An abandoned old-era maglev tunnel bored beneath the Pacifica Serenity Bible Church.
Ji-hwan’s path into the Voodoo Boys’ most secret heart was far quieter than he’d expected. He slipped through the darkness with stealthy steps and finally reached the main server room. When he opened the heavy door and stepped inside, he saw a woman waiting calmly in front of a massive ice bath. The head of the Voodoo Boys, the one who ruled over Pacifica’s netrunners: Maman Brigitte.
"So that warning signal from one of those assassins earlier must have reached this place first."
Seeing the old boss see through his infiltration so easily, Ji-hwan clicked his tongue inwardly and strolled forward at an unhurried pace.
"You didn’t run."
When Ji-hwan asked lazily, Brigitte fixed him with a cold stare and spoke.
"If you’d come here for blood, my children outside would already be dead. So you came to talk."
Even after she made it clear she was willing to talk, the air in the room began to freeze over in an instant.
Ssshhk—
From the darkness, a shadow stepped out beside Brigitte, radiating killing intent. Placide, the Voodoo Boys’ enforcer. With his beast-like build, he glared at Ji-hwan as if he might tear him apart on the spot.
Click, clack!
At Placide’s appearance, more than ten elite subordinates who had been lying in ambush in the room’s blind spots revealed themselves all at once. They trained smart guns on Ji-hwan’s head and heart. A tight killing net for the outsider who had stepped into their sanctuary. Under pressure that would have made any ordinary mercenary’s knees buckle and weapon drop, Ji-hwan instead let out a snort of disbelief.
"Ha."
At that scoff, Placide’s face twisted with fury.
"Looks like you don’t understand the situation."
Thinking Ji-hwan was some country bumpkin who didn’t know the terror of firepower, Placide strode forward. He bent his two-meter frame and shoved the muzzle of the heavy handgun in his hand roughly against the center of Ji-hwan’s forehead.
"Kneel before I rip out that arrogant tongue."
But before Placide could even finish the threat, Ji-hwan’s hand, which had been lounging on the sofa, vanished like heat haze.
The steel pistol that had been firmly in Placide’s grip and aimed at Ji-hwan’s forehead disappeared from sight in the blink of an eye.
"...Huh?"
Placide stopped mid-trigger pull and stared stupidly at his empty hand, letting out a dumb breath. Ji-hwan had snatched the weapon away whole before the bastard even had a chance to fire.
And then.
Kraaaack—!!Crack!
Holding the stolen steel pistol in one hand, Ji-hwan casually and almost absentmindedly squeezed down with all his grip, as if crushing a stale snack. In his bare hand, with not a single piece of chrome on him, the frame and barrel of the sturdy military handgun shattered to pieces.
But the price of crushing steel with flesh and bone was clear. Metal fragments, unable to withstand that absurd grip, burst out in sharp shards and drove deep into Ji-hwan’s palm, tearing through living flesh.
Drip, drop.
Along with the shattered scrap, red blood spilled from Ji-hwan’s split hand and ran down his fingers.
"...Huh?"
Placide looked back and forth between his empty hand and Ji-hwan’s bare palm, now bleeding with bits of metal embedded in it, wearing a blank expression. His own flesh had been torn and blood was flowing, yet there was not a trace of pain or agitation in Ji-hwan’s eyes or face. That unreal calmness sent a crawling chill straight down Placide’s spine.
"You’re the ones who don’t understand the situation."
Ji-hwan shook the metal shards and blood off his palm onto the floor and flashed a sneering smile at Placide, who had recoiled in shock.
"You bastards who only know how to rely on netrunning hacks and shooting from the back."
Ji-hwan’s cold eyes swept over the subordinates aiming their guns from all around.
"You and I were never a good match to begin with."
At that declaration, a vicious fighting aura exploded out of Ji-hwan’s body. They had guns trained on him as if they could put rounds through his head and heart at any second, yet not a single one of the dozen elite subordinates dared pull the trigger first. Only the sound of dry gulps swallowed under extreme tension echoed grotesquely through the silent server room.
"Placide. Enough."
