However, just as Lin Mo thought that Ritchie had invited him over for serious business...
"You're not really my type, but I think I could learn to appreciate you."
Ritchie smiled seductively, her delicate finger tracing circles on Lin Mo's chest. She leaned in slowly, whispering in a voice like a succubus right next to his ear.
"If you're up for it, we could really get to know each other tonight."
When everyone else had no idea what to do, this young man stepped forward and fought off a cyberpsycho, saving her in the process. A heroic rescue like this might seem cliché, but when it happened to her personally, she found her heart racing uncontrollably.
Strong, young, wealthy, and good-looking.
If she didn't take the opportunity to close the distance now, she might as well have wasted all these years of life!
Lin Mo couldn't help but shiver. The strong perfume from the woman in front of him made him wonder if she had marinated herself in it—it was overwhelming.
Honestly, she did look good. Most Mox members used to work the streets, and you needed a certain level of appearance and charm to survive in that line of work.
Even if she was just working the door now, you couldn't get a job like that without some weight and seniority in the gang.
But after guarding his dignity for so long, was he really going to throw it all away here?
Besides, her appearance and temperament, while decent, weren't exactly his type. He preferred women with white hair, red eyes, and the classical grace of the East.
If he really gave it all up tonight... Lin Mo would feel like he'd suffered a huge loss.
"Looks like Mr. Lin is a bit shy."
Seeing how he reacted to her closeness, Ritchie picked up on his resistance. A master at reading men, she knew not to push too hard too fast.
She straightened up slightly, putting some distance between them.
"But if you're willing to put yourself in my hands, I promise you'll experience something you've never felt before. No matter how good braindance might be, it's still fake. Don't you want to taste something real, Mr. Lin?"
I want to, but I'm not about to toss away my "three-lifetime itch" like that... Lin Mo thought silently.
Besides, he wasn't particularly into this kind of thing. In this world, braindance could rival any real "physical experience" or "verbal duel."
He wasn't some lust-driven fool who accepted random invitations. That would be cheap.
Lin Mo sighed and gently rested his hand on the hilt of his blade, slipping back into the persona of a cold-blooded killer. He calmly replied:
"Let's talk business instead."
"But we are talking business~"
Ritchie wasn't giving up yet. She didn't believe a young man his age wouldn't fantasize about a steamy night.
"Someone's watching us," Lin Mo said quietly, eyes lowered.
Even though they were inside the bar now, the feeling of being watched still lingered.
Clearly, as long as cameras existed, elite netrunners could treat them like open windows... Lin Mo was impressed by such ability.
Ritchie's face also grew serious, though she still leaned close with a teasing smile and whispered:
"You're saying that cyberpsycho was sent by someone?"
"What do you think?" Lin Mo replied indifferently.
"A corp plot?" Ritchie's tone turned cold, but her hands didn't stop—one draped on Lin Mo's shoulder, the other reaching as if to touch his face.
No wonder that guy dressed exactly like a Tyger Claw thug had suddenly shown up at the bar.
She had assumed he was a suicide soldier sent by the gang, but now it seemed more complicated. The only other explanation—corporate involvement.
Fucking corpos!
But Lin Mo didn't respond right away. He just silently eyed her wandering hands.
Hell, are you doing this for show in front of the puppet master, or for your own personal gain?
The boy frowned and coughed a few times to warn her not to take it too far, then continued:
"Most likely, yeah."
"So what's your plan? Do you need my help?"
Ritchie gave him a sultry smile, patting his chest as if admiring the build beneath, nodding to herself like she'd picked a fine stallion.
"Have your people move the body to the alley corner," Lin Mo said. "In a bit, I'll use my Sandevistan to move it into a Delamain cab without alerting anyone."
"You're not worried they planted a tracker on the body? If that guy was important to them, he's almost definitely got one inside him."
Lin Mo sneered. "If a standard signal tracker can't be blocked, then Delamain wouldn't be eating up the taxi market in Night City."
