The acid rain that had been drizzling down finally let up, and evening settled over Night City with damp fog hanging thick in the streets.
At the entrance leading down to Club Afterlife, the absolute holy ground of mercs where legends were born and died for nothing.
Under the brilliantly flickering red neon sign, Ji-hwan brushed back his wet bangs and came to an abrupt stop.
"Haa..."
Whatever he was thinking about, he soon let out a deep sigh that seemed to sink into the ground and hesitated.
It wasn’t that he was scared of going into this savage underground club. He had just suddenly become sick of everything.
Ever since yesterday, after getting dragged into trouble by some street punk’s meddling and running into the Tyger Claws, he’d painfully realized once again that this city was nothing but one incident after another, no matter where you went. The moment he opened that door, he’d no doubt get bothered by some trash corpo asking him to steal something or cut someone’s head off.
'Forget the fixer queen or whatever. It’d be easier to just go back to the Badlands and train by running laps around Dakota’s place.'
Having reached a thoroughly selfish and firm conclusion in his head, Ji-hwan turned away from Afterlife’s heavy iron door without a shred of regret.
"Let’s eat first. I’m starving."
Nothing in the merc world mattered more than filling his stomach right now.
So Ji-hwan headed to a shabby old Asian noodle stall tucked away in a nearby alley.
Sinking into a plastic chair with steam rising around him, he glanced at the menu for a moment, then ordered a large bowl of meat noodles piled high with synthetic meat and immediately began inhaling the noodles with ferocious speed.
Slurp—!
The rich grease slid down his throat and melted away the fatigue from yesterday, and just as Ji-hwan was showing off the art of perfect noodle slurping...
Flap!
Cutting through the harsh patter of rain, the noodle stall’s old vinyl awning was yanked back irritably.
"Damn it, seriously! Why the hell is it coming down like this again?! And where the hell is my umbrella!!"
"This is when you need to think positive! It’s romantic, romantic!"
"Romantic my ass! I’m about to starve to death here, so shut your damn mouth!"
Into the stall came Rebecca and Pilar, soaked through like they’d been rolling in Night City’s mud all day. Covered head to toe in acid rain, they looked as pitiful as rats that had just crawled out of a sewer.
"Haa... what a cursed life..."
Rebecca staggered in, clutching her empty stomach, then collapsed like a corpse into the vacant plastic chair beside Ji-hwan’s table. Pilar also groaned and dropped into the seat across from her.
"Hey, mister! Can we get a look at the menu...?"
Before Rebecca could even finish looking at the menu, Pilar, sitting opposite her, started grinning stupidly and chattering without reading the room.
"Ha! Kid, we got drenched all day and went through hell, so now we can finally grease up the engine in our stomachs! We already found that bag for that old Wakako lady yesterday and made a nice 800 eddies, didn’t we? Mister, bring us two of those killer meat noodles with tons of special synthetic meat on top..."
Thud!
"Ow! Sis! Why are you hitting me again?"
Before Pilar could even finish his bold order, Rebecca’s furious kick shot out from under the table and nailed her brother square in the shin.
"You long-legged idiot with nothing but udon noodles for brains. That’s exactly why you’ll spend your whole life stuck in some back-alley gutter. You want to burn 800 eddies on meat toppings?!"
"Hey, we earned that money to eat, didn’t we? I’m freezing my ass off out here!"
"Shut up. We don’t even have enough to buy bullets for tomorrow, and you’re talking like someone who can’t even afford a one-room apartment, sleeping in the back seat of a rust bucket with no tires left."
Rebecca snapped at her brother, veins standing out in her neck.
"If that’s the case, then stop wasting eddies and save every last one! When are you going to get us out of this miserable bottom rung?!"
Faced with Rebecca’s brutally accurate reality check, Pilar pouted but still let out a disappointed "meat..." under his breath. Unlike her childish brother, Rebecca had already learned the harshness of Night City at a young age, and she remained cold even in the face of his whining. Then, after shooting Pilar one more terrifying glare, she raised her voice sharply at the stall owner.
"Mister! Two of the cheapest plain noodle bowls you’ve got, no meat! Just let the smell of meat broth brush past them a little!!"
With that thorough budget management, Rebecca finished compromising on the menu and hurriedly grabbed the battered old water jug on the table.
Gush, gush, gush—.
