A corner booth in Afterlife, washed in the soft glow of red neon.
Rogue Amendiares, the living legend of Night City and queen of fixers, cut through the air with a razor-sharp question.
It was a blunt, dangerous probe: what exactly was the man in front of her, who seemed to have fallen out of the sky, doing crawling into the heart of the city and stomping gangs into the dirt?
Meeting her icy stare, Ji-hwan leaned back into the sofa and let out a languid breath. The sharp burn of the tequila he’d had earlier still lingered on his tongue.
"You’re asking why I came to Night City to do something big?"
Ji-hwan stroked his chin and gave a faint snort.
Maybe Rogue had expected some fiery answer about grand ambition, toppling corporations, or becoming a legend of the city. Instead, Ji-hwan tossed out a brutally simple truth.
"It’s just a revenge story. That’s all."
"Revenge?"
Rogue’s brows drew together. Ji-hwan stared into space with dry eyes and continued in an even tone.
"Yeah. Crawling into this city, ripping the doors off a Maelstrom hideout, and smashing the Tiger Claws I ran into on the way wasn’t about justice or turf wars. I was just cleaning up the bastards I had a personal score to settle with."
"Hmm...?"
His fingers tapped lightly against the armrest of the leather sofa.
"And that cleanup’s already finished, yesterday and today. They paid the price, and I’m done with my business. So unlike what you’re worried about, I have no intention of turning Night City upside down or stepping on the toes of fixers."
For a man who had wiped out a heavily armed gang hideout with nothing but raw force, the answer was absurdly modest. Almost hollow.
Listening in silence, Rogue let out a short laugh between her red lips.
"Ha. Hahaha... You came all the way here with that overwhelming power just to film some revenge flick against local punks? And now that your business is done, you’re planning to leave quietly?"
Rogue shook her head in disbelief and smirked.
"I’ve dealt with every kind of edgerunner and crazy corpo bastard in this city for decades, but I’ve never seen a weirdo this lacking in ambition. Still, if you’re serious, then you’ve got Night City completely wrong, Ji-hwan."
The amusement vanished from Rogue’s face, and the sharp fixer queen returned. She leaned forward over the table and spoke in a low warning.
"I’ll give you this: your combat power is real. But from head to toe, you’re a completely pure human. That purity of yours, with not even a chip in your brain, is your greatest weapon and, at the same time, the most fatal weakness in this era."
Ji-hwan’s heart sank quietly at her words.
Because she had hit the nail on the head. And because he knew it better than anyone.
"This city isn’t a place where you can stand at the top with strength alone. No matter how fast or strong you are, you can’t dodge every smart weapon round guided in from outside your field of vision with your bare eyes. What are you going to do when a netrunner, hidden somewhere you can’t see, hacks every inch of infrastructure around you, your weapon systems, even the brakes on the car you’re riding in?"
Rogue tapped her own temple with a finger.
"You don’t have a neural port in your brain. You can’t trace an enemy network back to its source, and you can’t open encrypted system doors. No matter how perfect your body is as a pure human, a beast cut off from information is nothing but meat waiting to be trapped. Even if you noticed my informant tailing you today with your instincts, what if it had been a military drone several kilometers away? You’d have been blown to pieces without ever knowing why."
At that cold, brutally realistic fact dump, Ji-hwan didn’t argue. No, he couldn’t argue.
It was the clear limit he had already been painfully aware of. No matter how superhuman his senses were, he couldn’t crack the code of the digital world, and because he lacked information, he kept getting dragged into annoying situations over and over.
"...So what, then? You want me to drill a hole in my head and jam chrome into it now?"
Ji-hwan asked carelessly, and Rogue leaned back into the sofa with an easy grin.
"No. Keep that disgustingly pure body of yours exactly as it is. That rarity is what makes you special. Instead, build a team that can perfectly cover your blind spots and your digital weaknesses."
Team.
That word landed heavily in Ji-hwan’s ears.
"If you really want to become a legend in this city, or if you want to finish your revenge story and live in peace like you said, then you need reliable people who’ll become your hands and feet. A netrunner to crack closed firewalls, a brain to plan tactics, and solid backup to watch your back. Only with a perfect team can you move freely inside the system of this insane city."
As Ji-hwan listened, he found himself thinking of the pitiful siblings from a few hours ago, the ones who had clung to his pant leg on a rainy street and been dragged along behind him.
Rebecca, the sharp-tongued little firecracker who was desperately saving eddies even while sleeping in a leaky wreck of a car, and Pilar, all mouth but with a frighteningly quick eye for things. Maybe those idiots could fill his empty digital blind spot in their own weird way. The thought crossed his mind for a moment.
'But... no, that’s not it.'
Ji-hwan let out a silent, dry laugh and shook his head.
Just a few hours ago, he’d bought them a bowl of noodles in the rain and then strutted off after acting all cool, telling them to become the best edgerunners in Night City and that they’d meet again after they grew up.
