What?!
Kenji stared at the panel in total shock. David had just... he'd just killed an innocent mother?
'No... that's not David. He would never do that.'
Especially not to a woman who reminded him so much of Gloria.
The only explanation was the one that every fan had been dreading.
The subsequent scenes, showing David regrouping with Kiwi, Rebecca, and Falco, confirmed his fears.
Despite the fact that they were in the heart of Arasaka and the connection was perfect, David claimed there had been a "system lag." He acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
But the readers knew better.
David was experiencing the exact same "phantoms" that had haunted Maine before his collapse.
If the manga had switched to David's first-person perspective in that office, the readers would have seen a world of distorted static and terrifying hallucinations. That was why he'd perceived a "glitch" and why he'd pulled the trigger.
The incident at Arasaka sent shockwaves through the corporation's counter-intelligence department. The lab was a sensitive facility focused on developing countermeasures against Militech.
deleted Tanaka's records, the same shadow who had been "cleaning up" any other netrunners who tried to restore the data.
However, because the "style" of the two incidents was so different (one a high-level digital erasure, the other a messy, cyberpsychotic rampage), they decided they were likely separate entities.
Still, the dots were starting to connect.
The Arasaka Counter-Intel head, a cold woman with a calculating gaze, decided to take a more traditional "Night City" approach. She turned to the fixers.
In a massive holographic display, her team projected the files of the city's top brokers.
David's fixer, Faraday, was right in the center.
"If you aren't greedy and treacherous, you don't last as a fixer in this city," the executive sneered. "In the end, they are all just hyenas, begging for scraps from the corporate table."
"We just need to remind them who the master of this city really is. Those who listen, live."
The arrogance was suffocating. But Kenji knew she was right. In Night City, the corporations were the only true gods. Everyone else was just surviving at their whim.
To "remind" Faraday of his place, Arasaka didn't send a letter. They sent a hit squad.
Faraday's car was ambushed on the highway in a brutal, no-holds-barred assassination attempt. After losing several of his most loyal bodyguards, Faraday barely managed to escape with his life.
He didn't need a detective to tell him who had done it.
The scene shifted to a meeting between Faraday and a Militech high-ranking official. The Militech man was furious, accusing the fixer of squandering their resources without producing results.
During their argument, a new term was mentioned: "Cyberskeleton."
"Arasaka's security is tighter than ever, which proves how vital the Cyberskeleton project is to them," Faraday spat, his four cyber-eyes glowing with frustration.
But the Militech man didn't care about excuses. He delivered an ultimatum: if Faraday didn't deliver the prototype soon, their "partnership" was over.
The message was clear: Faraday was being crushed between two giants.
"Corporate bastards..."
As the Militech car drove off, Faraday stood in the middle of a neon-lit plaza. On one side, an Arasaka ad flashed; on the other, a Militech billboard.
He was a rat caught in a trap, and he knew it. He had to make a move.
[To be continued...]
---
Kenji finished Chapter 29, his heart racing. The story was tighter than ever.
The symptoms David was showing were undeniably those of advanced cyberpsychosis. The fact that he'd hallucinated a threat and killed a non-combatant showed that he was teetering on the edge.
And now Arasaka was closing in. They were targeting the "witch" who was protecting the data.
The title of the chapter, "Repeating Path," was a cruel callback. It mirrored the "Long Road" chapter where Maine had died. David was literally walking his mentor's path to the end.
Fortunately, Chen didn't have to wait a week for more. He had three more magazines to go. He greedily tore into the next one.
Edgerunners Chapter 30
Faraday had realized he was being played. To survive, he decided to flip. He reached out to Arasaka, offering to find the hacker they were looking for in exchange for his own safety.
Back in the city, in the middle of the night, Lucy woke up in a cold sweat. She reached out, but the bed beside her was empty.
She found David in the living room, sitting in the dark, staring at a blank TV screen. His expression was vacant, his eyes unfocused.
"David?"
He didn't react for a long moment. Then, he blinked and turned his head slowly. "Ah... sorry. Did I wake you?"
It was obvious to anyone watching. David was slipping away.
"Can't sleep?" Lucy asked.
"I just... I wanted to stay awake. I wanted to be sure I'm still here."
"I see."
"I'll turn the TV off."
"Were you even watching it?"
"I was just... having it on..."
David's gaze stayed on the screen. Suddenly, a commercial for moon tourism flickered on.
"The moon... it only costs 250,000 for a ticket," David murmured. "That's cheaper than I thought."
He still remembered. Despite the chrome, despite the madness, his core motivation was still Lucy's dream.
Lucy smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. "That's just for the ticket, David."
"Yeah... I know."
"I'm going back to bed," Lucy said.
"Okay. Goodnight."
David went back to staring at the screen. But as she walked away, Lucy noticed his left hand.
Under the table, the heavy cybernetic fist was trembling uncontrollably.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]