You must be the famous V

Money was a wonderful thing.

Especially somewhere like Night City.

Even a hero could be brought low by a single euro. Without money, you couldn't get anywhere.

But stealing cars was immoral and hardly something to encourage, so Su Xiao immediately put on a JOJO face.

"But I refuse."

Yes, he was desperately short of money.

But he had principles.

Even in Night City, where everyone competed to be the worst, there were some things he simply wouldn't do.

"Don't turn me down just yet, Su." Jack seemed to understand why Su Xiao had refused. "Let me show you something good."

Jack tapped away at the laptop again.

He opened a video.

The footage looked like it had been filmed at a press conference.

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

"In my opinion, poverty in Night City is actually very easy to solve. City Hall only needs to introduce this policy: a reward of one hundred euros for every poor person's scalp turned in."

"Trust me, by next Thanksgiving, the poor in Night City will be as scarce 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 laughed heartily.

"Cruel? What is cruelty? Night City's lower classes are poor because they don't work hard enough and don't know how to be grateful."

"Back home in Japan, the wealthy live in beautiful villa communities with bright, spotless windows, while the poor can only huddle in moldy, rotting slums. But the poor don't complain or resent them, because they know they have bright futures, just like the wealthy."

Su Xiao felt his blood pressure shoot through the roof.

His fists clenched tighter and tighter.

"This is the guy we're hitting? All right, count me in, Jack."

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

While they were riding the metro to the Ember Nightclub, a question suddenly occurred to Su Xiao.

Even high-end phones in the early twenty-first century had security measures that made them explode automatically if they were separated from their owners by ten meters.

It was already 2077. A luxury car like that could only have even tighter security.

How were they supposed to pull this off?

They might trigger an alarm before they even got close.

Su Xiao voiced his concerns, but to his surprise, Jack brushed them off.

"Of course I've already thought of that."

"I've never been to the Ember Nightclub, but I know how things work there."

"Guests at Ember toss their keys to a valet, who parks their car in the underground garage."

"Then the keys are left in the garage's security office."

"When the guests have had their fun and come out, the valet takes the keys from the security office, drives the car out of the garage, and returns it to them."

"All we have to do is go straight to the security office, grab the keys, start the luxury car, and make our getaway."

Chapter 15: You must be the famous V

The northern part of The Glen

was different from everywhere else.

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

Especially the area near City Center.

It could make you think you were living in America's most glorious golden age, during Roosevelt's New Deal.

There were no unemployed crowds here, no squalid shantytowns or gang activity.

Instead, patrol cars and police officers on duty could be seen along many of the streets.

Without a doubt, public safety in northern The Glen, where City Hall stood, was far better than in the south.

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

"Who's the fixer who called you?"

"Okada Wakako. Some people call her the queen of Westbrook. If you ask me, she might not actually be a queen, but she's pretty close."

Despite his imposing size, Jack wasn't stupid in the slightest.

He was no musclebound brute with more brawn than brains.

In fact, he'd already guessed that Su Xiao's earlier claim about having taken jobs from fixers was probably a lie.

But he'd also considered abandoning Su Xiao and running away himself.

That made them even.

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

"Fixers aren't exactly rare in Night City. They're organizers, agents, and go-betweens."

"They know the latest word on the street, who pays the right price, and whose jobs stink from a mile away."

"Every fixer has their own way of doing things, but they all follow a certain code:"

"As long as you work for them, they won't leave you hanging."

"Of course, it goes both ways. If you don't believe me, try screwing with a fixer and see what happens."

Su Xiao asked curiously.

"Hasn't anyone ever thought of cutting out the fixer and having mercs deal directly with clients?"

Jack laughed.

There was nothing strange about Su Xiao's idea.

Practically every newcomer to Night City had the same thought.

"Of course you can. But once you've been screwed over once or twice, or caught a few bullets instead of getting paid, you'll realize you need a reliable fixer."

"Prove what you're capable of, and you'll never have to worry about finding work again. A fixer will pick out a crew for you and negotiate a good price. After all, they take a cut."

"Whatever trouble you run into on a job, they'll bail you out-unless you've done something stupid yourself. Nobody can help you then."

"Still, once we've made names for ourselves, we really won't have to give them the time of day."

"Then commissions and fixers can all get lost."

Su Xiao nodded.

His gaze suddenly caught a weapons shop by the road.

"Wait here. I'll be right back."

Jack froze.

"Hey, hey, hey! Where are you going?"

Unlike gun stores in the real world, weapons shops in Night City didn't require any documentation.

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

Of course, most of the weapons sold in those shops came from low-end manufacturers.

If you wanted mid- to high-end products from Militech, Constitution Military Industry, Kang Tao, or Arasaka, they were hard to find in legitimate weapons shops.

If you really wanted them, your only option was to try your luck on the black market.

And the prices were usually heavily inflated.

Su Xiao wasn't planning to buy anything high-end.

He simply bought a few Flashbang Grenades and Smoke Grenades, just in case.

He had just paid when Jack caught up with him.

"What are you buying these for?" Jack lowered his voice. "We're picking up a car, not going to war."

Su Xiao lowered his voice too. "I've got a bad feeling."

Jack paused. "Do you get those feelings often?"

"No, but every time I do, something bad happens."

Jack swore in Spanish.

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

Wakako was offering far too much money.

He sighed.

They would just have to take things as they came and improvise.

Enormous skyscrapers overshadowed the endlessly winding streets.

The glow of neon set the stage for a ballet of steel and concrete.

Beneath the floodlights and giant screens filling the skyline, bulky AVs swam through the air like fish.

They had arrived at the Ember Nightclub.

"This way."

Once they reached the building housing the Ember Nightclub, Jack led Su Xiao toward the alley beside it as though he knew the place well.

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

He hurriedly hid the can he'd just found inside his clothes.

He was terrified someone would take it from him.

Neither man paid him any attention. They walked straight to the elevator by the side entrance.

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

There were plenty of doors on both sides, leading who knew where.

They passed through the corridor and opened a door, finally reaching the underground 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 garage was, of course,

covered by surveillance cameras.

But Jack knew those cameras had blind spots.

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

If they hugged the wall and reached the security office, they could get the keys to the supercar and shut down surveillance throughout the underground garage.

But when the two cautiously crept up to the security office, something unexpected happened.

There was no one inside.

Where was the guard?

How had a whole grown man just disappeared?

Had he slipped off to slack off somewhere?

"Fuck!"

Just then, Jack swore beside him.