Cyberpunk 2077: Night City Lord

'Is this how it's going to be from now on?'
Laying face first on Vik's ripperdoc chair, I banished the images of bloodied victims from my mind as my body regained its normal sensations. With a few blinks and a quick swipe of my bleached hair, my vision cleared up and the familiar sight of everyone's favorite ripperdoc returned.
Seated behind his desk in a relaxed posture, Vik alternated his gaze between the boxing match on his screen to the petite woman standing a short distance away. 
Blonde hair in a frilly bob cut, dark shadows of makeup around her eyes and on her lips, a spiked choker around her neck and a blue knee length sweater, Misty Olszewski was every bit beautiful and mysterious as I remembered. 
She and Vik were engaged in light conversation. I couldn't hear them, but that was rapidly changing as my body's systems booted up. Their soundless lips now produced whispers to my ears. 
Ignoring the numbness weighing on me like a heavy blanket, I sat up and got off the chair, my movements befitting a man 70 years my senior. The actual blanket that had been draped over me slid to the ground with a smooth hiss, the noise swallowed whole by Vik's loud match. 
Taking a moment to let the numbness fade even further, I pushed off the chair and ambled towards the oblivious duo. Every step chased away the weakness from my body, making my back straighter and posture more upright. 
As soon as I arrived within a few feet of them, I fixed my eyes on Misty and interrupted their conversation. 
"Who's this?" 
Both of them spun to face me, surprise marking their features. I moved my gaze to Vik, registering the reprimand mixing with the surprise in the ripperdoc's expression. 
"Kid! You shouldn't be up for another hour at least, much less on your feet." 
I just shrugged and tossed my arms up in an "I guess" gesture and looked down on the curious blonde, extending my right hand to her. 
"Hi, I'm Bishop. Miss…?"
A pair of calm green eyes shifted to Vik before looking up to meet mine, a few soft fingers wrapping around my own right after. "I'm Misty. Nice to meet you." 
"Misty? Misty's Esoterica and Chakra Harmonisation?"
For the second time today, her expression morphed into one of surprise. She slipped her thin fingers from my meaty hold but maintained eye contact.
"That's my shop. You can stop by later for a consultation if you're interested."
"Oh I'm definitely interested…" 
She said nothing to that and just shot me a tiny smirk. 
"I'll be in the shop Vik. See you later… Bishop."
I waved back and watched her leave before focusing back on my doctor. He was no longer on his seat. He was now near the ripperdoc chair doing… whatever. I moved my gaze away from him to the screen displaying the boxing match and thought of something. 
"Vik, can I use your computer?" 
"Knock yourself out."
"Thanks."
Plopping myself down on his chair, I grabbed the monitor with both hands and started experimenting. The touch screen was pretty intuitive, allowing me to pause and minimize the match and a whole bunch of other things. 
I was about to jump into the NET and browse when I was interrupted. 
"Stand up for a minute, kid. Need to make sure everything's the way it's supposed to be." 
Eager to get this over and done with, I stood up and faced Vik, who stuck a handheld device on my chest and moved it over my torso while he focused on the tablet in his other hand. 
"Hmm. The anesthetic is almost out of your system. Your heart rate and brain activity are all normal. You're also healing quite… nicely..."
At that last statement, he stopped and stared at me with a pointed "over the glasses" look that said, "what are you hiding kid?" 
Again, I just tossed my arms and shrugged. 
Vik may be trustworthy, but I just met the guy. Let's give it a few days or weeks before we go blurting out secrets shall we?
Unimpressed and unconvinced by my response and the prior "somewhat of a resistance" explanation, the old ripperdoc removed the device from my chest and said, "Fine. Keep your secrets. I'm gonna run more tests, just to make sure everything's a hundred percent."
Watching the back of Vik as he went towards his operating chair, I shrugged again and sat down. "You do you."
Despite the man's somewhat dismissive words, his tone and demeanor conveyed anything but. He was genuinely curious and worried, not in the least bit upset I didn't tell him the truth. 
