Somewhere out in the Badlands, the sun blazed down on the earth without mercy—scorching, dry, and oppressive.
"Careful, V!"
Standing at the base of the antenna tower, Luo Qi squinted upward as he watched V climb the rusted ladder and catwalks all the way up the dozens-of-meters-tall iron structure. The sunlight streamed through the framework and stabbed at his eyes, forcing him to keep shifting until he found an angle in the shade where he could see V clearly.
CLANG!! BANG-CRASH-CLATTER—!!
A sheet of metal came hurtling down from the tower after V tossed it off. It landed on the opposite side, but it still made Luo Qi jump.
After hooking the antenna up to the tower, V held up the little communicator and flashed Luo Qi an OK sign from above.
So Luo Qi spent the next few minutes below, idly kicking stones around.
By the time V climbed down with practiced ease and landed on both feet, the tension on his face had finally eased. Smiling, he said, "I got in touch with William. He told me the client's at a farm nearby."
Luo Qi still remembered this part of the story a little.
It seemed V's Bakkers clan had joined up with the Snake Nation, but V couldn't get along with those scheming, slippery bastards, so things completely fell apart. In the end, he decided to take his brother Luo Qi and strike out on his own.
William McCoy—one of the Bakkers—was a good man, all bark and soft heart underneath. Even though V had left the clan, which among Nomads was considered an act of betrayal, William had still secretly helped him.
Luo Qi didn't know whether V would cross paths with the Nomad clans again later, but at the very least, he made a mental note of the name.
In Night City, in America in 2077, you could find anything—
even immortality.
The only thing in short supply was sincerity.
V's crappy little car rumbled across the Badlands south of Night City. In the distance were low rolling hills, their uneven surfaces standing out under the sun. The engine roared like an oversized motorcycle, and the whole thing radiated pure wasteland energy.
Nomads called this area Dry Creek.
Maybe there really had been some long-forgotten river system here once. But now, after years of erosion by wind and sand, time had worn away even the traces of the old riverbed, leaving this barren wilderness even more desolate than before.
Cacti taller than a person, giant rust-eaten billboards with faded slogans, and the taste of sand everywhere.
Ptoo, ptoo, ptoo...
Luo Qi wiped the corner of his mouth.
Lesson one for surviving in the wild: don't open your mouth while driving through the Badlands, unless you want sand for dinner.
"Is that the place? That beat-up sheet metal shack?" V turned the wheel and stopped in front of a building that had once, theoretically, been fit for human habitation. "That's what the nav says."
"Lucky, stay in the car. I'll go in alone."
The way V looked at Luo Qi had all the energy of a parent telling a kid to stay put and not run around.
"I may be injured, but I'm not crippled yet." Smiling, Luo Qi pressed down on the hand V was using to stop him. "Besides, I want to meet this... client too."
"But..." V hesitated. Then, seeing the look in Luo Qi's eyes, sighed helplessly. "Alright. If you insist."
As they entered the shack, the weathered plastic flooring cracked and crunched under their feet.
There, on the sofa, sat a broad-shouldered man in a jacket with one boot resting on a crate. Seeing V come in, he started complaining on his own.
"I'm so broke I'm about ready to start farming. Ah—you're probably here for me, right?"
Luo Qi slipped out from behind V and lit up like he'd just found buried treasure.
"Well, well, look what I found—Jack Welles!"
"You know↘ me?" the big man said, raising an eyebrow. Then he corrected him, "It's Jackie, not Jack. Por favor."
"You said you had cargo that needed transporting?" V asked, clearly a little puzzled by Luo Qi's excitement.
To him, this tall, heavily built guy looked a little stupid trying so hard to act tough.
"Uh, where I'm from... before talking business, people like to get to know each other a little first. It's kind of a custom... or maybe just manners. You get what I mean?"
Jackie stumbled through the explanation. It should have sounded cool, but coming out of his mouth, it lost quite a bit of impact.
The corner of V's mouth twitched upward. "So you're big on rules, huh?"
"A man's gotta have some backbone, hermano. When everything else gets taken from you, at least you've still got that." Jackie sounded oddly sincere.
"Fine by me. Then you go first," V said.
Listening to the two of them talk with a smile on his face, Luo Qi could hear the slightest easing in V's tone. He himself was grinning like an idiot.
These were the real, living V and Jackie.
And dealing with a lovable big lug like this was a hell of a lot more comfortable than dealing with scheming snakes. Even V seemed more relaxed.
Holding his pistol casually, Jackie said, "Born and raised in Night City. Haywood blood running through my veins."
Haywood. What a legendary name.
One of the city's prime hotspots for gang shootouts.
Even people who knew nothing about Night City would've heard it enough times from Stanley's fiery voice on the radio to grow calluses on their ears.
