Learning that Loki was doing quite well over in Japantown, Vik nodded with satisfaction.
“That’s how it goes in our line of work.
It’s always tough at the start, and having friends who can lend a hand makes things a lot easier.
But at the end of the day, your own technical skill has to be solid, or it’s all talk.”
Loki popped open another energy drink and chugged it down, easing the fatigue from his intense spar earlier.
“Burp…
Ah, refreshing,” Loki let out a satisfied sigh, then added, “I can’t tell if you’re praising me or trying to praise yourself.”
“Haha, take it as both.
Isn’t raising a top-notch ripperdoc worth bragging about?”
“Fair enough,” Loki agreed, nodding in assent.
They sat together chatting about Night City—from ripperdoc clinics and boxing matches to megacorps, edgerunners, and back to clinics again.
“By the way, a lot of ripperdoc clinics seem to have started selling a new type of booster lately.
Know anything about it?”
Vik’s question made Loki raise an eyebrow.
Vik hadn’t been among the target clinics Loki picked earlier.
It wasn’t that he feared Vik knowing his secret—if anyone in Night City was trustworthy, it was Vik and Jackie Welles.
Loki would sooner trust his own dick to betray him than believe Vik would sell him out.
He just hadn’t figured out how to explain it all to Vik yet.
Having spent two whole years together, Vik knew him inside out.
Explaining where this stuff came from wasn’t going to be easy.
But Loki also understood he’d have to lay his cards on the table sooner or later.
He couldn’t keep Vik in the dark forever, nor did he want to miss out on Vik’s talent.
Rather than waiting until he brought out more and more unexplainable tech, it was better to spill it now.
It would also lay the groundwork for bringing Vik on board to help him later.
After a moment’s hesitation, Loki spoke up.
“Are you talking about Ascension Tech’s Kinetic Booster Mark II?”
“Yeah, you know about it?
I tried looking into it, but I couldn’t trace their supply chain at all.” Vik threw up his hands in frustration.
“I do know about it.
My clinic sells it too.
And as for the supply chain…
truth be told, I’m the one manufacturing it.”
Loki’s calm statement struck Vik like a bolt from the blue.
Vik froze.
The drink can paused halfway to his mouth before he slowly set it back down.
“You sure you’re not pulling my leg?
I never taught you how to make stuff like that.
I bought two vials to examine.
The ingredients don’t look complicated—it looks like any cheap energy drink on the market.
By all rights, it shouldn’t produce that kind of effect.
The weird thing is, it actually functions as a booster and ramps up the user’s speed.
If you really made this, I’m pretty curious how you pulled it off.”
As Vik said, the raw ingredients were indeed ordinary.
Its effects relied entirely on a special component formed by the rules of the brewing stand.
Vik’s rough analysis naturally couldn’t detect that.
Aside from Loki’s brewing stand, it was impossible to produce by any other method.
To manufacture it without the bench, he would need to install the Tech Expansion for the booster module, making the booster a fully integrated, native product of the Cyberpunk world.
But the raw materials and costs at that stage would be entirely different, and for now, Loki had no need to go that far.
“I’m not joking,” Loki shook his head, then paused.
“Vik, I don’t think I’ve ever told you about my life before I came to Night City.”
“No.
In two years, you never brought it up, so I never asked.
Everyone’s got a past; I get it.”
This was the first time Loki had mentioned his background.
Even though Vik respected his privacy and suppressed his curiosity, he couldn’t help sitting up straight, ready to listen attentively.
Loki stared straight ahead, his eyes growing slightly distant as if lost in memory.
“Before I came to Night City, I lived in a place far away from here—not in this country.
Society there wasn’t as rotten as it is here, and the people weren’t tainted by this filthy world.
They were positive, full of life.
They always hoped to change a world ruled and oppressed by megacorps, and they never stopped striving for it.
But unfortunately, they couldn’t make it.
I was the only one who ended up here, and I’m the only one carrying their hopes.
“Things happened too fast.
When I washed up in Night City half-dead, I knew I could never go back, and that I was the last person left to fulfill their ideal.
“Not long ago, I received the legacy they left me—the crystallization of their thoughts over countless years, packed with things capable of changing this world.
I want to use these things to change the world.
It’s something I have to do.”
Strictly speaking, Loki’s words were entirely genuine, without a single lie.
But depending on the listener’s perspective, the story took on a different meaning.
To Vik, it sounded like Loki came from a distant homeland where a group of idealists fought to change the world, only to be wiped out by corps or war, leaving Loki to escape to Night City carrying their intellectual legacy to complete their unfinished dream.
To Loki, however, it reflected his experience of transmigrating and acquiring the system.
Before transmigrating, anyone who played *Cyberpunk 2077* or watched *Edgerunners* wanted to change the corrupt cyberpunk world and fix the tragic endings.
And now that Loki was here, he could make it happen.
The items in the module system came from the games and media of his past life—it was no exaggeration to call them the culmination of their thoughts.
As for the origin of his tech, this was as far as Loki could explain.
He didn’t want to deceive Vik, but he couldn’t reveal his core secret either, so this was the best compromise.
Vik’s mind raced with emotion.
He placed a heavy hand on Loki’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring pat.
“I’m sorry for making you bring up a painful past.”
“It’s fine.
It’s in the past now.
Honestly, I’m pretty happy with my life right now.
I’ve made new friends and gotten used to this place,” Loki said lightheartedly.
While transmigrating to Night City had flipped his life upside down, it wasn’t a bad thing.
He had grown genuinely fond of the place, especially after getting his cheat.