Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 691, Section 105: Help Me

"Mr. Mingzhi, please arrive at the maintenance floor at 7:45 AM Night City Standard Time and complete the personnel screening 15 minutes in advance."

At one o'clock in the morning, the wise Carl received instructions from his superior, the Pheasant Pie.

His earlier proposal, which aimed to curry favor with Ms. Hanako by preparing for the safety of Oda Santao during the maintenance of his prosthetic body, was finally approved.

The Pheasant Faction was just looking for an opportunity to demonstrate their strength to Miss Hua Zi, and now this young and promising elite has volunteered, which is simply a godsend.

After all, if they could take this opportunity to let the newly arrived team show off their skills in front of Oda Sandayu, it would undoubtedly prove to Miss Hanako that even though they were new to Night City, the people the Pheasant Faction had gathered this time were by no means ordinary.

It's 7:45. There are still 6 hours and 45 minutes until now. Considering the time, I should probably go upstairs a few tens of minutes early to prepare.
The thought flashed through Karl's mind. He had been working for five hours straight since 8 p.m. last night and was actually starting to feel like yawning.

Although he did almost nothing during those five hours, just sitting at his workstation and diligently reading the performance materials and requirements related to Mingzhi, Karl felt a sense of fatigue welling up inside him, even though he hadn't done anything.

Keep in mind that even if Carl spent an entire day chasing a fugitive in the city, or single-handedly subdued a rampaging cyber psychopath, he might not even bat an eye.

But now, after just a few hours of sitting in his office chair, he feels a weariness creeping into his nerves like a data virus—he has to admit, going to work really takes a toll on one's spirit.

Carl got up, stretched his stiff body, walked to the refrigerator in the wall-mounted compartment of the office, and took out a cup of coffee.

This is considered a small perk for Arasaka employees. As long as they are qualified to sit in such a two-person or private office, their office space is fully equipped with the corresponding facilities, and even some potions that can boost their spirits are prepared.
The aim is to ensure that employees who have demonstrated competence are not affected by mental and physical fatigue, but considering the issue of tolerance, the company has thoughtfully prepared alternatives, including four different concentrations of coffee alone.

Carl didn't actually have any particular preference for coffee, but out of the four, only two didn't contain certain stimulant ingredients. Wisely, he usually chose the stronger of the two, so for the sake of his role, Carl also chose the same coffee.

Carl took a sip of coffee; the liquid was cloyingly sweet as it slid down his throat, clearly too sweet for a cup of coffee, almost unlike what should be served here.

His fingertips unconsciously caressed the bottom of the cup, and suddenly touched a strange texture—beneath the smooth glass surface, there were several almost invisible protrusions, like tiny codes deliberately fused in.

The brown liquid of coffee swayed slightly under the LED overhead light, perfectly concealing the protrusions. Only when he pressed the precision sensor on his prosthetic index finger against the bottom of the cup could he detect the strangely arranged particles that formed a sentence.

"Keep it up!"

Is this skill from Haruko or Maki? It should be Haruko; Maki's skill wouldn't result in coffee that's so sweet.

He downed the coffee in one gulp, and the monomolecular line hidden beneath the cuff of his suit jacket popped out, instantly erasing the raised particle. Then, as if he knew nothing, he picked up another cup of coffee.

There are no more particles here.

That's a really good judgment. You really know me; you knew I would choose this one.

Carl had to admit that this was more comforting than the sweetness of the coffee itself, and it was precisely this slight relief that made Carl think that he might be able to get some assistance inside the current Arasaka Tower.

Every member of the KK team is under close surveillance during this turbulent time.

The three major factions within Arasaka are engaged in fierce infighting and are wary of each other; any slight disturbance could trigger a chain reaction.

As a "wise" member of the pheasant faction, Karl received very limited assistance—Kenichi Shiro provided him with almost no substantial support other than arranging a barely acceptable position for him.

But Carl was not alone.

The unusual sensation at the bottom of the coffee cup felt like a key, suddenly unlocking a door in his memory. Yes, he did have another card to play—a "ghost connection" that had a faint presence within Arasaka but could just happen to come in handy.

V, leader of the second combat squad.

This title is practically a joke within Arakawa.

Everyone knows that V is essentially a mercenary, a nominal position that Kenichi Shiro casually gave him to win over members of the KK Squad.

The "Second Operations Squad" even consisted of only members of the KK Squad for a long time, and the higher-ups at Arakawa were indifferent to this—what they really cared about was the dangerous figure "Mercenary V," not the empty shell identity of "Arakawa Employee V."

But recently, this nominal team quietly welcomed other members besides the KK team.

Another entity that is equally overlooked.

A mercenary who also works for Arasaka, yet happens to be someone no one is really targeting—"Shadow".

In Arasaka's eyes, a kid who crawled out of the streets of Santo Domingo wasn't even worth dusting off in his file.

Even if he later became a well-known mercenary in Night City, so what? Arasaka's counterintelligence department had only glanced at him briefly—simply because of the "cyborg adaptation census" that year, and he happened to be among the top in the data.

Back then, "Giant Prosthetics" was a darling of the research department, with budgets flowing in like the endless pleasure of multiple people in a dream.

But what happened next?

Later, the KK team rose to prominence.

Their style, their methods, every corpse they left behind, and every encrypted phone call they made attracted far more attention from Arasaka's higher-ups than the bulky cybernetic Kong.

As a result, the "cyborg" project was hastily shelved, like an outdated chip, and casually thrown into the data graveyard.

No one even remembers who signed the termination order—until one day, Adam Hammer scoffed at a tactical evaluation meeting:
"waste."

Just those two words.

Then, the entire project completely disappeared from the counterintelligence department chief's desk.

—And that section chief?
Ha, ants of that level don't even deserve to be remembered.

Arasaka's counterintelligence department never pays attention to the rise of the lower classes unless he has actually arrived in front of them.

However, their lack of attention allowed Carl to quietly make a phone call and say something.

A statement he has said to many people, and will continue to say to many more people in the future.

It was a sentence that many people would never utter given his current status and identity, but Karl said it with complete ease.

“I need your help, David.”

(End of this chapter)