The tires of Jackie's Arch hissed against the wet asphalt, a serpentine sound cutting through the low thrum of Westbrook. Jin-Woo leaned into the turn, the bike's engine roaring beneath him—a mechanical beast he controlled with the same detached precision he once used to command legions.
Night City blurred past in streaks of neon pink and toxic green. To the average citizen, this was a sensory overload. To Jin-Woo, it was merely data.
[QUEST DETECTED: AUTOMATIC LOVE]
[OBJECTIVE: LOCATE EVELYN PARKER]
[TIME LIMIT: UNKNOWN (URGENCY: HIGH)]
"Slow down, maniac," Johnny's voice crackled in his ear, though the rockerboy was nowhere to be seen. He materialized a second later on the handlebars, spectral aviators reflecting the passing streetlights. "You're gonna flatline us before we even get to the dollhouse. Clouds ain't goin' nowhere."
Jin-Woo ignored him, throttling the accelerator. "Efficiency, Johnny. We're burning daylight."
"It's midnight, you gonk."
Jin-Woo pulled the bike into a drift, halting precisely in front of Megabuilding H8. He dismounted, the motion fluid, wasting no energy.
"Same difference."
MEGABUILDING H8 - CLOUDS RECEPTION
The air inside the club smelled of synthetic pheromones and ozone—a cloying, artificial sweetness designed to mask the rot of the city. Reception was sleek, sterile, and quiet.
The receptionist, a doll with porcelain skin and dead eyes, smiled. "Welcome to Clouds. Jack in, please. The algorithm will match you with your deepest desires."
She gestured to the port on the desk.
Jin-Woo stared at the cable. To V, this was routine. To the Shadow Monarch, it was an intrusion.
"Just let me in," Jin-Woo said, his voice flat.
"Policy, sir. We need to know... what you need."
Jin-Woo took the cable.
System. Intercept scan. Feed it static.
He jacked in.
The receptionist's eyes flickered blue, then widened. Her smile faltered. She tapped her console frantically. "I... I'm getting an error. The profile... it's empty. It's like looking into a..." She shivered, a human reaction breaking through the programming. "A void."
"I have simple tastes," Jin-Woo said, pulling the jack out. "I don't need a match. I need management."
"VIPs only," she stammered, clearly rattled. "Mr. Woodman's office is in the back. But you can't just—"
Jin-Woo transferred 500 eddies. A bribe. A transaction. "I can."
He walked past her, the security gate chirping a reluctant access granted.
"Jesus, V," Johnny shimmered into existence next to him as they walked down the hallway lined with booths. Moans and whispers drifted from behind the frosted glass. "You scared the chrome off her. What did you show her?"
"Nothing," Jin-Woo replied softly. "That's what scares them."
He didn't stop for the dolls. He didn't look at the Angel or Skye. He walked straight to the heavy door marked MANAGEMENT.
WOODMAN'S OFFICE
The door locked.
[Strength Check: Pass]
Jin-Woo didn't hack the keypad. He gripped the handle, the servos in his arm whining—not from strain, but from the sudden surge of mana reinforcing the cyberware. With a sharp crunch of tearing metal, the lock mechanism sheared. He shoved the door open.
Woodman was behind his desk, a half-eaten burger in one hand, a synth-cigar in the other. He looked up, grease shining on his chin. A meat-mountain of a man, confident in his untouchability.
"The fuck?" Woodman chewed, swallowing heavily. "Private office, choom. You got three seconds to delta before I turn your brain into soup."
"Evelyn Parker," Jin-Woo said. He closed the door behind him. The sound was final.
Woodman laughed, a wet, hacking sound. "Another stray looking for the loose end? She breached contract. She's gone. Now get out."
He reached for the shotgun mounted under his desk.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: RULER'S AUTHORITY]
Jin-Woo didn't move. He simply looked.
The air in the room condensed. Gravity seemed to shift sideways.
Woodman flew out of his chair as if kicked by a mule. He slammed against the back wall, pinned by an invisible hand. The burger fell to the floor. The shotgun clattered uselessly.
"Wh-what the... my chrome... you hacked me?!" Woodman gasped, his feet dangling six inches off the floor. He clawed at his throat, but there was nothing there. Just pressure. Absolute, crushing pressure.
"No hacks," Jin-Woo said, stepping closer. The floorboards creaked. "Where is she?"
"Fuck... you..." Woodman's face turned purple. His eyes bulged, capillaries bursting.
Jin-Woo tightened his mental grip. The drywall behind Woodman began to crack, spiderwebbing outward from the impact point.
[INTIMIDATION SUCCESS]
"I will ask once," Jin-Woo said, his voice dropping an octave, resonating with a frequency that rattled the glass on the desk. "If you lie, I will collapse your lungs inside your chest. Where. Is. She?"
