North Oak, a true elite residential area of Night City, a place with neither the poor nor gangs.
Located on the hills in the northeastern part of Night City, this area was covered with enormous green spaces that seemed almost like the only real nature remaining within the city.
Every house built here was a huge private estate.
Green hills and clean, unpolluted water clearly showed that only the wealthiest could afford to live in a place like this.
As long as the balance in your account had a sufficiently long line of zeros, the gates of North Oak were wide open to you.
Delamain’s taxi slowly moved toward villa number seven.
When it arrived in front of the estate, the car doors opened automatically and Leon got out.
“Thank you for using Delamain services. I wish you a pleasant rest of the day.”
After saying that, Delamain closed the doors and headed back down the mountain road.
Leon approached the estate gate.
The security cameras recognized his return and the electronic gate slowly opened.
Armed robots patrolling the estate, automated defense turrets hidden beneath the eaves and in the ground, as well as a network security system protected by powerful ICE that covered the entire estate, together formed their defense system.
The enormous estate was almost completely deserted.
Only Leon and Vanessa Hale lived there, which made the entire place feel somewhat empty.
Ever since Vanessa advanced within the corporation, their standard of living had improved drastically and they had moved here from their previous apartment.
Vanessa was no longer merely a research department manager at Kang Tao.
Vanessa Hale was now the vice president of QianT’s Night City branch, a company connected to Kang Tao.
She now truly belonged to the upper class.
Leon entered the house, but before he could even sit down and rest, he received a call.
He glanced at the contact’s profile picture.
It was Vanessa calling him.
“Leon, what’s wrong with you? Why did you skip class again today?”
The moment he accepted the call, Vanessa’s holographic projection appeared on his retinal HUD.
She looked somewhat exhausted, and the helplessness she felt toward her younger brother could clearly be heard in her voice.
“I wanted to come home early. You know I’ve already mastered the material we’re currently covering. Sitting there until evening and wasting time for no reason just isn’t my style,” Leon replied calmly.
“You…”
Vanessa paused.
“Ah, forget it. I’m not going to force you. I just wanted to tell you that I have to work overtime again tonight, so I probably won’t be coming home.”
Vanessa’s voice was filled with fatigue, and Leon soon heard her heavy sigh as well.
“You’re using stimulants again?!”
Leon frowned, and his voice immediately rose by several tones.
He had once naively believed that if Vanessa advanced far enough within the corporation and reached a higher position, the pressure at work would become smaller.
But he had been wrong.
In a world where everything revolved around corporate interests, no matter how high you advanced, if the company required you to work overtime, then you worked overtime.
“I don’t have a choice. One important development project of our company has just entered a critical stage. I have to constantly be there and supervise everything. If we manage to finish this product, QianT’s value will definitely rise sharply, and I’ll finally have more time to spend with you.”
She paused for a moment.
“By the way… when all of this is over, do you want us to go somewhere far away from Night City for a while?”
Perhaps because of the stimulants, Vanessa’s expression looked a little more lively and excited than usual, but while talking with Leon, she still tried to maintain a calm and gentle tone.
“Forget it. Right now I don’t want to leave Night City. I still have many things I need to do here,” Leon replied.
“Alright, alright, whatever you say. Is my little hero eager for action again? Already planning to go outside, beat up a few bad guys, and save someone in trouble?” Vanessa teased him.
“Hehe.”
Leon had no intention of answering that, so he changed the subject.
“By the way, what kind of product is your company currently working on?”
“That’s a corporate secret. It’s not that I don’t want to tell you, but for your own good, it’s better if you don’t ask. If our competitors find out that you know the details of the project and kidnap you, then who am I supposed to complain to?” Vanessa said helplessly.
Leon silently thought for several seconds.
“Let me guess… you’re working on a new generation of Sandevistan?”
The answer obviously caught Vanessa completely off guard.
“Fuck, how did you know that…”
She immediately regretted reacting.
“Shit. I shouldn’t have said anything. Your intuition has always been terrifyingly accurate all these years.”
On the holographic projection, Vanessa looked annoyed.
“Just a logical conclusion.”
Leon continued:
“By the way, tomorrow is Sunday. I might go out for a little while. Don’t worry, I’ll be home when you return from work. I definitely won’t stay out overnight. If you don’t have anything else, we can end the call.”
Now that he had gotten the answer he wanted, Leon had no intention of bothering his big sister any further.
“Eh… just remember to use Delamain whenever you go out.”
Vanessa looked at him worriedly.
“Lately our competitors have been trying to discover the true nature of the product we’re working on. As QianT’s vice president, I’ve probably become a rather interesting target, and you’re my only family in Night City… I’m worried something might happen to you.”
“It won’t,” Leon replied.
After talking for a few more minutes, they finally ended the call.
Leon lay on the sofa and did not move for a long time.
The expression on his face was deep and calm like dark water beneath an autumn night sky.
Then he finally smiled.
It was a wide, genuinely satisfied smile.
Various pieces of cyberware from the game passed through his mind, until in the end they stopped on one that could be considered the very foundation of top-tier close-range combat.
