Cyberpunk: Starting in 2071

Chapter 27 The End of the Journey
Cassidy didn't notice Mercer's gaze, and simply sighed as he said:

"The Chaotic Blade Society is a bunch of scum who were driven out of their families by the wanderers. I estimate that some of them were expelled by nearby families."

The location of this temporary residence was probably known to them when they were still part of the family.

We weren't very lucky; these guys are probably operating on the nearby highway, or maybe they're too far from their hideout.

This time, the storm was too fierce, so I chose to come here to take refuge.
It's my fault too; I haven't been active in a while and I completely forgot to tell you to turn off the lights.

Otherwise, if it were an ambush, it wouldn't be this complicated at all; two grenades and four guns would be enough to put the game into a very difficult situation in one encounter.

"It's not your fault. After all, you're just an old cowboy who was kidnapped a moment ago."

Mercer joked as he helped him throw the body out. Dust was still raging, and the battered first floor was no longer suitable for resting.

It's a pity about that cup of coffee; Mercer didn't even have a chance to take a sip.

"Ha, but you're right."

Cassidy didn't refute, but sighed: "It seems that it's not just you who need to adapt to the wilderness, but me too."

"You seem to have been living a peaceful life for a long time?"

Mercer turned his head and asked.

"Yes, after getting married and having children, I thought I could live a stable life. In the new United States, I planned to farm with my family for biotechnology and start my retirement early. I basically haven't touched a gun since."

As a result, their child died of illness, and their wife also died while transporting supplies for the military and the new United States during the war; she was killed by a landmine.
After the crops were sold, biotechnology companies raised seed prices, making it impossible for the family to farm, and throwing the entire family into chaos.

He sighed: "I wasted some time and left home, but after only a month, I was captured by the Chaotic Blade Society, and then this happened. It almost happened to you kids."
"Maybe I really am getting old. Perhaps after sending you all to Night City, I should just find a peaceful place to wait for my death."

Cassidy's expression was somewhat somber.

After a moment of silence, Mercer tossed the corpse out of his hand, leaned against the door, and breathed a sigh of relief: "You just haven't readjusted to this world yet. Wanting a peaceful retirement is a luxury you can only dream of."

“You’re right, it’s not time to relax yet.” Cassidy forced a smile.

Dadi and Lyon had already driven to the door, and Lucy and Anzu came down from upstairs.

Mercer greeted them and tried to continue moving the bodies, but Kyoko grabbed him, her eyes wide:
What are you doing! You're covered in blood!

Sit down quickly, Lucy, and go get the bottled water from our car.
"Hurry up, take off your clothes! You have so many holes in your body, doesn't it hurt?"

"It's alright. Stop touching me here, let's find another spot and go to the restroom."

The living room on this floor is uninhabitable; the wind has blown sand everywhere.

Mercer was very obedient. He took Xingzi to the bathroom, took off the dirty coat he had taken from her earlier, and then looked at the black customer service representative in the mirror.

"Damn, I should have changed my clothes beforehand, even though they were dirty. The customer service is terrible!"

This thing must be worth tens of thousands, right? Tsk, I wonder if it can be repaired.”

Mercer, feeling heartbroken, unzipped the back of his shirt and pulled it down a bit, revealing his bloodied and mangled upper body.

It wasn't really serious; I just got covered in pebbles from the blasted wall—those random thugs really did have a lot of gunpowder in their grenades.

"Now is not the time to be sentimental about these things!"

Xingzi angrily told him not to move, helped him pull the black customer service device to his waist, and took out the medical kit from his individual survival kit.

Inside were needles and thread, disinfectant, some anti-inflammatory pills, a bunch of random antibiotics, radiation-reducing drugs, and so on.

Kyoko even brought over a stool for him to sit down, and then she stood to the side.

Mercer let Apricot carefully remove the pebbles from his shoulder with small tweezers, and asked Lyon outside, "Are you really okay in the shoulder?"

"Looks much better than you."

Lyon also pulled aside his black-clad customer service representative, and touched his clothes with heartache:
"I should have changed too. These members of the Chaotic Blade Society's clothes are just so smelly and filthy."

