[Cross-Dimensional Main Consciousness Transfer Time: 1 hour 33 minutes]
[Estimated Tech Point Cost: 200]
Pacifica was a lawless zone.
Located south of Night City, separated by a river, the district had originally been planned as a world-class resort and tourism center—a massive development project meant to diversify Night City's economy and attract more investors.
But while Pacifica's construction was in full swing, the Unification War erupted. Southern California was fully reclaimed by the New United States, and federal troops pushed north all the way to here, completely destroying Night City's original plans.
The tourist paradise became a battlefield.
Worse still, although the war technically ended after Lucius Rhyne invited Arasaka into the city and signed the Arvin Accords—
The problem was that by the time the treaty had been signed, a special forces unit known as the Chimera Dogs had already infiltrated Pacifica, launched a successful assault, and occupied part of the district.
And after the war?
They simply stayed there.
At that point Pacifica could never become a tourist destination again.
Because that district was still effectively an active warzone.
And that place…
Was exactly where Leo intended to go this time.
Dogtown.
Of course, before entering Dogtown, Leo still had work to do.
There was no way the three of them could enter Dogtown in their current half-dead condition. If they walked in like this, the countless corporate agents and Chimera Dogs roaming the district would dispose of them within minutes.
They needed time to recover physically, repair their cyberware, rearm themselves, maybe even rebuild a vehicle.
At the same time, they needed intel.
They needed to figure out what state the corporations were currently in.
Honestly, even though MaxTac had taken a direct hit and the corps had been scared half to death by the nuclear blast, the fact that nobody had mobilized major forces to hunt them down yet…
Was strange.
Not because Leo was narcissistic.
But because during this operation they had demonstrated:
Terrifyingly innovative technology.
Unexpectedly massive destructive capability.
And an openly uncontrollable, disobedient streak.
Those things combined?
There was no reason the corps should've stayed quiet.
After all, the modern world existed because megacorps continuously tightened their monopolies and consumed more industries until society became what it was now.
Gathering intel was also important because the assassination of Rhyne still contained too many suspicious details. Leo needed more information before he could reconstruct the full truth.
But before any of that—
They had to deal with the person hiding inside the abandoned amusement park.
Pacifica was outside the law.
There was no real "legal system" here.
If you absolutely had to define rules, there were only two:
Don't provoke the local gang—the Voodoo Boys.
And if you had problems?
Pay mercs to solve them yourself.
Nobody local was harmless.
The three of them were in terrible shape right now.
If some local showed up, it would be the worst possible timing.
"Voodoo Boys?" V whispered, holding her Unity behind her back while pretending to walk casually beside Leo.
One of Jackie's hands swung naturally while the other gripped La Chingona Dorada hidden beneath his torn pant leg.
Leo, unlike the two of them, had lost his octo-arms. His cyberware had all shut down from the nuclear EMP, and the tumor pressing against nerves and blood vessels made his movements awkward and uneven.
Compared to those two monsters…
Without cyberware and equipment, his muscles were practically in a state of muscular atrophy.
He was even missing an eye.
Honestly…
He looked terrifying.
Leo shook his head.
"Unlikely."
Logically speaking, the more cyberware somebody had, the harder the EMP should've hit them. The Voodoo Boys were basically all netrunners. Right now they were probably busy repairing systems, counting casualties, and locking down defenses.
Highly augmented mercs should also have suffered major damage. Staying home and waiting for a ripperdoc to repair their chrome would've been the smart move.
The only people likely to still be moving around…
Were ordinary locals with relatively little chrome.
Of course, it was also possible their luck sucked and whoever was hiding here happened to be a merc.
The target location was a small abandoned bungalow. Warehouse in the back. Vendor stall in the front.
The sound was coming from behind the building.
The three advanced slowly, sticking close to the walls.
Only then did Leo hear the faint trembling sounds—
The information was simultaneously forwarded to the Marvel-side servers, and Little Octopus immediately sounded confused.
[Little Octopus: Big bro, sounds like somebody shaking.]
Leo gave Jackie and V a look and held up three fingers.
The two immediately split apart and approached from opposite sides. Once they reached the wall, they silently began counting—
One.
Two…
BANG!
A fast-moving figure suddenly bolted out from Jackie's side!
Jackie immediately raised his pistol to fire.
Even exhausted, there was no way he'd miss at this range—
But before he could pull the trigger, the shadow tripped over the sand and faceplanted into the ground.
"Eeeek!!!"
It was a kid.
The kid swallowed a mouthful of sand and desperately scrambled backward. Unfortunately, he was so terrified his legs barely worked anymore, forcing him to scoot backward in an awkward twisted posture while begging frantically.
"Don't kill me! Don't kill me! I didn't see anything! I didn't see anything…"
"Quiet!"
Jackie crouched instantly and shoved the pistol directly into the kid's face.
The kid froze so completely it looked like time itself had stopped.
"A kid?"
V and Leo arrived beside them and finally got a proper look.
The boy looked maybe ten years old.
Dirty short hair.
Absolutely reeking.
His clothes were blackened, filthy, full of holes.
Oddly enough, though, he looked healthy.
And there wasn't a trace of visible cyberware anywhere on him besides a broken neural port.
Jackie and V exchanged glances before looking at Leo.
Leo was genuinely surprised.
A stray street kid.
Perfect timing.
They needed somebody local to carry messages anyway. The three of them were way too conspicuous.
So Leo crouched down and slowly asked:
"Kid… do you crave power?"
The boy looked at Leo's missing eyeball, the smoke-blackened burns all over his body, the torn coat, and the chaotic black netrunning cooling fins gleaming under the moonlight…
Then burst into tears while nodding furiously.
This guy didn't look human.
He looked like a cyberpsycho.
"Good. What's your name?"
"Ma… Matt…"
"Very good, Matt."
Having a local guide would speed things up considerably.
Right now, Leo didn't even know which part of Pacifica they were in.
Leo limped while leading Matt aside.
Meanwhile, the kid silently screamed inside his own head:
I wanna talk to actual human beings! At least somebody who LOOKS human!
"We'll fix your neural port first."
Pacifica was lawless, but just in case, using someone completely unrelated to them as a disposable proxy would still be safer.
Besides, Leo's own cyberware damage was severe enough that repairs would require a complete overhaul anyway.
Matt's neural port only had minor damage. A powered-down neural port didn't suffer much from EMP exposure.
But the moment Leo said that—
Matt, who had already been quietly crying, began crying even harder.
Fix his neural port?
Here?
Inside an abandoned amusement park in Pacifica?!
Wouldn't it be easier to just say they wanted his organs?!
Or maybe this terrifying cyberpsycho wanted to experiment on his brain?!
But after feeling the weight of Leo's Yinglong smart SMG in his hands—
The kid couldn't say a single word.
He was about to get cyberpsycho-dissected.