After getting into the car, El captain immediately took a call from his old friend, Chesson.
Chesson: "Dude, what on earth happened yesterday? This morning, Militech and KangTao showed up twice at my shop to check things out!"
El Captain: "How should I know? But hey, buddy, I'm connected to some big players now. I'll treat you to a drink sometime!"
Chesson: "Wow, impressive."
Chesson: "These days might get rough. Got any business tips?"
El Captain: "Hard to say, but if business is tough in the city, you could try your luck in the Badlands. You saw how crazy the drifters were last night."
Chesson: "Now that you mention it, that's true. Can you help me with some advertising?"
El Captain: "Well, since they've already traced back to your shop, advertising might not matter anymore—oh, by the way, I got a video of the legendary Mackinaw's act from last night!"
El Captain: "I bet Thorton Corp is thrilled."
Chesson: "Thrilled? Man, I should buy some stocks. Damn it, another corporate dog is here, this time it's Arasaka!"
Chesson: "I gotta go, man. Let's catch up later."
As soon as the call ended, El captain received a text from Arasaka.
Sender: Arasaka Agent A.
El Captain: "Well, well, what a rare guest. What can I do for you?"
Arasaka Agent A: "Information."
El Captain: "Oh, that's tricky."
Arasaka Agent A: "Stop pretending. We want intel on those three people."
El Captain: "Three people?"
Arasaka Agent A: "The three from last night."
Old Captain: "There are plenty of trios in this world, and maybe you're not even looking for a trio. Could be a duo or even a group of five. Without a name, how am I supposed to know who you're talking about?"
Arasaka Agent A: "BurgerKing BigShots idiots. I want their intel now."
El Captain: "Whoa, so they were behind last night's chaos? Impressive. But how would I know those big shots?"
Arasaka Agent A: "Watch your tone."
El Captain: "Hey, boss, I'm just an ordinary Fixer. I don't have access to those kinds of people."
El Captain: "Boss? Still there?"
The communication was cut off, and El captain chuckled mockingly.
"In a rush? You'll be even more desperate soon."
He glanced in the rearview mirror at the Badlands fading behind him and mused, "Legends, huh? No legends survive in Night City, but maybe that rule isn't so absolute."
The injuries Jackie and V sustained would normally be fatal—if not for the fact they're cyborgs, heavily modified with cyberware implants.
The cost of surviving, though, is that they'll have to pay for new parts to repair their bodies.
After parking the car, both of them collapsed back into their tent.
"Man, you guys are something else. Driving yourselves into the ground like that," said Leo.
V blinked her large eyes. "So what now?"
Leo didn't respond, still diagnosing—his system was running slowly due to damage to his neural interface.
Jackie's issue was more straightforward—his reinforced skeleton had fractured, particularly around the ribs, with additional fractures in both thigh and shin bones.
It's not that his bones weren't strong enough—if they had been organic, the fractures would've been catastrophic. His whole body would have been pulverized.
That behemoth from the terror response unit wasn't messing around. It might seem easy to smash through walls, but those were walls of Biotechnica Plaza! Considering his level of augmentation, smashing an armored vehicle barehanded wouldn't have been impossible.
Jackie's fractures meant his body couldn't hold up, and the immune response from the breaks was further deteriorating his overall system function.
Otherwise, Jackie—the guy who once rode an exploding bike in the city center—wouldn't have fainted at that speed.
"For Jackie, it's simple. Just find some replacement parts and swap his bones. It'll be a quick fix."
Jackie lay on his back, unable to move. "Ugh, can't you swap out as little as possible?"
Leo thought for a moment. "Maybe. I'll see what I can do."
"You're a good man," Jackie said, relieved.
V's problem, however, was much more complicated—
From what could be observed: cyberpsychosis was causing erratic and overclocked prosthetic activity, leading to anomalies in her circulatory system and prefrontal cortex. Overall, though, she was recovering.
But the diagnostic system reported an error, suggesting her cyberware implants weren't suffering from normal damage; the nervous and immune systems were showing widespread malfunctions.
Such extensive and unidentified issues could only mean one thing: her spinal implant was faulty.
It was the flagship product of QianT—the incomplete "Warp Dancer" Sandevistan.
This needed KangTao's attention.
But relying on a company for repairs didn't feel safe.
The silence made V anxious. "Why aren't you saying anything? Say something!"
"...The problem is complex."
Leo had another thought:
Speaking of which, V's Sandevistan was a model focused more on safety than performance. So how did she manage to injure one of the three terror unit soldiers so severely?
Even without the giant who spaced out, the remaining two were no pushovers.
To find the answer—
V exclaimed, "Stop trailing off! You always stop halfway through!"
"For now… I'm going to shut down your spinal Implant, keeping only the basic functions active. Then, I need to extract a braindance from your Sandevistan."
"Braindance?" V froze.
Braindances are essentially a recording system.
They record a person's complete sensory experience—sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. This data is then converted into cyber implant info and reproduced, allowing others to almost perfectly relive the original person's experiences.
By 2076, this tech was common knowledge. V knew about it, but what puzzled her was—
To record a braindance, special equipment was required—or so she thought.
"Yeah, a braindance," Leo explained. "Sandevistan stimulates nearly every part of the body, so it's actually the most advanced braindance recording system there is.
As long as the editor knows how to convert the data, they can extract a braindance."
"I need the braindance to analyze what happened to you inside that building."
"No way!" V shook her head vigorously.
Leo was surprised. "It's not like it's gonna kill you. It's just a braindance. Didn't you dream of being a braindance star when you were younger?"
"A braindance star is one thing—this is my personal privacy."
"I told you, it's medical data. I've already got it."
The chip popped out, and V's eyes widened!
"Alright, if you want to get better soon, don't throw a fit. We've got bigger jobs lined up once you're all healed."
"Wait a second, how did you even extract my braindance data?"
"Sandevistan records everything by default. Ever heard of the 'Edgerunner' series of braindances? That's how they do it."
Leo waved the chip, then pocketed it.
V could only resign herself to fate—most of her prosthetics were shut down now, with only the basics functioning.
Back in the day, she could've just activated Sandevistan and snatched the chip back, but now? Not happening.
"Fine, fine." V lay back on the mat, sneaking a glance at Leo. Seeing no change in his expression, she added, "So what now? Just lay around?"
"Of course not. Don't forget we're nomads now."
Leo looked outside the tent.
The elders of the Ruststone tribe had released the last of their life force, but those who survived still had to struggle on in this world.
"Shouldn't we do something good for the tribe?"
The Ruststone tribe was going through a tough transition—most of the elders had passed away, and the younger generation lacked experience.
But the tribe still had potential.
"Never thought I'd end up wandering the Badlands—legends of Night City don't last out here."
With that, V turned over, half-sitting against a nearby locker: "Just as long as we don't sink all our money into this. Speaking of which, you mentioned Rogue once hid out here in the Badlands. Tell us more."
Jackie nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I wanna hear that too. Didn't know that from the street legends."
Leo paused for a moment, realizing that while the story was familiar to him, Rogue had been laying low back then, so it wasn't widely known.
"Alright, we can catch up on this—urban legends. You guys know about the Arasaka Tower bombing, right?"
Both nodded—that was one of Night City's greatest mysteries, with countless theories swirling around.
The most accepted version came from a famous journalist decades ago, revealing that—
The bombing was triggered by Militech, with Rogue acting as one of their decoys.
"Everyone knows Rogue played a big role in that event, but few know that the nomads were involved too.
And not just any nomads—our very own Aldecaldo clan."
The warning flashed: [Unstable energy surge detected, prepare accordingly.]