Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ Life needed a pass, especially for people crushed under technology and money at the bottom.
“Arasaka Academy.
The necessary path for the elite.” The AI broadcast came from the woman’s palm.
Two holographic goldfish wandered lazily over the corporate plaza, as if standing here meant you could be as free as they were.
Gloria Martinez was proud.
She was grateful her son had passed Arasaka Academy’s strict entrance tests.
Only she knew how much blood and effort that path had cost.
Of course, the boy had worked hard too.
Boys his age simply did not know how to express it, so he stood beside her in quiet silence.
David Martinez felt the admission notice floating above his mother’s hand was, in a way, a set of chains.
Chains wrapped around her.
“David, you did it!” Gloria’s voice trembled.
She did not care that her car looked painfully out of place in the corporate plaza parking lot, surrounded by sleek high-end rides.
David was priceless.
That was all she knew.
[Arasaka Local Net Applications] [Artificial Intelligence Studies] [Arasaka Corporate History] [Personality Attribute Testing] There had also been a series of AI questions covering intelligence and reflexes.
The question types and algorithms were powerful tools Arasaka scientists used to filter these children.
David still had not fully escaped the burn of all that knowledge.
He only knew that compared to Kang Tao University, Arasaka Academy’s requirements were higher.
But he had never treated Kang Tao as the goal.
Only Arasaka Academy.
His mother’s most precious dream.
“Yeah.
Not bad.
But Mom, the academy isn’t here.
This is Arasaka Tower.” David stood with his hands in his pockets, trying to sound casual.
The Arasaka Academy uniform that had arrived by courier yesterday was perfectly pressed, the fabric expensive.
Even the shipping had carried a ridiculous insurance fee.
That was Arasaka.
It displayed incomparable dominance in every detail.
“Brat.
You really are a little smug, aren’t you?” Gloria smoothed a wrinkle on her pale-yellow jacket.
“You think you’re impressive?” “You guessed right, David.
Your mom thinks you’re the best.” David was happy.
He knew how rare his mother’s happiness was.
The money spent preparing for Arasaka Academy, the high-priced learning programs and tools she had bought, this was his answer to all of it.
Gloria, whose eyes rarely filled with tears, stretched her finger forward.
David followed where she pointed.
Her fingertip moved higher and higher until it stopped above the massive Arasaka logo on the tower.
Corporate employees often flew out from there in AVs.
“David, one day you will stand at the top of Arasaka Tower.
I know you will.” Gloria’s tone was absolute.
She had lost her husband and everything else, then come to this “city of the future,” a place with no real dreams, where Night City’s laws were rotted through and chaos burned hot.
To her, only standing up there meant escaping all this.
David would not end up like her.
Mother and son left the corporate plaza shoulder to shoulder and headed toward the City Center address of the academy.
As pedestrians crossed the road, a cold-looking woman in a suit brushed past them.
Long hair, hard eyes, an Arasaka badge pinned to her chest.
“V?” David’s optics scanned the corporate woman.
Beyond that code name, which barely looked like a name at all, all he got was Arasaka.
The woman noticed.
She tilted her head slightly, then chose to ignore him.
David froze as a line appeared in his optics through a simple daemon intrusion.
[Keep your eyes to yourself, Arasaka Academy.
Middle finger.] At that moment, a Herrera Outlaw GTS stopped at the academy gate.
A slim teenager’s long legs slipped out from behind the door.
His name was Katsuo, and his father, Tanaka, was one of Arasaka’s middle-to-upper managers as well as an academy administrator.
“What a downer.
Why do they let people like that into the academy?” The boy ran a hand through his pale-blue hair.
To him, the academy was only a gold-plated pool.
His life already belonged to the tower, and he would contribute to it.
“Arasaka gives a pass to everyone with ability, no matter who they are.
Now go,” the short, heavyset Tanaka urged.
…
Heavy Hearts was unusual tonight.
The sign at the entrance was still crooked from a vehicle impact, and beyond the bright building, the surroundings were still a mess.
But tonight, the club’s security had been replaced by Barghest.
Hands was showing strength.
Cade understood.
The two of them were like a gladiator and a beast in the arena.
Colonel Hansen was watching from above, while Hands and Cade each held the other’s tail.
Hands did not want the colonel to know he was pointing fingers inside Dogtown.
Cade did not want the colonel to know he was waving a corporate banner with borrowed hands.
“Go back where you came from.
Got it?” The Barghest soldiers at the door had worse manners.
One simple look from Cade was enough to draw a curse.
[Barghest Assault Squad] The two masked men guarding the entrance were probably Barghest heavies.
If Cade were not short on money, he would have bought a better pair of Kiroshi optics from Vik, the kind that could scan exactly what chrome these people had installed.
Maine’s crew performed well enough for now.
At least they did not look intimidated.
Rebecca had her hands behind her head.
Maine stood with folded arms, glaring at the loudmouth.
Pilar and Dorio did not look soft either.
“We are here to see Mr.
