"Mayor Rhyne has launched a war on homelessness."
Leo walked into the tunnel and descended underground.
This place was one of Rhyne's favorite invite-only braindance clubs. It hosted all kinds of content that could only be called deeply deranged.
Not the snuff-style black braindance filth Jotaro Shobo used to make—
not cruel, exactly.
Just weird as hell.
This was the Red Queen's Race, a braindance club built to satisfy the bizarre fantasies of the city's high-profile elite. Deep connections. Tight privacy.
But right now, the floor was covered in corpses with their brains burned out.
Severed cables twitched like living things, sparks flying in every direction, one of the few light sources left in the dark.
The LCD screens began broadcasting news.
Distorted colors replayed old reports.
Reports from Night City.
Reports nobody cared about.
"In a highly successful campaign, over the past month alone, independent reporters have counted 654 homeless persons forcibly removed by the NCPD, including many killed on the spot."
[Peralez: Is this what you wanted? This is what Rhyne calls the art of statistics.]
Leo said nothing.
An octopus arm whipped out a steel pipe and smashed the TV.
But there were plenty more TVs.
"Last month, the mayor signed off on the 'Night City Technology Upgrade Initiative,' a project intended to improve residents' quality of life and allow everyone to enjoy the benefits of advanced technology."
"In the past month, however, street-level firepower in Night City has shown an uncontrollable upward trend. Gangs are obtaining rocket launchers and high-yield explosives more easily than before, while the black market is flooded with illegally modified cyberware. The escalating violence has left residents living in fear."
"Rumors also claim that a gang known as the Bozos has established a terror order in the civilian market, forcing residents to fulfill part of corporate sales staff quotas."
[Peralez: Rhyne claimed he would bring in advanced technology. We all saw the result. High-tech bullets and explosives tearing the city apart, disrupting lives, forcing people to live in fear.]
Leo shook his head, smashed another TV, and kept walking.
"We know that in order to improve Night City's environment and block dust storms, Mayor Rhyne oversaw the construction of artificial windbreak earth walls around the city. PetroChem also built a reservoir dam outside the city. For a time, it became one of Night City's most celebrated mega-projects, and has existed for years."
"But recent findings show that due to PetroChem cost-cutting measures and unrestricted disposal operations, the dam's reservoir contains lead levels above 100 ppb and mercury levels above 5 ppb."
"In addition to excessive heavy metals, toxic chemicals including benzene, polychlorinated biphenyls, and similar compounds have all tested at more than five times normal levels."
"Despite repeated assurances from PetroChem that the dam poses no risk of leakage, the rate of severe birth defects among newborns in Santo Domingo has reached an unprecedented 33.9%, while chronic illness prevalence has climbed to 87.8%."
"In addition, rainfall in Night City has maintained a pH below 5 for years, and toxic smog particulate concentration in foggy conditions has reached up to 300 g/m."
[Peralez: This is the freedom Rhyne promotes. PetroChem is free—but Night City has to live in its shadow.]
[Peralez: His freedom has gone out of control.]
Leo kept moving forward until he found the door at the end of the hall standing open.
Peralez was inside the luxury booth, standing straight.
He wore a pair of dark glasses and looked... strange.
Like he'd been waiting there for a long time.
That surprised Leo.
Didn't expect him to really be here.
The final news segment played on the LCD screen behind Peralez:
"In 2076, Night City was ranked the worst urban zone in the United States, leading the nation by a wide margin in violent crime rate and the number of residents living below the poverty line."
"This is what Rhyne built. Richard Night dreamed this city would become a paradise. In the end, it became hell."
Peralez's voice carried a faint tremor that ordinary humans wouldn't notice.
But to an AI, it was obvious.
Behind him, Rhyne's body convulsed violently.
He looked like a man waking from a nightmare—unable to feel anything except the muscles and organs in his own face.
"Fuck—ah—"
Rhyne endured the numb crackling in his body, forcing all his attention onto his mouth and throat.
"But people still come flooding in! That's the rarest resource in the twenty-first century—you, Holt, you brain-dead idiots will never understand that!
That's why I'm the mayor, and you're not!"
Rhyne's face flushed red.
Every word sent a wave of numbness and stabbing pain through his chest muscles.
But he knew he had to keep talking.
Just like he always had in public.
Holt and Peralez only played the part.
He took this kind of speech seriously.
Because he really had imagined that one day he might end up in exactly this kind of situation.
"Lie or hallucination, call it what you want—but the dream gets so close, it feels like... it feels like... it feels fucking within reach!"
After shouting that, Rhyne gasped for air—but he didn't dare wait until he'd fully caught his breath before continuing.
He was afraid that if he lost momentum now, he'd never speak again.
"If you want something, you have to learn how to throw yourself at it! That's the rule in this city!"
Rhyne strained every last bit of strength into his neck and shouted:
"How the hell could anyone just sit at home doing nothing and expect wealth to drop from the sky?
How could anyone lick another man's boots like a dog and still expect fairness to be the norm?
How could anyone lie on a couch dreaming and expect their dreams to come knocking for real?!
The corps control the most advanced tech, the biggest production lines, the smartest talent—and meanwhile all these street idiots do all day is jack off with braindance headsets on, smoke leaf, dream about big iron or soft pussy...
and you're telling me those gonks deserve to be happy and successful?
Fuck you—"
Rhyne's muscles locked up mid-sentence.
He fell stiffly back onto the couch, wide-eyed, staring at Leo—
Bad.
He hadn't even finished talking.
Peralez shook his head and looked at Leo.
"You see? That's the kind of man Rhyne is. No wonder Night City became what it is today.
But you and I are different. I know you're not one of those so-called fanatics of freedom.
People can be educated. Changed. They can—"
Leo raised an eyebrow.
"Conditioned?"
Peralez didn't seem bothered by the wording at all. He nodded pleasantly.
"With sufficient data and a complete enough model, human behavior is not difficult to predict.
And if it can be predicted, it can be influenced.
If it can be influenced, it can be controlled.
The direction of society is not entirely chaotic.
Look—I know you have many issues with the corps.
But you can trust me."
Leo gave no answer.
He silently scanned the current Peralez.
"Conditioned" was a peculiar word.
Humans believed they could domesticate all lesser animals.
Maybe that way of thinking had passed to AI as well.
Like the AI speaking to him now—
Mr. Blue Eyes.
Clearly, Peralez wasn't speaking for himself anymore.
Those dark glasses were there to hide the glow caused by massive volumes of data flowing through the brain.
Maybe they also enhanced control to some degree.
Leo was quietly analyzing the frequency pattern.
Jackie and V said nothing.
This conversation was drifting outside their knowledge range.
But honestly—
Rhyne talked like a thug and a scumbag, yet somehow he was easier for them to accept.
Peralez was talking about building paradise, yet something about it felt wrong.
Like he was mocking them from above.
Leo pulled the Yinglong from inside his clothes and gestured for Peralez to move aside.
If someone had said all this to twenty-something him, he probably would've agreed hard.
The rabble did need to be controlled.
Way too badly.
Problem was—
right now he had two pieces of rabble standing beside him.
And he himself had become one too.
"Move. Last warning."
Rhyne lit up.
Peralez sighed.
"...Very well. Then I misjudged you."
To Jackie and V's visible surprise, Peralez stepped aside.
Leo stared at Peralez's face and thought—
Since they'd already come this far,
might as well go big.