According to the original setup of a Sequence 9 Shaman, one could establish a domain by planting a totem, drawing upon the spiritual power of the sky, earth, water, trees, and living beings within that domain to cast spells.
In other words, a Shaman standing in his own domain was like a wizard in his mage tower, a keyboard warrior with a keyboard in hand, or an overweight shut-in who just downloaded a hypnosis app—mighty, powerful, and able to do whatever he pleased.
However, great power usually came with great risk.
Once a Shaman planted a totem and defined his domain, its power allowed him to sense different dimensions and higher realms.
Monsters from those realms might lock eyes on the Shaman’s soul and assault his spirit world barrier, attempting to invade the physical world through his power.
If the Shaman couldn’t overpower the invading monsters, every normal person in the domain would be dead meat.
That would certainly be true in an ordinary world, but this was fucking Night City.
There were no normal people in Night City.
What kind of monsters could a Sequence 9 attract anyway?
Could they out-fight MaxTac?
Night City was a place of outstanding people and land; everyone carried a gun, and if a fight broke out, a few cyberpsychos would pop up out of nowhere every now and then.
Let me ask you—what level of monster are you to dare come to Night City?
Your hood will get ripped off and your death will be grislier than you can imagine.
The localized Night City Shaman followed a similar set of rules.
However, besides connecting to the Spirit World, it also linked to cyberspace, creating a data fortress that formed a subnet active within the domain.
In practice, it functioned similarly to the Voodoo Boys’ Agwe in Pacifica.
From this perspective, the Shaman’s power had actually been enhanced.
Ruan Xian felt the core nature of a Sequence 9 Shaman through his spiritual instincts.
After using his whopping 3 points of Intelligence to ponder for ten minutes, he completely grasped the class.
A Shaman’s power originated from the domain established after planting a totem, making the location crucial.
In the original lore, once planted, changing domains was extremely difficult.
Now that it was localized to Night City and connected to cyberspace, changing locations would likely be even harder—maybe even impossible.
So, where should he plant it?
Ruan Xian took stock of his assets and strength: no money, no car, no food, no cyberware, and nothing going for him in terms of stats except a 9 in Body.
All the money in his Alipay had turned into Spiritual Essences, but the Spiritual Essence Shop wasn’t open yet.
He had to plant a totem to unlock the shop.
It was a damn catch-22.
Well, fine.
It had to be planted in Night City.
Otherwise, having a cheat and not using it meant dying during a strategic retreat and effectively handing his cheat to someone else.
Once he decided to plant the totem in Night City, choosing the district required careful thought.
Night City was a thriving hub of talent and danger—gangs were everywhere, and corporate scum wielded immense power, lording over everyone.
If he chose the wrong spot, leveling up would be rough.
Looking at the areas from the game, Little China seemed like a good choice.
The Tyger Claws and the NCPD ruled the day and night respectively, while urban cockroaches—Scavengers—lurked in the corners, impossible to wipe out completely.
There were many Chinese people in this area, making it easy for Ruan Xian to blend in.
As long as he didn’t wander into dark alleys, security was decent enough to survive.
Kabuki was right next door—Tyger Claw territory—where the NCPD wouldn’t inspect things too closely.
It was perfect for grinding low-key, out-competing everyone, leveling up to a Demigod, flipping Arasaka on its head, and taking over Night City himself.
Plan: perfect.
Theory: sound.
Execution: initiated.
Ruan Xian used his whopping 3 points of Intelligence to draft this flawless, high-level master plan.
Now, it was time to put his 9 points of Body to work for basic survival.
Step one of dominating Night City: open a loot box first.
Ruan Xian pulled a drying pole made of unknown material out of the large dumpster and began poking around in his loot box.
Pushing aside leftover food, viscera of unidentified creatures, and weird tattered plastic bags on top, he hauled out a toaster and a radio that were clearly broken and tossed them aside.
Beneath them, he spotted a red leather suitcase in surprisingly decent condition—about 70% new—that theoretically had no business being in a dumpster.
“Uh oh.
Don’t tell me I just unearthed Night City resident parts?” Ruan Xian gasped when he dug up the suitcase.
Given his current situation, though, he had no choice.
Reaching down, he tugged at the suitcase.
That weight?
It felt somewhat heavy.
Looks like it wasn’t the worst-case scenario—at least it wasn’t chopped-up body parts.
Dragging the suitcase back behind the dumpster, he opened it with high expectations.
*Whoa!
Legendary gold!*
Inside the suitcase was a slightly worn punk trench coat.
The quality was great, though the design was fairly common—a Night City bestseller.
It was perfect for keeping out the cold; the polo shirt and plain jeans he wore to work would have frozen him to death in a Night City night.
More importantly, hidden inside the trench coat were several rolls of cash, a datashard, a pistol, and three spare magazines.
As a veteran Night City cyberpsycho and high-tier player who raided Arasaka Tower to smack Adam Smasher around whenever he was bored, Ruan Xian recognized the handgun by its shape alone—a Tamayura.
What’s more, it was fully modified—equipped with a silencer, scope, and mods.
Even though he didn’t know which mods were installed, it looked expensive.
“Looks like a suitcase with a story.
This gun is no joke.
Did an Arasaka agent hide his stuff here?” Ruan Xian pondered briefly, looking up to observe the alley where no one had passed by in several hours.
“This spot really is great for hiding things.
Doesn’t matter who stashed it—it’s mine now.”
Broke people didn’t have the luxury of showing kindness.
Since he scavenged it from a dumpster, finders keepers.
Ruan Xian stuffed the broken radio and toaster back into the suitcase.
Weighing it in his hand, it felt a little light, so he pulled a few extra pieces of junk out of the dumpster and shoved them inside.
Once the weight felt about right, he snapped it shut and casually wiped it down with a rag he’d pulled out earlier.
Ruan Xian peeked out from the alley entrance, looking left and right.
Sure enough, it was a poverty-stricken area without a single camera in sight.
No wonder the loot box contained nothing useful except the suitcase.
That was fucking great!
He slid the suitcase slightly outward so anyone passing the alley entrance would spot the relatively fresh leather case at a glance.
Just a casual piece left on the board.
Slipping into the old trench coat, he toyed with the Tamayura.
Drawing on his memory from military training back home when he touched a Type 92 pistol, he located what looked like the safety switch, flicked it off, and aimed at a black trash bag inside the dumpster.
He pulled the trigger twice in succession.
Almost no sound came out, and his 9 Body stat absorbed the recoil perfectly.
Unfortunately, his marksmanship was abysmal—the targeted black trash bag remained unscathed, while the adjacent red trash bag took two direct hits.
“Tsk.” Ruan Xian engaged the safety on the Tamayura and holstered the gun inside a concealed pocket in his trench coat.
Three spare magazines sat diagonally beneath the holster.
From the outside, there wasn’t a single trace of a firearm.
From weapons to clothing, it oozed professionalism.
His body, broadened after assigning points into Body, filled out the trench coat nicely.
Standing at 180 cm, he passed for a decent presence in Night City.
With a subtle, excited grin leftover from firing the weapon, he looked, from appearance alone, like a novice mercenary with a bit of real muscle.
Ruan Xian clenched his fist slightly, feeling the intensely real surge of power.
Taking a few deep breaths of Night City’s toxic air to soothe his nerves, he strolled out of the alley entrance.
Heading toward neon lights bright enough to illuminate a face even in the dead of night, he stepped straight into the City of Dreams.