Following the memories in his mind, Leon quietly leaned against the wall, constantly observing the passersby.
He stood in the shadow of the corner, and his small figure was barely noticeable.
He was wearing a jacket with a gray-white wolf’s head on the back, its jaws wide open.
Crimson eyes adorned the wolf’s figure, giving it a wild and threatening appearance.
For safety during tonight’s operation, Leon had taken the Wolf School Jacket out of the beginner package.
Speaking of which, every item from the beginner package was very familiar to him.
Because in his previous life on Earth, while playing Cyberpunk 2077, simply registering an official account was enough for the player to receive several free items.
Among them were the katana — Black Unicorn, Wolf School Jacket, and Shupe the Troll Plushy…
Leon truly had not expected that those exact things would be delivered to him as a beginner package.
But he was not complaining.
They would only make tonight’s job easier.
During the eight years since arriving in this world, apart from several basic implants necessary for everyday life, he had not installed any additional cyberware.
That was actually quite normal for ordinary residents of Night City; not everyone could ignore the side effects of cyberware and calmly watch parts of their body be replaced with metal and mechanical implants.
Because of that, this somewhat oversized Wolf School Jacket could provide him with a certain amount of protection, and since it came from the simulator, it certainly was not some cheap piece of equipment.
As for the katana, Leon had no intention at all of taking it out of the Database.
If all those items really were made according to the models from the game…
Black Unicorn was at least half as long as his current height…
What would a small child even do with a katana?
If he could not use a melee weapon, then he had to buy a pistol.
But a child who was nowhere near adulthood…
Hardly any gun store would be willing to sell him a firearm.
Leon racked his brain over it for a long time, until in the end, with no better solution, he bought a Slaught-O-Matic from a vending machine.
A disposable, 3D-printed pistol from Budget Arms, made according to the principle of “use it and throw it away.” Its name sounded impressive, but in reality almost the entire construction was made from the cheapest plastic, which not only deformed easily under strong sunlight but was also notorious for jamming and malfunctioning.
At first glance, that pink pistol looked more like a toy that children would carry around the house.
Budget Arms, as its name suggested, had always specialized in cheap and mass-available firearms.
Their models often carried very aggressive names, such as Guillotine or Slaught-O-Matic.
But even such names could not hide just how questionable the quality of those weapons was.
Still, a gun was a gun.
As long as it could kill someone, it did its job!
Touching the pistol in his pocket, Leon felt somewhat safer, but he still watched the street suspiciously.
“According to the memories from the simulation, my future mother should appear right here. Why isn’t she here yet? It’s almost midnight.”
Just as he began to worry that the memories the simulator had given him might be inaccurate, he suddenly noticed a commotion in the crowd.
Several piercing screams came from the mass of people, filled with pure fear and panic.
Not long after, gunshots echoed through the street.
At that exact moment, a full twenty-four hours had passed, and the sound of midnight bells spread across Jig-Jig Street, almost completely drowning out the screams and gunfire.
A woman burst out of the crowd, her face overwhelmed with panic.
She reached the corner and suddenly stopped, obviously not knowing where else to run.
She wore a tight corporate uniform that failed completely to hide her slender figure.
Her face was delicate and smooth, with obvious traces of cosmetic procedures, and she looked surprisingly young.
While the woman stood there in confusion, desperately trying to decide which way to go, a child’s shadow suddenly shot out from behind the corner.
Leon ran down the street at incredible speed, his gaze remaining calm like the surface of a motionless lake.
The streetlights and shadows slowly slid before his eyes.
Everything around him suddenly seemed to slow down and fall into a strange, almost motionless state.
He was like the best professional player in the world, capable of reacting within a fraction of a second.
Before the woman had time to understand what was happening, Leon grabbed her by the hand, chose a direction, and ran.
“Come with me!”
The woman was obviously frightened by Leon’s sudden action.
In her panic, she actually allowed him to drag her along without any resistance.
Leon led her through a true maze of streets and soon reached a small side alley.
When he saw that no one was nearby, he led her inside.
The lighting here was dim.
Two square dumpsters stood in the passage, surrounded by piles of foul-smelling garbage bags.
Obviously, the people in this area had no concept of proper waste disposal.
Leon pulled the woman toward the dumpsters and made her crouch behind them.
He quietly told her:
“Hide well. Don’t come out!”
After that, Leon went out of the alley by himself.
The dumpsters provided enough cover that she was almost impossible to notice from outside.
And when the stench spreading from the surrounding garbage was added to that, even members of the Tyger Claws with an enhanced sense of smell would have difficulty finding her by following her scent.
