What Made a Legend

Zhu Ranran was an ordinary employee in Kang Tao's Materials Control Management Department.

To say she liked working for Kang Tao was bullshit. Nobody liked having something on their ass sixteen hours a day, 360 days a year, especially work.

But she knew it wasn't just work chasing her. It was life, too. If she lost this job, life would swallow her whole.

After twenty-two years of studying her heart out, she had finally made it into the Kang Tao Corporation. Her parents were getting old, too. This was supposed to be the time when their family could finally enjoy a decent life-

She had no grand ambitions. She just wanted her family to live well.

As for overtime-well, she had a Trauma Team Gold Membership. As long as it didn't kill her, she could keep going.

Taking out her phone, Zhu Ranran sent her mother a message: "Mom, I'm off work."

"Okay. Take a look at what we're having today."

"[Image]"

After a day of overtime, she would go home and have a steaming bowl of noodles her mother had cooked... That was how it should have gone.

"Not a sound. I ask, you answer."

An overpowering grip locked around her neck. An electronically distorted voice came from behind her, like the voice of a demon.

Terror swept through her mind-she didn't understand. How could something like this happen in Atlanta, too?

"What did you go in there for?"

A knife slid across her skin. Its cold touch snapped her awake!

Her job or her life?

"I-Deputy Director Cai told me to install two Infrared Alarms! One by the window and one by the door!"

"You hear that?"

"I heard-" In the car, Lier thought as he answered. "Ask her how to get inside without setting off the alarms."

"I can take you in!" Zhu Ranran blurted out before V could ask. "I set up a back door. The detectors can recognize my biometric data. I thought the director might forget something and send me back inside!"

"Then have her take you in. Tell her not to try anything."

"Okay."

In the car, Lier appeared unruffled, but he was still somewhat relieved he hadn't made the wrong choice.

Zhu Shen was still on the channel. He sounded surprised. "You really think things through-I'm liking you more and more. You really ought to join Kang Tao."

"Thanks for the invitation, but we haven't pulled this job off yet."

Meanwhile, Zhu Ranran tried nothing. At gunpoint, she disabled the extra Security System she had just installed and found the Secure Back Door interface Zhu Shen had mentioned.

"Found it-but what do we do with this girl?" V asked Lier as she inserted the Shard and waited for the program to run.

"Don't kill me!" Zhu Ranran sounded terrified, but she remembered to keep her voice low, as V had ordered. "I did everything you said. Please let me go. My family's waiting for me!"

Zhu Shen offered a suggestion. "I'd kill her. There's a compartment behind the Liquor Cabinet specifically for bodies. No need to worry about Trauma Team."

"That's fucked up," V remarked. "What's that place for? Inviting employees in?"

Zhu Shen didn't want to answer.

Lier thought for a moment. "No. If Cai Pin specifically assigned her the work, there's a decent chance she's monitoring her biometric monitoring data. But... isn't Kang Tao the company with the most overtime-related incidents?

"I can write a program to infiltrate her Basic Cyberware and make it look like she fell asleep from sleep deprivation. That way, her biometric monitoring won't suddenly go offline, and neither Trauma Team nor Kang Tao will notice anything wrong."

Besides, deep down, Lier didn't want to kill this girl if he had a choice.

"That... works too, as long as you can do it." Zhu Shen paused. "And I'll have you know, Kang Tao offers the best employee benefits. You get a Trauma Team Gold Membership upon joining, plus three days of annual leave."

V curled her lip. "So good that senior executives have places to hide bodies in their offices and can kill unarmed employees without a second thought."

"If you want to get into that, street kid from Night City, at least we keep our employees from getting killed by stray bullets in the street. You people can't say the same."

"Everyone needs a gun to scare assholes like you! Freedom! Do you understand? Freedom!"

Lier found this a real pain in the ass.

Night City had the highest crime rate in America. Shootings and street battles happened every day, leaving countless dead and wounded.

Kang Tao had the hardest-working employees in the world and led the pack in deaths from overwork. Cases beyond even Trauma Team's ability to save were everywhere.

And now people from these two sides were trying to use the other side's flaws to prove their own flaws weren't flaws at all.

Lier interrupted the argument between the street kid and the corpo. "V, connect to her Personal Link. I'm going to remotely control her Basic Cyberware."

So could Lier actually do it?

The answer was no.

Basic cyberware technology didn't cover modifying cyberware firmware to directly interfere with a living body's condition.

Unless he suddenly upgraded his skills on the spot.

[Practical technology: cyberware technology (proficient)]

[Current mastery progress: 10%]

[Tech points required for instant mastery: 90]

[Exchange completed.]

