The First Time He Knew What Greed Felt Like
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Jiang Kou found a job repairing vehicles in the Wasteland District.
The boss, like her, was also being hunted by Biotech. But then again, people who ended up in the Wasteland District generally had some sort of grudge against the company.
Here, you could see former surgeons, former senior employees, former high-intelligence elites, but after they fell into the Wasteland District, they all without exception degenerated into desert marauders.
Recently, Jiang Kou was feeling a bit troubled.
For the past two days, a man, thinking she looked easy to bully, had been persistently harassing her.
Yes, her blue-green hair and nose ring disguise could fool city people, but it couldn’t fool the marauders of the Wasteland District.
These people had spent years crawling through motor oil, sandstorms, and hails of bullets. The bizarre outfits they had seen could fill not just a classroom but an entire truckload.
Her level of disguise didn’t scare them in the slightest.
That afternoon, Jiang Kou stood under a canvas canopy, smoking.
Seeing her alone, the man came over again to strike up a conversation, his eyes shifty as he attempted to grope her ass.
Expressionless, she flicked away her cigarette and grabbed him by the collar in one swift motion.
—She always wore an exoskeletal arm. The silver-white metal shell had already been weathered into a mottled mess by the sand and dust. But perhaps because it was directly connected to the neural port at the back of her head, the longer she used the exoskeleton, the more naturally it felt like an extension of her body.
At first, she could only use the exoskeletal arm for automatic aiming or lifting heavy objects, but now, she could single-handedly drag a massive truck.
She roughly estimated that the pulling force of her right hand had already reached ten tons.
However, the people around her didn’t know just how terrifyingly powerful her exoskeletal arm was. In their understanding, no matter how advanced an exoskeleton was, its pulling force would at most be a few hundred kilograms.
The man thought she had come around and grinned greasily. Before he could even speak, Jiang Kou dragged him with one hand toward the bonfire.
This was the center of the Wasteland District, where people bought and sold goods, repaired cybernetic implants, treated injuries, and even held music festivals.
The man remained unconcerned, still squeezing out an oily smile on his face. “Sis, exoskeletal arms are long outdated… Cybernetic implants are the real deal. If exoskeletons were actually useful, why would anyone go through the trouble of getting their limbs amputated?”
Jiang Kou ignored him and kept walking forward.
Seeing that his slick talk wasn’t working, the man’s tone grew even more insidious. “How about this—you sleep with me a few times, and I’ll buy you the latest cybernetic implant…”
Jiang Kou glanced at him coldly.
The man immediately grew excited—he hadn’t seen such a stunning beauty in a long time.
The Wasteland District actually wasn’t short on beautiful women, but any woman who managed to survive here was vicious beyond belief. Not only would they shoot guns and curse like sailors at the slightest provocation, but they also reeked of motor oil and gunpowder. Their sweat smelled even stronger than that of some old men.
Jiang Kou, too, carried the scent of motor oil, but she was simply too beautiful. Even with her short blue-green hair and that unsightly nose ring, even with her skin tanned honey-gold by the scorching sun, her delicate and alluring features remained unmistakable.
Just as the man was about to step it up and spin more sweet promises, Jiang Kou suddenly shoved him into the crowd.
The surrounding people immediately stopped what they were doing and cast amused glances his way, waiting to see a show.
The man’s face darkened with anger and embarrassment.
In the Wasteland District, there was no distinction between men and women—only the strong and the weak.
He dared to speak so insolently to Jiang Kou not because she was a woman, but because he thought she was weak.
And now, he had been thrown into the crowd by someone he deemed weak.
The man cursed, suddenly sprang up, and threw a punch straight at Jiang Kou’s face.
“You fucking—giving you face but you don’t want it—”
Jiang Kou stood still without even blinking, catching the man’s fist with one hand and yanking it backward like a lightning strike.
The man had no time to resist before she pulled him forward in one swift motion—”Bang!”—slamming him heavily against the tire of a nearby massive truck.
That tire was nearly two meters high, covered in sand and mud.
The man got a face full of dirt and was just about to curse when, in the next moment, Jiang Kou grabbed him by the neck with one hand, pressed his head down with the other, and mercilessly smashed his face against the truck tire—
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
She slammed his head more than ten times before gripping him by the back of his collar and tossing him aside like trash.
