"Hey, Jackie, did V get it taken care of yet?"
Luo Qi stood on the stairwell landing, his left hand in his pocket and a PDA in his right.
Since V had gone to see old Vik for cyberware work, and if Luo Qi's memory wasn't wrong, it should be a Kiroshi optic and a ballistic coprocessor in the palm. Best not to interrupt a process involving literal body modification.
"Oh, Lucky." Jackie snapped out of his daze, looking like he'd been floating in a blissful haze just moments ago. "V already went to see Dexter. Said he wanted to talk face-to-face."
"Uh, got it. Fine then." Luo Qi hung up.
Thinking it over, there didn't seem to be anything else crucial he needed to tell V anyway. And even if there were, it was too late now.
That fat black bastard Dexter, before getting to the real topic, always liked to pull that whole "stay a nobody or make a name for yourself" routine. The smug tone alone was punchable as hell—practically identical to certain so-called "experts" and "successful people."
And that asshole smoked in the car, too.
Ahem. Be civilized.
Bang bang bang—!
Crack-crack-crash—!!
…PONG!!
Luo Qi had only taken a few steps. He had been planning to clear his head and think about what preparations he should make next, when the gunfight erupting right in front of his face scared him so badly he nearly jumped out of his skin.
Are you kidding me?!
He immediately performed a tactical maneuver—supposedly—and ducked behind a low wall, peeking out with just his eyes.
Ping!
A crisp metallic crack rang out about twenty centimeters above his head.
A stray round had struck the fence and kicked off a brief but gorgeous spray of sparks.
Are you fucking kidding me?!
Luo Qi jerked his head back down, and then he heard the police shouting.
"Drop your weapons! Surrender immedi—"
PONG!!!
A grenade blew the rest of the sentence right back into the officer's throat.
A shower of broken concrete fragments and dust rained down all over Luo Qi's head.
Luo Qi: (╬￣皿￣)
Are you seriously fucking kidding me?!
There was a limit to what a man could take. Uncle, auntie, grandma, grandpa—nobody could put up with this shit.
Luo Qi yanked out his SMG, braced it on the concrete block, and aimed the muzzle straight at the asses of the gang members pouring fire downrange.
RATATATATATA—!!!
The light, rapid gunfire merged into a single stream. Bullets flew from the chamber and swept the gang members down behind their cover like stalks of rice at harvest.
None of them had expected enemies to show up from behind. For a moment, the idiots who only knew how to guard one end got thoroughly wrecked at the other.
Luo Qi held the SMG steady, keeping his body locked in position while his left hand slapped a new magazine in—knocking the old one out and jamming the new one home.
A Darra Polytechnic DS1 Pulsar—Pink Macho Heart Custom Edition.
Brighter pink paint. Even more brutal performance.
The Darra designers deserved some respect for not being afraid to be the first idiots to eat the crab. The gun looked like someone had first dismantled a perfectly normal SMG, then blindfolded a kindergarten kid and told them to put it back together.
But the Pulsar was smaller than most guns of its class, making it easier to conceal.
Of course, originality came at a price. The gun's design was distinctive, but its recoil was infamously monstrous and difficult to control. Fortunately, its extremely low price made up for that. The DS1 Pulsar was a weapon you could find everywhere in the slums.
It was also one of the few guns Luo Qi could actually afford to have customized.
Higher fire rate. Greater stopping power. More stable trajectory. Better ergonomics.
That had cost him around ten times the price of the mass-produced version.
2.25 seconds. Forty rounds. Enough recoil to shove a weak shooter flat onto the ground.
Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat-tat!
He swung around a pillar blocking his sightline, snapped the muzzle onto a guy crouching in a corner, and dumped a burst into him. Then he instantly shifted to a second enemy turning his head in shock and gave him a short, controlled burst.
Area clear.
He lowered the weapon and signaled to the police opposite him. Only then did they lower their guns slightly.
"Who are you!?" a harsh voice demanded through a portable loudspeaker.
"Uh, me? Just a passing Kamen Rider. No need to thank me. Justice is my creed."
Luo Qi waved dismissively, flipped the safety on, holstered the gun, and rolled his shoulder a bit to ease the ache from the recoil.
Then he casually nudged a groaning gang member on the ground with his foot.
"Tiger Claws? What are they doing here? Isn't Watson Maelstrom territory?"
He looked up and around.
Everywhere there was chaotic graffiti, overturned barbecue grills, smashed tables and chairs—exactly the sort of filthy backstreet where punks and poor people liked to gather. In places like this, you could find little pills that would hook you after one taste, women who'd go home with you—or just into the alley—for the right price, black-market cyberware stripped off some corpse or some soon-to-be corpse, military hardware, and whatever else the city had spat up.
Places like this were everywhere in Night City. NCPD exchanging fire with Tiger Claws here was only because they had stumbled across a crime scene, not because it meant anything larger.
Since there was no real value in staying, Luo Qi had no intention of hanging around.
His head was a mess right now.
Usually, after a firefight like that—after a brush with life and death—his mind would become even clearer.
But this time, he felt trapped in some impossible loop.
Dexter had called V in for business.
First step: retrieve the military prototype spider-bot, code-named Flathead, from Maelstrom after their leadership change.
Second step: meet the client and discuss the details of the job.
Both were preparations for that mission.
As for the mission itself?
It wasn't hard.
All they had to do was break into the heavily guarded suite of Yorinobu Arasaka, crown prince of the emperor of Arasaka—one of the corporate empires monopolizing national politics and economic lifeblood—inside the Konpeki Plaza, the highest tower in Arasaka Waterfront, Night City, and steal an experimental biochip called the Relic, a masterpiece built with untold time and effort, supposedly capable of granting immortality.
