A/N: Also check out my other fanfic - Demon Slayer: Mastering the Butterfly Effect, you might like it.
patreon.com/Masterworks951 - you get early access to 15 chapters at the very least, on a weekly basis.
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Hello, who is this?"
As the holo-call connected, a half-body projection of the person appeared in the top left corner of Lin Mo's vision, allowing both parties to observe each other's expressions and body language—a staple of modern communication in Night City.
But this time, there was something different. The caller's face was pixelated, as though deliberately blurred, leaving only a vague outline visible.
Lin Mo squinted. He couldn't make out her exact features, but he could see enough. She had short black hair that barely touched her ears, and though her face was obscured, her sleek figure and distinctive style were evident. She wore a tight black bodysuit and a pink jacket draped over her shoulders. Her sharp, blue eyes shimmered behind the mosaic-like filter.
Even with the pixelation, Lin Mo could tell this was a woman who commanded attention.
"Hey there, I'm Sasha, pleased to meet you. Wakako said you'd be calling?"
Her voice was crisp but with an undercurrent of cool indifference, much like the kitten avatar next to her name—calm but ready to pounce at any moment.
"I'm Lin Mo, and I have a job I need your help with," Lin Mo got straight to the point.
"You need a program to interfere with tracking signals, right? No big deal. It's already done. Just transfer the payment, and I'll send it over."
"How much?" Lin Mo asked, finding a chair to rest on in the Pachinko parlor while he spoke.
"3,000 eddies. No discounts," Sasha replied coolly.
Lin Mo didn't haggle. He transferred the payment without a second thought. Credibility was everything in Night City, especially among fixers and mercs, and he trusted that Sasha wouldn't double-cross him—especially knowing Wakako was involved.
"5,000? Did you make a mistake?" Sasha's voice perked up, a bit surprised. She stared at her account, seeing the 5,000 eurodollars deposited.
That amount wasn't small change; it could cover a few jobs at least.
"I've got something else for you. I need you to add this data module to the program," Lin Mo said, transmitting a component from his neural storage.
The upgrade wasn't a physical item but a data stream beyond his technical understanding—something his Intelligence stat was far too low to handle. Luckily, he knew Sasha had the expertise.
Sasha's brow furrowed slightly. "That's a pretty strange request. Not all software can be upgraded like that," she said, sounding intrigued but hesitant.
Even though she was tempted by the extra payment, Lin Mo's confidence made her curious. A guy who's this sure about something must know what he's doing.
"All right, fine. But if I screw this up, it's on you," Sasha relented.
She connected a personal link from her hand—an advanced neural interface network that allowed her to issue commands directly from her cyberdeck without external devices. She hooked into her computer and started the upgrade.
"That's... odd," Sasha muttered. "It actually worked."
She stared at the screen, incredulous. The program she had designed was supposed to block signals, but now it had transformed into something more complex—something that could spoof signals entirely.
In theory, no one but her could alter the coding of her own programs. Yet, Lin Mo had done it within seconds. That was unheard of in the netrunner world.
"I'll send it over now," she said after a pause, transmitting the finished software to Lin Mo through the city's public Net.
"Pleasure doing business," Lin Mo said with a smile, satisfied with how smoothly things had gone.
As he was about to disconnect the call, Sasha spoke up again.
"Wait, mind if I ask something? How exactly did you do that?" Sasha's voice was quieter, tinged with curiosity.
Huh?
What the hell did I do?
Lin Mo blinked, genuinely confused. He wasn't much of a netrunner and had no clue what she was asking about. Maybe the Dream Simulator software he had received wasn't as simple as he thought?
He considered his response carefully before answering with a knowing smile, playing the role of a cryptic genius.
"Maybe we just see the world differently. It's like you, Sasha. Even with that mask of yours, your presence stands out. Same with me—what seems ordinary to me, might be a mystery to you."
Sasha chuckled, her voice as playful as the kitten avatar next to her name. Even through the pixelation, Lin Mo could sense her amusement. "Well, I'll be waiting for our next chat, then."
Meanwhile, in a dingy bar deep in the heart of Kabuki, Sasha lounged back on a worn-out sofa, sipping her drink. The neon lights reflected off her glass, casting a kaleidoscope of colors onto the liquid inside.
A tall, muscular man with bronzed skin, his arms clearly cybernetically enhanced, leaned over. The cyber-ware on his limbs gleamed under the lights, the synthetic flesh barely covering the mechanical parts underneath.
"What's got you grinning like that? Did that kid do something funny?" Maine, the leader of their edgerunner team, asked, raising an eyebrow.
"He's an interesting one," Sasha said with a sly smile, swirling her drink.
"Yeah? What's so special about him?"
Sasha leaned back, shrugging casually. "Just a rich kid, maybe. Threw 2,000 extra eddies my way for a little upgrade."
"Sounds like a corpo brat to me," the petite woman on the other side of the couch scoffed, tossing back her drink. Her green twin-tails bounced as she moved, and the oversized jacket she wore barely hung on her small frame.
"That's Rebecca for you. Always quick to judge," Sasha laughed softly, taking another sip of her drink.
Maine chuckled too, but before he could speak, Dorio—Maine's second-in-command—punched him square in the nose, leaving him dazed.
"You know better than to try anything in front of the team, Maine!" she barked, giving him a stern look.
Sasha smiled at the familiar chaos of her squad. "You know, I have a feeling we'll be seeing that kid again," she said thoughtfully, looking at her empty glass.
PS: This chapter features Sasha Yakovleva, Maine's original netrunner, before the events of Edgerunners.