Cyberpunk: 2075

"Here's your breakfast."

"Karl, did you go out?"

Still half-asleep, Oliver nudged Jack's foot off his stomach and blinked at the large bag Karl was holding.

"What are we eating?"

"Sushi set, both are large portions."

"Sushi, huh..."

Jack, rubbing his eyes, yawned before his nose caught onto something strange.

Following the scent, he turned to Karl.

"Karl, why do you smell like blood?"

"It's on TV right now."

Karl pointed at the screen, where an NCPD broadcast was running. The headline read:

"In a heroic battle, NCPD officers have taken down a cyberpsycho!"

And the location was... downstairs?

"You ran into a cyberpsycho!?"

That woke Oliver up completely. He scanned Karl's body for injuries, only relaxing after confirming he was unharmed.

"You got dragged into it, huh? What a pain."

"Not really a pain," Karl replied, placing the plastic-wrapped "plastic" sushi boxes onto the table in front of them.

"This cyberpsycho? I was the one who took him down."

"...Huh?"

How the hell does a simple breakfast run turn into taking down a cyberpsycho?

As Karl fetched two bottles of purified water from the vending machine, he recounted what had happened.

"You weren't just dragged into it, you jumped in yourself. A cyberpsycho with Sandevistan, Mantis Blades, and subdermal armor—and you went after him? Do you have a death wish?"

Oliver shook his head in disbelief. If he'd run into a cyberpsycho like that on the street, he would've turned and bolted without a second thought.

"I just wanted to make some eddies. Who knew it'd only be 10k? Not even enough to buy a new gun."

"If something like this happens again, call us, Karl. You're taking too many risks alone," Jack added.

Karl nodded at their concerns.

"I just wanted to test if my instincts were right. I won't do it again."

He wasn't some reckless idiot. Testing out how it felt to fight against Sandevistan was one thing, but next time, he'd at least upgrade his cyberware first... or learn a few more tricks from braindances.

As he handed over the drinks, Karl suddenly remembered the chip he had pocketed earlier.

"Speaking of which, I picked up a chip. Plugging it directly into my neural interface isn't the safest move. Oliver, mind if I use your computer?"

"Go ahead."

As Oliver and Jack casually ate their sushi, Karl plugged the chip into Oliver's PC.

The data loaded quickly—there was nothing too special, just a text log.

But the contents were strange.

"The cherry blossom born from chrysanthemums and roses has arrived in the City of Night Lights."

Karl could understand City of Night Lights—it was obviously referring to Night City.

But the rest? Pure nonsense to him.

So what do chrysanthemum, rose, and cherry blossom refer to? Just flowers?

But the word born was used… Could it mean a person?

Does this message imply that someone has arrived in Night City?

There's too little information.

Why would a cyberpsycho be carrying a data shard with this kind of cryptic message? And what does it even mean? He had no clue.

But one thing was certain—

This was all the information he was getting from it.

Karl had always valued information gathering. Whether useful or not, he made a habit of remembering everything, because his skills worked best when built upon accumulated knowledge.

After telling Oliver and Jack to save him some inari sushi, Karl started browsing other sites—until he came across a car dealership website.

"Hey, that's Old Captain's car sales site."

Drinking purified water, Oliver noticed Karl's screen while bringing over the inari sushi he had requested.

"Old Captain?"

"Yeah, he's from Santo Domingo. I heard he used to be a corpo but got sick of the corporate system, quit, and started selling cars."

"They're all used cars," Jack added as he walked over. He was familiar with the dealership. "Most of them belonged to people who died or needed to offload them in a hurry. If you don't mind that, the prices are pretty cheap."

"They really are."

Karl scrolled through the listings, most of which were under a few thousand eddies—some even below ten thousand. He was starting to have an idea.

"Oliver, Jack, what do you think about me buying a car? That way, we wouldn't have to cram into the same ride anymore."

"A used car?"

Jack eyed the vehicles on screen. "You sure it won't have issues later?"

"Old Captain's cars are trustworthy," Oliver assured him. "The ones he personally handles are all clean. You can check the listings for cars he's directly selling—those are the safe bets. The rest? Avoid them. Those might be more trouble than they're worth."

Oliver knew a lot about Old Captain's dealership. Every street kid in Santo Domingo had browsed his site at some point. After all, what could be more appealing than flashy cars and high-powered guns?

"So, got any recommendations?"

Looking at the endless options, all of them hyped up with exaggerated descriptions, Karl realized he didn't know much about cars. He decided to let Oliver handle it.

"First, let's pick a four-seater," Oliver suggested. "Even if we split up and drive two cars, having a four-seater will be better when we're running jobs together."

After browsing for a while, Oliver pointed at a specific vehicle—one Karl was already familiar with.

Not just familiar.

He had ridden in one before.

[Thorton Colby Hera EC-D I360]

A well-regarded, durable car, now listed on Old Captain's site for just 31,000 eddies. Almost brand new.

And the reason it was almost new?

The original owner never even got to drive it—he was shot dead by some random gangoons on the way to pick it up. His family, left without a provider, couldn't afford to keep the car and had no choice but to sell it.

"This one works."

Karl quickly decided on his first vehicle purchase in Night City.