17. Young People and the Barbecue Joint

Getting off work at 10:20 p.m. was practically a luxury in Night City.

Even though their standard hours had long been stretched to a numbing seven in the morning to nine-thirty at night, the extra fifty minutes of overtime exploitation could even be called "humane management" at other companies.

At a giant corporation like Biotechnica, employees could actually make it through an entire workday on nothing but their natural brains and basic bodily functions—without stimulants to stay awake, without neural enhancers to forcibly maintain focus, and while even keeping relatively stable efficiency. Such leniency was nearly absurd in Night City's workplace ecosystem, like some grim joke masquerading as corporate benefits.

Carl had once read an article ranking corporate benefits in Night City.

Biotechnica had barely squeezed into third place on the benefits list with its "generous" policy of six paid vacation days a year, while first-place Arasaka Corporation held firm with its "ultimate care" package: "the latest cyberware after twenty years of service."

Militech came right after them. Their employees had the privilege of buying weapons at half price internally—though in a sense, that did fit their corporate culture rather well.

Carl had to admit that he had no interest in the so-called "benefits" these corporations trumpeted so loudly—Arasaka's cyberware basically used its own employees as test subjects, while Militech's discounted weapons were merely piled-up inventory being cleared out. But at this moment, Biotechnica's preferential policy of not keeping employees at work for too long had genuinely helped him out.

Eight hours and thirty-seven minutes.

That was the precise gap before the next shift began.

Enough time to turn that suspicious warehouse upside down, with even some leeway left to handle unexpected situations.

His gaze swept over the employees gradually dispersing, then suddenly caught a small cluster of figures at