“Look, man,” I growled, “All my choom was saying was, your girl looks nice. He was buying her a drink. That’s all. And you know what? It’s because she fucking does look nice, you gonk.”

  It was even true. Within thirty seconds of walking into dive bar #3, Jin had started chatting up the first sexy-looking thing in sight—a tall, mostly ‘ganic young woman at least five years older than him, with legs that went for miles and long, luxuriant crimson hair so nicely maintained that even with Nanny I almost couldn’t tell she wasn’t a natural redhead.

  Somehow, somehow, Jin had enough game that, with a bit of tactical wingmanning on my part, it looked like he could even pull her for the night—and then this sorry fuck had caught them at the bar after he spent fifteen minutes snorting glitter in the bathroom.

  “Fuckers! She’s mine, beat it!”

  “I met you not even two hours ago! I don’t belong to anyone,” the redhead in question unhelpfully said, but her face was flushed as her eyes flickered between the men literally squaring up for the right to buy her a drink.

  Jin grinned. I could only roll my eyes. She was one of those types, apparently.

  “Sounds to me,” Jin said slowly, tauntingly, eyeing Mr. Glitter Sniffer, “That we are at an impasse. So here’s my proposal, gentle as can be. Fuck off. Either beat it, or get beaten, peon.”

  “Fuck you, corpo,” the glitter-snorting bitch growled, “I’m gonna break your entire face! Show me your hands. I’ll break ‘em too.”

  Jin’s grin only widened. “The arrogance, to think you’re even remotely worth my time.” I sighed. Problem was, this glitter-snorting bitch was in the part of his high that simply demanded that he fight someone. He didn’t even have his head on straight enough to tell when it was a good idea to back off for his own good.

  “You fucking dick!” the dumbass glitter-sniffer raised his fists.

  Jin laughed. “David, you’re up.”

  I sighed again, got up, and rolled back my sleeves. We could have sorted this diplomatically, but—the guy was high as a highrider, and safe to say Jin was not sorry. Also, to be fair, Jin had been very deeply in a conversation with the redhead, and he hated being interrupted, as I was swiftly coming to learn.

  Mr. Glitter-Sniffing Bitch came in swinging. At my face, specifically.

  I tilted my head to the side, letting his chromed-up arm pass me by in a rush of wind, and then—

  I punched him.

  So quickly, he couldn’t react.

  He just fell on the floor, instantly. Did he fucking die or something? Jesus. I lightly kicked him to see if he’d react—he twitched a little. He was still breathing.

  Jin laughed, got the girl’s number, and ten minutes later he was dragging me out to the next bar.

  000

  “So. What do you do?” some plastic pretty girl from North Oak asked me, head resting on her hand, elbow to the counter of bar #4. Pale mostly-synth skin, green fiber hair and green chrome eyes. Fancy emerald green dress to go with it. Gorgeous, too-idealized, fake, all of it. The ring light she kept on the counter ensured that her face wasn’t fighting against the lighting, and I guess she must have liked that so much, considering the camera on the table, pointed towards her—recording her or occasionally taking pictures? I didn’t know.

  What I did know was, she wasn’t a joytoy—didn’t really give me that vibe—but just because she was interested with me outside of monetary incentives didn’t mean I had to reciprocate her interest. Didn’t have the slightest clue what she had been saying to me for the last five minutes, and really, really not for a lack of trying.

  Her words were like water to my teflon brain—nothing stuck.

  Except, of course, that shitty flirting of hers. Not so much in words but in vibes.

  “I’m a student,” I replied soberly. I took a shot of tequila.

  “Like, NCU?”

  “No, high school.”

  “Ah, that’s cool. I’m in high school too.”

  I didn’t say anything to that, instead glancing around for Jin, who was busy chatting up an entire table of girls nearby. He was having fun. That was nice.

  “Hello?”

  I turned back to her, “Huh? Cool.”

  She giggled, “You’re so cute.”

  “I have an output.”

  She shrugged, “She doesn’t need to know.”

  “I mean, I feel like I could get away with it if I tried real hard, so yeah, in a technical sense, she doesn’t need to know,” I said, “but I have no reason to try all that, because honestly? She’s enough. Ever heard about that, North Oakey? Enough? Something us brokies have to contend with from day to day. Enough fills my stomach. And my output? She’s enough.”

  She looked scandalized at me. “Fucking asshole! You think I’d ever want to put out with you?”

