Arasaka Tower.
Thirty-third floor, Counterintel.
Leaning back in his office chair, Kai sipped hot tea while scrolling through the reports he had not finished reading that morning.
[According to the annual report provided by Night City Perspective, Arasaka Academy has ranked first among Night City's secondary education institutions for the fourth consecutive year. Although the magazine's advertising revenue mainly comes from the academy's parent corporation, the editorial department insists that the financial partnership has had no impact on the ranking.]
[At the same time, the academy's persistently high dropout rate remains one of its most notable traits. This places students under extreme pressure, leading to anxiety and depression, and in some cases even suicide. Statistically, the phenomenon is especially pronounced among students who are not from corporate families.]
Kai saw that Arasaka Academy was still as arrogant as ever, treating its students in clearly divided tiers.
Children of Arasaka executives were first-class.
Children of other corporate executives were second-class.
Everyone else was third-class by default.
Third-class students not only had to pay outrageous tuition, they also had to make donations to the school board just to qualify for admission.
That made him think of David, still attending Arasaka Academy.
"That brat's probably the only real ninth-class student in the place."
Kai knew that surviving at Arasaka Academy was not just about individual ability. Family background mattered even more.
David was seventeen and close to graduation. He had no power, his mother only scraped out a living at the bottom of Night City, and his personality was too stubborn and too proud to flatter the children of executives.
Naturally, those rich kids looked down on him more than anyone.
If David had bent the knee and played nice, he would not have been targeted so badly.
But then he would have lost the most precious thing he still had in life.
His young spirit.
A person like that might get beaten down, humiliated, and slammed into walls at every turn, but at least he had once fought against fate and tried to live on his own terms.
Kai pulled up David's academic record and looked it over, only to discover that the boy's written exam scores were actually not bad at all. It was only his practical evaluation scores that were terrible, probably because of the shabby equipment he had to use.
"Managing this much in a place like Arasaka Academy... that's actually kind of interesting."
Kai had not only seen David's real situation at school through the life simulation. He had also seen how Katsuo and the other corporate heirs bullied him mercilessly, how he had been driven to the point of selling a kidney to save his mother, and how he had forced himself to endure Arasaka Academy purely for Gloria's dream.
In short, David was the kind of person who genuinely thought about others.
But fate loved making a joke out of poor people.
"People like him either become legends or go mad."
That was Kai's final judgment.
Then something occurred to him, and he searched the company intranet again, pulling up information related to the pre-graduation internship requirement at Arasaka Academy.
He opened a few entries at random and quickly found what he wanted.
David would soon have to complete a three-month social internship before graduation.
"Looks like this kid's about to get hit with even more trouble."
While casually skimming through one item after another, Kai received a message from Gloria.
He opened it and saw a dinner invitation.
The location was Embers, in the Glen, just beside City Center.
Embers was one of the places Kai used to frequent. He knew it so well it might as well have been his second home.
As one of Night City's best-known high-end entertainment venues, Embers handled dining, club business, bars, hotel services, and leisure facilities all under one roof.
The problem was that Embers was expensive.
For Gloria to invite him there for dinner, that was sincerity on a level that could not be missed.
Kai also noticed that there was a photo attached below the invitation.
He tapped it open.
In the photo, Gloria and David were sitting at the dining bar inside Embers.
What surprised him was that Gloria, who normally looked simple and practical, was not wearing her bright yellow cyber-jacket at all.
Instead, she wore a long red dress. The hem deepened from crimson into near-black. Her softly curled red hair fell naturally and was tucked behind one ear. A touch of makeup had been added to her delicate features, and she smiled lightly into the camera.
With that elegant posture and mature composure, she looked like a noble lady in red, graceful and impossibly refined.
Standing beside her, David was dressed in a full black suit, his face full of helpless resignation.
Kai had thought this was just going to be a casual meal.
He had not expected Gloria to prepare this seriously.
That made things a little awkward for him.
He closed the files on his screen, deleted his browsing traces, shut down the machine, stood up, grabbed his coat, and hurried out of the office.
As he passed through the work area, he saw Carter sitting at his desk talking on the phone with a smile he could not hide.
Kai's face immediately hardened.
"Mr. Carter Smith."
Carter jumped at the sound, hurriedly ended the call, and stood up at once. The smile on his face collapsed into an awkward, submissive grin.
"Keep it professional during work hours. Before midnight tonight, I want your investigation results sitting quietly and intact in my inbox."
Carter immediately bent forward and nodded.
"Understood!"
After dropping the order, Kai strode toward the elevator bank.
A moment later, he rode down to the main lobby on the first floor of Arasaka Tower.
Even at dinner time, the whole tower was still swarming with people.
Employees in Arasaka uniforms moved everywhere, talking on calls, filing reports, checking documents. Others were working on expanding their connections, gathering in small groups and whispering together.
Kai stepped out of Arasaka Tower and stopped by the ring road around Corporate Plaza.
There was still plenty of time, and the destination was not far, so he decided to walk to Embers.
The Glen in Heywood bordered City Center directly. Starting from Corporate Plaza and heading south, it took less than twenty minutes on foot to reach the district.
The contrast within Heywood was one of the sharpest in all of Night City.
You could say the entire district was divided between heaven and mud, with wealth, poverty, order, and filth all jammed together.
The wealthy northern end, the Glen, had places like reconciliation parks, city administrative buildings, the NCPD central headquarters, and a whole commercial core built around high-end venues like Embers and Jinguji.
The southern side was another story entirely.
There, the area was full of slums, gang wars, and every kind of rough entertainment joint imaginable. That was territory contested by the Valentinos and the Sixth Street gang, with beer flowing through all of Heywood and places like basketball courts, billiard halls, shooting arcades, game parlors, dance clubs, and boxing gyms packed night after night.
Kai's best choom Jackie had been born and raised in southern Heywood, and most people from there carried the same reputation: loyal, emotional, and fiercely protective of their own.
But because of heavy development in the Glen, most native Heywood residents had long since been pushed south into Wellsprings and Vista del Rey.
As Kai walked through one of Night City's most prosperous commercial streets, the people passing by were dressed in bright, expensive clothes. Rare metallic cyberware gleamed under blue neon light in dazzling color.
He sighed softly.
"No wonder the scavvers love hiding in the back corners of the Glen, just sitting there and watching people on the street."
"These walking piles of chrome are all just strolling eddies."
Before long, Kai arrived at the entrance to the Embers tower.
He stepped through the revolving glass doors of the hotel, and a server immediately approached to greet him and guide him inside.
After he gave Gloria's name, he was led to the elevator and taken upstairs.
The moment Kai entered the upscale restaurant floor of Embers, his gaze landed on the red-haired beauty seated by the floor-to-ceiling window not far from the piano.
She was resting her chin lightly on one hand, looking out at the evening view.
Beside her sat David in a black suit.
Kai handed his coat to the server, ordered two Verdant cocktails and a fruit drink, then enabled password-free payment on his electronic account.
Once that was done, he adjusted the hem of his suit and walked toward the red lady by the window.
(End of Chapter)
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