New chapter!
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The Glen, Heywood.
It was one of the poorest corners of the district, and 6th Street and the Valentinos had been chewing through the open spaces for years, fighting block by block for territory.
Street battles broke out often enough that most residents had learned to keep their heads down when the shouting started.
After dark, red signs and virtual billboards flickered awake along the streets.
Women with heavy makeup and visible chrome stepped into alleys and storefronts in clothing designed to sell a fantasy by the minute.
Some waved at passing pedestrians with practiced smiles.
Others smoked from glossy red lips and watched the flow of traffic like hunters at rest.
People in a hurry still slowed down when they saw them.
The poor shook their heads and kept moving.
The rich disappeared with someone on each arm.
Those with just enough money haggled over the price of a night they probably could not afford.
And everywhere, small clusters of gangers loitered with weapons in hand and bodies modified into loud, ugly statements.
Right now, all of them were staring at Rook.
The Arasaka logo on his suit did most of the work.
To the working girls, he looked like a corpo with money to burn.
To the chrome-plated idiots on the corners, he looked like a walking ransom note.
He followed Lucy through broken alleys toward a ripperdoc clinic.
Halfway there, a prompt chimed inside his head.
[System Notification]
System Cache detected within 100 meters.
The answer to one of his questions arrived with it.
So that was how the system fed rewards.
Caches, scattered through Night City.
Which meant he would eventually have to sweep every corner of the city.
“Hey.
You planning to stand there until the Valentinos decide to kick your ass?”
Lucy’s voice dragged him back.
She had already stepped into the clinic and now stood by the counter with her arms folded, a cigarette between her lips, glaring at him.
One open palm made her demand clear: hand over the chips so she could sell them.
Rook walked over, plucked the cigarette from her mouth, and set it between his own lips.
“What are you doing smoking, kid?”
Then he opened his hand.
Ten chips lay in his palm.
Lucy rolled her eyes, snatched them away, and started negotiating with a ripperdoc he did not know.
While she worked the deal, Rook glanced around the clinic.
Cyberarms, legs, spines, and stranger pieces hung from racks and hooks.
Some still carried the sour, metallic stink of blood.
Arasaka and Militech had made a lot of misery in this city.
He closed his eyes and took a slow drag.
Playing the game had never shown him the full weight of this kind of street-level rot.
Living inside it made the iceberg impossible to ignore.
“Here.
Your fifty thousand.”
A thick stack of cash hit his chest.
Lucy had finished the negotiation and split the payment cleanly.
Rook stored the money in his inventory, tossed the cigarette to the ground, and crushed the ember under his heel as they left the clinic.
“So,” he asked, “you’re planning to keep doing this?”
“What else am I supposed to do?
I have to eat.”
Lucy took out her pack and tried to light another cigarette.
He confiscated the whole thing before she could.
She tilted her head and gave him a sideways look.
“True,” he said.
“But that line of work is risky.
A girl like you gets caught the way you did today, and it won’t end clean.”
They walked through a filthy alley toward the street.
Lucy huffed.
“How does someone that old-fashioned still exist?
This whole city is a dirty cage.
Everything’s risky.
Even sex can give you a virus.”
“You’re young, but your mind is filthy.”
He stopped mid-step.
Another prompt had appeared.
[System Notification]
System Cache detected within 10 meters.
Rook looked around and found it quickly.
In a corner not far away, a blue cache glowed faintly.
The problem was what stood around it.
Near the cache, a dozen small knots of chrome-heavy punks were scattered through the alley.
Judging by the clothes, the colors, and the attitude, they were 6th Street.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.