Chapter Summaries

Lier went to Arasaka Academy’s continuing education college to take entrance exams for technical certifications, while reflecting on the city’s corporate hierarchy. After completing the technical questions, he faced a series of questions about Arasaka and outside contracting, and began answering with his thoughts on the fixer’s role.

• V and Lier arrived at Arasaka Academy, where V left for the Afterlife while Lier went to take his entrance exam.
• Lier entered the continuing education college and sat for assessments tied to Class A medical and technical certifications.
• Lier answered the technical questions using what he had studied with Vic and his cyberware-assisted memory.
• The exam asked whether Lier wanted to join Arasaka and how he would plan a fulfilling career as an outside contractor.
• Lier considered the strategies of a fixer and began his response by saying, “Only a fucking idiot would do this job.”

Lier studied Arasaka Academy’s technical courses while dismissing its ideological lessons, then joined V and Jackie on a low-paying job against Sixth Street. He left his companions expecting a bigger job soon and arranged a company office renovation and a doctor’s appointment in the Marvel Universe.

• Tanaka Tatsuo reviewed Marcus’s list of potential recruits and dismissed Dennis “Burger King” as a street punk despite his exceptional test scores.
• Lier completed technical courses, searched for DNA-editing research from Biotechnica and Moore Technologies, and wondered which company to rob.
• Lier, V, and Jackie ambushed three Sixth Street members for Padre, burning them with Lier’s hack before V and Jackie knocked them out.
• Lier exchanged messages with Matt about his appointment with Dr. Connors and the renovation of his temporary company office.
• Lier promised V and Jackie he would have a big-job plan by the day after tomorrow, then the trio captured Malik Plant, a minor Sixth Street boss.

After learning that Padre’s job had been to avenge a girl killed by Sixth Street, Lier realized he had acted without reading the details and used the criminals’ cyberware to practice surgery and Demon programming. He transferred the value of his new implants to his other self, then established on-site communication near Empire State University to follow Connors’s research.

• Lier read Padre’s messages and learned that Sixth Street had accidentally killed a girl while trying to take over The Glen, and that Padre had paid him 2,000 eddies for the job.
• Lier removed and examined the three Sixth Street criminals’ cyberware, tested Cyberware Malfunction and Cyber-Eye Reboot, and killed them after one developed Cyberpsychosis.
• Lier earned 700 tech points, installed several cyberware implants including Like-Skin, and transferred 1,985 tech points to his other self.
• Lier bagged the criminals’ corpses and left them with Night City’s garbage, then rested while waiting for progress in the other world.
• Lier spent 10 tech points to establish on-site communication near Empire State University so he could look up information about Connors’s research.

Lier and Matt discussed whether people should rely on superheroes or take action themselves, and how money and research could help them build a better future. They met Professor Curt Connors at the laboratory, where Lier noticed Connors’s empty right sleeve.

• Lier and Matt walked through Empire State University and acknowledged that they each had extraordinary abilities.
• Matt asked why Lier had rallied the residents instead of handling the danger alone, and Lier argued that people needed to take action rather than wait for a hero.
• Lier explained that money could let people contribute through their strengths while research offered them the promise of a better future.
• Matt connected Lier’s ideas to his father and agreed that people should try to change their circumstances through effort.
• Professor Curt Connors greeted Lier and Matt, admitted he had overheard their conversation, and invited them into the laboratory.
• Lier noticed that Professor Connors’s right sleeve was empty.

Lier discussed Dr. Connors's cross-species genetics research and offered to become his partner rather than let the Osborn Group control the technology. Connors accepted, while Lier lost 20 Tech Points when his cross-plane connection passed one hour.

• Lier explained that Connors's Decay Algorithm could fail through excessive DNA degradation or uncontrolled mutations.
• Connors described his lack of funding and samples, and his interest in testing DNA from a Lesser Antillean Iguana.
• Connors revealed that the Osborn Group had offered him the resources to take over Richard Parker's research, but he feared the military would misuse it.
• Lier offered funding, technical support, and Lesser Antillean Iguana DNA data, and Connors agreed to make him a partner.
• Lier's system notified him that his cross-plane connection had exceeded an hour and deducted 20 Tech Points.

Lier established Bloom Security’s research institute, locked in the ctOS project, and began planning a heist to steal Biotechnica’s DNA Splicing Instrument. As he considered how to conceal the theft and shift the blame, Padre asked him to meet a client near the Afterlife.