"I've never been to Night City. Doesn't mean much to me," V replied, unimpressed.
Jackie froze for a second, then explained, "Alright, imagine a place where everyone's like family. Brothers, sisters... or at least distant cousins."
On that point, Luo Qi couldn't fully agree.
Anyone mixed up with gangs was unlikely to be a good person.
Jackie was a rare exception.
Still, Jackie had left gang life behind years ago and gone solo. Dreaming of becoming one of Night City's big shots, he'd become a low-level mercenary, chasing money and a future in the city of dreams.
In a Western setting, Jackie might have become a famous cowboy or sheriff.
In a Chinese wuxia novel, he'd be the wandering swordsman type, a hero roaming the jianghu.
But in the year 2077—a time that devoured people whole and didn't even spit out the bones—he could only be an unknown merc struggling to survive.
"Hah. I think I get it. You don't have to love each other, but you're still your own people."
V smiled. He knew what that kind of belonging felt like too.
One of the few precious emotions left in this indifferent age.
Not always solid. Not always entirely real. But enough, at least, to warm the human heart a little.
Like a pitch-black room—cold and lonely—but with at least a single candle inside, giving off the faintest glow.
Seeing that V understood, Jackie nodded in satisfaction and went on, "Exactly. That's Haywood. Also, everybody's packing heat."
Ah yes. Free America: a shooting every day. Wonderful.
Luo Qi snarked inwardly.
"In that case..." V glanced at Luo Qi. "Where we come from is basically Haywood too."
"Then the three of us are probably gonna get along real well." Jackie pointed at V and Luo Qi like he'd just found kindred spirits.
"More sincerity, less bullshit," Luo Qi said quietly.
"Sí, sí, sí. Así es." Jackie nodded repeatedly.
Then he kicked the crate he'd been using as a footrest over toward them.
"There. The cargo."
So you were literally using the shipment as a footstool?
Luo Qi almost said it out loud.
There was a living thing inside that box.
"What's in it?" V asked, naturally unaware.
"If I don't know, I sleep better. So I don't want to know. That's a good thing," Jackie said.
V looked surprised. "You don't know what we're smuggling? This stuff was stolen from a corp."
"Stolen?" Jackie laughed. "Heh... some dumbass lost it, another dumbass picked it up, and it got passed from dumbass to dumbass until it ended up here. What do they call that again? Butterfly effect, I think."
"That thing's had quite the adventure, then," Luo Qi said. "So what, nobody came looking for these boxes?"
"Even if they do, doesn't matter—as long as they don't find them before they cross the border, right?" Jackie waved it off.
Luo Qi crouched down and leaned in to inspect the outside of the crate.
It was an alloy case. The markings on the tag were too blurry to make out clearly. A tiny display screen was still looping an advertisement for something like a futuristic Snickers bar.
DO NOT OPEN.
That was the only clear line on it.
"Alright. Let's load it up," V said, accepting reality.
What else was he supposed to do? Whatever the cargo was, it was already in his hands. At this point, all he could do was transport it.
With a grunt, Jackie hoisted the crate in both arms and headed outside.
"I was starting to think you'd stood me up."
"Got delayed. And you didn't exactly make this place easy to find either." V didn't tell Jackie about the car trouble. Right now, the two of them were just in a business relationship, nowhere near the stage of opening up to each other. At most, they had a favorable first impression.
Jackie shrugged helplessly. "Had to keep a low profile. That idiot sheriff looked like a real pain in the ass."
"Yeah," V agreed instantly, clearly still pissed off from earlier.
Jackie let out a grunt and set the crate into the back of the car.
Then all three of them climbed in.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. The doors shut one after another.
For some reason, Luo Qi suddenly felt like they were heading off to fight monsters, like this was the real beginning of an adventure story.
The radio was loudly praising Militech and, while it was at it, lavishing praise on employees who'd already been squeezed dry of every last bit of value.
The hypocrisy was revolting.
And yet Luo Qi listened with great interest.
It was all so new.
"You got the customs declaration ready?" V asked.
"Of course I do, choom! What, your fixer never sent you jobs before?" Jackie said confidently.
"He did."
"Listen, my friend—we're professionals here, right?"
Sitting in the back seat, Luo Qi watched this "smuggling newbie" trying to act like a veteran and couldn't help finding it a little funny.
Then he remembered—
No, with him included, that made two newbies.
The current Luo Qi wasn't sitting safely behind a screen anymore.
He was in the back seat of this very car.
That meant if anything went wrong, he wasn't getting out of it.
And there definitely wouldn't be a second try.
The smile disappeared from his face all at once.
"Uh... hey, you've run this kind of smuggling route before, right?" Jackie asked uncertainly.
"What, you nervous?" V replied, still pretty composed.