From behind him, Brigitte stepped in to mediate in a heavy voice.
"Did I not warn you not to provoke this man? Step back."
"...He’s dangerous."
"That was an order."
At Brigitte’s firm rebuke, Placide ground his teeth. He clenched his empty hand so hard it looked ready to break and glared at Ji-hwan as if he wanted to kill him. But even that brief flash of movement had been enough for him to realize it in his bones. The mysterious man in front of him could slaughter everyone in this room if he wanted to. Suppressing the humiliation burning in his chest, Placide led his men and hurried upstairs.
Once again, only Ji-hwan and Brigitte remained in the room, wrapped in an icy silence. Brigitte opened her lips heavily.
"Fine. I’ll acknowledge the mercy that spared my children’s lives. Then let’s get to the point. Outsider who dared step into the Voodoo Boys’ sanctuary of his own accord, what is it you truly want?"
Ji-hwan pulled his hand out of his old coat pocket and slowly removed the black anti-slash mask covering his face. Once the mask came off, the bare face of a tired young man was revealed. Along the skin running down his neck and collarbone were grotesque tiger-striped scars, darkly etched like the hide of some great predator.
"I want three things."
"Go on."
At Ji-hwan’s voice, Brigitte’s brow tightened ever so slightly. He looks familiar. A wanted poster? Security camera footage? But soon she clicked her tongue and shoved that unease out of her head. Not a single cyberware seam or socket could be seen on the man before her, something any Night City citizen should normally have. That eerily smooth flesh made her skin crawl.
"First, permanently cancel all tracking and execution orders on Marcus, who’s hiding in my shelter."
Marcus. A traitor guilty of stealing and abusing the organization’s subnet network in the past. At the name, Brigitte’s face twitched with disgust.
"You want me to let that traitor live?"
Brigitte spat out in a cold voice.
"You came all the way down here just to protect one rat and make demands?"
"Or else we go to war."
A declaration of war from a single outsider. Brigitte let out a scoff as if he were ridiculous.
"You’re awfully confident."
"You’ll see."
Ji-hwan replied indifferently. Grit. The sound of Brigitte grinding her teeth echoed through the room. Ignoring her anger, Ji-hwan held up his next finger.
"Second. A mutual non-aggression pact regarding Night City’s most expensive bounty target, K."
At those words, Brigitte’s eyes flew wide open. The strange sense of déjà vu she’d felt when he first removed the mask. The fragmented memory she’d dismissed as simply a face she’d seen somewhere before. It now overlapped perfectly with the face on the topmost tier of the bounty list, flashing on the 1st-class wanted poster. A ghost whose scanner read [No Data]. The brute force that had crushed Placide’s steel pistol with bare hands. Every piece of the puzzle snapped into place.
"Don’t tell me... you’re that ‘corporate executioner’ at the top of the bounty list?"
"...What?"
Corporate executioner. Ji-hwan almost laughed at the childish nickname inwardly, but Brigitte, barely suppressing her shock, narrowed her eyes with interest and stepped closer.
"The rumors among mercs are different. Rumors that you were carrying out horrific illegal human experiments in a Biotechnica underground facility. Since you cut down the man in charge there... you must know the real story of what happened inside, don’t you?"
Even Brigitte let her greed show as she tested him. But Ji-hwan only gave a small smile and drew a line.
"Maybe. I can answer that after our deal is completely settled. My life’s worth is pretty damn high, so I’m not handing over premium intel for free."
At that calculated wall, Brigitte clicked her tongue in disappointment. As she stepped back, Ji-hwan held up a third finger.
"Third. While I’m staying in Pacifica, I want immediate sharing of all tracking movements aimed at me."
Brigitte’s brow furrowed deeply. Ji-hwan was basically saying he wanted to use the Voodoo Boys as his early warning system.
"If my children catch wind of the rats infiltrating the area and report it to you... what exactly do you plan to do next?"
A question born from not wanting her territory turned into a battlefield. Ji-hwan shoved a hand into his old coat pocket and let out a faint, bitter laugh.
There was no need to reveal the confidential card hidden in the shard to this old fox.
"Those three conditions are all I want."
