The fishing rod — white as polished jade — swept through the air. The hook kissed the surface of the kaleidoscopic river, sending rings of ripples spreading outward, and the float began its lazy bob.
Would you really get a bite with no bait and no groundwork laid?
The thought drifted through Anthony's mind, oddly unsettling. He hadn't prepped the spot. He hadn't baited the hook. By any reasonable standard, he was going to be completely skunked.
But after a moment, he let it go. He stopped thinking about it and simply focused, drawing his attention inward, anchoring it to the line.
His plan right now was simple.
He wanted to test [The Angler]'s lifespan-transfer effect — to find out what it actually did in practice, and what it was worth.
Lifespan was precious, sure. But this wasn't the time to hoard it. His ability had a real chance of breaking him out of his current mess, and Anthony understood the principle well enough: you can't catch a wolf if you're afraid to lose the lamb. It was just a matter of dying a day earlier than planned. But if this actually worked — if he could gain more lifespan through it — then and only then could he start thinking about tomorrow.
Spend it. Testing the ability right now was the only thing that mattered.
And beyond that… Anthony had a feeling that throwing his lifespan out there would produce some kind of result. It had to.
In theory, it should help his groupmates.
Which brought him to the other thing.
Earning the group's trust.
Whether or not he survived clearly depended on whether his groupmates — and the chat group itself — could actually come through for him. So earning their trust wasn't optional. It was necessary.
The problem was, sitting down to explain everything step by step would take forever — and Anthony didn't have that kind of time.
Letting his ability speak for itself was the simplest path forward.
With that settled, Anthony quieted his mind again and waited.
Until David's message came through.
[Let Night City Burn: I think I'm moving, but I can't make anything out… Still, should be fine]
At the exact same moment, Anthony watched the float in front of him twitch — twice.
Exactly like a real fish had taken the bait.
[Contact established with World · Cyberpunk 2077. Anchor: David Martinez]
[Transferable resources: Lifespan (Soul Force)]
[Initiate transfer?]
Anthony willed it — and in an instant, his form grew noticeably more translucent. Along the length of the fishing rod, a ripple of silver-white light shimmered to life.
[Remaining Lifespan: 48h 32min]
......
David Martinez had been staring into nothing.
That was all there had been since he fell from Arasaka Tower. Just void. Just absence.
Was this the afterlife? He could still think — that much was clear. So why?
He wondered, sometimes, about Lucy. Whether she was doing okay.
After Adam had killed him, he'd drifted through a long stretch of confusion — and then, suddenly, his consciousness had punched through the haze. But the void in front of him hadn't changed. Just empty. With the occasional strange sensation that he might be moving.
And then the chat group's glowing interface had lit up in front of him.
Oh. So I really am dead.
Once he'd worked out the situation, David felt something click into place. He'd read the messages — caught the post from [Lord of the White Holy Throne].
"I'll help you."
Help him? With what?
He had no idea, but he did what the guy said anyway — held still, did nothing.
Until something like a wave passed through the void. A ripple of force spreading outward from somewhere.
And David felt his mind sharpen.
Then — light.
——He blinked his eyes open slowly, staring at his own hands. They were already fading, already dissolving at the edges with unnerving speed.
Everything around him said the same thing: his time was short. Instinctively, he gauged it — maybe thirty seconds. A little over half a minute.
So he made every second count. He drank it all in, greedily — the world of the living.
The first thing to hit him was sunlight. Blazing, brilliant, unfiltered sunlight.
Beneath his feet, pale silver soil stretched out in every direction — pitted and uneven, rolling on without end. His ghost-self couldn't feel the weightlessness, but David knew exactly where he was the moment he saw it.
The Moon.
Why here?
And — was this what that guy had meant by helping him? Bringing him back to the light for a few seconds?
What was the point—
The questions dissolved the instant David turned around.
He saw her.
Across from him, Lucy stood in a heavy spacesuit, one hand raised to her brow, shading her eyes. She was staring at him — expression caught somewhere between shock and something she hadn't found the words for yet.
David froze too. In that single instant he felt like he had a thousand things to say — and every single one of them evaporated the moment he reached for them.
The Moon. Lucy.
In the end, only those two things were left, echoing in the hollow of his mind.
This had been Lucy's dream.
Seeing it — really seeing it — was more than enough.
Time was almost up.
Something moved him — some impulse he couldn't name — and David turned away from her. He faced the blazing sun, and raised his hand to his brow the same way Lucy had, making a visor of his palm.
A grin broke across his face before he could stop it. Genuine, unguarded, lit up with wonder.
"Woah — Lucy, this place is something else…"
The words came out almost on their own.
Lucy's pupils contracted. She watched as David turned back toward her — just like she remembered him. Just like he always was. Bursting with energy, jumping on the Moon's surface like he wanted to feel every inch of it, like gravity was just a suggestion.
He grinned at her — that wide, easy, delighted grin.
So full of life. So entirely himself. The kind of scene that only ever happened in dreams.
In the space of a blink, David was gone.
A hallucination?
The thought passed through Lucy's mind. But even so, the smile that settled onto her face carried something else in it — a kind of quiet release, and a tiredness she'd stopped fighting.
She spread her arms wide and let the sunlight wash over her.
And David's consciousness sank back into nothing. All around him, emptiness — and in front of him, the soft glow of the chat group interface.
He stared at it for a moment. Scratched the back of his head.
Then typed.
[Let Night City Burn: @Lord of the White Holy Throne — what just happened? I think I came back to life for a second, and I saw… someone I'd been thinking about.]
[Let Night City Burn: Either way — thank you. Seriously. I mean it.]
......
Meanwhile, out on the surface of the Primordial River, Anthony stared at his fishing rod and felt a dull, nagging worry settle in.
No bait. No prep. No groundwork at all — by every rule of fishing, he should have caught absolutely nothing.
And it wasn't like there was a market around here where he could pop out and grab a couple of fish to cheat with.
Then the float twitched again.
Anthony's hand tightened on the rod.
A thread of golden light was creeping up along the length of the rod toward his hand.
What on earth…?
Before he could work it out, a notification blinked into view beside him.
[Transfer complete]
[As a result of this transfer achieving a meaningful effect, World: Cyberpunk 2077 has expressed feedback to you]
['Affinity' Bond established with World: Cyberpunk 2077]
[Current Cyberpunk 2077 World 'Affinity' Level: 1]
____
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