“Old Andrew is one crafty bastard.”
The Galena bounced along the broken Badlands road while Valerie fought to keep the steering wheel steady.
“He took a thousand eddies from us, called it a disposal fee, and still made us carry the bodies ourselves.”
Lena rested against the passenger seat.
“I inspected their cyberware.
All four implants are salvageable, so we came out ahead.”
While moving the corpses, she had waited for Valerie to look away before activating the system’s recycling function.
The process had been instant and silent.
Now, four pieces of cyberware occupied separate slots in her inventory.
[Tier 2 Self-ICE — Frontal Cortex]
[Tier 2 Kiroshi Optics: Stalker — Face]
[Tier 2 General Augmentation — Skeleton]
[Tier 2 Recoil Dampening System — Hands]
A thousand eddies for four functional implants was an excellent deal.
Even the cheapest secondhand cyberware in Night City could cost several times that amount after repairs and installation fees.
As Lena examined the implants, a new option appeared beside the Recoil Dampening System.
[Upgrade Requirements: Tier 2 Item Components — 0/10]
Another interface unfolded immediately.
[Crafting Module Unlocked]
[Item components can be acquired by dismantling cyberware and firearms]
[Item components can be used to craft and upgrade equipment]
[Crafting requires the corresponding blueprint]
[Five Tier 1 components can be converted into one Tier 2 component]
Lena read the information carefully.
The system hadn’t copied every rule from the game, but its core mechanics remained recognizable.
Dismantling.
Crafting.
Upgrading.
The difference was that equipment in this world wasn’t a collection of disposable statistics.
Every firearm and implant could determine whether someone survived their next job.
Dismantling the wrong weapon might leave her defenseless, while a poorly chosen cyberware upgrade could change the course of a firefight.
Lena looked at the four implants in her inventory.
Normally, installing even basic cyberware required a ripperdoc.
The procedure involved opening the body, connecting neural pathways, attaching interface ports, and calibrating the implant to the patient’s nervous system.
A single mistake could cause chronic pain, nerve damage, rejection, or death.
Lena possessed another option.
She selected all four implants.
[Confirm simultaneous installation?]
She confirmed without hesitation.
No surgical instruments touched her body.
There was no incision, no sensation of metal forcing its way beneath her skin, and none of the agony she had expected.
Instead, a massive stream of information poured into her consciousness.
The implants dissolved into data within her inventory.
That data entered her Virtual Body, where each implant merged with its corresponding region before synchronizing with her physical form through Reality Mapping.
Four previously empty cyberware slots lit up.
[Cyberware installation complete]
The world changed.
Lena suddenly became aware of minute vibrations traveling through the Galena’s frame.
She could distinguish the vehicle’s shaking from the movement of the suspension and even sense subtle changes in airflow through the cracked passenger window.
It felt as though she had replaced an ancient display with a cutting-edge screen.
Details that had always existed beyond ordinary perception were now sharp and immediate.
She looked down at her hands.
Her skin remained smooth, without visible seams or metal plating.
The texture and temperature felt unchanged.
When Lena closed her fist, however, a subtle mechanical response traveled through her bones.
The skeletal augmentation hadn’t simply increased her strength.
It reinforced her frame and helped coordinate her muscles, joints, and posture.
Each movement felt more stable, allowing her body to distribute force with greater precision.
She flexed her fingers.
The Recoil Dampening System had merged into her hands and wrists.
Fine motor control improved immediately, accompanied by a clear awareness of how the implant would compensate for a firearm’s kick and guide its muzzle back toward the target.
Her RT-46 Burya no longer felt like a separate object resting at her hip.
It felt closer to an extension of her body.
Then the Kiroshi optics connected.
Lena’s vision sharpened.
The drifting dust beyond the windshield became individually distinguishable, and distant structures gained clear outlines.
A thought allowed her to adjust magnification and focus on details far along the road.
Data markers identified objects within view.
Heat, distance, structural condition, and possible surveillance equipment could now be analyzed without Lena consciously studying everything herself.
“So this is what cyberoptics really feel like.”
The game had represented Kiroshi implants through menus and visual effects.
Experiencing them directly was entirely different.
Cyberware didn’t merely make people stronger.
It changed how they experienced reality.
The Self-ICE completed its integration last.
Lena felt no obvious physical improvement, but a new defensive layer now surrounded her neural network.
Any hostile signal attempting to reach her implants would first need to penetrate that barrier.
It wouldn’t make her immune to skilled netrunners, but it could stop opportunistic quickhacks and buy valuable time against more dangerous intrusions.
All four implants finished synchronizing.
For the first time since arriving, Lena no longer felt like a player trapped inside a familiar game.
She had truly entered a world ruled by chrome, guns, and data.
Another prompt appeared.
[Cyberware detected within Virtual Body]
[Allow external scanners to display cyberware information?]
Lena opened the customization settings.
Completely hiding her implants might appear suspicious.
Night City’s mercenaries, gang members, and corporate security personnel relied on scanners to judge potential threats.
Someone who appeared entirely unmodified could look like an easy target—or like a dangerous professional concealing military-grade hardware.
Displaying everything would become equally risky once Lena acquired more cyberware.
If a scanner eventually revealed dozens of fused implants occupying the same body regions, every megacorporation in Night City would want to dissect her.
For now, she marked the four Tier 2 implants as visible.
They were ordinary enough to avoid attention while proving she wasn’t helpless.
“We’re here,” Valerie announced.
“I’ll climb the tower and contact our partner.
Watch the car.”
