Chapter Summaries

Jack decided to take Dexter’s risky job despite Su Xiao and V’s offer to help him financially, so they agreed to join him. Dexter then revealed that Evelyn Parker wanted to meet Su Xiao alone, and V reacted angrily when Dexter hinted that Evelyn had once been involved with him.

• Jack refused Su Xiao’s offer of a security-consultant cut and insisted on taking the job for a chance to provide for Misty and his mother.
• Su Xiao and V agreed to accompany Jack, and the three accepted Dexter’s offer over drinks at the Afterlife.
• Dexter explained that Evelyn Parker had information about the Relic and wanted to meet Su Xiao alone.
• When Dexter suggested Evelyn sounded like a woman who had been dumped by Su Xiao, V smashed a glass and cut her hand.
• Su Xiao treated V’s wound while Jack asked Dexter when they could discuss the job’s main details.

Su Xiao negotiated a larger share of the Arasaka relic job with Dexter and took V and Jack to meet him in a Delamain Taxi. After reassuring V about her looks, Su Xiao went alone to Lizzie’s Bar to meet Evelyn.

• Su Xiao and Jack bargained with Dexter over their cut, and Dexter agreed to give them forty-five percent after Su Xiao showed that he already had Delamain Taxi service.
• Su Xiao called Delamain, and Dexter watched him and his companions board a taxi before believing him.
• In the taxi, Su Xiao comforted V, who admitted she felt inferior to Evelyn’s allure, and she cheered up.
• At Lizzie’s Bar, V and Jack stayed in the car while Su Xiao went inside to see Evelyn.
• Su Xiao greeted the bartender Matteo and ordered an Ice Cola.

Su Xiao met Evelyn and Judy at Lizzie's Bar to discuss stealing Arasaka's Relic, while Judy tried to warn him about the danger. Judy agreed to join the plan, and Su Xiao began questioning Evelyn about the Relic's value.

• Matteo told Su Xiao that Evelyn was in the basement with Judy and refused payment for his drink.
• Su Xiao found Evelyn and Judy arguing over a braindance recorded in Raijin Arasaka's penthouse, then followed Evelyn upstairs.
• Judy confronted Su Xiao about taking a job to steal Arasaka's biochip, and Su Xiao said he was willing to challenge Arasaka.
• Evelyn persuaded Judy by promising the job's payout could help her leave Night City, and Judy agreed to take part as long as Evelyn did nothing clever.
• Su Xiao asked Evelyn whether the Relic was worth the risk and whether it could really earn them so much money.

Su Xiao learned that the relic held Johnny Silverhand’s digital personality construct and that it was hidden in Raijin Arasaka’s penthouse at the Azure Tower. Evelyn gave him a braindance recording of Raijin’s room, and Su Xiao began watching it through his Tactical Goggles.

• Evelyn revealed that the relic’s valuable data was Johnny Silverhand’s digital personality construct.
• Su Xiao agreed to continue the job after Evelyn said the relic was in Raijin Arasaka’s penthouse suite at the Azure Tower.
• Judy gave Su Xiao a braindance recording that Evelyn had made in Raijin’s room, showing the relic’s location and the room’s security systems.
• Evelyn explained that she had entered Raijin’s room through an exchange of favors.
• Su Xiao inserted the braindance chip into his Tactical Goggles and entered the recording.

Su Xiao reviewed Judy’s braindance and learned about Yorinobu’s security, motives, and strained relationship with Saburo Arasaka. After the meeting, Evelyn privately urged Su Xiao to keep the recording from his team and abandon fixer Dexter, leaving Su Xiao alarmed by her recklessness.

• Su Xiao studied Judy’s braindance, which revealed the penthouse’s alarms, hidden turret, relic safe, and the switch that opened it.
• Evelyn told Su Xiao that Yorinobu had no bodyguards, distrusted his father’s intelligence network, and had stolen the relic to sell it to NetWatch.
• Evelyn explained that Yorinobu had planned to nationalize Arasaka, but Saburo Arasaka discovered the plan and crushed his allies.
• Evelyn argued that the relic could make them wealthy and dismissed Su Xiao’s warning that Arasaka might investigate her.
• Evelyn led Su Xiao into a storage room and told him not to share Judy’s braindance, then urged him to cut fixer Dexter loose.
• Su Xiao warned Evelyn that abandoning Dexter would leave her without a fallback plan.

