Chapter Summaries

Carl visited Arasaka Tower’s recruitment floor and found Maki, who had just been hired as Haruko’s assistant. Their playful teasing over Maki’s homemade snacks ended with Carl stealing a deliberately salty cookie and Maki triumphantly calling her out.

• Carl entered the recruitment area, where guards who remembered working with her admitted her without hesitation.
• Maki greeted Carl and revealed that her interview was complete and she had received a badge as an External Director’s Assistant.
• Maki explained that her work hours were flexible and she had barely checked her salary because she did not need the money.
• Carl and Maki traded teasing remarks while Carl repeatedly tried to steal snacks from Maki’s box.
• Maki demonstrated how Carl should compliment her, then jokingly revoked her snack privileges after his awkward attempt.
• Carl stole a white chocolate almond cookie and discovered that Maki had made it salty as a prank.

David received an offer to join Arasaka’s combat squad, but he planned to reject it because the job would end his mercenary work. Maki’s comment that V was the squad captain left Carl wondering whether David might serve under V rather than Adam Smasher.

• Carl asked Maki about David, and she said he had been in an interview for a long time.
• David told Carl that Arasaka had questioned him closely about his family but barely investigated his mercenary work.
• David said Arasaka offered him a combat squad position with a monthly salary of 120,000 eddies and that he would not sign the contract.
• Carl suggested David might end up under Adam Smasher, but Maki recalled that V held the captain position.

Carl realized David’s Arasaka contract assigned him to V’s still-active Second Operations Squad, where he could earn a monthly salary while receiving priority mercenary commissions. David agreed to sign for the offered pay, and Carl suggested he tell his mother he had chosen both a corporate job and mercenary work.

• Carl noticed that David’s contract assigned him to the Second Operations Squad and asked who had interviewed him.
• Carl explained that Kenichi Kazuya had likely placed David in V’s squad, whose positions and salaries remained active despite V doing no work.
• David realized the contract offered him 100,000 Eurodollars a month, with the expectation that he would take priority on future commissions.
• Carl argued that David deserved better pay, but David refused to negotiate and said the offered salary was already enough.
• Carl advised David to tell his mother that he had taken both a corporate job and the mercenary path.

Haruko declined to join Carl and Maki for lunch, while Chiyome secretly began removing employees she deemed incompetent. Carl, Maki, and David witnessed an Arasaka employee being terminated violently, and Carl told David that this was corporate reality.

• Chiyome told Haruko that Carl and Maki were downstairs and asked whether to invite them to lunch.
• Haruko refused, saying Maki should enjoy her first day on the job with Carl.
• Chiyome sent encrypted instructions to delete internship evaluations, reassess certain employees, and review submitted proposals.
• Carl, Maki, and David saw a dismissed employee plead with security before a termination officer stunned him in the lobby.
• Carl told David that corporations normally dealt with incompetent people that way.

Carl, David, and Maki visited the Afterlife Bar, where fixer Old Captain sized Maki up and tried to win her business. Old Captain said he had not come to offer Carl a driving job, but the reason for his visit remained unclear.

• Carl teased Maki about skipping work, and she explained that she had only completed an interview and onboarding before her official start the next day.
• Old Captain joined the group and joked with Carl about driving jobs and KK’s street-racing habits.
• Old Captain noticed Maki’s expensive Arasaka and Biotechnica equipment and realized she was an exceptionally wealthy, high-profile client.
• Maki asked whether Old Captain was a fixer, and he offered her his services and a business card.
• David complained that Old Captain’s last apartment job had lacked hot water, and Old Captain defended the low-budget service.
• Carl told Old Captain to stop putting on an act and asked what he had come to see him about.

Old Captain offered Carl and David a job retrieving data from a vehicle, and Carl negotiated a standard mercenary-team rate for them. The deal was made, but Carl asked Old Captain to give him time to finish talking with Maki first.

