Cold.
Lille felt cold, so cold that it felt as if his skin was being burnt off, making him feel as though he was in a furnace—
This was hypothermia!
Lille's eyes snapped open. He saw a dirty, chaotic room where various surgical equipment was haphazardly arranged.
But filth was everywhere in the room, blood was splattered on the floor and walls like graffiti, medical instruments and unspeakable dirty personal items were mixed together, emitting an unbearable stench.
"Company dogs have impressive gear, too bad this one's from Kantao, not much prosthetics for us to strip."
"Come off it—look at this submachine gun, clearly top-notch internal stuff from the company dogs. There are plenty of buyers. Just this one can cover our costs."
Lille's first reaction was that he had been kidnapped. His second thought was that these people were talking about... implants?
Had he become someone from the Kantao Company?
He then heard a beeping noise close to his ear. The guys shouting and hollering were in the next room, separated by white plastic strips, and they glanced at him disdainfully.
"Where did you pick this kid up? Doesn't look like a monk, not a single implant on him, organ failure—what's the difference between him and a pig?"
"Found him next to a pile of trash, who knew he was such a weakling? Only his kidneys are somewhat useful—but I heard biotechnology is interested in these diseased organs, maybe we can sell them to cover tomorrow's drug costs."
"Then let's strip him quickly. We need to move out, mercenaries are coming, and we can't afford to carry such a liability."
Lille was stunned—so he was still that dying boy.
He couldn't just let these organ traffickers turn him into parts!
Looking around, Lille found it hard to even move his eyes, almost passing out again!
Just then, his peripheral vision caught a figure flitting between two freezers!
Whoosh!
The white plastic curtains between the rooms lifted, and a tall man walked up to the prey.
Lille looked at the man—his left hand had no fingers, just various types of surgical scalpels, and there was a visible crack between his chin and upper lip, the skin over his cheekbone seemed to have been replaced by some grey plastic!
That face instantly reminded Lille of a game—
"Cyberpunk 2077"!
This was the world of Cyberpunk! These people were scavengers!
"Let's finish up with this waste of space."
As Lille saw the surgical scalpels on the organ trafficker's fingers, he felt utterly desperate—
Bang!
The organ trafficker's head exploded, the first shot was loud, but in reality, someone had fired three times.
The head turned into a paste, and then two holes appeared in the chest, another guy in the next compartment who was moving a human body sensed trouble—
But by the time he looked over, after his companion's body had fallen, he only saw a woman with a Mohawk and a dark barrel of a gun.
Bang!
Again, three precise shots.
Thud.
"Phew—just made it; these Scavengers are really slippery." The woman scanned the area to make sure no one else was around, then looked at Lille, "Are you Zhu Shen… no? No data? Are you a monk? Uh, my bad, wrong person."
Lille was somewhat bewildered, as the woman in front of him gave him a very familiar feeling.
Especially that "damn," it stirred a memory from his past life...
There once was a game that "shocked" the gaming world in various senses, and its voice acting was quite captivating...
Lille was slow to react, and in the blink of an eye, the woman walked to another room and found her actual target.
A robust Asian, apparently unconscious due to issues with his prosthetic system, rolling his eyes back.
"Zhu Shen, in pretty good condition—glad this gig didn't go south, don't have to go back to Night City empty-handed."
The woman carried Zhu Shen towards the door, passing by Lille. All she saw was Lille's eyes wide open, seemingly close to death, but obviously not dead yet.
But did she need to save Lille?
Clearly, the woman had no habit of being charitable, although it did seem somewhat unbearable to watch this unlucky guy die—
So she decided not to look at him and then turned around and left!
"I'll give you a chance; you better walk on your own." Saying that, the woman shot the freezer's power supply off, then pulled out some kind of injector and gave Lille a shot.
The extreme cold in his body began to rise rapidly, and Lille felt as if a fireball had exploded inside him!
All sorts of information flashed through his mind, as he desperately thought about how to persuade this woman, but he just couldn't open his mouth, as if his nerves were frozen!
"Speak up already, Lille! Speak the fuck up!"
