen Technology Industrial Park it was originally meant to connect had long been abandoned.

The shantytown on both sides was decrepit, with structures haphazardly layered on top of each other.

Light bulbs strung up by wires resembled small decorations around a cake, loosely spread across walls and rooftops.

Blue metal roofs and old tarpaulin were tangled together; windows were tiny, typically sealed shut with iron plates.

Air conditioning units, broadcasting antennas, and rough cables hung on the outer walls, rusty and mostly inoperable.

Billboards and light boxes clung to the concrete walls, advertising pharmaceuticals, video games, and firearms from years gone by.

Shoddy shops lined the roads, with no hint of cleanliness, including ramen stalls, cybernetic repair shops, vending machines selling synthetic humans, motorcycle shops, street pharmacies, household appliance stores, and arcades, all emitting a confused blur of purple and red lights, their hawking, cursing, and murmuring rising in chaotic unison.

Overhead, laundry poles extended, draped with jackets, socks, baby bottles, and intimate apparel.

This truck navigating Highway 90 had become the biggest topic of conversation among local residents in recent days.

To hunt down this spoil of war, the local biker gang “Rampage Speed” had gathered their members.

They left their bikes outside the ramen stalls, sitting upright at the booths.

The gang members considered their motorcycles as homes, as fleeting as the wind.

They dyed their hair in all the colors of the rainbow, went shirtless, and covered themselves with shiny tattoos, glaring fiercely at the uneasy residents nearby, making them instinctively lower their heads to avoid trouble.

They were the overlords of Highway 90, wearing matching white reflective trousers.

Printed on the left pant leg was “Cry in Death Alley,” and on the right, “Racing Emperor Mota,” both in ink inscriptions that were hard to decipher.

Among them was a refined man in a white suit with a clean slick-back hairstyle who did not seem as fierce as the other gang members, watching everything calmly.

Stringed up behind a nearby meat stall were the skinned bodies of Ratmen, salted after being stripped of fur.

They were the remnants of the Rat Tide that had invaded Highway 90, annihilated by the biker gangs, now dried into jerky and sold cheaply.

As Li Xiaomin drove the truck closer, he initially had blind spots, but he quickly braked when he noticed tire spikes strewn across the road ahead, discovered through the onboard monitor.

Highway robbers!

The biker gang members instantly turned their gaze towards the man in the white suit, who nodded subtly.

With a clear command, the gang members rose from their seats, brandishing their weapons, and charged towards the big truck.

They had already figured out the truck’s routine, making deliveries from Aizu City to the industrial park at 9 a.m.

and 3 p.m.

They were keen to see what good stuff was in the truck!

“Hey hey!”

“You’re asking for death, kid!”

“Fancy a bullet?”

“It’s really troublesome for you to stop here!” The gang officer brandished the war blade in his hand towards Li Xiaomin inside the truck.

The truck was rented by Li Xiaomin who could not afford for it to be damaged, so he quickly responded.

“The goods are in the cargo hold!” he shouted, “But that’s the boss’s property!”

“Pah, open the cargo door quick!” A street samurai angrily hacked at the nose of the truck with his sword, slicing off an entire headlight with one swift blow.

This pained Li Xiaomin to his core, knowing the repair costs would not be cheap.

“Stop, stop!” Li Xiaomin yelled out, “Big guys, I’ll open it right now!”

He pressed the unlock button on the dashboard and a crisp sound of intelligent unlocking came from the rear cargo door, signaling that the driver had surrendered and left the truck’s contents for them.

“That’s more like it!”

“Oh yeah!” They were ecstatic.

Half of them stayed in front to watch Li Xiaomin, while the rest surrounded the rear of the vehicle, beginning to tug at the cargo door.

Another rogue, grinning with a jerrycan and hose in hand, approached the truck’s side fuel tank, ready to siphon off some fuel.

For a truck of this size, there would be enough gasoline for a regular motorcycle for quite a long time.

Li Xiaomin shrank back, the cab was spacious enough, he let down the driver’s bed and crawled inside, huddling with his head covered.

As a street samurai forcefully slid the cargo door open, he saw nothing inside — it was completely empty except for two figures seated on opposite sides of the cargo hold, who turned their heads simultaneously towards the biker gang outside.

One was encased in a vivid red nano armor, shaped like a red evil dragon.

The other wore sturdy, heavy mercenary armor, clutching a large axe in his hands.

“It’s an ambush!” the rogue shouted at the top of his voice.

Asa Katsuragi leaped out from the cargo hold; with one punch, she struck at the closest gang member, hitting him square in the chest.

He staggered backward rapidly three steps, coughing out a mouthful of blood each time, eyes rolling back as he collapsed.

Swift in her movements, Katsuragi snatched up a metal rod from a gang member with her left hand while drawing a submachine gun from her waist with her right, and began firing rapidly at them.

The bullets whistled towards the gang members, severely injuring or killing several instantly.

Caught off guard, they returned fire, but their cheap and flimsy firearms could not penetrate the nano armor, causing only some loss of its external nanobots at best.

At the same moment, Kong Tai activated the phase shift device on his belt, instantly teleporting in front of the truck, landing among a dozen gang members.

He activated his ion axe, illuminating its blade with a pale blue glow, then swung it furiously at several dumbfounded gang members, the sound of rending flesh and snapping bone echoing as he cleaved several of them in half.

The other gang members turned just in time to see their comrades sliced two, their intestines and innards tumbling out, the wounded screaming in agony on the ground, their cries dreadfully chilling.

