When he reached the road, Leon called a taxi through his neural interface, and before long the nearest Delamain slowly stopped beside him.
The professionalism of this service was probably truly among the best in the world.
“Welcome to Delamain Service, sir. It is a pleasure to see you again,” the bald AI said in his usual elegant tone.
“Take me to Megabuilding H8.”
According to the information Wakako had given him about the client, the man currently lived there.
“Of course. Megabuilding H8. Estimated travel time: fifteen minutes. Please make yourself comfortable, sir.”
Fifteen minutes later, Delamain stopped in front of a colossal structure rising from the ground like a mountain.
Megabuilding H8 was made up of enormous modular blocks stacked one above another.
At first glance, it was obvious that the entire structure was the product of mass industrial construction, but it was precisely that rough modular design that gave it its distinctive futuristic appearance.
Leon had known about megabuildings like this before.
He remembered that in the game, V lived in exactly this type of building at the beginning of the story.
A single megabuilding could contain around two thousand residential units.
Such a large number of residents naturally required an enormous amount of supporting infrastructure, so complexes like these contained various services, stores, stalls, gun shops, and even bars.
When someone entered inside, an enormous central void opened before them, surrounded by the building’s corridors and levels.
The upper floors mostly contained more luxurious apartments.
A person could lean back in a chair on the balcony, enjoy the sunlight, and look down at Night City from above, almost as if the entire city rested in the palm of their hand.
For an ordinary resident of Night City, simply being able to rent a decent apartment in a megabuilding like this already meant living a relatively “comfortable” life.
When Leon reached the elevator and looked at the list of floors displayed on the digital panel, the expression on his face immediately became strange.
Because beside the twelfth floor, it clearly said:
[Clouds]
“I almost forgot… one of the most famous clubs from the game really is located in Megabuilding H8. If I hadn’t looked carefully, I probably wouldn’t have remembered.”
Leon’s expression became even stranger.
Both from the game and after all the years he had spent in Night City, he knew very well about Clouds, one of the most famous dollhouse clubs in Japantown, and even in all of Night City.
The reason was very simple.
It was said that their service was so good that Leon had once been unable to suppress his curiosity and searched for a pile of information about the place.
The material he found back then had heated his blood quite a bit and left a deep impression on his still very young mind.
Different fantasies, dolls, specialized packages, exotic concepts, and all kinds of other things had broadened his horizons considerably.
Then one day, during a major cleaning, Vanessa found the notes and materials he had hidden under the bed.
His furious big sister immediately cut off his allowance for an entire month.
Fortunately, Vanessa was still a gentle and kindhearted person.
If she had not been, Leon seriously doubted that he would have gotten out of that situation alive without a serious beating.
Thinking about the storyline connected to Clouds in the game, Leon remembered another person.
“Evelyn Parker… that somewhat naive, but still cunning enough woman who sets a large part of the game’s opening events in motion, works right here.”
There were still two years left until the official beginning of the game’s main story.
Unless something unexpected happened, Leon had no desire for now to interfere in events whose course he already knew.
If some small action of his accidentally triggered a chain of events too early, with his current strength he could truly die the moment he was swept up in the torrent of the main story.
After a brief hesitation, he still pressed the button for the fifteenth floor.
The elevator rose, and Leon stepped out into the corridor and soon reached his client’s apartment.
He approached the door and knocked, patiently waiting for someone to open it.
After a few moments, the electronic door opened.
A man appeared before him.
His hair was completely disheveled and looked like a bird’s nest.
He had Japanese facial features, wore a thin jacket, and his eyes were bloodshot as if he had not slept properly for several days.
His right forearm had been completely replaced with metal cyberware, while black sensor modules were embedded in his palm.
The man looked at Leon once and impatiently spoke in Japanese:
“Where did you come from, kid? You’ve got the wrong door.”
“Wakako sent me. I accepted your job.”
Leon took a small step backward.
An unpleasant, stale smell came from the man, making Leon uncomfortable standing too close.
The man was confused for a moment, then looked Leon up and down again.
“You’re Leon Mercer?”
“Yes. Leon Mercer.”
Leon then added at just the right moment:
“Nice to meet you, Hiroshi Kitagawa.”
Kitagawa’s expression became even more complicated.
He carefully looked Leon over several times, while his eyes briefly flashed with data, as though he were checking information about him through optical implants.
“Wakako said some young man accepted the job. Looks like she wasn’t lying.”
He looked at him again.
“Kid, how old are you?”
“Sixteen,” Leon replied calmly.
“Sixteen… fine.”
Kitagawa clearly did not consider age itself a major problem.
“What kinds of jobs have you done before? What combat cyberware do you have installed?”
Youth meant less experience.
But if someone had enough high-quality combat cyberware installed in their body, even a beginner should not be underestimated.
“I haven’t done many jobs before…”
Leon continued honestly:
“Other than basic implants for everyday life, the only thing I have related to combat is a Smart Link.”
Hiroshi Kitagawa: “…”
For a moment, he wondered whether he had heard something wrong.
Or whether Wakako had made some kind of mistake.
Wakako had really dared to recommend this kid who, from everything he had just heard, was practically a complete beginner?
If he had not been so desperate, and if every lost minute did not increase the danger to his sister, Kitagawa would have immediately called Wakako and asked whether she was deliberately trying to scam him.
Even if she was one of the most influential fixers in Westbrook, surely she did not need to jerk around someone insignificant like him!
“Smart Link?”
Kitagawa suddenly noticed something interesting and looked at the bag Leon was carrying.
“So you use Smart weapons?”
Leon nodded.
“Which ones?”
Hiroshi Kitagawa stared at him without moving and had already made his decision.
If this kid pulled out some cheap Smart rifle like the Nokota D5 Sidewinder, he would immediately throw him out and ask Wakako to find him someone more serious.
“Kang Tao A-22B Chao and G-58 Dian,” Leon replied calmly.
Kitagawa simply stared at him for several seconds.
In the end, he stepped aside.
“Come in.”
The latest Kang Tao G-58 Dian cost enough that for similar money, one could obtain a serious amount of much heavier weaponry, even a guided missile system with several missiles.
Although the G-58 Dian could not compare with such explosive weapons in raw firepower, the price alone said enough about how valuable it was.
A complete beginner, yet carrying two expensive pieces of Kang Tao Smart weaponry.
Interesting.
Hiroshi Kitagawa could not stop himself from clicking his tongue softly in amazement.