Cyberpunk: From Dogville to Legend

Chapter 290 The Journey to Freedom: A Thorny Road (Part Two)

"It's in the past."

Saburo muttered to himself.

His gaze sharpened. "Michiko, your uncle is here to see you off today."

This was the second time he had said that Arasaka Yoriyuki would escort Michiko along the way, but this time Michiko read something else in the old man's eyes. She was first puzzled, then her eyes began to show fear, and she lowered her head and stared helplessly at the ground.

"Give" to yourself.

The familiar warmth of a family elder that Saburo Arasaka felt had vanished. He wanted to give Michiko one last piece of advice: "You and Yoriyuki will have to rely on your abilities to take charge of the Night City branch, but your advantage of being a latecomer still exists. He can't leave Japan for Night City for the time being."

"Until 2077, I want you to maintain Arasaka's position in Night City."

"Just like when we returned to Night City, and our bankers and lawyers were taking down one person after another in Watson District... Now, we're going to use real violence."

Saburo lowered his eyes and gently raised his hand.

Seeing his lord's actions from afar, Zhucun quickly came over and took his hand, saying, "My lord."

Saburo has indeed gotten old.

Despite having an invaluable life science team to meticulously care for his body, which refused prosthetics, he still couldn't resist the aging process.

He slowly got up, supporting himself on his knee with one hand.

“I believe that Rai Nie is just trying to atone for his sins, to bring absolute control to Arakawa, and he is eager to prove himself.”

Michiko knew.

Her complaint here today has not been truly believed or taken seriously by Saburo.

Yes…

Although Arasaka Yorinobu, the nominal president, is aggressive in his methods, every single one of his decisions has led Arasaka to greater heights—and many of his decisions have even surprised Saburo. His methods are not cold-blooded or ruthless.

He had countless opportunities to eliminate Michiko from the Night City game, but in the end, he chose to act only after Michiko made a mistake.

That's your uncle.

“Home is the most important thing to us—Lai Xuan’s position inevitably requires sacrifices, just like mine. When I left that city, my child died behind me, but I couldn’t complete the desperate fight.”

Saburo stopped and finished speaking.

"Bamboo Village..."

Upon hearing his lord's call, Goro Takemura responded in a standard Kyoto accent.

"I feel most at ease having you accompany Michiko back to Night City."

"Send a group of people from Hokkaido over there."

Goro Takemura glanced at his lord.

Saburo Arasaka glanced at the worried look in the loyal samurai's eyes and smiled, "No one in Japan dares to harm me, so go ahead with peace of mind."

Goro nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, Michiko felt a sense of relief.

She was still wondering, was Lai Xuan in such a hurry? Did he see her overtures as another kind of threat?

Michiko only wanted to follow in her uncle's footsteps and build a new America, but she didn't expect that her uncle didn't want her to get involved...

In her memory, her father was a cold yet gentle man, and she could still vaguely see a resemblance to Lai Xuan. Michiko just wanted to comfort her uncle and tell him that she would become a hawk in another sense.

But Lai Xuan not only rejected him, but even wanted him to disappear from this world.

The reason for all these actions was simply that Lai Xuan was afraid of his father, fearing that Michiko had figured out the trick to this game.

Saburo is gone.

Only Takemura remained, quietly watching her. After a long while, he reached out and said, "Miss Michiko, get up... It's been a long time since I've heard Lord Saburo say so much. It feels like it was decades ago."

Michiko nodded. Takemura didn't want to offend his superiors either. Even though he was Saburo's bodyguard, he would still address the Arasaka family members according to their internal ranks, except for that "kuso" who was surrounded by lackeys.

Goro wanted to use words like greedy, merciless, and indifferent to his family to describe Arasaka Yorinobu.

"Goro Takemura, do you think your uncle is lying to us?"

Goro wasn't stupid enough to answer such a question in front of her.

He simply said in a low voice, "The orbital flight is about to launch, please move aside."

Michiko turned her head as if wanting to look at this strange yet familiar homeland, the humiliation in her eyes almost overflowing with suppressed pain.

"Rin, let's play one more round."

Michiko kept repeating this sentence in her mind.

……
-
In a dark room.

The silver-haired girl leaned helplessly against the wall behind the built-in bed.

Her vibrant, rebellious, and alluring girlish charm seemed to have vanished, because she was paying the price for a freedom that seemed so far away.

Can we trust what Arakawa says?

Will I become a bargaining chip, forced to return to my despised homeland of Warsaw?

