Chapter Summaries

V, Carl, Jack, Oliver, T-BUG, and BallBall located three former Arasaka operatives in the manager's room at Clouds and uncovered their combat abilities and the reason they were in Night City. As the team took positions around the room, Carl prepared to begin the operation.

• V entered the surveillance room, killed the Tiger Claws guard, and connected to the local network.
• BallBall arrived and gave T-BUG access, allowing her to take control of the surveillance feeds and confirm the targets' location.
• T-BUG identified the three targets as former Arasaka South American special-operations veterans with Sandevistan and Mantis Blades, and explained that Militech had leaked Arasaka's dismissal list.
• Carl, Jack, Oliver, and V reached their positions around the manager's room, and Carl said they would each take one target.

Watanabe argued with three former classmates who claimed they had obtained crucial evidence against a disloyal figure in The Benefactor’s organization. Just as they agreed to share the credit with Watanabe, Carl burst into the office and demanded to see the evidence.

• Watanabe berated the three former classmates for exposing him and warned that Kenichi Shiro was on his way.
• One former Arasaka security officer claimed the group had obtained core intelligence that would make The Benefactor act against a disloyal person and his faction.
• Watanabe demanded to inspect the evidence and accused the three of trying to monopolize the credit.
• The three classmates compromised and began offering to share the glory with Watanabe.
• Carl dropped into the office through the broken entrance and ventilation duct, greeting the group and asking to see what they were discussing.

Carl and the crew defeated the former Arasaka security personnel and recovered the item hidden in one of their chests. With Tiger Claws closing in, Carl smashed a path through the building, and the group escaped from the twentieth floor to the ground.

• Watanabe tried to draw his gun and trigger a hidden bomb, but T-BUG disabled his hand implant and Carl knocked him unconscious.
• V, Jack, and Oliver subdued the remaining former Arasaka security personnel, while Oliver held back enough to leave his opponent alive.
• T-BUG warned the crew that Tiger Claws were approaching and told V to retrieve the item hidden in the chest of the man he had taken down.
• Carl punched through the floors as Jack, Oliver, and V followed her downward, with V pocketing the item on the way.
• The crew reached the ground level in fifteen seconds, leaving the Tiger Claws on each floor staring at the holes in the building.

Carl and the crew raced toward Arasaka Tower after escaping the collapsing building, but Tiger Claws intercepted them in Little China. After Jack and V fought off the pursuing motorcyclists, six combat drones joined the chase, leaving the crew under attack.

• Carl, V, Jack, and Oliver regrouped in the Hella and set off for Arasaka Tower, where their client was waiting.
• Oliver sped through Japantown toward City Center while Jack asked Carl about the client's plans to clean up exposed people.
• Jack recognized two Tiger Claws on Kusanagi CT-3X motorcycles as they caught up and fired at the Hella.
• Jack and V threw grenades at the motorcyclists, forcing them out of sight in smoke and explosions.
• A truck cut across Oliver's lane, and six Octant Drones emerged from its cargo compartment and pursued the Hella.

Carl and the others fought off the Octant Drones pursuing Hera, using hacking, a traffic-light explosion, and close-range shotgun fire. Hera sped away after destroying the three remaining drones, though its armor had been badly damaged.

• Oliver drove Hera at full speed while six Octant Drones strafed the vehicle, and V warned that its armor would soon fail.
• Jack threw an EMP Grenade, disabling one drone, while Carl hacked another and made it destroy a second before the remaining drones shot it down.
• Carl told Oliver to brake, letting three drones fly past Hera, then triggered a nearby traffic light to explode and obscure their sensors.
• Oliver accelerated Hera toward the three drones as Carl, V, and Jack fired fully charged Sadala Tech Double-Barrel Shotguns at close range.
• The three drones exploded, and Hera sped onward.

Carl’s team reached Arasaka Tower after fighting off attackers and hackers, and Kenichi Kazuya guided them through the entrance. Kenichi Shiro paid Carl and asked for the goods, then took a closer look at V.