She filled a chipped plastic cup to the brim with lukewarm water and immediately started gulping it down to soothe the thirst and bitterness that had burned through her all day from walking around.
Gulp, gulp, gulp.
"Khaaa... damn, I feel alive again, fuck."
Rebecca wiped the water dripping down her chin with her wet sleeve and caught her breath. Chewing on the water left in her mouth, she absentmindedly turned her tired, unfocused eyes toward the table right beside them.
There sat an ordinary-looking East Asian man in his mid-twenties, about 177 centimeters tall, wearing a loose old flight jacket. He had his face buried in a 'large' bowl of meat noodles piled mountain-high with the exact meat Pilar had wanted so badly, slurping the noodles down with ferocious speed.
'Huh...?!'
That face. The very face they’d been searching for all day in the rain. The man who had wiped out seven gang members with nothing but a series of crisp slaps, then vanished without a trace, was now sitting right beside them and slurping meat noodles.
In that instant, Rebecca’s pupils dilated wildly as if an earthquake had struck.
Puhhh—!!!
The lukewarm water in Rebecca’s mouth erupted like a broken sprinkler, spraying violently in a fountain of disaster straight into Pilar’s face across the table.
"Ack! Damn it, that’s disgusting! Rebecca, what the hell is wrong with you all of a sudden... huh!!"
Wiping at his eyes while cursing after getting blasted point-blank, Pilar also turned toward the side in outrage, and then his eyes locked onto Ji-hwan, who was still holding chopsticks.
At that moment, Pilar’s jaw dropped toward the floor like it had been dislocated.
So let’s rewind the clock by half a day, back to before they met.
Back to a rainy morning in Night City.
"Please, cyber god! Let me bump shoulders with that rich merc again on the street like I did yesterday...!"
In the sticky back alleys of Japantown, Pilar had his hands clasped together and was praying upward like some half-baked cult believer, while Rebecca, watching that pathetic sight from behind, let out a deep sigh with a face like she’d just chewed rotten synthetic meat.
"Haa... I really am crazy. How the hell am I supposed to find that guy Wakako told us to look for in a city this big..."
Last night, Pilar had been completely swayed by Wakako’s coaxing, and as soon as morning came, he dragged Rebecca, who looked like she wanted to die from annoyance, out into the streets.
And all they had to go on was one miracle-grade positive thought: since they’d run into him by chance yesterday, maybe they’d run into him by chance again today.
But surprisingly, the traces that merc had left behind in Night City were far deeper and clearer than expected, and rumors had been quietly spreading through the back alleys. The stories the siblings gathered all day by shaking information brokers and punks down in Watson and Japantown were all shocking.
"Hey, did you hear that rumor? A few days ago, some guys at Maelstrom’s main base got assassinated by something."
"Assassinated? Did a rival gang hit them?"
"No, apparently it was some East Asian guy...! And there were screams like a pig getting its throat cut coming from their base..."
"What the hell, those guys have been insane for years already, haven’t they?!"
And attached to that terrifying rumor was news that the gangs were currently tearing each other apart over who would take over Maelstrom’s abandoned small outpost.
That wasn’t all. There was another bizarre rumor too.
"This one’s definitely legit. You know that old debt-ridden couple and their granddaughter who lived near that Maelstrom hideout? The ones whose daughter got kidnapped by Maelstrom and left out on the street?"
"Yeah, so what about them?"
"They suddenly packed up everything and left the city yesterday."
"What?"
"Apparently, tens of thousands of eddies were deposited through an anonymous credit chip. Whoever it was, Night City’s got itself a Robin Hood now."
Brutal gang deaths under mysterious circumstances, and a massive anonymous credit-chip donation from an unknown benefactor.
Rebecca, who clearly remembered the mercy the man had shown yesterday by merely knocking out the seven Tyger Claws instead of killing them, instinctively knew that this guy was at the center of all these major events.
But rumors were rumors, and the man they were looking for still hadn’t shown his face. By then, the rain had grown heavier and the sky had gone dark.
"Damn it!! My feet are on fire! Where the hell is he hiding?!"
After wandering around and searching all evening, Rebecca’s patience finally snapped, and she slammed a furious elbow into Pilar beside her.
"Agh!"
"You stupid long-legged moron! Do you think Night City is your living room?! You think he’s just going to pop out if we sit around on the street with no contact info?! Give me back my day, idiot!"
