Hiss—Bang—Clang!
Amid the hiss of jets and a series of metallic collisions, Roland immediately turned his gaze toward the figure slowly walking out of the laboratory.
At this moment, Jackie's hands—and several other parts of his body—showed clear signs of cyberware modification. Although his physique didn't appear drastically different, that was thanks to the synthetic skin covering the upgrades.
Clang—
A sound like hammer striking steel rang out as Jackie slammed his fists together, sparks scattering from the impact.
"Whoa… this feels…"
Jackie looked over his hands repeatedly, satisfaction shining in his eyes.
"Congratulations. The modification was a success."
Roland smiled at him.
The performance of Jackie's body was extremely impressive—one could even say overwhelmingly powerful. In some ways, his combat capability was on the same tier as Zed's, and in certain aspects might even surpass it.
But the two followed completely different combat styles, so comparing them didn't mean much.
Jackie's body focused heavily on enhancing physical combat ability—essentially maxing out strength, defense, and speed. In other words, he was a heavy close-combat fighter.
A heavily armored warrior… who also happened to be extremely fast.
Not long after, Pilar, Falco, and Rebecca walked out as well.
This time, Roland had spent almost everything he gained from the Idaho campaign, leaving only some essential essence behind.
For example, the essence needed to exchange for Lissandra's original body, and the funds for V's modification. He hadn't forgotten about his "daughter."
"Boss."
Pilar's first reaction upon seeing Roland stunned the others nearby.
They didn't understand what was happening, but Roland knew exactly why.
This was the "new neighbor" he had arranged for Pilar—the core consciousness of Heavenly Eye.
Pilar's personality was simply too unreliable. Roland couldn't trust him completely in combat.
So to ensure stability during battles, Roland preserved Heavenly Eye's main consciousness and placed it within Pilar.
Conveniently, in the PROJECT world setting, Heavenly Eye was also an extremely loyal supporter of the PROJECT corporation—its loyalty basically on the same level as Zed's.
"Stand down. Let Pilar speak. Unless necessary, let Pilar stay in control."
"Understood."
Heavenly Eye nodded slightly and stood still.
After two seconds, Pilar took over.
The first thing he did was rush to a nearby mirror.
"Holy shit! Never thought I'd look this damn handsome one day!"
Smack!
Roland couldn't help covering his face.
Heavenly Eye's cold, intimidating aura had just been completely destroyed by Pilar's antics…
A moment ago the vibe was that of a sharp, hardened warrior.
Now it had turned into pure comedy anime nonsense.
"Whoa, this modification is pretty interesting!"
Rebecca held up both hands, pressing two fingers together on each.
A faint beam of energy gathered at her fingertips before firing a tiny laser into the wall, scattering specks of residual energy.
Notably, Roland had chosen Burn's modification for her. Her hair color was also preserved.
For some reason, looking at Rebecca now reminded him of a blue-haired rodent from a certain FPS game.
Meanwhile, Falco couldn't stop spinning the dual pistols in his hands, completely enamored with them.
"Alright. Since your modifications are finished, it's time to move on to the next step."
Roland gave them a mysterious smile, and everyone immediately straightened up.
"But before that, let me introduce your future teammates."
Roland stepped aside.
Kiwi, Vilet, Pyke, Zed, Lucy, and Jhin slowly appeared in front of them.
Yes—Roland had called back nearly every PROJECT member except Dorio, Kelly, and Maine.
As for Yi and Oblivion…
Weren't they already here?
"For the next few days, you'll undergo special training under them. In three days, I'll assign your first mission."
"The objective of this mission will be to eliminate several unstable elements in Night City. I'll explain the details in three days."
After hearing this, Jackie and the others immediately became uneasy.
The mission itself wasn't the problem.
But special training… that definitely didn't sound pleasant.
Roland didn't say anything else and simply left.
As soon as he was gone, Zed immediately turned his gaze toward Pilar and Jackie.
"Heavenly Eye's abilities… "Kiwi, you and Jhin will handle the special training for Heavenly Eye and Jackie."
"No problem."
Kiwi and Jhin both nodded.
"As for Burn's abilities, I'm not very familiar with them. But Lucy and you seem to get along well, so the two of you can familiarize yourselves with your abilities together. I'll check in once you're ready."
"And Jackie… your body has the highest performance among the group. The three of us will personally give you the most effective close-combat training."
Jackie's mouth twitched.
If possible, he'd rather refuse…
But that obviously wasn't an option.
And after briefly testing his new body, he had already realized what its strengths were.
Meanwhile, Rebecca quietly moved closer to Lucy.
"Hey, who's that dude? Why does he look so badass?"
"He's my teacher. Probably the strongest among them—and the most experienced too. Roland trusts him a lot. Basically everyone here has been beaten by him before…"
Rebecca instantly had a bad feeling.
"Hey… if you're the one training me, does that mean I won't get beaten up?"
"What are you thinking… most likely we'll get beaten up together…"
"Huh?!"
The two tufts of hair on both sides of Rebecca's head immediately shot straight up.
...
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