Su Xiao and his companions rejected Evelyn’s offer to cut Dexter out and gave Dexter the braindance information for the heist. After learning that Adam Smasher guarded Raijin Arasaka, Su Xiao worried that their plan could go wrong and considered Smasher’s strength and history.

• Evelyn offered Su Xiao half the proceeds if he helped her cut Dexter out, but he said he would think about it.
• Su Xiao told V, Jack, and Lucy about Evelyn’s proposal, and they agreed to keep their word to Dexter and not tell him about it.
• The group watched the braindance and learned that Adam Smasher was Raijin Arasaka’s bodyguard; they reasoned they could avoid him by entering the penthouse while Raijin was away.
• Su Xiao gave Dexter the braindance chip at the Afterlife, and Dexter said he and T-BUG would prepare a plan.
• Su Xiao left Dexter’s booth worried that the heist could go wrong and recalled how Smasher became a full-body cyborg working for Arasaka.

Su Xiao assessed the danger of confronting Adam Smasher and asked Rogue to obtain Power Armor, but she explained that acquiring it was nearly impossible. As Su Xiao prepared to leave, Rogue asked whether he knew Stella and hinted that the name was connected to their discussion.

• Su Xiao concluded that fighting Smasher at the Azure Tower could leave him dead or captured by Arasaka, and he decided not to let Jack act alone.
• Su Xiao overheard Rogue arguing with Okada Wakako about Ken, then entered Rogue's booth and asked her to get him Power Armor.
• Rogue said the corporations' Power Armor was rare, secret, and too dangerous for her to sell, so Su Xiao abandoned the request.
• Rogue recognized that Su Xiao's customized combat suit was not ordinary corporate gear and asked why he needed Power Armor, but he offered no explanation.
• As Su Xiao stood to leave, Rogue asked if he had heard of Stella, a little-known Night City legend whose rise and fall lasted only a week.

Su Xiao obtained a fragmented Militech power armor design from Rogue and used it to develop an improved Exoskeleton Armor design. While Rogue gathered the required materials, Li Nali hired him to help eliminate Scavengers who had seized an abandoned underground mall, and they began planning an approach.

• Rogue explained how Stella's final job involved intercepting a convoy carrying a Militech defector, and she sold Su Xiao the fragmented Cyberbrain data recovered afterward.
• Su Xiao examined the data and spent 100 potential points to obtain an improved Exoskeleton Armor design.
• Su Xiao asked Rogue to acquire the armor materials and agreed to pay her in six installments without interest.
• Li Nali called Su Xiao and hired him to deal with Scavengers who had attacked homeless people near Rose Street and Shipyard Road.
• Li Nali proposed disguising herself and Su Xiao as pizza delivery workers and poisoning the Scavengers' food.
• Su Xiao and Li Nali reached the Northside Industrial District and watched the entrance to the abandoned underground mall the Scavengers had taken over.

Su Xiao and Li Nali waited for the Scavengers outside an underground mall, only to discover that the group had left. As they prepared to depart, Su Xiao detected two people approaching the mall.

• Li Nali and Su Xiao waited for a pizza delivery driver, then ate the pizza while watching the underground mall.
• At nine o’clock, Su Xiao suspected the Scavengers had left and rode Fenrir with Li Nali to investigate.
• Su Xiao scanned the underground mall and found no one inside, then drove in to show Li Nali it was empty.
• Su Xiao and Li Nali searched the mall but found only trash and no clues about where the Scavengers had gone.
• As they prepared to leave, Su Xiao detected two people heading toward the underground mall and told Li Nali to trust him.

Su Xiao and Li Nali captured Scavengers in an underground mall, recovered a laptop, and found video proving NCPD director Jerry Forte had hired Yelena Sidorova to drive homeless people from a development site. Li Nali was shaken by the discovery and began explaining why she had joined the NCPD.

• Su Xiao and Li Nali ambushed two Scavengers, interrogated them, and learned their group had moved to an abandoned factory near the Arasaka Waterfront.
• Su Xiao found Yelena Sidorova's laptop in her room and killed both Scavengers after retrieving it.
• Su Xiao and Li Nali watched a hidden video in which Jerry Forte asked Sidorova to drive homeless people from a Northside Industrial District plot while the NCPD diverted its patrols.
• Li Nali told Su Xiao that she had once inherited her parents' clinic but joined the NCPD after deciding medicine could not save Night City.

Su Xiao and Li Nali targeted Sidorova’s Scavenger hideout after Li Nali chose to remain in the NCPD and protect those she could. Su Xiao began attacking the factory from a distance with a Cat Mat sniper rifle, while Sidorova and Chimkovsky fled inside as the assault unfolded.

