You're the Famous V, Aren't You?

Money was a good thing.

Especially in a place like Night City.

Even a hero could be brought low by one euro; without money, you couldn't take a single step.

But when it came to stealing cars—something immoral and not encouraged—Su Xiao immediately made a JOJO face.

"Daga, kotowaru."

That was right, he was desperately short of money.

But he had principles.

Even in a place as rotten as Night City, some things simply couldn't be done.

"Don't rush to refuse, Su." Jack seemed to understand why Su Xiao had refused. "I'll show you something good."

Jack operated the laptop again.

He opened a video.

The scene in the video looked like it was from a press conference.

A bespectacled Japanese man in a sharp suit faced the camera and spoke in a clumsy Japanese accent.

"In my view, Night City's poverty problem is actually very easy to solve. All City Hall needs to do is enact a policy like this—reward one hundred euros for every poor person's scalp turned in."

"Believe me, by next Thanksgiving, Night City's poor will be as rare as endangered animals."

The sexy female host holding the microphone asked cautiously, "Don't you think that would be too cruel to the poor?"

The Japanese man burst out laughing.

"Cruel? What is cruelty? The reason Night City's lower class is poor is that they don't work hard enough and don't know how to be grateful."

"In my homeland of Japan, the rich live in bright, spotless villas in beautiful neighborhoods, while the poor can only hole up in moldy, rotten slums. But the poor never complain or harbor resentment, because they know that, just like the rich, they too have a bright future."

Su Xiao's blood pressure shot through the roof.

Harder, harder—his fists were hardening.

"So we're taking this guy out? Fine, count me in, Jack."

"I knew I could count on you, Su. Let's get moving."

While riding the subway to Ember Nightclub, Su Xiao suddenly thought of something.

Back in the early twenty-first century, even high-end phones had safety measures that automatically detonated if they were separated from their owners by ten meters.

Now it was already 2077, and the security measures on a luxury car like this would only be more advanced.

So how were they supposed to do it?

Wouldn't the alarm go off before they even got close?

Su Xiao voiced his doubts, but Jack merely shrugged them off.

"I thought of that too, of course."

"I've never been to Ember Nightclub, but I know the rules there."

"Customers who go to Ember throw their keys to the valet, and the valet parks their cars in the underground garage."

"Then the keys are stored in the garage security office."

"When the customers have had their fill of fun and leave, the valet retrieves the keys from the security office, drives the cars out of the garage, and returns them to the customers."

"All we have to do is go straight to the security office, take the keys, start the luxury car, and get out of there."

You're the Famous V, Aren't You?

The northern part of The Glen,

was different from the rest.

The farther north you went, the more prosperous it became.

Especially the area near City Center.

It could make people think they had been transported to the golden age of America's most glorious years, the era of the New Deal.

There were no unemployed crowds here, nor any ramshackle shantytowns or gang activity.

Instead, patrol cars and officers on duty could be seen along many roads.

Without a doubt, the northern part of The Glen, where City Hall was located, had far better public safety than the south.

After getting off the subway, Su Xiao and Jack walked toward Ember Nightclub.

"Who was the fixer who called you?"

"Okada Wakako. Some people call her the Queen of Westbrook, but in my view, she isn't really a queen, though she's close enough."

Although Jack looked like a huge man, he wasn't stupid at all.

He was certainly not some muscle-bound brute with "strong limbs but a simple mind."

He had actually guessed that Su Xiao's earlier claim—that he had taken jobs from a fixer—was mostly a lie.

But he had also once planned to abandon Su Xiao and run.

So they were even.

Since they would be working together from then on, Jack patiently explained things to Su Xiao.

"In Night City, fixers are everywhere. They're organizers, agents, and intermediaries."

"They know the latest street news. They know who's offering a fair price and whose job smells wrong from a mile away."

"Every fixer has their own style, but they all follow a certain code:"

"—As long as you work for them, they absolutely won't abandon you."

"Of course, the reverse is true as well. If you don't believe me, try screwing over a fixer and see what happens."

Su Xiao asked curiously,

"Has no one ever thought of bypassing fixers and having mercenaries deal directly with clients?"

Jack laughed.

Su Xiao's idea wasn't strange.

In fact, almost every newcomer who first arrived in Night City had the same thought.

"Of course you can. But after getting cheated once or twice—or failing to get paid and taking a bullet instead—you'll understand why you need to find a reliable fixer."

"Once you've proven your abilities, you'll never have to worry about not getting jobs. The fixer will help you choose a crew and negotiate a good price—after all, they take a cut."

"No matter what trouble you run into during a job, they'll get you out—unless you do something stupid yourself. In that case, no one can help you."

"Still, once we've made a name for ourselves, we really won't need to pay them any mind."

"When that time comes, what commission? What fixer? They can all step aside."

Su Xiao nodded.

His gaze suddenly landed on a weapons shop by the roadside.

"Wait for me. I'll be right back."

Jack froze.

"Hey, hey, where are you going?"

Unlike gun stores in the real world, buying weapons in a Night City weapons shop required no documentation.

As long as you were willing to pay, you could buy a weapon.

Of course, most of the weapons sold by such shops were made by low-end manufacturers.

If you wanted mid- or high-end goods from Military Technology, Constitution Military Industry, Kang Tao, or Arasaka, it was difficult to buy them at a legitimate weapons shop.

If you really wanted one, you could only try your luck on the black market.

And the prices were usually marked up sky-high.

Su Xiao had no intention of buying high-end goods.

He simply bought some Flashbang Grenades and Smoke Grenades in case they were needed.

He had barely paid when Jack caught up with him.

"Why did you buy those?" Jack asked in a lowered voice. "We're picking up a car, not going to war."

Su Xiao lowered his voice as well. "I have a bad feeling."

Jack paused. "Do you get that feeling often?"

"No. But something bad happens every time I do."

Jack cursed in Spanish.

It wasn't that he didn't believe Su Xiao, but he couldn't bear to give up just like that.

After all, Wakako was paying far too much.

He sighed.

They would have to take things one step at a time and adapt to circumstances when the time came.

Towering skyscrapers blocked out the endless, winding streets.

Neon halos had prepared a stage for the ballet of steel and concrete.

Beneath the floodlights and giant screens spread across the sky, lumbering AVs darted through the air like fish.

They had arrived at Ember Nightclub.

"This way."

When they reached the building housing Ember Nightclub, Jack led Su Xiao down an alley beside it with practiced ease.

A homeless man was rummaging through a pile of garbage for cans.

He hurriedly hid the cans he had just found inside his clothes,

afraid someone would snatch them away.

Neither of them paid him any attention. They walked straight to the side-door elevator.

The elevator doors opened, revealing a long, narrow corridor.

There were plenty of doors on both sides of the passageway, though no one knew where they led.

After crossing the corridor and opening the main door, they finally reached the underground parking garage.

The brightly lit garage was packed with all kinds of luxury cars.

Sports cars, muscle cars, SUVs... it had everything.

"Get down and follow me."

The underground parking garage was, of course,

covered with surveillance cameras.

But Jack knew that the cameras had blind spots.

After all, this was only a nightclub, not Arasaka Tower.

As long as they stayed close to the walls and made their way to the security office, they could get the keys to that supercar and shut down surveillance throughout the entire underground garage.

But when the two of them cautiously crept up to the security office, an unexpected situation occurred.

The security office was completely empty.

Where was the guard?

How had such a huge living person disappeared?

Had he gone off to slack off?

"Shit!"

At that moment, Jack cursed beside him.