Leon made his choice of the [Blood Rush] perk only after careful consideration.
Obtaining a Perk Point was probably considerably harder than obtaining an Attribute Point.
Because of that, he could not afford to spend it on some seemingly ordinary perk.
If he had already installed a Sandevistan, he would have chosen [Still Mind, Thunder Strike] without hesitation, a perk that increased damage.
Unfortunately, he still did not have that speedware installed.
And [Eagle Eye], the perk that improved dynamic vision, was not particularly useful to him at the moment.
With his current Reflexes attribute, he was unlikely to encounter an opponent anytime soon whose movements he could not clearly follow.
Perks related to the Cool attribute actually varied quite a lot in quality.
[Ace Up Your Sleeve?] had too many random elements.
So Leon was not considering it for now.
Fortunately, the Cool skill tree had one very special perk.
[Blood Rush].
If he remembered correctly, a similar perk also existed in the game and was among the extremely useful abilities that served as the foundation for several powerful perks later in the skill tree.
After thinking for a long time, Leon still concluded that this was the best choice.
When he spent the Perk Point, the [Blood Rush] icon immediately lit up and activated, confirming that he had successfully mastered the perk.
However, simply unlocking the perk did not immediately produce any obvious effect.
Leon did not feel any change in his body.
Everything felt exactly the same as before.
The only thing whose effect he could truly feel was the Attribute Point he had previously added to [Cool].
Leon could clearly feel that he had become calmer.
The excitement he had felt moments ago because of the rewards from the Life Simulator quickly faded away.
His inner world now resembled a completely still lake without a single ripple.
“If I remember correctly, Cool was one of the best survival attributes in the game and had two incredibly strong survival perks…”
Leon recalled information from the past.
Ever since his Reflexes reached a value of 10, the very peak of natural human ability, he had clearly felt just how terrifying increasing an attribute could actually be.
According to the information from Cyberpunk setting materials that he remembered, increasing attributes did not represent simple linear addition.
The difference between levels was much closer to exponential growth.
If one day he could raise Cool to 20, his willpower and mental endurance would reach the level of an almost mythical hero.
At that point, even surgery without anesthesia would probably seem trivial.
There would likely no longer be any pain capable of making him even frown.
And with Technical Ability at 20…
He could probably do something similar to Tony Stark, assembling a functional suit of armor out of nothing and escaping even from some terrorist cave…
“But the simulator definitely won’t let me collect Attribute Points that easily. I just don’t know where it’ll set the limit this time.”
Leon sighed and stopped thinking about it.
While he played around with the simulator, the sky outside the window gradually darkened until dusk finally gave way completely to black night.
The city then exploded with light.
Holographic advertisements and neon signs together created a magnificent view of Night City.
Countless people, countless buildings, and countless lights seemed to confirm one thing together:
This city never sleeps.
Standing inside the villa on the slope of North Oak, Leon looked through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows at the city below him.
Although he had seen the sight countless times already, every time it awakened the same feeling of deep awe and contemplation within him.
A city that shines this brightly inevitably creates equally deep shadows.
Light and darkness had always been inseparable twins.
With his current social position, Leon, honestly speaking, already had what countless people in Night City would never achieve in their entire lives.
But even now, sometimes he would suddenly wake in the middle of the night, completely drenched in cold sweat.
Vanessa, who had often slept beside him before, would then wake as well, gently stroke his hair, and ask whether he had had another nightmare.
Vanessa believed that he still had not escaped the shadow of his childhood.
After all, the years spent living dangerously on Jig-Jig Street could certainly have left serious consequences.
But his big sister did not understand.
What woke him were not nightmares from the past.
What woke him was the thought that everything he had now might only be a bubble.
A beautiful dream that could burst the moment someone touched it.
That fear had not disappeared even after Vanessa became vice president of QianT’s Night City branch.
The top of this world still belonged to those old corporate dynasties that had held power in their hands for decades.
And to the families standing behind them.
Vanessa was only a vice president who had risen through the hierarchy extremely quickly without any real family backing or deep network of political connections.
All it would take was one sentence from someone above her…
and she could disappear overnight.
That was why Leon had to become stronger.
He desperately needed more Attribute Points!
“I should prepare for tomorrow’s outing… This simulator is great at almost everything, but what annoys me most is that it always leaves out the most important details.”
