Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 200

We were escorted to the back of the restaurant. Down a hall sat a private room with Blood Scythe guards standing out front. These weren’t like the rest though. They looked trained, chromed, and armed with SMGs and shotguns.

The room they guarded was a private booth hidden away from the rest of the restaurant. Three important-looking people sat eating tacos and drinking… margaritas? They looked like margaritas at least.

Hmm... when I open the speakeasy, what kind of food should I serve? It'd have to be good, or at least decent to get people coming back... Right, sooo not the time for this!

The two on either side of the booth seemed like upper management, at least based on the vibe when we first walked in. The real star of the show was an extremely buff man at the head of the table. He wore a fancy suit as he enjoyed a taco, seemingly uncaring as five Crusaders walked into the room. Unlike the other two, he had no chrome.

”So… you’re the Crusaders poking around our tower, eh?” The buff guy levered a taco in our direction.

“So… you’re… who are you again?” Knight Persha asked.

Her two Squires chuckled, seemingly trying to get a rise out of the man. What happened to us taking the lead?

The man crunched down loudly onto his taco, the sound seemingly filling the entire room. “Lucardo. One of the three managers of the Bloody Scythes. You’d do well to show some respect, welp.”

”Same could be said for you.” Dev’s posture abruptly shifted, going completely straight like an arrow. “We’re here for… peaceful negotiations. Of course, we could always report back to our superiors that you resisted such an approach. They’d be more than willing to send a dozen more Knights to clean this place up.”

“That supposed to scare us?” One of the two goons sitting at the table laughed. It seemed a bit forced though.

”If you had a brain, it should.” Dev replied snidely. "Especially if the Commander personally decides to get involved. I've heard he's even started assigning himself to cases he's so bored. Cleaning up a little gang might seem like fun."

The atmosphere turned tense immediately. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Persha grab the hilt of her sword. It felt like an all-out fight might start if nothing changed... Damnit! Am I going to have to be the change?

I took a step forward, clapping my hands and putting a smile on my face. “Now that introductions are out of the way, let’s get down to business?”

”Yes. As the little girl said, let's get down to business.” The manager leaned forward. “What do you want?”

Little girl? Little girl?! Really? I’ll have you know I’m almost seventeen! Not some little girl. That’s it! I’m going to find where this Lucardo lives and put a bomb- wait. My eyes glanced down at his shirt. Now that he was leaning forward, I caught the glimmer of something silver.

I took a step closer, eyeing the outline of the guy’s necklace against this shirt. It looked- well, it looked like one of the Circle’s charms. I dropped a hand into my pocket, tracing the stolen amulet as I tried to make sure. My years of eyeing valuables through people’s pockets paid off as I easily confirmed it. He was with the Circle.

I was really hoping it wouldn’t be them for once too… granted, all the signs pointed towards them. What could they even want with so many people anyway? Use them as fertilizer?

Dev followed a step behind me, answering the guy’s question as I fell silent. “Simple. You lot are the Euphoria dealers around here, yeah?”

“Do you think I’m stupid enough to admit to something like that?” Lucardo laughed.

“Yes.” Knight Persha simply said, causing her two Squires to chuckle as Lucardo’s expression dropped. “After all, only simpletons draw the attention of the Blue Crusade.”

”Bitch.” One of the two stooges at the table snarled, knocking over his margarita as he stood up. “We don’t have to take that from you-“

Lucardo pulled the guy back down before he could finish. “Hurry the fuck up and tell us what you want. My guys are getting… twitchy.”

”I’ll show you twitchy.” Dev muttered low enough I was probably the only one that heard him. “Your… clients. They’ve been disappearing en masse for the past month. Surely you’re not stupid enough not to notice, right?”

Lucardo’s expression didn’t change. There was a good chance he already knew what we were here to investigate. We weren’t exactly discrete about it. “What about the disappearances? Poor people go missing all the time. Why should we care?”

Classic Aythryn City sentiment right there. It’s funny, people say that then they complain when the disappearances are due to some monster or cult. Granted, this guy likely wouldn't complain with him being part of said cult.

I had a feeling we wouldn’t get anything out of the Blood Scythes. Dev kept asking questions though and Knight Persha apparently loved snide comments. I mentally checked out as I inspected the rest of the group.

No one else looked like they were a part of the Circle. At least, none of them had a Circle amulet. A few had tattoos that kinda looked like trees, but they were cut off by their clothes, so I couldn't quite tell. There was a good chance the Circle only infiltrated the topmost ranks of the Blood Scythes, taking it over for whatever their nefarious plot needed.

Knight Persha’s boot slamming into the ground drew my attention back to the conversation. “You better be telling the truth. Otherwise? We’ll come back here, our blades thirsting for blood… scythes.”

Yeah, real smooth there Knight. From the twitch on her Squires' faces, I wasn't the only one who picked up on her mediocre threat.

Everyone else turned to leave. I froze for a second, realizing the rest of the Blood Scythes were staring at me, and flashed a bright smile before turning to follow behind them. On my way out, I heard Lucardo mutter, “How annoying.”

We left the taco restaurant, quickly making space. There was a tail. And not a very good one at that. The gonk still had on his Blood Scythe uniform. Once we entered one of the back halls, I took the lead down winding halls. We lost them after the first couple of turns, entering a red hall with a few women standing around. They scattered upon seeing us.

Persha pulled a small device from one of her pockets and turned it on. A scrambler. Man, I really need to get one of those at some point. They seemed really nice to have.

”Well, that was useless.” Squire Dev groaned as he leaned up against the wall. The wall… well, the wall squelched? It was a disgusting enough sound that I decided to stay clear of it. No telling what was on the walls here.