And sure enough, several Tyger Claws in conspicuous clothing, armed with katanas and firearms, stopped right there and looked around uncertainly.
Leon crouched beside the street…
He looked like a completely ordinary street child, utterly indifferent to everything happening around him.
Among the Tyger Claws was someone who recognized Leon.
One man approached him, looked down at him, and sharply asked:
“Kid, did you see some corpo woman pass by here?”
“A corpo woman? Isn’t Jig-Jig Street full of them? Lower- and mid-level corporate employees come here all the time.”
Leon shrugged, looking genuinely confused.
“This one is from Kang Tao. She’s wearing an orange-and-black uniform. You really didn’t see her?” the Tyger Claw member asked again, speaking poor English.
Leon shook his head.
“No.”
The man looked him over suspiciously.
From the expression on his face, it was clear that he did not believe him and was already preparing to threaten him.
But his companion pulled him aside and quietly said:
“Wakako knows this kid. Don’t do anything stupid.”
The Tyger Claw paused for a moment and gave up on the idea of questioning the boy more seriously.
He lowered his gaze toward Leon, and a strange smile suddenly appeared on his lips.
He raised his hand.
The fiery-red katana in his grip shone with a crimson glow and shot like lightning straight toward Leon.
The blade passed right beside the black hair at Leon’s temple.
Several strands gently fell to the ground.
The tip of the katana embedded itself perfectly into the wall beside his face, while the sharp blade shattered the surface layer of the wall and knocked down bits of white plaster.
Leon immediately pretended to be frightened.
The childish expression of terror on his face obviously amused the man greatly.
“That’s enough, Akio. Stop screwing around.”
His companion pulled him by the shoulder.
The man, visibly disappointed that the fun was over, pulled the katana out of the wall.
When the Tyger Claws finally left, the expression on Leon’s face immediately calmed.
He silently watched the back of the man walking away.
He waited for a long time.
Only when he was sure that they truly were not merely pretending to leave did he allow the woman to come out of hiding.
Looking at the woman, who had still not fully recovered, Leon held out his hand and asked:
“Do you have a weapon?”
The woman only stared at him in confusion for several moments.
After a brief hesitation, she stammered:
“I-I do, but it’s in the car.”
“Night City is the way it is, and you go out without a weapon? You’re really careless…”
Leon sighed.
Watching the boy address her in that serious, almost patronizing tone, the woman was even more stunned.
Were all children this mature nowadays?
“You have a car, right? I’ll take you to it. Where did you park it?” Leon asked.
“In the parking lot above us,” the woman quietly replied.
Night City had a distinctly vertical structure.
In some districts, different levels of streets, platforms, and buildings were stacked one above another; a person might think they were standing at ground level while there was actually another entire level beneath them — or vice versa.
“Then we need to find an elevator,” Leon muttered.
“Follow me.”
Along the way, they avoided the Tyger Claws who were watching the surrounding streets.
Relying on his knowledge of Jig-Jig Street, Leon brought the woman to the elevator without much trouble.
He pressed the button.
The elevator slowly began to descend.
It looked like everything was over.
The elevator produced rhythmic metallic sounds.
It looked more like an industrial elevator than something intended for passengers, and the chains creaked as the structure moved up and down.
Then footsteps interrupted that rhythm.
“Excellent. So you two really are together. Looks like I did the right thing by staying to guard the elevator.”
The man’s malicious laughter echoed through the darkness at the worst possible moment, like the growl of some monster hidden in the dark.
Vanessa Hale suddenly turned around.
Her vision almost blurred.
At the final moment, she managed to see a red blade flashing through the night, descending from the air directly toward Leon’s back.
It was that Tyger Claw named Akio!
Somehow, he had silently sneaked up behind them!
Vanessa Hale closed her eyes in horror, unable to watch the katana split Leon in half.
CLANG!
However, the clear sound of two blades colliding rang through the darkness, as though it had suddenly returned her soul to her body.
Terrified, she opened her eyes and looked toward Leon and the man again.
At that moment, she thought she saw a slender, blue-green crescent moon hanging in the night air, stopping the red light crashing down from above.
Leon had pulled out a long katana from nowhere.
Mysterious ancient symbols were engraved on its blade.
In the darkness of the night, those symbols radiated a blue-green light, while the ancient appearance of the hilt and blade looked completely unnatural in this cyberpunk world.
At first glance, the katana truly looked like a divine weapon transferred from some fantasy world.
The Tyger Claw had attacked from point-blank range, but the boy reacted incredibly quickly and managed to block the strike!
