"So, Song So mi..., did you actually find your freedom? Because look at me. V. Just another face in the crowd of Night City. Dammit... I lost Johnny. I lost Panam, Judy...
Yeah. I lost everything."
…
"Liam! Stop dreaming and wake the hell up! Drink!"
My head felt like it had been put through a industrial shredder. The vertigo of a multi-day bender combined with a lack of sleep sent a wave of nausea rolling through my stomach.
Wait. Wasn't I just writing a game guide? Is this... some kind of transmigration?
Liam spat out sour beer, lukewarm taste of cheap synthetic beer. As his vision cleared, he saw his drinking buddy sitting on a rusted chemical drum across from me.
Neon paint was splattered across his tactical cargos, and his chrome arms were covered in glowing tattoos of snarling hounds—
Barghest?!
At the same time, several lines of information appeared in Liam's field of vision:
[Character: Zilv Sano]
[Affiliation: Dogtown]
[Affinity: 40 (A total fraud; yesterday he swore you were brothers for life.)]
[Development Value: If you have questionable taste, go for it.]
[Milestone Reward: Reach 50 Affinity for Body +1 and a pair of 'Authentic Sweaty Military Gloves.']
This system has way too much of a sick sense of humor. Liam's expression darkened.
Across from him, the rough man's optical implant was one recessed slab. Two faint red beams glowed from within, making Liam's skin crawl.
Too real. That guy's cyberware looked as crude as something scavenged from Scavengers.
With a slight sway beneath his feet, Liam finally realized he was inside a moving truck. The enclosed cargo compartment was piled with all kinds of weapons and equipment—legitimate corporate goods.
And he and this so-called "good brother" were the security detail escorting this shipment back to Dogtown.
Taking a deep breath, Liam sorted through the chaos in his mind and stared blankly at his neuro-controlled mechanical arm.
The steel fingers flexed with soft transmission sounds. He was utterly stunned by the exquisite structure and lifelike tactile feedback of the cyberware.
This is insane. Can humans really create something indistinguishable from natural limbs?
Wait—there's something more important!
Light flickered in his cybernetic eye, and his body attributes surfaced:
[Name]: Liam
[Body]: 5
[Reflexes]: 3
[Technical Ability]: 1
[Intelligence]: 3
[Cool]: 4
Great. Based on these stats, I wasn't exactly a legend in the making.
"You sleep yourself stupid or what? Damn! Don't tell me it's cyberware incompatibility again?"
Sano looked suspicious, tilting back his head to gulp beer. The air grew tense.
"Nah. Just hit my limit," Liam muttered, raising his hands in a mock gesture of defeat. "I'm done. You win."
He needed time to process this nightmare.
"Told you you were a puss—" Before Sano could finish, a creaking metallic noise echoed through the dim cargo hold.
"Hey? What's going on?"
Instinctively, Liam grabbed the rifle at his side. It was as if the original owner's long training kicked in—muscle memory made him rack the bolt. A crisp click followed.
[Arasaka 'Nowaki' Power Assault Rifle].
Good enough.
Sano raised his gun and crouched, moving slowly toward the source of the noise.
Sensing something wrong, Liam shouted immediately:
"Get down!"
SCREECH—!
The massive tearing sound of steel split the air as fierce wind from outside blasted in. Liam grabbed the emergency handle inside the truck.
At the same time, the truck slammed the brakes. All the equipment in the cargo hold slid violently to one side!
"Shit, shit, shit!"
Liam clutched the rifle tightly. Sano, caught off guard, was crushed beneath a pile of crates. The world began spinning as if it were about to flip upside down.
The truck's going to overturn!
With crackling electric noise, Liam's cybernetic arm powered up. He slammed his elbow into the cargo bay's smart lock behind him.
The next second, he was violently thrown out of the truck. Instinctively, he raised both arms to shield his head.
BAM!
Liam slammed into the scorching asphalt. The friction of synthetic skin against the road produced a burnt stench.
Vital signs scrolled rapidly across his vision. Multiple fractures. Intense pain flooded his brain.
Dammit... I'm gonna die...
Stay conscious!
A sudden, chilling clarity washed over him.
His Pain Editor had kicked in, flooding his system with synthetic endorphins and combat stimulants.
Can't stay down. In this world, people die like it's nothing—
Dragging his numb body, Liam rolled behind a roadside rock. Panting heavily, he checked his weapon, then cautiously peeked at the shattered transport convoy in the distance.
Zip!
A bullet grazed past his scalp. His cyber-eye instantly calculated the shooter's position.
Liam fired a blind suppressive burst toward the source and scrambled toward other rocks along the roadside.
"Clear 'em out! Every last one!" a gravelly voice roared. "Especially the ones still twitching. These bastards love to come back for a second bite."
The speaker was massive—a brick-shithouse of a man with a military buzzcut. He pressed the barrel of a shotgun against the head of a downed Barghest soldier and pulled the trigger without blinking.
