Herman immediately broke out in a sweat.
He wasn't blind. He could see for himself that Su Xiao hadn't lied to him.
They really were deep in the Badlands.
This was untamed wilderness, far from Night City.
Once he understood his situation, Herman actually began to calm down.
He noticed that although the people in front of him didn't look like corporate operatives,
they didn't seem to belong to the Random Blade Society either.
That was good news.
If the Random Blade Society had captured him, Herman truly wouldn't have known what to do.
They were essentially Viking raiders living in 2077. The rules of civilized society didn't apply to them.
Herman had even heard that some members of the Random Blade Society still ate raw flesh and drank blood.
He didn't know whether those were just rumors or had some truth to them.
But it was a tremendous relief that he hadn't run into the Random Blade Society.
Besides, if these people wanted him dead, he would never have had the chance to wake up.
The fact that he was still alive meant there was room to negotiate.
Having calmed down, Herman simply sat on the ground. "Who... who are you people?"
"Relax. Raijin Arasaka didn't send us, and we're not from the Random Blade Society either. We came looking for you because we want to talk about the biochip-the Relic you developed for Arasaka."
"You're really not with Arasaka?"
"Anders Hellman, I know you defected from Arasaka. Given how the Japanese operate, do you think we'd have kept you alive this long if we really worked for them?"
"All right, all right, I understand. Then who's backing you? If your boss offers more than Militech, we can certainly talk."
Herman instinctively assumed they had been sent by another