Westbrook.
Japantown, Akagi Market.
The gurney cart slid off the ramp exit, and Lucy used her foot to stop its forward momentum.
“We made it alive.”
Lucy looked down at him: “You’re pretty lucky.”
David stared at the neon signs gliding overhead.
Perhaps because he had been riding in high-speed chases all day and had already experienced even more thrilling moments—plus the fact that Vik had already administered a stabilizer shot—aside from some lightheadedness, he didn’t suffer any other symptoms.
David propped himself up, moving over to the nearest lounge chair.
“Feeling better?
Want to find a ripperdoc?” Lucy sat down beside him, fishing a slim cigarette from her jacket pocket and placing it between her lips while her other hand fumbled in her pocket for a lighter.
“No need, I can hang in there.”
David kept his eyes closed: “Though…
let me call it a night for work.”
“Yeah, I’m not keen on babysitting a cyberpsycho either.” Lucy leaned in to light her cigarette, taking a deep drag before tilting her head back to exhale a plume of white smoke: “Only use the Sandevistan when absolutely necessary.
You’d better watch yourself.”
When necessary?
David opened his eyes.
After installing the cyberware, that guy activated it without a second word just to check out the effect.
He definitely didn’t seem like the type to use it “only when necessary.”
“After everything that happened tonight…”
David turned his head, looking at Lucy’s side profile: “Are you still willing to partner up with me?”
He didn’t want the two of them to just lose touch like this.
“At the very least, I’ve got to earn back what I spent today, right?” The corner of Lucy’s lips curled up slightly, her implied meaning clear as day.
“Then it’s a deal.”
David smiled along with her.
Lucy suddenly stood up, snuffing her cigarette out against the ashtray atop a trash bin.
“Follow me.”
…
Watson, Charter Street.
“This way.”
The two arrived at an apartment building, its walls covered in colorful, cluttered graffiti.
“Do you live alone?” David asked hesitantly.
“Yeah.”
“I see…”
David raised his head, his face full of seriousness.
Lucy turned her head and saw his expression, letting out a small smile: “You aren’t nervous, are you?”
“No.”
“Is it your first time?”
“?”
David’s expression tightened.
What did she mean by “first time”?
“Definitely not.”
He denied it.
But Lucy didn’t seem to believe him.
She didn’t press further, merely letting out a soft chuckle as she pushed open the door and stepped into the apartment.
“I am NOT nervous!” David shouted once more at her back.
He was a man well-versed in watching videos, for goodness’ sake!
Nervous?
Nonexistent!
Lucy’s apartment layout was similar to his own.
A sunken living room, with a couch resting against a massive glass window.
The difference was…
There was a netrunner dive tub in the corner, and the adjacent bathtub was filled with ice cubes used for cooling down the netrunner’s body.
A standard netrunner setup.
“Make yourself at home.”
Lucy pulled two bottles of beer from the fridge: “I only have beer here, is that fine?”
“Sure.”
David took the beer and sat down on the sofa in front of the window ledge.
Lucy, meanwhile, hugged a cushion on the terrace ledge in front of the window, half-reclining behind him.
They didn’t turn on the lights, letting the moonlight stream in through the window, blending with the glow of distant neon signs.
“Cheers.”
The bottles clinked softly.
Lucy didn’t drink, instead fishing a slim cigarette from her jacket pocket, placing it between her lips.
The lighter’s flame flickered to life, illuminating half of her face.
David, on the other hand, tilted his head back and took a big gulp.
The harsh liquid surged down his throat, causing him to inevitably choke and cough.
“Wait?”
Lucy exhaled a plume of white smoke, looking at his rookie demeanor, unable to hold back a chuckle: “Is this your first time drinking beer too?”
“I’m fine with alcohol,” David wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, muttering vaguely, “It’s just…
I don’t like carbonated drinks or the smell of smoke.”
“There are still people like you around?”
The smile still lingered at the corners of Lucy’s lips.
She found herself rather enjoying the feeling of teasing this kid.
“I’m not lying to you.”
