Chapter Summaries

Lier confronted Maekawa over the Tyger Claws’ alliance with Arasaka and offered him weapons and cyberware in exchange for electricity. Maekawa agreed to try a full-body conversion, while Brick learned that Maelstrom would distribute the new equipment and Joestar set out to visit his mother.

• Lier accused Maekawa of betraying the Tyger Claws’ origins by serving Arasaka, and Brick and Joestar backed him up.
• Lier offered Maekawa cyberware and weapons in exchange for electricity, and Maekawa accepted the offer and asked for a full-body conversion.
• Lier told Maekawa that Maelstrom would distribute the equipment and explained to Brick that the gang had been test subjects for the new Second-Generation Cyberware.
• Brick accepted the new equipment and technology despite Joestar calling them guinea pigs, then told Joestar to go visit his mother and take a gun.

Lier explained to Jackie and V that the gangs’ pursuit of profits had corrupted them, while their intervention had disrupted the forces exploiting Night City. He left the story by ordering Little Octopus to rally everyone and prepare for battle.

• Jackie and V shared stories about their first fights as they rode the elevator with Lier, who was distracted by his investigation into the Brain Maggot Gang and Muramasa.
• Jackie questioned whether wiping out the gangs had made Night City more chaotic, and Lier described the damage each gang would have caused if left in power.
• Lier argued that the gangs had abandoned their ideals to chase profits, and V summarized that they had lost their way.
• Lier said their group risked being crushed or assimilated by profit-driven forces, while he would pursue his goals even if the rich stood in his way.
• Jackie praised Lier’s words and planned to add them to his handbook, while Little Octopus asked what their goal was.
• Lier told Little Octopus that the strongest determined profits rather than chasing them, then ordered it to rally everyone and prepare for battle.

Lier entered Kabuki District to find the Maelstrom and investigate the black market, while Joestar joined him to search for Doom Doom. After a stall owner provoked Joestar, Joestar recognized the threat and fired his modified Satara, announcing the Maelstrom’s return as the market’s watchdogs.

• Maekawa told Lier that Suzie had apologized and said the raid on Clouds had been carried out by newcomers without her knowledge.
• Lier told Maekawa to focus on recruiting and not involve him in the Moxes’ affairs.
• Lier and Joestar searched Kabuki’s black market for Doom Doom, and Lier identified a stall that brought customers to the Brain Maggot Gang.
• Lier found fresh traces of blood and lubricant near the stall and realized someone had recently been beaten.
• The stall owner shouted at Lier, and Joestar drew his modified Satara, frightening the owner when he recognized Joestar as Maelstrom.
• Joestar fired at the stall owner and declared that Kabuki’s market watchdogs had returned.

Lier and Joestar learned that the Brain Maggot Gang had a stronghold on Erenan South Street, while Judy’s attempt to rescue people sold to the gang angered Suzi. Suzi agreed to join Burger King’s attack on the gang’s position.

• Lier’s Cyberware Modulator caused the stall owner’s Skill Shard to overstimulate his body, and Lier found Maelstrom engine oil on the wall.
• The stall owner shouted “23 Erenan Street,” and Lier recognized that the Phoenix Nightclub on Erenan South Street had become a Brain Maggot Gang stronghold.
• Joestar said his mother worked on Erenan South Street and planned to check on her after work.
• Suzi berated Judy for getting people killed and selling recruits to her ex, then rejected Judy’s plea for help.
• Burger King told Suzi the Brain Maggot Gang was on Erenan South Street and offered to lead an attack, which Suzi accepted.

Lier led the Mox and NCPD in surrounding Erenan Street to confront the Brain Maggot Gang, while explaining why tracking the gang through its communications was dangerous and unreliable. As the operation began, Jackie prepared to test Lier’s new Scorching Knuckles, and River advised Lier to register his powerful gear.

• Lier checked the vendor’s memory and concluded that the Brain Maggot Gang might have remotely controlled him to lure people to Erenan Street.
• Lier explained that the gang’s communications could contain traps, so its real network entry point would have to be found through careful probing and real-world access.
• The Mox and NCPD surrounded Erenan Street with 262 armed personnel, and Lier noticed the unusually capable young NCPD recruits.
• River told Lier that the rookies respected him and some even thought he was an undercover cop.
• V and Jackie prepared for battle in the Mackinaw as Jackie got ready to test Lier’s Scorching Knuckles, and River warned Lier to register the gear.

