“How does it feel?”

Hearing Vik’s voice, Carl looked at his reflection in the mirror and tugged at his face a little.

“Feels fine, almost the same as my original face… just looks a bit unfamiliar.”

The reflection staring back at him was that of a black-haired young man. He still retained about thirty percent of his original features, but overall, he looked more like…

“Vik, why does Carl’s new face look kinda like yours?”

Jack examined Carl’s new appearance, then glanced at Vik. “He seriously looks like he could be your nephew.”

“Hmm?”

Carl, hearing that, took a closer look and realized that the face template he had chosen did, in fact, resemble Vik quite a bit.

“When designing facial structures, there has to be some basis. The four templates I created were based on slight modifications of your own faces—yours, Jack’s, Oliver’s, and mine. Honestly, I thought you’d pick the one closest to your original face, but I didn’t expect you to end up choosing mine.”

Vik sounded a little surprised by Carl’s choice.

“If it looked too much like me, it wouldn’t be useful for infiltration. But this works—looking like your nephew is way better than looking like Oliver’s or Jack’s little brother.”

Carl rubbed his altered face before stepping off the operating table.

“Alright, now that my new face is set, what about my identity?”

A new face alone clearly wasn’t enough. Without a proper identity to back it up, he’d probably get exposed not long after entering Arasaka Academy.

“Relax, I already had Padre handle that part.”

Jack handed Carl a data shard, signaling him to check its contents.

“Padre? Why’d you go to him for this?”

“He’s a fixer—he’s got connections. Besides, Padre is one of our own from Heywood. When you said you needed an identity, I went straight to him. He didn’t ask too many questions and got you a perfectly legit ID in no time. You just need to scan your new face into the system, and you’re good to go. But you know how it is—we owe him now, so at some point, we’re gonna have to return the favor. The legendary ‘KK’—all the fixers in town are dying to have you take jobs for them.”

“I don’t mind. A debt’s a debt, and it has to be repaid. As long as it’s a job, I’m fine with it. But are you sure this identity is solid? Is it reliable?”

“What kinda question is that? We’re talking about Padre here—the top fixer in Heywood. This is child’s play for him. Even low-tier fixers on the streets can pull this off. With Padre handling it, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

After Jack finished speaking, Oliver nodded and added, “Carl, do you have any idea how many people die in Night City every day? And how many new ones show up? NCPD and those corrupt city officials are too busy lining their pockets to care about population tracking. The only ones who even glance at this kind of paperwork are border checkpoint officers. And if you were a nomad, they wouldn’t even bother looking at it.”

Oliver then pointed at Carl’s face and continued, “Besides, you think this new identity is a problem? Your original identity was already a blank slate, did you forget that? Back when we first started working together, my sister ran a background check on you because she didn’t trust you. The result? Nothing. A complete void. No records, no past, nothing. If you could get by in Night City with a non-existent background, you think a fully registered, legit identity is gonna be an issue?”

“So you’re telling me that outsiders and nomads have no rights, and Night City’s top dogs will always be on top… but are you sure this will fool Arasaka?”

“Relax. As long as you pay enough, even if you have no identity, the people at Arasaka Academy will find a proper one for you. Money makes everything work. And besides, we’re not applying for a job at Arasaka or Militech—it’s just a school. Don’t overthink it.”

Hearing Oliver and Jack’s reasoning, Carl still felt this plan was pretty unreliable. But he had to admit, they had a valid point.

If you pay enough, Arasaka Academy won’t care who you are.

Arasaka Academy trained future corpo dogs, and even when those students finally applied to Arasaka, a large number of them would get filtered out. The real identity checks only happened then. And without connections, most people wouldn’t even make it to the interview. The academy itself was just another profit-driven institution—it had no reason to scrutinize its students too strictly.

“It’s all just business, huh.”

These days, everything was business. IDs were business, job interviews were business—hell, even education had turned into a business.

Real corpo mindset. Give them enough money, and they’d even sell the rope to hang themselves.

“So when does the semester start?”

“There’s no fixed start date. As long as you pay, you can go. Once your identity is verified, they’ll hand you an Arasaka Academy uniform—a fancy business-style suit.”

“Oh, and here’s something important,” Oliver added, scrolling through the fine print on the academy’s website. “During the one-month trial period, you only have the right to use the uniform. Once the month is up, you have to return it. If there are any stains or damages, you’ll be charged for repairs at whatever price they decide.”

“Shit,” Jack whistled. “So they can basically charge you whatever they want based on some random damage assessment?”

“Wait… don’t tell me this is their little scam to milk money from anyone who just wants to experience Arasaka Academy for a month?”

“Ninety-nine percent sure that’s exactly what it is,” Oliver replied, pointing at another line. “Look—’Arasaka Academy reserves the right of final interpretation of these policies.’ Classic corpo bullshit.”

“Let me guess—the ‘one-month trial’ students end up paying years worth of tuition just to cover uniform ‘damages’?”

“You think Arasaka Academy is just giving away discounts? They’re hyping this up all over the news like some charitable act. You think media exposure is free? Look at this PR stunt—’A special initiative for underprivileged students to experience Arasaka’s elite education.’ Makes me fucking sick.”

“They’re squeezing money out of people who barely have any to begin with?”

“Hey, even a bone has marrow you can scrape out.”

“Like you’ve ever eaten real bone marrow before.”

While Oliver and Jack ranted about the blatant corpo scam, Carl had already inserted the data shard to check his new identity.

Seventeen years old—technically still a minor. Only a year younger than his real age. And the name was…

Gaius?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep