The company had a whole arsenal of war-prep assets. Take the "Bee Venom—High-Potency Extract" we used last time—there's plenty sitting in the warehouse. That's what we used to wipe out the Oda clan; the results were outstanding.
But in essence, "Bee Venom" is still just a poison. Yes, it's a targeted gene-tracking agent—tuned right, it's "instant-kill for Tokugawa" without collateral damage—but it only works if you deliver it properly. The delivery is the key.
Back when the company handled it, we yanked the whole plane server offline, sent in nanobots to slip into zaibatsu mansions, and killed the targets one by one by name.
If Li Pan had to do it now, he'd probably have to consult the SOPs, adjust the Bee Venom's activation curve, kidnap some third-tier Tokugawa family member, stick a dose straight into the vein, then release him to seed the clan by kin-contact. The extinction efficiency wouldn't even be the same sport.
And with both the Oda and the Tokugawa wiped out by similar toxins, the blowback would be ugly.
So Li Pan planned to keep looking—for a cleaner contingency "monster," the smaller the side effects, the better.
Of course, he could also try huffing Black Ice while using Ghost-Slayer to name targets and cut them down one head at a time. If he didn't care about triggering cyberpsychosis, and didn't care whether the Takamagahara board overreacted, he could just lob a nuke at Night City and be done with it.
In other words, killing Tokugawa wasn't the hard part. The hard part was finding the fall guy to carry the blame.
Monster Corp might be magnanimous, but they'd already covered for a covert op once. They weren't going to keep taking the heat and go to war with other corporations again just to shield a subsidiary manager. So the scapegoat problem was Li Pan's to solve.
"Yo? President Tōdō? Li Pan here. Dinner's on me. What? You're already back in Kansai? Oh wow, quick on your feet… Alright, pass along my regards to the Hashiba patriarch, then! Heh…"
"Yo? Emiliya? I'll leave a message after the beep—what the—"
Tch. Tricky. Who would've thought that with the Tokugawa army encircling Night City, both the Ye Clan and Hashiba people would turtle up. So who's going to wear this pot on their head…?
Li Pan stared at the news, speechless. The Ye Clan had pulled most forces back to the Core District to guard home base. It wasn't even dark yet and you could already hear gunfights popping off in the suburbs, the Old Capital District, and the slums.
And it wasn't even Tokugawa regulars—just gangs that vassaled to Tokugawa, organizing a counterattack. If Li Pan hadn't quietly removed a big chunk of East Castle Society's weapons earlier, the show would've been even louder.
From the looks of it, the Ye Clan was turtling to avoid a head-on clash with Tokugawa—smelled like compromise talks were on the table.
If he didn't move fast, by the time Tokugawa and the Ye Clan reached an accord, he'd have no place left in Night City.
Just when Li Pan was coming up empty, No. 18 made progress on the thief case.
"Boss, I restored the deleted surveillance and found the burglar who broke into your apartment."
"Oh? A gang?"
"Not a gang—a maid."
"A ma—"
The footage was crystal clear: the perp hadn't even tried to disguise herself. It was the werewolf maid, Leticia, the Hound.
Wait—her?
And who shows up to steal in a full-on work uniform? Are you doing door-to-door delivery?! And calling that a "break-in"? That was a drop-kick that blasted the door off the hinges! What grudge—oh… was it for the stocking? Damn hound's nose is sharp—no wonder she found the head I hid in the toilet tank…
Li Pan took a draw of Black Ice to steady himself.
"Ahem. Eighteen, can you get a fix on her location?"
"I have her private link too, Boss. Want me to call her?"
"You have her private—how?"
"Boss, you forgot? You hid a poppet in the black-gold comm card you gave her. When she withdrew funds, her private link got exposed. Should I just burn her comm chip?
"Though she's no hacker—no full neural lace. The chip's an outdated second-hand piece, not cranial—probably won't kill her."
…Yeah, dirty-cash deals really aren't safe.
"Mm. Spin up a hidden channel and ping her."
"On it. Username?"
"…Chairman, Combat Fan Club."
The channel connected. The other side said nothing. Li Pan sat in silence for a while, then asked:
"Is the item with you?"
A photo came in. Sure enough, it was that double-bagged plastic sack, seemingly unopened.
"…How much do you want?"
She flashed a three.
"Thirty thousand?"
Li Pan asked.
Another three.
"…Three hundred thousand?"
Silence. Then another three.
Li Pan's patience snapped.
"Hey! Pick a number and stick to it! One million—take it or leave it!"
A hurried reply:
"OK OK!"
Li Pan: "…"
Whatever. A million for Tokugawa Chihime's head wasn't a loss.
He grabbed a cab out to a suburban apartment block, followed the coordinates to the basement.
What had been the laundry room and parking garage had been converted into a "youth hostel"—or, more nicely, co-living: ten-square-meter cubicles with bootleg water and power. You could live here if you had the cash.
At the innermost cubicle, he knocked. He could feel her qi right behind the door, so he called out:
"Leticia? I didn't bring a weapon."
The door opened. The Hound was wearing the same sharp casual outfit from the underground ring. She stepped aside to let him in.
He'd assumed this was just some cheap neutral ground to swap the head. But the bedclothes, the underwear and maid uniform drying in the bathroom… looked like she actually lived here—and the smell hit him right away…
The Hound didn't care about his wandering gaze. She turned, opened the mini-fridge, and lifted out the plastic bag.
"Deal was one million. Want to inspect the goods?"
Suspicious, Li Pan asked,
"You really didn't open it?"
She shrugged.
Li Pan frowned.
"What did you think it was?"
She rolled her eyes, sniffed, and said,
"Pork head or something? Pricey stuff—smuggled?"
Li Pan was, for a moment, speechless.
Between the Vegetarian Alliance bans and ever tighter bio-quarantine rules, the poor ate synthetic paste—not everyone could afford seasoned maggot-protein meat. Plenty of illegal underground farms raised unregistered gene-mod livestock in the sewers. Sure, the hormones and heavy metals were off the charts, but… yeah, kind of mouth-watering if you didn't think about it.
The Hound clicked her tongue. "Hey, I didn't sneak a bite. If you're not inspecting, pay up. You said it—one million!"
Eighteen came over the ear, "No hidden cameras. No hackers on the local LAN. Signals suppressed. Hijacking the subnet now."
Li Pan hesitated, then asked, "Leticia, right? I can call you that?"
She snapped, "Don't get chummy, you per—vert. I don't do sleepovers. Pay up."
"…Leticia it is," Li Pan sighed. "First off, this is a one-million transfer. Do you have a legal personal account?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Planning to stiff me?"
He stared at her. "You live in a place like this. If I wire a million to you, my account gets flagged for money laundering and frozen. Do you wolves have a company account?"
Leticia bared her fangs and tightened those long legs, ready to pounce.
Li Pan hurriedly pointed at the stocking—fresh-washed and hanging in the bathroom.
"And that was a souvenir I paid ten thousand for. Since you stole it back, shouldn't you refund me?"
Even Leticia shuddered, spitting,
"Oh, so you're the perv here!"
Li Pan didn't mind; he was more curious.
"So why go out of your way to steal it back? Planning to wear it? Don't tell me you've only got the one uniform."
Leticia's temper flared.
"Hey! You stole my clothes! I came to take them back and beat you up!
"And can you seriously not tell it's a work uniform? You want me going to work bare-legged? That stocking is real silk! You can't even buy that on the market! The full set is 26,000—how am I supposed to pay for it? That ten grand was emotional damages!"
Li Pan sighed and tried to reason with her.
"Same issue: your account's variance cap can't handle a six-thousand swing, let alone a million. Tomorrow it's frozen; the day after, the Night Riders roll out in force to hunt wolves. You'll lose even this little room and end up in the sewers. Smelly, no?"
"…What do you want?"
Maybe she didn't want sewer life. Leticia held her anger in check.
Li Pan handed over a card.
"Come work for me."
She arched a brow.
"So after all that, you do want to ride me. And you steal stockings. What—want me to use my feet?
Hey, if you've got money, buy yourself Dreams-Plus. Don't bring me into your nasty kinks."
They say a 30-point IQ variance makes conversation impossible. Li Pan hadn't believed it. Now he did.
Rubbing his brow, feeling another headache coming on, he said,
"Look—you can fight. You're a reinforced werewolf. I'll hire you as a night-shift plant guard. 20,000 a month. The one million becomes a performance bonus paid out over time. How about it?"
Leticia was tempted, but after a struggle she shook her head.
"I can't do nights. If I work, it has to be day shift."
"Didn't you fight in the underground ring at night?"
"That was time off I rushed for—" She caught herself. "Hey, you're probing our intel!"
Only now you realize it…?
Li Pan tried baiting her:
"You wolves want to overthrow the Ye Clan, right? Need arms?
Don't look at me like that—I'm not their ghost. We're all just doing business.
"Seriously—I've got guns, ammo, grenade launchers—cheap. Interested?"
Leticia narrowed her eyes.
"Don't bother. I won't talk about the pack."
Li Pan kept at it.
"Maybe your dad will. The one whose balls I kicked. Take him my card. I'll cut you two points commission."
"Who?" She frowned, then got it. "Oh—that's not my dad… Two points is how much?"
Li Pan did the math. "First deal—say we move two million worth. Commission is 40,000. I can pay you now."
"Forty thou…" She was tempted—but shook it off. "Enough chatter—pay the million for your pork head first!"
Eighteen: "Surveillance edits complete."
Li Pan glanced at the still Eighteen sent—Leticia pulling the head from the fridge. He smiled, stopped teasing, took out an encrypted NFC card and handed it over.
"Here. One million."
"Tch. Dirty cash, huh…"
She went quiet. She'd realized what all his blah-blah meant: no clean cash. Near-field cards meant illicit accounts and passwords. Still, a million dirty was a lot to launder.
She bit her lip, took the card, and—right in front of him—tapped it to the subdermal chip at her waist, logged in, confirmed the one million, and beamed like she'd won the lottery.
Eighteen: "Boss, done. I've updated the poppet package. Once she contacts anyone, their coordinates get infected and replicated outward."
Right—no pain, no gain. Plant one million today, harvest a field of millions tomorrow.
"Well then, I'll be going. Think about the arms deal. Ping me anytime."
Leticia sat on the bed, grinning dumbly. But as Li Pan turned to leave, she suddenly lashed out, her foot smashing into his knee!
The room was tiny, and she struck without warning. Li Pan couldn't dodge. He dropped to one knee and lost the plastic bag.
Leticia lunged—crucifix choke from behind—locked him down, a rear-naked choke in an instant! Her shoulders slammed forward—trying to spike his skull into the floor!
Li Pan jolted, instantly hot-started the antigrav. They shot up to the ceiling. He flowed into weasel-twist snake-slither, torqued his waist, and slipped from her arms, scampering along the wall like a gecko.
But Leticia's long legs were explosive. A bend and a spring and she was on him again, bear-hugging his waist and suplexing him into the wall—boom!—smashing through into the next cubicle!
True-qi flared—Li Pan kipped up, guarding the back of his head—but she was on him again, a side kick sending him through another wall!
Pummeled and furious, he ripped the sink off and hurled it at her.
But the wolf-girl's assault didn't stop. A shoulder-knee blast—crash—shattered the sink, then another knee sent him flying—through yet another wall!
Good grief. Being chased through three rooms was a first. Now it wasn't personal—it was pride.
Leticia's axe kick scythed for his head. Li Pan prone-rolled beneath it and sprang back, tackled her around the legs, roared, and body-slammed her—boom—through another wall!
She fired back in kind—sweeping at his shins—only to find he'd floated in with his antigrav and swept empty. He caught her shoulder and arm with a lock, swung, and slammed her again.
To avoid a dislocation, she hunched her back, ate the hit, and curled tight around her core.
This time Li Pan's follow-up was faster. He killed the antigrav and burst forward—Superman push-kick dead center! WHAM! The kick broke her forearm against the wall and launched her into the laundry room. CLANG—into the pipes—FOOM—a cloud of steam.
In the span of a few breaths, they'd tunneled six cubicles straight through.
Leticia got up, reset the broken arm with a flick, bared her fangs, and grinned.
Great. That laugh—was she my kind…?
Li Pan shrugged off his jacket, rolled his sleeves, face dark, and strode into the laundry room.
