The one who slipped through nine years of compulsory education

She had no nationality, either.

She had grown up in Arasaka facilities in other countries since childhood.

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, she had been indoctrinated by Arasaka with the dream of "becoming a hacker and serving the world's most powerful corporation."

They endured the most grueling training.

All for this dream that had been forced upon them.

More tragically, after completing their training, they hadn't joined counterintelligence and become corporate employees, walking proudly across gleaming floors.

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

As it turned out, Arasaka hadn't trained them to join counterintelligence.

It had trained them as expendable tools and cannon fodder to send into the Old Net.

The Old Net was also known as the Deep Web.

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

Any discussion of the Old Net inevitably led to one name: Lachie Bartmos.

The most gifted hacker, but also the most paranoid.

Bartmos's most advanced virus had brought all of cyberspace crashing down.

It had shattered the global network into isolated local networks, or subnets, like scattered islands.

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

But the viruses and rogue AIs were simply too powerful.

They hunted down hackers who ventured recklessly into the Old Net.

In the end, NetWatch abandoned reconstruction and launched the Blackwall Project.

Its aim was to build an impenetrable ICE wall, separating usable networks from the domains controlled by viruses and rogue AIs.

On this side of the Blackwall were the present-day subnets.

On the other lay the perilous 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' level cap.

Everyone knew the treasure chests inside that dungeon held plenty of good loot.

But it was also crawling with monsters they couldn't beat.

And if a hacker died in cyberspace, they died in the real world, too.

Arasaka wanted to use these orphans to recover the vast quantities 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 handful of orphans possibly emerge unscathed?

Of course Arasaka knew the risks.

That was precisely why it deliberately selected orphaned children for such dangerous work.

Bluntly put, it was like raising pigs. From the moment it took these children in and began training them, Arasaka had already regarded them as tools to exploit and expend.

The Old Net really was as dangerous as the rumors claimed.

One after another, Lucy's companions were killed in the Old Net by rogue AIs and viruses.

After countless deep dives and endless days with no end in sight.

The surviving children, Lucy among them, finally woke up.

They

realized that dying for dreams forced upon them wasn't worth it at all.

In the end, thinking, "We're going to die anyway, so we might as well risk our lives escaping," Lucy and her surviving companions fought their way out of the underground facility.

Arasaka personnel tried to stop them.

More and more of her companions fell.

Lucy could hear their cries, but she didn't look back.

She kept running.

Kept moving forward.

Toward the light.

By the time she came to her senses, she had made it out and escaped into a stretch of ruins.

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

So she fled from country to country, region to region.

Eventually, she came to Night City.

Lucy sat on the windowsill.

Her arms wrapped around her knees.

She curled up like a cat.

The multicolored neon lights outside cast a rainbow across her face.

Life on the run hadn't been easy.

She had been betrayed.

Of course, kind people had helped her, too.

But someone offering as much help as Su Xiao had.

That had never happened before.

Before arriving at the apartment in Japantown, she had been convinced that Su Xiao had an ulterior motive.

But Su Xiao had simply brought her here and transferred some money to her.

Then he left without even sitting down.

There was no surveillance equipment anywhere in the room, either.

What was he after?

Why was he being so good to me?

Lights blazed everywhere.

For some people, the day had only just begun.

It almost gave the impression that nighttime was livelier than daytime.

Su Xiao drove along Japantown's coastal road on his way back to Heywood.

Of course, he hadn't gone to all that trouble just because Lucy was cute.

It was because he saw his former self in her situation.

Back when he first came to Night City.

Originally, once he finished helping Jack deliver the cargo, they would have gone their separate ways.

It was Jack's willingness to team up with him.

That had made his current life possible.

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

And he would inevitably have taken a great many wrong turns.

He would soon earn back the money he had spent helping Lucy.

But to Lucy, it was help in her hour of need, a lifeline from someone who cared.

It would make an enormous difference for her.

Judging by Lucy's skill with monofilament wire, and the fact that she even had an anti-detection jammer implanted in her body.

She wasn't an ordinary person, either.

So, just as Cao Cao had admired Guan Yu, Su Xiao admired her.

That was why he had invested in her.

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

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

The more friends he had, the better.

Whether in Night City or anywhere else, he ought to make as many friends as possible.

Chapter 39: The one who slipped through nine years of compulsory education

After that, Su Xiao, Jack, and V took on several more jobs dealing with kidney harvesters.

At last, he saved up 20 potential points.

After saying goodbye to V and Jack that day, Su Xiao hurried back to his apartment in The Glen.

This apartment had its own Weapon Modification Room.

He no longer needed to occupy Jack's garage.

After eating, Su Xiao entered the Weapon Modification Room and rubbed his hands together, excitement written all over his face.

"Consumed 20 potential points. Acquired improved blueprint-Power Gauntlet."

Just like last time, the Power Gauntlet's blueprints and the knowledge required to manufacture it were instilled directly into his mind.

Su Xiao was delighted.

The Power Gauntlet served the same purpose as the cybernetic arm Mann had taken that day: it could greatly enhance his strength.

But it didn't require cutting off his hand. It was an external mechanical device instead.

With the Power Gauntlet equipped, even tearing a tank apart with his hands would be no problem.

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

Not bad.

There was enough space.

He just lacked the necessary tools and parts.

So he called Padre.

"Padre? It's Su. I need a few things..."

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

Even Padre would probably need some time to gather these materials.

Until everything he needed was ready, he planned to get plenty of rest and exercise.

To recharge and build up his strength.

Three days later, Padre's men arrived carrying several crates.

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

After they left, Su Xiao switched all the floor-to-ceiling windows to their opaque setting and locked the elevator doors.

Only then did he enter the Weapon Modification Room.

A week later.