Leon’s inner excitement surged like a tidal wave.
After all these years of waiting since arriving in this world, it had finally paid off.
At the same time, the rewards for the completed simulation also arrived.
A notification appeared on his retinal HUD showing that, without any explanation, 40 Eurodollars had just been deposited into his account, while an entire stream of new memories flooded his mind.
The location and time of the event that would take place tomorrow evening, the appearance of that woman, and the preliminary escape route all appeared clearly in his thoughts.
Every completed simulation brought him some small reward.
It was precisely those rewards that showed Leon the true value of this braindance Life Simulator.
Unlike those trash games he had played in his previous life, where they promised you things like Dragon-Slaying Swords and other virtual rewards, then acted unbelievably stingy and you never knew what you would actually get, this simulator was different.
This one was serious!
The rewards from the beginner package were currently stored in the Database, and he had not claimed them yet.
After all, he was still a small child, so neither the katana nor the crafting spec was particularly useful to him for the time being.
“It would be even better if the simulator gave Attribute Points as rewards.”
Leon sighed softly and turned his attention to his attribute panel.
[Current character attributes: Body: 2 (3) Reflexes: 4 Technical Ability: 3 Intelligence: 3 Cool: 4]
If one excluded the fact that his body had not yet fully developed, which was why his Body had not yet reached its natural maximum, all of his current attributes were within the range of an ordinary person.
Leon was very familiar with these five attributes.
Because they were based precisely on the five main attributes from the Cyberpunk 2077 system.
In the game, when the player distributed Attribute Points, they chose between exactly these five categories.
Body: represents physique, physical strength, and endurance;
Reflexes: represent overall reaction ability, including neural reflexes and agility;
Technical Ability: represents the ability to handle hardware and other technological devices.
Intelligence: represents the brain’s computing abilities, including hacking, programming, and calculations;
Cool: as the name itself suggests, represents willpower, composure, and the ability to remain calm.
When Leon had played this game in his previous life, he had also looked through various design materials related to Cyberpunk.
Attribute values from 3 to 4 fell within the range of an ordinary person; 5 to 6 represented an exceptionally capable person; 7 to 8 world-class; while 9 to 10 represented the limit of human capabilities.
Values above 10 meant surpassing the human level, entering the realm of abilities that could be attributed to legendary heroes.
With the help of cyberware, an attribute value of 20 represented the theoretical maximum.
Leon vaguely remembered that even the game’s final boss, Adam Smasher, had a maximum Body of only 18.
The only exception was V, the character controlled by the player, who after reaching the maximum level in the later stage of the game could raise as many as three attributes to 20…
Looking at it that way, the final boss Adam Smasher really was quite a pathetic opponent.
With his current attributes, Leon obviously still belonged to the category of normal people.
The future was promising!
“I’ve already been in this world for so long and I use the simulator almost every day. Why haven’t I received additional Attribute Points as a reward even once?”
Leon simply could not understand the reason.
Other than the 3 Attribute Points he had received from the beginner package, throughout all these years of daily simulations, none of the rewards he had received had included additional Attribute Points.
“Is it really connected to combat?” Leon wondered.
Of all the situations he had simulated so far, combat was the only thing he had never seriously experienced in a simulation.
“Whatever. I’ll try that another time. For now, purely for safety, it’s best if I spend those 3 Attribute Points.”
In order to have a reserve for some unforeseen situation, until now he had kept those 3 points and had not touched them.
After a brief consideration, he finally assigned all 3 to the Reflexes attribute.
Three Attribute Points were neither a lot nor a little.
Instead of spreading them evenly across several attributes, it was much more useful to specialize in one.
Tonight’s mission to rescue his future adoptive mother would inevitably involve running and pursuit, so increasing Reflexes was currently the most worthwhile choice.
Although fate supposedly guaranteed that he would successfully save his future adoptive mother, he wanted to prepare a little more, just in case.
The simulator, after all, only simulated a possible path of his future life; he could not trust it completely and it should only be used as a reference.
He had no intention of accepting that his predetermined ending was to be torn apart by some Scav!
And then there was David, his future schoolmate from Arasaka Academy…
He somehow had to figure out what was actually going on in that story he suspected belonged to some DLC of the game.
After adding the Attribute Points, his Reflexes reached a value of 7.
That value meant that he had practically stepped into the ranks of the world’s elite!
Leon removed the braindance device and immediately clearly felt how much his perception of his surroundings had changed.
His gaze penetrated through the darkness of the alley toward the colorful scene of the main street, while energetic music echoed in his ears.
The street was teeming with people.
Even if someone disappeared from his field of vision after only one or two seconds, Leon could clearly remember that person’s face, the clothes they were wearing, and even the weapon holster attached to their belt…
If he wanted to, he even felt that he could easily steal something from them!
“Incredible… Just 3 Attribute Points caused such a huge change. If one day I reached the maximum of 20…”
What kind of feeling would that be!
In the dirty and chaotic alley, Leon carefully enjoyed the state in which it seemed to him that the entire world had become crystal clear.
For the first time in his life, he felt an almost insatiable hunger for higher attribute values.
