"Night City."
"Starting out as an Arasaka corpo rat."
"Now that's some real irony."
"Haa..."
Kai let out a long breath.
Only then did his tightly wound, exhausted nerves finally loosen a little.
Compared to when he had first transmigrated into 2077, the sense of freshness was gone.
What remained now was weariness.
At this point, he was completely certain.
He really had been reborn.
Those memories that seemed to have passed only a blink ago were still as vivid as ever.
Like a deep diver, he sank into the long, dark sea of the past.
He sank into the black abyss of Night City.
And slowly, he kept falling deeper.
Now that he was standing at the crossroads of his life once again, what choice was he supposed to make this time?
Kai had no answer.
"Maybe..."
"At the very least, I should be able to change something."
He could feel many familiar things gradually awakening along with his memories.
The cars he had raced down city streets and outside nightclubs.
The guns he had fired in abandoned food factories and at Clouds.
The kidneys and lungs he had cut out on operating tables.
All those sensations were coming back.
It was as if the memories in his mind and the instincts in his muscles had linked up once more.
If someone put a gun or a car in front of him right now, he knew he would handle it like second nature.
Once his new body had mostly adapted to the crushing weight of those old memories, he turned his attention back to the updated system panel.
[Life Points: 1] (Details)
[Fusion Ability: None] (Details)
Kai noticed that just moments ago his Life Points had been at zero.
Now they had become one.
"I probably changed my own life by being reborn."
"So I got one Life Point for it."
He opened the details section and kept reading.
"So the updated system works completely differently from before."
"When I first transmigrated into Cyberpunk 2077's Night City, what I got was the game's built-in attribute panel."
"Back then, I could grow stronger by completing jobs and killing enemies to earn attribute points."
"I remember that since I went with a netrunner build, most of my points went into Intelligence, Cool, and Technical Ability."
"Top-tier netrunning had insane cyberware requirements, so I installed almost every high-end implant I could."
"My level of cyberization was already pushing eighty percent."
"If my Cool stat hadn't been high enough and my body tough enough to handle it..."
"I really might've gone cyberpsycho."
"Heh."
"And I used to call Johnny a maniac all the time."
"Looking back now, in their eyes I was probably the real lunatic."
It did not take long for Kai to figure out how the updated system panel worked.
It was not especially complicated.
At its core, it all came down to one thing.
Change the lives of legendary figures, and he would earn Life Points.
Then those Life Points could be used to strengthen any Fusion Abilities he extracted.
Fusion Abilities?
After changing the life of a legendary figure, the system would simulate that person's original life script based on the event in question.
Once the simulation ended, Kai could choose one talent or ability from that person.
At this point, Kai more or less understood where Fusion Abilities came from.
Once he triggered a change in a legendary figure's life, the system would run an original-life simulation for that figure based on the altered event.
Then Kai could obtain one talent or ability that person either already possessed or would possess in the future.
The explanation was a little wordy, but the idea itself was simple enough.
Kai knew quite a few legendary figures.
The problem was that right now he only had one chance to test it.
As for what counted as a legendary figure, he guessed that would be determined entirely by the system.
Just as Kai was thinking through the system's functions, the comm unit over his left eye flashed and popped up an incoming call request.
It was from his old boss, Arthur.
The call connected.
Arthur's expression was stern as always. His brown hair was neatly slicked back, and he was dressed in an expensive suit.
"Where are you, Kai?"
"Have you made it back to Arasaka Tower yet? I should've seen you in my office half an hour ago."
Kai replied calmly.
"I'm on my way back now."
"The border job is almost finished, so why drag me back at a time like this?"
"Something urgent?"
He had previously been sent to the southern border by the company on a special confidential operation.
That was also where he had met Jackie, back when he was still working as a merc.
They had nearly died more than once trying to wrap that mission up.
And at the very last moment, he had received orders to abort and report back to Arasaka Tower headquarters.
All the results he had fought for with his own hands had been handed over for someone else to claim.
Back then, that had filled the fiercely competitive Kai with frustration and anger.
But after being reborn, his mindset had become much steadier.
And more importantly, he already knew who had been pulling the strings behind it all.
Susan.
Arthur's face darkened, and he started swearing immediately.
"Who else? Susan, that bitch."
"She's the one who issued the transfer order and dragged you back from the front line."
"You know how it is."
"Even before she became Director of Special Ops a year ago, she and I were already at each other's throats."
"And now things are even better for her. She's climbed even higher."
"To steal the credit for this operation out of your hands, she found herself a damn good excuse."
"She brought your biometric report and your psychological evaluation into the meeting, then made a huge issue out of the fact that you still haven't undergone full-body cyberware conversion."
"The higher-ups didn't want anything going wrong at the last stage of the border mission, so they approved a replacement on the spot."
Director of Arasaka Special Operations.
A true high-level corporate executive.
In theory, someone with the authority to interfere in any Arasaka field operation.
But only if she had a good enough reason and could get the upper management meeting to back her.
Kai said, "Then the new agent they sent must be from Special Ops."
Arthur nodded.
"Exactly. That's where she came from in the first place."
"But maybe it's for the best that you're coming back now. Better than letting her mess with things behind your back."
"The border's a chaotic hellhole. If something happened to you out there, you'd die without ever knowing why."
"Good timing, too. I've got a new assignment for you. We can talk once you get here."
Kai said, "Got it. I'll see you at the office."
He ended the call.
Then more corporate matters came back to him.
"After I got fired from Arasaka, Arthur was quietly eliminated too."
"Susan died as well because of factional infighting. Officially, it was ruled a suicide."
"Who would've thought that someone holding so much power inside Arasaka could still end up cornered like that?"
"But right now, Susan is still the biggest threat."
"Arthur was the one who promoted me."
"If Susan wants to target Arthur, then I'm one of the first blades she'll reach for."
"Pulling me off the border job is proof enough."
"I can't assume Susan won't go for the kill this time."
"A butterfly effect caused by rebirth is completely possible."
"If I judge the current situation only by what happened in my last life, I'll just lull myself into carelessness."
Suddenly, Kai's eyes shifted to the rearview mirror.
Reflected in the glass was a pink SUV racing toward him from behind.
As it drew closer, the Animals insignia on the hood became impossible to miss.
There were only three vehicles on the elevated highway at this speed.
His black corporate sedan.
That other shabby old compact.
And the pink SUV closing in fast.
The target could not have been more obvious.
Kai looked away from the mirror and took a deep breath of the air he knew so well.
"Same old smell of gunpowder."
"This damned, irresistible Night City..."
(End of Chapter)
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