A Fish That Slipped Through Nine Years of Compulsory Education

Nor did she have a nationality.

She had grown up in Arasaka facilities in other countries since she was a child.

She didn't know who her parents were.

Nor had she ever felt or experienced the warmth of a family.

She was an orphan.

Along with the other orphans, Arasaka instilled in them the dream of becoming hackers and serving the strongest company in the world.

They endured the harshest training.

All for this dream forced upon them.

More tragically, after completing their training, they didn't join the counterintelligence department, become company employees, and walk proudly across gleaming floors.

Instead, they were taken to dark underground facilities and forced to carry out deep dives.

It turned out Arasaka hadn't raised them to join the counterintelligence department.

It had raised them as expendable tools and cannon fodder, sending them into the Old Net.

The Old Net was also known as the Deep Web.

It was a shattered, dangerous domain that no one dared enter.

When it came to the Old Net, there was one name that could never be avoided: Lachie Bartmos.

The most talented netrunner, but also the most paranoid.

Bartmos's most advanced virus program brought down the entire Cyberspace.

It shattered the global network into countless local networks, or Subnets, like isolated islands.

NetWatch had once tried to rebuild the global network with the help of the European Parliament.

But the viruses and Rogue AIs were simply too powerful.

They hunted down netrunners who rashly entered the Old Net.

In the end, NetWatch decided to abandon the reconstruction and launched the Blackwall Project.

That meant building an impregnable ICE wall to separate the usable network from the domains controlled by viruses and Rogue AIs.

The side of the Blackwall where the usable network lay was the Subnet of today.

The other side was the dangerous Old Net, or Deep Web.

To use an online game as an example, the Old Net was like a dungeon whose level far exceeded the players' maximum.

Everyone knew that the chests in this dungeon could yield plenty of good loot.

But it was also filled with countless monsters no one could defeat.

And when someone died in Cyberspace, the hacker in reality died as well.

Arasaka wanted to use these orphans to excavate the vast amount of knowledge and information lost in the Old Net.

But the Old Net was a dangerous domain that even NetWatch and the European Parliament could do nothing about.

How could a mere handful of orphans possibly emerge unscathed?

Arasaka naturally knew the risks.

That was why it deliberately selected children from orphan backgrounds for such dangerous work.

Put bluntly, it was like raising pigs. From the moment Arasaka took these children in and trained them, it had already regarded them as expendable tools to be used.

The danger of the Old Net was indeed just as the rumors claimed.

Lucy's companions were killed one after another in the Old Net by Rogue AIs and viruses.

After an unknown number of deep dives, and days without end that seemed to have no light at the end of them,

the surviving children, including Lucy, finally came to their senses.

Real

izing that dying for those imposed dreams was not worth it in the slightest.

In the end, with the thought that they were going to die anyway, so they might as well fight their way out, Lucy and her surviving companions fought their way out of the underground facility.

They were intercepted by Arasaka personnel.

One companion after another fell.

Lucy could hear her companions crying out, but she didn't look back.

She just kept running.

Kept moving forward.

Toward the place where there was light.

When she came to her senses, she had already escaped and fled into a ruin.

After that, Lucy was terrified of staying in one place for too long.

Thus, she fled from country to country and region to region.

In the end, she came to Night City.

Lucy sat on the windowsill.

She hugged her knees with both arms.

Her body curled up like a cat.

The dazzling neon lights outside cast rainbow colors across her face.

The days spent fleeing had not been easy.

She had experienced betrayal.

Of course, kindhearted people had helped her too.

But someone who had given her as much help as Su Xiao had—

not even once, until now.

Before coming to the apartment in Japantown, she had always believed that Su Xiao had ulterior motives.

But Su Xiao had merely brought her there, then transferred money to her.

Then he had left without even sitting down.

There wasn't a single surveillance device in the room either.

What was he after?

Why was he treating her so well?

The city was ablaze with lights.

For some people, today had only just begun.

It even gave one the illusion that the night was livelier than the day.

Su Xiao drove along the coastal road through Japantown, heading back toward Heywood.

Of course, the reason he had gone to so much trouble wasn't simply that Lucy was cute.

It was because he saw a situation in Lucy that was just like what he himself had once experienced.

When he had first come to Night City,

he and Jack would have gone their separate ways after delivering the goods.

It was Jack's willingness to team up and work with him

that had given him the life he had now.

Without Jack, he would never have met Mrs. Wells, V, the Padre, and the others.

And he would inevitably have taken countless wrong turns.

The money he spent helping Lucy would soon be earned back.

But to Lucy, it had been aid in her hour of need, a charitable helping hand.

It had helped Lucy immensely.

Judging from how skillfully Lucy could use Monofilament Wire, as well as the fact that she had even had an anti-surveillance jammer implanted in her body,

she was no ordinary person.

Therefore, just as Cao Cao admired Guan Yu, Su Xiao acted out of appreciation as well.

That was why he invested in her.

Su Xiao's ultimate goal was to recruit her into his team.

He had no intention of becoming a lone-wolf legend like Morgan Blackhand.

As for friends, the more the merrier.

Whether in Night City or somewhere else, one should always make as many friends as possible.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: A Fish That Slipped Through Nine Years of Compulsory Education

After that, Su Xiao, Jack, and V took on several more jobs involving kidney strippers.

They finally accumulated 20 Potential Points.

That same day, after saying goodbye to V and Jack, Su Xiao hurried back to his apartment in The Glen.

The apartment had a Weapon Modification Room.

He no longer needed to occupy Jack's garage.

After eating, Su Xiao entered the Weapon Modification Room, rubbed his hands, and beamed with excitement.

"Spend 20 Potential Points to obtain improved blueprint—Power Gauntlet"

Just like last time, the Power Gauntlet's blueprint, along with the knowledge required to manufacture it, was directly instilled into his mind.

Su Xiao was overjoyed.

The Power Gauntlet served the same function as the mechanical prosthetic Mann had taken away that day: it could greatly enhance strength.

The difference was that it didn't require chopping off one's hand. It was an external mechanical device.

Once he put on the Power Gauntlet, tearing tanks apart with his bare hands would be a piece of cake.

He carefully reviewed the knowledge in his mind, then glanced around his own Weapon Modification Room.

Not bad.

There was enough space.

It was just missing the necessary tools and components.

So he called the Padre.

"Padre? This is Su. I need a few things..."

After ending the call with the Padre, Su Xiao left the Weapon Modification Room.

Even for the Padre, preparing these materials would probably take some time.

So, before the things he needed were ready, he planned to get some proper rest and train hard.

To build up his strength.

Three days later, one of the Padre's men arrived carrying several boxes.

Su Xiao directed them to carry the boxes into the Weapon Modification Room.

After they left, Su Xiao changed the windows' view to a completely enclosed backdrop and locked the elevator doors.

Only then did he enter the Weapon Modification Room.

A week later.