The carefully applied makeup surprisingly accentuated Luoqi's delicate and refined features that he had never noticed before. She wore a tight-fitting black tank top with a wild-looking leather jacket and provocative tight pants covering her long legs. Her usual combat boots had been replaced with a pair of flat shoes.
"Who are you?"
"…"
Moer raised her long eyelashes, trembling a few times, then shyly shifted her gaze away, biting her plump lower lip.
"I don't recall the military special forces teaching seduction techniques?" Luoqi picked up his already cold coffee, took a sip, frowned, and put it back down.
Just as a faint, unnatural blush spread across her face, Luoqi interrupted.
"No wonder it feels so awkward."
He heard Moer across from him let out an uncomfortable breath.
Luoqi raised his eyes, staring straight at the eyes that deliberately avoided his and looked out the window.
"Lean your face closer…"
!?
Moer's eyes trembled violently, and the expressionless face she had managed to maintain crumbled on the spot.
Was it really worth it to say that it was the stylist she paid a lot of money for?
Was his attraction to her that strong?
It was hard to believe - although at the time, she felt the same way when looking at herself in the mirror.
She had never cared for makeup or dressing up, as the company had no use for a purposeless vase.
All they wanted was a killing machine that obeyed orders unconditionally.
Thinking about it, she felt a rare bitterness in her chest, but then she felt relieved when she thought about her actions.
Moer pursed her lips, her eyes shifting uncomfortably to one side as she leaned her head forward about ten centimeters.
"Come closer, why be shy?"
His voice softened, a tone she had never heard before.
A visible blush crept up her neck, and her cheeks grew hot.
Moer's heartbeat began to accelerate, and the military-grade cybernetic monitor displayed the message "Increased heart rate detected."
Piece of junk!
She cursed the idiots at the military technology company in her mind, gritted her teeth, and moved her face a little closer.
"Close your eyes and come closer…"
Luoqi's voice had reached an incredibly gentle level. For some reason, she hesitated, then tightly closed her eyes and, with determination, moved her face even closer.
Looking at Moer's flushed face, Luoqi revealed a gentle, harmless smile and reached out to touch her smooth, dark hair.
His movements were so gentle, and his expression so tender.
"Slap!"
"You idiot!"
A sudden slap shattered the ambiguous atmosphere.
Moer, who had been slapped on the head, opened her eyes wide in shock and covered her head, dazed.
Why, why, why did he slap me?
She looked at the angry Luoqi, and the sense of guilt that had just disappeared resurfaced.
"I'm sorry."
Moer immediately straightened up, lowered her head in apology, just like she used to in the military.
"If 'sorry' worked, we wouldn't need regret pills, would we? Do you know how dangerous that was?"
Luoqi grabbed her head and slapped it a few more times.
It was like playing Whac-A-Mole, almost slapping her neck away.
But soon, he was at a loss for words, as he had just returned from the Azure Tower and didn't seem to have the right to criticize others.
He looked at Moer, who had dropped her head and seemed genuinely apologetic, thought for a moment, and stood up.
Moer's eyes narrowed, and she quickly looked at Luoqi.
"I'll go get fresh coffee; it's all cold now."
Luoqi didn't expect her reaction to be so strong and said helplessly.
A few minutes later, a waiter came over to the two silent people, took away their cold coffee, and brought two steaming cups.
"You don't have to pretend like this; I'm not that kind of... uh, man you think I am." Luoqi didn't know how to describe the feeling of being "seduced." "You are Moer, not someone else. Just be yourself."
"...Yes." Moer's eyes trembled, like ripples on a mirrored lake.
"Was that the lab where you were once modified?"
Luoqi picked up his coffee and took a sip.
It was a slightly higher-grade instant coffee, with an average taste.
Good hand-ground coffee beans were considered a luxury in Night City.
"...No, it's where they researched... experimental... cybernetics..."
Moer spoke in a subdued voice, as if recalling the pain of electronic malfunction.