"Fingers!" Woodman shrieked, the air wheezing out of him. "The ripper! On Jig-Jig! I sold her to him! Just... put me down!"
Jin-Woo released the hold.
Woodman dropped like a sack of cement, gasping, clutching his chest. He looked up at Jin-Woo with pure, primal terror. This wasn't a netrunner trick. This was something else.
"Fingers," Jin-Woo repeated, committing the name to memory.
He turned to leave.
"You... you're a dead man," Woodman wheezed, reaching for his gun again, his pride overriding his survival instinct.
Jin-Woo didn't look back. He flicked his wrist. A heavy glass ashtray from the desk launched itself across the room, striking Woodman squarely in the temple with the force of a bullet.
The thug slumped over, unconscious. Or dead. It didn't matter. He was a mob that had dropped its loot.
Johnny was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, looking disturbed. "Telekinesis? That ain't in the Kiroshi manual, V. What kind of freak show are you running in our head?"
"The kind that gets results," Jin-Woo said.
JIG-JIG STREET
The transition from the sanitized vice of Clouds to the raw sewage of Jig-Jig Street was jarring. Here, the neon flickered and buzzed like dying insects. The air tasted of copper and grilled rat.
Jin-Woo walked through the crowd, his gait steady. Pimps and pushers stepped out of his way, an instinctual reaction to the predator walking among them.
He saw Judy pacing near the entrance to the clinic, smoking a cigarette with nervous, jerky movements. She spotted him and rushed over, tossing the butt into a puddle.
"V! I told you I was coming. I couldn't just sit there." She looked him over, checking for blood. "Did you find Woodman? Did he talk?"
"He talked," Jin-Woo said. "He sold her to a ripper named Fingers."
Judy's face went pale. "Fingers... Oh, god. V, that guy... he's a butcher. He works on dolls who can't afford real healthcare. If Ev is there..."
"We're going in," Jin-Woo said. "Stay behind me."
They climbed the stairs to the clinic. The waiting room was filled with broken people—dolls with shattered faceplates, gangers holding their intestines in. They all looked up with dull, hopeless eyes.
Three Tyger Claws guarded the door to the operating theater. They sneered as Jin-Woo approached.
"Clinic's closed, gonk. Wait your turn."
Jin-Woo didn't break stride.
[COMBAT INITIATED]
He moved.
It wasn't speed; it was a glitch in reality. One moment he was three meters away, the next he was inside the lead ganger's guard.
Whack.
Jin-Woo's palm struck the ganger's chin. The man's head snapped back, unconscious before he hit the floor. The second ganger reached for a katana. Jin-Woo caught the wrist, twisted—snap—and drove a knee into the solar plexus.
The third ganger froze, hand halfway to his holster. He looked at his fallen comrades, then at Jin-Woo's eyes.
[EFFECT: FEAR APPLIED]
"Sit down," Jin-Woo ordered.
The ganger sat.
Judy stared, her mouth slightly open. "V... since when do you know kung fu?"
"Since I woke up," he muttered, pushing into the office.
Fingers was there, a spindly, greasy man with too many cybernetic joints in his hands. He was hovering over a patient, a young girl unconscious in the chair. He looked up, annoyed.
"I said no interruptions! The artistic process is delicate—"
Jin-Woo grabbed Fingers by the collar of his lab coat and slammed him onto the operating table, scattering surgical tools.
"Hey! My hands! Watch the hands!" Fingers squealed, flailing. "Do you know how much these cost?!"
"Evelyn Parker," Jin-Woo said coldly. "Where is she?"
"I... I see so many faces, so many broken toys..." Fingers tried to squirm away, his eyes darting to Judy. "Oh, Judy! Little Judy. Is this your friend? He's very rude."
Jin-Woo drew a dagger—a jagged, obsidian blade he'd looted from the Arasaka assassins. He drove it into the metal table, right between Fingers' splayed digits.
Clang.
Fingers shrieked.
"Next one takes a finger," Jin-Woo said. "Literally."
"Okay! Okay! The Moth! The girl with the blue hair! She was... she was bad off! Fried! Synapses burnt to a crisp! I couldn't fix her! I couldn't!"
"Where?"
"I... I called some associates! They handle... disposal! They take the ones who can't be fixed! For parts! It's better than the landfill! Recycling!"
Judy made a sound like she was going to be sick. "Scavs? You gave her to Scavs?"
"They pay for the meat!" Fingers sobbed. "I have overheads!"
Jin-Woo leaned in close. The air around him darkened, the shadows in the room seeming to stretch toward the table.
[SKILL: BLOODLUST]
"Where. Did. They. Take. Her?"
Fingers' eyes rolled back in terror, his bladder releasing. "The... the old power station! In Arroyo! The sublevels! Please! I don't know anything else!"
