Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System Chapter 544: Red Hunt

Red Hill, Cinders Street.

The usually rowdy streets were silent despite it already being noon. One could say the rain had played a big part in keeping them empty, but even the spots where the local troublemakers took shelter were robbed of their chaos. The tension in such places was so thick it could be cut with a knife. Everyone was stressed out of their minds, but all they could do was drink and wait for the storm to pass.

Tired of the suffocating atmosphere, a young man stood up and walked away from his table. When his friends asked, he replied that he was going for a walk. The gloom had been getting to him, and he couldn’t stand being in that place another second. At least he could breathe outside. He would have preferred if the rain were gone, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Lighting up a cigarette, he turned in a random direction and moved his legs. A few steps later, his left cheek felt itchy. The source was the new tattoo he had gotten the other day. As he gave it a scratch, the regret he felt before ca back to hunt him.

Maybe he shouldn’t have made such a big commitnt when he wasn’t even sure if he should work for Black Skull. The recent problem should have been a clear enough sign that the ti to jump ship was approaching, but he couldn’t back down now.

"Goddamn it..."

He bit on the cigarette and gritted his teeth, feeling his frustration grow. Just then, soone happened to bump into him. He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings, so it was mostly his fault. That didn’t matter to him, however. He was looking for sothing to take out his anger on.

"HEY! WATCH WHE-"

BLAM BLAM BLAM

The sound of gunfire swallowed his voice, and he found himself standing still, his eyes wide with shock. Looking down, he saw a pistol pointing directly at him, wisps of smoke rising from its barrel. Just when he saw the spot where the bullets had struck, the pistol moved up, pointing directly at his heart.

BLAM BLAM BLAM

As pain shot through his body, he heard a scream from sowhere. The street he had been walking through wasn’t that crowded due to the weather, but there were so people around, and the night had yet to fall. Soone dared to shoot him under such conditions.

Falling on his back, he felt his life slowly seeping out of his wounds. A shadow fell on his face, and when he looked up, he found a hooded man staring at him, half of his face covered.

"Three..."

Muttering that word, the hooded man took off running, disappearing into the crowd.

~[ ]~

On the 20th of March 2099, the Red Hill district in Neo-Vatra was shaken with a long chain of cris committed in broad daylight. Its streets weren’t strangers to violence, with gang wars being the most common. Still, even gangsters knew to avoid causing trouble in public.

When looking at each incident, it becos clear that each one had been an assassination. The targets were all official mbers of the local gang. As the corpses continued to mount, it beca clear that anyone who had the Black Skull tattoo on their face was a target, and it soon beca clear why.

A new Red Marking mission had popped up earlier that morning. Those usually listed specific targets that gangs wanted to get rid of, and with a lot of Black Skull mbers having a lot of mbers on similar lists, it wasn’t odd for them to be targeted. The problem was that even those who had been newly initiated into the gang were being shot, and that was because the mission didn’t specify anything, listing anyone with the gang’s skull tattoo as a target.

5000 Gold for a normal foot soldier, 20000 for a captain, 300000 for a sergeant. For a Red Marking bounty, the rewards were far too much. Those who would take on such missions weren’t mad enough to go after the 100k, but they could get a really good payday just from hunting the lower ranks.

All of a sudden, every Black Skull mber was at risk. The tattoos that usually served as a deterrent made them targets for elimination now. What’s worse, they had no way of knowing where the next attack might co from. They could be walking ho when soone sneaks up on them. They could be sitting at a bar, and the bartender would pull up a gun on them.

Nowhere was safe, so they began to gather in specific places and move around in groups. That didn’t make things any better. Turn out huddling together made them easier to harvest, and so more dangerous foes joined the hunt.

The streets of Red Hill turned into a battlefield in a single week. The police were powerless to stop it, but many accused them of not trying at all. Ambulances and dics arrive late most of the ti, too, which results in more and more gangsters bleeding on the streets. Since the assassinations weren’t carried out by Enhanced Individuals, the BEO held back.

As all of that was happening, sothing else struck panic into the hearts of every Black Skull mber. So of their comrades started disappearing into thin air. They vanished entirely, not leaving a single trace. That brought back the rumors of what happened to the Daggers and how so of their mbers disappeared a while back. However, unlike their rival gang, those from Black Skull doubted that they would ever return if they were to disappear.

As the horror continued to spread among them, a certain group used the dust and smoke to hide themselves, striking Black Skull where it hurts while pretending they were bounty hunting just like everyone else. They didn’t just shoot and run; instead, they captured people and interrogated them before dealing the finishing blow. Their goal was to expose the locations of Black Skull’s illegal businesses and high-ranking mbers, and with each passing day, more and more of those fall into enemy hands.