Samsara Space: They're all begging me to heal them one more time.

Inside the gate, the real battle has only just begun.

"Who?!"

Lai Xuan abruptly raised his head, his gun instantly pointing towards the door. When he saw Zhang Yuan, clad in platinum armor and wearing a fox mask, his pupils contracted sharply.

"Who are you? An assassin sent by Hua Zi? Or a backup plan left by that old man?!"

Lai Xuan's hands were trembling, but the killing intent in his eyes was real.

"I'm here to tell you to 'shut up'."

Ignoring the dark muzzle of the gun, Zhang Yuan walked straight to the liquor cabinet and picked up a clean glass.

"I don't like this kind of welcoming ceremony, Mr. Lai Hsuan. Especially when that voice in your head is still chattering away."

Lai Xuan's face turned deathly pale instantly.

"You...you can hear me?"

"I can not only hear, but I can also see." Zhang Yuan turned around, leaning against the liquor cabinet, his golden mask reflecting a cold luster under the light.

"He's laughing. That 'ghost' is lying on your spine, mocking your incompetence, mocking that even if you kill him, you'll still just be his puppet."

"shut up!!!"

Lai Xuan, like a wild beast whose sore spot had been stepped on, suddenly pulled the trigger.

boom!

A large-caliber bullet left the barrel and headed straight for Zhang Yuan's forehead.

At that moment, Ah Qiang and Fatty outside the door almost rushed in, but the next second, they stopped.

Ding.

A crisp, clear sound of impact.

The bullet did not hit Zhang Yuan, but struck a semi-transparent golden film three inches away from his mask.

【Holy Light Protection】.

The warhead bounced off its own energy and landed on the expensive carpet, still emitting blue smoke.

Zhang Yuan didn't even shake it; his hand holding the wine glass was very steady.

Kinetic weapons? Useless against me.

He shook his head, a hint of regret in his voice, as if he were teaching a naive child:

"Look, this is your current predicament. You hold a violent machine called 'Arasaka' in your hands, but you can't even kill the dead person inside your own head."

Lai Xuan looked at Zhang Yuan, who was unharmed, and finally lowered his hand that was holding the gun.

Despair, fear, and the sense of collapse brought on by long-term insomnia overwhelmed him instantly.

"Can you...kill him?" Lai Xuan's voice trembled and was hoarse, like that of a drowning man. "That old bastard...he's trying to cover me up. He's inside the chip...he's God..."

"In the world of electronics, he might be a god."

Zhang Yuan walked up to Lai Xuan and looked down at the man who controlled the economic lifeline of Night City.

"But in my field, he's just an unlicensed tenant who didn't buy a ticket."

He took out a delicate crystal bottle from his storage space.

The bottle contained a pale golden liquid that flowed slowly under the light, emitting a calming glow.

This is a high-purity mental stabilizer that Li Mo purified overnight using basic materials purchased from the C-level market.

Of course, that was just a mundane alchemical vessel; the real core lay in the full-power [purification] that Zhang Yuan poured into it before setting off.

Using alchemical potions as a magical container, instantaneous magical skills are "solidified" into drinkable consumables.

This is the exclusive technology developed by the [Heavenly Armed] guild using Agnas's alchemical manuscripts—[Magic Infusion].

Zhang Yuan placed the small bottle on the table and pushed it in front of Lai Xuan.

"Drink it."

"What is this?" Lai Xuan looked warily at the bottle of glowing liquid.

"A 'silencer' to quiet the world," Zhang Yuan said calmly, "is also the deposit for our cooperation."

Lai Xuan stared at the bottle of medicine, lost in thought for a long time, then suddenly raised his head and stared intently at Zhang Yuan's expressionless mask.

Saburo's whispers grew louder and louder in his mind, like a drill drilling into his temples.

"Damn it..."

He grabbed the bottle, tilted his head back, and gulped it down.

A cool, sacred liquid, imbued with some kind of power of order, flowed down his throat.

next second.

Om-!

An invisible golden ripple spread out from Lai Xuan's center.

Lai Xuan's eyes widened suddenly.

In that instant, the consciousness of Sanlang, which had been entrenched deep in his mind like a malignant tumor, was like snow that had been doused with boiling oil, letting out a shrill scream before being forcibly suppressed back to the deepest level of the chip.

The headache is gone.

The auditory hallucinations disappeared.

The world... has finally fallen silent.

Lai Xuan gasped for breath, slumped on the sofa, his shirt soaked with cold sweat.

But the bloodshot in his eyes was fading, replaced by a long-lost clarity and a kind of ecstatic joy at surviving a catastrophe.

"It's gone...it's really gone..."

He looked at his hands in disbelief; the fear of being possessed at any moment had vanished!

Although Arasaka Yorinobu knew that this was only a temporary suppression, it was the greatest luxury he had experienced in the past few days.

"How much of this potion do you have?"

Lai Xuan suddenly looked up, staring intently at Zhang Yuan, his eyes filled with longing—the look of an addict seeing the purest form of "goods."

"It depends on what price you're willing to pay."

Zhang Yuan sat elegantly on the sofa opposite him, crossed his legs, and placed his hands on his knees.

At this moment, the balance of power has shifted.

He was no longer an intruder, but a supplier who held the lifeline of the emperor of this empire.

"Money? Arasaka has plenty of money." Lai Xuan regained some of his superior demeanor, but his tightly clenched hand holding the empty bottle betrayed his nervousness.

"No, Mr. Lai Xuan. If it were just about money, I could rob a bank much faster."

Zhang Yuan held up three fingers, his voice calm:

"I want three things."

"First, I want the license to legally proselytize and operate in Night City. We are called 'Heavenly Armed Forces,' and I hope that in the future, when the NCPD sees our car, they will salute us instead of issuing a ticket."

"Secondly, I need the highest level of access to the Arasaka Intelligence Network. I need to find a few... 'rats' that don't belong to this world either."

"third……"

Zhang Yuan pointed to the back of Lai Xuan's neck, where the [Arrogance] chip was located:

"This medicine only treats the symptoms, not the root cause. To completely eradicate that 'ghost,' you need my long-term treatment. In return, I will become the... technical advisor for this chip."

Lai Xuan narrowed his eyes, a dangerous glint in them: "You want to get your hands on Relic?"

"No, I want to help you get the hang of it."

Zhang Yuan stood up, his platinum cloak billowing behind him moving without wind, exuding an aura of a charlatan:

"A sword that cannot be controlled will only cut its master. And I am the only one who can help you hold the hilt."

"Only through our cooperation can you truly become... the god of Arakasaka."

silence.

A deathly silence lasted for a full minute.

Finally, Lai Xuan laughed. It was a laugh that was a mixture of madness and ambition.

He reached out and grasped Zhang Yuan's hand, which was covered in a gold gauntlet.

"make a deal."

"Welcome to Arasaka, Priest."

[Notification: You have triggered the faction quest – "Allies of the Empire".]

[Current Faction: Arasaka (Red Team)]

Your reputation level in Night City has been raised to Revered.

Zhang Yuan's lips finally curled up completely beneath the mask.

I've got the first piece of the puzzle.