After putting away the braindance Life Simulator, Leon could not help complaining.
The simulation often displayed a pile of less important information while skimming over the most important events in just a few sentences.
Leon knew that Wakako would offer him a job tomorrow.
But he knew almost nothing about the actual details of the job or how he would complete it.
When he returned to his room, Leon opened a hidden compartment in the wardrobe and took out the equipment he intended to use tomorrow.
The Wolf School Jacket was mandatory.
Then Black Unicorn.
And some medical equipment.
As for firearms, Leon did not carry much.
One Kang Tao A-22B Chao and one Kang Tao G-58 Dian, along with several spare magazines.
Firearms in this world could generally be divided into three categories: Power, Tech, and Smart.
Power weapons were conventional firearms.
They used metal bullets and gunpowder, and when the trigger was pulled, the distinctive smell of burned powder came from the barrel.
Tech weapons, on the other hand, used electromagnetic systems to store and release energy, allowing them to fire metal projectiles at enormous speeds and with terrifying force.
Their magazines contained pure metal projectiles and did not require conventional gunpowder.
And then there were Smart weapons.
Their entire philosophy could be reduced to one sentence:
Just pull the trigger.
Kang Tao will take care of the rest!
As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of Smart weapons, Kang Tao produced some of the highest-quality smartgun systems on the market.
Don’t know how to aim?
No problem.
Smart weapons have automatic target tracking.
All you need to do is roughly point the barrel toward the enemy.
Even if you have the accuracy of a drunk holding a gun for the first time, the projectile will guide itself toward the target like a tiny guided missile!
Can’t be bothered with complicated weapon handling?
No problem.
Insert a new magazine into the slot, and the system will handle the rest.
Through the Smart Link implanted in the hand, the weapon connected to the user’s neural system and processor, using their gaze to mark the target.
Once the target was locked, all that remained was to pull the trigger.
Smart Link was one of the few serious implants Leon had installed so far.
With all the advantages listed above, Smart weapons undoubtedly ranked among the most practical types of weapons on the market.
Their main disadvantages were price and somewhat weaker raw stopping power.
After all, a projectile that had to change its trajectory in flight could not always retain the same kinetic energy as a conventional bullet from a Power weapon.
And comparing it to Tech weapons using electromagnetic acceleration was not even worth discussing.
Most ordinary mercs therefore did not use Smart weapons.
The first reason was price.
The second was maintenance.
After a minor firefight, the reward for completing the job might not even be enough to cover ammunition and repairs.
The reward for his first job probably would not be particularly large.
But to make sure everything went smoothly, Leon still decided to bring Smart weapons.
After preparing the equipment and setting it aside, he returned to the large bed and decided to go to sleep early.
Ever since he started high school, Vanessa no longer insisted that he sleep in her room, so Leon had finally gotten his own bedroom.
He was genuinely grateful that he now had a private space where he could deal with things he did not want anyone else to see.
Besides the usual bedding and pillows, there was also a carefully designed, cute Shupe the Troll Plushy on the bed.
Leon still could not understand exactly what purpose that plush toy from the beginner package served.
He opened the Database.
The information displayed inside was very short:
[Shupe the Troll Plushy: Recover your childhood innocence and joy.]
After all these years of testing, Leon had managed to find only one real function of the plush toy:
If he fell asleep while hugging it, he fell asleep very quickly and slept extremely peacefully.
It was such an ordinary item from the beginner package that Leon seriously suspected it existed only because it was cute.
There was also the crafting spec for Yinglong.
Because his Technical Ability attribute was too low, Leon was still not capable of making it.
However, by examining the blueprint, he could see that [Yinglong] was actually an elegantly designed Chinese weapon resembling a longsword, also intended for close-range combat.
Its current function overlapped heavily with Black Unicorn, so Leon was in no hurry to craft it.
The lights in the room gradually dimmed.
The smart furniture recognized that he was preparing to sleep and automatically adjusted the lighting to an appropriate level.
“Good night, Night City.”
…
“Wait… didn’t I forget to watch the XBD I bought from David today?”
Leon suddenly jolted as if he had just risen from the dead, realizing that there was still something he had not done.
But after thinking for a few seconds, he lay back down again.
Forget it.
I have to get up early tomorrow.
I’ll watch it another time.