The First Car at Sixteen

Chapter 38 16. The First Car

"Here's your breakfast."

"Karl, did you go out?"

Still half-asleep, Oliver, who had been woken up by Karl, nudged Jack beside him, whose feet were practically on his stomach. Then, he immediately noticed the large bag Karl was holding.

"What's to eat?"

"Sushi set, two large portions."

"Sushi, huh..."

Jack also woke up, rubbing his eyes. He yawned, but then his nose caught a strange scent.

He followed the scent.

"Karl, why do you smell like blood?"

"It's on TV."

Karl pointed to the TV, where the Night City Police Department was broadcasting live. The content was...

Thanks to the brave combat of the NCPD officers, the Cyberpsycho was killed. And the location was downstairs?

"You ran into a Cyberpsycho!?"

Now Oliver was fully awake. He scrutinized Karl's body for a few moments, and only relaxed after seeing that he wasn't injured. "You got caught up in it, huh? Bad luck."

"Bad luck? Not really."

Karl took the plastic boxes containing 'plastic' sushi out of the plastic bag and placed them on the table in front of the two.

"I was the one who took care of that Cyberpsycho."

"Huh?"

How could buying breakfast lead to taking down a Cyberpsycho?

As Oliver and Jack questioned him, Karl went to the vending machine to buy them two bottles of water, all the while explaining what had happened.

"You didn't just get caught up in it, you actively participated. Sandevistan, Mantis Blades, Subdermal Armor... You dared to go up against an opponent like that? You really have no regard for your life."

Oliver was impressed by Karl's courage. If he encountered a Cyberpsycho like that on the street, he would definitely turn around and run without saying a word.

"I just wanted to make some money. Who knew it would only be ten thousand eddies? Not even enough to get a weapon back."

"Next time something like this happens, call us, Karl. It's too dangerous for you to go alone."

Jack also didn't approve of Karl's risky behavior. Karl nodded at their words of concern.

"I just wanted to test if my feeling was right. I won't do it again."

He wasn't someone who liked to seek death. Experiencing the Sandevistan once was enough. Next time he had to face a Sandevistan, he would at least upgrade his cyberware first... or learn more techniques from Braindances.

After buying the drinks and tossing them to the two, Karl remembered the chip he had casually grabbed.

"Speaking of which, I also grabbed a chip. It's a bit risky to directly plug this kind of foreign chip into my access port. Oliver, can I use your computer?"

"Go ahead."

Oliver, who was using a fork with Jack to eat the sushi, gave his permission. Karl went to the computer in Oliver's room and inserted the chip.

The data was read quickly. There was nothing special in the chip, just a text record.

But the communication record was a bit strange.

'The cherry blossom born from the chrysanthemum and the rose has arrived in Night City.'

Night City, Karl could understand. It should be referring to Night City, but he couldn't understand the previous code words at all.

What did the chrysanthemum, rose, and cherry blossom refer to? Just flowers?

But the word 'born' was used, so could it be people?

The meaning of this sentence probably meant that someone had arrived in Night City?

There wasn't enough information.

Why would a Cyberpsycho have such a text chip? What could be the meaning of this information? He didn't understand at all.

But one thing was clear.

That was all the information he had obtained.

Karl valued the collection of information a lot. Basically, whether it was useful or not, he would remember it in his head, because his talent could only be maximized with the accumulation of information.

After asking Oliver and Jack to save him some inari sushi, Karl opened other websites to browse, and then saw a website selling cars.

"Isn't this Old Captain's car sales website?"

Oliver, who was drinking water and bringing over the inari sushi that Karl wanted, saw the webpage on Karl's screen and said.

"Old Captain?"

"He's from our Santo Domingo area. I heard he used to be a Corpo Dog, but later he disliked the company's system, resigned, and became a car salesman specializing in selling cars."

"Mostly used cars."

Jack also came over, as he knew a thing or two about this car sales website: "It's mostly used cars that have seen some action, or people are just trying to get rid of them quick. If you don't mind that, the prices are pretty cheap."

"Cheap indeed."

Looking at the prices, mostly below several tens of thousands of eddies, some even below ten thousand, Karl started to get some ideas.

"Oliver, Jack, what do you think about me buying a car? That way I wouldn't have to squeeze in with you guys all the time."

"Buying a used car?"

Jack stared at the vehicles on the screen. "Wouldn't it have some kind of problem down the line?"

"Old Captain's cars are trustworthy. Basically, any car he's personally handled is clean. You can check the website for the ones he's responsible for selling. Those cars have been cleaned up by him and are safe to buy. As for the other cars listed, forget about them. Those things might actually be unreliable."

Oliver seemed to know a lot about Old Captain's website. Every street kid in Santo Domingo had probably seen Old Captain's car sales website at some point. After all, what could be more attractive to a street kid than a cool car and a powerful, good-looking gun?

"So, do you have any recommendations?"

Looking at the dazzling array of vehicles, each one touted as the best thing since sliced bread in their descriptions, Karl didn't know much about cars and decided to leave it to Oliver to decide.

"Anyway, let's pick a four-seater first. It's not a problem if we drive two cars after you buy one, but when we're on a mission together, a four-seater is definitely the way to go."

After browsing for a while, Oliver pointed to a car that Karl happened to be familiar with. In fact, he had even ridden in it before.

Sky-Hera EC-D I360

This reputable and durable car was now available on Old Captain's website for only thirty-one thousand eddies, practically brand new. The reason it was "practically" brand new was that the person who bought it got shot by some street thugs on the way to pick it up. The owner's family, having lost their breadwinner, couldn't afford such a car and had no choice but to sell it.

"This car seems alright."

Karl quickly made the decision to buy his first car in Night City.