Leon supported the ancient katana with both hands.
With one hand he tightly gripped the hilt, while with the other he supported the side of the blade.
The veins on his small, still-childish hands were clearly visible as he barely managed to withstand the opponent’s blow.
His dark eyes stared at the man.
His gaze was as cold as a shard of ice.
That first strike had not been delivered with full strength.
The man had casually brought the katana down toward the child with only one hand.
He had expected to kill him immediately.
But Leon, against all expectations, blocked the attack.
For a moment, it even looked as though the man was completely stunned by the scene before him and did not immediately continue attacking.
But as soon as he realized that his ambush against an ordinary child had failed, rage overwhelmed him.
He grabbed the hilt with his other hand, raised the katana high again, and swung at Leon with all his strength.
Leon gritted his teeth and took a firmer stance, while his small body held the katana that was almost as tall as he was.
Fortunately, the Black Unicorn from another world was light and sharp enough.
If it had not been, Leon probably would not even have been able to swing it properly with his current body!
The blue-green glow radiating from the blade was even brighter than the silver moon in the sky; it was almost as though even the moonlight itself did not dare compete with its brilliance.
The blade cut through the dark night and left behind a cold, sharp arc of light.
When the two katanas collided, sparks exploded between them.
The man attacked wildly, like a demon.
Leon desperately defended himself, but against the raw strength of an adult man he could only parry the strikes and use their force to deflect the cold blade to the side.
He did not dare stop them directly.
With every blocked strike, he was forced to retreat one step.
Until the solid wall behind him completely cut off his path.
The man grinned viciously, raised the katana, and delivered a powerful diagonal slash toward the boy.
The fiery-red blade was like an autumn maple leaf caught in motion — blurred between reality and illusion.
The fact that he had failed to immediately overpower a child had completely crushed his pride.
Now only rage and humiliation remained inside him.
Only the boy’s blood on his blade could restore his wounded ego.
Leon had nowhere left to retreat.
He could only raise the katana and block the strike, without even having a chance to draw his pistol.
Sparks exploded again when the blades collided, and the powerful impact almost knocked Black Unicorn out of Leon’s hands.
The smooth surface of the blade reflected Leon’s gritted face on one side and the Tyger Claw’s twisted, savage expression on the other.
During that brief stalemate, Vanessa Hale, whom the man had completely ignored, finally found an opportunity.
Who knew where she found the courage, but she suddenly threw herself into the man with all her strength.
That instantly broke the stalemate.
It was an almost decisive move!
The Tyger Claw lost his balance and fell to the ground.
When he tried to get back up, he saw Leon’s young but icy face in front of him.
And the cold blade descending toward him.
The katana cut through the air, leaving behind a blue-green arc.
In the cold night, it was as though a blue-green moon had appeared out of nowhere, elegant and dazzling.
But the sudden spray of crimson blood only made the scene even more terrifying.
…He missed.
Looking at the man’s severed right hand and the katana that had fallen to the ground, Leon exhaustedly lowered the hand holding [Black Unicorn] to his side.
After all, his body was still that of a child.
Even such a short katana fight had exhausted him almost to his limits.
Fortunately, Vanessa Hale quickly grabbed the katana lying on the ground.
Her hands trembled as she pointed the blade toward the man, but obviously she could not bring herself to attack.
“Let me.”
Leon breathed heavily as he looked at the despair on the man’s face…
He slowly raised the Slaught-O-Matic.
It was hard to believe that this extremely cheap disposable pistol was actually a fully automatic firearm!
He had bought it for 80 Eurodollars, thinking he would probably never need it.
But life was unpredictable.
Sometimes 80 Eurodollars really was enough to buy someone’s life.
“You damned little bastard! Don’t think you’ll get away with this! The others won’t let you go! If you pull that trigger, you’ll never be able to show your face on Jig-Jig Street again!”
Death was already before his eyes.
The man tried one last time to fight for his life, roaring angrily, but his voice already revealed his helplessness.
Leon’s expression did not change.
Looking at the first mortal enemy he had ever made in this life, he listened to his threat and replied with complete indifference:
“Goodbye.”
Killing a man once meant bringing down a blade and cutting off his head.
Today, it was enough to simply pull a trigger.
Flame flashed from the barrel as the bullet left the chamber.
The muzzle flash illuminated Leon’s face with a crimson glow, while the man’s face was simultaneously bathed in the orange-yellow light of the gunshot.
Crimson blood quickly covered his twisted, resentful face.
The light in his eyes went out.
The Tyger Claw named Akio was dead!