Ethan reached up slowly and removed the braindance headset from his head.
The first thing he saw when his vision cleared was the quiet interior of the temple hall.
He was still seated on the cushion placed at the very center of the chamber. Around him, the cyber monks sat in silence. At some point, their chanting had stopped completely, and the hall had fallen into a heavy, watchful stillness. The air smelled faintly of incense, warm metal, and old wood polished by time.
Standing in front of him was Master Rowan, his palms pressed together and a gentle smile resting on his face.
"Ethan," the monk said softly, "how do you feel?"
His voice sounded calm as always, yet Ethan thought there was something older in it now, as if each word had passed through many years before reaching him.
Ethan let out a slow breath and rolled his shoulders, trying to loosen the lingering tension in his body.
"Better than I expected," he admitted.
That answer was honest.
Before putting on the headset, his greatest fear had not been the construction process itself. It had been the people around him. He had worried the monks might tamper with the braindance system, plant something in his mind, or even attack him while he was trapped inside the simulation. In Night City, trust was a luxury. In Ethan's world, paranoia usually kept you alive.
But none of that had happened.
The entire process had been smooth. Clean. Controlled.
That did not mean he trusted them completely. It only meant the suspicion that had been sitting in his chest since he arrived at Nine Lotus Temple had finally eased a little.
He rose from the cushion and stretched out his legs. They had gone numb from sitting too long. Pins and needles ran through his calves, making him wince.
Master Rowan stepped aside and made a quiet inviting gesture. Ethan understood immediately. Without another word, the two of them left the deepest part of the temple hall and walked outside together.
Behind them, the cyber monks slowly resumed chanting.
Their voices were soft at first, like distant wind moving through hollow stone.
"Namo Ratna Trayaya…"
"Namo Ratna Trayaya…"
The sound followed them out into the night.
Once outside, Ethan tilted his head up and looked at the sky.
Away from the city, without the flood of artificial lights and dirty neon haze, the stars were shockingly clear. Countless bright points shimmered above the mountain like scattered fragments of frozen fire. The night breeze drifted across the courtyard, cool and fresh, carrying away the last of the heat and pressure trapped in his body.
For the first time in days, Ethan felt lighter.
It was almost strange how quickly his mood improved in a place like this.
"When does the second phase start?" Ethan asked after a moment.
He had no interest in pretending to be patient.
Master Rowan smiled faintly, his expression peaceful and unreadable at the same time.
"There is no need to rush," he replied. "We will proceed step by step."
He paused, then added in the same steady voice, "The first phase was completed very smoothly. I do not expect trouble with the second or third phases. You may rest easy."
That answer pleased Ethan more than he wanted to admit.
The two of them continued walking until they reached the main courtyard. Lantern light spilled across the stone path. Nearby, the dining hall glowed warm and bright against the darkness.
Master Rowan lifted a hand toward it.
"Please go eat," he said. "I will not disturb you further."
Ethan turned and gave the monk a respectful bow before heading toward the dining hall.
As he walked away, Master Rowan remained standing in the courtyard, watching in silence. In the darkness, the black surface of his bionic eye seemed to merge with the night itself, hiding whatever thoughts lay behind it.
The dining hall was not very large, and Ethan quickly noticed someone familiar seated inside.
Adrian Cross.
Ethan slowed for a moment in surprise.
Adrian looked completely different now. His head had been shaved clean, and several round burn marks ringed the scalp in the traditional style of temple vows. Unlike the other monks, though, he still had both of his normal eyes. There was no black cybernetic eye set into his face, no cold mechanical shine. For now, he looked more like a man standing at the edge of transformation than someone who had already completed it.
The moment Adrian saw Ethan, a warm smile spread across his face.
"Little Ethan," he said lightly.
Ethan gave a faint smile and walked over to sit across from him.
For a while, the two of them exchanged ordinary conversation, simple talk that would have sounded almost boring to anyone else. But Ethan quickly noticed the change in Adrian's demeanor.
A few days ago, Adrian had still looked like a man crushed by grief. He had been hollow-eyed, exhausted, and weighed down by something he could barely carry. That pain was gone now.
Not forgotten, maybe. But transformed.
What remained in its place was a kind of calm Ethan had only seen in the monks—a steady stillness that made Adrian seem more grounded than ever before.
"You really are different now," Ethan said, looking at him carefully. "You seem… alive again."
He let out a quiet chuckle. "A few days ago, you were crying in bed like the world had ended. Now look at you. Joining the temple really fixed you up fast."
Adrian blinked.
Then he smiled, though there was something strange in his expression.
