A young cyberpunk's first home

It all felt like yesterday.

But in fact, a full month had passed since they said goodbye to Mann and the others in Santo Domingo that night.

Over that month, they had kept taking on jobs.

Su Xiao had accumulated eighteen Potential Points.

He was only two short of the required twenty.

That day, the three of them stood outside an apartment building in The Glen.

"Jack, is this the apartment you were talking about?"

"Yep, that's the one. What do you think? You wanted somewhere high up with a good view. This should fit the bill, right?"

Jack laughed.

The building was near the northern end of The Glen, in a nice neighborhood.

It wasn't far from the Wolf Bar, either, just one intersection away.

"I spent ages looking through places for you before finally picking this one. Come on, Su. I guarantee you'll love it once you see the inside."

With that, Jack led the way into the building.

The first floor was a rectangular lobby.

The reception desk was on the left, with benches to rest on and the ever-present vending machines on the right.

"Hey, gorgeous. We're here to view the apartment on the twelfth floor. We arranged it earlier."

The woman playing on her phone behind the reception desk looked up at the three of them.

"Ten eurodollars per viewing. You can't stay longer than half an hour."

Chapter 33: A young cyberpunk's first home

Jack stared at her. "Ten eurodollars? Isn't it supposed to be free? None of the other apartments in The Glen charge for viewings."

The receptionist shot back in a sour tone.

"Then go view those other apartments. What are you doing here?"

"You-"

"Forget it, Jack."

Su Xiao stopped Jack before he could lose his temper.

There was no point arguing with someone who only cared about money.

Whatever you said, they wouldn't listen anyway.

Besides, it was only ten eurodollars.

Now that Su Xiao was working with the Padre, even the spare change from his daily earnings amounted to more than that.

He took out a banknote and tossed it over.

"Here. Will that do?"

"Yes." The receptionist nodded and gave the three of them temporary access. "Remember, if you aren't renting, you can't stay in the apartment longer than half an hour. Otherwise, you'll have to pay extra."

Jack snorted.

He didn't spare the receptionist another glance.

The three of them entered the elevator.

A large Valentino Gang emblem was painted on the elevator wall.

That also served as a reminder that this place was still gang territory.

On the flat touchscreen that controlled the elevator, the button for the twelfth floor was lit thanks to their temporary access.

The buttons for the other floors were grayed out.

"Su, you didn't have to pay. I could've talked her around. Or don't you trust my silver tongue?"

"Of course I do."

"Your face clearly says you don't."

They soon reached the twelfth floor.

Ding! The elevator doors opened.

Both Su Xiao and V froze for a moment, though Jack didn't.

They had assumed they would have to walk down a hallway before reaching the apartment.

Instead, the apartment was right beyond the elevator doors.

The first thing that caught their eyes was the industrial metal decor.

An entire wall consisted of enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, offering an effortless view of the distant scenery.

V walked up to the huge windows and looked from side to side.

"It's all windows, with no curtains? Isn't that a privacy issue?"

"Don't worry. You can change these." Jack laughed, then said loudly, "Change the floor-to-ceiling window background."

The smart voice-control system received the command.

A second later, the windows seamlessly switched to an opaque metal background.

"Damn, that's seriously high-end."

V touched one of the windows.

It had been glass a moment ago.

Now it felt like a matte surface beneath her hand.

"Come on, let me give you a proper tour."

Jack rattled on like a real estate salesman.

"The room on the right is the armory. Plenty of space, huh, Su? If you get any ideas, you can get as creative as you want in here."

"What the fuck do you mean, creative? You think I'm Poison Master?"

Still, Su Xiao was very pleased with the armory.

It was a very professional setup.

"If you want to watch TV, just stretch out here."

Jack walked over to the sofa in the middle of the living room and sat down.

The sofa was so soft that his body sank deep into it.

"Such a huge TV, and the picture's so sharp. Look, you can even see the pores on the host's face. And doesn't the sound seem amazing? They said it uses some kind of latest sound system. I forget what it's called, but it's fucking incredible."

"Let me show you this next. The liquor cabinet."

Jack got up from the sofa and walked over to the wall beside the windows.

The entire wall was a liquor cabinet.

The shelves and refrigerators were all full of liquor.

None of it was the cheap stuff you could buy from a vending machine.

V picked up a bottle at random.

The shock nearly made her drop it.

It was the kind she couldn't afford to drink.

"I've always wanted a liquor cabinet like

this. Just imagine an entire wall covered in your collection. Even if you don't drink it, having your friends see it when they come over would really make you look good."

"There's an automatic coffee machine here, too. Truly automatic. You don't even need ingredients. Just put a cup underneath, and coffee comes out. Like this."

Jack took a cup from the sterilizing cabinet and placed it beneath the automatic coffee machine.

Embarrassingly, no coffee came out.

"Fuck! Is this thing broken? Shit, everyone online said this brand made honest-to-goodness quality products. Quality my ass."

A little embarrassed and a little angry at being embarrassed, Jack slapped the coffee machine's display hard.

Whether it had been stuck before or Jack's blows had done the trick...

Black coffee poured out, quickly filling the cup.

"Aha! Like I said, you get what you pay for. Money well spent."

Jack poured three cups of coffee and handed two of them to Su Xiao and V.

"Try it. Tastes like money."

Su Xiao had only ever drunk Nestlé coffee from bottles and cans before, the kind sold in supermarkets.

This was his first time drinking coffee from an automatic coffee machine.

His impression could be summed up in one word-

Decent.

"The sleeping area is upstairs, and so is the bathroom. Come take a look."

Jack led them upstairs.

Compared with the apartments most ordinary people lived in, this apartment's bathroom was much more spacious.

The bathroom walls were all metal, and under the lights, they gave an almost dazzlingly opulent impression.

After Jack had taken them around,

they had seen pretty much the whole apartment.

There were also a pool table, a small study, and a few other things that needed no further introduction.

V leaned against the upstairs railing, which offered a view of the entire room below.

Her face made it clear she didn't want to leave.

"This place can't be cheap."

"Not for me, no. The rent's forty thousand eurodollars a month."

"How much? Forty thousand?"

V gaped, her face draining of color.

Su Xiao, meanwhile, simply nodded in acknowledgment.

His expression was as flat as a map of Eastern Europe after Germany and the Soviet Union had carved it up-not a Pole in sight.

He showed little surprise.

Those motel-style places were cramped and narrow, with battered furniture and obsolete appliances, surrounded by either piles of garbage or human scum.

Even living conditions like that cost five thousand eurodollars a month in rent.

And plenty of people couldn't even afford those, leaving them to live in slums and shacks with even worse conditions.

Forty thousand really wasn't much for a place like this.

The apartment was on the twelfth floor, not particularly high, but its floor-to-ceiling windows faced the southern part of The Glen.

The view was excellent.

And the apartment's cool-toned, heavy-metal industrial style was very much to Su Xiao's taste.

He had already decided this was the place.

Jack looked at Su Xiao's back as he stood before the windows, sunlight spilling over his shoulders.

Along with happiness for Su Xiao, a complicated mix of emotions stirred within him.

Back when Su Xiao first arrived in Night City, Jack had said he would take him along on jobs.

And yet, how much time had even passed since then?