Inhale…
Exhale…
I slowly clenched my fist, then unclenched it, and looked around the room I was in.
What can I say?
According to my new memories, this is a standard apartment in a standard megabuilding, number N4, in the Arroyo district.
And I woke up in the apartment my mother had been renting, the one who recently died.
She died during a gang shootout on the freeway.
But that’s not all…
Inhale…
Exhale…
The guy whose memories, body, and skills I’d just inherited was such a psycho that when he found a Sandevistan in the apartment (clearly stripped off someone else’s corpse) he went straight to a back-alley ripperdoc and had it installed.
Just…
fucking hell.
I mean, he was a smart kid.
Was.
He was studying to be an operative, but he was also pretty sharp with tech and weapons.
And this same smart kid took some shady, unidentified implant that appeared out of nowhere in his apartment, and had it installed by a not-so-great ripperdoc.
No, to be fair, in Arroyo, that ripperdoc is considered one of the best.
And he had a business relationship with the kid, selling black-market braindances.
But still…
I shook my head, stood up, and walked to the bathroom.
I looked at myself in the mirror.
Eighteen years old.
Almost finished with my education at the Arasaka Corporate Academy.
With my grades, they would have offered me not just a job, but also a set of pretty decent implants.
And yet this was the boneheaded move he made.
Though…
Maybe I shouldn’t judge him so harshly.
The kid was young.
Even though his mother worked her ass off, he was still showered with love.
And losing her…
plus the bullying at school, which only got worse after Gloria died…
Inhale…
Exhale…
Here’s the kicker: I know about the past and about this kid not just from his memories, but from the memories of watching a cartoon.
A cartoon where the main character was David Martinez.
In that cartoon, he was a solo, working in a crew under some brute, and later, he became the leader of that crew.
He got obsessed with implants, earned himself cyberpsychosis, and, understanding what was happening, went out beautifully, in a fight with the legend of Night City, Adam Smasher.
He was dating some cute girl and led on another one who was in love with him.
And as for the world itself, I was familiar with it from the game.
Cyberpunk.
In the game, there was almost nothing about the guy I’d ended up as, but…
Combining all of that with the knowledge from my…
I guess you could say past life…
I can say this: this world is no fairy tale.
To survive here, I’ll have to work like a dog.
And if I want more than just survival, if I want to live well, I’ll have to work three times as hard.
I winced a little.
David always dreamed of being a solo, becoming a legend of Night City.
Live fast, die young, blaze of glory.
That path doesn’t appeal to me.
I’ve already died once.
The second time around, I’d like to push that off as far into the future as possible.
“So…
what do I do?”
I splashed my face with water, looked in the mirror again, and smirked.
“…Probably start with searching the apartment.
If there was an implant like that lying around, maybe there’s something else?”
I stepped out of the bathroom and looked at the urn with Gloria’s ashes.
“Sorry, Gloria.
I didn’t want to take over your son’s body.
But it looks like in this reality, he couldn’t handle the blows life threw at him.
Or maybe the ripperdoc messed up the install…
But in gratitude for such a good body, minimum chrome, physically fit, I’ll scatter your ashes in some beautiful place…”
I scanned the apartment.
It was basically a one-room unit: a decent-sized living area, a small alcove for a bed, a tiny cubby for a shower and washing machine.
Nothing else.
No computer, no hidden weapons stash like in V’s apartment.
Which made sense.
Gloria was a medtech, not a merc.
Even with all her overtime, she wouldn’t have had the money for anything more than a basic apartment like this.
Inhale…
So…
where could you have hidden a weapon?
I didn’t believe for a second that Gloria didn’t have at least a crappy pistol stashed somewhere.
First, I checked the closet where her clothes were.
And there, I found that iconic jacket of hers.
I brought it to my nose and inhaled.
The jacket smelled like a woman, a pleasant scent, honestly, and I put it on, then went back to the mirror and looked at myself from all angles.
All in all…
It looked good.
I’d be walking around in this for now.
With that settled, I went back to the closet and started pulling out all the clothes.
There wasn’t much, but I set all of Gloria’s stuff aside.
I could sell it at a secondhand shop.
Make a few extra eddies.
After stacking her clothes in a separate pile, I noticed a small box at the bottom of the closet.
Inside was a pistol.
“Hm…
Unity, a couple of magazines, and a box with fifty rounds.
Not a bad start.”
I nodded to myself, loaded the mags, and tucked the pistol into the pocket of Gloria’s jacket.
The jacket had pretty deep pockets, so it fit easily.
“Hm…
What now?”
I searched the rest of the apartment: behind the sofa, under the bed, behind the washing machine.
Nothing.
“So that’s it, huh?”
I went back to the mirror and studied myself.
“Well, the face is kind of dumb-looking, but I’ve got the knowledge, I’ve got the Sandevistan, and if my memory of canon is right, it’s a military-grade model, and I’ve got a pistol with two mags, twenty-five rounds each.
Solid start.”
I nodded to myself, headed for the apartment door, and went straight to the nearest public phone booth.
Yeah, in this world, those still existed.
A few minutes of flipping through the phone book, and I found the number I needed.
“Regina here.
Now tell me who the fuck you are.”
“Hello, Regina Jones.
My name is David Martinez.
I was recently a student at the Arasaka Academy, training as an operative.
But not long ago, my mother died, and I made a stupid mistake…
Basically, I need work.
I have debts to pay, and I need to keep a roof over my head.”
“And you decided to call me, of all people?”
I shrugged, even though she couldn’t see me.