Jin-Woo pulled the dagger free. He looked at the shivering, pathetic man. Killing him would yield no XP worth the effort.
"If you ever touch another patient," Jin-Woo whispered, "I will come back. And I won't use a knife."
He turned to Judy. She was shaking, tears streaming down her face, but her eyes were hard.
"Let's go," she said, her voice trembling with rage. "I'm driving."
ARROYO - ELECTRIC CORPORATION POWER PLANT
[QUEST: DISASTERPIECE]
The rain had turned into a torrent. The abandoned power plant loomed like a tombstone against the dark sky.
"Scav haunt," Johnny muttered, sitting on the hood of Judy's van. "Lowest of the low. They'll strip her for optics and sell the rest for kibble. You ready for this?"
Jin-Woo checked his gear. No guns. Just the dagger and his fists.
"Stay here," he told Judy. "Connect to the local subnet. Guide me."
"I'm not staying in the car, V!"
"You are," he said, his tone leaving no room for argument. It wasn't dismissive; it was protective. "I need eyes in the sky. If you go in, I have to watch your back. If you stay here, you watch mine."
Judy hesitated, then nodded, grabbing her tech deck. "Okay. Okay. But you get her out. You promise me."
"I promise."
Jin-Woo moved toward the perimeter fence.
[DUNGEON DETECTED: SCAVENGER HAUNT]
[RECOMMENDED LEVEL: 5]
[CURRENT LEVEL: 4]
Perfect for farming.
He slipped through a gap in the fence, melding into the shadows.
[SKILL: STEALTH (PASSIVE) ACTIVATED]
The first Scav was patrolling the loading dock, smoking a cigarette. He wore a heavy vest and a visor that glowed red.
Jin-Woo approached from behind. No sound. No breath.
He grabbed the Scav's mouth, pulled his head back, and drove the dagger into the base of the skull.
[CRITICAL HIT]
[TARGET ELIMINATED]
[XP GAINED: 50]
He lowered the body gently.
"Brutal," Johnny commented. "Efficient. I like it."
Jin-Woo moved deeper. The facility was a maze of rusted catwalks and humming generators. The smell was atrocious—rotting meat and antiseptic.
Two Scavs stood by a terminal, laughing.
"Did you see the new stock? Zetotech cyberdeck. pristine."
"Da. But the meat was spoiled. Too much trauma."
Jin-Woo didn't wait. He sprinted—a blur of motion.
He threw the dagger. It caught the left Scav in the throat. Before the body hit the floor, Jin-Woo was on the second man. He grabbed the Scav's rifle barrel, forced it up, and punched the man in the larynx.
Crunch.
The Scav dropped, choking. Jin-Woo finished him with a heel stomp.
[XP GAINED: 50]
[XP GAINED: 50]
"You're enjoying this," Johnny said, his voice laced with disgust and awe. "You're not just clearing a path. You're grinding."
They are monsters, Jin-Woo thought back. Monsters exist to be hunted.
He reached the freight elevator. He hacked the panel—not with code, but by ripping the cover off and shorting the wires with a spark of mana. The elevator groaned and began to descend.
SUBLEVEL - THE BUTCHER SHOP
The basement was worse. Piles of clothes. Discarded cyberlimbs. The hum of freezers.
"V," Judy's voice came over the comms, shaky. "I'm seeing thermal signatures. Three... four ahead. And... something else. A lot of cold bodies. Oh god, V."
"Keep scanning, Judy. Guide me to the strongest signal."
"Main room. Through the double doors."
Jin-Woo crouched. He entered the main processing room.
It was a slaughterhouse. Scavengers in plastic aprons were hosing down tables.
[STATUS EFFECT: RAGE]
Jin-Woo felt a spike of anger—not his own, but V's. And Johnny's.
"Kill 'em all," Johnny hissed. "Burn it down."
Jin-Woo didn't need convincing.
He stepped out of the shadows.
"Hey! Who the—"
Jin-Woo dashed.
[SKILL: SPRINT]
He moved faster than the human eye could track. He tackled the first Scav, using the man's body as a shield as the others opened fire. Bullets thudded into the dead Scav's vest.
Jin-Woo tossed the corpse at the shooters and rolled forward. He came up with the dagger in a reverse grip.
Slash. Slash. Thrust.
It was a dance of gore. Arteries opened. Tendons severed.
A heavy Scav with a sledgehammer charged him. "Raaaaah!"
Jin-Woo sidestepped the swing.
System. Allocate points.
[POINTS AVAILABLE: 2]
[STRENGTH +2]
He caught the handle of the hammer on the backswing. The Scav's eyes widened. Jin-Woo wrenched the weapon from his grip and swung it back in a brutal arc.