• Li Nali told Su Xiao she would stay in the NCPD and protect whatever she could, and Su Xiao offered to help her pursue justice.
• Chimkovsky confronted Sidorova about Roland and Bannings, but she dismissed his warnings about working with Forte.
• Su Xiao and Li Nali approached the abandoned factory, where Su Xiao identified the Scavengers’ hideout and prepared his sniper rifle.
• Su Xiao detonated explosives outside the factory and shot Scavengers through the walls, killing them as the survivors fired blindly.
• Sidorova and Chimkovsky rushed downstairs after the attack began, and Chimkovsky urged her to run.

Su Xiao and Li Nali pursued and killed the Scavengers who escaped the factory, then parted ways after he offered to help her investigate Forte. Back at home, Su Xiao arranged to use one of Rogue’s safehouses to prepare materials for a plan that would take a week.

• Chimkovsky and Sidorova fled the factory in a van, but Su Xiao and Li Nali caught up with them on Fenrir.
• Li Nali shot Chimkovsky, and Su Xiao wounded Sidorova before their van crashed into a roadside barrier.
• Sidorova attacked Li Nali, who defeated her with a series of kicks and confirmed she was dead.
• Su Xiao dropped Li Nali off at her apartment and urged her to contact him before using any dirt she gathered on Forte.
• Rogue told Su Xiao that Emmerich and Crispin had prepared his materials, so he arranged to move them to one of her safehouses.
• Su Xiao called the three members of Jack's group and told them he needed a week to prepare for the plan.

Su Xiao finished and named his new combat exoskeleton Falcione, then accepted Rogue’s request to kill Ken, a mercenary hiding with the Tiger Claws. He traveled toward the gang’s territory to test the armor and settle Rogue’s favor.

• Su Xiao completed the silver briefcase exoskeleton, equipped with heavy armor, tactical goggles, concealed weapons, and optical camouflage, and named it Falcione.
• Crispin told Su Xiao that Rogue wanted him to call her as soon as he left seclusion.
• Rogue explained that Ken had cheated her, returned to Night City, and was now under the Tiger Claws’ protection; Su Xiao agreed to kill him without charge.
• Su Xiao went to Japantown, where Rogue’s information placed Ken at a shrine in North Oak that the Tiger Claws had turned into a secret base.

Su Xiao infiltrated the Tiger Claws Gang’s shrine, killed the guards in the monitoring room, erased the surveillance, and planted bombs to stage a gang attack. The explosions drove Ken to arm herself and flee, but Su Xiao rushed into her room and struck her before she could escape.

• Su Xiao used optical camouflage to enter the shrine and located Ken in a room of the haiden.
• Su Xiao killed a patrolling Tiger Claws Gang member, then shot the three guards in the monitoring room and deleted the shrine’s surveillance logs.
• Su Xiao planted time-delay bombs in the monitoring room and the tourist reception room before leaving through a window.
• An explosion shook the shrine, and Ken grabbed her Ajax Kinetic Assault Rifle and prepared to leave.
• Ken fired at a figure rushing into her room, but the figure charged through her shots and punched her in the abdomen.

Su Xiao attacked the Tiger Claws at the Shinto Shrine, killed Ken and dozens of gang members, then destroyed the reinforcements sent after him. As rumors spread about the massacre, Okada Wakako recognized that the Tiger Claws’ real danger came from within and urged her sons to keep their subordinates under control.

• Ken tried to negotiate with Su Xiao, then secretly shot at him and threw grenades, but Su Xiao dodged the attack and killed her.
• Su Xiao booby-trapped Ken’s corpse, then fought his way through the Shinto Shrine and killed dozens of Tiger Claws members before escaping on a Kusanagi CT-3X.
• Su Xiao ambushed a Tiger Claws reinforcement convoy on the highway, destroyed a muscle car with anti-armor missiles, and killed the survivors before riding away.
• News reports and rumors blamed the Shinto Shrine attack on a looming gang war, Militech, or a mercenary’s job, while most people dismissed the last explanation.
• Okada Wakako told her eldest son that the Tiger Claws’ greatest threat was internal and instructed him to keep his brothers and their subordinates calm.

Okada Wakako accepted that Rogue had retaliated against the Tiger Claws Gang, while Su Xiao and his crew prepared to meet Dexter about their job. At the Afterlife, Su Xiao noticed a lone Nomad working with a man, then joined V and Jack to meet Dexter.