• T-BUG told Carl’s team that she had blocked the hackers’ tracking and was finishing the cleanup as they entered Arasaka-controlled territory.
• Kenichi Kazuya contacted Carl, identified himself as Kenichi Shiro’s nephew, and directed the team to drive to the tower entrance.
• Arasaka security personnel opened a corridor for Hera while Militech observers gathered around the perimeter.
• Carl and V got out at the tower, while Jack and Oliver stayed with the vehicle.
• Kenichi Shiro handed Carl a data shard as payment and asked where the goods were; after Carl said V had them, Shiro studied V and recognized his apparent capability.

Carl completed the exchange with Kenichi Shiro and gave him the former guards who had killed his subordinates, along with a Tiger Claws manager. When Carl showed him the EMP Knife Haruko had given her, Kenichi Shiro recognized it as one of two rare Arasaka Tower prototypes and reacted with shock before sending Carl its maintenance manual.

• Carl gave Kenichi Shiro the requested item and presented him with the former security guards and a Tiger Claws manager as a gift.
• Kenichi Shiro offered to have Kazuya make Carl weapons from the best materials and replace them if they were damaged.
• Carl showed Kenichi Shiro her knife and asked whether she could bring in weapons from elsewhere for maintenance.
• Kenichi Shiro recognized the knife as a rare EMP Knife developed by Arasaka Tower and asked where Carl had gotten it.
• Carl explained that Haruko had given her the knife as an apology after a meeting at Arasaka Tower.
• Kenichi Shiro refused to maintain the knife, then sent Carl its maintenance and repair manual through her comms.

V and his crew received their new weapons, including a Thermal Katana for V, and discussed its capabilities. Carl then told them that Maine's Crew appeared to be doing Militech work for Faraday against Arasaka, possibly following the Cyber-Adamant job, leaving him quietly concerned about their safety.

• V's crew received five Neurotoxin Knives and a Thermal Katana, which V kept for himself.
• V decided to wait for a job before testing the Thermal Katana, while Oliver complained about an overpriced Zeiss scope.
• Carl said Maine's Crew had recently been doing Militech work for Faraday aimed at Arasaka.
• Carl suspected the job was connected to the Cyber-Adamant run and might involve an Arasaka laboratory or stolen products.
• Carl said Maine's Crew should be capable of handling the work, but privately wondered whether something dangerous might happen.

Carl accepted Dino Dinovic’s invitation to discuss a high-paying, unusual job and drove with V to his bar in City Center. They arrived at the small, hidden entrance, where a large Black man stood waiting.

• Dino called Carl and asked her to come to his bar to hear about a lucrative job in person.
• Jack declined to drive Carl because he needed to help at his mother’s bar, and Oliver stayed to practice the Training Chip’s hard mode.
• V agreed to drive Carl in his reassembled Thorny Gallina Viper.
• Carl marked Dino’s bar on the car’s navigation system, and she and V drove to City Center.
• Carl slid open the narrow metal door to Dino’s bar, where a large Black man in sunglasses, a T-shirt, and a baseball cap looked over at them.

Carl met with Dino to discuss a job and learned that the Tiger Claws had set up a Shimmers manufacturing plant in City Center. He accepted Dino’s commission to find and destroy it.

• Carl noticed that the bar’s massive security guard had an unusually precise stance but chose not to investigate him.
• Carl met Dino, read the chip’s information on Shimmers, and warned Dino that his modified phone could explode while reading it.
• Dino explained that Shimmers was a highly addictive hallucinogen secretly manufactured by the Tiger Claws.
• Dino asked Carl’s team to locate and destroy the Tiger Claws’ Shimmers plant in City Center.
• Carl assessed Dino’s honesty and accepted the job.

Carl and V accepted Dino’s lucrative commission to find James Reddington and destroy the Tiger Claws’ Shimmers operation in City Center. As they left Dino’s bar, Carl sensed danger from the Black guard, demonstrated his skill, and invited him to join the team.