• Lier returned to the apartment and powered up Bloom’s equipment, establishing Bloom research institute with Skye as director and ctOS as its first project.
• Lier uploaded cyberdeck shard design files and assigned Skye, Anthony, and John roles in Bloom’s work.
• Lier planned to obtain Biotechnica’s DNA Splicing Instrument from Orbital City by pressuring an executive and exploiting the company’s human experimentation scandal.
• Lier considered using Arasaka to cover the instrument’s return and a cross-dimensional data link to hide traces of the operation.
• Padre messaged Lier that a client wanted to thank him in person near the Afterlife.

Lier, Jackie, and V listened to Melissa mourn her daughter Amina, who had been killed by Sixth Street, before discussing their money and a new job. The conversation was interrupted when Sixth Street attacked the Afterlife.

• Lier, Jackie, and V met Melissa outside the Afterlife and heard her recount Amina’s life and death.
• Lier toasted Amina, accepted Melissa’s repaired watch, and promised that they would remember her.
• V told Lier she had four hundred thousand eddies and planned to get Mantis Blades, then asked whether she should buy a Sandevistan.
• Lier advised V against getting the Sandevistan if she was worried about its risks.
• Sixth Street attacked the Afterlife, and bullets struck V’s back and ricocheted off.

V, Jackie, and Lier fought off a Sixth Street attack at the Afterlife, then Lier asked Padre for help selling weapons and a vehicle. Lier revealed he was dying and urgently needed money for a lung and heart, and Padre agreed to provide information about Sixth Street’s channels.

• V and Jackie killed or incapacitated the Sixth Street attackers, while Lier used the net to crash their getaway vehicle and disable a fleeing ganger.
• Lier recognized that a gang war with Sixth Street could create an opportunity to place network data barrier nodes and told V and Jackie they would take a few bites out of the gang.
• Padre arrived to collect the dead Valentinos and thanked V, Jackie, and Lier for intervening; Jackie urged him to strike back against Sixth Street.
• Lier asked Padre to help move troublesome smart weapons and a vehicle from Atlanta, but said he could use Sixth Street’s channels himself if Padre could not act quickly.
• When Padre asked why Lier was in such a hurry, Lier revealed he was dying and had spent three hundred thousand on a lung and heart, leaving him short of money and time.
• Padre agreed to give Lier information about Sixth Street’s channels for free.

Lier, Jackie, and V planned to disrupt Sixth Street’s arms trade and profit by selling stolen goods while keeping their tracks concealed. They agreed to begin with arms dealer Rochelle Kaplan and investigate her shipments.

• Padre gave Lier two Shards identifying potential weapons distributors and recommended an unlicensed ripperdoc for selling dirty cyberware.
• Lier explained that the Valentinos could not safely handle the trio’s shipment, so they would need to find buyers and conceal their involvement through middlemen.
• Lier proposed robbing Sixth Street’s supply chain until the gang could not operate without the trio’s permission, while letting the Valentinos take public credit.
• Jackie and V agreed to join the plan, and Lier marked Rochelle Kaplan as their first target.

Lier, V, and Jackie traveled into Santo Domingo to find Roshan at the Rama Arsenal, where Lier planned to obtain information from Kaplan’s private database. The group split up to approach the job quietly while intimidating Roshan, but they had not yet entered the arsenal.

• Lier asked Vic to build a biological model of a lizard and arranged for Vic to buy the research equipment on credit.
• V and Jackie discussed their dream vehicles and weapons as they drove the battered Canary Viper toward Santo Domingo.
• Lier observed Arroyo’s industrial district and considered the nuclear power plant there, but dismissed blowing it up as an extreme option.
• The group saw Sixth Street newcomers demanding increased protection money from a vendor while passersby ignored the harassment.
• V stopped near the Rama Arsenal, and Lier told her to sneak inside while he and Jackie went to speak with Kaplan and frighten Roshan.

Lier and V broke into Rochelle’s fortified gun shop to force her to sell a batch of corporate weapons, and Lier used the shop’s outdated security system to disable its turrets. He left Rochelle terrified and ordered her to close the shop until further notice, then demanded a case of grenades.

