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

The next day, Night City.

A massive bombardment of GG (Ghosting) swept through the entire city.

Thanks to Yoriyuki Arasaka's privileges, the prime GG slots that originally belonged to Arasaka Company were all replaced overnight with promotional videos for "Heaven's Armed Forces".

A giant holographic projection covered the surface of the skyscraper.

The scene contains no noisy electronic music, no vulgar or sexually suggestive content, only a pure and breathtaking white background.

Then, a figure wearing a golden fox mask and platinum armor slowly appeared.

He didn't speak, but simply reached out his hand towards the camera, a golden potion radiating a redemptive glow floating in his palm.

Then, several lines of minimalist boldface text slowly appeared:

"Cyberpsychosis is not an illness."

"That's the lament of a soul."

"【Holy Spirit Type I Inhibitor】—Redeem your sanity in this mad world."

Price: €10,000/piece (limited quantity for initial launch)

[Produced by: Heaven's Armed Forces]

……

Next Life Bar.

This is the gathering place for legendary mercenaries of Night City, and also the place where intelligence flows the fastest.

"Ten thousand euros? Are you crazy?!"

A burly man with a prosthetic leg stared at the "GG" message on the bar screen, slamming his glass on the table. "Arasaka's top-tier immunosuppressant only costs two thousand! Are these charlatans crazy for money?"

"Shh... keep your voice down."

The bartender wiped the glasses, his eyes unreadable. "I heard this stuff... really works."

"Huh? When did you start believing in this kind of superstitious stuff?" The big man sneered disdainfully.

Just then, a commotion suddenly broke out in a corner of the bar.

"Aaaaaah! Get out of my head!!!"

A young hacker who was drinking alone suddenly clutched his head and let out a piercing scream.

His prosthetic eye began flashing red light wildly, and the external data cables on his body danced wildly like tentacles.

"Damn! It's cyberpsychosis acting up!"

"Run! This kid has a military-grade 'synaptic melting' plugin!"

The surrounding mercenaries instantly erupted in chaos, drawing their guns in unison.

But the hacker had already lost control.

He suddenly raised his head, his eyes already covered by red gibberish. He raised his hand and unleashed a high-voltage current, blasting the nearest table into pieces.

"Die... all of you, die..."

Just as everyone was preparing to open fire and riddle him with bullets—

boom!

The bar door was violently kicked open.

A blond young man wearing heavy metal armor and tactical sunglasses strode in.

He wasn't carrying a gun, but rather a silver briefcase, exuding an air of nouveau riche who thought, "I'm rich and I can fight."

"Who?!"

The mercenaries watched the uninvited guest warily.

Ignoring the stares of the crowd, Ah Qiang looked at the hacker who was about to go berserk, pushed up his sunglasses, and a crooked, dragon-king-like smile crept across his lips:

"I was lucky; I ran into a 'clinical volunteer' as soon as I went out for a roadshow."

He opened the briefcase and skillfully took out a golden syringe.

"roar--!"

The crazed hacker sensed the threat and lashed out at Ah Qiang with a bolt of electric current.

However, thanks to the Rock-Solid property of the C-rank Heavy Thug Armor, Ah Qiang simply shook his shoulder, and the high-voltage current, which was enough to scorch an ordinary person, didn't even scratch his paint.

"Too weak."

Ah Qiang lunged forward, and the mechanical arm, reinforced with superhuman metal, precisely gripped the hacker's neck, pinning him to the bar like a chicken.

"Don't move, I'm going to give you a shot, it's for your own good."

puff.

The golden medicine was injected directly into the carotid artery.

The next second, a miracle happened.

The hacker, who was convulsing wildly and whose body was glowing red, suddenly froze as if his power had been cut off.

The red gibberish in his eyes quickly faded, and the suffocating aura of tyranny emanating from him vanished as well.

Just five seconds.

The hacker collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, his eyes regaining their clarity.

"What...what's wrong with me?" He looked around blankly.

The entire room fell silent.

All the mercenaries stared at Ah Qiang as if they had seen a ghost, and at the empty syringe in his hand.

In this world, cyberpsychosis is undoubtedly an incurable disease.

Once it happens, the only outcome is being killed by the terrorist mobile unit.

No one has ever been "healed" so easily and so quickly.

"This...this is the one on GG..." the burly man stammered.

"【Holy Spirit Type I Inhibitor】."

Ah Qiang straightened his collar, threw the empty tube into the trash can, then held up his suitcase and flashed everyone a bright smile:

"That's the price of a 'miracle'."

"It's a bit expensive, but compared to going crazy and getting blown up by the NCPD... I think it's worth it, don't you think?"

After a brief silence...

The entire bar erupted in cheers.

"Give me one! I have money!"

"I'll pay double! Damn, don't push me!"

"Dude! Is the Heavenly Kingdom Armed Forces still hiring?!"

For these mercenaries who live on the edge and are prone to going mad at any moment, this is no medicine; it's a get-out-of-jail-free card!

……

The top floor of Arakasaka Tower.

Zhang Yuan looked at the skyrocketing sales figures on the data terminal and the lines of notifications constantly scrolling across the system's backend:

[Received faith feedback from the "Vortex Gang"... Divine Authority +0.1]

[Received faith feedback from "Mercenary of the Afterlife"... Divine Authority +0.2]

[Received faith feedback from the "corporate dog"... Divine Authority Value +0.5]

"really."

Zhang Yuan swirled the wine in his glass, his eyes behind the mask both pleased and indifferent.

"Fear is the best marketing, and despair... is the breeding ground for faith."

He looked out the window at the chaotic and frenzied city, and it seemed to him not as neon lights, but as a field of lush green chives.

"Li Mo, notify the factory to increase production."

"Also, tell Lai Xuan that the first phase of the 'indulgence' program has been launched. Tell him to prepare the script for the next phase..."

"We want to sell this bottle of water for more than gold."

three days later.

The rain in Night City has stopped, but the restlessness in the air is even more intense than during the storm.

Thanks to A-Qiang's "violent roadshow" at the Laisheng Bar and Aragaka's overwhelming GG bombardment, [Holy Spirit Type I Inhibitor] quickly became a hard currency on the Night City black market.

Based on the precious efficacy (and price) of the [Holy Spirit Type I Inhibitor], people in the underworld gave it a simple and easy-to-understand nickname – "Golden Water".

Countless people waved their banknotes to buy it, and the price of the "golden water" in the black market quickly soared to 30,000 to 40,000 euros per bottle—enough to buy a brand new Volkswagen Gallina, or three years' salary for an ordinary office worker.

But when faced with the threat of death, money becomes the cheapest piece of paper.

Many low-level gang members, middlemen, and even some small company executives who showed early symptoms were willing to mortgage their prosthetic bodies and borrow money from "The Cleaners" at exorbitant interest rates in order to get their hands on this life-saving drug.

In this Night City, where black-walled AI roams and cyberpsychosis is rampant, this small bottle of golden liquid is the only get-out-of-jail-free card.

What Zhang Yuan was holding was not a medicine bottle, but the breathing tubes of countless desperate criminals struggling to survive in this cyber hell.

In this world where madness can strike at any moment, no one can resist the temptation of "reason".