”I had fun.” Knight Persha said. Although her expression was hidden by her silver helmet, I could hear the smile in her voice.

Dev shook his head as his expression fell. “We got nothing out of them. Damnit! Joshua and Hope are going to be done before us.” He said Hope's name with a level of disgust I wasn't expecting from him. They had some kind of beef? Or maybe it was just since Hope replaced his spot with Joshua?

”Not exactly.” I raised a hand, gathering all the attention to me. “He’s part of the Circle. I saw his amulet through his shirt.”

Dev’s expression did a one-eighty. “Then… the gang is working for the Circle? The Circle is behind the disappearances then, right?”

“That’s a leap in logic… buy yeah, it looks that way. Can’t imagine there’s a third group here that is kidnapping people.” Seriously, what were the odds that everything was completely unrelated? Low, right? Especially since it was Inquisitor Ligh that sent us here.

Just before I could say something, the interface flashed in front of my eyes.

「Request - Eidolon’s Order - Updated

• Eidolon operatives infiltrated Dr. Carl Langstrum’s lab to steal the <redacted> egg. Nothing was found. New objective: Find and acquire the <redacted> egg.

• Reward: One Trait Point, Eidolonic Favor」

Right, the egg… I was planning on going to check out the lab now that I had Blackout up and running. Too bad I got caught up in all this Crusade bullshit… interesting though. Did they send their own operatives? Makes sense. I wasn't their only agent, nor their most competent.

It’s like the interface said back at Cold Moon Solutions; they have other people who would be desperate to help them achieve whatever they wanted. I was just a choice operator considering my position as the interface holder for some reason. Guess I moved a bit slow…

Still though, if Langstrum didn’t have it, who did? There was so much going on in the city these days that it was hard to keep track. Hell, even Sentinel’s Super Carrier was still parked out in the harbor thanks to all the bullshit with the stolen blueprints that still haven’t been found.

I shook my head, zoning back into the conversation just in time to catch the tail end of one of the other Squire’s questions. “Where are they keeping the victims anyway?”

“We have plans to check the Underground, with your assistance.” I nodded to the group, decidedly ignoring Dev’s expression as it went entirely sour. “See if there are tracks of recent travel.”

Knight Persha nodded several times. “Yes, the Underground. The perfect route for smuggling of all sorts. You know an entrance around here?”

A few, actually. There were five right below Lang Tower. No point in being so forward with my intel, though. Might arouse suspicions. “One. It’s on the south side of the Tower. I only know its rough location, so we’ll have to search around for it.”

”Then what are we waiting on? The sooner this is over, the better.” Knight Persha turned down the hall, turned off her scrambler, and started walking. Her squires followed quickly after her.

I coughed lightly. “That’s north.”

”Right… you lead.” Persha turned back around to follow me.

I led us down to the first floor, back in what felt like the middle of nowhere. No one was around, at least. I thought through the multiple maps floating about my head and led us to a section of the Lang Tower that looked condemned. It was pitch black, but of course, that wasn’t a problem for me.

Dev and one of the other Squires turned on flashlights, though it seemed the other Squire and Knight Persha likewise didn't have problems seeing in the dark. I checked their eyes. Both had chrome.

The area looked like an abandoned shopping mall. Sections of walls looked like they were about ready to collapse. I got the distinct feeling this would cause trouble for the stability of the Lang Tower, though no one seemed to care as it was left to rot.

More accurately, it was probably forgotten about. Arcologies were so massive that there were tons of spaces that were just abandoned and then forgotten about. At least, until the managers decided they needed the space and remodeled. The constant cycle of reworking sections and finding abandoned spots was part of the reason the tower felt so chaotic.

It wasn’t abandoned by all life, though. Just humans. There were tracks of rodents all over the place, but the more worrying issue was the greenery spread out over the area. Almost everything was covered in plants, especially centered around the fountain in the middle of the place.

I checked with Aetheria Perception, but it only revealed them to be mundane. Still, I decided to go ahead and put on the Circle amulet just in case. If it worked as I suspected and was a protective charm against the plants of the circle, then I would be more than happy to abuse it.

While I was putting the charm on, I checked my gear. I hadn’t skimped out this time around and had my bag and all my goodies ready to go should I need them. I’d even set up multiple Molotovs just waiting for gasoline. We were going into the Underground, so being underprepared would only hurt me.

”Here?” Persha asked as she leaned up against a pillar. “You know exactly where here or do we need to root around?”

I motioned over to an old sports goods shop. “Should be in there somewhere.”

”Right.” The Knight took the lead, stepping in front of our group as her hand rested on the hilt of her long sword. She looked ready to strike down anything that popped out of hiding.

We stepped into the sports goods shop. The plants here covered everything in a thick carpet. It was almost impossible to see the floor. “Split up and look for it?”

Dev frowned as his eyes twitched. “I don’t know if that’s a good-“

”Sure! I’ll take over here.” Persha completely ignored the twitchy Squire, setting out toward the employee areas. Her two Squires quickly followed after her.

”I’ll look over there then.” I waved at Dev and split off to check an empty space in the store. There would’ve been racks here at one point, but they’d vanished. Who would come and steal racks? What a waste. I walked toward the space, keeping my eye peeled for-

My foot slipped through the plants as I tumbled forward out onto the vines covering the ground. I threw out a hand to brace myself-

Only for it to likewise fall through the vines. Then the rest of my body followed into a free fall. I desperately grabbed onto the vines, my weight and momentum slamming me into the side of a massive shaft into the depths. I groaned in pain, rapidly flicking through the console at my wrist to enable the Drop Chutes just in case.

I held onto the vines for dear life, looking down into the darkness far below. At least I knew where the racks went. I shouted back towards the top. “A little help, please!”