Lier finished Jackie's XS-1 Powered Exoskeleton as the group approached 20-56 Erenan Street, where Scavengers ambushed them. With Jackie and Lier fighting through the attackers and V beside Lier, the battle spread through the district, and V quietly told him it was the first time anyone had held an umbrella for her.

• Lier completed Jackie's XS-1 Powered Exoskeleton, letting Jackie feel the full strength of his Lizard Berserk through the armor.
• Jackie spotted an attacker aiming a Rocket and Sniper Rifle, and the exoskeleton's Active Defense intercepted the incoming fire.
• Jackie leaped from the Mackinaw and smashed into the attackers' building, while the impact wrecked the vehicle's chassis.
• Lier pulled V from the disabled Mackinaw as Scavengers, NCPD officers, and the Mox exchanged fire around them.
• Lier, V, and Jackie advanced through the gunfire, and V told Lier that it was the first time anyone had held an umbrella for her.

Joestar, V, Lier, and the NCPD overwhelmed the Scavengers at the Brain Maggot Gang’s hideout while the gang’s leaders struggled to complete their operation. The fighting reached the building, and Lier received a message from River.

• Joestar and the NCPD attacked the Scavengers, and Joestar killed a wounded man who claimed Brick had sent him to kidnap braindance editors.
• The Brain Maggot Gang trio reviewed surveillance footage and realized Lier had avoided their network trap while their front line collapsed.
• Sophie ordered Elio to finish flashing the mainframe firmware as the building shook from the attack.
• V and Lier entered the apartment building on Little Octopus’s arms after the perimeter had been cleared.
• Lier crushed a Scavenger with an Octopus Arm, then received a message and image from River.

Lier and the others uncovered the Brain Maggot Gang’s experiments on nearly two hundred captives and moved toward its Basement headquarters. A hidden camera watched them as the gang’s host completed modifications on fourteen more people.

• River, the NCPD, and the Mox found rows of corpses and equipment used to test dangerous Skill Shards on captives and turn them into data miners or human servers.
• V, Jackie, and Joestar reacted with disgust, while Joestar defended Maelstrom’s self-modifications and reconsidered his anger toward his mother.
• Lier told Little Octopus that people had to adapt to the moral realities of their surroundings while still trying to make things better.
• Lier checked his equipment and led the group toward the Basement to continue investigating the Brain Maggot Gang.
• A hidden camera watched the four enter the Basement as the host announced that modifications had been completed on fourteen people.

Lier and his companions discovered that the Brain Maggot Gang had installed sophisticated transmitters and was excavating vast underground tunnels with heavily augmented workers and robots. As they advanced, the workers retreated and communications were jammed, while a section of the tunnel wall revealed itself as Mimicry.

• Lier used an Octopus Arm to uncover a miniature transmitter whose components revealed it was high-end espionage equipment.
• Lier, Jackie, V, and Joestar explored the tunnels and found augmented miners and robots, identifying Giraffa Industries equipment among them.
• The miners and robots stopped working and watched the group with glowing blue eyes, then retreated deeper into the tunnels as Jackie advanced.
• The door behind the group slammed shut, but Jackie had disabled its mechanism, leaving it stuck halfway open.
• Joestar's Sharp Eyes detected distortion in the passage walls, and Lier recognized Mimicry as the transmitters activated full-band jamming and cut off communications.

The Brain Maggot Gang’s full-band jamming trapped Lier, V, Jackie, and Joestar in a communications blackout with eight invisible cyborg attackers. After the group fought off the ambush, Lier used a wired hack to disable an attacker’s cyberware, leaving the remaining hunters to face the trio.

• The invisible cyborgs attacked the group, but V and the others reacted, shattered the attackers’ blades, and killed two of them in a counterattack.
• A partition door dropped between Joestar and the others, so Joestar entered a hidden door while Lier, V, and Jackie continued onward.
• Lier and V identified the attackers’ advanced full-body camouflage, and Jackie tore up the floor to make heat signatures easier to detect.
• Jackie’s heated metal rods exposed an attacker, while V cornered him and Lier hacked his cyberware through a wired connection.
• The attacker’s camouflage failed, Jackie shot him, and the remaining hunters realized they were trapped with Lier, V, and Jackie.