“Aaaah…”

“What the…”

The surrounding residents were left speechless at the sight.

Those who were alert realized this was a violent conflict and turned to run away, while the bold ones couldn’t help but stay and watch as the gang that usually terrorized Highway 90 was decimated in moments by the two ferocious beasts.

Li Xiaomin shrank inside the cockpit, half afraid and half excited.

Following Xu Yang’s instructions, he first went to a warehouse to pick up Asa Katsuragi and Kong Tai and then drove towards the industrial park.

He had always been aware that the gangs of this fringe area posed a threat to his journey, but now with these two as protection, he had nothing to worry about!

Despite being heavily hit, the Rampage Group members still launched a counterattack.

“Ugh!” a ronin wearing a blood-colored double-plume helmet and clad in red-lacquered samurai armor charged at them, followed by several fierce Rampage Group members.

The implants in his body surged his adrenaline, causing his strength and courage to soar.

The combat archives loaded in his brain provided him with the optimal assault strategy.

Like a bolt of lightning, he charged towards Kong Tai, unleashing a powerful slash.

Clang!

The blade struck Kong Tai’s heavy armor, sparking dazzling fire as the collision of metal sent the blade recoiling, leaving the armor itself completely unscathed.

“Die!” Kong Tai roared, swinging his battle axe forcefully.

In the blink of an eye, the street ronin’s armor, along with his body, was cleaved apart by the energy beam, severing him in two.

Several plastic cables that penetrated the ronin’s body were exposed, swinging crazily like serpent heads as blood spurted wildly.

This ronin was already an officer-level presence in the Rampage Group, but he was still no match, causing the Rampage Group to scatter like birds and beasts.

Corpses littered the ground around the large vehicle, and Kong Tai was drenched in blood.

He weighed the battle axe in his hand, delighted by the killing spree.

How horrifying was that?

Down the entire Highway 90, there was a dead silence.

At the noodle stand, the man in the white suit responsible for giving orders straightened his tie, stood up, and walked towards Asa Katsuragi and Kong Tai, standing amid pools of blood with a soft gaze, exuding extraordinary confidence.

Li Xiaomin crawled forward and sat back in the driver’s seat, looking perplexed at the man in the white suit.

“Get lost!” he pressed the horn.

“I beg to differ,” the man in the white suit spread his hands, “Your strength is impressive, but that’s not how things are done on Highway 90.”

“Then how should they be done?” Li Xiaomin felt troubled.

This Rampage Group might have connections and background; they could still have reinforcements and backup!

Gangs were always frightening.

The pressure was huge for him.

The man in the white suit smirked slightly.

As a local tyrant, he had weathered many storms.

The other party simply wanted to make a statement by killing.

So give them some face, as it was his side that had struck first.

Better to negotiate and make concessions.

“We want to work together.” The man in the white suit spoke calmly, “We’re not bad guys.

We collect protection money here, safeguarding the people from the threat of Rat Tide.

Let’s talk.

We can always agree on a price.

Let’s get rich together.

You’ve won.

You name the price.

We will have no objections.”

Who doesn’t like money?

To the man in the white suit, money could resolve all conflicts.

Asa Katsuragi raised her submachine gun towards the man in the white suit.

“Wow.” He made an exaggerated gesture, “I’m equipped with an energy shield, no need to hurry, dialogue can lead to greater benefit…”

Asa Katsuragi pulled the trigger, and a dozen bullets whistled towards him.

The man in the white suit’s face blanched with horror as he immediately turned and ran towards the noodle stand.

The bullets pounded against his invisible shield, creating ripples of blue energy, quickly losing their lethal force as they entered the shield.

But there were too many bullets.

After the first ten depleted the shield’s energy, the last two penetrated it, piercing the man in the white suit’s back and eliciting a scream of agony.

Asa Katsuragi tossed aside her emptied submachine gun and, clutching an iron rod, charged towards the man in the white suit.

“Hey—don’t you like money?

Don’t kill me!” he screamed, “I’ll give you…”

Thud!

She slammed down the iron rod, cleaving the man in the white suit’s head like a smashed watermelon.

Brain matter mixed with blood gushed out, the pinkish cerebral cortex along with some neural chips shattered, turning into a muddled mess.

Rash, but with a lot of guts!

“Good kill,” Kong Tai said approvingly.

What kind of trump card could a small-time Rampage Group have?

They would probably have to sell their kidneys to afford a weapon capable of breaching his defense.

It was all a bluff.

The noodle stand owner was stunned, as Asa Katsuragi glanced at the price list, swiped her cash card, and paid 25 funds.

“Seafood ramen, extra shrimp, extra spicy,” Asa Katsuragi said as she sat down at the noodle stand.

“Yes, yes,” the noodle stand owner nodded vigorously while also surprised.

Gangsters actually paid for their meals?

Taken down.

“The gangs on Highway 90 have been cleared out.” Asa Katsuragi sent a message to Xu Yang, “Awaiting instructions.”

“I’ll come and take a look later,” Xu Yang replied.

“There are numerous vagrants and gang members here,” Asa Katsuragi continued, “I plan to recruit them and establish the ‘Katsuragi Gang.’ They will be the first batch of members.

The local street gang’s clothes look cool and have culture.

I plan to fly the Katsuragi Gang’s banner of ‘Sky-Dominating’!”

“If so, it’s just an ordinary gang.

I’ll teach you a better motto that represents a better belief, one with stronger appeal to the common folk, surpassing the general wild gangs.”

“What is it?”

“‘Protecting Territory, Ensuring Peace.'”