He'd also noticed that slippery kid. Gotta say—Barghest combat training ain't half bad.
"Maine! Maine!"
A man with a mohawk hunched forward. His oversized cybernetic arms were absurdly large. As he hurled a grenade that blew apart several remaining Barghest, he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"The kid's power rifle rounds are bouncing right into my hands! You know how much I love this model!"
Liam, crouched behind his new cover, froze for a moment.
Maine?
That name sounds so familiar—
The enemy fire was getting more and more accurate. Liam couldn't be sure whether they had tech weapons. If they started punching through rock, he'd be dead for sure.
Clatter—
Amid flying gravel, a weaponized vehicle covered in Barghest graffiti drifted hard to a stop beside Liam. The roof-mounted auto-turret sprayed nonstop, shell casings ejecting in a steady stream.
"It's those goddamn mercs! Get in!"
Half of Sano's face was covered in blood, one arm hanging limp. He kicked the door open and shouted at Liam.
Liam dove into the passenger seat, where piercing rock music blasted from the speakers, and immediately rolled down the window.
Leaning halfway out, he unleashed suppressive fire from his power assault rifle at several hijackers using cargo trucks as cover. The bouncing, ricocheting rounds forced them to duck in unison.
"The cargo!"
"What? Oh, the cargo?" Sano, too busy and too loud to turn off the music, barely heard him. "Fuck the cargo! We bail first, brother!"
If Colonel Hansen found out a whole truck of military supplies got wiped, he'd probably make the two of them wish they were never born.
Liam felt uneasy.
But Sano was right—if you're dead, who cares about cargo?
The engine roared as the vehicle fishtailed again, tearing off across the sand in the opposite direction.
"They're running!"
Maine tapped the comm button behind his ear. "Rebecca, those two idiots are yours."
"Yeah, yeah."
The girl sitting on the weathered rock flicked her twin ponytails and stood up with a pout of disdain, hefting a massive gun nearly as tall as she was.
"These guys really want us dead, huh?" Sano muttered as he spotted an interception ahead, one hand cranking the wheel while the other reached for the missile system installed on the Barghest vehicle.
"Eat this, you bastards!" His hand went for the missile trigger.
Liam's cyber-eye automatically adjusted its zoom.
On a distant rock stood a short girl, her twin ponytails whipping in the desert heat.
Information about her appeared instantly in his vision:
[Character: Rebecca]
[Faction: Night City]
[Affinity: -10 (She'd love nothing more than to blast you with a shotgun right now.)]
[Development Value: Potential Legend. (Want to survive? Want to fix this twisted world? Get close to her.)]
[Reward: ???]
His temples throbbed. The crimson data glow in his cyber-eye stabbed at his nerves. Memories from his previous life surged up—
Rebecca was supposed to be crushed beneath Arasaka Tower, like a black tombstone, her body destroyed by Adam Smasher…
No!
This isn't the time to go soft!
Gritting his teeth, Liam pulled the trigger without hesitation—
—but searing pain suddenly tore through his shoulder.
"Damn it!"
When the truck flipped, the Pain Editor had temporarily suppressed the agony from his dislocated bones. Combined with high-intensity rapid fire, the misalignment had worsened.
Worse yet, the Pain Editor was about to wear off.
"Agh! Fuck!"
Enduring the agony, Liam sent a storm of bullets pouring toward the Badlands dunes, the shots mixing with the screech of electric guitar.
But after the first burst, his arm lost precision control. The bullets went wild.
"Shit!"
Sano jerked the steering wheel to dodge incoming fire, the vehicle fishtailing violently over gravel. "Does that crazy chick have an RPG?!"
With his other hand, Liam clung desperately to the interior handle and shouted through clenched teeth, "How the hell would I know?!"
Meanwhile—
Rebecca dodged the iron rain of bullets.
The Barghest are firing missiles?!
Her heart pounded—she nearly emptied a full mag into the passenger on impulse.
Rolling through dust to evade the barrage, the barrel of her gun glowed red-hot. While running and shooting, she fired a slug straight at the driver's seat—
—but thanks to the ricochet effect of kinetic rounds, the shot unexpectedly struck a tire instead.
"Whoa—Holy shit!"
Sano floored the accelerator. The two men's faces twisted like they were on a roller coaster. The crippled vehicle wobbled violently, barely stabilizing before roaring off toward the horizon.
Liam nearly took a bullet to the face. Furious and shaken, he cursed aloud:
"FUCK YOU, REBECCA—"
In the end, the two Barghest soldiers got away.
Wait.
That guy who leaned out the window just now… was he interacting with me?
Was that bastard provoking me?!
As the smoke cleared, Rebecca sat on the ground, her face dirty, both angry and flustered—with a trace of confusion rising in her heart.
"Hold on…"
"How did that guy know my name?"