A gust tore at him.
With the space opened up among the machines, Leticia unfolded to full range, a long-leg side kick scything for his inner thigh like a sickle.
Li Pan stepped into it, slid sideways, and blocked with his elbow. THUD! The shock numbed his arm.
Damn, her legs hit like a truck. Without Nine Yin guarding him, that kick would've snapped bone.
Nor was she stupid. The "avid fan" had watched her underground Muay Thai—of course he knew her whip-kicks were lethal. He was forcing the clinch, aiming for ground-and-pound.
In that instant Leticia rebounded, her bent leg machine-gunning three kicks into his shoulder, waist, and elbow—no penetration, but enough to shove him back and reset the range for her next charge-up sweep.
If there's anything worse than a superhuman, it's a superhuman who knows how to fight. Li Pan wanted to use this little she-wolf to fish for bigger prey—so he couldn't open with a Dragon Break to the skull. As she retreated, he changed rhythm, scooped low, trapped her shin under his arm, and stab-kicked her ankle—dumping her.
She adapted fast, scissoring her legs to lock his waist, shrimped up like a lobster, and dropped elbows at his head.
His head was still tender—no way he could eat those. He turned his face; an elbow smashed his nose—crack. He gritted through it and spiked her—BANG—into the tiles.
They tangled on the ground, limbs braided, sending washing machines tumbling, shattering pipes and tiles into flying shards.
Li Pan's physicals were better; Nine Yin was offense and defense both; and he was wearing fresh Level-5 armor. The she-wolf couldn't truly hurt him.
But she was a pro—underground circuit veteran. Legs were her forte, but her ground game wasn't bad, and werewolf stamina and regen were insane. In the scramble, Li Pan gave up position—she slid into another armbar attempt.
No way he'd let her set up a guillotine. He posted to block the elbow lock; she flowed to a counter; they wound up cheek to cheek, practically kissing as they crashed together.
Two superhumans, no blades—just fists and feet. Unless they escalated, neither could quickly put the other down.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
Pinned at the wrist, Li Pan couldn't get leverage, breathing hard.
"Ha… ha…"
Leticia arched her neck, faces pressed together, her hot breath washing over his ear and throat.
"Hey, you smell gross…"
"Huh? What—?"
His brain lagged a beat. Leticia slid her shin up between his thighs, probed and pressed—his spine went rigid. She chuckled low, lips brushing his ear:
"You like getting kicked, don't you? Awoo…"
"Oh—what the hell, lady?!"
A wet swirl in his ear—he jolted—and then she bit. Fangs flashed—CHOMP—right on his cheek.
To keep the handkerchief-shift smooth, Li Pan's face had no armor. Her bite punctured two clean rows of teeth.
Rage flared. He blasted an elbow, knocked her off, reversed, and pinned her by the throat, fist cocked—
—and she… didn't resist. Loose hair on the tiles, eyes glazed, lips flushed, breathing deep—legs locking around him, hips grinding up.
"…The hell?"
Li Pan knew what that meant—and also had no idea what she was doing.
She only panted, sniffed, and licked the blood on her teeth, arching like she meant to shuck her jeans—
Then she sprang—core strength only—kip-up into a flying front kick! He'd spaced out at the sight of her pale navel—and she booted him through another wall.
"Dammit—cough—"
Dust-covered. He'd lost that exchange—let his mind wander, and paid for it.
By the time he snapped back, Leticia had kicked open a basement hatch and slipped into the sewers. Sirens wailed outside.
Eighteen: "Boss, someone upstairs called it in. NCPA is converging."
"Damn it! Crazy woman! Psycho!"
Li Pan smashed the wall with a punch. No time to chase the she-… wolf down and execute her. He grabbed the plastic bag with the head, and hurried back to the company to get a werewolf vaccine shot.
.
.
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⚠️ 30 CHAPTERS AHEAD — I'm Not a Cyberpsycho ⚠️
The system says: Kill.Mercs obey. Corporates obey. Monsters obey.One man didn't.
🧠💀 "I'm not a cyberpsycho. I just think... differently."
💥 High-voltage cyberpunk. Urban warfare. AI paranoia.Read 30 chapters ahead, only on Patreon.
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