• Lier and Jackie entered Rochelle’s shop, where its turret guns made a direct confrontation dangerous, while V searched for another way inside.
• V reached a second-floor terrace but found its old iron door could not be hacked, so Lier identified the shop’s outdated ICE as their best opening.
• Lier told V to break through the door as he distracted Rochelle, and V shattered the lock, entered the room, and connected to the server.
• Lier breached the local network and stopped the turrets from hitting him and Jackie, then turned their aim on Rochelle and made the guns malfunction.
• Lier ordered Rochelle to close Rama’s Firearms Shop until further notice and demanded a case of grenades, while she nodded in fear.

Lier, V, and Jackie traced Sixth Street’s secret weapons shipments through Roshan’s records and set out to intercept the next convoy in the Badlands. They ambushed five cargo vans, and the chapter ended as a grenade exploded inside the lead vehicle.

• Lier cracked Roshan’s Militech firmware and extracted camera footage while V and Jackie reacted to his netrunning skills.
• Lier found messages showing Sixth Street was smuggling cargo under Roshan’s name, with another shipment due across the border in two days.
• Lier planted backdoors in Roshan’s database, hacked Woodhaven Street’s traffic system, and led V and Jackie toward the Badlands.
• Six hours later, a Viper pulled alongside the five-van convoy, and its passenger fired a Tanto Submachine Gun at the vehicles’ tires.
• The convoy crashed together, and a grenade went off inside the lead vehicle.

Lier, Jackie, and V ambushed a Sixth Street convoy and seized its weapons and hidden medicine shipment. After uncovering a route linking Militech, Biotechnica, and the Red Ochre Tribe, they planned to sell the weapons to Padre and investigate the medicine’s buyers.

• Lier, Jackie, and V defeated the Sixth Street convoy, and Lier told the surviving driver to warn his boss that the supply route was closed.
• The trio examined the cargo, including a heavily modified Satara that Lier said Jackie could use only after getting Gorilla Arms.
• Lier discovered medicine hidden in a crate and installed a communications backdoor in the wounded driver.
• Lier found a transport Shard detailing planned stops at Dry Creek, the Red Ochre Tribe, and Arroyo headquarters, with Biotechnica medicine concealed in weapon crates.
• Lier proposed selling the seized weapons and ammunition to Padre while they tracked down the medicine’s buyers.

Lier brought medicine to the plague-stricken Red Ochre Tribe and learned its members were suffering from Gamma Rabies. He offered Chief Hector Krois six canisters for their remaining money in exchange for ending all dealings with Sixth Street, and Hector accepted.

• Lier, V, and Jackie drove to Red Ochre’s camp, where they found sick tribe members and children guarding the entrance.
• V intimidated the armed youths, and Lier showed them the medicine he had recovered and asked to speak with their leader.
• Chief Hector Krois told Lier that Red Ochre was sick with Gamma Rabies and that Sixth Street had doubled the price of its medicine.
• Lier deduced that Hector had signed a human experimentation agreement with Biotechnica and learned the tribe had only two hundred thousand Eddies left.
• Lier offered Hector six canisters of slow-release medicine for two hundred thousand Eddies if Red Ochre ended all cooperation with Sixth Street, and Hector agreed.

Lier, V, and Jackie delivered medicine to the Red Ochre Tribe, saving them from an epidemic and earning their gratitude. As the three prepared to leave in the tribe’s vehicles, Nawei warned them that Sixth Street might be waiting at the intersections.

• V was briefly flustered when Saiwei complimented her shaved hairstyle, then Lier finished speaking with Hector and explained that the Red Ochre Tribe was suffering from an epidemic.
• Lier said he had sold the medicine to the tribe at half price and included a free canister, and Jackie shared how he had first drawn his gun after Maelstrom killed his brother Diego.
• Lier reassured Jackie that his ambitions could still come true, then offered Nawei three sets of tactical gear alongside the tribe’s medicine.
• Nawei announced that the tribe had medicine and thanked Lier, V, and Jackie, while they distributed supplies and reflected on Nomad life and education.
• Nawei returned Jackie’s Ajax, which Jackie gave back to him, and warned the trio that Sixth Street had asked the tribe to watch for them.
• Lier accepted the tribe’s vehicles and proposed returning to Night City to sell the goods to Padre and split the money.

Lier explained that he charged Red Ochre for supplies to push them toward breaking with Biotechnica, then sold salvaged weapons to Padre and split the earnings with V and Jackie. After checking on his projects and family in the other world, Lier was invited by Jackie to try Misty's tarot reading.

