“Hello, hello.”
The holographic call connected, and the upper body of the other person appeared in a small square window in the upper-left corner of Leon’s retinal HUD.
In this way, both sides could see the other person’s facial expressions and movements.
However, Leon did not find this seemingly futuristic way of making phone calls particularly miraculous.
In essence, it was just a video call from an old smartphone transferred directly onto the retina.
Still, this holo-call had one thing that he found quite interesting.
The other person’s face was completely blurred, almost as if a mosaic had been placed over it.
Leon could not clearly see the netrunner’s face, but fortunately, the blur covered only her face, so he could still roughly make out her figure and posture.
She had short black hair reaching her ears, somewhat fuller around the temples.
Although he could not clearly distinguish her facial features, Leon still noticed that her eyes were beautifully blue.
She had a slender and well-proportioned figure, dressed in a black bodysuit, with a pink cardigan draped over her shoulders…
Even without a clear view of her face, Leon could feel her distinctive charisma.
Judging only by her figure and clothing, for a moment he even felt as though he were looking at an anime girl who had somehow ended up in the real world.
The parts of her skin visible between her clothes were incredibly fair and smooth.
“Hello. Nice to meet you. I’m Sasha. Wakako recommended you?”
The woman’s voice was clear and pleasant, gentle but somewhat distant.
It perfectly matched her profile picture of a cat, a cute cat whose fur had just bristled.
“I’m Leon Mercer. I need your help with something.”
Leon did not want to beat around the bush and immediately got to the point.
“You mean software that can interfere with a tracking signal? That isn’t particularly difficult. I’ve already made it. As soon as you make the payment, I can send it to you immediately,” Sasha said with a smile.
“How much?”
Leon found an empty machine in the parlor and sat down to rest.
“Three thousand Eurodollars. No bargaining,” Sasha replied.
Leon had no intention of haggling over such a small sum and immediately transferred the money.
He was not worried that Sasha would take the money and disappear.
People who operated in Night City’s gray zone valued reputation extremely highly, and for fixers and mercs, reputation was practically the same as life.
If something went wrong with this job, even if Leon himself did nothing, Wakako certainly would not let it go.
“Five thousand? Did you accidentally send the wrong amount?”
Sasha’s surprised voice came through the communicator, slightly higher than before.
She stared in astonishment as 5,000 Eurodollars had just been deposited into her private account.
That sum was already close to the reward for some smaller merc jobs.
It was not insignificant.
“I need one more small favor. Add this data component for me.”
Leon pulled the Basic Netrunner Upgrade Component out of the Database.
Just as he had expected, the component was not a physical object.
It was a string of data that Leon did not understand at all, currently stored in his neural processor.
Unfortunately, his Intelligence was only 4, so he had no ability to independently handle serious netrunning software.
So he sent that data component to Sasha as well.
“What is this? Software can’t just be merged with every other program,” Sasha said in confusion.
It was obvious…
It was not that she did not want to earn extra money.
Leon’s request simply seemed strange to her.
An extra 2,000 Eurodollars was too tempting to ignore, but that was exactly why the whole thing seemed even stranger to her.
This kid surely would not transfer extra money to her so easily unless he was fairly confident that the thing would work.
He couldn’t possibly be a complete amateur blindly throwing money at a netrunner, could he?
“It’s fine. Just add it,” Leon said confidently.
Sasha sighed, obviously somewhat worried.
“Don’t blame me if we completely destroy the software.”
She pulled a Personal Link out from the base of her left palm, an advanced network interface that allowed a netrunner to directly connect to computers and network systems without the need for additional external devices.
She plugged the cable into the terminal in front of her and began trying to merge the data component with the jamming software.
Strange…
It really merged?
Sasha’s expression immediately became serious, and her eyes locked onto the screen.
In theory, only she could modify the commands inside the jamming software she had written herself.
Of course, another sufficiently capable netrunner could do it too, but only after first breaking the encryption and thoroughly analyzing the structure of her code.
However, Leon had received that program only a few seconds ago.
And now he had sent her a component that integrated directly into its structure without any problems…
Sasha had never seen anything like this before in the world of netrunning.
Before her eyes, the software that had originally served only to interfere with tracking signals now transformed into a program capable of generating false location data.
After several seconds of silence, Sasha finally finished compiling and downloaded the new version of the software.
The file was then sent back to Leon through Night City’s public network.
“It was a pleasure doing business with you.”
Leon looked very satisfied.
He had not expected this part of the job to go so smoothly.
Since the deal was finished, he had no intention of extending the conversation.
But just as he was about to end the call, the netrunner on the other side stopped him.
“I know it may be a little rude to ask, but… can you tell me how you did that?”