Jackie and V fought their way through the Brain Maggot Gang’s underground tunnels, overwhelming the Slaughterhouse members with brute force and speed. With his gang trapped and dying, Irakli ordered the survivors to unlock their Skill Shard restrictions, and one subordinate did so as the attackers closed in.

• Jackie’s rocket-powered fist smashed a Slaughterhouse member into a concrete pillar, and V killed him with her Mantis Blades.
• Jackie advanced through the tunnel, hurling debris and crushing the gang’s stealth advantage while V struck down enemies whenever they revealed themselves.
• Irakli refused to let his gang flee because they knew only one route out, and he ordered them to unlock all restrictions on their Skill Shards.
• A Slaughterhouse subordinate watched Jackie and V kill the remaining gang members in the passage and realized the fight was nearly over.
• The subordinate unlocked his Cyberware restrictions, breaking his Skill Shard’s safety limits and sending his body into rapid, uncontrolled action.

Jackie, V, and Lier defeated the last Slaughterhouse attackers and headed for their control room. Meanwhile, Sophie, Elio, and Raymond discovered the underground mainframe might be compromised as a tremor shook their hideout and the route to it stood open.

• Jackie used a preplanned punch and the Octopus Arms to kill one attacker and immobilize the other.
• Lier explained that Little Octopus had simulated the enemies’ Skill Shard and guided the Octopus Arms to counter them.
• Jackie removed poisoned darts from his armor, while V followed Lier toward the control room.
• Elio argued that the underground tremor could not have been caused by Powered Armor, but the ground tilted and threw the three Brain Maggot Gang members from their beds.
• Sophie blamed a problem with the mainframe and led Elio and Raymond toward it.
• Sophie noticed that the indicator showed the door on the route to the mainframe had been opened and told Raymond to grab a gun.

Joestar explored a dark underground passage and found Access Pods holding people who were being overloaded with Skill Shards, including his former neighbor. As the Brain Maggot Gang approached, Joestar readied his shotgun and charged toward them.

• Joestar used his Sharp Eyes Cyber-Eye to navigate the tunnel, dodged a falling boulder, and stumbled over a decomposing corpse containing Skill Shards.
• Joestar passed through an open door into a room filled with Access Pods and discovered that each held a person loaded with multiple Shards.
• Joestar recognized his one-eyed former neighbor in a pod and feared his missing mother might have been captured as well.
• A pod occupant convulsed as voices and footsteps approached, and Joestar realized the Brain Maggot Gang was nearby.
• Joestar charged toward the gang with his Satara Shotgun ready.

Joestar fought Sophie and the Brain Maggot Gang in the server room, but his Cyberware system locked up and left him helpless. As Sophie prepared to kill him, Joestar’s scream triggered a surge that struck the gang and plunged the room into darkness, while he heard his mother call him Yoshida.

• Joestar’s shotgun blast damaged the server room, and Sophie shot him while he killed two Brain Maggot Gang members with rubble.
• Joestar’s Cyberware system malfunctioned as he jumped out to attack Sophie, and his shotgun blast ruptured an Access Pod.
• Sophie sent Raymond and Elio to check the mainframe, then taunted Joestar and prepared to finish him.
• Joestar recalled his past failures and his mother before roaring as his Cyberware shook under the system lock.
• Electric arcs burst from the Access Pods, struck Sophie and the other gang members, and plunged the room into darkness.
• Joestar was grazed by a bullet and heard his mother call him Yoshida, his real name.

Lier, V, and Jack tracked the Brain Maggot Gang’s technology to an underground lab, where Joestar was being altered while reliving memories of his mother. They rescued him from the collapsing facility, but he remained trapped in a damaged pod as the group confronted the gang’s grotesque experiments.

• Lier, V, and Jack discovered that the Slaughterhouse’s full-body cyborgs used unfinished AI-trained Skill Shards, and Lier traced an electromagnetic pulse toward Joestar.
• Joestar remembered his life as Yoshida Koichi, including his mother’s sacrifices and the events that drove him into a gang.
• The Brain Maggot Gang’s machinery implanted cyberware into Joestar while his hallucination of his mother revealed a grotesquely augmented brain.
• Doom Doom fought through the brain-controlled crowd as the underground facility began to collapse, and Joestar woke and tried to warn everyone about the people in the pods.
• Lier, V, and Jack reached Joestar, sealed his damaged pod, and held back the collapsing structure as Joestar nodded to confirm he was alive.