• Old Captain asked whether he could discuss business openly, and Maki agreed to leave after spending a little more time with Carl and David.
• Old Captain proposed hiring Carl and David to retrieve data from a vehicle.
• Carl argued that the job was harder than Old Captain claimed and negotiated a package rate for himself and David.
• Old Captain happily accepted the deal, and Carl said he would talk with Maki before starting the job.
• Old Captain offered to bring them food and cover their expenses at the Afterlife.

Carl offered to buy David a car to celebrate his graduation and new job, and Old Captain tried to sell them a Rayfield Excalibur. David turned down the suspicious car and chose to look for a four-seater, though his reasons for choosing one left Carl pointing out that he had forgotten Maine and the others.

• After saying goodbye to Maki, David realized he had no car, and Carl offered to buy him one as a celebration gift.
• David agreed to look at cars, joking that he wanted one capable of smashing through Night City Police Department barricades.
• Carl suggested deducting the cost from the payment for their job, and Old Captain showed David a Rayfield Excalibur at a steep discount.
• Carl recognized the Excalibur as a car whose owner had died after a reckless street race, so David rejected Old Captain's offer.
• David said he preferred a four-seater so he could bring Carl, Oliver, Jack, and others, and Carl reminded him that Maine would feel hurt to be left out.

David, Carl, and Old Captain drove to Coronado Farm to prepare for a job stealing data from a car, though Old Captain warned that the ordinary-looking assignment might hide trouble. They learned the target would leave his vehicle outside a residence at night because he was visiting his much older mistress.

• David chose a Villefort-Curtis V5000 Valor, and Old Captain rode with David and Carl as they drove toward the job.
• Old Captain explained that an old client had asked him to steal data from a car, and he suspected the job was more dangerous than it appeared.
• Old Captain shared intel identifying the target's car at Coronado Farm and said they would have thirty minutes to access it after the target went inside.
• David accelerated to reach the marked location, where Old Captain told them to return around eight that evening.
• David asked why the target parked at the ordinary residence, and Old Captain said he was visiting a mistress old enough to be his mother.

Carl, David, and Old Captain monitored a target and received instructions to search his vehicle using a special storage device and the keyword “White Noise Eagles.” After the target arrived alone to visit his elderly former teacher and mistress, Carl led the team toward the house to begin their mission.

• Old Captain received detailed mission instructions that called for a keyword search of the target’s vehicle, and Carl noticed the phrase “White Noise Eagles.”
• Carl, David, and Old Captain waited, ate at the Old Mex Stir Fry Restaurant, and prepared for the mission, with Old Captain taking rear guard.
• A man arrived in a Mizutani Shion MZ2 without bodyguards and went into the house of his elderly former teacher, whom he secretly loved.
• Carl assessed the man’s appearance and likely status, then got out of the car and headed for the house as David followed and Old Captain took the driver’s seat.

Carl and David hacked a Mizutani Hayabusa and uncovered a Militech operation targeting the Sixth Street Gang. The intelligence named Oliver’s father, Nottingham-Wenrio, as a priority target, and David saw the revelation on the screen.

• Carl bypassed the car’s layered security system and found background uploads containing coordinates.
• Carl searched the data for “White Noise Eagles” and filtered more than a thousand results while David prepared a storage chip for the transfer.
• Carl uncovered an order for the White Noise Eagles to conduct an armed purge in Santo Domingo and kill Nottingham-Wenrio.
• Carl recognized Nottingham-Wenrio as Oliver’s father and spotted Militech’s logo on the file.
• David saw the intelligence and exclaimed in shock.

Carl and David discovered a directive to assassinate Oliver’s father, Nottingham-Winleao, and traced the operation to a faction tied to Militech and New America. They copied the intelligence for themselves and the employer, then noticed the house lights come on as their mission time ran short.

