Chapter 196: Odds and Ends
“Hah… finally, school’s out…”
V pulled the braindance device off her face but stayed slumped in the chair, not moving at all. That network class had been pure torture for her.
“Alright, don’t just sit there. Let’s go. I said I’m treating today.”
Sasha walked over with a grin, patted V on the shoulder, and spoke.
“Roger that.”
V immediately gave a thumbs-up, then sprang up from the chair in one smooth motion. She rubbed her face hard to wake herself up.
Before long, the two of them were near the school gates.
Suddenly, a burst of noise reached their ears. They exchanged curious looks and slowly headed toward the source.
“Hey, do you think we’re about to run into one of those classic scenarios?”
“What kind of classic scenario?”
V paused, then looked at Sasha.
“You know—someone getting bullied, then we, as the protagonists, swoop in, beat everyone up in a flash. Like a heroic save.”
“……Cut back on those heroic braindances,” V said, rolling her eyes. “We’re still on campus. The corp’s security bots and cameras aren’t decoration. There’s no way they’d let something like that happen.”
“Oh. Right…”
Sasha scratched her head, looking a little disappointed. But she quickly let it go—she was far more interested in what was actually going on over there.
Soon, they saw a boy clearly younger than them, surrounded by a small crowd. He stood in the middle, enthusiastically pitching something.
While Sasha looked confused, V recognized what the kid was holding at a glance.
“Black braindance? Getting into that at his age already? Don’t tell me this kid’s hooked…”
V stroked her chin, frowning. In this world, braindance addiction wasn’t rare at all. A lot of people couldn’t see any hope in reality and would rather drown themselves in dreams, unwilling to face the massive gap between illusion and real life.
“V, what are they holding?”
“Just black braindance. Let’s go.”
V explained briefly and tilted her head to signal it was time to leave.
Sasha nodded. She’d heard of black braindance before, but never actually seen it.
Still, that kind of stuff didn’t have a good reputation anyway, so she didn’t care much.
After all, words usually associated with black braindance were things like bloody, dark, violent, and pornographic—and it was never openly sold. To put it simply, it was R18G content.
David, who had just finished promoting his goods, suddenly found his gaze drifting toward the two figures walking away. For some reason, he felt like he’d cross paths with them again…
Roland watched David through the surveillance feed, feeling a bit helpless. He couldn’t quite figure it out. Logically speaking, David’s family wasn’t short on money anymore—there was no real need for him to sell black braindance for cash, so…
It had to be interest. Nothing more.
Roland could clearly see that all the black braindances David was selling were of the edgerunner variety—intense combat footage, followed by final moments of death, all packed together in a dizzying rush.
On a whim, he had Lissandra pull up the contents and took a quick look.
And then he saw a familiar face.
“Jackie?”
…
“Any gigs lately? I’m about to grow mold from boredom.”
Jackie, one arm already replaced with cyberware, picked up the “Johnny Silverhand” on the table and downed it in one go before asking.
“You’re asking the wrong person. You should be talking to Rogue.”
“Yeah, figured.”
Jackie shrugged and walked over to the rest of the team.
“Rogue probably won’t have anything for us for a while, so I wanted to hear your thoughts on that earlier job.”
He sat down and looked around at everyone.
“I don’t really care. As long as there’s something to do.”
Rebecca raised her pistol, aimed it casually, and grinned as she spoke.
“Same here. Business has dropped off a lot lately.”
Pilar shrugged. After the previous peak period, parts of the Northern California military had moved into Night City. The people at the top clearly didn’t want the city staying that chaotic—it made management harder and left too many openings for spies.
As a result, a lot of edgerunner crews got wiped out, along with some fixers. That was how so many black braindances ended up circulating.
Their own team had been pretty lucky. Their last job had wrapped up right before all that happened, and they’d been resting. On top of that, their fixer—Rogue—was steady and reliable.
The problem now was that there weren’t many jobs in the city anymore—or rather, not many that suited them. Most were small-time errands, fine for some extra cash, but nothing big.
And now, a major client had come knocking, asking them to take on this job.
They were still discussing whether to accept it.
After all, that client gave off a distinctly shady vibe.
“Can we dig up anything more on this guy?”
Lucy thought for a moment, then asked.
“So far, all we’ve got is that he’s a general manager at some corp. Beyond that, there’s not much to go on.”
Jackie handed over a shard as he spoke. It contained everything he’d managed to find.
On the surface, there didn’t seem to be any major problems.
The job itself wasn’t especially difficult either. They just had to head into the Badlands, escort a transport vehicle, and bring the cargo into the city. And the pay was generous.
“No need to be so cautious. How are we supposed to make real money like that? Let’s just do it.”
Suddenly, a tall, solidly built woman laughed loudly.
She was their newest recruit—Jessica. She used to be with the Animals, before leaving the gang.
As for how they’d met her… that was at a boxing match.
Jessica was already working as a merc by then, though she didn’t have much of a name yet.
They’d seen her skills during that match, and after running a few jobs together, they’d gotten used to having her around.
“So that settles it?”
Jackie looked around at everyone before asking.
After receiving unanimous agreement, Jackie nodded and started contacting the client.
Lucy still felt a hint of unease, but she didn’t say anything.
“Probably just overthinking it…”
…
“You want me to move this thing into Night City as it is now? Are you insane?”
“These are orders from above. Don’t look at me like that—I don’t have a choice either.”
“…Fine. Any support from upstairs?”
“Yeah. A special operations team will escort it. Use whatever resources in the city you think are necessary.”
“In that case, I’ve got an idea. There’s a corp we’ve been backing in Night City. We can disguise it as their cargo.”
“There’s some risk, but it’s one of the better options. Find an edgerunner team as well—let them blend in with the special ops unit.”
“Hmm… that’ll work.”
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