"Come with me, kid. You've got a hole in your muscle. Those guys from the Chaotic Blade Society might not have fired clean bullets. You need to get it thoroughly disinfected. It might hurt a bit."

Cassidy took the initiative to walk towards Lyon, which relieved Tetsuya Daichi, who had been worried about how to treat Lyon's wounds.

Lucy, carrying her backpack, took the bottled water to the bathroom. She seemed to want to help Mercer in some way, but didn't know what to do. After a moment's thought, she said:
"I'll clean up the battlefield for you and throw the bodies out."

"I am coming too."

Tetsuya Daichi thought the same thing, so the two of them busied themselves throwing the bodies together and ransacking the house and the car of the Mukankai.

Mercer remained stubbornly silent—he discovered he was quite tolerant.

But Leon was different. He went up to the bathroom on the second floor, and then Cassidy used tweezers to stick a sterile cotton swab into his wound, causing him to scream almost immediately.

"Ouch! Holy crap, ahhh!!"

Cassidy, without changing his expression, pressed down on him with one hand, rendering Leon unable to move: "Bear with it, learn from your boss."

"Can it be the same?! What if he got stabbed like me?! Ouch!!"

Leon's strange screams coming from the second floor amused Mercer until Kyoko slapped him on the back in annoyance: "Don't move! You're spitting blood!"

"Okay, okay, Dr. Kyoko." Mercer smiled and sat down obediently.

Then, she turned her head and saw Xingzi's red eyes.

Before Mercer could speak, Kyoko began to mutter through gritted teeth:

"Leon deserved it. It's all his fault for saying those unlucky things on the hovercar. He deserved to be taught a lesson."

As she spoke, tears streamed down her face.

"Don't cry, it doesn't really hurt," Mercer comforted her with a smile.

"I"

Xingzi pursed her lips, let out a sob, and continued working: "I'm sorry, I haven't been able to help at all."

"Are you coming too?"

Mercer shook her head, reached out, and touched her still-damp head. All that washing she'd done was for nothing.

"You've done a great job. You located those guys and provided suppressive fire."
If we're really going to count, your assist numbers for KAD were both very high in both games, and you're still helping me treat my wound right now.
When did you learn it?

Xingzi grabbed his hand and put it back: "Don't move, the wound is bleeding again. I started learning this from the day you said we were leaving."

"Yes, Kyoko worked very hard too."

Mercer thought of Lucy's conversation and decided not to treat her with the same tone and manner as he would a child. He said seriously, "You have indeed done a lot. In every battle, someone may get hurt or even die."

You can't feel like you've made no contribution just because you weren't injured.

Surely only the injured should be entitled to credit?

"So, isn't Dadi, who's responsible for driving Lyon this time, just a carry with a K/D ratio of 0?"

"Hehe, I'll tell him that in a bit." Xingzi forced a smile.

"I won't be responsible if you get beaten up."

Mercer joked, quickly turning the topic to Sailor Moon, and sure enough, she got excited right away.

Once the wound was treated, Kyoko's mood returned to normal.

Compared to Lucy, who is sensitive and, in fact, quite insecure, Kyoko is a true optimist.

In this world, her personality is actually a remarkable talent.

The sandstorm finally subsided around 9 p.m.

Cassidy used a portable stove to make a pot of homeless-style 'canned meat stew'. Mercer didn't dare to investigate the meat ingredients, but the taste was surprisingly good.

After a satisfying meal, the quiet night finally allowed everyone to get a good night's sleep.

The next morning, under Cassidy's organization, they tidied up the house and then resumed their journey.

Cassidy arranged for local homeless people to clean up the cars and bodies belonging to the Chaotic Blade Society. He discussed with Mercer the possibility of using the money from selling the cars to repair the house.

Any excess funds will be transferred to his bank account, and then returned to him once Mercer has his own bank account.

Mercer did not refuse, but simply said that he would keep a record of the expenses and split them equally later.

They drove off-road from Montana, sometimes on highways, sometimes traversing the wilderness.

Cassidy wasn't lying. After he made a few calls to some old friends and figured out the route, their journey afterwards felt as easy as a vacation.

