Early morning, Viktor's Clinic.
Arno sat on the leather chair, his muscular build stretching his black suit taut. Coupled with the black-rimmed sunglasses, he exuded a sense of deterrence even just sitting there.
Under the suit collar was a white shirt, and hanging from the shirt was a shiny metal dog tag—this added a touch of wildness and iron resolve to the otherwise serious attire, making him seem more like a person and less like a machine.
Since returning from Afterlife yesterday, Arno had been in disguise and sitting here until now.
And now, he stood up.
"Time to go?" Hearing Arno move, Viktor shifted his gaze away from the boxing match on the TV.
"Mhm." Arno nodded, then said, "Also, the thing I asked you to do..."
"It's handled." Although Viktor knew he was talking to Berry, Arno's serious expression and face still made him feel like he was genuinely speaking to a person named Arno.
"There's an abandoned garage in the Badlands, used by a former development site. No one will find it there; it will make a great safehouse."
Viktor approved of Berry's idea of preparing an escape route before acting. He had seen many high-spirited fools who thought they were the protagonist, only to start regretting it when they hit a real stumbling block, but it was always too late, as they invariably lost their lives.
Hearing that everything was arranged, Arno nodded and left silently.
"Hey, 'terminator'!"
"Want to share a smoke, Arno!"
When Viktor's Clinic wasn't open for business, it seemed to become a clubhouse for the small "Hive" gang. Over a dozen Hive veterans were smoking and messing around up front—it seemed Viktor had recruited more veterans who were short on cash.
Seeing Arno come out, the veterans consciously made way, their eyes full of respect.
Although Arno wasn't the boss, he was the strongest Mercenary in their small group, famous on the streets.
Every corner of the world has the custom of respecting the strong, and Night City is no exception. Therefore, the veterans respected Arno greatly, giving him a salute as he walked past them.
Getting into a car, they arrived at the abandoned parking lot above Afterlife. V and Jackie, already dressed in suits, were waiting there, next to a parked Delamain taxi. Its model was sleek and entirely black, clearly not something an ordinary person could afford.
"Alright, let's go!" Seeing that Arno, the last member, had arrived, V nodded to Jackie and prepared to get in the car.
"Hey, wait a second, V." Seeing V move, Jackie quickly called out to her. "I mean, we're going to pull off something huge here. We should commemorate it before we leave."
"Commemorate? How?" V raised an eyebrow, expressing confusion.
"Heh heh, like, a photo of us..." Jackie smiled mysteriously; it seemed he had planned this beforehand. "When we're old, we can look at the photo and remember our glory."
"But Berry and Bug aren't here." V frowned.
"Hey, let's just get one of us three infiltrators first. Once the job's done, we'll get a group one. Damn, just thinking about it gets me excited! We might even make the Night City headlines!"
Jackie spoke excitedly, completely unaware that he was stepping on every flag he shouldn't have planted.
Berry, controlling Arno who was walking over, just wanted to roll her eyes upon hearing this.
"Come on, Brother Arno, you're the tallest, stand in the middle!" Arno's height of 1.9 meters meant Jackie had to look up slightly to talk to him. Now, he was dragged directly into the center.
"Click!"
"Wait, I haven't even..." Before V could finish speaking, that kid Jackie was already standing on his toes, wrapping his arm around Arno's shoulder, and taking a selfie of the three of them with his phone.
The surprised V, the stone-faced Arno, and the enthusiastically grinning Jackie were instantly captured on the phone.
"Welcome to Delamain Executive Service. Choose Delamain, leave your troubles outside..."
As soon as the three got into the car, a synthesized bald man in a suit appeared on the electronic screen behind the front seat. This virtual image was, how should one put it, quite unsettling.
Purple lips and strange lighting—Delamain's avatar could easily enter a Fake Human Challenge.
This was Berry's thought.
If she had a say, if this unsettling virtual avatar were replaced with a cute, two-dimensional soft Girl, and the voice changed to an adorable high-pitched tone, Delamain's service would definitely sell out.
It seems this AI still doesn't know how to properly utilize humanity's XP system.
Berry shook her head, feeling great pity.
At that point, let alone running a taxi business, even if it announced it wanted to rule the entire world, there would absolutely be countless shut-ins saying things like, "Wife, wife, all mine!" and willingly becoming human traitors.
Berry regretfully shook her head and spread her hands. No one understood humans better than her.
Delamain was an Artificial Intelligence; Berry, having played the game, knew this.
Regarding how Delamain, an AI, managed to thrive in the human world without being antagonized, there was an interesting story to tell.
The original taxi company, due to poor management, introduced the Delamain AI to manage the company. Delamain indeed succeeded, turning the taxi company profitable and developing it into the undisputed giant of Night City's taxi industry.
However, Delamain also gained the highest authority within the company. After calculating through its algorithms, it determined that human employees, due to biological limitations, not only loved to slack off but also frequently made irrational decisions, making them a complete liability to the company.
Based on this understanding, Delamain spent some time dismissing all human employees from the company.
It wasn't that no one noticed Delamain's anomaly, but because Delamain had full company authority, it eventually fired the last human employee, and Delamain Company truly became the first enterprise managed entirely by an Artificial Intelligence.
"...Holy crap, this is definitely the way to go." As soon as he got in the car, Jackie exclaimed crudely.
"I do not understand why you use profanity." Delamain's synthesized voice, accompanied by a static sound, rang out, and one could even detect its confusion.
"Oh really? Do you remember the last time I tried to rent you to celebrate my nephew getting out of the single life, huh?"
"I regret to inform you that we do not undertake such services." Delamain's reply sounded mechanical and rigid.
"I saved up money for three whole months..." Jackie sighed to himself. "Ah, forget it, that's all in the past. Let's go, Old D!"
The sleek Delamain car drove down the road, and the people inside couldn't feel even the slightest tremor. It made one realize that Delamain truly lived up to its reputation for high-end service; being in this taxi was like being at home.
Meanwhile, Berry also began her operation.
In the parking lot of Skyscraper 10, Berry silently loaded many weapons into a black MPV Multi-Purpose Vehicle. Among them were many large-caliber weapons she had modified, and even a small missile launcher, which she had acquired from the black market as military surplus.
Truth be told, she certainly wouldn't need these things just to eliminate a few security guards. These were specially prepared by Berry for Hammersmith. In the entire Konpeki Plaza, Adam Smasher was the most significant threat, and Berry had prepared multiple layers of insurance for this.
She was determined: she wouldn't just get the relic chip; she would ensure they all retreated completely unharmed. Not even Adam Smasher could stop her.
Sitting in the driver's seat and closing the door, Berry looked at V's "star" which was temporarily stored with her because it couldn't be brought into the building. Fire burned in Berry's eyes. This time, she would not let the tragedy from the game happen.
Just like that, two cars set out from different routes, but their final destination pointed to the same location—Konpeki Plaza.
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