• On the way back, Lier admitted to V and Jackie that he wanted Red Ochre to run out of money, confront Biotechnica, and eventually side with him.
• Lier sold Padre twenty-eight Saratogas, nineteen Ajaxes, ammunition, and body armor for 150,000 eddies, while warning him that Sixth Street had acquired more merchandise.
• Lier split the proceeds with V and Jackie, giving each of them 110,000 eddies, and V went to get Mantis Blades installed while Jackie showed Misty his gun.
• Lier sent Dr. Connors the iguana biological model, checked Skye's work and the NYPD project's progress, and sent traffic data to help develop ctOS.
• Lier learned that his family still owed US$320,000 and decided to pay off US$100,000 before Jackie asked if he wanted a tarot reading from Misty.

Lier, Jackie, and V prepared to target Qieshen Weishidun at the Factory trading market, while Misty’s tarot reading warned of a deadly confrontation. As the crew set out with help from a captured Sixth Street soldier, a sergeant accused Padre of sending them to sabotage him.

• Misty read Lier’s tarot cards, drawing the Magician, Death, and Chariot and predicting a dangerous battle that could still end in victory.
• Jackie proudly showed Misty footage from the Rama Arsenal, but the video revealed him fumbling after the attack began, and he hurried Lier out before she could tease him.
• V came out with one Mantis Blade installed, and Jackie showed off his Golden Badass Bitches and the Satara as the crew prepared to leave.
• Lier said they would target Qieshen Weishidun at the Factory trading market and revealed that a Sixth Street soldier they had spared would drive them in.
• Padre celebrated making a profit on the arms deal until a sergeant called and accused him of sending the crew to attack the Sixth Street.

Lier, V, and Jackie used a vaccine taken from a stolen Sixth Street shipment and disguised themselves to move through the gang’s heavily patrolled territory. With Archido’s help, they passed a suspicious patrol and continued their covert trip.

• Jackie told V that Vic had once been a champion boxer and had offered to sell him a pair of Gorilla Arms for two hundred thousand Eddies.
• Lier learned about Gamma Rabies in class, then vaccinated himself, V, and Jackie with a dose from the stolen shipment.
• Lier explained that Sixth Street planned to profit from selling sustained-release medicine while keeping the vaccine for its own use.
• Lier, V, and Jackie disguised themselves as infected Nomads and entered Sixth Street territory with Archido driving.
• Lier posed as a Red Ochre member seeking medicine and distracted a suspicious motorcyclist, allowing the car to pass without discovery.
• Lier gave Archido ten milliliters of sustained-release agent for helping them, and Archido accepted it to help pay for his mother’s medicine.

Lier and V entered The Manufactury to meet Cheson, a weapons dealer with ties to Sixth Street, and pressured him into providing help against the gang. After Cheson offered information about a heavily augmented Sixth Street recruit and access to corporate weapons, Lier installed a communications backdoor in his cyberware and arranged for it to be removed later.

• Archido led Lier and V into The Manufactury, where they pretended to be sick to get past Sixth Street guards.
• Archido explained that he had joined Sixth Street and secretly bought its medicine to treat his mother, whose coworkers had died.
• Lier confronted Cheson, who explained that his business depended on Sixth Street's protection, suppliers, and customers.
• Lier threatened Cheson, who offered intelligence about a cyberware-equipped Sixth Street recruit and promised help with weapons and a shipment of hot goods.
• Lier negotiated a forty-sixty split with Cheson and secretly installed a communications backdoor during their handshake.
• Lier told Cheson to meet them at a Ripperdoc on the Coast of Preaching, but Cheson chose to find someone to remove the backdoor in three days.

Lier, V, and Jackie tracked down the ripperdoc who had upgraded James Norris’s implants, but their search coincided with Norris’s scheduled appointment. As a vehicle arrived outside the clinic, Lier ordered the others to retreat.

• Lier completed the traffic-routing AI and used its data to summon dump trucks, while deciding the crew should lie low after their job.
• Lier, V, and Jackie entered a clinic and questioned its ripperdoc about a Sixth Street member with military implants.
• Lier found James Norris’s surgical records and learned that the heavily augmented former corporate soldier had an appointment for a Sandevistan upgrade that evening.
• A vehicle stopped outside the clinic, and the ripperdoc anesthetized himself as Lier told V and Jackie to fall back.