Brigitte thought it over. The humiliation of being unable to execute a traitor who had stolen from the network. On top of that, she would have to shelter a wanted man and act as his surveillance net. It was an arrogant demand. But her gaze fell on Ji-hwan’s hands, which had just crushed a steel pistol like paper and shaken off the blood. Better to look the other way than pick a fight with that uncontrollable monster right now. The benefit was overwhelming.
Brigitte let out a deep sigh and shook her head.
"Very well, outsider. Your strength and nerve have been proven sufficiently. I’ll accept all the conditions you’ve named. However."
Her eyes sharpened like a merchant’s.
"Nothing comes free. Since I’m breaking the rules to grant your request, you’ll owe me a favor when I need one in the future."
Utterly fair, give and take. Ji-hwan gave a light nod.
"Fine. I’ll help with something annoying someday. Deal."
Once the deal was struck, the tense air in the server room loosened in a strangely abrupt way. Brigitte slowly rose from the ice bath and approached with seductive steps, her wet body lines on display. She extended her fingertips near Ji-hwan’s chest and whispered in a sticky voice.
"Such a captivating man... It feels like a shame to end the night with just a business deal. How about we build something a little more... intimate between us?"
A beauty trap to seize the upper hand. But Ji-hwan looked down at her hand with a cold gaze and stepped back.
"Don’t even try it."
It was a firm wall that froze the mood solid.
"If you’re trying to put a leash on me, you’ve picked the wrong man. I hate clingy relationships."
Brigitte wore a blank expression at the cleanly severed seduction, and Ji-hwan pulled his black mask back up over his chin and added dryly, driving the final nail in.
"And most importantly... you’re not my type."
At Ji-hwan’s iron wall, Brigitte let out a snort of laughter and turned away.
"If you’re done here, get out of my sanctuary now. I’ll keep my end of the bargain."
"Yeah. I was getting sick of this damp underground stink anyway."
The moment Ji-hwan turned toward the iron door of the main server room.
"Wait."
Brigitte’s heavy voice called out. Ji-hwan stopped, and she asked him with a look of utter incomprehension.
"Just one question. Why are you going that far to protect that netrunner?"
Marcus was a traitor who had betrayed the organization. For a man with overwhelming force to risk turning an entire gang into enemies just to save one frightened rat was an insanely irrational move.
"I owe him."
"...You owe him?"
"That guy’s a coward to the bone. The kind who values his own life above everything else and only thinks about running. But..."
Ji-hwan remembered the underground lab where he had thrown himself into danger to save the people trapped inside.
"When I was isolated with enemy forces all around me, that coward took the risk of frying his brain to break through the firewall and give me an escape route. Then he risked his life again to crack this cipher. A coward to the bone who still bet his life on helping me out."
In Night City, betraying your allies for a few eddies was just how the world worked. But Ji-hwan rejected that rotten rule head-on.
"I don’t care what the rules of this insane world are. At least by my rules, if someone risks their life for me, I’ll risk mine to protect them. That’s all."
Only loyalty and responsibility. The moment that indifferent, absolute declaration fell, Brigitte’s cybernetic eyes trembled. Having seen chrome-crazed maniacs and shallow mercs alike, she saw something vast in Ji-hwan’s back. A man with his own standards. Someone who repaid debts and knew how to take responsibility for people.
"...I see. I’ll remember that."
Brigitte murmured lowly, with genuine awe in her voice. Ignoring her recognition, Ji-hwan pulled his mask fully back into place.
"If you understand, then don’t go anywhere near Marcus again."
Clack—!
The heavy iron door opened, and Ji-hwan let his old coat flutter as he walked calmly back into the darkness below.
As he made his way through the darkness of the underground tunnel, Ji-hwan’s fingertips brushed the cold touch of the silver top-secret shard sleeping in his pocket.
He thought, ‘Now I need to go back... and find out what kind of disgusting truth is hidden inside this damn shard Marcus decrypted.’
Behind Ji-hwan’s back as he walked through Pacifica’s old tunnels, a massive truth that would trigger another butterfly effect pulsed quietly in the dark.
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