"Sorry. Are you okay?"
The Azure-Haired Girl sitting on the ground heard Carl's voice and looked up at her. Her purple cybernetic eye flickered, seeming to begin scanning in the instant she raised her gaze.
Gaius Brutus, Heywood native, seventeen years old. Criminal record: illegally selling braindances. Night City Police Department bounty: none.
Once the information from the cybernetic eye's scan entered the girl's mind, she understood Gaius's identity.
The rumored trial student?
Her face showed no particular reaction. The Azure-Haired Girl merely shook her head lightly, refusing Gaius's offered hand before getting up on her own. "You should be more careful when walking around corners."
After saying that ordinary sentence, the Azure-Haired Girl walked around Gaius and continued onward, seemingly paying little attention to their accidental collision at the corner.
"I'll be more careful."
Speaking from behind her, though he did not know whether she heard him, Gaius flipped his palm over and concealed something beneath it.
When he had bumped into the girl just now, he had casually taken something from her.
Gaius had noticed the camera at the corner. During the collision, he had used positioning to hide his small movement behind the Azure-Haired Girl's body.
After walking several steps as though nothing had happened, Gaius reached a camera blind spot he had noticed while touring the school yesterday. He took out the card-shaped object he had gotten from the Azure-Haired Girl and examined it twice.
Hit the jackpot.
The card-shaped item in Gaius's hand was called a vehicle control chip, the 2075 equivalent of a car key.
Just as car keys from the old era had always come with specialized designs, luxury cars in 2075 generally had custom chip designs as well. Thanks to Oliver and Jack, two car enthusiasts, explaining such things to him, Gaius