"A-ah! Why are you hitting me! A man needs to think positively, and if he doesn’t give up, the universe helps...!"
"I’ll send you to hell before the universe helps you, get over here!!"
Rebecca was waving her fists and huffing on the rainy pavement, but when she saw Pilar’s pitiful, drenched shoulders slump in disappointment, she slowly lowered her hand.
Even a tough little brat who lived on curses and insults couldn’t help softening when her only blood relative looked that miserable.
"Haa... damn it. Fine. It’s raining and freezing anyway, so let’s go get a warm bowl of noodles."
As Rebecca shook out her wet hair irritably and spoke in a softer tone, Pilar’s drooping eyes immediately lit up.
"Oh! Noodles?! Hey, kid! You know your brother already spent all the money he made selling his gun to cover yesterday’s meal, right? You’re paying this time, yeah?"
"You fucking bastard, do you even have any shame?! If you don’t pay, I’ll rip those brand-new smart sunglasses out of your face and pawn them!!"
And so the scene returned to the present, where Pilar, after getting splashed and turning in annoyance, met eyes with Ji-hwan, who had paused mid-chopstick movement, and his jaw dropped as if it might hit the floor.
"......"
Ji-hwan casually wiped away the stray droplets with his sleeve and stared blankly at the stunned siblings.
'Let’s pretend we don’t know each other. Don’t get involved. Getting tangled up with those two will be a pain.'
Ji-hwan calmly looked away, bent down as if to bury his face in the noodle bowl again, and started slurping up the rest of the large portion at lightning speed.
Sluuuurp!!Gulp!
But Rebecca’s horrified shout was a tenth of a second faster than even that desperate noodle attack.
"Huh?! T-that mister...?!!"
"Huh!! Big bro!! The man who’s gonna become a legend in Night City!!"
Forgetting even that they’d just been splashed with water, the two siblings shot up from their old plastic chairs and shouted at him.
But Ji-hwan, who had stopped slurping with such ferocity, now wore a faintly annoyed expression.
'The man who’s gonna become a legend in Night City?'
Ji-hwan’s brow twisted hard. In this insane cyberpunk city, the word "legend" had a very clear meaning.
Poor corpses who’d pulled off some suicidal stunt no one else could ever manage, died in a flashy and horrifying way, and then got their names slapped onto Afterlife’s menu as an expensive drink. That was a Night City legend.
'Is this clueless bastard cursing me to die in style and end up as a drink name the moment we meet?'
Ji-hwan’s mood soured instantly. He withdrew his cold, irritated gaze, wiped the broth from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, and was about to stand up.
"Thanks for the meal. I’ll be going now."
Then the siblings kicked back their chairs and sprang up, shouting.
For the siblings who had despaired last night under Wakako’s assignment, wondering how they’d ever find Ji-hwan in this huge city, this was nothing short of a miracle. The universe really had helped them.
Grab!Clench!
"Mister!! Wait! Please, just hear me out!!"
Where the hell did that monstrous strength come from? Twelve-year-old Rebecca clamped both hands around the hem of Ji-hwan’s old flight jacket as he tried to leave and hung there like a monkey refusing to let go, desperately clinging on.
"Big bro!! Don’t go!! This is the fate that the great Night City has ordained to bind you and us together..."
Beside her, instead of grabbing his pant leg, Pilar began sweating bullets and stuck to Ji-hwan’s side like a leech, matching his steps.
He sounded exactly like a newly converted cult fanatic doing street proselytizing, and his nonstop chatter was the real spectacle.
"Big bro!! Please don’t abandon us!! This is a fated meeting ordained by great Night City to bind you and us together! With your overwhelming combat power and our siblings’ genius network, we could be raking in a fortune by tomorrow! Just nod, and I, Pilar, will treat you like a top-class VIP!! Hallelujah!!"
"Move. And kid, let go. You’re going to rip my jacket."
With a blank face, Ji-hwan started dragging Rebecca down the rainy alley like a medal pinned to his jacket.
Drag, drag, drag—.
Even as her knees and stomach scraped against the muddy wet road, Rebecca stubbornly held on, and Pilar, jogging alongside them, kept panting while firing off nonstop sales pitches into Ji-hwan’s ear.
