Zetatech Tower — Aircar maintenance level.
A middle-aged man with a round, harmless-looking face was now sprawled helplessly on the floor, his body twitching as though he had lost control of his own muscles.
He wore a blue technician's jumpsuit — an aircar maintenance worker, apparently still on the night shift.
Even collapsed on the floor, he struggled to lift his head, looking up at the cold-eyed corporate security officers surrounding him. His voice trembled with fear as he pleaded,
"Please, I swear I'm innocent! I've done nothing wrong! I beg you, sirs, please have mercy!"
The guards ignored him completely, closing in around him like an iron wall — silent, unmoving, and without emotion.
Seeing they were unmoved, the man grew more desperate.
"Then at least turn my hormone regulator back on!" he cried weakly. "If that thing fails at my age, I'll lose speech control in minutes! You've no idea what hormonal collapse feels like for a middle-aged man! I'm already getting dizzy—my head's spinning—please!"
His voice cracked; his words slurred as the regulator's failure began scrambling his consciousness.
Around him, a few other techs in identical uniforms continued pretending to work, though their furtive glances betrayed sympathy. They clearly knew the man.
But sympathy was one thing; intervention was another. Even spouses scatter when disaster strikes — what chance did a co-worker have? No one dared step forward.
The standoff dragged on until a woman arrived — dragging a young man behind her.
Xu Wanxue.
Her face was a mask of frost as she entered the maintenance bay. Instantly, all eyes turned toward her. Even those who didn't recognize her face had the company's AR overlay confirming her identity: Vice President, Zetatech Corporation.
"Vice President, ma'am!" everyone barked in unison.
Wanxue ignored them and walked straight to the subdued man, glancing briefly at the guards.
"Is it confirmed?" she asked coolly.
The lead guard stood stiff as a board and replied word for word:
"No trace of external communications found on his device, ma'am, but per your directive, he remains our highest suspect. Records confirm he's the assigned technician for your aircar this evening and through tomorrow morning."
"According to maintenance protocol, the aircar requires a weekly service," she said sharply. "Exclude unrelated personnel, and who's left? If the mole isn't you, who else could it be?"
"Vice President, I swear I'm innocent! Heaven can judge me! Plug a data line into my port and you'll see I'm not lying — I haven't done anything wrong!" the man pleaded.
Wanxue said nothing, just gave a small signal with her hand.
A guard immediately stepped forward and drove a hard kick into the man's abdomen.
"Shut your mouth when the Vice President's speaking, you worthless rat!" he barked. "Traitor scum, how dare you talk back!"
The man gasped, curling up in pain, barely able to breathe.
He couldn't understand — how had they found him out when he hadn't even acted yet?
As a crew technician authorized to access executive aircars, his position was crucial — comparable to a royal stable master in the old days. Every vehicle represented a high-ranking exec.
Even a minor malfunction could mean death — for the passenger and the mechanic.
For years, he'd lived carefully, hiding his double life. No one knew, not even from his comm logs. He was, after all, a Zetatech employee — just one who'd been bought.
The reason was simple: money. A second paycheck each month so his family could live better.
And he'd played it smart — knowing his kind of mole was valuable precisely because he'd never be activated lightly.
To have access to corporate executives' vehicles was to hold potential power. As long as he didn't slip up, he could ride this secret out for life.
But fate had other plans.
Recently, the order came down from "above." He had no choice but to obey.
The job seemed simple enough: plant a hacker doll inside Vice President Xu Wanxue's aircar, then walk away. He'd be paid handsomely in cash, delivered directly to his family — bypassing company monitoring.
A clean, quiet job. Only he and his handlers knew.
It should have been foolproof.
So how? How had they known before he'd even done anything?
It made no sense.
That was why his pleas sounded so genuine — because in a way, he truly was innocent.
He hadn't even had the chance to commit the crime.
...
When he was on the brink of passing out, Wanxue raised a hand, signaling the guards to stop.
"Talk," she said, squatting down to meet his eyes, her voice cold as glass. "Tell me everything you know, and I might be lenient."
"I... I swear I'm innocent..." he whispered, still clinging to hope.
"Still pretending?" she muttered, losing interest. She turned her head toward Lin Mo.
"He's yours."
Lin Mo nodded and crouched down beside the man, speaking softly.
"Drop the act. We already know your plan. Do you really think that keeping quiet will save you?"
"You learned the Vice President's schedule — when she'd be taking the aircar tomorrow. Your superiors told you to sabotage it in advance. And outside, your friends have an assassination team waiting to finish the job when the vehicle goes down."
"Now, here's your only chance: help us lure them out, and maybe you'll get the luxury of a final message to your family. Otherwise, they'll die with you."
The man's pupils shrank.
So their plan had been exposed from the very start... No wonder security had pounced immediately.
Even without evidence, the company could erase a low-level employee without question.
After a brief inner struggle, the man bit his lip and whispered, barely audible,
"If I talk... will you let me live?"
"If it were up to me," Lin Mo said flatly, "no."
This man was one of the hands meant to kill his sister. Whether he'd acted or not didn't matter — the intent was enough.
Lin Mo knew one thing: if you offered a desperate man even a sliver of false hope, he'd cling to it and lie to your face for survival.
There was no need for that here. The man had no leverage.
"Then... if someone else decides?" the man asked weakly.
"I don't know," Lin Mo said. "You can dream about it if you want. Now answer me — will you help or not?"
"I'll help!" the man gasped.
Lin Mo smiled thinly — calm, quiet, like a devil guiding a soul to its end.
"Good. Then tomorrow morning, you'll send a message to your superiors telling them the job's done. And now—" he leaned closer, voice dropping to a whisper,
"—you're going to tell us everything you know."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧠 MY CYBERPUNK 2077 SIMULATOR
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🧠 WHAT IF YOU COULD SIMULATE THE FUTURE BEFORE LIVING IT?
One choice.
One simulation.
One completely different path through Night City.
My Cyberpunk 2077 Simulator has 100+ chapters ahead available now.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚡ CALCULATE. ADAPT. SURVIVE.
🧠 Simulation
🤖 Cyberware development
⏱️ Sandevistan technology
🏢 Corporate intrigue
🔫 Combat & assassinations
🌃 Night City
♟️ Planning several moves ahead
Knowledge is power.
Preparation is survival.
And in Night City...
Knowing what comes next can make you terrifying.
🔥 300+ CHAPTERS AHEAD.
👉 See how far the simulation goes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🌐 SrMagnusCorp: https://srmagnuscorp.com/
🔥 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/MrMagnus
🐦 X / Twitter: https://x.com/SrMagnuscorp
⚠️ More Power Stones = greater release priority.
🧠 The next simulation has already begun.