Sleeping Like a Baby

"We can start whenever you're ready."

"Then, counting down. Three, two, one..."

The Braindance Headset suddenly flashed with white light.

Everything before his eyes turned white. He couldn't see a thing.

But the light faded as quickly as it had appeared.

When Su Xiao could finally make out his surroundings, he froze.

"Is this the moon?"

Above him stretched a vast sea of stars.

Beneath his feet lay lunar soil.

Farther away, he could just make out a city on the lunar surface.

This wasn't Su Xiao's first time experiencing a braindance.

Braindances in 2077 were something like a cross between movies and video games.

But just as videos came in 4K and 360p, braindances varied in quality.

High-quality braindances had high resolution and felt immersive and incredibly lifelike.

Low-quality braindances had low resolution. Everything looked pixelated, making it hard to see anything clearly.

Their simulations of sound, touch, and other senses were an even bigger mess.

The lunar braindance Su Xiao was experiencing now was clearly exceptional.

Not only was his view crystal clear, but the sun blazed in space, letting him feel astonishingly realistic light and heat.

He could feel the roughness of the lunar surface beneath his feet.

Normally, moving around on the moon required a spacesuit.

But Su Xiao was still wearing the clothes he'd had on before entering the braindance.

Yet he could breathe freely.

He felt no physical discomfort at all.

After all, this wasn't the real moon.

It was a simulation created by a braindance.

The two of them strolled across the moon.

They raced around in a lunar rover.

They gazed at the distant lunar city.

Finally, they sat on the rim of a crater.

Lucy swung her lower legs, utterly at ease.

She looked up at the enormous Earth.

"This is the first time I've brought anyone here."

"I'm honored."

"Aren't you curious why I brought you here?"

"All right. Why me?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'm too lonely, too isolated, and need someone to talk to. Or maybe it's because you saved me."

Lucy drew up her legs and wrapped her arms around her knees. "Speaking of which, I haven't thanked you yet."

"No need."

A sudden silence settled over them.

Neither of them spoke after that.

Lucy rested her face on her knees, while Su Xiao tilted his head back to gaze at the enormous, beautiful planet before him-Earth.

After a while, Lucy broke the silence.

"Su."

Su Xiao turned to her. "Yeah?"

"I think I can guess why you're being so nice to me. You want me on your team, right?"

Su Xiao didn't deny it. "Yes. But if you don't want to, I won't force you."

"No, I'd be happy to. You're a good person. I believe working for you would be better than working with the other merc crews in the city."

"It's just... you might have noticed that I have a lot of secrets. So don't ask me about them, okay? That's my only condition."

Su Xiao nodded. "All right, I can promise you that. If you don't want to talk about them, I won't ask. Neither will anyone else."

"If you don't want to tell me, then as far as I'm concerned, you're just another ordinary person struggling to survive in this city."

"Besides, there's another promise I can make you."

"I know you want to settle on the moon. I can guarantee that once you've earned enough money, you can leave whenever you want. I won't stop you."

"But you'll have to send me postcards. Who knows? I might come visit someday."

As she looked at Su Xiao's earnest expression,

Lucy felt something touch her heart, though she couldn't say why.

Something warm and gentle.

Her face lit up with a smile that could outshine the stars. "I think we'll make good partners."

Chapter 48: Sleeping Like a Baby

A healthy routine and a healthy diet.

No smoking or drinking.

Early to bed, early to rise.

Sleeping like a baby.

Facing the rising morning sun, Su Xiao began his daily workout.

Despite having the system, Su Xiao had never neglected his training.

Working up a sweat before dawn had become as natural as breathing.

"Morning."

Lucy came out of the bedroom and ran a hand over her messy hair.

Su Xiao stopped exercising and looked at her. "Did I wake you?"

"No. This is usually when I

get up, too."

Yesterday, he and Lucy had spent a long time in the braindance.

By the time they came out, it was already night.

Since it was so late, and Lucy had persuaded him to stay, he hadn't gone home. He'd simply spent the night at her place.

"What would you like to eat? Chinese? Japanese? Or burgers and pizza?"

Lucy walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

Her voice came through the door. "How about we try Chinese?"

"Sure. We'll go out to eat in a bit. By the way, didn't you say yesterday that you wanted to join our team? After breakfast, I'll take you to meet the others. The sooner you meet, the sooner you can get to know each other."

Just then, an incoming call from an unfamiliar number came through.

"Hey, Su. I'm Regina Jones, a fixer in the Watson District."

So far, Su Xiao had only worked with Okada Wakako in Westbrook and Padre in Heywood.

He'd heard of the fixer in the Watson District.

But this was their first contact.

"How did you find me? How do you know my name?"

"Night City's fixers aren't just competitors. Some of us are friends." Regina paused on the other end of the line. "Padre can't stop singing your praises."

Su Xiao knew the name Regina Jones.

She had once been a journalist who dared to report fairly.

But that had changed.

She'd become a fixer who connected clients with mercenaries.

Although he didn't know the details, Su Xiao could more or less guess why Regina had made the change.

In Night City, a journalist who tried to remain fair had very poor odds of survival.

And even if they remained fair, there was only so much they could accomplish.

Often, ordinary people weren't unaware that corporations were exploiting them.

They had simply gone numb.

They no longer cared.

Night City needed more than journalists. It also needed...

"Nice to meet you. But I'm guessing you didn't call just to say hello."

"As a matter of fact, I do have a job that I need help with."

After Su Xiao and Lucy finished breakfast,

they headed to the Wolf Bar to meet V and Jack.

"Let me introduce you. This is Lucy, the electronic warfare specialist-or hacker-who just joined our team."

"These are my partners, V and Jack Wells. They're both great people and reliable teammates."

Jack's eyes widened at Su Xiao's introduction.

"An electronic warfare specialist? Su, where did you find talent like that?"

If there was one thing their team lacked most, it was undoubtedly a hacker who could break into corporate subnets and electronic devices.

For everyday tasks, V could fill in as a hacker.

But proper jobs still required a proper hacker.

To use a somewhat imperfect analogy,

it was like the world of The Witcher 3. Though witchers knew how to use Signs, they weren't true mages.

They couldn't take their place.

Just as an adventuring party in a fantasy world needed a mage, a merc crew in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 needed a hacker.

And one good hacker could be worth a dozen amateurs.

"Just call me Jack."

"I'm V. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

Lucy shook hands with both of them.

Neither V nor Jack had any objections to their newest teammate.

Su Xiao nodded.

He was glad they got along.