Ten packages containing Kinetic Booster Mark II had been dropped off at covert locations near target clinics.
Almost simultaneously, the ripperdocs at all ten clinics received an email signed by Ascension Tech.
[Ascension Tech Partnership Invitation]
[Sender: Ascension Tech]
[Recipient: ***]
[Greetings, this is Ascension Tech.
As an emerging pharmaceutical technology company, we are interested in distributing our latest product in Night City, and we cordially invite you to become a sales agent for our firm.
Sample products have been placed at ****** near your clinic.
We look forward to your experience and feedback.
Should you wish to order and distribute this product moving forward, please send an email to place your order.]
[Attachment: Kinetic Booster Mark II Product Manual]
…
Watson.
Northside Industrial Area.
Inside an underground black-market clinic.
The ripperdoc looked at the email in his system and let out a grating laugh.
“Huh?
Ascension Tech?
Where’d this outfit pop up from?
A company?
Would a real corp need underground clinics like ours to sell their stuff?
What good is all this fancy talk when they’re acting so damn sneaky?”
In his eyes, if it were a legitimate corporation, they wouldn’t need to partner with clinics like theirs at all; they could sell through regular market channels.
Even if a corp wanted to expand into underground distribution channels, they wouldn’t act so covertly—they would just send employees to meet in person.
So as far as he was concerned, this so-called Ascension Tech was just some obscure underground workshop in Night City trying to make a quick buck off stolen formulas or bottom-tier chemists, or maybe a smuggling ring trying to dump contraband pharmaceuticals onto the market.
Yet even though he scoffed at such shameless rhetoric, his hands honestly opened the product manual in the attachment anyway.
After all, regardless of what Ascension Tech was or what the email said, the bottom line was that someone was offering to make money with him.
If there was a chance to make money, who gave a damn about the rest?
It was worth a look.
If it was viable, nobody in their right mind would pass up the opportunity.
[Product Name: Kinetic Booster Mark II]
[A combat stimulant developed with full dedication by Ascension Tech.
Upon injection into the human body, it instantly boosts overall movement speed by 35%.
The user enters an excited state with enhanced cognitive reflexes, lasting for 60 seconds.
Zero health hazards, zero side effects.]
[Sample Image]
[Order Price: 150 eddies per dose]
Looking at the description in the product manual, the ripperdoc mulled it over.
If the effects were truly as advertised without any exaggeration, then at 150 eddies per dose, there would definitely be a market for it.
Most of his clientele were freelance mercs and gang members, guys who were willing to spend big to gain an edge.
Even the immunosuppressants they regularly bought from him were a hefty chunk of change.
If they could spend two hundred-plus eddies for a solid combat buff, plenty of people would gladly fork over the cash.
“Let’s check out the sample first.”
Deciding to verify its legitimacy first, the ripperdoc followed the email’s directions to the drop point.
He retrieved a paper bag containing three vials of the stimulant.
Looking at the glowing green fluid inside the syringes, the ripperdoc realized this was his first time seeing a stimulant like this.
“Maybe some underground chemist cooked this up.”
Holding the stimulants, the ripperdoc walked through the clinic’s operating area and unlocked a door leading into the depths of the building.
Walking down into the basement, he revealed a spacious room filled with medical gear and storage cabinets commonly used by ripperdocs.
In one room of the basement stood an operating table, upon which lay a half-dissected corpse.
A living person was tied up in the room, unconscious.
His unaugmented body suggested he wasn’t just some unlucky gangoon.
The ripperdoc walked up to him and injected an unknown agent.
The unconscious man slowly drifted awake.
Seeing the ripperdoc standing before him, terror washed over the man’s face.
“Who are you?
What do you want?
Let me go!”
Suddenly, his eyes caught the corpse lying on the operating table behind the ripperdoc.
It hit him all at once what kind of nightmare he was in.
Drowned in immense regret and self-loathing, he wished he had never gotten dead drunk at that bar.
Now that he’d been grabbed by Scavengers, his fate was all too predictable.
“You’re Scavengers!
Don’t kill me, please!
I have money, I can give you money!
Please, let me go!” Feeling the ropes binding his hands and feet, the man pleaded frantically.
The ripperdoc gave no verbal response, merely chuckling through his raspy throat.
Pulling out a green syringe, the ripperdoc grabbed the man by the hair, yanking his head back to expose his neck.
He plunged the needle into the man’s neck, injecting the liquid instantly.
The man felt a sudden rush flood his bloodstream.
His brain pulsed with wild excitement, and a violent urge to move took over his limbs.
Before he could process what was happening next, the ripperdoc snipped the ropes binding him.
Feeling the bindings fall away and seeing the terrifying grin on the ripperdoc’s face, the man didn’t dare hesitate.
He shoved the ripperdoc aside and bolted for the door.
All he wanted was to escape.
His numb legs made him stumble the moment he got up, his left hand landing right on the slick corpse on the operating table.
Ignoring the slippery, wet feel of whatever organ he had just touched, the man scrambled back up and ran for his life.
Driven by pure survival instinct, he pushed past the strange sensation in his legs.
Fueled by both the stimulant and raw adrenaline, he burst forward with insane speed.
However, having no layout of the basement, he could only dash around like a headless fly.
He finally found a door, only to realize it was locked tight, forcing him to keep running.
By the time he had crossed the entire basement, he found that every door was sealed shut.
Worse, his comm signal couldn’t break through—he couldn’t even call the cops.
Overwhelmed by despair, he collapsed against a basement door.
Hearing the ripperdoc’s footsteps approaching step by step, he knew he was dead meat.
“Fuck it, I’m taking you down with me, you bastard!”
Unable to take it anymore, he stood up enraged, looking frantically for a weapon—if he was going to die, he’d drag that scumbag to hell with him.
Right then, the door behind him unlocked and swung open from the outside.
He turned around in delight, thinking he had a shot at survival.
Instead, he was met with even deeper horror.
A squad of armed Scavengers carrying a corpse stepped in, coming face-to-face with him.
The lead Scavenger was stunned to see the guy they had bagged yesterday jumping around fully awake.
*Bang!*
A gunshot echoed, piercing the man’s skull, leaving his face frozen in terror.
“How’s this guy awake and running around?” The shooter holstered his pistol and barked at the Scavengers behind him to harvest the body quickly before the organs spoiled.
“I let him loose to test out a new drug,” the ripperdoc explained.
Hearing this, the Scavengers didn’t care.
As long as the victim hadn’t escaped, dead or alive made little difference to them.
The ripperdoc glanced at the corpse and nodded to himself.
“Looks like the booster works as advertised.
We can do business with them.
Ascension Tech, huh?
Interesting.”
Leaving the basement and returning to his clinic above, the ripperdoc sat down and composed an email to Ascension Tech.
Similar scenes played out in various underground clinics across Night City, where numerous ripperdocs were testing the legitimacy of the drug in their own twisted ways.