Cyberpunk: The Relentless

During a break between classes, Gaius was stopped by one of the friends he had made at the academy.

The girl, with long azure-blue hair tied into a single ponytail, stared at him and asked,

"Are you planning to leave the academy?"

"Sharp as always."

As usual, Gaius didn't bother hiding the truth.

He sat down on a bench directly under a surveillance camera and casually adjusted its angle so it wouldn't capture him or the girl.

"But how did you notice?"

"Because you're in a good mood today."

The girl responded in a calm tone.

"Like a bird finally escaping its cage, singing freely among the flowers."

"...If you said that to any normal Night City resident, they wouldn't have a clue what you meant."

"Most people here have never even seen birds or flowers."

Gaius patted the empty spot beside him, gesturing for her to sit.

"You're right. I'm leaving—probably within the next few days."

The blue-haired girl hesitated.

She stared at the empty space beside him.

She stared at Gaius.

Then, finally, she sat down.

But she made sure to stay on the opposite edge of the bench.

After a brief silence, she spoke.

"Did you complete your mission at the academy?"

"More or less."

Gaius smirked.

"Are you planning to report me?"

"For selling black braindances?"

The girl's expression remained calm.

"...Wait, you knew?"

For the first time, Gaius flinched slightly.

His smile stiffened.

"You never tried to hide it."

She replied matter-of-factly.

"I've seen you carrying braindance chips through the hallways, right in front of the cameras."

"Well, that confirms it then."

Gaius leaned back on the bench.

"If you noticed, then the faculty—who monitor the cameras constantly—must've known for a while too."

"And yet, they never took action."

"That means they have their own plans for you."

The girl's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Are they planning to replace you?"

"I like how quickly you catch on."

Gaius grinned.

"Since they've decided to ignore my activities, that means they're planning to let someone else take over my business after I leave."

"In that case, I should leave them a little 'reminder' before I go."

"A warning, so they don't get any funny ideas about taking over my network."

Gaius stood up.

"That's enough for now."

"I won't leave immediately—I'll wait a couple more days until things cool down."

He glanced at her.

"If you want to talk again, you know where to find me."

Then, he smirked.

"After all…"

"Having a corporate kid like you as a friend isn't so bad."

"Maybe I'll teach you more about how the real world works."

"Wait."

The girl also stood up.

She took a few steps forward, blocking his path.

Then, she looked him directly in the eyes.

"Can I know your real identity?"

"Nope."

Gaius rejected her without hesitation.

"Because… you still don't trust me?"

She pressed further.

"No."

Gaius raised a hand, pointing to the side.

"Because we have company."

A group of Arasaka Academy students were passing by.

Gaius waited for them to move out of earshot before continuing.

"I call you my friend because I trust you."

"If I misjudged you, then that's on me."

"But revealing my real face right now? Not happening."

"However…"

Gaius paused for a moment, then smirked.

"I can at least tell you my name."

The girl tilted her head.

"But if you won't show me your real face, then your name is fake too, isn't it?"

"Well, just like I never asked for your name either, right?"

"One person knows the face but not the name."

"The other knows the name but not the face."

"Seems fair."

He tapped his chest.

"I'm Karl."

The girl blinked.

"...Never heard of you."

"Then you need to get out more."

Gaius—*no, Karl—*grinned.

"Is your name really that well-known?"

The blue-haired girl gave Karl a thoughtful look.

"I see. I'll try not to look into it until we officially meet again."

"I'll be looking forward to that day."

After parting ways with his academy acquaintance, Karl didn't even make it far from campus before receiving a call from Mann.

"Karl, we've captured JK."

Captured already?

That was fast.

"Did you run into any trouble?"

"Nah, nothing major… just a small surprise."

Mann continued, sounding annoyed.

"Turns out, this 'JK'—Jimmy Kurozaki—was carrying a small EMP device. Almost knocked me out cold."

"A small EMP? Was he even able to withstand it himself?"

"He's got a few minor cyberware implants, but nothing heavy like me. Still, he thought that EMP would save him."

Karl narrowed his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

Mann chuckled.

"The idiot assumed that once my cyberware got fried, I'd be defenseless."

"So he walked right up to me, thinking he could just check if I was down."

"That's when I reminded him—"

"—Even if my arm's disabled, it's still made of steel."

Karl sighed.

"So what happened?"

Mann laughed.

"I just swung my deadweight arm at him like a club and smashed his face in."

"He went down instantly."

Karl could only imagine it.

A braindance editor like JK must have thought he was so clever, carrying an EMP to disable mercs.

But walking up to a still-conscious, cybernetically-enhanced mercenary?

That was just asking to die.

"Is he willing to cooperate?"

"Not awake yet."

Mann sounded casual, like this was just another day on the job.

"I hit him pretty hard. His face got caved in, so we're patching him up right now."

"Wait… he's still alive, right?"

Karl frowned.

"This guy's our lead."

"Relax."

Mann reassured him.

"Pilar's taking care of him. You remember Pilar, right?

Our team's tech specialist?

Fixing a person's body is no different from repairing cyberware for him."

Karl exhaled.

"Alright. When are we moving on to the next phase?"

"JK's gonna need some… 'persuasion' first."

Mann's tone turned dark.

"Give us until tomorrow."

"Once we force out the location of his private meetings with Tanaka, we'll send you the details."

"Then, you just need to show up."

Karl nodded slightly.

Having a professional merc team as backup was convenient as hell.

They handled everything—tracking, capturing, interrogation.

All Karl had to do was show up at the right time and finish the job.

"Alright. See you tomorrow."

With that, the call ended.

Tomorrow would mark the final step of his academy mission.

It hadn't even been a full week, yet their progress was light-years ahead of the Militech-imposed two-month deadline.

Karl smirked.

"Not bad. Not bad at all."

PS: Extra Cyberpunk Trivia

I didn't want to cram too much into the last PS, so here's something interesting I noticed when replaying V's three different life paths.

Turns out, before moving into the apartment, both Male and Female V lived in Jackie's house, sharing a room with him.

(Damn… Jackie really treated V like a sibling.)

Also, the game originally had cutscenes for when V:

Moved in and met Mama Welles.

Moved out and said goodbye.

Too bad they weren't fully developed.

It would've given Jackie more screen time.

Also, I finally figured out why Mama Welles treats V like family.

She literally watched them grow up in Night City.

No wonder she calls V her own child.

Oh, and one last random financial fact:

After getting fired as a Corpo, V starts their new life with only €$45,800 in cash.

All of Arasaka's cyberware gets deactivated, so V needs to spend all that money just to replace their lost cybernetics.

(So yeah, cyberware is cheaper than we thought.)

Okay, I'm taking a break tomorrow, but I'll be back with four chapters the next day.

See ya!

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