I put the matter of secrets at the back of my mind and went back to the computer. Unlike what I expected, the NET was much easier to access and navigate. I just had to click on a tab labeled Net and various architectures appeared on the screen, most of them familiar. 
Militech, Arasaka, WNS, Bartmoss Collective, Ezestates etc. They were all at my fingertips. 
Spurred on by the ease so far, I tapped on Ezestates. I needed a place I could call my own. My experience in the motel was one I didn't want to repeat. 
No more No Tell Motels for me. 
There were a lot of places listed in the various districts. Normally, a district would be the deciding factor in choosing a place to lay one's head, especially in this city. 
Pacifica was excluded for obvious reasons and City Center the same due to the slimy corpos and the exorbitant costs. The options were then reduced to Watson, Westbrook, Santo Domingo and Heywood. 
They each had elements that made them undesirable, be it illicit activities, arrogant gangoons, or plain scavs. Still, I had no other choice. Unless… I bit the bullet and spent every eddie I'd acquired over the last 24 hours. 
Speaking of eddies, the other encrypted credchips…. 
"Let's see how rich I am..."
With a few pointed thoughts, I brought up the system, modified and decrypted the chips, and retrieved them. I slipped my hand into the side pocket of my cargo pants and pulled out the five money chips, looking around Vik's desk for a way to access them. 
I found a datapad identical to the one I used to pay for the room in the motel and grabbed it. 
The card I used at the Dataterm went in first. 
Balance: €$90,240 
Not at all surprised, I removed it and slipped in the second one. 
Balance: €$11,700
I raised my eyebrows a bit, before nodding. This was understandable. The first card was from one of the scav rippers and this one belonged to a scav "footsoldier." 
It was clear to me the group I decimated had some other, restricted, means of income when the rippers, the techie, and the leader all had credchips hidden on their person. This random guy either had been in on it slightly or this was his personal nest egg. Either way. It was mine now. 
Quickly replacing the scav fodder's card with that of the other ripper's, I nodded and nearly whistled. 
Balance: €$109,500
Holding myself back from dancing a jig, I added this amount to the mental tally and slotted in the techie's card. 
Balance: €$86,490
Finally, the time came from the leader's card. My fingers gently removed the techie's and slotted his own in. The screen updated and I grinned like a madman.
Balance: €$120,330
The sound of rushing air filled my ears as I exhaled deeply and leaned back. There was a problem with that though. Vik's chair was composed of just a seat. It had no back or armrests.
This changed my attempt to relax into a desperate attempt to stop my back from kissing the ground. Luckily, my quick reflexes allowed me to plant my arm on the ground just in time. 
Right after, the footsteps that'd been drawing closer arrived and I felt a hand on my back push me up. 
"You okay there kid?"
I straightened and turned to look at Vik. "Yeah. Just a bit surprised. Thanks."
"Hm," Vik just hummed and passed me an inhaler. "The anesthetic should be flushed from your system now. If you don't want to be a complete mess, two puffs. Now."
I grabbed the inhaler and did as he instructed, feeling the tiny twinges of pain in my head, armpit and back fade away. As the feel good sensations raced across my body, I cranked my neck and twisted my shoulders. 
By the time I opened my eyes, Vik was gone. 
I set the inhaler down, grabbed all five credchips save for the one belonging to the scav foot soldier and stored them. It was a little crazy just how much money this small group of scavs had. 
Organ trafficking was very lucrative in my old world, and it seemed the case was similar here. Either that or my theory on the other means of obtaining money by the scav leadership existed. 
On that front, the jammer instantly jumped to mind. My gut said it was related to it somehow. But I just couldn't place it. Shaking my head after trying and failing to come up with anything, I focused back on house hunting.
I directly skipped small apartments. With all this money, I could obtain a large space. Probably somewhere high up. These requirements were whimsical and generated on the fly, but I listened to them anyway and sorted the listings accordingly.