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[Current tech points: 26]

It cost nearly all his tech points to leave this girl a way out, but Lier didn't hesitate.

If he could do better, he would.

Meanwhile, V said:

"You're lucky. Usually, they'd silence you for good in a situation like this-my boss asked me to pass along a message. He's sorry you won't get your late-night meal today, but you shouldn't miss tomorrow's."

The girl's expression shifted from terror to astonishment. The Intrusive Program took effect, her hormone levels plummeted, and the exhaustion from working overtime washed over her all at once.

Then darkness swallowed her vision. At least she had heard there would be a tomorrow.

"You're that good?" V sounded surprised as she laid the girl on the floor and walked over to the computer.

Lier answered casually, "Just learned it."

"Then you're pretty damn good-found it. Reality Distortion Project. Classification... top secret?

"Okay, entering the password. Accepted. Searching for readable files... found them. Transmitting."

"Zhu Shen, we've got the files."

At the other end, Zhu Shen hurriedly opened them. "Hmm... the route. So she did change it after all. I've never used this route.

"Leaving through the western checkpoint... damn it, she wants to go through Mexico City!

"We have to intercept this shipment in the Atlanta Badlands... right here... damn it, we're in trouble."

Zhu Shen grew increasingly agitated, but when he saw the most critical piece of information, his voice settled down.

Lier pressed a hand to his forehead, too.

"What's wrong?" V wandered around, looking this way and that, privately marveling at how rich these corpos were.

"Looks like we won't get even a minute's rest. V, look out the window."

When she looked outside, two vehicles were just arriving at the compound's entrance.

"Don't tell me..."

"Yes. Those are our targets. Get down here now. We're starting the interception plan."

"Fuck!" V swore. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

Without a single moment to celebrate their success, V had to rush straight to a new battlefield!

"Nott, we found the route. We'll ambush them outside the Checkpoint. I've sent you the location. Can you arrange an ambush right now?"

"Hmm... that's pretty far away. You need it now?

"My people can't get there, but at that location, I can keep the APD and NetWatch off your back. You can handle it however you want."

"Deal." Lier hung up and addressed V, who had just climbed into the car. "No backup. You'll have to take out the entire Escort Team yourself, plus Cai Pin."

V froze as she got in. I was gone for all of a minute, and you've already dumped a huge job on me?!

"You're joking, right?"

"Listen. This Escort Team is pretty low-spec. Besides the drivers, security consists of just one marksman, one medic, one machine gunner, and two Smart Robots.

"According to Zhu Shen, they won't have much cyberware. Kang Tao employees' incomes are all transparent. Soldiers assigned to important jobs like this have clear, verifiable backgrounds. There's no way they have side gigs, much less powerful combat cyberware.

"Their gear is all standard body armor and smart weapons..."

"Stop, stop, stop. You believe him? He also said Kang Tao's transport vehicles were made of paper!" V sounded angry. "I need to live long enough to spend the money, not just earn it!"

"I know-I know. But V, don't you want to roll with the big boys, make big money, maybe even become a legend at the Afterlife?"

Lier gathered his words and looked earnestly at V-the character he had once played, the legend he had once lived through.

"But do you know what a legend is? Getting crushed like a dead dog by Adam Smasher and stamped with the label makes you a legend?

"A real legend needs nothing more than Basic Cyberware, a weapon that feels right, and conviction burning like wildfire to fight through Arasaka Tower, slice that piece of shit Smasher to ribbons, and burn the tower to the ground-

"Picture it. Corpos scattering like rabbits. Eyes turning away the moment they meet yours. The summit of Arasaka Tower. Roaring flames-

"Like the sun! That's a legend!"

V froze.

The summit of Arasaka Tower? Like the sun?

"You're fucking kidding. If someone that badass really existed... there's no way I wouldn't know. There's no way the world wouldn't know!"

"Exactly! How is dying at the hands of a Cybermonster legendary? Look further. Set your sights higher!

"If you're too fucking scared to do even this job, you might as well find a factory to work in like those people in Atlanta!"

The more Lier spoke, the more worked up he became. There was even an edge of frustrated disappointment in his voice, an emotion so intense it was palpable.

V felt like the person Lier was describing was her!

He sounded so certain, as though... he had seen it with his own eyes!

"You sound like a fucking cult leader... fuck, fuck, fuck! Drive!"

"That's more like it! Zhu Shen, get ready to hop in!"

Lier floored the accelerator, and the car tore off along the route the Kang Tao convoy had taken.

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