Hands.” Cade looked past them at the normal customers entering Heavy Hearts for fun.
Barghest only blocked his group, which almost certainly meant Hands had ordered it.
Hands’s counterattack had come faster than expected.
Cade had caught him off guard at first.
After the matter with Emma, Hands had clearly realized Cade could reach into his private life.
After so many years operating in Dogtown, getting Barghest to guard Heavy Hearts was well within his ability.
An outsider dragon could not easily crush the local snake.
Simple truth.
But Cade did not just want to be the dragon crossing the river.
He wanted to take the meat too.
Rebecca tilted her ear.
“You deaf?
Big and tall, but your ripper forgot ears?” “Where the hell did this mouthy runt come from?
Step aside.” Cade said, “Try touching one of us.” Then he waved a hand.
“Move.” Maine shouldered past the Barghest soldier.
Cade walked in front, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.
Barghest did not like swallowing losses, but since they were following Mr.
Hands’s order, Cade would make sure the man swallowed this one whole.
“Make room, choom,” Dorio said.
She was not small either.
After looking her up and down, the Barghest soldier stepped aside.
If you wanted to survive this life, you could not act timid.
The more confident Cade looked, the more uncomfortable Hands would be.
Inside Heavy Hearts, green lights washed over the dance floor.
Dogtown locals danced and drank under sharp alcohol fumes, Black Lace stink, and pounding drums.
Maine looked worried.
“Your boss is not showing?” Cade’s face remained calm.
“No.
I negotiate.” “Can you handle that?” Pilar snorted.
“You look like a fledgling.” He did not like how Cade seemed to be taking the lead.
Rebecca, meanwhile, seemed to care nothing for the negotiation.
She stared around the club with open curiosity and excitement.
Plenty of Night City bars had refused her entry because she looked like trouble and carried herself like worse.
Rebecca let out a weird laugh and rushed straight for the bar.
Cade’s group ignored it.
Bringing her upstairs would not add pressure.
If anything, it might make Hands think they were a messy, thrown-together team.
That would not help negotiations.
Pilar had obeyed Maine’s order and stayed on the first floor to prepare, while also keeping an eye on Rebecca in case Hands tried to start a fight.
“Come in.” The office door on the third floor opened.
Cade and the others filed in.
Hands stood with his hands behind his back, looking out over Dogtown’s night view, then slowly turned around.
“Sit, my friends.” Hands was calm, as if Cade had never threatened him or his family.
He had remarkable self-control.
“Tell me.
How much of Dogtown does your boss want to eat?” Straight to the point.
No wasted words.
In the panel, Mr.
Hands’s affinity had already reached -80.
The reward line contained only one sentence.
[System Notification] Mr.
Hands Affinity: -80 Reward: Watch your enemies.
Cade understood.
There was no room for reconciliation between them.
“For six months, every Dogtown job goes to my superior.
If the client does not trust our boss, you can take it.” “In Pacifica, we each compete on ability.
Same for the other districts.” Hands did not speak.
He quietly brewed tea.
To be honest, when Cade laid out the terms, both Maine and Dorio felt their teeth ache.
Barghest was right outside.
Demanding that much looked like suicide.
“Tea.” Hands pushed a cup over.
“Six months is too much.” Maine stared.
‘He is not flipping the table?’ Cade sat steady.
He understood one principle.
If everyone objected to opening a window, tear off the roof, and suddenly someone would agree to a window.
Only an excessive demand could draw out the result most favorable to him.
That said, six months really was not short.
Cade admitted that.
If that vacuum let Rook rise, Hands would have no clients left who trusted him.
“Two months,” Hands said.
“I stop taking jobs and rest.
After two months, fair competition.” “Four months, plus free passes in and out of Dogtown.” Cade raised four fingers.
Dorio found him more and more interesting.
Maine’s head kept turning between speakers.
Preem.
The kid carried himself more like the boss than an employee.
For Cade, negotiation was a battlefield.
Do not give your opponent too much time to react.
“Three months,” Hands said.
“For matters in Dogtown that you cannot handle, I may offer assistance, if you can bring yourself to trust me.
As for you and your friends, Dogtown will stop blocking your movement.
On the condition that your boss does not run around carelessly.” “You do not interfere with Hansen’s affairs.
That side will not use strangers.” That was the limit.
Cade knew bargaining further would win nothing.
Hands’s line was here.
After all, he still wanted money.
He did not want to walk away.
For Cade, three months was enough.
As long as he attracted clients and built a reputation, the fixer name Rook would stand.
Hands’s client quality was not low.
This was not “help a joytoy on Jig-Jig Street find a missing cat” garbage.
“Deal.
If anyone in Dogtown has work, send it to me.
And if you get clever, my boss can still hurt you.” Cade agreed.
Maine and Dorio slowly took their hands off their guns.
The tension in their backs finally eased.
Hands sighed softly.
Tonight’s tea tasted too hot.
…
✦ ✦ ✦ 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.