"Where do we go next?"
V looked toward Takemura, who was still recovering in the driver's seat from their brush with death.
"We stand out too much right now. I don't have any safe places to hide. Do you have any suggestions?"
Takemura shook his head, hands tight on the wheel.
"Let's go to Viktor's. We can't keep this car." Luo Qi looked over the bodywork, riddled with dents and bullet holes. "We'll ditch it and walk the rest of the way. Keep it low-key. I'm changing clothes. Anybody coming with me?"
Twenty minutes later—
Four people dressed like a street gang on their way to a firefight were walking down the road.
Luo Qi was in white from head to toe, styled like some futuristic Japanese ronin, a katana hanging at his waist, oversized RGB-lit headphones over his ears, an assault rifle slung across his back. The cyberpunk factor was absolutely off the charts.
Takemura had somehow acquired a metal kasa hat from who-knew-where. He had ditched his ruined suit completely and changed into a rocker-style jacket and high-top boots. For a middle-aged man, he looked weirdly fashionable.
V and Jackie, meanwhile, looked like complete idiots.
Especially Jackie. Between the pink star-shaped sunglasses, the ridiculous hair, and the screaming red layers he had thrown on, he looked less like a merc and more like a nightclub DJ who had wandered out into traffic still high on his own set.
Takemura glanced at the two of them once, then silently moved over to Luo Qi's right side, making it clear he wanted no association whatsoever with those two clowns.
As for Luo Qi's outfit, though, he gave it an approving nod.
When they reached Viktor's, Misty nearly mistook Jackie for someone coming to wreck the place. She had half a gun drawn before she recognized him.
The whole group piled into the dim basement in one rush and gathered in the shadows to talk.
"There are assassins chasing us everywhere now," Takemura said in that signature deep voice of his, that odd accent still thick as ever. "But Yorinobu Arasaka must pay for what he has done."
"You just got cut loose by the company. You're basically a blacklisted nobody now. Forget already?" V shook his head. "How exactly are you supposed to help us like this?"
Takemura removed the kasa, looked at V with those still-water eyes of his, and seemed to sink into thought.
Luo Qi rubbed his chin and scratched his head.
"Damn it all, we haven't had a second to breathe since Konpeki Plaza, and now we're stuck with this garbage too. A loyal retainer seeks evidence for his former master, only to be mercilessly hunted by the current one. Where will the lone veteran go from here? Stay tuned for A Sea-Deep Tale of Family Feud: The Story of Yorinobu Arasaka and Goro Takemura, Destined Yet Torn Apart…"
As he kept going, Takemura's expression darkened by the second.
"All right, all right, I'm just trying to lighten the mood." Luo Qi spread his hands. "Back to the point. Arasaka is a complete mess right now, and the pursuit is only one problem. What about the Relic?"
Jackie pulled out the case and placed it on the table between them.
There it was.
The tiny little thing that had turned half of Night City upside down.
And the fire it had lit would probably keep spreading, starting from Arasaka itself.
No one knew whether the next thing it touched would be a powder keg—or just leave behind a world of petty wreckage.
"V! Lucky! Wait!"
Jackie suddenly shouted.
He planted both hands on the case, tossed his sunglasses aside, and stared wide-eyed at the display.
"Container damaged. Chip integrity—zero percent."
What!?
Luo Qi and V shot to their feet at once, staring at the enormous 0 on the screen.
"Shit! How the hell did this happen?!" V blurted out in a panic, immediately racing back through everything that had happened.
"Here," Takemura said, extending a hand and slowly touching the side of the case.
Several shards of varying sizes were embedded deep into it.
"Damn it!"
V slapped his forehead.
When he and Jackie escaped the apartment earlier, the Arasaka assassins had triggered explosives. They had not detonated directly inside the room, but Jackie had still been carrying the case then. It must have been hit at that moment.
And after that came the car chase and gunfight.
None of them had even thought to check the case afterward.
"What was never yours was never yours."
Takemura looked at the three "thieves" in front of him and shook his head.
If they had never planned to infiltrate Konpeki Plaza and steal the Relic, Saburo Arasaka still would have been strangled by Yorinobu. That part would not have changed.
But because Luo Qi and the others had chosen to interfere, they now owned their share of the chaos and bloodshed sweeping across the city.
"You did the best you could," Viktor said quietly, trying to comfort them.
"So that's just how it was meant to be, huh?" Jackie laughed bitterly. "Looks like we were never destined to get our hands on the Relic after all, mano."
But of everyone there, Luo Qi's mind was the one in greatest turmoil.
Meant to be?
No.
This was not the part that was supposed to happen.
The chip was supposed to be intact. The tragedy fate had reserved was supposed to be V's and Jackie's.
But now that so much had been changed, everything afterward had gone far beyond anything he had expected.
He did not know the rest of the plot anyway—but if the Relic was gone, that meant the personality stored on it was gone too.
What kind of story development was this!?
No—
No, no, no!
This was not a story.
This was reality.
In a daze, Luo Qi opened the case. Inside was a sleek, high-end-looking panel, with a recess holding a tiny chip.
