Cold.
Leo's sensation was cold—so cold it felt like his skin was burning, as if he were trapped inside a furnace.
This was hypothermia!
Leo suddenly opened his eyes. He saw a filthy, messy room, littered with all sorts of surgical equipment.
The place was covered in filth, with blood smeared on the floor and walls like graffiti. Medical tools were mixed in with unspeakably filthy personal items, emitting a nauseating stench.
"Corporate dog cyberware is really something. Too bad this one's from Kang Tao; not much in the way of implants for us to take."
"Come on—look at this SMG. You can tell it's top-quality corp gear. Plenty of buyers for this. Just this one gun will make back what we spent."
Leo's first thought was that he had been captured. His second was that they seemed to be talking about implants.
Had he become a Kang Tao employee?
Then he heard beeping in his ears. The loud guys were in the next room, separated by a white plastic sheet. One glanced at him in disgust.
"Where'd you pick up this kid? Doesn't look like a corpo drone; no implants at all. His organs are failing—what's the difference between him and a pig?"
"Found him by the trash heap. Who knew he'd be so useless? Well, his kidneys might still fetch a price—heard Biotechnica is into diseased organs nowadays. Maybe we can sell them and cover tomorrow's meds."
"Then let's hurry up and tear him apart. We've gotta move soon. Mercs'll be here any minute. No way we're dragging this deadweight along."
Leo was in shock—so, he really was that dying kid.
No way he could let these organ traffickers chop him into pieces!
He glanced around, but his body barely moved. He was on the verge of blacking out again.
At that moment, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a shadow flitting between two refrigerators.
Whoosh!
The white plastic curtain between the rooms was lifted, and a tall man stepped toward his prey.
Leo looked at the man—his left hand was a mess of various surgical knives. A prominent scar ran from his chin to his upper lip, and his cheekbones were covered in some kind of gray plastic!
This face instantly reminded Leo of a game—
Cyberpunk 2077!
This was the world of Cyberpunk! These guys were scavengers!
"Deadweight—let's wrap this up."
Staring at the surgical knives on the organ scavenger's hand, Leo was filled with despair—
Bang!
The organ trafficker's head exploded. That was just the first shot—there had actually been three.
His head splattered like paste, then two bloody holes appeared in his chest. The guy in the other room, busy moving a body, sensed something was wrong—
But when he looked over and saw his partner's corpse, all he saw was a woman with a half-shaved head, aiming a gun at him.
Bang!
Three more shots, all perfectly accurate.
Thud.
"Phew—just in time. These scavengers are tough to catch." The woman glanced around, confirming there was no one left before turning to Leo. "You're Zhushen, right? No data? Are you a Corpo drone? Uh, wrong person."
Leo was stunned. This woman gave him an oddly familiar feeling.
Especially when she cursed under her breath—it stirred memories from his past life.
There had been a game that shook the industry in every sense of the word, with some amazing voice acting.
Leo's mind was foggy, and while he was dazed, the woman walked into the next room and found her target.
A sturdy Asian man, unconscious due to some issue with his cyberware, eyes rolling back.
"Zhushen, physical condition's still okay—thank god this job didn't get messed up. At least I won't have to slink back to Night City."
The woman hoisted Zhushen onto her shoulder and headed for the door. As she passed by Leo, she only saw his wide, dying eyes. Clearly not dead yet, but not far from it.
Did she need to save Leo?
Obviously, the woman wasn't one for charity, even though watching this poor guy die might prick her conscience a bit—
So, naturally, she'd just ignore him and walk away!
"I'll give you a chance—you can walk out of here yourself." As she spoke, she shot the refrigerator, cutting off its power, then pulled out an injector and gave Leo a shot.
His dangerously low body temperature quickly began to rise, and Leo felt like a fireball had exploded inside him!
Countless thoughts raced through his mind. He desperately wanted to say something to convince the woman, but his mouth wouldn't open—it was like his nerves were frozen!
Talk, Leo! Just say something!
Just as the woman was about to leave, Leo finally regained control of his mouth and throat. But what should he say?
What could he say to make her help him? To at least make her listen to him?
Leo blurted out, "You're the famous V, aren't you?"
The woman froze in her tracks, like she'd been bewitched—yeah, considering she had no reason to stop and listen, it was like she'd been spellbound.
"You know me?"
V was surprised.
V—the protagonist of Cyberpunk 2077, a legendary mercenary with maxed-out combat and cyberware skills. In the hands of the player, V could even be a super hacker. In both gameplay and story, V was an absolute powerhouse.
Leo was freezing, but he had to think of a way to make V work for him.
Opportunities like this were rare. In the world of Cyberpunk, a normal person without any cyberware had to seize every chance to tie down a bodyguard, or they'd be dead by morning!
But Leo didn't have any money—so he had to work with information.
V had mentioned "slinking back to Night City."
So they weren't in Night City?
Leo glanced at a poster on the wall and an open computer, spotting a line of text: "Rust Belt Netzone."
They weren't in Night City—they were in Atlanta!
Before V returned to Night City, she'd spent some time in Atlanta, but for some reason hadn't made it there and had gone back to Night City instead—
And this was her last job before heading back!
In the game, V didn't talk much about her time in Atlanta, and she was even mocked for not making it there, so this job had probably gone south.
But why had it failed? She'd already rescued the Kang Tao corpo, so the job should be done, right?
Noticing Leo wasn't speaking, and was instead darting his eyes around, V narrowed her eyes. "Speak, kid. You mute?"
"I…" Leo summoned his courage. "V, you've been played."
"Oh?"
Click-clack—
Leo couldn't see what V had done, but he heard the sound of a gun cocking. The next thing he knew, the barrel was staring him in the face.
Death was an abstract concept—until you were staring down a gun barrel.
"You'd better explain yourself."
Leo instinctively wanted to swallow, but he was too cold; his body wasn't responding.
That was actually a good thing—because of the cold, his body didn't give away any tells that he was lying.
"Those scavengers knew you were coming. If I weren't here, they would've moved Mr. Zhu, and your mission would've failed."
"And then I'd just track them down and kill them—the mission would still be a success. There's nothing about them trying to run that proves anything."
V's words were a bit forceful, showing her confidence. Leo's thoughts raced as he began piecing together clues.
"Think about it, V. Why would Kang Tao send you to rescue one of their execs? Just because you're famous?"
V raised an eyebrow, and Leo quickly continued, "The Rust Belt has the most secure net infrastructure. All you have to do is reboot Mr. Zhu's system, and Trauma Team will be here in 30 seconds. The APD will take over, and within three days, the whole story will come out."
V scoffed, "Rely on cops to solve a case?"
"The NCPD may be useless, but this is Atlanta," Leo shot back. "You know why you can't get good gigs here?
Atlanta is practically under a dictatorship. The authorities here are in bed with NetWatch, New America, and the European Economic Union. Crime rates are the lowest in the country, and the clearance rate is higher than you can imagine—
Here, they really do try to enforce the law, because the law is entirely theirs. Public safety spending is the highest in the nation.
In fact, hacking a corpo exec's system here is practically impossible—unless it's another corpo behind it."
No way it could be these scavengers covered in mismatched cyberware.
At this, V's expression shifted slightly, and sharp-eyed Leo caught the change.
Sensing an opening, Leo pressed on, "I bet your client told you not to reboot the target's system, even after rescuing him, because of 'confidentiality,' right?"
V's face finally showed genuine surprise.
Leo knew he'd guessed correctly.
This was a corporate double-cross, and V was the fool mercenary being used to distract the authorities.