Just as the woman was about to leave, Lille finally became aware of his own mouth and throat, but what was he supposed to say?
What could he say to make this woman help him? Or at least, make her willing to listen to him first?
Lille blurted out, "You're the famous V, aren't you!"
The woman's departing footsteps halted, as if she were spellbound—well, considering she had no reason to stop and listen to what came next, her reaction really did seem spellbound.
"You know me?"
V was surprised.
...
The protagonist of "Cyberpunk 2077," V, a super mercenary with maximized combat and prosthetic skills in the plot, could also be a super hacker if in the hands of a player. In any case, whether in the game or the story, V was a legend with off-the-charts combat ability.
Lille was freezing, but he had to find a way to make V work for him.
This was an opportunity not to be missed. In the Cyberpunk World, an ordinary person without any prosthetics had better seize the chance to get himself a bodyguard, or he might meet King Yan tomorrow!
But he didn't have a dime—so he could only start with the intel.
A phrase V had just mentioned passed through Lille's mind—"slunk back to Night City"?
This isn't Night City?
Lille glanced at a poster on the wall and the computer that was on, catching a line that read: "Rust Belt Domain".
This wasn't Night City, it was Atlanta!
Street kid V did indeed come to Atlanta before the story started, but it seemed she didn't make it for some reason and ran back to Night City—
And this was her last job before heading back to Night City!
Considering that V in the game seemed reluctant to talk about her record in Atlanta and had been mocked for "only coming back because he couldn't make it there," this job must have been a failure.
Why did it fail? By this point, the case of saving Mr. Zhu from Kantao Company should have been completed, right?
Seeing that Lille wasn't speaking and was glancing around, V narrowed her eyes: "Speak up, kid, are you mute?"
"I..." Lille mustered his courage, "V, you've been played."
"Oh?"
Click-click—
Lille didn't see what V did, he just heard the gun being cocked, and then the dark muzzle was in front of his face.
Death is an abstract concept, but it's not so abstract when you're staring down the barrel of a gun.
"You better explain what you mean."
Lille wanted to instinctively swallow, but it was too cold, and his body wouldn't cooperate.
This was actually good news—because it was so cold, his first lie didn't show any sign of nervousness, and it was completely undetectable.
"Those two guys knew you were coming, if it wasn't for me being here, they would've moved Mr. Zhu immediately, and your mission would've been screwed."
"Then I would catch up and kill them—mission would still be a success, and merely them running doesn't suggest anything was wrong."
This argument was a bit forced, clearly showing V's confidence. Lille's mind raced as he remembered and pieced together clues.
"Think about it, V, why would Kantao's high-level managers need you for the rescue? Because you're famous?"
V raised an eyebrow and Lille quickly continued, "The cyber security in Rust Belt is the most comprehensive. Right now, you just need to reboot Mr. Zhu's system, the trauma team will arrive in 30 seconds, the APD will take over the situation, and in 3 days the whole case will be resolved."
V scoffed, "Rely on the cops to investigate?"
"NCPD is indeed unreliable, but this is Atlanta." Lille quickly took over the conversation, "Do you know why you can't get good gigs around here?
Atlanta is practically under a dictatorship, with the net monitoring, New America, and the European Market Union's relationships being tightly knit and deep-rooted. It has the lowest crime rate in the United States and a way higher clearance rate than you'd expect—
Here, they truly try to uphold the law, because the law itself is entirely crafted by them, and the public safety expenditure here is absolutely the highest in the nation."
Actually, hacking a corporate dog's system here is simply impossible—unless it's another corporate dog."
Clearly, it couldn't be these Scavengers, who were covered in unaccounted-for prosthetics.
Noticing a subtle change in V's expression, the attentive Lille didn't miss this detail.
Lille seized the moment to continue, "I guess your client told you, even if you save the target, don't rush to reboot the system because it involves secrets?"
V's expression finally showed obvious surprise.
Lille knew he had guessed right.
This was a dog-eat-dog case, and V was just the pawn used to divert the law enforcers' attention... a mercenary.