Ethan leaned back slightly and continued, half joking, half serious. "So why haven't they given you the bionic eye yet?"
Adrian shook his head.
"They said it isn't time," he answered. "My practice isn't deep enough."
The two kept talking for a little while longer, mostly about life in the temple and how things had gone these past few days. Eventually Ethan finished eating, stood up, cleared his tray, and headed back to his room.
The braindance experience earlier had drained him more than he expected. His mind felt dull and heavy, and he knew he needed sleep.
From behind, Adrian watched him leave with a small smile.
But once Ethan disappeared into the darkness outside, confusion slowly crept over Adrian's face.
"Crying?" he muttered under his breath. "When did I ever cry?"
---
Three more days passed.
Ethan waited for news about the second stage of construction.
Nothing came.
Not a message. Not an update. Not even a glimpse of Master Rowan.
By the end of the third day, Ethan's patience had worn thin. He had spent too much time thinking about Night City, about the chaos spreading through the outside world, about Johnny Silverhand, and about his sister. The longer he stayed in the temple without answers, the more restless he became.
So he went looking for Master Rowan himself.
The temple hall was as deep and solemn as ever. Incense burned slowly in the air, its smoke rising in twisting threads. Low chanting filled the chamber. The great Buddha statue at the front of the hall sat in complete stillness, vast and dignified, watching over the endless flow of human fear, desire, and suffering.
Master Rowan was kneeling on a cushion before the altar, tapping a wooden fish with steady rhythm while reciting scripture.
"Master Rowan," Ethan said from behind him, not bothering to hide the impatience in his voice. "When does the second phase begin?"
The monk did not seem surprised by his arrival.
He calmly finished the current sequence of chants, placed down the striker, and rose to face Ethan. His seven black bionic eyes remained as still as a frozen lake.
"Please settle your heart," Master Rowan said. "The Great Universal Offering is being prepared. If nothing unexpected happens, the second stage of AI construction will begin tonight."
That was an answer.
But it was not enough.
Ethan folded his arms and looked directly at him. "Then answer a few other things for me."
Master Rowan inclined his head.
"What exactly are these Players?" Ethan asked. "And how can Johnny Silverhand turn other people into them?"
The monk was silent for a moment before speaking.
"There is one truth behind this matter," he said. "If a being possesses sufficient authority and a high enough level of consciousness, they can convert others into what you would call sub-players."
He lifted a hand and touched his own chest lightly.
"The stronger the being, the more sub-players they can create. I, Rebecca, and several of the senior monks here were all made into sub-players by King Ksitigarbha."
Ethan nodded slowly.
That matched what he had already guessed. Master Rowan and Rebecca both held the rank of seven-eye monks. Several others with five cybernetic eyes clearly answered to them. If even Nine Lotus Temple operated like this, then the same thing had to be happening all over the world.
"So there must be plenty of sub-players outside this temple too," Ethan said.
"Exactly," Master Rowan replied.
Ethan remembered the bar.
He remembered the moment Johnny Silverhand had taken over and instantly turned everyone there into sub-players like it was nothing. That had only been one incident. One room. One moment.
How many others had Johnny already touched?
How far had this spread?
The answer made Ethan's skin crawl.
If beings like Johnny could move through the real world this way, then the order people believed in was already breaking apart. Governments, corporations, hidden sects, intelligence departments, criminal groups—everyone would want control over this new power.
Even Nine Lotus Temple, a place that looked peaceful from the outside, was deeply involved.
The world Ethan knew was dying. In its place, something unstable and dangerous was being born.
A new order.
And chaos would come first.
His jaw tightened.
His most important task had not changed. He had to get rid of Johnny Silverhand inside his body. Only after that could he go find Emily and keep her safe.
After a brief silence, Ethan asked the question that had been weighing on him the most.
"Who exactly is Johnny Silverhand?" he said. "Why is he doing all this?"
He had fought Johnny as an enemy from the very beginning. A parasite. A rival for control of his own body. But he had never truly understood the man behind the threat.
Master Rowan brought his palms together and let out a quiet breath.
"In life," he said, "Johnny Silverhand was also a tragic man."
Ethan almost frowned at that.
Tragic was not the first word he would have chosen for the monster in his head. Still, he said nothing.
He waited.
"When he was young," Master Rowan continued, "Johnny Silverhand was an ambitious mercenary. He fought on the battlefield and believed he was fighting for something righteous. But during a retreat, his own side abandoned him."
He paused, his voice still calm.
"When he returned to Night City, he learned the truth. The justice he believed in was only a lie—one built by megacorporations and political elites to serve their own interests. By then, he had already lost one arm in war."
Ethan listened quietly.