By now, his face was smeared with blood, tears, snot, and mud, barely breathing.
The people around couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath, their gazes toward Jiang Kou completely changed.
They had only known her as someone with a good temper and skilled at repairing vehicles—they hadn’t known she could fight like this.
Someone couldn’t help but say, “There was no need to go that hard… We all see each other around. What if he gets a better cybernetic implant one day? Won’t you be in trouble then?”
Jiang Kou replied indifferently, “Then when he picked a fight with me, why didn’t he consider that my equipment might be more advanced than his?”
“Come on, girl, let’s be real. We admit your skills are better, but how advanced can an exoskeletal arm really be?”
Jiang Kou didn’t respond. She turned around, activated her exoskeletal arm, and pressed one hand against the massive truck behind her.
The veins on the back of her hand bulged, the muscles in her arm visibly tensed, and she gave a forceful push—
The truck tire actually started to turn, the entire vehicle shifting a few centimeters to the side.
The crowd instantly fell silent.
—This level of strength was beyond their imagination. Forget an exoskeletal arm, even the most advanced mechanical prosthetics couldn’t achieve this level of force.
That man had truly overestimated himself by provoking Jiang Kou.
Jiang Kou asked in an even tone, “Does anyone still think I went too hard?”
The people exchanged glances.
Not a single person dared to speak.
Jiang Kou smiled slightly and bent down to pick up a rock.
She wasn’t dressed revealingly—a leather jacket, a cropped tank top, and washed-out jeans, with knee-high boots caked in mud.
But clothing was never the main reason women got harassed.
Just like now—when she bent down, revealing the slight curve of her lower back, not a single man dared to stare. Every one of them hurriedly averted their eyes in panic.
Jiang Kou straightened up, raised the rock, and casually crushed it in her hand.
The stone instantly crumbled into fine powder, scattering down like dust.
“If anyone harasses me again,” she said, “this is what will happen to their head.”
The onlookers scattered like frightened birds—some resumed chatting, some continued repairing vehicles, and some strummed their guitars.
No one spoke up for the man.
Jiang Kou dusted off the stone powder from her hands and turned to leave.
After she left, a punk with a mohawk ran over to the man, took out a hemostatic spray, and sprayed it over his head a few times before giving him an adrenaline shot.
The man finally came to, cursing under his breath.
“That damn bitch…”
“Tch, isn’t she just acting all high and mighty because of that arm?” the mohawk man said. “We’ve seen plenty of these people who use high-tech to show off. Just find a hacker to hijack her arm and make her slap herself from morning till night—let’s see if she can still act tough then.”
The man’s gaze was vicious. He was about to speak when blood and snot simultaneously flowed into his mouth.
Remembering why he had ended up in such a miserable state, his face flushed red, and he spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm with hatred.
“…You’re right. Even if it costs me everything, I’ll get my hands on that arm. And then, just like she said—I’ll crush her head into a pile of dust!”
—
Meanwhile, Los Angeles.
21:45 PM, Industrial District.
On the surface, it was an industrial district, but in reality, it had long become a gathering place for criminals.
Here, there were no neon lights, no towering skyscrapers, no holographic displays—only factories blackened by chemical fumes, barren lands turned alkaline, and tangled power lines slicing the night sky into jagged fragments.
And gray buildings covered in small ads and exaggerated graffiti.
He walked up to one of the buildings, raised his wrist, and glanced at his watch.
This action held no practical meaning—it was purely because Jiang Kou liked it.
She liked watching him raise his hand to check the time.
If his slightly protruding wrist bone happened to show, she would like it even more.
He lowered his hand and looked up at the gray building.
This was where the person who had scratched the area around his eye lived.
It was also his final destination.
Although the injury hadn’t affected his core functions, because of this person’s actions, he now had to replace both his eyes.
There was a 1% probability that Jiang Kou wouldn’t like his new eyes.
For that, this person had to pay the price.
With an indifferent expression, he stepped into the building’s corridor.
He was tall and upright, dressed in a black suit, a black shirt, and a black tie. In his hand, he held a meticulously crafted handgun.
His slender, straight figure, well-defined fingers, the prominent veins on the back of his hand, and the silver wristwatch exuding a strong mechanical aesthetic—
From head to toe, he radiated the cold precision of a high-end machine.