• David recognized Nottingham-Winleao as Oliver’s father and wanted to warn him, but Carl urged him to wait while she assessed the directive.
• Carl deduced that Militech was likely behind the planned assassination and intended to destabilize the Sixth Street Gang to expand its influence in Santo Domingo.
• Carl identified the White Noise Eagles as a likely elite anti-president unit and suspected New American bureaucrats had hired the fixer to investigate the intrusion.
• Carl copied the intelligence for herself as well as the employer, with David’s agreement.
• Twenty minutes into the mission, Carl and David saw the house lights come on, leaving them ten minutes before the employer’s time limit.

Carl completed the data theft despite the target returning home early and discovered that a mysterious hacker had left a covert contact signal in the system. After the job, Carl received a message asking him to arrange a remote conversation, while he still needed to tell Oliver what had happened.

• Carl noticed the house lights come back on early, but continued the operation without changing his calm demeanor.
• Carl showed David that he had hacked the local network and found a hidden camera, then confirmed the target was checking its footage.
• Carl gave David the storage chip as a message from an unknown hacker appeared on his phone.
• Carl kept the contact signal secret from David and Old Captain, and the three finished the job, ate dinner, and settled payment.
• Carl received a message addressed to Mr. KK asking him to find a place for remote communication, and he noticed a surveillance camera pointed at him.

Carl, using the name Mr. KK, received a message from an anonymous contact who claimed to be close to the president and revealed a plot to eliminate the president in Night City. The contact then asked whether Carl wanted to rise high enough to decide the world's fate.

• Carl challenged the anonymous hacker to reveal their identity, but the contact refused and begged him to keep talking.
• The contact said they were close to the president and had information that would interest Carl.
• The contact revealed that Hansen in Dogtown had joined forces with people in Washington to eliminate the president during the president's upcoming visit to Night City.
• Carl inferred that the contact belonged to a weak faction caught between the president's supporters and their opponents, and questioned why the plot concerned him.
• The contact asked whether Mr. KK wanted to climb higher on the tide of the times and decide the world's fate.

Carl uncovered a plot to use an arms deal in Pacifica to kill Oliver’s father and destabilize the Sixth Street Gang, then joined her companions in preparing to guard the transaction. The chapter ended as Mole arrived at the abandoned Industrial Park and realized the gathering was far larger than he had expected.

• Carl dismissed a mysterious hacker’s grand promises, then brought home Militech intelligence implicating Oliver’s father and the Sixth Street Gang.
• Oliver explained the upcoming arms deal with the Aldecaldos and NCPD, while V and T-BUG shared suspicions about the arms dealer Mole.
• T-BUG found three heavily modified Militech ACPA power armor units in the shipment, and Johnny warned that Mole could use them to ambush the buyers.
• Carl and her companions decided to attend the deal as disguised bodyguards, and they prepared for the operation.
• Mole arrived at the Industrial Park, saw Andy, Saul, and the Sixth Street Gang boss waiting, and realized the supposedly easy deal had become dangerous.

'Mole' Roy realized the arms deal had become a dangerous gathering of the Sixth Street Gang, the Aldecaldos, and the NCPD, with a corporation’s interests lurking behind it. As Nottingham-Wenrio quietly threatened him, Roy was left facing the choice of cooperating or dying.

• Roy arrived expecting Nottingham-Wenrio to be the only major figure at the arms deal, but found Saul and Andy there as well.
• Roy recalled that an influential intermediary had ordered him to personally handle the transaction and ensure he met Nottingham-Wenrio.
• Nottingham-Wenrio introduced Saul and Andy to Roy, presenting their presence as a sign of the deal’s security and potential for future cooperation.
• Roy noticed Andy guarding his pistol and Saul’s nomads blocking the exits, and feared he was caught in a trap.
• Nottingham-Wenrio tightened his grip on Roy’s shoulder and whispered that Roy did not want to die either.

