“6th Street ran into some serious trouble.”
El Capitan shifted the cigarette from the left corner of his mouth to the right: “Those outposts near Megabuilding H4 have been completely cleared out over the past couple of days—the area is crawling with NCPD right now.”
“Even though they’re usually too lazy to poke into other people’s business, you’d better keep your head down.”
So it was about that.
Hearing this, Jake froze for a moment: “Got it.”
David hadn’t expected El Capitan to be referring to this either, his emotions growing rather complex for a moment.
Could throwing Night City into chaos be this evil spirit’s true objective?
Who would have thought…
social chaos, and the root cause lies with me…
Just then.
On the overlook, the Rattler’s car radio suddenly emitted a burst of static noise.
A professional female voice broadcasted from the speakers:
“Breaking local news.”
“Earlier this evening, a severe gang shootout erupted near an abandoned warehouse in Watson Northside.
Twenty-six corpses were discovered at the scene, all identified as 6th Street gang members.”
“Based on forensic evidence at the scene, preliminary analysis suggests inter-gang violent conflict, with Maelstrom listed as a primary suspect.”
“Twenty-six bodies?”
El Capitan’s brows furrowed deeply: “Taking out nearly thirty 6th Street guys in one go…”
He looked over at David.
For Santo Domingo’s sake, he warned once more: “Watson Northside and Santo Domingo haven’t been peaceful lately.
Keep your head down, kid, don’t get mixed up in it.”
“I will.”
Jake was just getting ready to leave.
However, the car radio continued to broadcast:
“According to ballistics reports from the scene, the vast majority of the deceased were killed by vehicle-mounted military machine guns…”
Vehicle-mounted military machine guns?
Hearing this, El Capitan’s gaze slowly drifted toward the roof of the “Hoon”, where two MK.31 machine guns glinted coldly in the twilight.
He looked once again at the expressionless David.
“…Coincidence.”
Jake hastily explained: “Night City has plenty of cars with this kind of setup.”
El Capitan didn’t reply.
He merely stared suspiciously at those two machine guns for a few seconds, then popped the cigarette back into his mouth and took a slow drag.
The kid had a point.
In Night City, armed vehicles equipped with military machine guns were indeed not rare…
Jake thought he had successfully played it off and prepared to leave.
But the radio broadcast kept going.
“Additionally, according to leads provided by nearby residents, a vehicle with ‘K.B’ painted on the side was seen speeding away from the scene following the incident…”
El Capitan turned his head and glanced at the door of the “Hoon”.
The custom decal on the side was clear as day under the setting sun.
K.B.
David: “…”
He felt that if he could sweat right now, his back would be completely drenched.
“Don’t tell me your nickname is K.B?” El Capitan blew out a puff of smoke, looking at David.
Killing nearly thirty 6th Street members…
and this kid actually dared to swagger right back to Santo Domingo to sell him the car?
What absolute nerve…
“You’re not going to back out of the deal, are you?”
Seeing he couldn’t cover it up, Jake didn’t bother pretending anymore.
El Capitan scoffed: “In all the business I’ve done, I’ve never turned my back on a deal just because a buyer brought along a little trouble.
Others might fear 6th Street, but I don’t.”
Jake nodded.
That was the truth.
El Capitan had been around Night City for over twenty years; he was a corpo-rat when he was young and later transitioned into a fixer.
At his core, he looked down on street gang antics.
To him, 6th Street was just a bunch of hoodlums wearing stars-and-stripes vests.
“Even though you used this ride to do the killing, I gotta admit…” El Capitan leaned against his car: “You’ve definitely got real talent.”
Someone without talent couldn’t mess with that many 6th Street gangers, let alone lure them to one spot and wipe them out in one fell swoop using an armed vehicle…
“Here, take this.”
El Capitan pulled a black business card with faintly glowing edges from his inner pocket.
He handed the card to David, introducing himself once more: “Muamar Reyes.
Besides selling rides, I occasionally broker side gigs.
The pay depends on the difficulty, but it’s definitely better than blindly stumbling around on the streets.”
This kid had skill and was a Santo Domingo local—it immediately sparked his desire to work together.
David reached out and took the business card.
The moment the card touched his hand, a new contact entry was added directly into his vision.
[New Contact Added: Muamar Reyes (El Capitan)]
“When a job that suits you pops up, I’ll hit you up,” El Capitan stood straight, dusting off his shorts.
“Keep your comms open.”
“First step complete!”
Looking at the prompt popping up on the right side of his screen, Jake was in a great mood.
Counting the loot from 6th Street…
He had made 110,000 eddies this time—nearly 900,000 RMB in cash.
What an absolute feast!
Now that he had made money…
It was time to test the rules and conditions for real-world manifestation in this game…
Jake pressed Esc, clicked “Keep Game Running,” and then exited.
Watching his computer return to the desktop, he leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.
After taking a short break…
Jake stood up and walked to the doorway.
He pulled his phone from his pocket, opened video recording mode, found an angle, and mounted his phone on the abandoned shoe cabinet across the hallway, pointing the lens straight at his front door.
This way, the phone could record the exact moment of manifestation.
Everything was set.
Jake retreated inside and shut the door.
Sitting on the sofa, he waited for the doorbell to ring again.
The last manifestation occurred within about five minutes after exiting the game.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
The hallway was dead quiet, with only the distant hum of a neighbor’s range hood cooking dinner.
Nothing happened.
Jake frowned, retrieved his phone from the shoe cabinet, and replayed the recording.
In the video…
That door remained motionless; not even a fly flew across the hallway.
“Could the phone have interfered with the manifestation?” He recalled the screen recording from earlier that only captured his desktop.
Jake pocketed his phone, closed the door again, and kept waiting.
Another five minutes passed, and still nothing.
“…”
Jake retreated into his room and sat down in his chair.
Where did the issue lie?
Manifestation had succeeded once today—the first time worked, but it failed afterward.
The first time, he had ordered milk tea and heated up fried noodles…
surely those mundane things couldn’t affect manifestation?
Could it be…
…that manifestation could only happen once per day?
This deduction seemed reasonable.
If there were no limits on manifestation, it would be way too game-breaking.
He could just farm money repeatedly, and before long, he could buy out all of Kaohsiung.
He checked the time in the bottom right corner of his screen: 18:47.
It wasn’t even seven o’clock yet, still early.
He’d try again later…
Jake looked back at the computer and clicked on the icon once more.
…
Inside the game, dusk deepened.
The sunset glow over Rancho Coronado faded from orange-red into dark purple, as the neon lights of distant Santo Domingo began to ignite one by one.
As Jake exited the game…
David on the dam overlook felt his body go limp, regaining control over his physical form.
The very first thing he did was open his account.
That long string of digits in his balance always made him feel a sense of unreality.
This morning, he couldn’t even afford the laundry machine fee, yet by dusk, he had earned money his mom couldn’t save in two years of grinding her life away at the ER center.
Was this also part of the devil’s corruptive means to lead people astray?
David felt a mixture of love and hate toward this money.
Just as he was lost in thought, a stomach-rumbling sound suddenly echoed.
He looked down at his belly—the noise had come straight from there.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t eaten all day…” Just as David was preparing to find a spot to eat a hearty meal, that familiar sensation washed over him once again.
His consciousness remained, but his body no longer belonged to him.
He froze in place.
Why was it so fast this time?!