• Dino explained that James Reddington had formulated Shimmers and that the Tiger Claws were distributing the drug in City Center.
• Carl realized Dino wanted his team to sabotage the Tiger Claws while concealing Dino’s involvement, and accepted the commission for four hundred thousand eurodollars.
• Carl and V discussed the job’s risks and the enormous profits Shimmers brought the Tiger Claws.
• As Carl left the bar, he sensed danger from the Black guard and carved his contact number into a beer bottle with his Monomolecular Wire.
• Carl invited the guard to become a mercenary, and the guard kept the bottle to drink after his shift.

T-BUG traced a Tiger Claws chemical supply lead to a Biotechnica warehouse robbery, while Carl, V, and Oliver headed to Heywood and ran into Maine’s crew. The encounter ended with Oliver recognizing David, who had begun using a Sandevistan.

• T-BUG reasoned that the Tiger Claws likely stole chemicals themselves and found that a Biotechnica warehouse in City Center had been robbed of Laughing Gas canisters two days earlier.
• T-BUG returned to her room to investigate camera footage and vehicle records while Carl, V, and Oliver decided to visit Jack in Heywood.
• Carl, V, and Oliver walked from Watson through City Center toward The Glen, leaving BallBall behind to guard their home.
• On the bridge between City Center and Watson, the group encountered Maine’s crew after a captive in their wrecked vehicle blew himself up.
• David rushed over and told Maine that he had escaped harm by throwing the captive away and activating his Sandevistan, and Oliver recognized him.

Carl warned Maine that Faraday might betray him, but understood why Maine was willing to risk his life for a chance at fame. The crew arrived at the Afterlife, where Carl told David to run when the time came, and Maine understood that his own death might make David’s escape necessary.

• Maine drove Carl, V, Oliver, and David toward the Afterlife and described how his crew’s job had stalled after a target blew himself up.
• Carl warned Maine that Faraday was greedy and might sell him out, but Maine said the dangerous job was his best chance to make a name for himself.
• Carl accepted that Maine would pursue his ambition and asked him to keep her contact at the top of his system so she could learn how he was doing.
• Maine joked that Carl should handle his funeral and launch his ashes into the sun if he died.
• After they arrived, Carl asked David if he could run fast and told him to run when the time came.
• Maine understood that Carl meant David might need to escape after Maine was killed.

Carl, Oliver, Jack, and T-BUG discussed several corporate employees who had exploded after being captured, and T-BUG suggested a Rogue AI might be controlling them. She gave Carl intel about their target’s possible locations and told the group to scout the site the next morning.

• Oliver complained that he and Carl had ended up helping with the busy shift at the Afterlife bar, and Jack thanked them for moving liquor.
• Carl and Oliver told Jack they had seen many Valentinos gang members at the bar, and Jack explained that Gustavo was investigating a captured Kang Tao employee who had exploded.
• V connected the incident to two earlier cases involving employees from Arasaka Corporation and KENDACHI, and Carl suspected the victims had been controlled and made to self-destruct.
• T-BUG proposed that an AI might be controlling people, then warned the group not to get involved and gave Carl a chip with intel on their target’s possible locations.
• Carl inserted the chip and decided to focus on scouting the target’s location the next morning.

Carl and his crew traveled by aerodyne to an alley in Night City to find James Reddington, the inventor of Shimmers. After they entered the alley, a local punk realized Oliver’s glance had warned him that drawing his gun would have meant death.

• T-BUG helped Carl’s crew locate James Reddington, who had entered an alley and not come back out.
• V flew the team to the location, and Carl and the others jumped from the aerodyne near the alley.
• Oliver glared at the people gathering to watch, prompting an armed punk to prepare to draw his gun.
• Carl told Oliver not to cause trouble, and the punk recognized Carl and froze before drawing.
• Oliver followed the others into the alley, and the terrified punk collapsed after realizing he had survived by hesitating.

