They stood outside the apartment complex for quite some time. Just as Kitagawa Hiroshi was beginning to feel thoroughly bored, a voice cut into their private comm channel.
"Mm... I just hacked into the building's internal network. According to the housing records, the man named Goodwin lives on the top floor. The entire floor is his. That's actually great news—when you infiltrate his place, you won't need to worry about having nowhere to hide."
Sasha's gentle voice suddenly chimed in, calm and reassuring. Kitagawa listened patiently, nodded slightly, and after thanking her, focused his gaze on the front desk of the apartment building.
He didn't know how this netrunner had managed to breach the system, but hacking wasn't his field, so he didn't ask further.
"But how are we supposed to get in?" David asked beside him.
Kitagawa exhaled a puff of smoke, crushed his cigarette against the wall, and tossed the butt into a nearby trash bin.
Not out of civic virtue—he just didn't want any unnecessary trouble before the mission. If some obsessive eco-warrior or civic enforcement nut saw him littering, he'd get an earful for sure.
To David's question, he gave a calm smile and said, "I just gave Lin-kun a call."
"Lin Mo? Why call him?" David blinked, puzzled. Then, as if realizing something, his eyes lit up. "Wait—don't tell me he's coming here?"
If his friend and boss were coming to join the mission tonight, that would make things way easier.
Though he'd never seen Lin Mo do anything particularly impressive, at school there was no real opportunity to show anything special. He was just an exceptionally handsome student.
But after training with Kitagawa for a while and hearing story after story of Lin Mo's supposed feats and battlefield triumphs, David had gradually built an image in his mind of a peerless warrior—someone who'd one day hold a blade with no equal under heaven.
"No," Kitagawa replied, lips curling slightly. "After I filled him in on the situation, he didn't say much. He just made a call to a real estate agency and rented an apartment in this building for three years."
"So... we've got authorized access now."
David stared, jaw dropping slightly, unable to respond. His understanding of how ridiculously rich his friend was had just deepened.
"Did he really have to rent it for three whole years...?" he couldn't help asking.
"You don't get it," Kitagawa smirked. "Without dropping some serious eddies, there's no way these greedy agents would process all the paperwork in under ten minutes. Lin-kun's foresight is beyond your comprehension."
Armed with the lease and encrypted credentials Lin Mo provided, Kitagawa and David walked into the building without any trouble.
When they reached the elevators, David expected Kitagawa to hit the button for the top floor. Instead, he pressed for the fourth—the floor Lin Mo's unit was on.
Just as David was about to ask why, Kitagawa looked over calmly and said, "This is it for you, kid. The infiltration's my job. You stay put in Lin-kun's place and wait for my orders."
David raised a brow, ready to argue—but seeing Kitagawa's serious face, he immediately understood the reason.
He was a newbie. Aside from some basic training, he had zero real-world experience infiltrating a target's home.
He'd only practiced it using training chips Lin Mo gave him—running stealth missions in virtual sims, dodging simulated enemies.
But simulations were inherently limited. Their enemies were just code, no matter how lifelike they seemed.
Direct combat skills like shooting or blade work? Sure, they could improve through virtual training. But infiltration required reading real-world environments, making on-the-fly decisions. Get spotted once, and it's game over.
Even in the sim, David couldn't pull off a 100% stealth success rate. In the real world? No way.
He only had one life.
Taking a deep breath, David nodded silently.
Kitagawa actually looked slightly relieved by the response. As the elevator doors opened and David was about to step out, Kitagawa added, "There's still food in the car I packed earlier. If you get bored waiting around, go grab it and eat."
"This kind of apartment isn't cheap, so there should be some decent entertainment setup in there. But don't get too comfy and forget about me, you hear?"
"Wow... do you have that little faith in me?" David sighed, exasperated, like a small dog just poked too many times. As the doors closed, he slowly raised a middle finger.
"After you entered the building, I already deleted your surveillance footage," came Sasha's voice again through the encrypted channel—calm, precise. "I had limited time, so I could only access the 'surface-level' electronics. I've temporarily disabled the security turrets and cameras on the target floor, but the rest is up to you."
Her tone was colder now—professional, focused. Gone was the warm "big sister" vibe from before. It made Kitagawa wonder if she was even the same person.
Are all netrunners this cold when they're in the zone?
Kitagawa nodded and asked, "Can you unlock the apartment door?"
"You're planning to go through the front?" Sasha replied flatly. "I'd advise against it. For high-end duplexes like this, the main security doors aren't networked—they rely on biometric and smart recognition systems. Unless I'm on-site with cracking gear, I'd need to breach the core ICE of the apartment's internal net to open the door remotely."
"Can you try?"
"Come back in half an hour," Sasha said calmly. "You and David can chill and have some food. By the time you're done, I should be through."
"But don't worry—I've already found another way in. Head up to the rooftop, then jump down from the southeast side. You'll land on the target's balcony. It's only four meters—should be easy for you."
Kitagawa frowned, thinking. "That easy? Isn't the place supposed to have serious security?"
"Normally, yes. Try that without proper clearance and you'd get ventilated in midair. The balcony's got three automated turrets. But don't worry—I've already shut them down."
"You're sure it's safe?" Kitagawa asked warily.
He trusted Lin Mo's judgment, and by extension, Sasha—but this was life and death. He couldn't afford to take chances.
-
-
-
-
MY CYBERPUNK 2077 SIMULATOR
🧠💻 MY CYBERPUNK 2077 SIMULATOR 💻🧠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📢 SYSTEM ONLINE! 📢
My Cyberpunk 2077 Simulator has 100+ chapters ahead available on Patreon! 💾🔥
Enter Night City with a simulator, a system, and the kind of advantage most mercs would kill for.
But this is still Night City.
And in a world ruled by corpos, bullets, chrome, gangs, and cyberpsychos, even a cheat-like power doesn't guarantee survival.
⚙️ Level up.🔫 Fight harder.🌃 Stay alive.💀 Or get swallowed by the city.
Read ahead now before the public readers catch up!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🛑 ALSO AVAILABLE ON PATREON:
🌃 Cyberpunk: Dogtown Legend🔥 Cyberpunk: The Relentless👩👦 Cyberpunk: Lucy Adopted Me and I Got a System🤖 My Girlfriend's a Cyberpsycho—Who Knew?🛡️ Star Wars: The Rise of Mandalore🌌 Star Wars: Relics of the Past🏰 Game of Thrones: Secrets Beneath the Dreadfort⚡ The Rebirth of Harry Potter🌹 R18: Reincarnated in Her World
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔗 Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/MrMagnus👤 Patreon Name: SrMagnus🐦 X / Twitter: https://x.com/SrMagnusBook
⚠️ Power Stones determine which novel gets priority!