No need to overthink things.
All that remained was choosing the district. On that front, I went with one I currently found myself in—Watson. Luxury apartments on the top floors of megabuildings popped up, some penthouses and a few standalone, high-end apartments. 
I instantly zeroed in on penthouses and eyed the images and zeroes attached to them. The most expensive of them would take about a third of my current funds. But that was fine, because I wasn't even looking at it. 
What caught my eye was a familiar set of images. Images I'd seen at the end of some game playthroughs and in the Edgerunners anime. It was Lucy and David's place. One hundred percent. 
The price tag said 7000 eddies per month for rent and 75000 eddies for a one time purchase. My choice was made. I clicked on the listing, found the realtor's contact info and sent him an email. 
Not expecting an instant reply, I dismissed the messages tab and went back to the Net to find a car dealership, only to backtrack just as fast when a reply came through. 
Bliss Argent was very happy I'd shown interest in the residence and was looking forward to meeting me. He added a list of periods he'd be available today and for the rest of week. 
Taking a second to go through my plans for the day, I selected 11:00 AM, worded it in a reply and sent it. I received a confirmation not a minute later and went back to finding myself some transportation. 
I memorized the location of some car dealerships after looking at their inventories and ended my adventure on the NET. 
Transportation. Check.
Residence. Check. 
What else… what else…
I spun the seat around and looked across the room at Vik. The man was engrossed in a screen or two. Time to interrupt him then. 
"Hey Vik. Know any fixers?"
That stopped him in his tracks and he turned to look at me. "If you want recommendation as a merc, I can't help you kid."
"That's a yes. And no, that's not why I asked. I want to pay a fixer for a job. Not the other way round."
"Well, that I can help you with." 
After saying that, he came to his computer and started a video call. The name of the person he contacted surprised me for a short bit. I almost slapped my forehead. This was Watson. And Watson had one well known fixer in the game. 
"Regina."
"Vik. You old timer. How's life treating you?"
"Eh, same old same old."
"Good to hear. Is this a business or social call?" 
Vik slapped my shoulder and turned the monitor, bringing me into frame. 
"Business. Kid here wants to pay for a job. I'll leave you guys to it." 
"Thanks."
"You got it.."
Eyes fixed on the screen, I stared at the freckled, dark haired woman with an eyepatch over her left eye. Her gaze remained impassive, mirroring mine as we stared each other down. She ended up breaking the stalemate. 
"So. What can I help you with? Mr…"
"Bishop."
"Okay Mr. Bishop. What do you need?"
"Did you hear about the cyberpsycho attack yesterday? There were two victims. A man and a woman."
It didn't take her long to respond.
"As a matter of fact I did."
"Right. You might have also heard that someone stopped the psycho. That was me."
Her reserved demeanor didn't change, but there was something about her gaze. It's as though she became more attentive, something that made me inwardly glad. 
"Anyways. I'm trying to stop the bleeding of the guy and all of a sudden, I get shot. Four times, in the back. Lucky for me, I had a vest on. Before I can even think of what to do next, Trauma Team arrives. 
I take that as my cue to disappear. Before I leave though, I look up at the building to see where the shots came from and see three red, glowing optics staring down at me. 
Now I may be new to this town. But I still did my fucking research. Only one gang has those optics as their signature implant."
"Maelstrom," Regina said. 
"Fucking Maelstrom." 
"So you think they're involved somehow…"
"I don't like to make assumptions. That's why I asked for you. I know three glowing optics isn't much, or anything to go on to be honest. But I need you to find anything you can. About those guys, the attack, anything that proves it was deliberate. 
If my hunch is right and it is, I want their location. That's all. I'm willing to pay whatever it costs."
Nodding herself a few times, Regina raised her head and looked at me. 
"I'll see what I can do. Though, from what you told me, you're new here. A little friendly advice, don't go picking fights with gangs." 
"Thanks. I'll take that into account."