"They, the corporations, were the true overlords of the infinite Celestial realms, monopolizing the resources of dozens, even hundreds of parallel universe Earths with their vast capital."
"And there wasn't just one such overlord; there were many. Earth 0791 used to belong to a financial conglomerate called Takamanohara, just one among the countless assets in their massive portfolio."
"Of course, quite obviously, wars would erupt between these corporate conglomerates over interests. Takamanohara was defeated in the last war, went bankrupt, and was restructured. As a result, the Earth 0791 asset was divvied up among the Night Corporations of other realms."
"So yes, the executives of Night Corporation were indeed demons from an Otherworld, vampires. In the universe where their stronghold was located, these individuals were some sort of bio-engineered humans, transformed into vampires, the Blood Clan."
"Now, with Night Corporation having come to Earth 0791, where so many unfriendly stray dogs constantly barked, trying to rip out their throats, it was natural for the corporation's executives to bring over their vampire prosthetic body technology, descending in familiar enhanced human prosthetics to protect themselves."
"However, this kind of street talk would not be reported by the NCHK Night City Broadcasting Association. You could only hear about it from the mouths of street wanderers, and most of them were dispatched by the gang organizations subordinate to Akai Tengu."
"And these Red Dogs, survivors of the old world, made no attempt to hide their origins from Takamanohara, the loyal samurai retainers to their master, the dogs of the conglomerates. They constantly incited the lower-class poor to revolt and would readily launch attacks to oppose Night Corporation."
"Such conflicts between massive corporations weren't something even the legendary cyberpunk mercenaries would carelessly get involved in—it was purely a suicidal act."
"Hey, yellow monkey! What size are your shoes, huh! What are you staring at!"
"Staring at you, what about it!"
"Fuck you, yellow monkey, you're looking for..."
"Bam!"
"Ah! He killed Charles!"
"Ah, cyberpsycho!"
"Ah, my suit!"
With a casual shot, Li Pan shattered the fool who was looking for trouble after getting high, scared off a group of drugged-up and debauched punks, and cleared an entire train car. He found a clean spot to sit down, vigorously wiped off the blood that had splashed onto his sleeve, and meanwhile, called the 'private mental health system' that Orange had set him up with.
"Yo, what's up."
A young voice came from the opposite end, no avatar projection either, probably using an identity disguise, definitely not some legal fellow, but it didn't matter anymore.
"Is this Oak Tree Psychological Health Consulting Service Company? I was referred by Orange; you can issue mental health certificates, right."
"Yeah, no problem, five hundred a month, no bargaining."
The price was fair. Li Pan had inquired with several, and the greedier ones could fleece you for three thousand. But...
"It'll really pass security system verification? I'm looking for a job."
"Don't worry, let's do credit card, guaranteed to go through as smooth as diarrhea."
Oh, the other party could also take credit, postpone payment until next month, hm. Li Pan thought that was acceptable, considering if they really screwed him over, there'd be no refund next month.
Although it was dangerous to use such a private connection for mental state assessment—there was a chance the other party might be some lowlife hacker, light offenses included identity theft and misusing citizen IDs, not to mention potentially uploading a Magic Puppet to leave a backdoor, or going straight for zapping your brain and hacking your account.
But Li Pan wasn't afraid, the bliss of being poor, that's the price of poverty, without much room to choose. After all, he used to be able to negotiate with the school doctor, but now that he had graduated, that old channel was no longer available. He really did need to find a stable partner for regular mental certifications. Otherwise, he might as well dismantle his prosthetic limb and wait till his mind stabilized.
Ha, a cripple in Night City with a stable mind?
"Alright, send it through."
"Oh, fuckin' A."
So thirty seconds later, Li Pan received the public system's mental state evaluation report update confirmation.
Blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue
Holy shit, it really was as smooth as diarrhea.
Mental evaluation with zero fluctuation, he was probably seen as having more stable emotions than a vegetative patient in the eyes of the public security system.