• Okada Wakako recognized that Rogue had struck back after her side provoked her, and she swallowed her anger despite her losses.
• Dexter called Su Xiao after he and T-BUG finalized their plan, and Su Xiao sent Lucy to stay at the Wolf Bar while the crew prepared.
• Su Xiao, V, and Jack arrived at the Afterlife, where Jack admitted his mother’s worries made him nervous but insisted he would not abandon the job.
• Jack ordered Claire a drink recipe to save for him, while Su Xiao noticed a Nomad woman meeting a man on Rogue’s behalf and arranging work with the Sixth Street Gang.
• Su Xiao, V, and Jack entered Dexter’s private room at the back of the Afterlife.

Su Xiao, V, and Jack prepared to infiltrate Azure Tower under fake identities and steal the Relic, while Saburo Arasaka traveled to Night City and recounted the events that shaped his life to Goro Takemura. The chapter ended with Saburo reflecting on how he had transformed Arasaka after taking control of the company.

• Dexter and T-BUG explained the Azure Tower plan, including using the Flathead to reach the surveillance room and disable the penthouse security.
• V asked about Adam Smasher, and T-BUG said she could monitor his and Yorinobu's biosignals once the Flathead entered the hotel.
• Dexter questioned Su Xiao about Evelyn Parker, but Su Xiao denied having anything more to say about her.
• Su Xiao, V, and Jack donned bespoke suits, took the Flathead, and left the Afterlife in a Delamain Taxi for Azure Tower.
• Saburo Arasaka asked Goro Takemura what he would do if he had a son like Yorinobu, then recounted his wartime injuries and the revelation that led him to pursue power and build Arasaka.

Saburo Arasaka reflected on his failing health and sought Goro Takemura’s promise to serve Yorinobu after his death, while Su Xiao, V, and Jack arrived at Azure Tower for the heist. The crew entered the hotel without weapons, carrying the Flathead in a replacement case Su Xiao had prepared.

• Saburo Arasaka told Goro Takemura that his body was failing and expressed regret over Yorinobu’s choices.
• Saburo Arasaka asked Goro Takemura whether he would serve Yorinobu after Saburo’s death, and Takemura pledged loyalty to the Arasaka family.
• T-BUG checked the crew’s comms as they approached Azure Tower, and Su Xiao challenged her use of Aristotle’s quote by discussing Aristotle’s privileged background.
• The Delamain Taxi dropped Su Xiao, V, and Jack at Azure Tower, where the three left their weapons in the car.
• Jack retrieved the Flathead in a replacement alloy case that Su Xiao had prepared, though Jack and V did not understand why he had switched cases.

Su Xiao, Jack, and V entered Azure Tower under cover to use the Flathead to disable the penthouse suite’s security, while T-BUG supported them remotely. They checked in without alerting Taki Kawa, then rode the elevator toward their room as Su Xiao warned Jack to be careful around the hotel’s surveillance.

• Su Xiao and Jack passed Azure Tower’s security scanner, and Su Xiao persuaded the manager to let Jack bring the Flathead inside despite the alarm.
• Su Xiao checked the group in under the name Yang Weili, while T-BUG reminded them of the plan to send the Flathead through the vents and disable the penthouse security.
• When the receptionist offered to notify Taki Kawa that they had arrived, Su Xiao stopped her and intimidated her into completing the check-in without calling him.
• Su Xiao explained to T-BUG that he had only given the receptionist advice, then reminded Jack that Azure Tower monitored its guests as they passed the bar.
• Su Xiao, Jack, and V entered the elevator and headed toward their reserved room.

Jack, Su Xiao, and V infiltrated Azure Tower by using Flathead to kill the Arasaka hacker, but T-BUG needed several hours to break through the tower’s ICE. As the crew waited, Dexter prepared a backup escape plan and Saburo Arasaka arrived at Arasaka Tower.

• Jack controlled Flathead through the ventilation ducts, and the robot killed the Arasaka hacker in the surveillance room.
• Jack became sick after disconnecting from Flathead, while T-BUG told the crew that breaking through Azure Tower’s ICE would take several hours.
• Su Xiao ordered food for the crew as they waited, and he discussed the power of corporations with Jack and V.
• Dexter learned from T-BUG that the ICE would take hours to breach, ordered a car to the Silent Motel, and booked a seat on the next morning’s spacecraft.
• Saburo Arasaka arrived at Arasaka Tower, where a medical team hurried to meet him.