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"Ahhh—"
Yawning, Karl stepped out of his room, scrolling through his phone as he emerged. From the second floor, he glanced down at the first.
Empty. No one around.
Time: 8:00 a.m.
He looked at the tightly shut doors flanking the hallway. Yeah, made sense.
Yesterday had been Día de los Muertos—Day of the Dead. Jack and the others partied way too hard. They were still out cold.
Karl strolled downstairs at a leisurely pace, checking his messages. The latest one came from the Priest—another job request.
The details? Fairly simple. Retrieve a briefcase full of sensitive data from some corpo and deliver it.
Karl skimmed through the intel. No need for a full squad on this one. He pushed the job to the team channel, seeing if anyone wanted to pick it up solo.
A few other gigs from Old Captain and some other fixers came in too. He shared those as well.
These days, jobs requiring the whole team were rare. Everyone had plenty of eddies saved up, and unless they were blowing it on luxury rides or extravagant habits, they were more than covered. The squad could afford to be picky now.
After sending out a few jobs that V would likely jump on, Karl checked the rest of his inbox.
Fewer messages than from the fixers, but still a few familiar names.
Brown had sent a pic from Morocco—looked like Kerry Eurodyne's tour had landed there.
Karl remembered Kerry griping in a private chat: according to his moronic manager's plan, this was the final stop of the tour. After that, they'd float rumors that Kerry was creatively spent and battling depression at home, just to keep the public intrigued. Showbiz politics—way over Karl's head.
Even rockstars don't get to live entirely on their own terms.
Karl gave Brown a thumbs-up reaction and moved on to Blanca's message.
She'd recently been promoted, and so had her subordinate—some woman named Meredith-something. Apparently she was now a department head at Militech. Karl remembered Blanca once asking him to keep an eye on her during a past op. Judging by her smooth promotion, it looked like Meredith passed Blanca's loyalty test.
Probably gave her some dirt to hold on to.
Karl wasn't particularly invested in corpo drama.
A friend getting promoted? Good enough for him. Though truth be told, he thought Blanca's rise had been kind of slow.
Each time she moved up, it was by framing someone else or eliminating a rival or boss. If this were Arasaka, she would've rocketed up the chain by now. After all those moves, she was only now at the director level—just barely allowed to sit in on regional board meetings.
Given how long she'd been working for Militech—since just after turning eighteen, if Karl recalled—it felt underwhelming.
The Arasaka system really was more efficient. If you were competent, you could hit department chief in no time. Kill the guy above you, boom—head of department. Another six months, take out the next one—you're an executive. Like speedrunning corporate hell.
Karl thought about V. If V had joined a megacorp, with his drive and skills, he'd have cleared the board like a solo boss run.
One year from rookie to Arasaka boardroom. Just the thought was satisfying.
That said, no one had climbed faster than Adam Smasher under Arasaka's system.
He'd jumped straight from Arasaka-backed mercenary to Head of Security at Arasaka Tower—with just one order.
"Head of Security" might sound mid-tier, but when your core business is security, that post is near the top.
In the corporate ladder game, Smasher hadn't climbed—he sprouted wings and flew straight to the summit.
Thanks to some "well-placed connections" inside Arasaka, Karl had a decent grasp of what kind of power Smasher's role actually carried.
To put it simply: the man wasn't just security.
He was the Emperor's shadow.
Smasher held absolute authority over anything related to Arasaka Tower's safety. He had the power to act first and justify later. Only the Tower's master could overrule him.
Even someone like Kenichiro Arasaka, a high-level VP, technically fell under Smasher's jurisdiction.
As long as he wasn't directly challenging the head of the Tower, Adam Smasher had full imperial license—"execution first, explanation later."
Karl smirked.
"Preemptive imperial license... sounds like something a eunuch would say."
And with that full-body cyborg shell, the comparison wasn't too far off.
He made a mental note to send that joke to Mr. Kenichiro later—might get a good laugh out of it.
After going through all the updates from friends, Karl's eyes landed on Hanako's chat window.
She'd messaged him a few days ago. Back in Japan, Yorinobu and Saburo Arasaka had gotten into another heated standoff—apparently almost coming to blows again. Saburo was so pissed he returned to the Kyoto estate, refusing to see his "unfilial son."
No idea how Yorinobu was doing now.
For Karl, who had worked under him in the past, Yorinobu had always seemed like a decent guy—definitely better than that fossil Saburo.
Old bastard should've dropped dead ages ago.
Karl, who knew Saburo's history, saw him for what he was—a relic of imperial militarism. A dangerous remnant of a bygone era.
The fact that he was still alive? Honestly, too much already.
Karl always valued these little bits of intel from friends. They'd often sprinkle key insights into casual conversations. But lately, things in Night City had been eerily calm.
Just as he had that thought, a message popped up from a contact he barely remembered—an account he had exchanged info with once, but never really spoken to since.
"Mr. KK, do you remember me?
Do you or your team have any availability?
If so, please reply by 6:00 p.m. today."
Wait... this handle...
Karl checked his notes.
NetWatch?
He remembered now—he'd only met one NetWatch agent face to face, and that was the only one he'd ever exchanged contact info with.
The guy had been smooth, friendly—easy to talk to.
They almost ended up watching a western together. Would've, too—if V and the others hadn't finished the mission before the opening credits ended.
"NetWatch jobs pay well."
That line had made the rounds in both the merc and bodyguard circuits.
Karl replied:
"Didn't you have the Animals on long-term protection detail? Still got them watching your back?"
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