Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ The negotiation went smoothly.
There was no drawn-out standoff, no knife-edge atmosphere, and no web of deception.
It was simple.
Cade represented his “boss,” talked wages with the new employees, and told them they would visit the local fixer tomorrow to settle details.
Numbers gave people confidence.
He made a call on-site.
Hands said that as long as these people did not start shooting in the street or planting bombs, Barghest would stop hounding them.
As for getting in and out of Dogtown later, that had to be discussed at Heavy Hearts.
Cade did not know how Hands handled Barghest.
All he knew was that he had paid “a little” money for this trip.
Mr.
Hands was not willing to work for free.
Since everyone would be eating off the same territory from now on, Cade was willing to give him a token of respect.
Pressure and release had to be balanced.
Cade had a good sense for when to push and when to slow down.
Hands was the sort of man who needed to save face.
Cade did not want to make it too ugly, so he treated the payment as buying a protection charm for Maine’s crew.
In truth, Hands had already lost the initiative.
Cade was only boiling the water slowly.
‘Give him five cities today, ten tomorrow, and he gets one night of peaceful sleep.’ Clearly, Mr.
Hands of Night City, California, did not understand the wisdom of Cade’s old world.
Rebecca was happily drinking her NiCola, one hand resting on Cade’s shoulder while he sat.
She had noticed his changed appearance immediately, so she declared that Cade was a new friend.
With her usual lack of filter, she introduced herself in a ridiculous voice.
“Name’s Rebecca.
Nice to meet you.” She talked about anything and everything.
Dogtown’s rotten atmosphere had nearly suffocated her.
Maine and Dorio could only watch Rebecca chat in front of Cade as if nothing had happened.
“Good?” Cade asked.
The way she drank was making him thirsty.
“Mm.
Would be better if it wasn’t past its prime.
Want a sip?” Cade looked at the wet shine on the mouth of the can.
Rebecca’s yellow-pink optics were bright with expectation.
“You drink it.
I bought it for you.” Rebecca matched his memory of her better than expected.
She looked careless, but she thought more than she showed.
Loud, direct, and unreliable in appearance only.
When it mattered, she did not drop the ball.
“Mr.
Mercer,” Dorio said, arms folded.
“So the fixer just took twenty thousand eurodollars?” She cared about that number.
Even if Cade’s boss had paid it for them, that did not mean no one would have to answer for it later.
Cade nodded.
“Dogtown jobs, and the dirty ones no one admits to, mostly go through Hands.
No way around it.
We do not have our own weight in Pacifica yet.” “Oh, right.” He cut off Maine before he could speak.
“You do not need to pay it back.
This is the boss’s investment in recruiting you.” Inside, Cade was screaming.
‘Twenty thousand.
Twenty thousand, damn it.
If Hands did not care so much about dignity, I would have stiffed him and threatened him again.’ But if he squeezed too hard and Hands threw down the board, that would be worse.
The fact that Hands had not said a word about Cade threatening his wife made him even more dangerous.
Cade silently warned himself to watch for a counterattack.
Smart people, when they lost, only thought about how to flip the table later.
Still, for the first time since transmigrating, Cade felt as if he had some ground under his feet.
V did not count.
Arasaka wanted results at any moment, and he could not guarantee V would not settle accounts if he ruined things.
For now, he could borrow corporate resources.
The identity of Rook was the best gift Arasaka had given him.
After all, V was the woman who dared to follow Jenkins into preparing a hit against Abernathy.
Her guts were even bigger than his.
Rebecca tossed the empty can aside.
“Knew I liked you when I saw you.
But your name’s weird.
Family not from around North America?” Everyone except Cade looked awkward.
Rebecca had apparently forgotten that she herself had been itching to shoot him not long ago.
Cade was just about to answer when new information appeared in his vision.
[System Notification] Affinity updated for Rebecca, Maine, and Dorio.
Affinity: 20, 10, 10 Reward: Reflexes +1; Cool +2; Body perk tree unlocked; bonus perk point +1.
A huge, pale-gold perk tree unfolded in Cade’s vision.
The skills that belonged to a future Night City legend, V herself, appeared clearly in front of him.
Then, as if the system were only giving him a preview, the golden nodes faded into gray.
He probably had to spend points manually.
Cade’s expression became very interesting.
‘Holy shit.’ Happiness had arrived so suddenly he had not even processed the situation.
The others saw his eyes light up and assumed he was communicating with the boss on the other side.
One by one, they fell silent and waited for him to finish.
Cyberpunk godhood?
Supernatural nonsense?
But this world still ran on chrome.
Cade had one bad habit.
Unknown things made him want to take them apart.
First, this perk panel seemed to require specific nodes from certain characters to unlock.
Rebecca’s affinity update, for example.
Second, the first Body perk was Painkiller, and it seemed faintly connected to the future shotgun Rebecca would carry, Guts.
Third, the tree was more likely a program than some mystical blessing.
Others could not see it, and many perks required particular cyberware to function.
That explanation fit much better.
The Body tree was actually excellent.
The left side mainly affected shotguns and machine guns.
The right side leaned into blunt-force brutality.
The center mattered most.
That line affected combat health, recovery speed, and healing-item output.
Cade guessed the program was quantifying the body’s condition and displaying it as numbers.
The perks would then work with cyberware and combat hormones to keep his vitals stable.
‘I still need chrome to make these perks real.’ After thinking it through, Cade started spending points without hesitation.
Then he realized a problem.
After he bought Painkiller and three ranks of Adrenaline Rush, he had no perk points left.
So the question became obvious.
How did he get more?
By his understanding, attribute points came as he grew, perhaps every few levels.
But now, three perk points were gone.
The extra point had come through a character affinity reward.
That meant future perk acquisition would likely follow this route.
For Cade, that was not a small challenge.
The Development Reward Panel had quietly tied him to these future legends.
Anything related to his own strength mattered to him, so he did not reject the idea of building connections with them.
Rebecca fiddled with her oversized gun nearby and talked about going back to Watson tomorrow for real food, something better than Dogtown’s trash.
For some reason, Cade suddenly thought of the future.
If their lives truly ran on fixed tracks, impossible to interfere with, then would he have to stand by and watch them die?
He did not know whether the future would follow the old script.
He shook his head.
Life was fragile.
People were fragile too.
There was no denying it.
Once you formed a bond with someone, a doomed ending often became another knife through an already damaged heart.
Even so, Cade had always believed people made things happen.
Even if, in Night City, he was only one speck of dust.
Living well in the present mattered most.
Didn’t it?
…
✦ ✦ ✦ 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.