"Good morning, Night City!"
"Yesterday's death lottery ended with a full thirty!"
"Thanks to the endless gang fights, ten people died in Heywood alone."
"But a police officer is also dead. I think you all have to pay..."
Logan Lane, lying on the bed, moved his fingertips. The huge roar of the hovercraft outside the window and the chattering TV filled the room.
This is Logan's home. Compared to the unfinished buildings in Dogtown, this is a pretty good place to live.
He looked at everything familiar yet unfamiliar after completely integrating the memories of the original owner and climbed out of bed, soreness in every move.
"Hehe, Night City... No, a new day in Dogtown?"
Logan moved his prosthetic, picked up the golden corn roll on the table, and took a few bites. He was relieved after confirming that all his body indicators had returned to normal.
The phone rang, revealing Otto's exaggerated expression on the screen.
"You kid, you inhaled three cans of my Qinglizhi yesterday - I say, you should save some money to replace those damn old prosthetics of yours."
Logan nodded, acknowledging the truth in Otto's words.
But it seemed this kid had also smoked a lot of the flash he bought. Was he here to collect a debt?
"Okay, buddy, I'm not a debt collector. If you have time, come to the camp next to the checkpoint. Hansen said that the guns must be returned to our soldiers."
"By the way, remember to keep the colonel's affairs in mind, and don't do anything unnecessary."
"Oh, and brother, let's have a drink when you have time!"
After hanging up, Logan fell into deep thought. Yesterday, Hansen had asked him to go to the famous landmark building, [Heartache], in Dogtown, but he wasn't quite sure who he was supposed to meet.
A figure with a hoarse voice and a face hidden in shadows appeared in Logan's mind.
"Could it be Mr. Hands? A well-known middleman in Taipingzhou?"
It was now 2075, and Logan wasn't sure if Mr. Hands had become a famous figure in this area. If it was someone unfamiliar, dealing with them could be troublesome.
His biggest reliance now was his general grasp of these people's personalities.
A middleman, this profession that navigates between various forces in Night City, is high-risk and high-reward.
Many cyberpunks think that transferring money is simple, so why do they need middlemen to run out and make a lot of money? But the fact is, these guys with all-powerful hands can always win the favor of big customers and solve most of the troubles for those who do things.
Without the middleman's two hands, most shady dealings couldn't be done.
Logan walked out of the crisscrossing construction house and descended the creaking simple escalator to the ground. The big tree full of candles in the distance stirred warm memories of this world.
He once controlled the game character V and talked with Johnny under the Memorial Tree for the Dead. Perhaps like himself, V at that time was also confused about how to move forward.
Now, all this had become a reality. Those unwillingness, those friendships, and those passions had not yet followed their own story tracks.
I just don't know what V is doing now. Is he a man or a woman?
Logan made a big joke for himself, calming his serious mood a little.
The phone rang.
[Caller: Unknown]
"Hello friend, I'm Mr. Hands."
Logan felt a little relieved, at least he was familiar with this person, so he nodded, "The famous Mr. Hands, nice to meet you."
The mysterious middleman, whose face couldn't be seen, was a little surprised and laughed softly, his voice elegant and easy-going, "It's rare for Colonel Hansen to pick such a likable subordinate. Come to the Heart-wrenching Club. I heard yesterday that you were seriously injured, so I left time for you."
"Of course, I won't wait too long, there are some things I need to discuss with you in person."
Logan nodded, and the person on the other end of the phone didn't waste time, hanging up after he finished speaking.
Logan was about to head towards the unfinished building outside Dogtown, where a dilapidated road connected the main buildings of Dogtown, when -
A mouthful of spit accurately hit his feet.
"Stupid Hellhound, now it's useless again, ugh!"
The vendor hiding under the shelf selling miscellaneous things cursed non-stop. Logan then remembered that he was a violent tool used by Colonel Hansen to oppress the residents of Dogtown yesterday.
Now, it seemed the Hellhound had kicked him.
Don't panic when you encounter something.
The next second, Logan's hand tightly grasped the vendor's chin.
The passers-by around also stopped, drawn by the shouting and cursing. Some were terrified, some excited, and some even encouraged the vendor to fight back.
"Hey! Calm down, buddy."
The vendor didn't expect that the soldier driven out of the Hellhound was still wearing a prosthetic. The iron-like hand pinched his facial prosthetic, and it seemed about to break. He could only give up immediately.
What the Hellhound did was not done by him, Logan. Logan wasn't going to take this grievance alone, so he taught this guy a lesson from the heart.
"I hope you can keep your mouth shut. Whether I'm a ghost dog or not doesn't mean I won't punish you—"
"Be honest, okay?"
Logan knew that if he put his hands in his pockets and pretended nothing happened, he would be in trouble later.
Fortunately, this prosthetic body was more than enough to deal with a foul-mouthed boss.
"I'll live here, and you do your business, OK?"
The boss nodded like a chicken, and Logan immediately let go.
Everyone watched Logan leave with his hands in his pockets, muttering friendly greetings to the ghost dog soldiers' "parents" and then scattered.
Although time passes quickly in the game, the reality is that Dogtown is huge. The road behind the unfinished building is very long. Logan even walked until he was a little out of breath.
It's all because of the previous body of this body. The military pay was used to buy flash mixed with hard goods or gamble. Anyway, there wasn't even a broken car...
After walking for two hours, Logan entered the barracks.
As soon as he entered the gate, he found that the Nether Dog soldiers stopped their entertainment and stared at this young man who didn't look like a Nether Dog soldier at all.
But since the guards let him go, they didn't bother to care about these things.
"Your gun, and some money that Hansen gave you, oh, there are kickbacks, which is my reward."
A female soldier with a mohawk haircut, a military uniform around her waist, a rose tattoo on her arm, and a cigarette in her mouth, threw Logan's gun over.
The female soldier's eyes lit up, and Logan's "dry" account had an extra thousand euros.
"How much was deducted?"
"Three hundred. If you are not satisfied, go tell the colonel. You can get out now."
Logan blinked. He wasn't ready to leave. "Give it back to me."
The female soldier clicked her tongue. Just as she was about to get angry, the soldier next to her spat out a mouthful of pungent sparkling water. "Give it to him, girl. It's not necessary. Otto..."
"You are awesome."
It wasn't until the remaining three hundred entered the account that Logan asked the male soldier about Otto. "Where is Otto? Didn't he say he gave me the equipment?"
The male soldier stood up and supported Logan's shoulders, pushing him out. "Who knows? He died in some girl's house, right? Anyway, get out of here quickly. Don't ask me anymore."
Logan called Otto and wanted to tell him that the things were taken away.
After all, this is a matter of etiquette.
The phone rang for a long time, but no one answered. Logan had to give up. Looking at the [Heart-worrying Club] in the distance, which looked like a transparent pyramid in the sun, he took the first... how many steps in this world?
Forget it, it's a good start anyway, isn't it?