  “Yeah?” I raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Cool, interesting story. Fuck off, now.” She stood up furiously, her face a perfected portrait of outrage. “Yeah, yeah, take your time packing all your shit into that cheap-ass knockoff bag,” I said, before she could get mouthy.

  It took her a good thirty seconds to pack her shit before she left.

  “—yeah? Fuck you, I’m not even from North Oak, you stupid gay freak,” I heard as she walked away.

  I snorted, then faced the bartender and raised three fingers, “Tequila.” the bartender nodded, “Also, sorry about my manners—I’m on a ‘burn shit to the ground’ kick right now and I need to feel like a rockstar. I’d try to cheer you up by telling you I’m gonna tip you a bunch for putting up with me, but I’d sooner you’d rather flatline me than not.”

  The bartender blinked, perplexed at that, “no, sir, of course I wouldn’t—I wouldn’t zero you.”

  “You should want that,” I told him. “You should really want that.”

  I paid him a fat tip before we left. I hoped he’d take my words to heart.

  000

  “I. Have. An. Output!” I shouted at Jin’s face. We were in the bathroom together, doing, fucking, what, a huddle? Game talk, battle plan, I couldn’t remember right—Jin used a certain expression.

  God, my memory was shot to fuck. That meant I was really drunk.

  “David!” Jin hissed, “David, my man! David! For fuck’s sakes, David, listen to me! Fine! I respect that!”

  “Well, if you respect that, then why the fuck do you sound like you almost absolutely don’t?”

  “I do!” he probably lied, “I don’t want anything from you man—I just want availability! Got it? Public. Availability! Anything less would ruin the vibes I’m going for here in our sweet little slice of corpoland. Do you understand?”

  I palmed my forehead, sighing, “So, you want to have sex, right? I feel like that would be drastically easy for you, and most certainly without my input.” Guy looked like he was made of money after all. It wouldn’t take him five minutes to get someone’s attention in a bar in Arroyo.

  “Oh, oh? You really think so?” he said sarcastically, “since you’re so fucking smart and all that, why don’t you try it? Try getting any of the girls in this club to put out with you—and then simply don’t go through. If you’re such a fucking family man.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at that. Family man? The fuck was this gonk on?

  Well, our travels had finally taken us to North Oak—wealthiest subdistrict in all of Night City. Maybe that did mean that Jin was not that above average anymore. And that certainly did suck. For him. I honestly couldn’t sympathize.

  Still, the challenge was compelling.

  Errrr.

  Should I call Lucy?

  Fuck it.

  D: Heyyy, babe. Are we doing babe? Can I do babe?

  “You did not just call your fucking output, you enormous pussy.”

  D: Hey, I’m sorry if babe is too close, I don’t—I don’t think we’ve even said what we are yet. Haven’t had that discussion yet.

  Lunacy: Hahahaha! Relax! Are you having fun?

  D: I am, surprisingly—but first, listen, I’ve been telling everybody I have an output. So… say it right now if I was overstepping. Are we a thing or?

  Lunacy: yeah, we can be a thing.

  Fucking awesome!

  And conversely, I had lost any and all interest in making things awkward by asking for her permission for this fucking stupid venture.

  D: I love you so much oh my god

  Lunacy: Wow, you—really got yourself shitfaced, huh? Who’d have thunk you had it in you?

  Hah!

  D: Craaaaaaaazy fucking idea, Lunacy, but… you wanna come with?

  Lunacy: No. I do not. Please do not involve me.

  Shit.

  Well, it certainly made sense.

  D: Okay. I’ll stay out of trouble and all. Love you.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Lunacy: David—ahahaha! Stop it. Just get home safely and we’ll talk when you’re better, okay? At least come home by two AM, okay?

  D: Okay. Love ya bye.

  I hung up.

  “Fine!” I grinned, “let’s go!”

  Jin took us out of the bathroom and began prowling around for a group of girls that we could talk to. We found a trio standing around a tall standing table—attractive as all hell—and Jin didn’t waste any time putting his charisma on and insinuating himself into their situation. He was more subtle than I would have given him credit for, and the girls were weirdly receptive.

  He brought out an expensive bottle for the table and regaled them with some story or other while the rest of us listened.

  “So,” one of the girls, a really hot blonde, looked me up and down with a mischievous grin, “what’s your story, Tall, Dark and Handsome.”

  Fuck. Didn’t know what to do here.

  “I’m just here for a good time,” I said in Spanish, hopefully to throw her off, “and see to it that my brother has one, too.”

  Her grin only widened. “Good time, huh? I’m having a good time. Are you?”

