Fallen Chronicles

-Boss, good news, we've finally managed to bring back the brand from the conference after much difficulty!-

-Boss, bad news, we've also brought back the cops with us.-

The members of the Black Fire Gang on the plane could already imagine their leader wishing he could kill them by the time they arrived.

However, when the plane actually arrived in District 13 and landed inside the Black Fire Gang's den, the subsequent developments still took a turn.

Under the coercion of Renji, when the remnants of the Black Fire Gang opened the underground base's door, the scene behind the door shocked the gang members, leaving them stunned in place.

Renji followed inside and frowned slightly, for only to see in this underground base, as if it had undergone a very intense battle, with numerous bullet holes on the walls and doors, and even the inside wires were shot out, sparking everywhere.

Not to mention the bodies of the Black Fire Gang members on the ground, lying twisted in heaps, each almost turned into a sieve, showing the fierce firepower of the enemy, dominating the battle. But this place was the Black Fire Gang's den, even if a part of their force was divided to attack the conference, the defense inside the base shouldn't have been so weak.

Was it an inside betrayal, or something else?

Renji's most likely guess was that another gang had foreknowledge of the Black Fire Gang's movements, so they deliberately took advantage of the situation, attacking the Black Fire Gang's den while its members were attacking the conference.

To be on the safe side, Renji deactivated 86 from its terminal form and cleaned up the gang remnants leading the way outside. Then, with 86 in maid form, on alert and guarding by Renji's side, they continued to delve deeper into the Black Fire Gang's interior.

Not long after continuing inward, in a narrow corridor leading to the core area, Renji saw many more gang bodies, which judging by their clothes seemed to be core members of the Black Fire Gang, as if they were ordered to delay the enemies to buy time for their leader to escape.

It's worth mentioning that there were far fewer bullet marks on the walls here, likely all from the Black Fire Gang itself, and the attackers.

Renji squatted down to inspect the bodies in these corridor passages, almost all of whom were killed by some blunt weapon, with wounds looking very ferocious and terrifying.

Here, Renji felt a sense of dissonance.

Because at the entrance of the base, from the firefight, it seemed like a clash between two gangs of over a hundred people each. But it led to this area, seemingly due to the indoor terrain not being conducive to gunfights, the attackers opted for melee combat.

Precisely because of this, Renji found that almost every wound on the victims of the Black Fire Gang was very similar, as if all made by the same person. And from the traces at the scene, the number of attackers was not many, possibly even just one person?

Thinking this, combined with the tragic state of the bodies, Renji's mind suddenly recalled a recent urban legend that was very popular among the citizens of Dream City, about a serial killer, mentioned in a radio program called "Night Love", which Eileen used to watch on TV.

The killer often used a blunt instrument to cut the victims, hitting fatal locations, resembling both a brutal butcher and a precise surgeon, as described by the two hosts of the radio show. Now, the manner of death of the Black Fire Gang members gave Renji this feeling.

Although 86's scanning radar showed that, apart from them, there were no other living beings inside the entire Black Fire Gang base, Renji did not relax his guard. Instead, he became even more cautious, especially after obtaining the intelligence that the attacker might be just one person. Renji immediately had 86 switch forms again, summoning the mecha armor.

After all, in Dream City, the absence of biological signals does not mean the surroundings are safe.

After walking further inside for about ten minutes, Renji finally saw the leader of the Black Fire Gang. As expected, the leader had already become a thoroughly cold corpse, with a manner of death similar to the gang members encountered along the way, but even more gruesome, as if dismembered by a chainsaw into unviewable pieces.

However, it was precisely because of this that Renji could see the circuits and wires exposed from the pieces of the corpse, and at the leader's heart position, a core chip that looked like it had been shattered by a heavy hammer.

'So, this dark horse that had risen in recent years, breaking out from among many old gangs, the leader of the Black Fire Gang was actually a robot'

'And a female robot at that'

It wasn't apparent normally, likely due to undergoing neutralization treatment, giving off the feeling of a woman dressed as a man, but now that she had become a corpse, it was easy to identify from the physical characteristics.

Speaking of which, Renji recalled that this wasn't the first time he had seen robots mingling in the society of Dream City. Last time at Kael Technology, acting as a guide and showing them the brand technology, the main assistant William, Tia, was also an robotic being.

That's why he had advised Keyji, who had taken a liking to Tia at the time to better give up.

The myriad seemingly unrelated clues in his mind, now Renji suddenly felt as if they were being strung together.

'No wonder William trusted the Black Fire Gang so much, and the gang was willing to take such a big risk. If the leader of the Black Fire Gang was a chess piece planted by William, it all made 'sense.

'Following this line, is it possible that Kael Technology is continuously cultivating robots, then making them occupy leading positions in various industries like the leader of the Black Fire Gang, allowing Kael Technology to quietly control most of the Dream City without anyone noticing?'

'However, considering that William still needed to borrow the backing of Keyji to eliminate the Black Fire Gang, it's very likely that this leader was a chess piece secretly played by William, unknown to the company. That's why William feared the company's subsequent investigation and wanted to use a third party's power to silence them in advance'

Of course, there are still many points that don't add up.

For example, how did Kael Technology manage to make robots so intelligent? Whether it was Tia before or the gang leader now, there's almost no difference from humans.

contemporary romance

Additionally, if the Black Fire Gang was under William's control, then the attack should have stopped after using the brand to summon the mech. However, after only a brief lull, those gang members who had initially fled started a frenzied suicide attack again. Later on the plane, the kidnapped gang members explained that there was a problem with their masks, being controlled by the tainted miasma.

This behavior definitely does not align with William's interests and seems to be an accident. Combined with the current tragic state of the Black Fire Gang, Renji guesses that it's highly likely related to the attacker.

Speaking of the attacker, they did not destroy the base of the Black Fire Gang nor loot resources. It seems their only purpose was to kill this robotic leader?

To unravel these mysteries, Renji needs to return to the origin of everything. All the disputes in the Dream City revolve around the dangerous Pandora's box known as "Dream Zero".

Renji's main purpose for coming to the den of the Black Fire Gang was to obtain the gang's dream anchor, equivalent to an URL for entering Dream Zero. Fortunately, although the leader died terribly, the equipment of the Black Fire Gang around her was mostly intact.

After letting 86 connect to the gang's system and extracting the anchor point of Dream Zero, Renji quickly left the scene.

Now, the outside world of the Dream City is in chaos. The series of shocking events at the conference has become a hot topic of intense discussion among the city's populace today. On the streets everywhere in the city, loud sirens can be heard, with police cars rushing by, flocking towards the gang area in District 13.

Renji didn't care about these things. He found a safe place, letting the outside world continue its chaos, giving him time to re-enter the dream.

[Anchor point information confirmed]

[Coordinates: Witch War Zone D-T32]

[Dream entry begins]

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