Harry Potter, the savior of Night City

[Beep beep, insufficient balance, operation stopped]

The washing machine's beeping snapped David out of his reverie about adult content.

"No way, not again..."

David stood up from the ground, his head bowed.

Tragedy strikes Westbrook: A company convoy is attacked by the Sixth Street gang...

The television in the living room was still playing the news, and the volume was quite loud, but it still couldn't wake the tired red-haired beauty lying on the sofa. Heavy dark circles surrounded her eyes, and a yellow work uniform covered her body, revealing her shoulders and half of her body. She was half-curled up, fast asleep.

"Really, Mom..."

David walked to the sofa, gently lifted the yellow work clothes, and slowly covered Gloria with them.

"Um!"

Gloria woke up instantly, clutching her work clothes tightly. She tried to lift her tired eyelids and look around. When she realized it was her son, she slowly relaxed and gave David a smile.

Good morning, baby.

"You're sleeping on the sofa again. You'll get arthritis sooner or later if you keep doing that."

"I know, but I just can't keep going after the night shift."

"The washing machine is failing too, did you forget to top up the credit?"

"I'll do it later, okay?"

David left the sofa, changed into some old clothes, and went to school, even though he really didn't want to be around those rich kids who were just corporate dogs.

"Oh, right." Gloria suddenly remembered something, sat up, and called to David, "Money, don't you still need to upgrade the school's Mewtwo equipment?"

"No need, I've already had the prosthetic doctor upgrade it," David said, waving his hand at his mother.

"Don't go down those shady paths, David." Gloria pulled her yellow overalls tighter around her waist. "I got paid, I can afford it. Make sure you use the official updates, you hear me?"

"Mom, you should recharge the washing machine." David wrapped his coat around himself and walked towards the door.

"I told you I just forgot," Gloria said. "Make sure to use the official update..."

"well..."

"You're going to school dressed like this?" Gloria pointed at David's black coat.

"The school uniform is soaking in the washing machine."

Gloria wanted to say something more, but a news report on television caught their attention.

Former Lieutenant James Norris, who killed an entire terrorist mobile unit, has gone missing, and an investigation has confirmed his disappearance.

"Anything can be a cop now," David quipped, his gaze shifting to the figure with red hair tied up, carrying a corpse.

"Mom! You were there?! That's amazing!"

David pointed at the figure on the TV with surprise and admiration. Teenagers are always like this; they admire the things their parents forbid them from seeing. The more taboo something is, the more individualistic it becomes.

"No, it's not good there at all, the corpses are piled up like mountains... Alright, let's get out of here." Gloria's tone became lower, she turned off the TV and ordered David in the manner of an elder.

"Tsk, I got it."

David straightened up, disappointed, and went outside.

"bye."

See you later, I love you, baby.

With the electronic door closing, only one person remained inside once again.

Call Reminder

[Connected]

"Mann"

"Did you get the stuff?"

Gloria looked down at what was wrapped inside her coat and gave an affirmative answer.

......

Skyscrapers, a beautiful feature of the city at night, this self-sufficient megastructure provides people with housing, food, weapons, medicine, training, sex dolls... and everything else.

Here you can see floors full of drug addicts, drunkards who vomit on the heads of people going upstairs for fun, corpses lying upside down in the trash cans every now and then, and even thugs and sex partners discussing mating over a corner...

Diseases spread between floors. You never know how homeless people get these strange illnesses. If most of the people living in the building weren't working like cattle for companies, those company employees would never have thought of disinfecting the building.

A hacker with even a little knowledge could paralyze the entire building, including everyone in it, with a single puppet, but almost no hacker would do that. Why? There are about 2000 rooms in the skyscraper, but there are always more homeless people in the building than 2000. If a puppet is used, it might infect one of the homeless people infected with the cyber virus.

David walked through the stairwell filled with homeless people, hands in his pockets, expression indifferent. He bypassed the thugs blocking the stairwell, jumped down from the stone railing, landed directly on a pile of garbage, flicked his hair, and strolled out of the skyscraper.

Santo Domingo, a beautiful place, where you can see begging veterans, trash cans that haven't been emptied for months, and robberies that happen frequently on the street. NCPD sits on the wall next door, smoking Glitter and living a life of decadence with homeless people watching Mewtwo wearing a cup.

At the subway entrance, a woman reeking of alcohol and an unidentified liquid was vomiting against the railing. She appeared to be a hostess. A security guard stood beside her, not stopping her, but instead staring at her chest and fidgeting with his hands, seemingly thinking about taking advantage of her.

Different companies' hovercars fly alongside the subway (to be honest, I don't understand why it's called a subway when the tracks are in the sky), like feces wriggling in the intestines, flying to various parts of the city.

Thick smoke, police, hackers, gangs—all chasing each other across the land—but none of this mattered to David, neither the giant arm on the GG card nor the bloodstains on the ground.

They only paused briefly at the site of the lieutenant's death to reminisce about Mewtwo from the previous night before continuing their journey.

Finally, the company square, as if all the unease had nothing to do with this place, clean streets, company dogs in suits, children playing happily in the grass, students in school uniforms going to school, and conscientious NCPDs, as if everything just now was just an illusion.

Suddenly, as if by telepathy, David inexplicably turned his head, a rainbow-colored fringe of hair flashed before his eyes, and a graceful figure filled his vision.

A man in a suit walked by, blocking David's view. But as he passed, the figure vanished without a trace.

David started running. He felt that she must be an important person, and he would regret it for the rest of his life if he didn't find her.

He ran up the stairs, but didn't see the figure. Disappointed, he turned away, feeling as if he was about to lose something important.

With a sigh, I stepped back into the Arasaka Tower.

Inside the classroom, the holographic teacher greeted the students and asked David why he wasn't wearing his school uniform. David gave a perfunctory reply, then ignored the disgusted looks from those around him and put on the old-fashioned Mewtwo headband.

But the Divine Doctor was still unreliable. The virus inside the headband instantly destroyed the entire virtual classroom, including the virtual teacher. Everyone's headband was burned directly, and the three people next to David stared at David angrily.

......

"I am truly sorry for the trouble my son has caused." Gloria was invited to the principal's office and apologized to the principal again and again.

"Ms. Martinez, this isn't about money." The principal stroked her golden prosthetic hand, which gleamed in the sunlight. "As far as I know, David's Mewtwo headband was upgraded using black market software because he didn't want to pay for it. That kind of thing doesn't happen in a family with stable finances."

"We can afford the original only because I didn't go with David to buy it..."

"Even so, we still need to discuss David's situation at school," the principal said to Gloria in his unchanging tone. "David doesn't fit in with his class..."

David paid no attention to the principal's ramblings; he only remembered the principal saying something like, "I suggest he drop out; a different environment would be better for him." He also heard his mother pleading with the principal in a low voice. He became increasingly agitated and could only keep shaking his leg.

...

"What happened? Didn't I tell you to upgrade?" Gloria finally convinced the principal, took the initiative to pay the 50,000 euro compensation, and took David home to reflect on his actions.

David didn't want to talk; he just kept shaking his leg.