"After returning to the city," the monk said, "he replaced that arm with a silver bionic one. Then he formed a rock band. In time, he became one of the most famous rock stars in the world."
Ethan let out a slow breath.
A soldier. Then a deserter. Then a legend.
Johnny's life had been wild enough to sound unreal, yet somehow it only made the man more dangerous.
"What happened after that?" Ethan asked.
"He should have had everything by then."
Master Rowan's expression darkened just slightly.
"What came after," he said, "was the beginning of the real tragedy."
He continued, "Johnny's lover was a brilliant hacker named Alt Cunningham. She created a program called Soulkiller—a virus capable of destroying a netrunner's brain, separating consciousness from the body, and storing that consciousness inside a digital matrix."
Ethan's eyes widened.
"So people could keep existing as digital minds?" he asked.
Master Rowan nodded once.
"Yes. If that technology fell fully into corporate hands, it would give them power beyond law and morality."
He looked toward the shadows at the edge of the hall.
"Arasaka wanted that power. They kidnapped Alt and forced her to adapt Soulkiller for them. Eventually, they uploaded her consciousness into cyberspace."
For the first time since the conversation began, real heat flashed in Ethan's chest.
That was more than cruelty. It was desecration.
"To save her," Master Rowan said, "Johnny Silverhand stormed Arasaka Tower."
Ethan stared at him.
"Alone?"
"Not entirely. But in spirit, yes," the monk said. "He went to war against a megacorporation. In the end, Arasaka Tower was destroyed. Johnny Silverhand became a legend. And after that... he vanished."
Silence stretched between them.
Then Ethan said quietly, "Until he woke up inside me."
"That is correct."
Master Rowan lowered his eyes and spoke with solemn certainty.
"Whatever pain he once carried, the harm he causes now cannot be ignored. We cannot allow Johnny Silverhand to bring disaster to innocent people. Nine Lotus Temple will do everything it can to help you remove the danger within your body."
Ethan held his gaze for a moment, then nodded.
"Thank you."
Master Rowan gave one final reminder.
"Tonight is the second stage. Prepare yourself. Bathe, change your clothes, and clear your mind."
Ethan exhaled slowly and forced down the storm inside him.
"I understand."
---
Night came.
Ethan had been ready for hours.
He sat alone in his room when footsteps approached from outside. A knock sounded on the door.
When he opened it, the monk waiting there was Brother Caleb, the five-eye cyber monk who had guided him before.
"Amitabha," Caleb said, palms together. "Everything is prepared. Master Rowan is waiting for you."
Ethan stepped out without hesitation.
"I'm ready."
Unlike the first time, he did not feel the same sharp anxiety. He had already crossed this line once. He knew what to expect now—or at least he told himself he did.
Brother Caleb led him through the temple grounds in silence.
This time, however, they were not going to the deepest inner hall.
Instead, they stopped at a place Ethan recognized at once.
The base of the black metal pagoda.
Under the night sky, the towering structure looked like a blade thrust straight into the heavens. Incense drifted through the air around it, and the smell was thick, strange, and faintly sweet. The atmosphere was far more solemn than before.
The masters sat in a wide half-circle around the pagoda, chanting in low voices.
It was the same mantra as before.
"Namo Ratna Trayaya…"
"Namo Arya…"
"Avalokiteshvaraya…"
In the center of the ritual formation was a single cushion reserved for Ethan.
Master Rowan stood nearby, silent and still, watching him approach.
The two exchanged a quiet bow. No extra words were needed. The heavy atmosphere around them made casual speech feel almost disrespectful.
Ethan walked forward and sat cross-legged on the center cushion.
Master Rowan picked up the braindance headset and handed it to him.
This time, before Ethan could even check anything, a red light flashed through the monk's cybernetic eye. The signal connected directly to the device, and full permission opened in front of Ethan at once.
He still inspected it carefully.
Everything was unlocked. No hidden restriction. No trap he could see.
Satisfied, Ethan placed the headset over his head.
The device gave a low hum.
A moment later, two holographic projections appeared before his eyes.
Then came a sharp burst of white light.
In an instant, the world changed.
The black pagoda vanished.
The chanting monks vanished.
The scent of incense vanished.
Everything dissolved.
When Ethan opened his eyes again, he found himself somewhere else entirely.
He was sitting upright in a movie theater.
The dim light from the giant screen flickered across his face. Rows of seats stretched out around him, and the air carried the familiar smell of popcorn, dust, and cold recycled air.
Beside him sat a girl who looked around fifteen years old.
His younger sister.
Emily.
And in that moment, Ethan understood with a jolt that the second construction had truly begun.
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