They didn't encounter any more enemies; in fact, they barely encountered any people at all.

Only when food supplies are running low will Cassidy contact a few homeless people—those homeless people are very reliable and will deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies directly to the wilderness.

Cassidy then used the proceeds he had previously seized to pay the bills.

This often made Mercer marvel at his good fortune; saving Cassidy's life might have saved them all, otherwise, they would have encountered countless troubles along the way.

At first, all the children except Mercer suffered from insomnia or had an uncomfortable sleep in the car.

But once they got used to life in this starry, dusty wilderness, everyone quickly became immersed in this long journey.

Even though the world is terrible, the stars are always beautiful. On rare gloomy days, they have smelled the fresh air of the wilderness after the rain and seen the snowflakes dancing in the air.

In this cyberpunk world, even the weather has become unreasonable, sometimes hot, sometimes cold, raining in November, and snowing in December.

But regardless of the type, it's a beautiful sight that makes novice hackers exclaim with delight.

After experiencing the misfortune of having their wheels slip on an icy road, they ended up crashing into a dirt road and breaking down.

I also experienced the thrill of being chased by border guards all the way when I was smuggling myself across the border. Finally, in December.

They successfully arrived in California.

After detouring from Southern California into Northern California, Night City is already within reach.

To be precise, Night City is actually located right in the middle of North and South California, existing as a neutral city that does not belong to any state or country.

But before going in, Mercer still needed a safe temporary residence outside the city.

Before he can secure Night City residency and accommodation for his disguise, provide them with a safe haven.

Unsurprisingly, that place could only be a camp for wanderers near Night City.

And the name of that group of vagrants could only be one: Adcardo.

A family of wanderers led by a man named Thor, including a girl named Parnan.

Mercer was already prepared. Once he entered the camp, he wasn't in a hurry to go to Night City. Instead, he wanted to check on his in-game wife first.

If you choose the male protagonist in the game, then the only female character you can have a romantic relationship with is Panan.

Mercer, who has no interest in gay relationships, almost always prioritizes completing Panan's side quests when playing as a male character, all so that he can have a romantic relationship with Panan.

I've gone through the process of getting to know her and falling in love with her several times, so we're incredibly close.

He was finally going to have the chance to see the real person, and of course he had been looking forward to it for a long time.

What Mercer didn't expect was that his encounter with Parnan would come much earlier than he anticipated.

"Mercer! There's a firefight ahead. It looks like a group of wanderers and the Chaotic Blades are fighting! I have to go help! They might be our reinforcements!"

Cassidy's shouting came through the car radio.

Mercer's prosthetic eye looked into the distance. In the wilderness not far away, six cars were racing at breakneck speed. It was a fair 3v3 duel, with the two groups exchanging firepower as they raced.

"No problem, let's go together. Remember to let us know on the public radio."

After saying that, Mercer decisively stepped on the gas and started firing his sword wildly at the members of the Chaotic Blade Society.

Once they got close to his network reception range, his eyes lit up and he immediately began hacking.

The battle was easy and enjoyable.

During this long journey, he had already studied the vehicle systems of his own people and quickly developed fast-tracking programs specifically for ordinary vehicles, such as 'engine overload', 'full speed forward', and 'emergency braking'.

As the members of the Chaotic Blade Society were driving, they suddenly discovered that the accelerator of one of the cars had been locked, and they screamed as they watched the car overturn into the ditch.

Or perhaps the brakes were suddenly slammed on, causing the entire car to float up, resulting in a dramatic drift that flipped the car over.

Another incident involved an engine that caught fire—the people inside didn't have time to save themselves and were shot to pieces in the driver's seat by the homeless people shouting and using the vehicle's machine gun.

Mercer and his companions slowly slowed down and came to a stop, while the homeless parked their cars opposite them.

A group of people got out of the car. The one leading them was a middle-aged man. Mercer glanced at him and looked away—he didn't know him.

But the people behind the old man made Mercer's eyes widen slightly.

I go
Scorpion, Mitchell, and Panan!!
(End of this chapter)