The past scenes no longer filled her with fear; all she wanted was to see one last time the rocket's exhaust plume rise from the NCX spaceport in Night City and soar into the sky…

So beautiful.

The slight weightlessness and lightness in Mewtwo, the clearly audible breathing while wearing a helmet, the lunar soil beneath your feet with no metal barriers and sharp enough to easily cut your skin—that is the only dreamland far removed from this world.

Thinking of this, she lowered her eyes.

Lucy was unsure if she had revealed her contact with AI. She overheard a secret about the Black Wall that she hadn't even confessed to during her interrogation by the counterintelligence department.

Just say these things.

That must be the word "death".

No, it's worse than death. She will become a humanoid host that spews out secrets, and be squeezed for her last bit of value by that ruthless young executive, Arasaka.

Even killing oneself would be a luxury.

Perhaps it's wrong to gamble on whether an Arasaka high-ranking official is kind; after all, if it were her, she would also choose to send herself back to Warsaw, back to her father who is burdened with guilt, and let others deal with her as they see fit.

She had no doubt that her father, who remained absolutely loyal to Arakawa, would allow her to be disposed of by the company at will.

The immense mental pressure tore at the girl's nerves, and before she knew it, her consciousness began to waver, and she almost fell asleep...

Just as her mental insecurity was overcoming her physical exhaustion, a sudden realization jolted her back to reality—

With a soft clapping sound, Lucy's face immediately turned pale.

"Who are you?!"

The lights came on as the person approached.

Lucy saw a young face, dressed in a black jacket that was relatively formal among the flashy outfits of Night City, looking down and playing with a lighter in his hand.

He looked up at the girl who was hugging her knees and looking wary, as if she was thinking about something, and then just smiled.

"I've seen you before..."

After a long silence, Lucy spoke up, "That day on the overpass, you were the one who covered the rear and fought against the terrorist mobile unit, right? They said you were the strongest under Rin-san, and that you were connected to that most secretive entity in the network."

The young man shrugged noncommittally, pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, put one in his mouth, and tossed the other to Lucy.

But the girl hugging her knees didn't react at all. The cigarette hit her knees and bounced to the ground. The "rude" guy opposite didn't seem to care—he just lit a cigarette and looked at the place where there was no window.

"I am Rin." The man's words were simple, and Lucy's hands, which were wrapped around her legs, began to show distinct knuckles, her pupils shrinking instantly.

"Stop lying..."

Lin Yue shook his head. "Rebecca, Pila and the others all know—including that Arasaka Academy student you can't remember how you met him, whose memories I took away."

"To be honest, your bounty is really high. It seems that your company's war veteran father has a lot of assets. He puts a very high price on your bounty, and there are also hackers from foreign organizations constantly trying to probe into the North American network in an attempt to find you."

"Lucy Takeda".

"Is this your father's surname, who is nearly a hundred years old?"

"It seems... he fought tooth and nail for Arasaka, how did you escape?"

Putting everything else aside, Lin Yue's calm narration left Lucy with only a numb, blank stare in her eyes.

If she couldn't easily believe he was the famous Mr. Rin from Night City in his next life because of his age, she now believed it.

"do not know…"

Lin Yue was somewhat speechless. He wasn't trying to do anything malicious or for any other purpose; he was simply here to clarify some things.

I must say... she's a very beautiful girl.

But Lin Yue always had the illusion that he had seen a junior high school student turn into a high school girl in his past life, and he wasn't really interested at all.

The timeline of this world has become so chaotic that the future is unpredictable. It's unknown whether Lucy and David, this young cyberpunk couple on the run, still have the same magnetic attraction...

It's beyond his comprehension.

"Don't be nervous, I'm just here to make sure you don't have anything else in your possession from Arasaka."

Lin Yue knew that she probably wouldn't trust anyone except through action, not to mention that even her mentor Qi Wei in Night City had betrayed her...

"Ok."

Seeing that the other party did not respond, Lin Yue did not elaborate further.

Everyone in the team had helped him, and he was generous with his money, but he always made sure to say what he needed to say to avoid any complaints.

“Arasaka and we are now enemies. If you are assassinated or otherwise attacked in a diplomatic immunity zone like NCX because of these secrets... for the safety of my men, I suggest you explain yourself. If not, I will keep my promise.”

"But if I find out that you lied to me for your own selfish reasons, making my people take the blame or put them in unnecessary danger, you should know the price to pay."

Lucy's eyes trembled slightly.

