As Lucy delved deeper into Tanaka's neural network, sifting through the layers of corporate encryption for the hidden data, the situation in the physical world was rapidly deteriorating.
David stood over the bound and sedated Tanaka, his gaze fixed on the man's battered face. A wave of unexpected pity washed over him. He knew what they were there to do. He knew the cost of failure. But looking at the "corpo scum" before him, David couldn't help but feel a twinge of hesitation.
"Are we really going to kill him?" David whispered to himself, the words tasting like copper in his mouth.
It was a strange feeling. He had killed before; he'd watched the life fade from the eyes of the cyberpsycho who had murdered Pilar. But that was different. That was self-defense. That was justice.
Tanaka, however... Tanaka was just a man. Sure, his son was a prick who had made David's life a living hell at the academy, but was that really a death sentence? Tanaka was "innocent" in the grand scheme of things, a pawn in a game between Faraday and Arasaka. He had no direct quarrel with David.
David wasn't like Maine. He wasn't a seasoned, cold-blooded mercenary who viewed lives as nothing more than line items on a contract. He still had a soul, and right now, that soul was screaming in protest.
Across the room, the fans reading the latest chapter felt a cold dread pooling in their stomachs. 'David, what are you doing?' they thought. 'This isn't the time for a moral crisis!' They knew that in the world of Night City, hesitation was a death sentence not just for the self, but for everyone around you.
And they were right. As David's voice trailed off, Tanaka's swollen eyelids flickered. The sedative was wearing off.
The scene shifted to the adjacent room, where Maine and Dorio were arming themselves.
"If we can't get the data in time, we need to be ready for an extraction," Dorio said, checking the magazine of her assault rifle.
"If you were in better shape, we wouldn't need a Plan B," Maine grunted, his voice tight with a suppressed rage. They were preparing for a war.
The silence was broken by the sharp chirp of a secure comms link. It was Faraday.
"What is it now?" Maine snapped, answering the call.
"Have you secured the data?"
"We're working on it."
"You're taking too long. Who's on the inside?"
Faraday's voice was like ice. He knew Kiwi was out of commission. "Can you actually pull this off without your primary netrunner?"
"How did you..." Maine started, then his eyes narrowed. "Damn it! Falco!"
Suddenly, the perspective (clearly Maine's) began to fragment. The edges of the panels blurred into digital static, vibrant colors bleeding into each other like a corrupted video file.
Shuu Fumiya, reading along, felt a chill. 'Maine's cyberpsychosis is accelerating... damn it!'
As Maine spoke to the fixer, the hallucinations grew more vivid. A phantom Faraday appeared in the room with him, a spectral witness to his mental collapse. By the time Faraday hung up, Maine was shouting at a man who wasn't there.
"Faraday! What the hell are you looking at?!"
Dorio jumped up, her face a mask of panic as she watched her lover scream at the empty air.
Back in the primary room, the situation had reached a breaking point. Tanaka let out a low, tortured groan that snapped David out of his reverie.
The man was waking up.
And as the consciousness returned to the corporate high-flyer, his neural network began to destabilize. Deep in the digital void, Lucy felt the world around her start to shake.
"So much instability..." she muttered, her digital avatar flickering as it fought to maintain its cohesion.
She trusted David. She believed that he would see the signs and administer the secondary sedative to keep the connection stable.
David was trying. He fumbled with the cabinet, his fingers shaking as he searched for the injector. He finally found it and moved toward Tanaka, the needle glinting in the dim light.
"...W-wait... stop!"
Tanaka's eyes snapped open, wide with terror. He stared up at David, his voice a frantic rasp. "Stop! Please!"
David didn't hesitate, as he couldn't afford to. He reached for Tanaka's neck, the sedative ready.
"DAVID!"
The shout echoed through the room, and David froze. The needle hovered just inches from Tanaka's shoulder.
How? How did this man know his name? Tanaka was an Arasaka executive, a man who lived in the clouds. To him, an academy dropout-turned-cyberpunk should have been less than a flea.
David stood there, paralyzed by a single word.
The scene cut back to Dorio.
"Maine! Come on, pull it together!"
Maine had collapsed onto his knees, his face twisted in a mask of agony as he fought to regain control of his own body. The tech was winning. The chrome was taking him over.
Lucy, sensing the impending collapse, screamed in frustration. "Damn it! The sedative is gone! What are you doing, David?!"
But she didn't stop. She couldn't. She doubled her efforts, her digital hands moving with a speed that defied belief as she tore through the Arasaka firewalls.
In the physical world, Tanaka was fighting for his life. "I knew it... I knew it was you, David."
"How do you..."
David was stunned into silence.
Tanaka, sensing the opening, began to spin a web of lies. He spoke of "potential." He spoke of "appreciation." He promised David a return to the academy, a clean slate, and a fast track to a high-ranking position within the Arasaka ranks.
"We can give you the future you deserve, David! Don't throw your life away in the gutters!"
David hesitated.
The dream. His mother's dream. Gloria Martinez had spent her entire life working two jobs just so David could wear the Arasaka uniform. Was this it? Was this the way back?
Shuu Fumiya was practically screaming at the pages. 'David, you idiot! What are you doing?! He's lying! He's a corpo! Just stick the needle in!'
David's hesitation was nearly fatal for Lucy. But in that moment of crisis, she proved why she was a legend. She navigated the collapsing network with surgical precision, bypassing the final security gates and finding the encrypted folder Faraday wanted.
She initiated the download, her eyes wide as the data began to stream into her local storage. And there, amidst the corporate files, a single document caught her eye.
It was David's academy transcript. And his biological profile. Under a header that read: "PROJECT: EXPERIMENTAL TARGET".
Maine and Dorio finally burst into the room. They saw the conscious Tanaka and the frozen David.
"What? He's awake?! Where's the sedative? Give it to me!"
Maine grabbed the injector from David's limp hand, but it was too late.
The neural interface at the base of Tanaka's neck began to glow a violent, electric blue. There was a sharp, high-pitched whine, and then...
The man's spine overloaded.
A massive electrical discharge tore through the room as Tanaka's neural ports exploded in a shower of sparks and gore.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]