“Beep beep.”

“Awake yet, KK?”

An unknown call.

Karl checked the time.

6:40 AM.

Fifty minutes before school started.

He had been woken up.

“No, I wasn’t awake—I was just woken up. So… who are you?”

Rubbing his eyes, Karl sat up and answered the call.

On the other end, a deep, steady voice of an older man responded.

“You should’ve heard of me from Jack. How’s the Gaius identity holding up?”

“Gaius?”

Hearing that name, Karl suddenly woke up a little more.

Then, he instantly realized who was calling—

The infamous fixer of Heywood.

“Father… so, what’s the job?”

Karl already knew the answer.

If a fixer was calling a merc, it could only mean one thing—

There was a job.

And if it was coming from Father, Karl was inclined to accept—as long as it was short-term.

After all, he owed the man a favor.

And from what Jack had said, Father was one of the few fixers worth working with.

“I have a job that requires someone capable. Figured you and your crew might be interested, so I held onto it for you. The pay’s not too high—60,000 eddies. But if someone as well-known as you all takes it, that’d be ideal.”

“Come on, Father, we’re just some small-timers. But if it’s your request, of course, we’ll take it. Is it urgent?”

“Not particularly. It’s about a Tyger Claw who killed a peaceful, law-abiding resident in Heywood, then ran back to Japantown for protection. The victim’s son spent every last eddie he had trying to get revenge… and to find out why his father was killed. If you can uncover the reason for the murder, I can even add more to the pay. KK, if you’re willing to help a kid who lost his father, I’d be grateful.”

“If it’s not urgent, we’re in.”

“Then I’ll leave it to you. Details are in the attachment.”

The call ended.

Karl opened the attachment and quickly skimmed through it.

Everything matched what Father had said.

The victim was 58 years old—considered old age in Night City.

But in the end, he still couldn’t escape Tyger Claws’ bullets.

His son, on the other hand, was only 16.

A miracle baby, born when his father was already past middle age.

His mother had died in childbirth, leaving the two to rely on each other—running a small convenience store to get by.

Despite the odds, the kid excelled in school.

He was on track to graduate, get into a good university, and land a solid job.

Until this happened.

Night City—where you never know if tomorrow or death will come first.

Karl sighed.

Tragedy never sits well.

He glanced at the time. 6:45 AM.

There was no point in going back to sleep.

He forwarded the job to Jack and Oliver, then got up to start his morning.

Reheating the leftover braised pork, he grabbed some wheat bread and sat down to eat.

To anyone else, this might look insane—but Karl had no other options.

He had wanted to make a proper Chinese-style pork bun—but he didn’t have the ingredients.

So, he did the next best thing—

Took 10 minutes to scrape the remaining sauce with bread until the dish was completely cleaned out.

Then, he walked to the window—

And saw that it was raining lightly outside.

Rainy day, huh.

Karl closed the window.

As he put on his Arasaka Academy uniform, his facial features began to shift.

A few seconds later, Gaius yawned and walked out the door.

He headed upstairs to check if there were any visitor logs.

Most days, he expected nothing.

But today, there was a record.

“Got a job for you. Why the hell haven’t you been answering? You blackout or something? Meet me tomorrow night, 10 PM, Lizzie’s Bar in Kabuki.”

Along with the message, there was a holo-image of a tattooed young man.

Didn’t look older than twenty-five.

Tomorrow night, 10 PM, Lizzie’s Bar.

Finally, a lead.

Judging by the tone of the message, the guy didn’t seem particularly close with the green-haired mohawk who died.

But even a loose connection was better than nothing.

Karl had already used his NCPD contact, Johnson, to dig into the guy’s identity over the past few days.

But in Night City, between fake IDs and messy records, tracking someone down was a nightmare.

The only solid piece of info he found—

The green-haired guy’s name was Allen.

And even that was only because he had used it when registering for an apartment in the megabuilding.

Better take note of everything.

His current priorities:

Long-term goals: wait for news from Blanca and extract information on the Adam Smasher cyberware from Tanaka.

Short-term goals: take out a Tyger Claw, track down information on Allen, and see if any of his family is still around to pay them back.

Organizing it like this made things feel much clearer.

But Lizzie’s Bar…

Karl’s mind quickly recalled the info on that place.

Lizzie’s Bar: a flashy backstreet nightclub, known for its braindance experiences, and the headquarters of the Mox gang in Night City.

Karl remembered Jack mentioning it before—if you wanted a true braindance experience, it was the place to go.

Apparently, they even had a braindance editing legend working there.

A braindance editing master.

Thinking about that, Karl felt a flicker of irritation.

Just yesterday, David had brought the latest cyberpsycho black-market braindance for them to check out.

It was the one that recorded their fight against former New American lieutenant James Norris.

Seeing himself featured in yet another JK braindance made Karl feel… conflicted.

All he could say was—if he ever got the chance, he wouldn’t mind landing a punch on JK, the so-called braindance editing master.

But the one working at Lizzie’s Bar was rumored to be a woman.

Meanwhile, JK was supposedly a man.

Didn’t match.

Then again, in 2075, gender didn’t mean much anymore.

For all he knew, JK could be the type to swap between identities—or maybe even claim his true gender was an attack helicopter.

Either way, if he ever met JK in person…

He’d make sure the guy got a real taste of what a cyberpsycho was like.

.

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