“Got it.”
Valerie pulled over beside an abandoned telecommunications tower.
She climbed out, crossed the dusty ground, and began ascending the rusted ladder.
Once she disappeared above the platform, Lena opened the Galena’s trunk.
Four body bags remained wedged inside.
The system had extracted the implants, but it hadn’t erased the corpses.
Their frozen bodies were still heavy, and they needed to be removed before Valerie returned.
Lena grabbed the first bag and dragged it backward.
The corpse struck the edge of the trunk with a dull thud.
Her new skeletal augmentation responded immediately, stabilizing her shoulders, arms, and lower back.
A body that had previously required both women to move could now be handled by Lena alone.
Not easily, but safely.
She dragged the bag toward a refuse pit several dozen meters away.
Sweat gathered across her forehead by the time she reached it.
Lena seized both ends of the bag, lifted with everything she had, and rolled the corpse over the edge.
It crashed onto the waste below.
“Still a long way from becoming a legend,” Lena muttered, catching her breath.
“But at least I’ve advanced from helpless office worker to professional corpse mover.”
She returned to the Galena and repeated the process.
Four bodies required four exhausting trips.
By the time the last bag fell into the pit, Lena’s arms ached and her breathing had grown ragged.
The augmentation had improved her stability and load-bearing ability, but it hadn’t transformed her into a machine.
If she wanted enough strength to flip a vehicle, she would need Gorilla Arms, superior skeletal reinforcement, stronger muscles, and probably circulatory implants capable of sustaining the exertion.
Lena wiped the sweat from her face and returned to the car.
Valerie had already descended from the tower and was leaning against the driver-side door.
“Find the contact?” Lena asked.
“Yeah.
Jackie Welles.
We meet him, pick up the cargo, cross the checkpoint, and deliver it to the fixer.”
Valerie made it sound simple.
Lena knew better.
They were two inexperienced Nomads entering their first smuggling operation without knowing the client, the fixer, or the cargo.
Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t even realize they had been betrayed until corporate security surrounded them.
The Galena followed the coordinates Valerie had received and eventually stopped outside a dilapidated sheet-metal building.
Valerie turned off the engine and drew her DR5 Nova.
Lena placed a hand near her Burya and entered first.
The door scraped against the floor as she pushed it open.
A broad-shouldered man sat on a battered sofa inside, aiming a gold-plated Nue pistol directly at her chest.
Jackie Welles.
He was more than six feet tall, with a muscular frame and shoulders broad enough to fill the doorway behind him.
Hexagonal cyberware plates had been implanted along both sides of his face, while interface ports connected near his temples.
At first glance, he looked intimidating.
But Jackie’s chrome wasn’t what made him memorable.
He was a Heywood native who had survived through small jobs, street fights, and mercenary work.
In Night City, he was still nobody important—just another ambitious gun for hire dreaming of reaching the Afterlife’s major leagues.
He wanted to become a legend.
For that dream, he was willing to risk everything.
More importantly, once Jackie considered someone family, he would step into hell beside them without hesitation.
Lena knew where his dream would eventually lead.
She also knew that Jackie Welles was one of the few people in Night City genuinely worth trusting.
Jackie examined the two women.
“I’m so broke I’m about ready to start farming dirt,” he said.
“So I’m guessing you’re the ones here for me?”
Lena kept her hands visible.
Seeing that she wasn’t drawing a weapon, Jackie slowly lowered his pistol.
Valerie did the same, returning her Nova to its holster.
“What’s wrong, chica?” Jackie asked Lena.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Nothing.
Let’s discuss the job.”
“Easy.”
Jackie holstered his pistol but didn’t immediately explain the contract.
“Where I’m from, we introduce ourselves before doing business.
Call it manners.”
He rose and offered his hand.
“Jackie Welles.
Born and raised in Night City.
Heywood blood all the way through.”
Valerie shook his hand first.
“Valerie.
Formerly of the Bakkers.”
“Formerly?”
“The clan joined the Snake Nation.
We didn’t.”
Jackie nodded without pressing further.
Lena accepted his hand next.
“Lena Hale.
Same story.”
His handshake was firm, but his smile became noticeably warmer.
“Two Nomads without a clan and one Heywood boy too broke to buy lunch.
Sounds like a promising crew.”
Jackie looked between them.
“Ever been to Heywood?”
“No,” Valerie replied.
“Then you’re missing out.
In Heywood, neighbors are relatives, and friends become family.”
He patted the pistol at his waist.
“Everybody carries iron, of course.
If someone hurts one of ours, the entire street comes out to settle the problem.”
Lena glanced at Valerie.
“By that logic, the two of us are already family.”
Valerie hesitated.
Then she nodded.
“Yeah.
We are.”
“Perfect!”
Jackie laughed.
“Looks like the three of us are going to get along.”
He nudged a black cargo container forward with his boot.
The Arasaka Corporation logo stood out clearly across its armored surface.
“Take a look.
That’s what we’re carrying.”
Valerie frowned.
“What’s inside?”
Jackie spread his hands.
“Better not to ask.
We bring it across the border, hand it to the fixer, get paid, and go our separate ways.”
He glanced down at the container.
“Truth is, I don’t know what’s inside either.
In this line of work, knowing less sometimes helps you live longer.”
Valerie accepted the explanation.
Lena remained focused on the container.
She knew what was hidden inside.
An exotic iguana—rare, illegal, and valuable enough to attract Arasaka’s attention.
More importantly, this delivery would become the first thread binding their lives to Jackie Welles and Night City.