Eighteen Big Shots

## Chapter 40 18. Big Score

When someone just won't listen to reason, a fist to the face can often help them understand things a little better, and that's exactly what Karl did.

"Jack, step aside a bit."

"Karl?"

Jack, who had been busy trying to talk things out, hadn't noticed what Karl was doing. After instinctively moving out of the way, he finally noticed Karl clenching his fist and Oliver holding the medical kit.

In an instant, he understood what his two friends were planning.

"Alright, looks like my little Jackie Welles' good-hearted lecture has come to an end."

"What's ending?"

The half-mech guy was still wondering what the big guy who was trying to persuade him was talking about when he saw Karl walking over. The cybernetic eye on his half-mechanical face flickered as he tried to scan Karl, but Karl had already punched him square in the face.

The force of the punch was so strong that the half-mech guy felt like his face had been caved in. His body went flying backward, about to fall off the bar stool, but before he could, Karl 'kindly' grabbed him with his other hand.

"What the hell are you doing!"

The half-mech guy, his speech slurred, felt like his face was misaligned. He couldn't understand why, when he was having a perfectly normal conversation, some random guy had come up and punched him.

"Nothing, I just felt really annoyed that you didn't answer my question, so I decided to beat you up a bit."

"Huh? What que-"

Before the half-mech guy could finish, Karl's next punch landed on his face. Because his neck was firmly gripped, the half-mech guy couldn't soften the blow, and he could almost hear the bones in his neck shifting.

"Ugh, bas-"

Again, before he could finish, Karl's fist came again.

"Are you going to talk?"

"Talk your motherf-"

Punch.

"Are you going to talk?"

"I'm saying, are you sick in the head, you-"

Punch.

"Are you willing to talk now?"

"You-"

Punch.

After a dozen or so interrupted sentences, in front of the dumbfounded old-timer being treated by Oliver, the arrogant company man who had been so high and mighty was now a bloody mess. Several teeth from his half-flesh face had been knocked out, and his half-mechanical face was slightly dented.

"Seriously, that hurt my hand."

Karl shook his hand. This half-mech guy was really tough. Karl's hand was red from the force of the counterattack from his face, but he still wouldn't talk.

"You you should ask..."

"Didn't I ask you?"

Punch.

"You you didn't ask."

The half-mech guy didn't want to try to resist anymore. He strongly suspected that this guy might have Cyberpsychosis.

"If I didn't ask, does that mean you can't answer?"

Punch.

Karl frowned. He hadn't expected this guy to be so stubborn, to not even understand that 'me not asking doesn't mean you can't answer.'

Doesn't this guy know how to read the room?

"I I..."

The half-mech guy was now completely convinced that this guy had Cyberpsychosis. He just wanted to leave the Afterlife bar and run back to the company as fast as possible.

This damn place was too dangerous. Even a field trip could go wrong.

"Beep beep beep."

Just as the half-mech guy was about to take a few more punches from Karl and then be thrown out of the Afterlife bar, Karl's communicator went off.

"KK, I have a job here that I think you'll be interested in."

The Fixer Faraday had finally sent a job.

With a job, he didn't have time to deal with this company employee. After Karl knocked the half-mech guy unconscious with one last punch, he had Jack help him drag him out and dump him. Then, he took the half-bag of fries he had gotten back from Oliver and placed it in front of the old-timer.

"Eat some. Don't worry, if you ever encounter something like this again, just come to the Afterlife bar and look for me. I'm happy to deal with as many unreasonable Corpo Dogs like this as there are."

Karl smiled, "As long as you keep coming to support Mrs. Welles' business like you used to."

Looking at Karl's smile, the old-timer's lips moved, and then, looking into his sincere eyes, he nodded heavily.

The old-timer didn't say anything, because for someone who was willing to help out bottom-feeders like them, he didn't know what kind of thanks he could offer that would truly convey his gratitude.

So unlike this rotten Night City, young and full of sunshine, as if he'd never fallen into it.

That kind of sunshine, it's truly something to long for.

Karl, Oliver, and Jack all settled back into their seats.

"I thought you'd throw a few more punches, and you're actually willing to share fries."

Faced with Oliver's curious gaze, Karl adopted a serious attitude: "A job came in, no choice. As for the fries, I've always believed that good food can soothe a tired soul, which is why I'm so demanding about it. The guy's injured, what's wrong with offering him some fries to comfort him?"

"After all, these are the best fries in Night City, right?"

Hearing Jack's words, Karl agreed with him, but rolled his eyes at Jack himself: "If you'd acted sooner, I wouldn't have had to step in."

"If you'd been a little later, I might have started throwing punches too. I was just gauging how much force to use."

Hearing Jack's reply, Karl knew he wasn't lying, because when Karl arrived, he noticed that Jack's fists were already clenched.

"Alright, forget the rest. We'll just beat him up every time we see him. Faraday sent a job, let's all take a look."

As he spoke, Karl shared the job details he hadn't had time to read with Jack and Oliver, and then started reading.

None of them looked at anything else first, scrolling straight to the bottom to check the reward. Oliver exclaimed in disbelief.

"Three hundred thousand?!"

"Is that Eurodollars?!"

Jack was also a little incredulous.

"Yes, it's Eurodollars."

After the shock, Oliver's expression turned serious: "Looks like a life-threatening job."

For Faraday, a Fixer, to offer a 300,000 Eurodollar reward, he must be taking at least that much himself. In other words, this is a job with a true value that could reach 600,000 Eurodollars, and those kinds of jobs...

They're basically out to kill someone.

Whether it's the Fixer's life, the client's life, or the mercenaries' lives.

The big job they'd been dreaming of had finally arrived.