“You’re a fixer.
A very good fixer.
People say you have a bit of compassion in you.
So there’s a good chance you won’t just brush me off.
Besides, I was far from the bottom of my class.”
“Hah.
Honest and respectful…
I’ve got a couple jobs that could be a good test.”
She paused.
I didn’t rush to fill the silence.
“Alright.
There’s a location.
Scavs are holed up there.
Not long ago, they ripped apart a corpo’s daughter.
Her parents weren’t rich, but they had enough to hire a solo, a real pro, to handle it.”
“Where to?”
“Send me your personal number.
Details go there.”
I sent Regina my contact info, and within seconds, the job details came through.
“Client’s requests?”
“None.
Just kill every Scav on-site.”
“Fixer’s requests?”
“Keep it quiet if you can.
No unnecessary attention.
And don’t let civilians get caught in the crossfire.”
“Understood.
I’ll call you when the job is done.”
“Good.
Go.”
The call ended.
And I just realized, why did I even bother calling from a public booth if I ended up giving her my personal number anyway?
Then again…
how else would I have gotten her contact info?
No phone book at home.
No computer.
Shaking my head, I opened the message with the job details and scanned through them.
Hm…
I turned around, oriented myself based on David’s memories, and figured out where I needed to go.
I hopped on the monorail and took the train to a different district.
From the station, I walked to the building where the Scavs were hiding.
A few minutes of searching for an inconspicuous alley, I wrapped my face in a rag, stepped out, and calmly approached the fire escape.
I started climbing.
Minutes later, I was on the right floor.
But I didn’t rush inside.
Instead, I pressed myself against the wall, peering through the window to scope out the situation.
It didn’t take long to spot the apartments the Scavs were using.
And there’s the entrance.
Smirking, I crept under the windows, easily jumped onto a small balcony, and pressed myself against the glass to look inside.
Three of them.
I backed away from the window, quickly climbed onto the ceiling of the balcony, which was actually the floor slab of the balcony above.
It wasn’t easy to hold on, but it wasn’t that bad either.
Once I was sure I had a solid grip, I pulled a magazine from my pocket, bit down on it, and flicked a single round into my palm.
Inhale…
With an exhale, I sent the round flying, just enough to get one of the Scavs’ attention.
“The fuck was that?”
“Eh, forget it.
Probably something fell from upstairs.”
“No, definitely gotta check it out.”
“Well, if you wanna check, go check.”
“Fuck you.”
One of the Scavs finally stepped onto the balcony and started looking around.
“Fuckin’ empty…”
He pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
At that moment, the door behind him clicked shut.
A silent jump, and I was behind him.
He didn’t even realize someone had landed behind him.
One quick motion, his neck snapped.
I carefully laid him on the floor and checked his pockets.
A crappy knife, a Unity, and one spare mag.
I pocketed the mag and set the pistol aside.
I’d grab it on my way out.
Could sell it later and make some extra cash.
I peered through the window again.
Both idiots had their backs to me.
Closing my eyes, I counted to three, hit the door button, and activated my Sandevistan.
In real time, less than two seconds passed.
I was already next to the first Scav.
A knife straight through the temple.
Without wasting time to pull it out, I was already on the second one, snapping his neck.
“Fhhh…”
A quiet exhale.
I dragged both bodies onto the balcony where no one would find them.
They had a cheap Kalashnikov and another Unity.
More junk.
I stacked the weapons in the corner, then paused, and just to be thorough, I drove the knife into the temples of the two I’d already snapped.
Smirking, I went back into the room.
A quick sweep found nothing interesting.
But this room wasn’t the last one.
I approached another door and eased it open.
Bathroom.
Inside, I spotted several bodies stacked in the bathtub, packed in ice.
Interesting…
any of them still alive?
A quick pulse check told me no.
Bullet holes in the chest area were a pretty clear hint.
“Well…
moving on.”
Would I have been able to take lives this easily in my past life?
Probably not.
And David…
we weren’t the same mindset…
were.
But death, and that emptiness I found myself in, changed me.
I don’t see death as something bad anymore.
My conscience didn’t bother me.
Especially knowing what these scumbags did.
Hard to see them as human.
I left the bathroom, crept up to the next door, and carefully peeked inside.
Five of them.
Take the risk or not?
I scanned the room quickly, spotted a large pillar, and ducked behind it.
Grabbing a bottle sitting on it, I tossed it so it shattered against the wall.
Less than a minute later, one of the Scavs came in.
“Hey, Axe!
The fuck’s going on here?!
Where is everybody?”
“What?”
“Shit’s empty in here!”
“Well, maybe they’re fucking the bodies in the bathroom?”
“I’ll check…”
He headed toward the bathroom.
I waited until the door hissed shut behind him, then rose and threw my knife.
It sank perfectly into the back of his skull.
In three quick steps, I was beside him, catching his body before he could hit the ground.
Out to the balcony with him.
Quick search, pulled another pistol from his holster, never even got a chance to draw it.
I pocketed the mag and left the body in the corner.
“Fuck, what the hell?!”
Another Scav stepped into the room.
I opened the balcony door, threw the knife at him, but this time, I didn’t reach him before he fell.
So I grabbed the body, dragged it aside, pulled the knife out, and got ready.
But no one else came.
The guy had a thigh holster.
Another Unity.
Another knife.
One minute later, I’d taken the belt and put it on.
I peeked out and saw that the three remaining Scavs didn’t give a shit about what was happening.
That made me smile bitterly…
Their own fault for being such losers.