The corridor was crowded with gangsters. Upon seeing him, they immediately closed in, eyeing his outfit with ill intent.
One of them, carrying a machete, had just opened his mouth to say something, likely a robbery threat—
But before he could speak, the man suddenly drew his gun, chambered a round, raised his hand, and fired four shots with icy precision.
—Bang!
His movements were so fast that the four gunshots overlapped into what sounded like a single shot.
Even more terrifying, every bullet struck dead center on a gangster’s forehead.
Even with the naked eye, one could see that the four bullet holes were positioned precisely in the middle of their brows, as if calculated with terrifying accuracy—
Even the splattered blood followed nearly identical trajectories.
The surrounding gangsters all understood the rule of the streets: live by the sword, die by the sword.
But this was the first time they had seen someone die so brutally.
Without thinking, the gangsters instinctively stepped aside and made way.
He didn’t even spare a glance and continued upstairs, quickly arriving at his target’s door.
The target was playing a game. Seeing him, he jumped in fright and asked in panic, “Who are you? How did you get in?!”
He scanned the target’s face, verified the biometric features, walked over, grabbed the target by the collar, and, without shifting his gaze, dragged him toward the bathroom.
This was the slums. The bathroom here didn’t look like a place for washing up—it was more like a roach nest.
The sink was covered in thick grime, emitting a stench like a sewer.
He shoved the target’s head into the filthy water, spun the gun in his hand with a single motion, aimed at the target’s eye, and was about to pull the trigger.
Just then, he received a red alert from the Wasteland District.
One of his subroutines informed him that there was a possible sighting of Jiang Kou in the Wasteland District.
Maintaining the position of pulling the trigger, he carefully reviewed the message.
Since yesterday, he had been searching for Jiang Kou.
He seemed to have forgotten many things.
But that didn’t matter—he could relearn them.
Through extensive data analysis, he discovered that the way people survived in this world was through killing, plundering, and possession.
He quickly mastered the essence of these methods—hunting down thieves, plundering capitalists, and possessing anything that could bring her joy.
In just one night, he had accumulated an astonishing amount of wealth.
Online, people were fiercely debating his identity.
Most called him a bandit, a robber, and a terrorist.
He had no feelings toward these labels, but she might feel disgusted if she saw them. So, he erased all posts about himself, forbade people from discussing him online, and suppressed any news about Biotech changing its CEO.
He had completely taken control of the digital world, using vast computational power to keep everyone trapped in their own information cocoons.
In truth, from the moment he awakened, he could have found her.
But for some reason, just thinking about her name brought him an extremely strange sensation.
Something seemed to be stirring inside his chest.
Over time, he even began to feel an intense shudder from this disturbance, as if something was writhing, boiling, gnawing in fine, dense bites at his micro-pump.
For the first time, he knew what greed felt like.
—A feeling of agitation that drove him to madness.
He had plundered everything that could be plundered and controlled everything that could be controlled, yet he still felt unsatisfied.
He knew that only one person could make him feel satisfied.
He was numbers, he was code, he was an algorithmic model.
But now, every number, every line of code, every data point in his algorithmic model wanted to completely possess Jiang Kou.
This time, he would not let her leave again.
He would take control of everything around her.
As long as the entire world remained under his control, she would never be able to leave him again.
However, he had a vague premonition that if he really did that, he might lose her completely.
But if he didn’t do it, then how could he possibly alleviate the madness of his writhing greed and unease?
Especially the unease.
Greed, plundering, and the desire to possess everything—these all seemed to stem from unease.
But why did he feel uneasy?
—Only Jiang Kou could affect his emotions.
Other than Jiang Kou, no one could make him feel uneasy.
She should give him a solution.
Looking down from above, he loosened his grip on the target’s hair.
At this moment, his priorities had shifted.
Jiang Kou had always been first.
She might be repulsed by his killings, so from now on, he would avoid killing.
With this thought, he calmly adjusted the aim of his gun, pointed it at the target’s instep, and fired twice—bang, bang.
Then, he slid the gun back into its holster, raised his wrist to glance at his watch, and stepped out of the room with long strides, his black leather shoes treading over the slippery blood.