…
The days passed quickly, and soon the night of the second day arrived.
That evening, Jig-Jig Street was as lively as ever.
The wide street was packed with people, so tightly crowded that they were almost pushing shoulder to shoulder.
The stores on both sides of the street were bathed in hazy, almost unreal light.
Through the transparent glass, seductive scenes from the interiors could be glimpsed.
Colorful neon lights pulsed in rhythm with the energetic music, and every flash felt almost like a hand reaching into a person’s chest and squeezing their heart.
A pachinko parlor was also packed with customers.
Metallic impacts constantly echoed throughout the interior, while customers sat at almost every machine.
The clattering of balls in the pachinko machines seemed to strike directly at the most hidden parts of their minds; if one listened carefully enough, it could even resemble the song of sirens from Greek mythology, luring everyone who heard it into an endless sea of desire.
The customers were completely obsessed with every ball.
From second to second, shouts, sighs of despair, and cries of delight could be heard, while facial expressions shifted from ecstasy to utter despair.
In places like this, it was perfectly normal to watch people envy the winners and mock the losers.
A middle-aged man with green-dyed hair, dressed in the recognizable clothing of the Tyger Claws, looked unhappily at the young woman beside him.
The woman wore an orange-and-black corporate uniform, while her long black hair fell down her back.
In front of the machine before her, she was smiling from ear to ear.
Even someone who had never seen pachinko before could tell from the screen that she had won quite a large sum.
On the other hand, the machine in front of the middle-aged man stubbornly kept repeating:
“Sumimasen.”
“Sumimasen.”
So many times that the man already wanted to punch it several times.
“Uncle, looks like things really aren’t going your way tonight,” the woman said, glancing at his machine with a mocking smile.
“Stupid corpo bitch,” the man muttered under his breath, glaring at her with hostility.
“Your luck won’t change just because you’re angry. Looks like you won’t win anything tonight. Take my advice and go home before you lose everything.”
The woman made no attempt to hide the typical arrogance of a corpo employee, speaking down to him.
After saying that, she looked as if she had already grown bored.
She collected her winnings from the table to exchange them for money, and before leaving, she smiled at the man once again.
“I’ll leave this spot to you. Maybe your luck will turn around like mine did. If nothing else, maybe you won’t lose absolutely everything.”
The man watched her back as she walked away, while the expression on his face kept changing.
In the end, that familiar, irrational hatred toward corpo rats forced him to stand up, turn around, and head deeper into the pachinko parlor.
Unlike the noise and crowd outside, there was a private room in the inner section of the parlor.
A tea set stood on the table, while thin wisps of steam rose from the teapot.
On the other side of the table sat a kindly-looking elderly woman, dressed in a simple Japanese kimono and wearing reading glasses.
Calmly and gracefully, she adjusted a teacup.
“I need a good explanation for this, otherwise tomorrow you will no longer be a member of the Tyger Claws,” the old woman said completely calmly, not even dignifying the man who had just barged in with a glance.
The aggressive middle-aged man instantly lost all of his arrogance the moment he stepped into the private room.
He knelt on the floor, lowered his head, and said:
“Wakako-san, I need information about that Kang Tao employee.”
“Five hundred Eurodollars for the information, and since you disturbed my tea, count another five hundred. One thousand Eurodollars in total,” Wakako Okada said in a calm voice while pouring him a cup of tea.
The man respectfully accepted the cup.
Ignoring the heat, he drank the tea in a single gulp.
His eyes lit up blue as he simultaneously transferred the money to the old woman.
“Deputy Director of Kang Tao’s Intelligent Weapons Research Department. Her name is Vanessa Hale and she recently arrived in Night City. She likes coming to Jig-Jig Street every evening to try something new and exciting. Braindance doesn’t interest her much. She prefers gambling and comes here every evening around ten.”
“As for weapons, she carries a Kang Tao A-22B Chao, and she drives a Quadra Turbo-R V-Tech. That’s all I have. If you intend to try something, be very careful about what you do.”
The old woman calmly laid out the information for him.
“And one more thing. You know very well that as a deputy director, she isn’t some insignificant contract worker. Every permanent Kang Tao employee of that rank has Trauma Team Gold insurance. If something serious goes wrong, you’re dead.”
“Thank you, Wakako-san. I just want to teach her a little lesson.”
The man straightened up, turned around, and left the private room.
After leaving the pachinko parlor, he found one of his men waiting outside.
He quietly said a few sentences to him.
The subordinate nodded, grabbed a katana, and went to gather the other gang members.
As a local force, the authority of the Tyger Claws was not something outsiders could trample on without consequences.
They controlled casinos, braindance centers, and joytoy clubs of all sizes throughout Japantown, while at the same time maintaining order on those streets.
Some ordinary corpo worker, and without even a single bodyguard, dares to humiliate me like this?
She’s asking for trouble!
The middle-aged man sneered, returned to his previous seat, and started playing pachinko again.
Such an insignificant matter did not require him to handle it personally.
He only needed to stay here a little longer and play.
His men would come very soon and report the result to him.