Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 582 195. Hellhound

"It seems they didn't continue to chase us."

In the dim abandoned underground garage, Karl looked back and found that there were no footsteps behind him: "This place is really hidden. I walked around and around, and even the shadows of people were gone."

When Carl said “all the figures disappeared”, he subconsciously glanced to his side.

In the dim environment, he could barely see Li De's figure. If even Li De disappeared, that would be really scary.

Reed didn't notice Carl's slightly uneasy look.

After listening to Karl’s words, he stopped and listened carefully for a while, then nodded slightly: “It seems that they are not very familiar with this place either.”

"It seems that these Nether Dogs are not involved in that kind of business."

"Which aspect?"

Reed found that Carl walked to a load-bearing wall and seemed to be observing something. He walked over and followed Carl's gaze and saw a symbol.

"This is a mark used for smuggling. Thanks to my involvement in smuggling activities in and outside Night City, I am very familiar with this mark." Carl smiled, "We are in for a good time."

"What you mean is..." Li De thought for a moment and immediately understood what Karl meant.

The smuggling marks that Carl was familiar with must have appeared recently.

Because according to the intelligence of the Joint Intelligence Agency, Carl only came to Night City in late 2075, and this map of the underground route is still the version before the end of the Unification War in 2070. In other words, the fresh smuggling marks seen here indicate that this underground passage is still usable.

As for where this channel connects, the answer is obvious - the arms trade between Dogtown and Night City.

Many smugglers covet this piece of fat meat. After all, they don’t need to contact Hansen. They can directly purchase weapons at a low price from Dog Town and then resell them to the city. The profit is considerable, not to mention that they can also resell the scarce materials in Dog Town in the city.

After a little thought, Li De understood the chain of interests involved.

If you think more deeply, it is impossible for such a smuggling route to exist in a stadium controlled by the Hellhounds. It is absolutely impossible to say that the people of the Hellhounds are completely unaware of it.

It is very likely that the guards here have been involved in this for a long time, accepting bribes and turning a blind eye.

And what Carl said before, "It seems that this group of Nether Dogs are not doing that kind of business," is also easier to understand - if there were Nether Dogs involved in smuggling present, they would have caught up long ago and would not have given Carl and Reed a chance to escape.

"It seems that all we need to do next is follow the trail."

Li De was communicating with Carl in Chinese, but he was interrupted by a slight sound when he was halfway through his conversation.

"Crench."

The sound of metal objects falling was so clear in the dim and silent underground that the moment Li De noticed the noise, almost all the pores on his body expanded.

The sound was extremely close to him and Carl, but he didn't even notice it until the thing fell!

Li De instantly pulled out the gun from his waist and pointed the gun at that place, but then found that there was nothing there.

Carl walked over to take a look, then picked up the piece of metal that had just fallen from the ground.

"It looks like it was originally made of something."

Carl looked at the metal in his hand and looked at the place where the metal fell. He found that the place where the metal was originally located was a wall. The metal piece was originally inserted on it. However, due to the movement of Carl and Li De, an old metal base plate next to the wall vibrated, affecting the wall and causing the metal piece that was not deeply inserted on it to fall off.

"It's all over the ground."

Carl called out to Reed, who was still a little wary: "This looks like some kind of equipment that was destroyed from the inside and splashed with metal fragments. Reed, look, the edge of the metal is a little twisted, obviously caused by a huge force." Carl looked around and found a lot of similar fragments scattered around.

He made a rough estimate, then frowned and said, "Do you have any idea about these? It looks like a large mechanical structure was blown up by a grenade here, but I didn't see the main body of the mechanical structure."

"Chimera."

In the darkness, Li De's expression was complicated. "During the Unification War, in order to completely take over Night City, the military technology company developed all-terrain street fighting robots. A total of thirteen were produced, half of which were used in Dogtown. I know there may be a few of these things hidden in Hansen's warehouse. I didn't expect that they were used in this passage. It looks like they have been severely damaged."

"An all-terrain street fighting robot? Judging from the fragments, this thing is quite large. Good job, Li De, you can recognize just a few fragments."

"I saw with my own eyes that Military Technology handed this thing over to New America and Hansen to use in case of a possible melee in the city."

"No wonder."

Carl said, "Hansen has kept this thing in the warehouse. It seems that he has great ambitions and intends to take over the city. Well, although I don't know what this thing would look like if I really encountered it, the fragments look pretty good. I guess V would be interested in it."

"V, that team member of yours?"

"Yes, he really likes to tinker with mechanical gadgets like drums. You must have already found out his intelligence. Most of the wanderers are more or less interested in tinkering with drumming equipment."

"Crack."

Just as Carl and Reed were chatting about this thing, they heard noises in the distance.

This time it was not the sound of equipment falling due to accidental cause, but a series of mechanical operations, the sound of rapidly approaching.

"We shouldn't have this thing that Hansen brought out to chase us just as we were discussing it."

Karl spoke hesitantly, but his hands were not slow and he had already pulled out Qianshin.

Because of his artificial eye, Li De saw the thing approaching them rapidly from behind earlier than Carl.

"You can rest assured, Carl. This is not a Chimera. It's a Hellhound."

"Is there any explanation for this?" Carl stared at the mechanical gadget in the distance that was approaching them quickly, but suddenly stopped when it was more than a hundred meters away, and stared at them with its red-glowing equipment eyes. He inexplicably felt that this three or four-meter-tall hellhound was a bit like the short-haired guy "raised" at home.

"This is a product from before the data crash. It uses old-age technology - hydraulic joints, heat-insulating armor, and special ceramic reinforcements. These are technologies that have not yet been completely reverse-engineered. In the 2010s, it was hailed as the most advanced robot."

Li De's voice was low and calm, as if he was telling a forgotten history.

He paused and continued, "It was once used by a military technology research team to assist computing operations. It was a maintenance robot. The flat-headed robot you see now was created based on its design concept."

Carl's eyes never left the slowly approaching mechanical monster. Every step it took was accompanied by the creaking sound of metal joints, as if reminding them that this "hellhound" before them was no good.

"Maintenance robot?" Carl frowned, with a hint of doubt in his tone, "Does that mean this thing is not very lethal?"

Li De shook his head, his eyes solemn: "I don't know whether it has lethality or not, but I have read the evaluation materials of its protective performance, and it says that it is invulnerable to swords and guns."

"Invulnerable to swords and guns."

Carl was thinking about the meaning of this word when he suddenly found that the six-legged robot hellhound popped out two rotating claws, and then there was a sharp terminal socket. He instantly understood another aspect of it.

"This thing looks pretty good in terms of offensive capabilities. If possible, I really don't want to see such advanced technology from the past."

(End of this chapter)