Carl, Jack, V, and Oliver tracked James Reddington into a sewer beneath a Night City alley and followed fluorescent markers through the passage. The group continued toward a hidden drug factory built underground by the Tiger Claws.

• Carl found no sign of James Reddington at the alley's far end, and Oliver discovered footprints leading to a manhole cover.
• Jack disarmed the pressure-triggered mine beneath the cover and scouted the sewer before the others climbed down.
• Jack found glowing chemical spots marking a path along the sewer walkway.
• Carl deduced that the fluorescent spots were deliberate trail markers and estimated the person who left them was about 1.8 meters tall.
• V asked Carl to share her detective braindances as the group followed the markers toward the Tiger Claws' underground drug factory.

James Reddington argued with Arashi Hitoshi over the Laughing Gas needed to produce Shimmers, while the Tiger Claws considered how useful James was to their operation. A young man with an orange-yellow katana attacked the sewer lab, cutting down the guard at its entrance.

• James Reddington demanded more Laughing Gas, but Arashi Hitoshi told him to start producing Shimmers with the supplies already delivered.
• Arashi Hitoshi dismissed his subordinate's suggestion to get rid of James, saying James might invent something else valuable.
• Arashi Hitoshi and his subordinate heard a blade scraping outside the lab and sent a Tiger Claws member to quiet the trainees.
• The Tiger Claws member opened the door and saw a trainee cut in half by a clean, scorched slash.
• A blue-eyed young man with a buzz cut and an orange-yellow Katana killed the Tiger Claws member with a swift strike.

V and Carl’s crew wiped out Arashi Hitoshi’s Tiger Claws and killed the drug maker James at the lab. After Carl reported the job complete, he received Chiyome’s commission to provide security for Miss Haruko at an Arasaka Tower banquet in one day.

• V killed the Tiger Claws in the lab and cut Arashi Hitoshi in half when he tried to surrender.
• Carl, Oliver, and Jack entered the room, and Carl kicked James through the inner door.
• James offered to make addictive Shimmers, but Carl shot him dead.
• Carl messaged Dino that the job was done and found Chiyome’s commission for security at Miss Haruko’s banquet.

Carl’s team finished Dino’s commission, and Trauma Team arrived to collect the dead client. Carl then shared Chiyome’s lucrative job at Arasaka Tower with his teammates, who agreed to discuss it before deciding; the next day, an AV carrying Kenichi Shiro’s identification code appeared beside the tower.

• Carl told Dino the targets were dead, and Dino transferred the team’s payment.
• Trauma Team blasted through the ceiling, recognized Carl, and collected their client’s remains without confronting him.
• Oliver, Jack, and V returned, and the team discussed whether to buy Trauma Team memberships.
• Carl shared Chiyome’s offer of 150,000 eurodollars per person for a job at Arasaka Tower, and the team agreed to discuss it together.
• The next day, an AV bearing Kenichi Shiro’s identification code appeared beside Arasaka Tower.

Carl, V, Jack, and Oliver arrived at Arasaka Tower for a mission and witnessed drones shoot down a disguised Militech Manticore aerocar. Their aerocar landed near the tower’s middle levels, where Mr. Kenichi Shiro waited to receive them.

• Carl, Jack, Oliver, and V approached Arasaka Tower in an aerocar as security drones scanned their identities.
• The drones flagged a disguised aerocar behind them, which tried to flee and was revealed to be a Militech Manticore armored aerocar.
• Carl identified the Manticore as an NCPD vehicle commonly used by the Psycho Squad and speculated that Militech might have backed the attack through Will Firecannon and the Sixth Street Gang.
• Arasaka’s drones attacked the Manticore with machine guns and missiles, setting it ablaze as it fell.
• Carl told the others to prepare for their mission, and their aerocar landed near the tower’s middle levels.
• Carl pointed out Mr. Kenichi Shiro, who stood waiting for them with a gloomy expression.