The hammer connected with the Scav's head.
[CRITICAL HIT]
[TARGET ELIMINATED]
Silence fell over the room. Only the dripping of blood and the hum of the ventilation remained.
[LEVEL UP!]
[CURRENT LEVEL: 5]
Jin-Woo dropped the hammer. He looked at the Scav leader's corpse. A strong body. Good stats.
Arise?
No. Not yet. The System restricted his extraction count. And he didn't want filth in his army.
"V? You okay? Vital signs spiked like crazy," Judy asked.
"Clear," Jin-Woo said. "Where is she?"
"To your left. Maintenance room. I'm picking up a faint biomon signal. It's... it's weak, V."
Jin-Woo moved to the door. He kicked it open.
The room was dark. A single lightbulb swung overhead.
Evelyn Parker lay on a dirty mattress. She was barely recognizable. Her blue hair was matted with blood and grime. Her eyes were open but seeing nothing.
"Evelyn?"
He scanned her.
[TARGET STATUS: CRITICAL]
[MENTAL STATE: SHATTERED]
Jin-Woo knelt beside her. He touched her shoulder gently. She flinched, a tiny, pathetic movement.
"It's okay," he said softly, his voice losing the metallic edge of the Monarch. "The hunt is over."
He carefully scooped her up in his arms. She weighed nothing. A ghost in a shell.
"I got her, Judy. I'm coming out."
"Is she...?"
"Alive," Jin-Woo said. "For now."
He carried her through the carnage of the slaughterhouse, stepping over the bodies of the men he had butchered.
Johnny appeared at the elevator doors, watching him approach. He took off his glasses.
"You saved her," Johnny said. "But look at her, V. Look at this city. You really think you can fix this?"
Jin-Woo stepped into the elevator, holding Evelyn tight against his chest. The doors slid shut, sealing them in the metal box.
"I'm not going to fix it, Johnny," Jin-Woo replied, the darkness in his eyes swirling. "I'm going to conquer it."
LIZZIE'S BAR - PARKING LOT
The rain had stopped, leaving the city slick and reflecting the neon despair. Judy's van was waiting, engine running.
Jin-Woo laid Evelyn in the back. Judy was there instantly, hookups and hypos in hand, sobbing quietly as she worked to stabilize her friend.
"Oh, Ev... I told you... I told you..."
Jin-Woo stepped back, giving them space. He leaned against the concrete wall, wiping Scavenger blood from his hands with a rag.
[QUEST COMPLETED: DISASTERPIECE]
[REWARD: 1000 XP]
[REPUTATION INCREASED: JUDY ALVAREZ]
He looked up at the sky. The ads on the skyscrapers loomed overhead. Secure Your Soul, the Arasaka billboard mocked.
Suddenly, his vision glitched.
Static. Red pixels.
He doubled over, coughing. Not blood, but data.
[RELIC MALFUNCTION DETECTED]
[INTEGRITY: 88%]
[SYNC RATE INCREASING]
Johnny was leaning next to him, flickering. "Coughing up a lung already? That chip is eating you alive, kid. You're leveling up, getting stronger... but the body is rotting."
Jin-Woo straightened up, forcing the pain down with sheer willpower.
"Then I need to move faster."
"Where to next?" Johnny asked. "After seeing this... surely you ain't thinking about going after Hellman? That corpo rat won't help you."
"Hellman built this cage," Jin-Woo said, staring at the Arasaka tower in the distance. "He knows where the keys are."
Judy climbed out of the back of the van. She looked exhausted, her makeup running, but she looked at Jin-Woo with something new. Not just gratitude. Awe. And fear.
"She's stable," Judy whispered. "We're taking her to my place. V... thank you. I don't know how you did that. You killed them all. Like it was nothing."
"They were in the way."
"You're... different, V. Since the Heist. You're scary. But I'm glad you're on our side."
"Go," Jin-Woo said gently. "Take care of her."
Judy nodded and got into the driver's seat. The van pulled away, disappearing into the traffic.
Jin-Woo stood alone in the parking lot.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
[NEW QUEST CHAIN AVAILABLE: GHOST TOWN]
[CONTACT: ROGUE AMENDIARES]
He summoned his status screen.
NAME: SUNG JIN-WOO (V)
LEVEL: 5
CLASS: NECROMANCER (LOCKED)
TITLE: THE GLITCH
He clenched his fist. The power was returning. Slowly. But the vessel was the bottleneck. He needed the engineer. He needed Anders Hellman.
And to get Hellman, he needed a Fixer.
"Afterlife," Jin-Woo said to the empty air.
Johnny grinned, a shark-like expression. "Now you're speaking my language. Let's go see the Queen of Night City."
Jin-Woo mounted the bike. The engine roared.
[EPISODE 2 END]