"Agh! Mister! We’re seriously about to starve to death! Just once! We’ve got a job that pays like crazy!!"
"That’s right, big bro!! Zero startup capital! Zero risk! With just your one crisp slap, the wealth and glory of Night City will come rolling in! All you have to do is nod, and I, Pilar, will handle the rest and escort you in top-tier VIP style!! Hallelujah!!"
"Hey. Let go. I said let go. You’re stretching my jacket. And you, tall idiot, stop buzzing by my ear like a fly and get lost!!"
Ji-hwan tried to shake them off with a genuinely annoyed voice, but Rebecca’s grip was disgustingly tenacious, and Pilar’s mouth had no effect at all.
In the end, after dragging them about ten meters like he was sweeping the alley clean, Ji-hwan stopped when the strange looks from passersby started to pile up and let out a deep sigh that seemed to sink into the ground.
"Haa... fine, fine, just let go, kid. You’ve already stretched my clothes. And you, cut the damn cult recruitment act, you miserable bastards."
"Really?! You’ll really listen to us?!"
Rebecca’s eyes lit up as she let go of the stretched jacket. Ji-hwan pressed at his throbbing temple and turned back toward the noodle stall.
"You’ve got ten minutes. After that, I’m not listening because it’s a pain."
Ji-hwan sat back down in the plastic chair, and even though he’d already emptied the large bowl down to the bottom, he casually raised a hand to the owner.
"Mister, give me another large bowl. This time, make it the Korean-style spicy one."
A moment later, a fresh bowl of noodles was placed heavily on the table.
Rebecca and Pilar both gaped in shock the second they saw it. The broth was so red it was almost black, like the color of hellfire, and piled on top were mountains of capsaicin paste and green chili peppers that looked like they could trigger a stomach cramp just by being seen.
Sluuuurp—!Gulp.
Ji-hwan began inhaling it as calmly as if he were drinking molten lava.
At least a bead of sweat had formed on his forehead.
"...Mister, are you crazy? Isn’t that spicy? I feel like my stomach is burning up just looking at it."
When Rebecca asked with a disgusted expression, Ji-hwan crunched down on a chili pepper like he was slicing radish and answered calmly.
"For a Korean, this is just mildly spicy. It’s kind of bland, honestly. I’m thinking about adding more chili powder."
"...You’re seriously not right in the head."
As Rebecca muttered in amazement, a pitiful rumble suddenly echoed from both siblings’ stomachs at the same time.
They had already ordered the cheapest plain noodle bowls because they had no money, and had been sneaking glances at Ji-hwan’s meat noodles the whole time.
Since it had come to this, the clever Rebecca decided to go shameless.
She folded her hands neatly under her chin, lit her eyes up like a cat’s, and looked up at Ji-hwan with the most pitiful and adorable expression she could manage.
"Mister... we’ve really only been eating rat meat from trash cans for days... just one bite..."
But Ji-hwan didn’t stop his chopsticks for even a second. With a face frozen cold and expressionless, he cut her off cleanly.
"Don’t act cute."
"......Tch."
With that blade-sharp rejection and not even a second of hesitation, Rebecca immediately pouted and clicked her tongue. Her bright, pleading eyes flipped instantly into a delinquent glare.
"Damn, my perfect seduction didn’t work. What a heartless bastard."
Pilar snickered and butted in at her grumbling.
"Hey, if you had any shame, you’d look in a mirror. You really think that face was going to work?"
"Shut up. If you want your solar plexus opened up again, keep talking."
Just as the siblings started growling at each other again, Ji-hwan let out a deep sigh and casually motioned to the stall owner with his chin.
"Hey. Bring these two some regular noodle bowls too, loaded with meat. I’ll pay."
"...Huh? Really?!"
The siblings, who had been trying to tear each other apart a moment ago, suddenly had eyes that shimmered like lost lambs finding a savior.
For siblings who were so hungry they couldn’t even remember the last time they’d had a proper meal, a steaming bowl of noodles packed with meat was the greatest kindness imaginable.
"Thank you, big bro!! We’ll serve you for life!!"
"I’ll eat well!"
The siblings began wolfing down the meat noodles like they were trying to hide them from the world. Once their hunger had been eased a little, Rebecca wiped her mouth and looked at Ji-hwan with a subtle, serious glint in her eyes.
Now it was time to bring out their fixer’s name tag in earnest.
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