Outside the hospital, Jax stood under the back door's eaves, looking up at the neon signs lighting up the evening. Under the iridescent twilight, you had to admit this steel jungle truly possessed its own beauty.
Night City... it was truly beautiful.
From here, you could even vaguely see the two large, colorful fish of Arasaka Tower, beautiful and dreamlike.
"Cough..."
A voice sounded beside Jax; it was David.
The kid had been there for a while but hadn't disturbed Jax.
"I say, David, why are you always so nervous?" Jax turned his head towards David upon hearing the voice, seeing the kid nervously watching him.
"I, I just don't know how to thank you," David quickly said.
Earlier, when Jax hadn't spoken, he hadn't even thought of interrupting Jax, simply standing there with him for over ten minutes.
"Thank you? If there weren't subsequent matters, then you would indeed have to thank me properly. Hiring mercenaries costs money, but... it's different now."
"Why?" David clenched his fist. He hesitated, then said, "Brother Jax, I'll earn the money. We'll keep things separate."
"Keep things separate?" Jax heard this, smiled, extended his hand, and vigorously ruffled David's head.
The punk hair was a bit prickly, and David showed a strange expression, as if... he was somewhat displeased with Jax's action.
Just by appearance, Jax's age was similar to David's, only two or three years older, but factoring in five years in Night City, plus his previous life's time...
Jax was actually about ten years older than David. Ten years was enough for a person's perceptions to change.
Therefore, it wasn't that he was so mature now, but in front of David, a kid well-protected by Gloria, Jax was indeed a qualified adult.
"Gloria has agreed to join our team as our logistics personnel, responsible for helping the team sell cybernetics and weapons externally, and also assisting Pilar in procuring cybernetics and equipment for us."
"You know what? Your 'keeping things separate' is essentially separating your mom from the team." Jax withdrew his hand, looked at David, and continued, "Alright, let's go. We're heading back."
"Mm." David nodded, followed Jax, entered through the hospital's back door, passed the security robot's inspection, and returned to the ward on the third floor.
Maine and Gloria were talking. Seeing Jax enter, he immediately said, "Jax, you've returned just in time. Jackie and Kiwi have already left."
"So early? Didn't we say we'd go to Afterlife together?" Jax asked, puzzled.
They had already agreed earlier that after this job was done, everyone would go to Afterlife for a few drinks.
Originally, if the Gloria situation hadn't happened, their plan was to deal with the cybernetics at Viktor's place first, and then go to Afterlife to party all night.
"Things changed. Jackie decided to buy a good car, and Kiwi also plans to buy some things. Sasha was going to wait here for your return, but her sister called her again, so she left a message and departed," Maine said.
"What did Sasha say?" Jax asked curiously.
Of course, he cared about the message the little cat left.
But why did the little cat have Maine deliver the message to him? Couldn't she just send him an email directly?
Arriving in this world, Jax had changed many things. Many people in Moxes had their fates altered by Jax, and Sasha was no exception... But the difference was that Sasha was the person closest to Jax right now.
In this regard, Wheeler couldn't even compare to her. Well, one could only say... if a hacker got smart, a little punk girl truly couldn't catch up.
"She said she'd give you a teaching interaction when she gets back." Maine said with a mischievous grin, winking at Jax. He then continued, "So... what kind of teaching is this teaching between you and Sasha?"
"Get lost." Jax rolled his eyes at Maine.
The mystery was solved. The little cat didn't tell him directly, but had Maine relay the message; she was asserting her sovereignty...
Who said this cat only knew how to act cute? This cat was so damn clever!
Wasn't this just a roundabout way of telling everyone in the team that she had already had deep contact with Jax?
Although everyone had already guessed it when they met in the morning... Sasha's current behavior was simply her protecting her food.
"Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, we don't need to meet for these few days," Maine suddenly added.
"What do you mean?"
"It's a holiday, brother!" Maine said loudly. He glanced at Gloria on the hospital bed, then at Jax, and said:
"Who wants to think about work every day? Since you joined us, we've either been taking missions or on our way to take missions, and the jobs we've done have all been accident-prone, shitty ones."
"Now we have a good amount of money, and Rogue has already transferred the payment from Babs. Wouldn't it be great for everyone to take the money and have some fun?"
Jax was about to speak when Maine interrupted him: "Hey, Jax, don't you dare ask me why we're not going together."
"Personal space. We can't always be together, can we?" Maine winked at Jax.
After speaking, he turned to Gloria and said, "You rest well. After you're discharged from the hospital in a couple of days, I reckon our base will be bought. You can come directly then."
"Okay," Gloria said softly.
"Alright then, we're leaving too," Maine said, getting up and leaving with Dorio and Rebecca.
"Wait, why do I have to leave too?" Rebecca was displeased, stomping her feet, unwilling to go back with Maine and Dorio.
"Don't be silly. Pilar isn't here, so Dorio and I are your guardians," Maine said sternly.
"Damn it!" Rebecca was furious, her small face flushed red. She was about to raise her middle finger again, but Dorio directly interrupted her'spellcasting'.
The big sister simply scooped up Rebecca, letting her squawk, and directly carried her away.
Thus, only Jax, David, and Gloria remained in the room.
Blinking, Gloria said with a laugh, "You and the edgerunners I know... are really quite different."
"Hmm... different in what way?" Jax asked Gloria curiously.
"Many ways," Gloria said, thinking. She continued, "For example, you. I'm very sensitive to people like you, but honestly, the first time I saw you, I never thought you'd be an edgerunner."
As she spoke, she reached out and pinched David's ear, saying, "No wonder when I told him to get in touch with you, he made a surprised yet secretly delighted expression."
"Without my knowing, he had already been in contact with Maine and the others, and knew your relationship with them, right?"
"You can't blame me, Mom. You told me not to worry about so many things, and just to study hard," David said, wincing in pain but feeling incredibly relaxed inside, loudly retorting.
"In any case, I'm very happy to join you, Jax," Gloria said kindly, taking a deep breath.
Jax nodded, smiling as he agreed.
He looked at David, thought for a moment, and said, "So, shall we go back together later?"
"I'm staying at the hospital," David refused.
Gloria wanted to say something, but then, she simply reached out and patted David's back, then said, "David, don't think that by doing this, you won't have to go to school tomorrow."
"Huh?"
....
Leaving the hospital, Jax walked home alone.
And on the way, Jax finally had time to check out the new skill he had obtained from David.
[Potent Healing]
・Passive skill, enhances host's healing ability.
・Healing effect corresponds to physical attribute.
・Comes with a special effect (Hardened Skin), increases host's additional physical defense.
A very good passive skill. In terms of in-game performance, it would be... V passively regenerates health after not taking damage for a while?
It was considered a powerful physical attribute skill. Its lower limit was very high, but its upper limit was far worse than Potential Overdraft.
Feeling somewhat happy that he had grown stronger, Jax looked ahead.
The streets around the district hospital were crowded, with an extremely dense flow of people. Jax blended into the crowd, moving through the flow of people like an ordinary person.
"Tomorrow..."
"It's a holiday, so what should I do?"