And now, after one piece of advice from Rogue, he was supposed to run back and say, "Sorry, but join my team"? That ridiculous little scene was something his pride absolutely would not allow.
Besides, those two were still rough around the edges and scraping the bottom, but they had already started walking their own path in Night City with their own rules.
There was no reason to drag them into his own troublesome and dangerous road and twist their trajectory just because he found them interesting.
It stung a little, because he did genuinely like the noisy, stubborn energy of the siblings.
'Well, too bad. Can’t be helped.'
Ji-hwan neatly brushed away the brief lingering regret.
If he was going to build a team anyway, he’d have to find some other quiet bastard who was good with machines and wouldn’t be a pain in the ass.
Cutting off his half-baked sentiment with pure reason, Ji-hwan rose slowly from his seat with a faint smile.
"...I’ll take your advice to heart."
Ji-hwan stood up slowly with a faint smile. The conversation with Rogue had been more useful than he expected. The old fox hadn’t tried to leash him for immediate use; instead, she’d given him a brutally objective lesson in how to survive.
Forced to face his own clear limits, Ji-hwan brushed off his old flight jacket and prepared to head out.
"That’s enough for today. My business is done, so I’m going to pack up and head back to the Badlands. Like you said, I’ll think about whether I should pick up some annoying people to watch my back while I’m eating dust out there."
Just as Ji-hwan turned to leave the booth, Rogue tapped the data shard on the table and spoke again.
"How about taking on a gig on your way out?"
Ji-hwan froze mid-step. He turned his head slightly to look at Rogue and drew a clean line in the sand.
"I’m declining. I just said it, didn’t I? My business in Night City is done, and I’m heading back to the Badlands."
"I know. That’s why I’m offering it."
Rogue’s mouth curled at one corner.
"The target and the location are both in the Badlands you’re going back to."
"...What?"
Ji-hwan’s neat brow twisted hard. Rogue had neatly and slyly blocked his escape route, turning his perfect excuse for refusing into nothing.
'Ha... this old fox is really trying to work me to death.'
Ji-hwan felt a headache start to throb in his skull.
Flat-out refusing the first offer from the queen of fixers, especially when the route lined up perfectly with his own, would obviously create unnecessary friction in Night City’s ecosystem later on.
With no more excuse left, Ji-hwan finally let out a deep sigh and turned back around.
"Haa... Tch. This is getting annoying. Fine, fine. I’ll hear you out."
As Ji-hwan shifted his weight onto one leg, a satisfied blue glint flashed in Rogue’s cybernetic eye.
Before she briefed him on the details, she gave him a once-over and tossed out a completely unexpected remark.
"By the way, if you’re going to keep working as a merc, maybe you should do something about that name of yours, ‘Ji-hwan.’"
"What’s wrong with my name?"
"It’s too tame. For a legend in Night City, and for me to even say it out loud, it’s way too plain and soft. Don’t you think you need a sharper, more direct handle that fixers can whisper about and corpos can fear?"
"I already said I’m not interested in becoming a legend..."
Ji-hwan stopped himself for a moment. She was right; among Night City mercs, it was rare to see anyone stubbornly using their real name all the time.
"A handle, huh? You’ve got a nickname in mind that suits my face?"
Rogue tapped the tequila glass on the table with a finger and tossed out a single, heavy letter.
"K. How’s that?"
"K?"
"Yeah. Simple. Sharp. A name you won’t forget once you hear it. More importantly, it’s a pretty good initial for the first letter of your origin, Korean."
K... Ji-hwan rolled the short letter around in his mouth.
It was clean and unadorned, and somehow it fit his temperament surprisingly well.
More than anything, he liked the fact that it spared him the hassle of explaining the awkward sound of "Ji-hwan" in this world.
"K... Not bad."
Ji-hwan nodded lightly and accepted the name without hesitation.
"Fine. From now on, I’ll use that name when I’m operating in Night City, Rogue."
At his answer, Rogue also smiled with satisfaction and lifted her glass.
It was the moment the man in front of her finally took his first official step into Night City’s merc ecosystem.
But just as Ji-hwan was about to stand, he looked at Rogue with a slightly puzzled expression.
"There’s one thing I want to ask. It’s a little strange."
"What is?"
"Like you said, I’m not tied to any corporation or gang, and I’m just some unknown outsider who crawled up from the wasteland. So why is the best fixer in Night City being so nice to me? Realistic survival advice, a usable handle, and now even a gig lined up to match my route."
Ji-hwan lifted himself off the sofa backrest and leaned forward.
"Besides, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Someone like you, a calculating big shot sitting at the top, why are you going this far for a stranger? Isn’t that bad business for you?"
For a moment, Ji-hwan nearly said old woman, but the sharp look that flashed in Rogue’s eyes made him change course.
At his question, a seductive yet chilly laugh spilled from Rogue’s red lips.
"Haha. Bad business? Me? You’re really underestimating the queen of Afterlife, K."
Rogue set the tequila glass down hard on the table. Her artificial eye gleamed blue in the dark.