  Shit. That didn’t work.

  “The night is young—I’m sure the mood will pick up eventually,” I said, affecting a tone and attitude of utter disinterest.

  “That right?” she purred.

  Fuck!

  So if a lack of interest didn’t work, then what about rudeness? All Jin stipulated was availability. Fair, fuck it. I wouldn’t say that I had an output.

  I looked at her and sighed, “You clearly aren’t one for meaningful conversation.”

  She smirked, dragging a lock of hair behind her ear, “not really, no.” I just called her stupid, why was she taking that as a compliment?

  “Where’s your friend from?” I heard one of the two girls next to Jin say. Jin raised an eyebrow at me.

  “Take a wild guess,” I muttered.

  Her eyes widened and she grinned hungrily, “oh… I get it.”

  The girl next to me grinned widely, “are you a Tino?”

  Wait—what the fuck?

  “Rachel!” one of her friends hissed, “you can’t just ask him that!”

  “Oh,” she looked up at me apologetically, “sorry.”

  I rolled my eyes at her and said nothing.

  000

  Jin lacked the words to describe what he was seeing.

  “Say something else!” one of the girls said, and David muttered something in Spanish.

  Why the fuck was he doing that—

  And why did they hang onto his every word despite him literally telling them, to their faces, to eat SCOP?

  Was it the language? Was it just the fucking language?

  Jin wasn’t even mad, really.

  “I need to go get some air,” David said, his voice low and breathy, “why don’t you all entertain my brother here while I’m away?”

  “Do you smoke?” one of the girls asked, “I was actually thinking about going out.”

  “Me too!”

  “Yeah, also me!”

  David gave Jin a helpless look. Jin shrugged. He’d made this bed, now he had to lie in it.

  But goddamn if it didn’t sting to see this nonsense.

  000

  “What, you think we’d cheat you out of your hard-earned edds? How even?” I asked, looking down at my cards, my face showing nothing but bafflement, my voice revealing nothing but confusion. Meanwhile, there was a window in my optics showing the one surveillance camera of bar #5 pointing to my opponent’s cards.

  “I don’t fucking know,” the floor manager slash bouncer growled darkly, “but either you cash out now, or you’re leaving your winnings behind.”

  “Boooo!” Jin complained. He had lost all of his money in the game, “you don’t know who I am.” his voice was entirely monotone, throaty, and tired, “They dun even know who the fuck I am. Don’t know my—David, tell ‘em.” he slurred. He just slurred all of his speech. In fact, he didn’t even look like he gave a fuck about the game at all.

  “This doesn’t concern you, sir,” the Animal floor manager growled.

  “Oh!” I grinned. “So he’s ‘sir’ because he’s losing big! But I’m a menace to society because I’m on a hot fucking streak, and that dog-faced degenerate gambler fucking weirdo who probably has child porn under his bed gets to tell me to fuck off.”

  All the other players on the table stared at me. “Sir, that is our owner,” the bouncer said.

  The ‘owner’ in question leered at me. I slammed my cards down immediately, then I snarled at the ‘man.’ “One day, I’ll come back here, and I’ll expose your ass for the child diddler that you probably are.”

  Said child diddler—with an honest-to-god dog face, fucking why??—waved his head, ears flopping about in irritation, “get them the fuck out of here,” he literally growled to a nearby bouncer.

  Then he eyed me. “Fuck you, I don’t know how you’re doing it. Count your lucky ass you’re still getting paid out after cheating an alpha in his own den.” Alpha? Like—Animal alpha? So this asshole was not only a motherfucking Exotic, but also an Animal shitsmear to boot. Well, it certainly explained his massive bulk and minimal cyberware.

  ‘Lucky ass’, I bet. Luck didn’t exist in Night City. I added two and two together almost immediately. He was wary of Jin. He couldn’t tell who Jin was, but it took no genius to see that he was a corpo, and one higher up than some random gangoons could handle if push came to shove.

  It showed in his clothes. All told, his ensemble was at a neat sixty K, and probably precisely for a lack of trying. I bet if he really wanted to show out, he’d wear something even more expensive than my stuff.

  Jin cackled.

  My winnings would be just enough to recoup this fucking idiot Jin’s losses. After cashing in and forcibly folding the cards of my newfound brother in these drunken games of total lack of regard for all surroundings whatsoever, I took us both out into the streets.

  Jin stopped tripping over his feet and began walking normally almost immediately, and then he started laughing. “Dude, the way you’re trying to babysit me is fucking hilarious—and you ain’t even any better than I am!”

