The mercenaries who'd been taken out were pretty famous.
Most of the mercenaries killed that day had left behind remains. Clues that could prove their identities could be recovered from them, for Bryce to check against Network Watch's registry.
In their respective cities, they had basically reached the top tier. If someone showed up with money and asked an In-Betweener for the best, these were the ones he'd recommend first.
But judging by the timing, either they hadn't been famous for long, or they hadn't pulled off a bigger job in quite some time.
At this stage, they looked down on small jobs and confidently took on a few bigger ones, even fantasizing that one job would earn them enough to live on for the rest of their lives.
That meant they had to use more violent methods and complete more difficult missions.
In small places, money was scarce and information didn't circulate. Large-scale unrest usually meant a genuine armed conflict-the worst option: dangerous, poorly paid, and if you died, nobody would even collect your body.
But in big cities, the corporations had a firm grip on everything, so firm that on the surface, people seemed to live in peace and prosperity.
There were no shootouts or violent bloodshed, only all kinds of quiet deaths, from the highest levels to the lowest.
The more restrictions there were, the more steps stood between the parties. The mercenaries doing the actual work weren't all that important-or rather, not yet.
They were the irreplaceable legends who proved themselves at just this stage: super-solo operators capable of changing the course of a corporate power struggle, mercenaries of global renown.
There weren't many opportunities like that.
There weren't many cities in the world like Night City, with a developed economy but an utterly backward approach