Over the next six months, under Jackie's lead, V and Luo Qi got their first real taste of life in Night City.
There were street shootouts and storms of bullets.
There were also neon lights, luxury, and nights drowned in excess.
Jackie brought the two of them home to meet his hot-tempered mother. Every time she found out Jackie had been out risking his life again, she would grab her son and beat the hell out of him first—then turn around with a warm smile and ask V and Luo Qi whether they wanted something to drink.
They bought information from seasoned dolls at the braindance clubs, then lifted briefcases full of good stuff from clients who were either blackout drunk or still immersed in braindances.
One of the fixers they worked with on the street was an old man everyone called Padre. Anything valuable they got their hands on could be sold through him.
The three of them bought a new car together, and they also met Jackie's girlfriend, Misty, the one he was crazy about. She looked like a rebellious punk girl, but aside from Jackie's mom, all three of them knew perfectly well that she was actually a rare genuinely good person.
There was also Viktor—the middle-aged ripperdoc with a deep, magnetic voice, a man who had plenty of legendary stories in his past and now kept a low profile running an underground clinic. He was close with V, practically treating him like a son, and he also vaguely remembered Luo Qi. As for Jackie, the two of them greeted each other by slugging each other once, out of mutual respect.
The three of them would chase bounty targets all over the city, collect the payout, then head to a club to celebrate—only to get beaten half to death by some gang punks who came looking for trouble. Then the next day, because none of them believed in letting grudges sit overnight, the three would storm right up to that gang's doorstep loaded with guns and point their barrels at the boss.
Militech's Ajax, Nokota's Copperhead, Constitutional Arms' Unity, Tsunami Defense Systems' Kyubi…
Basically, they bought whatever worked best, geared up, and beat the gangs flat on their asses.
Then, at the end of it all, they would go back to Jackie's place, laugh about how terrifying his mom was when she cursed people out, and say goodbye to their best friend with grins on their faces.
Bit by bit, Luo Qi settled into life in Night City.
And he, V, and Jackie truly became the kind of partners who could entrust their lives to one another.
At first, Luo Qi often found himself thinking about one question—
How should you describe Night City?
What kind of place was Night City, really?
But now, somewhere deep down, he felt like he finally had an answer.
Just like that radio host, the one who was always so fired up, liked to say:
"Hello there, Night City."
"This is Stanley, and our City of Dreams is starting another long day."
"I love this city the way you love your mom. Back in the day, she dumped you at an orphanage. Now she runs into you on the street and asks to bum a cigarette."
"Every day, another hundred, maybe eighty new people roll in. But only half of them make it through the year—and that's only in a good year."
"So why do they keep coming to Night City? Because they wanna be the next Morgan Blackhand, the next Weyland Boa Boa—street samurai, legends. There's an old saying: fortune favors the bold."
"Too bad fame cuts life short. The more thrilling your life gets, the faster it burns away. And that's not even counting someone putting a bullet through your skull."
"You know where all the legends of Night City end up?"
"In the graveyard."
"In this town, heroes don't come from pedigree."
"They come from carving out their own path."
"This…"
"This is Night City."
"This is the City of Dreams."
…
Six months after arriving in Night City—
A parking garage beneath an apartment building in Japantown.
"The girl we're looking for is probably in this building," Jackie said from the passenger seat. "The bastards who grabbed her are probably here too, so keep your ears open and your eyes sharp."
"Did Wakako give you any useful intel about this job?" V asked.
"I'm not your mother. You get paid, you solve the problem. It's not complicated." Jackie mimicked the old fixer woman's voice.
"No, no, your tone isn't right," Luo Qi said. "Watch this." He cleared his throat. "I'm not your mother… you take the money… you solve the problem… it's not complicated…"
Pinching his throat as he spoke, he sounded like he was on the verge of breathing his last.
"Yeah, yeah, that's exactly the damn tone," Jackie said with a laugh.
"Alright then. Let's do this." V pushed open the car door.
The three of them took the elevator up and pressed the button for the fifteenth floor.
Just then, a call came in.
It was T-Bug, a seriously capable netrunner who had once trained V in hacking. She had a very distinctive look—a shaved head, completely bald.
Paired with her dark complexion and her permanently black-clad hacker style, she was the kind of person you'd remember after a single glance.
"The target's name is Sandra Dorsett. A few hours ago, her biometric signal dropped out. Likely abducted," T-Bug said over the holo-call. "There's a chance she's already dead. No telling whether you got there too late."
V put the call on speaker, so Jackie and Luo Qi—both of whom had permission—could join the conversation.
Of course, Jackie and V were using cyberware.
Luo Qi was using a Bluetooth earpiece.
Jackie raised his voice first. "We're not too late, Bug. And yeah, I said we. Even if you're remote, you're still one of us."
"One of you?" T-Bug said coolly. "Interesting."
"Bug, maybe you could be… just a little more polite?" V suggested.
"If you want politeness and emotional support, call a hotline." T-Bug was not the slow, fussy, grandmotherly type. Decisive and blunt—that was her style.
