Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ [Incoming Call: Viktor Vector] “V?
What gave you time to remember this washed-up old man?” V laughed softly.
“Vik, you are not old.
Last time I saw you watching fight replays, you were muttering about stepping into the ring and teaching the kids some manners.” “Business, then?
Work trouble again?” Vik’s voice had a way of making people feel safe.
“Mm.” V glanced at Cade in the passenger seat.
His arm was still bleeding.
She had already hit him with a coagulant and made him inhale a can of Black Lace, but the results were not good.
“I’ve got someone here…
related to my work.
His arm is gone, massive blood loss, and his back is burned to hell.” V pulled the cable from her wrist with one hand on the wheel and jacked it into Cade’s neural port.
“Vitals are ugly.
I’m half an hour out.
Can you operate?
Pull an extra shift for me?” She sent Viktor the data.
She was not sure Cade would live long enough to reach him.
“Trauma Team client?” Vik asked cautiously.
V worked for a corporation.
The people around her sometimes came with Trauma Team contracts that could create paperwork disasters.
V was blunt.
“Broke as hell.
No way he has Trauma Team.” Viktor gave a helpless smile.
“Then bring him in.
If he’s losing that much blood, make sure you hit him with a coagulant.” “Relax, Vik.
I learned a few tricks from you.” The call ended.
V’s car tore through the Pacifica intersection at one hundred and fifty kilometers per hour.
NCPD police channels filled with reports about the vehicle.
The car shot past towers drowned in mixed neon.
The glow from a Peerless sign streaked across the bodywork as V drove the Hera EC-D I360 like an aircraft on city streets.
[Watson] Little China.
The district inside Night City had long since become poor and crowded.
Street scenery flashed past the windows: distant neon signs, food carts, cheap smoke, and East Asian storefronts layered over corporate grime.
The city structure here felt strangely contradictory.
Illegal DUBO dens sat beside corporate office buildings.
People who could not afford anything near Corpo Plaza breathed the same stale air as vagrants and day laborers.
Cheap entertainment meant gambling tables and strip clubs.
Aside from Tyger Claws traffic, no major gang with real weight had truly planted itself here.
Vik’s clinic sat behind the interlocking storefronts, in a basement somewhere down the alley.
V stopped the car.
Misty had already taken Viktor’s call and was waiting outside.
She yawned, her smoky makeup making her look even sleepier.
“Viktor asked me to help, V.” “Misty, I can handle him myself…
okay, thanks.” It was midnight.
There were not many people around, but a few vagrants still stared when two women hauled a bleeding man out of a car.
Blood dripped all the way in and soaked into Misty’s sweater.
V looked a little embarrassed.
“Put him here, kid.” Viktor stood ready with both cybernetic hands sterilized.
“Let’s deal with the arm first.” Looking at the blood dripping onto the chair, he asked, “What is he to you?
I need to know whether I should use the good materials.” “Use what you need, Vik.
If he doesn’t pay, I will make him.” Viktor shook his head.
“You’re the only one I let run a tab.” Then he began stopping the bleeding, using forceps to pull fragments from Cade while Misty searched for suitable cyberware.
The operation began.
Cade dreamed.
In the dream, Corpo Plaza was painfully clean.
He stood below and looked up at the skyscrapers that pinned ordinary people to the bottom of the city.
‘So what am I supposed to be?
Why am I still alive?’ No one answered him.
“Hey.
You zoning out, Mercer?” Maine’s hand slapped Cade’s shoulder.
Rebecca stood with both hands on her hips.
Under the oversized collar, her expression was not the reckless grin he remembered.
Beside her stood the other edgerunners: Dorio, Kiwi, Lucy, David Martinez…
“Hey, amigo.
Looking sharp today, brother.” Cade turned.
“Jackie…” The big man with the warrior’s crest wore a leather jacket and folded his arms.
Someone stood beside him.
What was happening?
Was that the corpo beauty?
But the mirror was still broken.
Those people lay quietly on the ground, shattered beyond any chance of being pieced together.
Only that woman remained kneeling, covered in wounds, staring death into Arasaka Tower.
A silver-haired man with one chrome hand leaned behind her in a bulletproof vest.
“This broken-ass world wouldn’t be worth a damn even if it burned to ash.” [System Reloading…] [Data Read…//…] Cade’s darkened world brightened.
Red vital-sign data screamed across his vision.
He was alive.
Had his call to the ripperdoc gone through?
Either way, alive was good enough.
Cade opened his eyes and found himself lying on an operating chair.
The female corpo dog was asleep in a chair nearby.
He tried moving his neck and looked around.
The space was small.
Aside from the dim blue glow of computer screens, a trophy beside the computer, and piles of miscellaneous equipment, there was not much to see.
Still, something about the place felt strangely familiar.
‘My hand.’ Cade lifted his arms on instinct and found both hands whole again.
Brand-new.
When he moved them, they seemed more flexible than before.
Synthetic skin covered the palms, with black cyberware membrane hidden beneath and a small silver square set inside.
His grip felt stronger too.
“Subdermal Armor.
Ballistic Coprocessor.” The sudden voice beside him made Cade jolt.
The female corpo dog had woken at some point.
Fatigue edged her eyes, but there was sharpness there too as she stared straight at him.
“Where am I?” “Night City.
Watson.” She crossed one leg over the other.
“Now, as payment for saving your life, you can pay Viktor Vector of Little China for the cyberware.” “And what I want is for you to explain the stolen Dogtown shipment.” “This is…
Viktor?
Vik’s clinic?” Cade swallowed.
Then the woman in front of him was…
[System Notification] Character: Valerie (V) Affiliation: Night City, Arasaka Affinity: 0 Development Value: ???
Milestone Reward: Meeting this character has triggered a system repair.
Cyberware replaced and upgraded: Ballistic Coprocessor – Blue; Subdermal Armor – Blue; Titanium Bones – Blue.
Intelligence +3.
Eurodollars…
“Do not get clever with me.” V’s voice hardened.
“I can fry your brain and still wake you back up.
Now tell me about this Dogtown mess.” “Do not make me use methods.” Corpo dog.
Netrunner.
V.
The pressure was overwhelming.
Cade’s body went rigid.
He did not even know whether he should tell her the whole chain of events.
Militech.
Arasaka.
What the hell was actually happening?
No.
He could not just hand over everything.
“I need to know what this is really about before I talk.” Cade had eaten too many losses already.
Even if this person was V, he could not keep exposing his hand like an idiot.
V’s gaze turned unfriendly.
Cade straightened at once.
“No, listen.
I only saw a braindance.
You still have to tell me what this whole disaster is supposed to be before I know what you want.
I swear.
You talk, then I talk.” V drew a knife from her waist and flipped it idly, catching it again and again.
Cade was not sure whether that counted as a threat.
✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS EmberHollow Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you deeper into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.