"Hey! The fuck is your problem!!?"
The second thug grabbed his shoulder and tried to throw him off of his seat. Dante matched his motion, rotating his body on the stool so he wouldn't fall off. As the coughing settled, he wiped his mouth and glared up at him.
"The hell do you want?"
"We told you to scram." The thug with the metallic arm tapped Dante's chest. "You deaf or something?"
A red line appeared on his head and moved down. As it passed his artificial limb, a red screen appeared as if to select that area.
[This bionic arm is made of subpar materials.] Said Volcan. [The circuits are inefficient, and the processing cores are not optimized for this type of bionics. In all likelihood, it is a low-grade product made from different scrap materials. It does not seem to have been implanted correctly either.]
To Dante, everything the AI said was only the obvious. He didn't need to be knowledgeable about bionics to know that a street rat could only afford some cheap junk assembled somewhere in The Pit. Anyone with better bionics wouldn't be playing gangster on the streets of Hollowgrid.
[Dante, I'm detecting a breaching attempt. The second individual is trying to forcefully infiltrate your Neural Interface Module.]
Shifting his gaze, Dante pierced the thug in the biker jacket with a glare, causing him to flinch back.
[The infiltration attempt has been successfully blocked. Your upgraded Neural Interface Module is perfectly shielded against such low-level hacking techniques.]
'Huh?' Dante raised an eyebrow. 'Really?'
[Yes.] Volcan replied. [I am not even required to intervene.]
"Didn't I tell you to leave me alone?" Just as the two thugs appeared to get more irritated, Nobara decided to speak up. "If you aren't here to eat then you should be the one to scram."
She seemed more annoyed than angry.
"Zip it, old bag." Metal arm said. "We will deal with this asshole first."
[Dante-]
'No,' interrupting him, Dante sighed internally. 'They aren't worth it. Besides, grandma is watching.'
He was ready to pull out the gun Larry gave him from the moment one of them touched his shoulder. Armed or not, Dante knew he could handle both with ease from the moment he saw them. Sadly, he couldn't just blow up their heads there. The shop was a favorite of his, and he didn't want to give the owner a heart attack.
'Maybe I should take it outside…'
[I assume that you would like to deal with them discreetly. Is that correct?]
'... yes… can you make them go away without causing a scene?'
[I cannot guarantee an entirely clean result. The most I can do is overload the processors of their bionic implants, causing them to overheat in seconds.]
'Do it.'
"Listen, punk," Grabbing the collar of his shirt, metal arm brought his face closer. "Little shits like you should know their place. We run these streets now so get lost before I punch your face in!"
"Uh, Ross," The second guy held his hands up, suddenly looking distressed. "I don't think-"
ZZZAP
An electric spark jumped from the first rat's arm and drew their attention to it. Just then, more leaked from beneath the gaps between the plates before the entire thing erupted in flames.
"Huh?" It took him a moment to realize what happened. "Wha- aaaaAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"
His face switched colors till it settled on terror. Whipping his arm away from Dante, he began flailing it around trying to put out the flames.
"PUT IT OUT PUT IT OUT PUT IT OUT!!!"
The others were too stunned to move. Dante was surprised, too, but he reacted quickly, reaching for the fire extinguisher behind the counter. White foam sprayed out and covered the thug. In a couple of seconds, the flames were gone and he was left kneeling on the ground panting.
"What… What the hell…"
Dante stared at him for a moment.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Huh?"
"I don't know where you got that thing, but you should probably go ask for a refund."
The bionic arm was busted. Dante had expected it to glitch out or shut down, but instead, it went up in flames. Things like that were possible but rare. It takes a very capable Diver to pull it off.
"I… Wha…"
"C'mon, Ross. let's go."
The second rat picked up his still disoriented friend and dragged him out of the shop. At the door, he stopped to glance back at Dante but ultimately said nothing. The bell chimed, and the silence returned. It took a few seconds for Nobara to breathe in relief.
"Boy, what in the world did you do?"
"Me?" Dante pointed a finger at himself, blinking innocently. "I didn't do anything."
[I do not think-]
'Yeah yeah, I know.'
Suspicion was clear in the old woman's eyes, but after a couple of seconds, she sighed, showing that she had no interest in pressing the matter. Putting the fire extinguisher back in its place, Dante sat back to continue his meal. He still had a question and didn't delay asking it.
"You know those idiots?"
"Yeah." Reaching under the counter, Nobara grabbed a long pipe and lit it up. "They work for some brat who calls himself Riot. From what I heard, they were kicked out of their last shit hole and are trying to rebuild here."
"So they came to you for protection money?"
"Honestly." She puffed a long line of white smoke. "Who still plays mafia in this day and age."
Almost every part of Neo-Vatra was under the influence of some gang and Hollowgrid was no different. In fact, with it being one of the less desirable parts of the city, one could find at least one small gang for every megacomplex. Those usually made from kids with too much time on their hands and this one didn't seem any different, except for it being led by an outsider.
"Are you going to be fine?" Dante asked.
If someone is trying to collect taxes from shops in the area, it is unlikely that they would just stop after one visit.
"Hah! You think they were the first to try this?" Tapping the pipe, Nobara emptied the embers into a small ashtray. "Don't worry, I know how to handle their kind."