  This fucking—! I grabbed him in a headlock, “you think it’s easy jumping through all these fucking hoops trying to make sure you don’t fucking shoot yourself in the foot by accident? You stupid or somethin’?”

  “Fuck off!” he laughed, “motherfucker, you love this!”

  I snorted, “nah. Not really.”

  Jin furrowed his brows at me, then he stopped walking, “Okay, I know what this is.”

  I turned around and frowned at him, “what?”

  He looked to the side, up at the facade of the bar we were next to, some Irish pub apparently. Fuck, that meant beers. Eugh. I was going to have to muscle through a bunch of carbo tongue, huh?

  Jin, as always, didn’t wait for anyone’s permission before walking in. As did I.

  I caught up to him as he went to sit on the bar. There were a couple of cute girls hanging around, but he didn’t have any eyes for them at all. Instead, he was only staring at the counter.

  “So, what? What is this?” I asked him.

  “This, my choom?” He looked at me with a small grin, “this is the part of the night where we open up. Say incriminating shit to each other.”

  I snorted. “I boosted a bunch of Tyger bikes as a kid. Does that count?”

  “Did you?”

  I shrugged, “I mean, I only kept watch, really. But it counts according to the law. Also, I’m way too fucking drunk for this to count as a valid statement in the court of law, so, yeah.”

  Jin shook his head, “Argh! I meant real shit.”

  I shrugged, “actually, why don’t you tell me one thing?”

  “What?”

  “Why do you treat those kids in your class like absolute SCOP?” I asked, head tilted.

  “Oh, that?” he snorted, “it’s not as senseless as it seems. Authority is more like a ‘use it or lose it’ sort of thing. If I don’t dick them around, they’re gonna wind up thinking I’m not above them anymore. Regular reminder to keep them—you know—aware of the status quo.”

  “Forcing them to watch XBDs?” I asked, eyebrow raised. “I dunno, just seems like something that’ll backfire eventually.” the bartender arrived with two big glasses of dark beer. I took a sip—nope, nu-uh. Not only was it fizzy to hell, but it also tasted like shit.

  “Eh, it was just a one-time thing. And that Norris BD was—fucking, something else. Didn’t mean for the spew-fest to happen. Just wanted to know if they’d do it if I asked. And they did. And they’re not gonna forget anytime soon.”

  “So, none of those people are really your chooms,” I concluded.

  “Nah, hah! Them? They’re literally children. And their parents aren’t important either. Well, except Allister’s, but he’s good at not disappointing me for the most part, and I take it easier on him than most, because, yeah, he’s an asset.” Then he raised an eyebrow at me and grin mischievously, “what? All that look too brutal to you? If so, then perfect. I projected the image I wanted to project, and you were likewise highly disinclined towards disappointing me.”

  “I try not to disappoint in general,” I said, “it’s a principle thing, not—about you specifically.”

  “So, David-chan,” Jin leaned closer to me, “as you already knew, Katsuo’s dad was on the academy board, meaning he could pretty much tell me anything I wanted to know about you—your courses, your grades, everything. And I gotta say, you’re a fucking egghead. And you know how to fight. And you come from Santo Domingo. Arroyo at that. You know who else in this school comes from Arroyo? Nobody. Statistically, that’s really weird—”

  “Realistically though, it makes sense,” I said, “possibilities exist beyond just the law of large numbers. Your point, though?”

  “What do you wanna do with your life?”

  “Make edds,” I said.

  “Are you serious?” he asked, “make money? That’s all you want? Not fame? Or power? Money?”

  “I guess,” I shrugged.

  “Bullshit,” he scoffed, “look at you—you already have money. No idea how, but you obviously do. Why you still live in a fucking megablock, I’ve got no fucking idea, but it’s obvious you’re wealthy as fuck.”

  I waved my hand, “my family got mixed up with the cartel down in Mexico—made it so that they couldn’t send me much money—enough to live anywhere else, while still going to Arasaka.”

  “All that changed when your mother passed away,” Jin surmised. I frowned slightly. “Only a few days after, you ended up paying both semester fees for this year, after having a history of taking out extensions and late payments.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “Bullshit,” he said. I blinked at him.

  “What?”

  “That’s a joke—all of it. You’re fucking lying. You made that money yourself.”

  “You’re fucking drunk,” I said.