And the pain of being betrayed by the company she had trusted and dedicated her life to.
Thinking about it, an uncontrollable hatred began to emanate from her.
It seemed that at any moment, she would pull out a weapon and unleash carnage on the spot.
"Don't be afraid, I'm here," Luoqi pressed her shoulder and gently patted, "You've already been cured, but there might still be some side effects. Later, we'll go see Old Wei for some medicine."
But Moer still resembled a high-energy engine on the verge of collapse, struggling and in an extremely unstable state.
She looked up miserably, her eyes filled with half-crazed pain and half-despairing sadness.
Cyber-psychosis, triggered by cybernetic enhancements, ultimately damages both the physical and mental aspects of a person.
When a person goes mad, she becomes a lunatic.
When a war machine goes mad, she becomes a meat grinder.
Moer, awakened by the pain etched deep in her memory, was rolling in such collapse and heartache, staining the entire experimental area blood-red.
For her, every time she touched those memories, it was a hellish journey.
Even so, she went back, determined to destroy the place that nourished the demons, even if it meant driving herself mad.
"Directly affecting the central nervous system, the pain is like having your spine thrown into a frying pan." This was Old Wei's description of the pain Moer endured.
Luoqi's eyebrows couldn't help but furrow, as if a heavy lead block was stuffed into his chest.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, I'm here, no one is going to hurt you now."
Moer's PTSD was acting up, and the danger level was far higher than that of an average soldier.
Luoqi quickly held her face, wiping away the tears that overflowed from the corners of her eyes due to the pain.
Her originally clear eyes were now filled with red veins, and the corners of her eyes were filled with sadness.
"It... it hurts so much."
This voice was just like when Luoqi first encountered her in the courtyard.
It was a kind of torture that one could feel relieved only after being killed.
Her body was no longer under her control, and the chaotic hormones, though without external causes, had entered a familiar state of collapse.
All the beauty and hope, like soap bubbles, disintegrated one by one in the face of such unbearable human torment.
Moer's eyes lost focus on Luoqi's and were replaced by a hollow madness.
"Tsk tsk... how pitiful, go cry at home if you want to..."
A man in a yellow shirt carrying coffee walked by, sneering disdainfully.
What he said was actually true; in Night City, life and death were trivial matters, and the more immense the illusion of a beautiful dream, the more pressure and suffering each person endured, not to mention the unexpected disasters and endless malice.
Everyone was rolling on the edge of life and death, and no one was worthy of respect.
There was no place for human warmth here, simply because there was no humanity.
"Ha, another unlucky bastard died." This was the way people found amusement in their misery.
"Moer, wait..."
"Slap!"
Before Luoqi could realize something was wrong, Moer had already broken free from his embrace. A shadow too fast for the eyes to catch flashed by, and the man was lying in the corner of the opposite wall.
Her punch nearly shattered his entire scapula, and if it weren't for Luoqi's intervention, it would have at least broken his spine.
Luoqi had no inclination to worry about this kind of death-seeking individual who couldn't help but run his mouth. People who couldn't appreciate their good fortune wouldn't live to see next year in Night City.
Walking down the street, seeing a corpse lying in a pool of blood was most likely the result of such a situation.
Two people arguing and then pulling out guns to shoot each other wasn't a rare occurrence.
This was Night City.
"Dreman! ... Come find me!"
He called for Dreman, holding the nearly out-of-control Moer tightly in his arms.
As soon as he let go, at most half of the onlookers on the street would survive today.
Damn it...!
Why hadn't he noticed her strength before?!
Luoqi gritted his teeth and held on, feeling his bones creaking.
Instead of the tender warmth and delight of holding a delicate beauty, he felt his manhood aching from Moer's desperate struggle.
Luoqi felt like he was trying to stabilize a drum washing machine filled with bricks, or an unbalanced high-speed centrifuge. He was on the verge of being thrown off his feet.