That's all.
Nothing too difficult.
Worst case, they'd just die.
Die my ass! I don't want to die, waaagh!!
"I can't panic. I can't panic…"
Luo Qi grabbed his chin and started pacing back and forth, left-right, back-left, like a malfunctioning robot.
"Stay calm. Be composed. Steady. Rational. If I panic now, I lose."
"Come on. Let's sort this out logically."
"First, we go to Konpeki Plaza…"
Aaaaghhhhhhhhhh!!
This is going to get us killed!!
Luo Qi instantly snapped, clutching his head and screaming into the void.
Then he noticed the NCPD officer nearby—who had looked faintly grateful one second ago—now looking outright wary, like she might hit the emergency button and call MaxTac at any moment.
"Heh…" Luo Qi immediately straightened back up. "Sorry. Bit of a personal issue. Needed to think through something."
"Wishing you smooth work, a happy life, good health, and… zàijiàn."
He delivered that last line in the tone of an old swimming coach lecturing a novice, then vanished down the street at light speed.
He wandered through the crowds, waiting at traffic lights now and then, head lowered, thinking hard about a way out.
"First, we go to Konpeki Plaza…"
"Okay… don't panic. We take this one step at a time."
"The infiltration part won't be the problem. Then comes the escape—"
Hm?
Hm!?
"Why the fuck do I have to go die at that exact point in time?!"
Luo Qi froze in the middle of the street, eyes blazing, and slammed one fist into his palm.
If things followed the original plot, then the three of them would go through the following:
Disguise → Infiltration → Hack → Gain access → Enter the suite → Steal the Relic → Watch Yorinobu kill his father Saburo → Alarm triggers → Escape → Jackie gets shot → Relic case breaks → Jackie uses the Relic → Escape the building → Jackie dies of his wounds → GG → My mood turns into rain outside the window → Quit the game → Open Steam → Help → Steam Support → I would like to request a refund.
Screw that! Screw all of that!
What bad intentions could CDPR possibly have?
At most, just writing Jackie to die.
For a moment, Luo Qi was seized by the urge to book a plane ticket to Europe and blow up CDPR headquarters.
So now, he had to do everything in his power to get the Relic business dealt with before Yorinobu went psycho—then get the three of them out quietly, without attracting attention.
And to anyone asking, "Why not just wait until after Saburo dies before infiltrating?"—
drag them out and execute them with the autocannon on a Trauma Team AV for half an hour.
Because once the alarm was raised and Konpeki Plaza received reinforcements, he would recommend bringing a Gundam to the job.
If not for Delamain hauling V and Jackie out at high speed in the original route, the whole tower would've been flooded with Arasaka troops comparable to MaxTac in short order.
At that point, only cheat codes could save them.
In that all-encompassing web of death, whether it was V, Jackie, or even Dexter, they were all just pieces.
Pieces on the board of capital.
Someone wanted to take a swing at Arasaka from the shadows, and for that, some disposable pawns had to die.
But now there was one guy named Luo Qi who had jumped onto the board, and he fully intended to smash that plan to pieces.
"Two possible solutions." Luo Qi sat down in a café, ordered a ludicrously expensive but genuinely very good strong tea, and began laying it out. "Option one: move earlier. Avoid the risk. Get out clean."
"If they could escape Konpeki Plaza while carrying a wounded man after the alarm, then escaping with no alarm should be completely doable."
"Option two: worst-case scenario. Can't move earlier. We have to bite the bullet and go in as planned."
"In that case, we need additional escape routes."
A wicked smile spread across his face.
"The rooftop: escape by AV. That means learning to fly and knowing how to hack."
"The front entrance: fight Adam Smasher head-on. In a narrow encounter, only the brave survive. Only the living have the right to use that door."
"Rear window, down the exterior maintenance route… no, no, fuck that, even if Jackie getting shot is only a probability, I am not touching that route."
"Your tea, sir. Please enjoy."
The waitress set down a cup on a saucer with a bright smile.
"Oh—thanks…" Luo Qi's expression changed instantly as he took it with a polite smile, then reverted straight back to his "cold, detached, devastatingly handsome strategic genius" face.
"So right now, the rooftop still seems like the best option… does it?"
Konpeki Plaza wouldn't launch anti-air missiles, right?
An armored AV wouldn't chase them from behind, right?
Arasaka's aircraft carrier Kujira wouldn't scramble fighters, right?
Like hell they wouldn't!!
Luo Qi clutched his head in pain.
Whenever corporations were involved—especially where core interests were on the line—capital would use every method you could imagine, and plenty you couldn't, to kill you.
The escape plan had to prioritize stealth and viability.
And even if discovered, it still had to remain safe and reliable.
But no matter which retreat route he chose, one thing remained constant:
He needed money.
A lot of money.
Looking at the few thousand eurodollars left on his card, he felt a headache coming on.
Prices in Night City were truly insane.
Because extreme automation had wiped out huge numbers of low-skill jobs, the poor side of the wealth gap had sunk unbelievably low. A week of boxed meals for a worker cost around 100 eurodollars—about 5 per meal. There were even synthetic food packs at 30 a week for people really strapped for cash.
Then came rent, net fees, water, electricity, and a mountain of other bills waiting to be paid.
What "City of Dreams"? Waking up every morning only to get your remaining value squeezed out by work—that was the real Night City.
This wasn't a game where you could pop a MaxDoc or Bounce Back and instantly be fine again.
This was reality.
A reality where people could die at any moment without the story needing some special scripted death scene.
A katana couldn't cut through mech armor.
Clothes couldn't stop bullets.
MaxTac could fire one shot and roll the credits.
He needed money.
A lot of money.
Enough to support an entire escape operation.
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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