Lier discovered that the Brain Maggot Gang had used Joestar’s mother as a human AI to process Skill Shards, leaving her mind overwhelmed by data. Joestar chose to risk linking his mind with hers to try to save her, and Lier began the neural bridge with Doom Doom joining in.

• Lier found the three Brain Maggot Gang members killed by an accidental arc discharge and turned his attention to the cyberzombies and the mainframe.
• Joestar told Lier that the Brain Maggot Gang had recruited his mother to collect Skill Shards and used them for experiments.
• Lier explained that Joestar’s mother might forget him if he cut her off from the external data, while a neural link could let them search their shared memories together.
• Joestar chose the neural-link plan, accepting the risk that he and his mother might die together in their hallucinations.
• V questioned Lier’s plan, but Lier prepared to connect his brain to the mainframe with help from Little Octopus.
• Doom Doom joined the neural link, then collapsed and convulsed as soon as the connection was inserted.

Lier discovered that Joestar’s mother’s complex surgery could not be stopped, so he continued separating her data while planning to move her and the Brain Maggot Gang’s technology. He persuaded River to let him take the victims, equipment, and evidence, but Jefferson Peralez’s arrival complicated the police response.

• Little Octopus told Lier they could not shut down Joestar’s mother’s mainframe, so the surgery had to run to completion.
• Lier exited Cyberspace and told Joestar that stopping the surgery could leave him blind or make him a Cyberpsycho, while his mother remained their best chance of saving him.
• Lier contacted River and asked to take the Brain Maggot Gang’s victims, equipment, and evidence before the NCPD handed them over for processing.
• River agreed to pull out the police and send specialists, despite Old Han’s objections.
• A luxurious AV arrived, and River recognized Jefferson Peralez.

Lier arranged an escape from the Brain Maggot Gang’s underground facility, planning to transfer Joestar’s mother from the mainframe into Joestar while the NCPD surrounded them. The building sank as Lier, Joestar, and Doom Doom emerged, and Lier told Councilman Peralez the operation was done, though the gang had been crafty.

• Lier learned that the mainframe had started performing cyberware surgery on Joestar and Doom Doom, and Little Octopus proposed transferring Joestar’s mother into Joestar’s brain with supporting Shards and hardware.
• Lier told Doom Doom to dig a tunnel and prepared Joestar to carry his mother’s 164-kilogram pod, while Jackie’s Powered Armor was fitted to support the escape.
• Joestar saw a memory of his mother holding him as a baby and heard Lier tell him that he would now be responsible for her.
• Councilman Peralez arrived at the Brain Maggot Gang’s building with River, Old Han, and two Centaur Exoskeletons as the ground began to shake.
• The building sank rather than collapsing sideways, and Lier, Joestar, and Doom Doom emerged from the dust; Lier told Peralez the operation was done, but the gang had been crafty.

Lier told Jefferson that the Brain Maggot Gang had supplied gangs with full-body Cyberware and used military-grade equipment in an underground tunnel network, then proposed luring the Rogue AI Muramasa into revealing itself. He left Jefferson with a Shard describing an unprecedented race designed to trap the AI.

• Jackie ate a nourishing meal while Lier discussed the Brain Maggot Gang with Jefferson.
• Lier reported that the gang had equipped several gangs with full-body Cyberware and installed military-grade jamming and Electromagnetic Pulse devices in its tunnels.
• Jefferson questioned how three Unregistered Citizens obtained the gang’s advanced technology, and Lier suggested a Rogue AI had sponsored them.
• Jefferson decided to arrange an engineering team to clear the tunnels after learning that Muramasa might be involved.
• Lier proposed a Moral Logic Trap and handed Jefferson a Shard outlining an unprecedented, no-holds-barred race to lure Muramasa out.

Lier proposed an armed race through Night City as a public battlefield to draw out hidden gangs and protect ordinary people from unpredictable violence. Jefferson agreed to consider the plan, then questioned what Lier was hiding as an invisible AV watched Brick.

• Lier explained to Jefferson that the race would give fighters a known place and time to fight, keeping ordinary people away from the danger.
• Jefferson saw how the event could attract corporate sponsors and gangs, pressure Muramasa, and expose threats like the Slaughterhouse, but warned that the plan could backfire if they lost.
• Jefferson asked about the collapse and what Lier was hiding, then let the matter go as a partner; Lier said he was protecting someone from Night City.
• Lier messaged Brick to ask if everything was normal, while an invisible AV hovered nearby without Brick noticing.