"Zzz…"
Early in the morning, while Luo Qi was still sleeping blissfully, his phone started ringing like it had come specifically to ruin his life.
Every time they went out killing and getting shot at, he always slept exceptionally well that night.
So even with the sun shining brightly and trying its hardest to roast Luo Qi's ass, he still had no intention of waking up.
Waking up groggily at six or seven to take a leak, then going right back to hug the blanket—
wasn't that happiness?
But Jackie brought that rare sweet dream to an end.
"Hey, Lucky, quit sleeping in! Get moving, V's going to see a ripperdoc."
Over the call, Jackie watched Luo Qi struggle upright to answer, eyes still shut and making half-conscious "uhh… ahh…" noises, then said it out loud.
"Fuuuck… I knew it… damn, I'm so sleepy…" Luo Qi dragged out the words like a dying man while waging bitter war against the soft embrace of his blanket. "It's a neurovirus, right? Old Vik can fix that."
"How do you know that?" Jackie asked in shock.
"Uh…"
Luo Qi instantly became fully awake.
Still, no matter how wild Jackie's imagination got, there was no way he'd ever guess that Luo Qi actually knew fragments of the future.
"How else do you think the Scavs blocked Sandra's biomonitor signal? The chip was one part of it. Crippling the neural firewall was another," Luo Qi said, improvising nonsense on the spot. "Where are you guys… ugh… fuck, I'm dying of sleepiness."
"V didn't come get you? I'm downstairs. Hurry it up, hermano," Jackie urged him while slurping noodles.
"At least let me wash my face first. Meet you downstairs."
Luo Qi shoved the phone into his pocket, padded barefoot across the floor to the bathroom, slapped cleanser onto his face, rubbed it around twice at random, rinsed it off, used mouthwash as a substitute for actual effort, spat, and then—with water still dripping off his face—pulled on socks and jammed his feet into his shoes.
He headed out, stopped in front of V's room, and knocked.
No answer.
He was probably already gone.
Luo Qi knew V didn't want him worrying, but did that really mean Luo Qi would obediently stay home just because V told him not to come along?
Not a chance.
And it worked the other way around, too.
He took the elevator down. The screens were running ads for Biotechnica and Techtronika, while WNS was reporting on some big upcoming Arasaka event—the Aratama Matsuri—and even mentioned Hanako Arasaka, daughter of Saburo Arasaka, emperor of the Arasaka empire.
"Welcome to Channel 54 News. We now bring you local coverage."
"Violent crime continues to spread across the Badlands. Shootings have been reported along Highways 1, 166, and 101. According to eyewitnesses, all three incidents were gang-related internal conflicts, and attacks against unaffiliated civilians have not exceeded average levels. However, out of caution regarding public safety, NCPD has still raised the threat level to two, and advises travelers to avoid back roads whenever possible."
"Channel 54 will continue to report on developments in this story."
The news was covering events out in the Badlands, seemingly not far from the area where V and Luo Qi had once been staying.
Even before the Bakkers joined Snake Nation—back before V and Luo Qi left—news about vicious gang clashes in the Badlands had always been common.
But it had never escalated this badly, or dragged on this long.
Luo Qi, having lost his memory, didn't feel much attachment to the clan.
But V did.
So for V's sake, Luo Qi decided he'd at least hope the Bakkers would somehow weather the storm.
"And now for international news."
"The 'Moon Valley' uranium mine collapse near the city of Novosibirsk in South Siberia has, after extensive coordination, now been successfully resolved."
"As previously reported, thirty-five miners were trapped deep underground after a major earthquake. However, thanks to the installation of Little Mole II hibernation implants, the miners survived despite being without food or fresh water for two weeks. Fortunately, after a brief rest and technical evaluation following rescue, the miners immediately returned to their previous work positions."
Luo Qi: …
A capitalist would see this and applaud the efficiency.
"Turning our attention from below ground back to the surface, Militech has announced plans to establish a new colony on the Crimson Star. According to the corporation's plan, the base will be divided into three zones: industrial, scientific, and residential. Ten habitable modules are now open for public purchase, with prices starting at one hundred million eurodollars per unit. Yes, that price may seem a little high—but your safety is priceless."
Luo Qi: …
A capitalist would see this and scream Buy! Buy! Buy!
What's one hundred million eurodollars, really?
After all, it's only the people's blood and sweat.
"NCPD reminds citizens to exercise caution when using data terminals. Recent routine inspections indicate that many terminals have already been infected with malicious software. Police experts confirm that known viruses may cause network devices to malfunction, and in extreme cases can even lead to the user's death."
"In response to increasingly severe gang activity, the Mayor's Office has raised the public threat level to red alert. Residents of Arroyo and Watson are advised not to leave their homes after dark and to keep self-defense weapons close at hand. Schools and hospitals have all been closed until further notice."