Sasha hesitated for several moments, but in the end she still could not suppress her curiosity.
Hm?
What did I do?
Leon was completely confused.
When it came to netrunning, he was almost a complete beginner and had no idea what exactly she meant.
Could there be something strange about the free things the simulator gave him?
Although he understood nothing, from Sasha’s tone he concluded that she was probably attributing some expertise to him that he did not actually possess.
After thinking briefly, Leon smiled mysteriously, like some fraud trying to sound profound:
“Maybe we simply look at things from different angles.”
“For example, you, miss. Even when you hide your face, you can’t completely hide what makes you different from others.”
“And it’s the same with me. What seems completely ordinary to me may look like a great mystery to you.”
“If one day we get the chance to sit down and talk honestly, maybe we’ll manage to solve both of our questions.”
Sasha laughed softly and covered her mouth with her hand.
Even through the blur, Leon managed to see her mischievously wink at him with her right eye, almost like a cat.
“Then I hope we’ll work together again.”
…
The call ended.
The handsome young man disappeared from Sasha’s field of vision.
She leaned back on the rough sofa and raised a tall glass filled with an orange-yellow drink and several ice cubes…
Under the harsh white lights of the bar, the liquid in the glass refracted almost unreal shades.
Sasha took a small sip, while a faint smile appeared on her lips.
The large bronze-skinned man sitting beside her could not suppress his curiosity.
“What is it, Sasha? Why are you smiling so much? What did that kid do that amused you so much?”
Both of his arms clearly bore traces of heavy cyberware.
Lines of joints and openings from mechanical arms could be seen on the synthetic skin.
If that layer were removed, a complex internal structure of metal and cables would be revealed beneath it.
“A very mysterious boy.”
Sasha narrowed her eyes slightly, and the corners of her lips rose even higher.
The cyberware details on her cheeks resembled cat whiskers, making her look even more attractive when she smiled.
“And that’s it? Nothing more?” Maine looked at her sideways, somewhat surprised.
He began to wonder what kind of kid had managed to awaken so much of Sasha’s curiosity.
“That’s all.”
Sasha calmly shook her head.
“What?! Sasha, since when do you hide things from us?” complained the girl sitting beside her.
Her skin was extremely fair, and her green hair was tied into two high pigtails.
She wore only an oversized black jacket that almost swallowed her tiny figure…
She was short and very petite.
If one looked more closely, they would notice that her eyes were specialized optical implants colored red and yellow.
“Probably some kid from a rich family. Looks like he has plenty of money. I did him a small favor, and on top of the agreed price he gave me another 2,000 Eurodollars.”
Seeing how curious her teammates were, Sasha thought for several moments before finally revealing a little more to them.
“Tch. So just another spoiled rich kid.”
Rebecca curled her lips contemptuously, picked up the glass from the table, and downed the strong drink in one gulp.
“Fucking awesome! Even better that my idiot brother didn’t come!”
Hearing that, Maine laughed and said meaningfully:
“A good rich kid is one who gives us jobs. What falls out of their pocket as allowance is enough for one or two smaller jobs for us. Little work, good money.”
Then he looked at Rebecca.
“Hey, hey, slow down with the drinking. If you get drunk again, we’ll have to drag you home.”
The blonde woman sitting beside Maine also could not stay silent when she saw how much Rebecca was drinking.
She had a strong, muscular build similar to Maine’s.
She wore a leather jacket with only light clothing underneath, while her short blonde hair and sharp facial features gave her a somewhat androgynous appearance.
Maine laughed, leaned toward her, and mischievously reached out a hand.
“That works too. We’ll take her back.”
“We don’t even have to go home.”
He grinned.
“We can get a hotel for the night.”
BAM!
Dorio’s fist, almost the size of his head, mercilessly landed directly in Maine’s face.
The punch was as fast as lightning.
At such a short distance, Maine did not even have time to react.
In the next moment, his face was already swollen, and blood was running from his nose.
He could only stare at her in astonishment.
“In front of everyone here, Maine? You’re really asking for a beating?” Dorio snapped angrily.
“Dorio, I…”
Maine had no idea what to say to calm his girlfriend down.
Watching the chaos among her teammates, Sasha could not hold herself back.
She elegantly covered her mouth and laughed softly.
“Speaking of him… I have a feeling we’ll meet that boy again someday.”
Sasha smiled thoughtfully.
“And what’s so special about meeting someone like that again?”
Rebecca still looked completely uninterested.
With a half-drunken gaze, she stared at her glass.
She turned it upside down, saw that it was empty, tossed it aside, and immediately grabbed the bottle from the table to continue drinking straight from it.
“Fucking awesome!”
“Hey, hey, hey! I told you to slow down with the drinking!” Maine shouted.