QianT Sandevistan Mk.4.
Sandevistan belonged to the category of speedware cyberware, technology whose roots stretched back to the era of the major corporate conflicts of previous decades.
In a certain sense, it was a revolutionary invention.
Only in a cyberpunk world, where megacorporations were locked in constant competition with one another, could individual cyberware and combat equipment technology advance at such a speed that the entire era could almost be described as a technological explosion.
Sandevistan was one of the greatest inventions to emerge from such an environment!
A user with this cyberware installed needed only a simple neural command to activate the system and enter a state of apparent time dilation.
That was precisely why Sandevistan was often classified as speedware.
A person using it moved like a ghost through the cracks between moments; the world around them seemed to suddenly slow down, while their own body, under the stimulation of the cyberware, retained enormous movement speed.
Everyone else became several times slower.
Only you remained fast.
For several dozen seconds, it felt as though time itself had fallen under your control.
During those few moments, you were the only god on the battlefield!
As one of the key cyberware systems for top-tier mercs and elite agents, the Sandevistan market had long been dominated by Dynalar and Zetatech.
At this moment, only the Sandevistans produced by those two companies had a reputation good enough for professionals to consider them truly reliable.
In the game, there were Dynalar Sandevistan models Mk.1, Mk.2, Mk.3, and Mk.4, as well as Zetatech variants from multiple generations.
Everything pointed to the extremely powerful position of those companies in the field of speedware technology.
Sixteen years had passed since Leon arrived in this world, and almost every serious speedware system he had heard of so far was produced by the largest manufacturers in that sector.
However, if he recalled the selection that would exist in the game in 2077…
The most advanced models included the QianT Sandevistan Mk.4 and QianT “Warp Dancer” Sandevistan Mk.5, as well as the Militech “Falcon” Sandevistan Mk.5.
It was only 2075 right now.
The more advanced generations he knew from the game obviously had not yet been fully released onto the market.
And the information he had just extracted from his conversation with his big sister clearly showed that QianT was very close to unveiling a new generation of Sandevistan!
“No wonder Dynalar and Zetatech were no longer completely dominating the top of the market in the game. Looks like QianT and Militech caught up with them in the meantime.”
Leon thoughtfully analyzed the situation.
“I need to write this down.”
After recording that important information in his notes, Leon began preparing dinner.
Since Vanessa was not coming home tonight, he did not have to bother preparing a meal for two.
He simply ordered several pieces of synthetic food through the home vending machine, heated them up, and settled for that.
Ever since they had become wealthy, even the vending machine installed near the entrance to the house was a top-tier model.
Braindance shards, synthetic food, drinks, and all kinds of other small items could be ordered directly through it.
A drone would then deliver the goods in a very short time.
A practically fully automated machine that could solve almost any inconvenience!
Leon had even once noticed two mysterious buttons in the vending machine menu.
With one press, you could order a joyboy, and with the other, a joygirl, who would come to the address to keep you company.
Unfortunately, Leon saw that option only once.
The very next day, Vanessa urgently ordered the vending machine to be modified, explaining that such services were inappropriate for minors and should not appear on a home vending machine at all.
After finishing dinner early, Leon took the braindance Life Simulator out of his pocket and opened the attribute panel.
[Current character attributes: Body: 4 Reflexes: 10 (human maximum; further advancement requires cyberware) Technical Ability: 3 Intelligence: 4 Cool: 4]
During these eight years, Leon had not been idle.
After Vanessa practically forced him to attend school regularly, he used every available opportunity to train and develop his own abilities.
After eight years of hard work, he had successfully increased Body by a full 1 point.
And Intelligence by 1 point as well!
Of course, with just a tiny bit of help from the simulator, he had gained another 3 Attribute Points, thanks to which he raised Reflexes all the way to a value of 10!
The enormous difference between the speed of natural progress and progress with the help of the simulator forced Leon to understand one fact:
People truly have their limits.
If he wanted to rapidly increase his strength in the future, hard work alone would not be enough.
He would also need just a tiny bit of help from the simulator.
After studying its functions for years, he had finally understood how Attribute Points were obtained.
The key was simulated combat experience.
Whenever a serious combat scene appeared in the text simulation, there was a certain chance that he would receive an Attribute Point as a reward.
After obtaining various training shards, Leon also began entering virtual environments and going through different types of combat training.
When such experiences then passed through the Life Simulator, he managed to obtain a total of 3 Attribute Points from those simulations.
However, after that it was as though he hit a ceiling.
No matter how much he continued training and simulating, he no longer received Attribute Points.
Leon assumed that the fights simply were no longer serious enough.
If he wanted more Attribute Points, he would probably have to participate in real battles.
Obviously, the simulator was not going to simply allow him to become a legend of the tutorial zone by endlessly grinding safe fights without any real risk.
But regardless of that, his current reflexes had already reached the absolute peak of natural human capability.
Without the help of cyberware, Leon was practically already standing at the very top of what the human body could achieve.