Oliver, Jack, V, and Carl disguised themselves while the team monitored an arms deal between 'Mole' Roy and Nottingham-Winrio. T-BUG confirmed that people were hidden inside the sealed cargo, and Nottingham-Winrio opened fire on a bodyguard as the team prepared to act.

• Oliver, Jack, V, and Carl joked over their disguises while T-BUG screened the ACPA containers and monitored vital signs.
• Carl noticed that some of 'Mole' Roy's bodyguards were watching the cargo and the Aldecaldos as if waiting for a signal.
• Nottingham-Winrio's questioning and Roy's vital signs revealed that Roy was only an unwilling middleman and that the real planners were concealed elsewhere.
• T-BUG confirmed that people were inside the cargo that was not supposed to be opened.
• Nottingham-Winrio drew his Nova revolver and shot at a bodyguard standing away from 'Mole' Roy.

An infiltrator disguised as one of Mole Roy’s bodyguards attacked Nottingham-Wenrio, but Andy intercepted the assassin before he could reach him. As the assassin’s Sandevistan began to fade, he realized Andy was looking at him like a helpless piece of meat.

• Nottingham-Wenrio’s gunshot triggered an infiltrator among Mole Roy’s bodyguards to attack him with concealed finger blades.
• The assassin’s Sandevistan-enhanced strike nearly reached Nottingham-Wenrio, whom Nottingham had pulled close to shield him.
• Andy, already prepared for an assassination attempt, blocked the strike with his police baton.
• Andy repeatedly parried the assassin’s attacks, stopping the spike ten centimeters from Nottingham-Wenrio.
• The assassin’s Sandevistan began to fade, and Andy’s stare left him trembling.

Oliver fought off an assassin targeting his group and discovered the supposed elite operatives were far weaker than he expected. As the fight ended, Carl noticed that the crates containing the ACPA had moved.

• Oliver trusted Andy to protect his father and focused on fighting the assassin attacking him.
• Oliver stabbed the assassin repeatedly, slit their throat, and realized they had died without resistance or an explosion.
• Jack and V had already killed their attackers, and Oliver recognized that the enemy squad had simply been weak.
• Oliver, V, and Jack joined the Aldecaldos and the Sixth Street Gang in surrounding the remaining operatives.
• Carl noticed that the crates containing the ACPA had moved.

Carl faced Echo, a legendary ACPA pilot, as the White Noise Eagles’ attack on his team escalated into a duel. Carl gained access to Echo’s cockpit with a neurotoxin knife, but the fight’s outcome remained unresolved.

• Carl recognized the delayed activation of the three ACPA units as backup and watched a crimson machine tear open its transport crate.
• Carl overcame his lingering fear of ACPA armor, while Echo recognized him and prepared to fight.
• Echo introduced himself as the White Noise Eagles’ captain and advanced in a heavily modified ACPA, driven by memories of his fallen trainees.
• Carl and Echo’s teams cleared the area, then the two pilots began a duel that they each expected to decide the battle.
• Carl dodged Echo’s katana and rockets, used Monomolecular Wire to reach the ACPA’s head, and struck its observation window.
• Carl cracked the observation window and inserted a Neurotoxin Knife, sending toxin toward Echo inside the cockpit.

Echo detected neurotoxin in The Behemoth’s drug lines and took emergency measures, but the poison impaired him and damaged his body. Carl exploited Echo’s slowed control to rip out the EMP Knife, and Echo responded with a close-range grenade barrage as Carl blurred amid the explosions.

• Echo detected the neurotoxin, sealed the contaminated drug line, activated shielding, and injected an antidote, but the toxin still reached his neural interface and caused severe symptoms.
• While Echo dealt with the poisoning, Carl evaded The Behemoth’s strike and pulled the EMP Knife from a crack in its chest armor.
• Echo ejected his rocket launchers, releasing hidden fragmentation grenades, then used a stimulant to raise his neural synchronization rate.
• Carl recognized Echo’s plan to trade armor damage for a lethal attack and blurred amid the exploding grenades.