New chapter!
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Rook did not board the NCART right away.
Instead, he turned into the station restroom first.
Outside, a young woman with short white-and-pink hair sat waiting nearby in an unremarkable seat, one leg hooked over the other.
A black skintight bodysuit hugged her upper body beneath a white jacket, and her shorts left her long legs framed by sheer black stockings.
Pretty, calm, and dangerous enough to make the whole station feel like bait.
She had been raised by Arasaka as an elite netrunner.
After escaping the corporation, she survived in Night City’s underbelly by stealing chips from company employees and selling them off.
Night had just fallen when she came to the NCART platform near Arasaka Tower to wait for prey.
Then she saw him standing there, stunned and freshly lost.
A target that perfect was hard to pass up.
Inside the men’s room, Rook locked himself in a stall and took out the enhancement serum.
In Night City, staying alive mattered more than anything.
The trip from City Center back to Heywood would take nearly two hours, and he had no intention of dying halfway home because he hesitated.
He gritted his teeth, rolled up his sleeve, and drove the injector in.
“Ngh!”
Pain tore through him.
Every bone, every muscle, every inch of skin felt as if it were being split apart, compressed, and rebuilt under the serum’s pressure.
He bit down hard and swallowed the sound before it could leave his throat.
Long minutes crawled by before the pain finally receded.
“Fuck.
That hurt.”
When he stepped out of the stall and checked the mirror, the difference was obvious.
His face had sharpened into something brighter and more alive.
His body had not ballooned into some impossible comic-book physique, but he had gained two centimeters of height, and the muscle under his skin now carried a lean, clean-lined power.
For that kind of result, the pain had been worth it.
Next, he summoned the modified Model 85 nanite exo-armor.
The object in his palm made him pause.
It was not some glowing chest reactor.
It was a chip barely larger than his thumb, with a faint blue triangular power source pulsing at the center.
“System, what am I looking at?”
[System Notification]
Modified Model 85 nanite exo-armor confirmed.
Optimized for cervical cyberware slot installation.
Core performance preserved.
Once installed, removal is not supported.
The explanation left him more pleased than worried.
His cervical interface had four chip slots.
The first held the Arasaka-issued chip; the other three had always been empty.
The Model 85 chip fit one of them perfectly.
He inserted it into the second slot without hesitation.
A new presence lit up in his awareness.
At a thought, nanite metal spilled across his body and sealed him inside dark red-and-gold armor.
For the first time since waking in this world, he let out a slow breath.
In a city where people killed as easily as they breathed, this changed everything.
Even if Adam Smasher showed up, Rook had a real chance of walking away.
He opened his status panel again.
[Status]
Host: Rook Mercer
Age: 22
Height: 1.87 m
Identity: Arasaka R&D Employee
Attributes
Body: 34 (average adult: 5)
Intelligence: 35 (average adult: 5)
Cool: 34 (average adult: 5)
Reflexes: 34 (average adult: 5)
Technical Ability: 35 (average adult: 5)
Skills
Driving: Advanced
Assets
Funds: 52,076 eurodollars
Inventory: Source Protocol armor schematics
Rook remembered that V’s attributes peaked at 20 in the game.
One dose of enhancement serum had pushed every one of his stats far past that.
‘The serum is insane.’
Outside, Lucy took a stick of gum from her pocket and popped it into her mouth, her patience wearing thin.
“What is taking him so long?
Don’t tell me he’s got problems in that department too.”
The restroom door opened a second later.
She narrowed her eyes.
The man who came out looked different.
Better looking, sharper, and no longer lost in that vacant corpo haze.
Interesting.
The moment he headed for the NCART platform, she followed.
Rook had taken only a few steps before his heightened reflexes caught the sensation of eyes on his back.
He kept walking as if nothing had changed, letting his peripheral vision sweep across the station.
Commuters hurried past on both sides.
When he crossed the platform and turned just slightly, he finally found the person tailing him.
His surprise hit hard.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.