But she still said firmly, "I've said everything I need to say. Please stop toying with me like this. I... have no intention of escaping anymore."

If this were Arasaka's interrogation, they would have won.

Lucy would rather die than wait for an impossible outcome in this dark and gloomy room.

"Um…"

Lin Yue took a drag of his cigarette and tossed the money chip in his hand over.

“My team members didn’t want these euros, or they wanted very little. Although you’ve only been with the team for a short time and haven’t helped me as much as they have, you still risked your life to do things for me. Inside are two tickets to the moon, and your identity has been verified.”

"As for the rest of the money, a friendly reminder: you can only live on the moon for about 10 months, so I suggest you make plans early."

After saying this, Suzuki walked in from outside, nodded and said, "Boss, the cars are all ready, and we've confirmed that there's no movement from the company."

Lin Yue started walking away, because he was afraid that if he stayed there for even a second longer, she would break down, since he had already said everything he needed to say.

Lucy was initially disdainful, but her expression immediately changed when she saw Suzuki unlock all the backdoor programs on the prosthetic bodies…

“Miss Lucy, all the backdoors in the procedures have been unlocked. If you are not at ease, you can have a second check-up at any medical institution or medical worker in Night City that you trust. Of course, to prevent you from being caught by other companies, I will accompany you.”

Suzuki's words were extremely official.

Lucy felt dizzy from not having rested for so long, unsure whether it was because happiness had come too suddenly or because she was afraid of something else going wrong.

Seeing the girl staring blankly at the automatic door that Rin had left through, Suzuki muttered to himself, "Mr. Rin is a good person."

"I never break my promises."

Lucy instinctively wanted to flash a mocking smile, but she didn't dare to cause trouble at this critical juncture.

"Take your things with you."

Suzuki picked up the card and shook his head.

He felt that Rin-san was too good at keeping her promises. Everyone else had voluntarily returned the high fees, but this girl seemed to realize it too late and immediately grabbed the chip. Suzuki frowned.

To outsiders, Lucy's personality does seem a bit eccentric.

She can be a bright angel in a bar, a street hacker with red eyes, or this guarded state covered in thorns.

Suzuki took a step back and sat down at the table.

After staring at the chip in her hand for a long time, Lucy flicked her wrist, and the chip was snatched away by this seasoned pickpocket on the Night City rail train. At the same time, she stared at the stern-faced samurai for a long time—

"Are you going to stay here? I need to wash up."

Suzuki looked at the girl and pointed to the ring on his finger. "I'm not interested in you. I only know how to do my job as Rin's boss. It's best not to try to get out of my sight. Mr. Rin is a good person and is willing to give you a chance, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to.

"That money... can do a lot of things."

Lucy's heart tightened. Seeing that the warning had been given, Suzuki continued to keep a close watch, seemingly recalling some amusing incidents, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

Boss Rin said so.

After this mission, I'll take him to Dogtown to see Yuko and his daughter, who just landed in the Dogtown safe zone. There's nothing happier than that.

So he hoped Lucy would be more sensible.

He listened intently to the sound of water in the bathroom behind him, where a young girl was dancing freely, having shed all her shackles in the misty steam.

People tend to become irrationally obsessed in the final stretch before achieving their dreams, even ignoring the cost of those dreams. This is the nature of Night City, and a common ailment of this world.

Suzuki had been rubbing the ring on his finger for a long time when the sound of footsteps hitting the floor was followed by a damp, fragrant bath scent wafting from behind him.

Lucy wiped the wet hair from her forehead. Girls in Night City, used to soaking in ice bathtubs, didn't have much of a sense of shame, and she didn't even care about the few ounces of flesh on her body.

"You must be thinking about someone, right?"

Lucy sat a short distance away, slightly wary, tilting her head to dry her hair, watching with interest as this samurai, who was finally no longer like a block of wood.

Suzuki stood up, without continuing the sentence.

Lucy, having made a fool of herself, tried to use other sarcastic remarks to expose even the slightest sign of their unreliability.

"How long will it take you to earn that many euros?"

Suzuki crossed his arms and looked at the naive girl with a half-smile.

He simply answered other questions.

"Last time you asked me how I viewed my company and my child, let me tell you... Because of my child, I chose to obey Mr. Rin's wishes, and because of the company, I chose to complete this mission, even if there are thorns on your path to freedom, it's something I promised... just like my boss."

"So please hurry up, don't waste my time."

Lucy lowered her head and a smile crept onto her lips.

The dream has come true.

……

……

(End of this chapter)