Chapter 166: After They Left
After Jhin left Night City, Rebecca returned to the bar, her expression complicated.
“Huh? Where’s Jhin?”
Jackie, sharp-eyed as ever, immediately noticed something was off and asked.
“Don’t tell me you confessed and got rejected?”
Pilar slung an arm over Jackie’s shoulder and grinned at Rebecca.
Rebecca immediately shot Pilar the middle finger.
“Get lost!”
“Judging by your face, it must be something serious,”
Jackie said curiously.
“He… won’t be an outsider anymore.”
“Oh… huh?!”
Pilar nodded at first, then, when the meaning finally sank in, let out a cry of disbelief.
Jackie froze as well, then leaned forward sharply.
“You’re serious?!”
Falco quietly lit a cigarette, already wondering whether it might be time for him to leave…
“Yeah. He accepted the corporation’s offer and joined them,”
Rebecca said, slowly sitting down and nodding.
“What the hell?! Didn’t he end up like this because of the corporation in the first place?! What is this supposed to mean?! Doesn’t he trust his friends anymore?!”
Jackie slammed the table, anger written all over his face.
“He said the only thing that can take down a corporation is another corporation. Then he didn’t say anything else,”
Rebecca replied softly, her gaze lowered as she rubbed the glass in her hand.
Lucy, standing nearby, naturally heard everything. For some reason, a deep sense of helplessness welled up inside her.
After spending so long together, she knew exactly how strong Jhin was. If even he couldn’t escape the corporation and had to seek shelter and protection…
Then could she really escape Arasaka?
Lucy had no answer to that question—and didn’t want to think about it. If she did, it felt like she’d see no future at all.
Her grip tightened, further crumpling the already battered poster in her hands.
“…Once is enough,”
Lucy murmured to herself, ignoring the others.
Did Lucy really want to go to the moon? No… what she wanted was a place where she could truly be free—a place where she didn’t have to worry about Arasaka appearing at any moment, or about her life being taken away just as suddenly.
“So what do we do now?”
Pilar said, having accepted Jhin’s departure. He scratched his head irritably.
After all, the reason they’d been able to band together in the first place was largely because of Jhin. Now that he was gone…
Putting everything else aside, a lot of clients simply wouldn’t come to them anymore. Many of them had shown up because of Jhin’s reputation. With Jhin gone… who knew?
That said, they weren’t completely finished. Over time, they’d taken on plenty of jobs, and Jhin hadn’t always been the one doing the heavy lifting. They had a reputation of their own—it would just mean fewer gigs than before.
“We’re still a team, right?”
Jackie turned to Pilar.
“What kind of question is that? Of course we are,”
Pilar replied without hesitation.
“Then we keep going. When we run into that guy again, we’ll sit down and have a proper talk,”
Jackie said, raising his glass.
Falco shook his head when he saw that.
“What, you thinking of bailing?”
Pilar raised an eyebrow and strode over like a street punk, one hand on his hip.
Still, he deliberately left some space. No matter what, it was a personal choice. As a friend, he didn’t need to block him outright.
“What are you talking about? Of course I’m staying,”
Falco said, wagging a finger before stroking his beard with a grin.
He lifted his glass and clinked it with the others. Rebecca immediately raised hers as well.
“I’ll blow that damn corporation up one day,”
she said.
Everyone then turned to Lucy.
Lucy gave a helpless smile, lifted her glass slightly, and signaled that she was in.
“Haha, looks like we’re still on the same wavelength,”
Jackie laughed, taking a sip.
“But we’ll need to recruit one more person,”
Pilar shrugged.
“That’s true… we’ll have to see if there’s anyone we can actually trust,”
“Jhin leaving will probably be common knowledge around here in a few days. Speaking of which… can we still get in?”
“Hmm… I don’t think it’ll be a big problem,”
Jackie said, rubbing his chin.
And that turned out to be true. After Rogue learned that Jhin had left the outsiders and joined a corporation, her response was simple—a single job.
If they could handle it, the Afterlife would still keep its doors open to them. If not, they’d need to go train some more.
...
“Looks like Arasaka finally couldn’t hold back anymore. Next comes the real contest between the two sides,”
Jamde said, narrowing his eyes as he rubbed his chin.
Honestly, if Arasaka had stayed hidden and refused to show itself, that would have been far more troublesome. You never knew what it was scheming in the dark.
Now that Arasaka had stepped forward to fight openly, there was less to worry about. They could just face them head-on.
“Which side are their reinforcements leaning toward?”
“Radiating out from Northern California, many Free States have accepted Arasaka’s security advisors. Arasaka has also sent large numbers of personnel, armored vehicles, drones, and other assets into those regions.”
“Mm… that’s about what I expected. By the way, any news on Adam Smasher?”
Jamde suddenly remembered and asked.
“Nothing yet. He might be on another assignment and hasn’t joined the main front.”
“Is that so… what a shame,”
Jamde said, shaking his head with genuine regret.
“Alright, go deploy the forces. Our first target is here.”
As he spoke, Jamde pointed to a city on the map—Amir City.
Located at the border between two Free States, taking it would allow them to use it as a bridgehead to advance into the remaining Free States. Of course, it also meant taking on greater risks.
But Jamde didn’t care. He was an aggressive officer by nature.
“Oh, Commander, this is a request sent over from PROJECT Corporation.”
“Hm? A request at a time like this?”
Jamde looked slightly surprised as he took it. After reading the contents, his expression immediately turned strange.
“They actually chose this moment to make a request like this…”
Author's Note
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