"Good point. Since Mr. Lin has a plan, I'm happy to leave this burden to you."
Ritchie nodded, her pupils glowing a faint amber hue as she contacted her Mox subordinates to move the body in through the back.
Once she was done with her call, she turned back to Lin Mo.
"They'll take care of it. Once you've got the body in the car, need us to cover for you?"
"No need. Even if they see me loading it in, once the tracker signal vanishes, they won't know where the body went. In Night City, making a person disappear is easy. Making a body disappear isn't that hard either."
"Then I'll wait and see what Mr. Lin pulls off," Ritchie said with a nod. But then her tone shifted: "One more question, if I may."
"Go ahead."
"I heard from the boss lady that Mr. Lin is planning to invest in Lizzie's Bar, is that true?" Ritchie's tone turned unusually serious.
"Of course, if this involves personal privacy, you don't need to answer."
"I did discuss it with your boss, but no final decision yet. I just put down a small advance and bought a dozen VIP cards through your internal channels," Lin Mo replied casually.
Ritchie: ...
This kid really is just stupid rich...
"Why'd you buy so many VIP cards?" she couldn't help asking.
"To give away. If things work out, I might even use them as employee perks."
Employees?
What kind of weird company gives those out as staff benefits?
Ritchie forced a laugh. "Mr. Lin really is young and accomplished..."
At that moment, her eyes lit up. A message came from her subordinates, and she nodded quietly at Lin Mo.
"I'll be off, then," Lin Mo said with a nod, turning and heading for the bar's back door.
Outside the bar, in a room in a nearby residential building—
"What's the situation? They brought the test subject's body inside. Can we monitor what's happening?"
The recorder grabbed the data tech by the collar and asked coldly.
"I'm trying! But some of the bar's camera feeds are locked tight. I can only see the kid talking to some woman," the tech said, sweating bullets.
"Damn it! We should've never just sat back and watched. Now our workload's doubled—we have to recover that test subject's body!"
The recorder growled in frustration, slamming the desk and urging him on.
"Give me the tracking signal from the body, now. And what's its current status? They didn't dissect it on the spot, did they?!"
The tech's eyes flew across the screen. With cognition-boosting implants, speed reading and perfect memory were child's play.
In just seconds, he had all the test subject's data and summarized it mentally.
"It's weird. The test subject's situation is complex. His primary heart is completely destroyed. The secondary one's barely hanging on. By all rights, he should be dead—no breathing or pulse... but the gill-shaped respiratory vents on his neck are still functioning. He's breathing through those."
"So is he dead or not?" the recorder snapped.
"Clinically speaking, he's in a level-zero pseudo-death state—barely clinging to life thanks to his implants. That kid probably held back."
The recorder's eyes widened in disbelief. "That little bastard… is he trying to hijack this whole thing?"
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🧠💻 MY CYBERPUNK 2077 SIMULATOR 💻🧠
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📢 SYSTEM ONLINE! 📢
My Cyberpunk 2077 Simulator has 100+ chapters ahead available on Patreon! 💾🔥
Enter Night City with a simulator, a system, and the kind of advantage most mercs would kill for.
But this is still Night City.
And in a world ruled by corpos, bullets, chrome, gangs, and cyberpsychos, even a cheat-like power doesn't guarantee survival.
⚙️ Level up.
🔫 Fight harder.
🌃 Stay alive.
💀 Or get swallowed by the city.
Read ahead now before the public readers catch up!
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🛑 ALSO AVAILABLE ON PATREON:
🌃 Cyberpunk: Dogtown Legend
🔥 Cyberpunk: The Relentless
👩👦 Cyberpunk: Lucy Adopted Me and I Got a System
🤖 My Girlfriend's a Cyberpsycho—Who Knew?
🛡️ Star Wars: The Rise of Mandalore
🌌 Star Wars: Relics of the Past
🏰 Game of Thrones: Secrets Beneath the Dreadfort
⚡ The Rebirth of Harry Potter
🌹 R18: Reincarnated in Her World
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