  “My guess is XBDs. You made yourself a key man to an XBD empire of a sort. Either that, or it’s prize fighting. Or maybe you do programming work on the Net for discerning clients? Or maybe all of the above? Wouldn’t put it past an industrious motherfucker like you. I mean, seriously. Money? Nah,” he laughed, “fuck out of here. You have money. Why would you stick around at the Academy, knowing how much you stick out, if money was the only thing you were after?”

  I groaned, “nice theories—what are you getting at?”

  His eyes took on a steely glint, “how far do you want to go in Arasaka? And how far do you expect to get without backing?”

  “I’m not becoming your vassal,” I said, “that’s out of the question.”

  I caught a small flicker in his lips, but his cold eyes bored into mine mercilessly, “the arrogance. Martinez, I don’t need to remind you that you’re just a speck in these games, do I?”

  I sat up straight and met his eyes without flinching, “that’s fine. For now, at least.”

  “There’s that shadowy plan of yours,” he nodded, “can’t say I’m not excited to see where it leads. But I still can’t help wondering what your aim is.”

  I snorted, and affected a tone of sarcasm, “to the top of Arasaka Tower. I guess.”

  Jin didn’t say anything to that. Didn’t so much as laugh or chuckle. He just… nodded. “Me, too. That’s where I’m headed.”

  I furrowed my brows at him. He took me seriously. Fuck.

  “But I need allies to get there,” Jin said, “people who’ve got what it takes to make the climb. The grit. The ability to actually think for yourself. I could buy myself a hundred of these Saka students and try to drag their useless asses along, but they’d get mowed down in fucking days. I don’t need cannon fodder. I need a Smasher.” he looked at me, as if to say that I was his Smasher. Then he rolled his eyes and shrugged, “And a, uh, real Smasher. But muscle ain’t as important as brains. Still necessary, but we’re not on that stage yet. So, what do you say, David? Partners?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, searching him for lies, “me? A partner?”

  “I can either fold you in and you’ll pretend to be on my side until you stab me in the back in order to achieve your own goal, or we can put our cards on the table and make a deal like adults. We want the same thing, you and I,” he shrugged at the obviousness of it all, “so? We partner up. Take out all the other motherfuckers in this free-for-all until there’s only you and me left. And then?” he pointed a finger gun at me and imitated a gunshot sound. “What do you say?”

  “What’s to stop you from tossing me aside once you think you’ve squeezed out a maximal amount of usefulness from me?” I asked. Well, I already knew the answer to that—I’d end up getting my own backing soon enough. Nakajima and I at least, once we sold our algo to some struggling company.

  “I don’t know, dude. Use your intuition,” he shrugged. “The truth is—nothing would stop me. Hell, you could try and make yourself as indispensable to me as possible, and I could still find a reason to get rid of you. That’s just biz. There are no guarantees, no sacred oaths, hell, even contracts are barely worth the paper they’re printed on unless you’ve got enough scratch or power to be counted as a valid entity before the eyes of the law, which you definitely don’t. So… yeah.”

  My family was in bed with Militech. It was a nascent relationship, sure, but I did have more power than he gave me credit for.

  “I guess all that’s left is trust,” I said, “when it’s all said and done.” I shrugged, “I guess that can come later. Fine. Partner. What now?”

  “Well, I go to school and graduate. Then I go to NCU, graduate there, then I get my legacy hire. Then it’s Battle Royale time. Before that, we’ll get up to a bunch of fun stuff together. Stuff that’ll help you, too.”

  I nodded.

  “Ah, speaking of,” he ejected a shard from the slot on his neck and handed it to me, “this is a recording of my chat with Ruomei.”

  I slotted it in and sped it up so I could finish watching quickly.

  …

  Holy fuck.

  “Aliens? For real?” I whispered.

  So that was… those were the guys that designed my Sandevistan. Actual highriders—colonizers from fucking Mars.

  QianT, huh. No, I definitely needed more info on them.

  I ejected the shard and handed it back to Jin, “That’s fucking nuts, man.”

  “I know!”

  This certainly did explain the reason why I had encountered so many Sandies on my last trip to Tijuana. I could definitely swing this somehow—get my family preem weapons and cyberware from those guys while they were still flailing and doing their best to survive in spite of their inevitable march towards bankruptcy.

  “So, tell me,” Jin said, “How the fuck did you cheat at that game?”

  “Company secret?” I shrugged.

  He narrowed his eyes at me, “Booo. You’re no fun. Alright, so what about chipware? And what Keren are you running?”

  I snorted. This guy…

  https://discord.gg/W5BqBBym28