"Don’t get it twisted. I’m not doing charity for you. I’m making an investment."
"An investment?"
"Yeah. Night City is one giant junkyard where hot-blooded idiots pick up guns every day, dreaming of becoming legends, and then die like dogs. But every once in a while... a nonstandard gem appears from the rotten mud, shining all on its own. Real monsters like Johnny Silverhand or Morgan Blackhand from the past."
Rogue’s gaze slowly raked over Ji-hwan’s smooth neck and solid shoulders, free of even a single scar.
"To me, you look like you might be that kind of possibility."
Rogue snapped her fingers and added in a voice full of certainty.
"There’s no asset more attractive or more valuable than that in this business. If you survive with my advice and grow into a great legend of this city... then the paltry kindness and information I gave you today will come back to me a hundredfold in eddies and power later on."
"And if I die on the street tomorrow, just like you expected not to?"
"Then I’ve only lost a useless data shard. No loss at all."
It was the cold, perfect logic of a fixer who calculated only profit and future value, never letting emotion get in the way.
But Ji-hwan actually liked that transparent, mercenary honesty quite a lot.
Compared to the trash who pretended to be righteous or tried to trap people with fake goodwill, a relationship built on this kind of thorough calculation was cleaner and far less annoying.
"Ha. You’re a vicious speculator, aren’t you?"
At last, Ji-hwan let his guard down and gave a cheerful laugh.
"Fine. I like that calculation. I’ll pay it back someday."
At his neat answer, Rogue also smiled in satisfaction and slid the data shard toward him.
"Good. I’ve sent the full details of the gig to your personal link. It’s a nice little job, perfect for handling on the way back to the Badlands."
"I’m looking forward to it. As long as it’s not too much of a pain."
Ji-hwan gave one last snort of laughter and waved a hand.
"Then see you around, K."
Leaving Rogue’s soft but weighty farewell behind him, the man who had become Night City merc K walked out of the VIP booth without a trace of regret.
Pshhh—! Thud!
As the massive iron door shut, the pounding electronic beat of Afterlife vanished in an instant. When he stepped up the narrow underground stairs and emerged outside, the cold, damp night air hit K’s lungs like a blade. The acid rain that had been falling all day had finally stopped, and colorful neon signs shimmered messily across the puddles on the asphalt.
Whirr—
K pulled his personal link from his pocket and projected the data file for the Badlands gig Rogue had just sent into the air as a hologram.
"Haa... I ran my mouth and ended up taking on more work. Should’ve just ignored her and run."
He was grumbling at his own thin patience and the way the fixer had played him when—
Splash, splash, splash—
From both ends of the dark alley, the rough footsteps of multiple people splashing through puddles began closing in around K.
Very blatant footsteps, heavy with murderous intent. K slowly lifted his gaze from the screen and stared into the darkness.
"Found you, you fucking bastard."
Figures emerged from the neon-backed darkness of the alley. On their forearms and necks were garish tiger tattoos that glowed in the dark.
They were the same Tiger Claw gang members K had beaten senseless and left rolling on the floor of the abandoned building yesterday afternoon. Yesterday there had been seven of them, but this time there were twelve, all with bloodshot eyes and apparently fully prepared, armed with katanas, smart weapons, and plenty of other hardware as they sealed off the alley with murderous intent.
"Maybe you got lucky and caught us off guard yesterday, but today you won’t even have bones left to bury."
"You had the nerve to humiliate our brothers in Tiger Claws territory and thought you’d get away with it?! We’ll rip your limbs off right here and feed you to the alley dogs!"
The ones whose cheeks were still swollen from the beating, crudely patched over with artificial skin, howled in rage and raised their weapons as if they were about to rush K at any second.
Even in the face of those twelve feral killing intents, not a trace of fear or panic appeared on K’s face. Instead, he looked at the holographic screen floating in the air and lazily lifted one finger, as if he couldn’t be bothered.
"Hold on."
"What, you little shit?! Got a last will to spit out before you die?!"
"No... just wait a second."
K treated the charging Tiger Claws like scarecrows, and only after reading the holographic text all the way through did he shut the device off with a satisfied click.
Swish.
He tucked the personal link back into his pocket and slowly raised his head.
When he rolled his neck left and right, a sickening crack of bone echoed through the narrow alley.
"Haa... You really won’t let me catch a break, huh?"
His mouth was clearly complaining about how annoying this was.
But the eyes of K, visible through his wet bangs, had none of their usual laziness left. They were blazing with dangerous heat.
Now that he’d stepped into this insane city and kept running into trash that reeked of blood, the adrenaline he’d been holding down was boiling madly through Ji-hwan’s veins.
'Yeah. This is exactly why Night City is fun.'
In the darkness, K’s mouth split into a cruel grin as he faced the twelve gang members raising their weapons at him.
Under the neon lights, the white teeth of a predator before the hunt flashed bright.
"Okay. Come on in, you motherfuckers."
In the back alleys of Night City after the rain, the cheerful story of the merc called K had begun once again.
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