David turned to look at her, his expression serious.
“So old-fashioned.”
Lucy avoided his gaze, her eyes landing on his clothes: “Your outfit is pretty tacky too.”
David’s Arasaka Academy uniform hadn’t dried after being washed; before being controlled, he was only wearing a plain black T-shirt without any outer layer, running around outside like that all day long.
Lucy got up and pulled a deep charcoal-black unisex workwear jacket from her closet.
It was a style she frequently wore when out on field jobs.
“This suits you.”
She helped David put it on, her fingers brushing against his shoulders unintentionally.
David could smell a subtle hint of smoke on her, mixed with a unique, indefinable fragrance.
Reluctantly, he turned in a circle in front of her.
Lucy crossed her arms, leaning against the closet door: “Now you look a bit more like an edgerunner.”
“Edgerunner?”
“Another name for cyberpunk.”
Lucy curled back onto the couch, resting her chin on the cushion: “You want to become someone like that, don’t you?”
“…”
David fell silent.
Before today, yes.
But being possessed by an evil spirit that personally demonstrated what “cyberpunk” truly meant…
Now, he wasn’t so sure anymore…
Inadvertently…
David caught sight of a faded travel promotional poster pinned to the wall.
It featured a lunar colonization theme, with a line of English printed in a retro font across it:
[A New Life Awaits You]
“You’re one to talk…”
He looked at that poster: “What’s with that old-fashioned poster over there?”
“…”
Hearing David call it old-fashioned, the smile vanished from Lucy’s face, her tone turning several degrees colder: “Got a problem with it?”
David blinked, taken aback.
He hadn’t expected her to react so strongly.
“Ah…
no, that’s not it.”
He quickly tried to smooth things over: “Commercials always promote it as a dazzling paradise, but I know how many people died just to develop the Moon.”
“Instead of a paradise, it’s more like hell.”
“You sure know a lot.”
Lucy put away the jacket and sat back down by the window ledge, her tone softening slightly.
David explained: “At the Academy, they tell us all the things the ads leave out.”
“As expected of an Arasaka Academy young master,” Lucy took a sip of her drink, saying casually.
“I’m not.”
“Being able to attend Arasaka Academy is proof enough that you’re a rich kid.”
“I’m NOT!”
David downed a big gulp of beer: “I don’t have a dad, and my family doesn’t have money.
We’re not the kind of family that can afford for someone to study at the Academy.”
Lucy lit another cigarette without replying, letting the smoke slowly dissipate into the moonlight.
“My mom wanted me to go to the Academy, so she pushed herself to the limit,” David’s voice dropped low: “But after I actually got there, I realized that I’m completely different from them.
No matter what, I just couldn’t fit in.”
“If you knew that, why did you keep going?” Lucy asked softly.
“There’s no choice.”
David stared at the beer bottle on the table: “Go to the Academy, get a job at Arasaka, and work in upper management.
That’s my mother’s wish…
or rather, her dream.”
Lucy suddenly leaned in closer.
David turned his head, so close he could clearly see the reflection of the moonlight on her eyelashes.
“But isn’t that someone else’s dream?”
“Someone else’s?”
“You and your mother are two different people,” Lucy placed her hand on his shoulder: “Why should you live for her dream?”
Having been manipulated and controlled since childhood, she knew better than anyone.
A person does not live for others.
“Is there something wrong with that?”
David froze.
He had never once thought about what his own dream was.
“A dream isn’t something that belongs to someone else.”
“You say that like you have a dream of your own.”
David opened his mouth, countering with a bit of defiance.
Lucy didn’t speak.
Her gaze drifted past him, falling onto that faded moon poster.
“No way…”
David followed her gaze.
Going to the Moon?
“Even if you say it’s hell…” Lucy looked out the window, the glass reflecting her downcast eyes: “To me, this place is hell.”
“This place?”
“I want to fly far away…
leave this city…”
Lucy’s voice was very soft, scattering into the air like smoke.
David didn’t know how to reply.
The two of them sat silently like that, each looking out the window into the very same night.