"Come on, you know what Bug's like," Luo Qi said with a smile, feeling the gun in his hand.
Jackie spread his hands helplessly.
The elevator arrived. The doors opened, revealing a shabby, run-down corridor outside.
"I don't like this," Luo Qi muttered, pulling one corner of his mouth crooked. "Feels sinister."
"Doesn't matter whether you like it or not." T-Bug stayed on the line, continuing to guide them. "Find room 1237."
"Room 1237 on the fifteenth floor. Another day of the universe persecuting OCD sufferers," Luo Qi muttered.
"Stop babbling. The target should be inside, but I can't see her bio-signal," T-Bug said. "Let's hope we're not too late. Ugh… I hate gigs like this, where someone's halfway to dead. Move."
One of the doors in the hallway was open. An old woman inside looked fearfully toward the end of the corridor, then at Luo Qi and the other two carrying weapons.
"Danger. Go back inside."
Luo Qi gestured toward her room, and the old woman immediately understood. She hurriedly shut the door and hid.
Outside room 1237, there were no cameras and no guards. The door was closed tight.
"Try hacking it open," T-Bug said.
Jackie and Luo Qi exchanged a glance, then both looked at V, who was by far the best hacker present.
Jackie wasn't good at that sort of thing.
And Luo Qi's reason was simpler: he had no implants.
Even now, he was still factory-stock.
As for cyberware enhancement, Luo Qi admitted he still found it hard to accept in the short term—but after half a year in Night City, he had at least gotten used to seeing it.
Still, unless he lost an eye, an arm, or a leg because of some injury, he intended to stay as natural as possible.
A blue glow flashed in V's eyes.
The door clicked open.
Inside was a room so messy it looked like a dog's den.
"Keep it quiet," Jackie warned uneasily, then crept toward the next corner. "Shit. We came too late. Is that her? Is that the one we're looking for?"
Luo Qi was still checking the data on a computer when he heard V respond from the other side.
"Sandra Dorsett… second-tier corp security personnel. We're looking for a rich girl."
"Look—those are black-market Zetatech knockoffs. Cheap bootleg junk."
Hearing that, Luo Qi went over for a closer look.
In the room, which was packed with cyberware equipment and monitors, a horribly mutilated corpse lay on a table.
Both eyeballs had been gouged out. There had once been artificial eye implants there, but now there were only two bloody holes left.
The abdominal cavity had been ripped open into such a gruesome mess that describing it in detail would probably get the whole thing taken down. The implants and organs had all been stripped clean.
Except for the worthless knockoff parts.
What a horrible way to go.
Jackie quietly opened the door leading into the next room, then grabbed V and signaled that someone was ahead.
Let me.
Luo Qi moved forward, patted both of them on the shoulders, and pointed to himself.
V gave him an OK sign.
So Luo Qi crouched down and crept forward, sneaky as hell.
By the time the man noticed movement behind him, his neck had already been snapped.
Luo Qi opened the freezer, shoved the body inside, and shut it.
No one would know someone had disappeared from here.
"Nicely done. Almost as good as me," Jackie joked, trying to ease the tension.
"Take this." V handed over a pneumatic hypospray he had just found and stuffed it into Luo Qi's hand.
"Don't lose focus. More are coming. They're about to spot you," T-Bug warned suddenly.
At that moment, two people in the main room were talking to each other as they walked toward Luo Qi's position.
V jolted and ducked with Jackie behind the far side of the doorway.
It was a dangerous move, because there was absolutely nothing to hide behind there. If those two turned around, they would see both of them immediately.
Luo Qi couldn't get over there in time, so he dove backward and slipped behind the freezer with a swish.
"Shit, there are this many?" Jackie cursed quietly over the team comms. "Let's drop one first. The closer one's yours… good luck, I guess."
From where Luo Qi was hiding, he couldn't see what V and Jackie were doing. All he could hear was their hushed exchange.
But just as the two were about to make their move, Luo Qi realized something was wrong.
"Careful—they're turning back!"
The enemies were less than two meters away from him, just one wall apart. Luo Qi spoke urgently.
God knew whether V and Jackie still had time. If they were spotted and a gun went off, it would all be over.
Tap…
In that critical moment, Luo Qi knocked lightly on the metal cabinet beside him, producing a strange muffled sound.
"Hm? What was that?"
As expected, the two gang members—who had just been about to leave—were distracted. They pulled back the curtain and looked into the room Luo Qi was hiding in.
And Luo Qi was concealed only along the side of the freezer.
One more step, and they would see him.
"Mm—!? Gghk—"
At the exact moment he was about to be exposed, two hands shot out from behind and snapped the enemies' necks before they even had time to look surprised.
"All clear. Be careful."
It was V.
Luo Qi let out a long breath of relief and gave him a thumbs-up.
This was exciting as hell.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 172)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 116)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter119)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 66
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 52
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 55
The Way the Umamusume Look at 42
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 40
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 36
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 30
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 26
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 26
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