The violet crystal glow on it was still flowing beautifully.
But according to the display on the case, it had already lost all function.
Did the Relic data have a backup?
Could something like this be backed up?
A sudden, crushing guilt washed over Luo Qi—the feeling that he had personally killed a soul.
Even though it had not directly been his doing.
If he had not shot down that Arasaka Octant, Jackie might never have been hit.
And if Jackie had not been hit, the case might have survived intact.
No one could foresee what would happen next.
Because this was not fate.
It was a whole world, where every movement pulled ten thousand others along with it.
Jackie had both hands over his head, groaning in regret. Viktor stood behind him, patting his shoulder with the tenderness of an old father soothing a son.
V stood with his hands on his hips, glaring at a row of metal lockers as if he wanted to punch fate itself in the face.
Takemura watched in silence, arms folded under his chin, perhaps lost in his own thoughts—thoughts as melodramatic, powerless, irritating, and chaotic as everything before him now.
Luo Qi held the Relic between his fingers like an exquisite jewel.
In the dim underground clinic, he stared quietly at its beautiful light and sighed.
If he had a bioport, he probably would have jammed it straight in and tried it on the spot.
Even if there was a chance something might go wrong.
There were many ways to live.
And many glorious ways to die.
One of them, surely, was smashing apart these vague, bullshit ideas of destiny.
It struck him then that if he had truly changed the turning wheel of time, then every second from this point onward was really a crossroads.
Every choice.
Every decision.
Every passing moment was one more moving part in the workings of this vast world.
If fate existed at all, then it had to be mutable, not fixed.
The only things truly nailed in place were rigid thinking, cowardly surrender, and the kind of self-abandonment that called itself "acceptance."
"Is it really dead now?" Luo Qi stared at the chip in disbelief, unable to reconcile the idea that something so small and lifeless had once held a real soul.
In the end, he plugged the Relic into his PDA.
"At least let me keep it as a memento."
[Damaged chip detected. Initiate repair?]
A prompt sounded.
Luo Qi shook his head.
Then froze.
Since when did his PDA have a function like that?
He jerked his gaze downward.
The PDA's screen still showed the same old message as before:
[Unable to read. Chip damaged.]
A chill of pure alarm ran up his spine, goosebumps breaking out across his back.
The voice he had just heard—
He had heard it not only in the ear with the Bluetooth headset, but in the other ear too.
[Damaged chip detected. Initiate repair?]
The voice had not come from the device.
It had sounded like it was inside his head.
He shook his head hard, rubbing at his temples, and began pacing uneasily.
"Lucky? What's wrong?" V asked, noticing his reaction.
"No, no, no… wait. Hold on."
He raised one hand and waved V off slightly, wanting a second to think in peace.
The underground air was cool, a little damp, and everything around him was perfectly clear, perfectly logical.
This was not a dream.
Nor was it braindance.
He suddenly remembered the days half a year ago, when he had first met V out on the Badlands.
Back when his own awareness had only just awakened through a haze…
Had he not heard this voice even then?
Is it… me?
Inside me?
Luo Qi lowered his eyes and looked at his own body.
Factory-standard human. No cyberware modifications. No cyberpsychosis. Mentally stable.
So then what the hell was this?
[Damaged chip detected. Initiate repair?]
He raised the PDA again.
The screen still stubbornly displayed the same unchanged line:
[Unable to read.]
This was 2077, not 2777. A person with no implants could not have their memories tampered with inside a fully biological brain just by inserting a chip and doing nothing else.
Long-term hypnosis existed, sure. And it could be terrifyingly effective.
But sticking in a chip and then directly projecting sound into an unmodified organic brain?
That was impossible.
"Did any of you hear a voice just now?"
Luo Qi swallowed and held up the PDA.
The only sounds in the basement were the hum of the ventilation and the boxing match Viktor had forgotten to turn off.
Everyone signaled no in their own way.
[Damaged chip detected. Initiate repair?]
"There! It's happening again! Did you hear that?"
Luo Qi immediately pointed at the air around them—and at the PDA in his hand.
Again, nothing.
"You sure you're okay? Want Viktor to check your hearing? After that explosion…" V stepped forward and peered near Luo Qi's ear.
"No, no, no, not that. I'm fine. I'm totally fine." Luo Qi pressed V's hand down, then spoke cautiously to the empty air. "Uh… start repair?"
[Executing repair process. Please wait…]
Holy shit.
What the hell was this?!
Luo Qi's eyes went wide as headlights.
Holding up the PDA, he unconsciously struck the exact same baffled pose as that old classic reaction image.
[Repair complete. Accessing data from third-party device…]
[Bzzt…]
[Bzzt…]
There was a burst of strange electrical static, like meaningless electronic noise—
And then, inside Luo Qi's head and through the headset on his right ear at the same time, a rough, wild, slightly hoarse voice rang out:
[Fuck… where the hell is this?!]
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 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 126)
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?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter134)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 87
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 79
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 73
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 49
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 45
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 45
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