"What future awaits Pacifica? Once envisioned as a luxury oasis, the district has now devolved into a lawless haven for violent gangs and addicts. Kang Tao has recently expressed interest in acquiring Pacifica real estate to build a new large-scale server base and intelligent logistics center. City Hall has publicly stated that if Kang Tao can demonstrate a genuine commitment to eliminating crime in the area, the city will consider selling the land symbolically for one eurodollar."
"And now for today's final story—"
The female anchor, with her outrageous hairstyle, kept chattering away on screen, but although Luo Qi's eyes remained fixed on the broadcast, his thoughts had already drifted elsewhere.
So it wasn't just Watson.
Even Arroyo had been sealed off?
Luo Qi pulled out his PDA—a device hardly anyone still used in an age where everybody had implants—and opened a map of Night City.
Night City sat along the bay, ocean to the west, land to the east, divided into six major districts, each further broken into smaller neighborhoods.
For instance, the apartments he and V lived in were in Little China, the southernmost section of Watson, the northernmost district of the city. Looking due south from there, you could see the tallest building in the entire city—
Arasaka Tower.
Jackie usually stayed at the garage behind his mother's El Coyote Cojo bar. Inside the garage was a surprisingly cozy little room.
That place was south of Watson, across City Center, in Heywood—and farther southeast still, in the Glen district of Heywood, was Jackie's real home.
Not too far, not too close.
A few kilometers. Fast by car. Not slow by metro either.
But Luo Qi would rather walk the whole way than ever take public transit that smelled like the New York subway turned up to eleven.
If your nose got blasted half-numb every single time, who in their right mind would willingly do that?
As for Arroyo, that lay farther southeast still, in Santo Domingo—a district full of factories and industrial buildings, with a brutal living environment. Luo Qi knew next to nothing about it.
And the city government's explanation for the lockdown was "gang activity."
Sure, MaxTac was already out on the streets slaughtering gang members, but Luo Qi still didn't trust a word from media outlets that told twelve lies in every ten sentences.
After all, even a half-baked understanding of political economy told you the same thing: financial oligarchs controlled society not only through direct ties with government, but also by shaping policy, controlling media, education, science, and culture, and thereby steering both domestic affairs and social life.
Take Militech and the NUSA government.
Take Arasaka and the Japanese government.
In a city where "Comrade Karl Marx" would probably claw his way out of the grave just to scream at what he saw, nothing absurd was surprising.
What would be surprising was "good governance and universal prosperity."
Even a political idiot like Luo Qi could see what was happening:
NCPD was out on the streets clubbing gang members like they were moles at a carnival. The same scumbags who normally did whatever they pleased were now hiding in gutters, trembling.
They were being dragged out as convenient scapegoats to cover up the real truth.
The final news item was about a proposed tax hike that would make owning a dog cost ten thousand eurodollars.
Ridiculous on the surface.
But in practice, anyone who could afford a dog wouldn't care, and anyone who couldn't had no stake in it.
By the time Luo Qi finally realized something was seriously off, he had already ridden the elevator long enough that staying inside any longer might get him mistaken for a lunatic and hauled away.
So he stepped out.
The ground floor of the apartment building was packed with food stalls of deeply questionable hygiene, which was just normal in a vertical slum like this. Anything even slightly respectable—a real restaurant, an actual café—was beyond the reach of ordinary people.
Two cops in NCPD uniforms were leaning against a counter, arguing about something.
It sounded like it had to do with MaxTac.
With Watson sealed off, NCPD presence had increased dramatically, and the whole situation felt especially tense.
A nerve in Luo Qi's head twitched.
Not because of the old saying, "See cops first thing out the door and the day's already ruined."
No.
If off-duty cops grabbing a bite to eat were already spilling all the way to the front of his own building, that didn't mean the situation was merely tense.
It meant it was extremely fucking tense.
"One juice, thanks."
Luo Qi took out a chip, transferred the vendor a few eddies, and accepted a chilled bottle of what was basically dyed syrup and industrial sugar masquerading as fruit juice.
After drinking about half, he set the bottle down on the counter and walked away as casually as possible.
He hadn't overheard anything especially useful.
The male officer had been scolding a female officer for stepping forward to protect civilians and drawing the attention of a cyberpsycho onto herself. In his view, regular police gear simply wasn't enough to deal with that kind of situation.
Still, the outcome seemed decent enough.
The good person hadn't gotten killed.
At the very least, she was still alive and sitting there eating.
"Hm…"
Luo Qi let out a sigh.
Even after half a year in Night City, he still hadn't fully gotten used to living in a place so chaotic, rotten, and soaked in grime.
Night City possessed boundless prosperity.
And boundless evil.
A glittering, dazzling beauty—
and a cruel one.
Police were taking statements in the hallways. Across the street, patrol cars had cordoned off another crime scene.
It wasn't that NCPD's arrival had caused the crime rate to rise.
It was that before the mass deployment of police, all these crimes had simply gone undiscovered—
or unpunished.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 172)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 116)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter119)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 66
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 52
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 55
The Way the Umamusume Look at 42
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 40
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 36
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 30
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 26
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 26
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