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Chapter 4: Night City I
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"Vik's new assistant," Misty shrugged, "Let Vik introduce him to you. He probably knows him better than I do. I can only describe him as quite the sweet weirdo."
The weirdo walked out of Misty's shop, letting out a breath of bleak dirty Night City air.
The past month didn't change him much, except that his clothes more or less suit the fashion of Night City.
He was wearing a long-sleeve white shirt with a logo at the center, quite the nice logo, a chromed-up bald maniac with rainbow colors surrounding him, and well, a grin showing his shattered teeth.
The pants weren't so flashy, just simple white pants and black boots. That and he cut down his hair short. Overall, he looks like he fits in quite well.
"Garry Garry, what story were you cooking up this morning?" Like always, X had to pay Garry a visit.
"I do not cook! I only tell the truth!" Said Garry aloud, "I tell the truth about the visitors from Alpha Centauri!! The Reptilians in human skin standing above us.
Why do you think everyone is nothing but unknowing slaves right now? We became their slaves without us knowing it, but I DO!!! And I'll spread the truth until one day, we rise above them!!!"
"You're one crazyy motherfucker Garry, but you know what, I am just as crazy too, so I believe you. Keep up the good work!" And X walked away.
"I knew you'd one day see the truth!! And I know that you all will one see the truth!!" Garry's voice was soon nothing but a haze in the background as X's footsteps led him beyond the proximity of Little China.
It was a shithole, the more you walk its streets, the more you realize how much of a hellhole Night City is, yet to X, it seems like the loveliest city of them all, vibrant with colors of despair, rage, sadness, desire, greed, fear, and so much more.
Wherever he walked, the homeless were there, by the side of the streets, eyes bleak, an air of hopelessness surrounding them.
Just like his first day in the city, he could hear their cries, the cries of slaves as they marched to modern-day slavery of a job, the cries of the homeless as they fought each other for the few breadcrumbs in the trash.
However, he can also hear laughter... It wasn't rare, strangely so... It was the laughter of those who had enough of the darkness of the city, their minds no longer able to handle it, so they laughed their ass off as they puked on themselves, the laughter of the insane.
"I feel like crying again," X murmured to himself, "However, let's laugh it off today... Hahahahaha ahahahahahaha," He was taken as one of the insane, so he wasn't paid much attention to.
"Phew, I needed that," X let out a breath of Night City air, the laughter allowing him to vent. It felt good... Only to be broken by what's in front of him.
It's not like he didn't expect it for he researched Night City thoroughly for the past month, mostly through the net, but seeing it for himself was a different matter entirely.
It told him that he wasn't just imagining or seeing things, but that it's real... Or is it? X had to wonder as he eyed the cozy looking hotel on the other side of the street.
It took him getting from the district of Watson to Heywood to lay eyes on it.
Heywood is a good place for it, a neighborhood of contrast from modern skyscrapers and parks in the north, to dangerous, inhospitable slums in the south.
It's known as the biggest bedroom in Night City, where gangs like the Valentinos and 6th Street get down to business—legal and illegal alike. The back garden of gangs.
It's a really good place for the continental hotel. The Continental is a chain of hotels located all around the world that function as neutral territories for members of the criminal underworld, frequented by many hitmen and high-end criminals.
I do not understand, am I dreaming? Have I dreamt this world into being? Have I lost my mind more than I already have? Or is this world truly real? Are the thoughts in my head real or are they of my own making?
Since arriving in this world, I heard voices, voices of the world, begging me to survive, to live and influence the world, to act as its anchor to reality so that it doesn't vanish like a dream.
However, looking at what's before me, why do I feel like it's a dream or maybe a world of my own creation, is it all in my head? I feel like I am forgetting something... Oh, that's right.
"Well, that's for you two to figure out," X shrugged before turning around and walking away, "It's gonna rain," He noted, and indeed, it soon started raining a fucking toxin.
Hell, even the rain in Night City is bleak, toxic swamp water that X basked in, the shirt he was wearing not doing much to provide him warmth or protection against the rain.
"Welcome, sir!" X was warmly welcomed by a robot into his destination, an electronics shop.
"Need a Laptop, show me what you got," X directly stated as he looked around the shop, smelling only the scent of metal, plastic, and the beauty of electronics.
"Right away, sir," And well, right away, a projection showing a list of what they have was before X's inky eyes.
They might be Inky but they can see a lot for the world in X's eyes is the most colorful.
X looked through the list in the projection before him, settling on the most he could afford, a quality laptop suiting his needs as well as several devices that will fulfil his future needs, most related to netrunning.
X soon left the shop, carrying the compact box with him, "Well, I'm broke again." He made his way through the streets of Heywood, taking the shortest way to the train station, and it finally happened.
"Yo! Whatcha got there?" Two men stood from the wet ground, and blocked his way, no doubt because they saw the package in his hand. One of the two even reached out to take the package.
Only, X was swift in grasping his wrist as he said, "Just walk away. You don't want what I have."
"Give us it man, c'mon!" The man whose wrist had been grasped struggled fiercely while the other also reached out for the package.
"Drunk?" X frowned, "Well, In that case, I guess you won't feel much."
Blood spilled as a scalpel found itself in X's hand before finding itself slicing the man's wrist, and a second later, it was planted in the other man's chest, "AHHHHHHHHH!!!"
"Shush man, why you gotta wake up the neighbors?" X couldn't help but shake his head as he grasped the man's wrist, staining his hand with blood while the other hand clutched to the man's head, guiding it to the ground, shaking the man to unconsciousness.
X then pulled out the scalpel from the other man's chest who was frozen in shock before pushing him to the ground, leaving him on the verge of death.
X searched them for a bit, finding nothing of value on them, not even a gun, "Really? Even children own guns in their goddamn city." Then he walked away, cleaning the scalpel and his hands on the way to the station using Night City's bleak rain.
All that was left behind was a puddle of blood and bodies no one would care about, not even the police. The two were after all nobodies, just like most people in Night City.
"Garry, cooked up enough for the day?" Said X as he took a seat right on Garry's bed which was by the side of the street beside some trash cans. It certainly didn't smell nice, but Garry's company was nice.
"I told you I do not cook," Garry let out a sigh as he lied back a little, "There is only so much yelling I can do before losing my voice."
"Hey, are you sure that the delivery services are in with the reptilians?" X couldn't help but wonder, "I went in to order this personally today, but carrying something this expensive can be troublesome."
"Worth the risk, trust me," Garry frowned before stressing, "Everything in this city is just eyes for them to see through, to watch our every move. Nothing passes through the delivery systems that don't go out infected. Hell, that thing might be watching us right now."
"Really? So if it comes out infected either way, why should I go with the trouble of getting it personally? Like, the delivery services are fucking expensive, I know, but they're well worth the trouble, no?" X wondered.
"That's what they want you to believe! Don't let them!" Garry warned, "That thing may still be infected, but it's less infected than it otherwise would've been."
"That makes sense," X as he opened the box, bringing out his compact laptop.
"Wait!? You want to start it here!?" Garry snapped in disbelief.
"Yeah? Why?" X raised a brow.
"Hold on!" Garry hastily ran to the garbage, looking through it before pulling out a large chunk of tin foil which he then turned into two tin foil hats, "Here, protection against their snakey eyes!"
"Hmm, sure?" X was a bit baffled but still put it on, "Not like I am the one who has to deal with the smell... Time for a nap," X shrugged as he closed his eyes only to open them a second later though instead of his wild eyes, what appeared were two exquisite inquisitive eyes.