"Me? Ja, por favor." Jackie laughed awkwardly, then admitted, "Alright, maybe a little."
Luo Qi pressed a hand to his forehead as his heartbeat started hammering again.
Oh, hell.
A bunch of beginners running a border crossing, and afterward Militech would probably be chewing at their asses.
This was absurd.
How did I forget about this part?!
For once, he no longer minded that cliché "every transmigrator gets a system" setup. Right now he desperately wanted the heavens to rush-deliver him a cheat menu, a trainer, anything.
Breaking the game balance didn't matter.
When the question was "If I die, can I reload?", who the hell would test that with their own life?
Sadly, heaven was probably chatting across servers without a VPN, because Luo Qi's prayers received absolutely no answer. No newbie gift pack quietly appeared waiting for him to open it, either.
He was poor in the most un-transmigrator way imaginable.
As they drew closer to the city, more and more signs of civilization began to appear along the roadside.
Billboards advertising CHOOH2.
Burning tires.
Even a few shuttered stores wedged into heaps of garbage, impossible to tell what they were ever meant for.
Ahead lay the Night City border.
Beyond the concrete barricades stood numerous people in military uniforms.
"Who are those guys?" Luo Qi asked.
"Huh? Oh, these?" Jackie froze for a second, then answered guiltily, "NCPD border guards."
NCPD. Night City Police Department.
The least police-like police force in the world.
"Hey, we're almost at the border. What do we do?" Jackie asked, nervously gripping his thigh.
"Nothing. They scan us and check the documents," V said with weary patience. "When the time comes, I'll do the talking."
The car slowly entered the border passage and rolled into a checkpoint labeled CUSTOMS DECLARATION.
Luo Qi stared at the guards ahead holding rifles and swallowed hard, his gaze locked on those cold, metallic weapons—
Those things could actually kill people.
They were real.
And they were only a short distance away.
It was the first time in his life he'd ever seen actual guns up close.
His heart sped up uncontrollably. He found the muscles in his hands and feet growing stiff.
He was too tense.
The car came to a stop in front of the checkpoint. The bobblehead dog on the dashboard swayed a little. The Q-version vicious mutt had once looked mean, but compared to the armed guards outside, it was suddenly adorable.
"Please move your vehicle into the inspection area."
The car in front drove off, the barricade lowered, and the voice over the loudspeaker sounded faintly impatient.
"Please remain inside your vehicle. The security inspection will begin shortly."
Luo Qi slowly let out a breath. Jackie and V exchanged a look.
"I got a bad feeling we're screwed..." Jackie muttered.
"They'll see you're nervous, got it?" V warned. "Deep breaths. Relax. And hand me the declaration form—they're going to want to see it."
Jackie pulled out a piece of black hard plastic and handed it over.
[L.O.A]
That was what Luo Qi saw printed across the top.
There was a smaller line of text beneath it.
Lost on Arrival
"Let's see... it says LOA. Great," V sighed.
"What's that mean?" Jackie asked quickly.
"It means 'lost on arrival.' In other words, the second the cargo gets across the border, it'll be 'lost,'" V explained.
"So... that means they'll know we're smuggling." Jackie's face stiffened.
"They'll know in a minute anyway." V was, at the very least, more seasoned than Jackie and far more natural about the whole thing.
Just then, the announcement continued.
"The owner of the vehicle in the inspection area must submit to further questioning."
"Ah... Chingada madre... what do we do now..."
Jackie was so nervous he slipped into his native language.
"Relax. This is all standard procedure. Everything's still according to plan." V sounded exhausted dealing with such a complete amateur.
"Hey, you really know your way around this stuff, huh?" Seeing how calm V was, Jackie looked like he'd found a life raft.
"If we want the checkpoint to look the other way on our suspicious paperwork, we've got to make an offering." V held out his hand. "Where's the credchip?"
"Oh... right. Right, yeah. I almost forgot." Jackie hurriedly pulled the chip from his pocket and handed it over with an embarrassed laugh.
"Yeah. You forgot." V took the chip and gave it a little wave in Jackie's direction.
Then he opened the door and stepped out.
"Haha... uh, haha..." Watching V walk into the customs building, Jackie turned awkwardly toward the quiet Luo Qi in the back seat. "Your brother there... is he mad?"
"Maybe. But this isn't the time to worry about that, Jackie," Luo Qi said with a bitter smile.
"Good thing you guys are here... you know, I'm still..."
"To be honest, this is my first time too. I'm probably even more nervous than you are right now." Luo Qi rubbed his face and kept taking deep breaths as he spoke.
"¡Dios mío!" Jackie slapped a hand over his own face.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 172)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 116)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter119)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 66
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 52
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 55
The Way the Umamusume Look at 42
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 40
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 36
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 30
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 26
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 26
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