Inside the elevator of his upscale apartment building, Kai pulled a JKE-X2 Kenshin pistol from his coat pocket.
This was the piece he had gone back inside to get.
A tech pistol issued by Arasaka. It could fire in rapid succession almost like a machine pistol and used a tungsten-steel electromagnetic round, marketed as wielding the power of lightning.
"This is Night City. Even a stray dog can catch two rounds just walking down the street."
Kai checked the magazine and chamber one-handed, then flipped the pistol sideways and upright a couple times in his grip before running through a few clean, practiced aiming motions to get the old feel back.
At the end, he weighed it in his hand and sounded less than impressed.
"Other than tracking vital signs, it's barely any better than scrap. Rate of fire's average, stopping power's weak, and the whole thing reeks of small-time design. Power of lightning? This?"
Even though he looked down on the pistol, it was enough for a nighttime run.
The elevator stopped on the first floor.
Kai tucked the gun at the back of his waist, turned on his music, lowered his head, and ran hard down the street.
At night, Night City always glowed beneath unreal blue, violet, and pink neon, like some dazzling demonic jewel set into the West Coast.
What Kai saw, however, was that inside all that brilliance were the shadows and explosive flashes of capital itself, constantly assaulting your eyes, your ears, even your nerves.
Whether it was the giant AVs drifting over the city center, the neon beams stabbing into the sky, or the massive holograms stretched between high-rises, every corner of the city was trying to sell you something.
Streets, alleys, elevator corridors, every last inch of it.
The moment Kai looked up, he saw a huge electronic billboard on a nearby skyscraper playing a food ad.
The face of the spokesperson was grotesque. A lump of chicken meat for a head, two fried eggs for eyes, a mouth made of sausages, a nest of greens on top, and a necklace of intestines around its neck. It stood there holding up some processed sausage-like product, pitching it to the viewers.
"Come try our newest delicious flavor!"
The ad ended by showing the product came from All Foods, one of Night City's localized food manufacturers.
To avoid being harassed by the visuals, Kai lowered his head again and tried to keep his eyes only on the pavement ahead.
But when he passed an adult shop by the roadside, a projected ad from the storefront lights spilled across the ground, showing endless curves and seductive movement.
"Newly upgraded behavioral chips. Take your partner into a world you've never experienced before. So what are you waiting for..."
No matter how much he tried to protect his eyes, he still took a hit from the ad bombardment, and after only a short distance, an inexplicable irritation had already started to build inside him.
He came to a stop and let out a helpless sigh.
"I just want some peace. How is it this hard to go for a simple run and unwind?"
"If this keeps up, I'm buying a treadmill."
But Kai hated treadmills.
He liked the cool feeling of the wind brushing his face.
He liked seeing the scenery slide away on both sides.
He liked running free, without restraint.
That was the whole reason he had come out for a night run in the first place. Improving his physical condition was only part of it. More than that, he wanted to clear his head, not get even more annoyed.
"If this doesn't work, I'll have to head farther out by the seawall. It's quieter there. The ocean's cleaner than the streets. Just more out of the way..."
Once he had made up his mind, Kai stopped lingering in the crowded streets of Little China. He touched the pistol hidden in his coat, turned, and accelerated toward the seawall.
An hour later, he arrived at the southern embankment road, breathing hard.
There were far fewer people here than in the district itself. Only a handful of street punks clustered together smoking and talking quietly.
Some of them threw him looks that were not exactly friendly, but the moment they noticed the Kenshin at the back of his waist, they seemed to think better of it and let their hostility fade.
Kai did not want anyone bothering him, so he kept going until he reached a barrier facing the open sea and stopped there.
There was no one wandering nearby anymore.
Ahead of him stretched the endless black ocean, with cargo ships passing across the surface.
Behind him, the city burned with neon.
The only thing that ruined the view for him was the random piles of trash stacked by the seawall and beach. Plastic, silicone, scraps of old electronic boards.
Still, the cool salt air wrapped around his face, and at least there was no strange smell coming off it.
Kai pulled off his headphones and stood at the barrier, staring as far as his eyes could reach while listening to the waves strike the shore.
Only then did the heaviness in his chest finally ease a little.
This run had been exhausting, but he was surprised to find that his endurance really was solid. Even without movement-enhancing chrome, he had managed to cover that much distance at speed.
He still could not compare to the near-superhuman movement he had once had with a body full of implants, but the effect of the fused talent was obvious.
And that was with only one Life Point spent on it.
Kai had never considered endurance the most urgently needed ability, so he had only put one point into it as an experiment.
What he really looked forward to was running a life simulation on Maine. That huge, powerful bastard would definitely be able to generate some much nastier combat talent.
That was why Kai had kept two points in reserve while closely watching what happened to Maine's crew, waiting for the right moment to step in and change Maine's fate the way he had changed David's.
Still, after this run, Kai had to admit the endurance talent had an incredibly broad application.
Nearly every form of high-intensity combat relied on that kind of foundation.
"If you can't even last as long as it takes to smoke one cigarette, then you may as well go wash up and lie down in a grave."
He had no interest in being a five-second hero.
Buoyed by that thought, Kai suddenly threw both arms high into the air, fingers spread wide, and roared into the night.
"Night City!"
"Your emperor..."
"has returned!!!"
In that moment, Kai no longer cared about anything around him.
Not even the memory of a nuclear blast could suppress the wildness still burning inside him.
He was arrogant.
He loved.
He feared nothing.
And if anyone wanted to blame something, they could blame this damned city.
Because this city held Johnny's life.
V's life.
Jackie's life.
The lives of all the edgerunners.
And his own legendary life too.
Kai's exaggerated shout tore into the air, only to be scattered and carried far away by the sea wind.
At that same moment, at the southernmost end of the seawall near the dock, someone turned her head toward the source of the voice.
"You?"
Lucy stood leaning against the barrier with the hood of a white sweatshirt pulled up. A half-burned cigarette rested between the fingers of her right hand. Following the sound, she realized the person shouting was Kai.
A faint trace of caution flashed through her indifferent eyes.
She had not expected to run into him at this hour, in a place like this. But from the way he was behaving, it was obvious he had not realized anyone else was nearby, much less come here because of her.
"Emperor?"
"Returned?"
Hearing that almost childish, ridiculous yell and comparing it with the image of Kai she had built in her mind, a corporate executive with authority in his hands, she found the two simply did not match.
Lucy could not understand why Kai would come to the seawall at a time like this and do something so illogical.
But when she saw him turn and run off again, a gun still in his hand, she finally broke and laughed under her breath.
"Are you Mr. Kai of Arasaka..."
"or just yourself?"
Lucy crushed out the cigarette, snuffing the last bit of light around her, and let herself sink completely into the darkness.
But her neon-blue eyes still followed the direction he had gone.
(End of Chapter)
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