36: Chapter 36 New Developments

Time moved to the next day.

V was awakened from a long-lost, deep, and peaceful sleep by the ringing of her comms unit.

There were no urgent morning briefings from the corporation, no colleagues to be constantly wary of, only the harsh light filtering through the gaps in the blackout curtains of her high-end apartment, signaling that it was already late.

She groggily opened her personal terminal, and after connecting, Jackie's signature loud voice immediately rang in her ears:

"Yo! Chica! Looks like you slept well last night!" Jackie's voice carried a smile.

V rubbed her eyes and yawned, her voice still raspy from just waking up: "Yeah... Nothing on my mind, it's rare to sleep this soundly. What time is it?"

"Almost eleven-thirty! The sun is already high up!" Jackie said cheerfully.

V replied, still bleary-eyed: "Isn't that perfect? It feels like I've made up for a whole week's worth of sleep all at once."

"That's good. Hurry up and get ready, freshen up. Today is the day I show you the ropes. I just picked up a job yesterday; it's a good one, perfect for practice." After giving the instructions, Jackie turned to prepare his own side.

Hanging up the comms, V stretched her back, as if every cell in her body was being lazily awakened.

She looked at the tidy streets of Charter Hill outside the window and the beautiful skyline of the Westbrook district in the distance; a feeling of rebirth welled up within her.

She quickly washed up, changed into a crisp jacket, and tidied her messy hair. The person in the mirror had bright eyes, full of anticipation for the unknown day ahead.

The mission was simple: from an underground casino controlled by the Tyger Claws, "invite" a gambler who owed a fixer a large sum of money and was trying to hide to come out and "talk." The difficulty of the mission lay in the casino's complex structure, heavy security, and the target's high level of vigilance and erratic movements.

"For this kind of job, barging in is the worst strategy; you have to use your brain," Jackie said to V while checking his shotgun. "But you know, I'm not exactly great at using my brain, but we need to know exactly which room that guy is in, where the casino's surveillance blind spots are, and it would be best if we could temporarily put their alarm system to sleep. So, I found a helper—a top-notch netrunner."

V raised an eyebrow: "An outside netrunner? Are they reliable?" She subconsciously thought of Lin Yi, but Lin Yi seemed to have his own things to deal with today.

"Don't worry, T-Bug, she's a veteran! Although her price isn't low, her skills are unquestionable," Jackie patted his chest. "She works with Dexter... uh, a famous fixer. She didn't have any big jobs recently, so she's taking some private gigs, and we just happened to run into her."

V nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

In Night City, top-tier netrunners are always a scarce resource; for the sake of the mission's success, this money was worth spending.

They contacted T-Bug in the backyard of a noisy ripperdoc clinic near the casino.

She was an African-American woman who looked somewhat cold, wearing practical netrunning gear, sitting on a modified access chair, surrounded by several screens flickering with data streams.

She just glanced at Jackie and V indifferently, exchanged simple greetings, and then went straight to the point:

"The target is in the VIP-3 booth. This is the casino's structural map and guard patrol routes. I will take over the surveillance system after you begin the operation and disable alarms in designated areas when you need it. Keep the comms channel clear; don't disconnect unless necessary." She spoke quickly, professional and without unnecessary emotional influence.

V muttered to herself, "Pretty cold," but had to admit that the intelligence provided by T-Bug was indeed very precise and detailed.

The operation began.

With T-Bug's remote support, V and Jackie's infiltration went exceptionally smoothly.

They moved through the noisy casino hall like invisible people, avoiding patrolling guards, and precisely found the booth where the target was located.

Just as V used her technical lockpick to silently open the booth door, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly came from inside—the target seemed to have sensed something and wanted to slip away through another secret door!

"Bug! The target's trying to run! Can you lock the back door of his room?" Jackie immediately growled into the comms channel.

"Attempting... The casino's internal network is more complex than expected, it needs some time..." T-Bug's voice remained calm, but one could hear a hint of focus.

V heard the commotion inside, made a split-second decision, slammed the door open, and rushed in.

Seeing the target's hand already pressing on the switch of the secret door, at that very moment, the electronic lock on the secret door made a slight "click" sound, and the indicator light changed from green to red—it had been remotely locked!

The target turned around in astonishment, just in time to face V's cold muzzle and Jackie's massive frame blocking the front door.

"Done! Thanks, Bug!" Jackie grinned, stepped forward, and subdued the pale-faced target.

The extraction was just as smooth; T-Bug wiped all electronic traces they had left behind.

Back in the car, V let out a long sigh of relief and said sincerely to T-Bug on the other end of the comms channel: "Thanks, Bug. Today was all thanks to you. Are you netrunners... all this good?"

The other end of the channel was silent for a few seconds, then T-Bug's voice came through, seemingly with a hint of a smile: "Us? An interesting way to ask. I'm just doing my job. Pleasant cooperation, V, Jackie." This was the first time she had called V by her name directly.

With this successful cooperation experience, in the following days, Jackie took on a few more jobs that required netrunner support. Sometimes it was data theft, sometimes it was creating chaos as a diversion.

T-Bug played a key role every time.

She still didn't speak much, but V could feel that the initial coldness and sense of distance were gradually melting away with each tacit cooperation.

V would ask about some basic cybersecurity questions during mission breaks, and although T-Bug was concise, she would always give answers that hit the mark.

Jackie, as always, acted as the mood regulator, infecting this temporary small team with his rugged enthusiasm.

After a few jobs, a highly efficient tacit understanding formed between the three.

V was responsible for precise actions and close-range reconnaissance, Jackie provided powerful firepower and street deterrence, while T-Bug was the silent blade clearing the path for them in Cyberspace.

V gradually got used to T-Bug's presence and truly recognized her professional ability.

She knew that in the perilous Night City, getting to know such a reliable netrunner partner was a very fortunate thing.

And T-Bug seemed to have gradually become familiar with this duo—the former corporate elite V and the generous, loyal Jackie. A new cooperative relationship was quietly consolidated through mission after mission, silently accumulating strength for the greater storms to come.

---

Meanwhile, on the other side, our Lin Yi was coordinating with Nix to complete the finishing touches on his new identity, which involved "making trouble" by entering the servers of NetWatch.

In Cyberspace, Nix looked at the exaggerated data defense structure in front of him, fiddled with it for a long time, and couldn't help but click his tongue:

"Damn, NetWatch has brought in an expert. We're in trouble now."

Lin Yi looked at the "wall" in front of him, constructed of multiple firewalls and encryption protocols, but expressed a hint of relief.

It was fortunate that he had upgraded his cyberware configuration after returning from mining on the other side of the Blackwall last time.

"Excuse me." Just as Nix's progress was stuck, Lin Yi spoke.

"Wha?" Before Nix could finish his sentence, he saw Lin Yi, as if he had enabled creative mode, "casually" "peeled open" the rock-solid defense structure.

"Holy crap, this kid." Nix was stunned.

Lin Yi turned back and said: "Let's go, there's still stuff to finish up behind, I'm in a hurry."

Nix hurriedly followed, and while moving deeper, he looked at Lin Yi, then at the "wall" he had casually peeled open, and couldn't help but ask: "You kid, how many rigs are you running? So fierce?"

Lin Yi didn't speak, playing the expert; it was purely brute force overcoming finesse.

Seeing Lin Yi didn't answer, Nix didn't press the issue: "Then you kid, did you start learning netrunning from the womb?"

"No, just looked up some info online, it's only been a month or two." Lin Yi replied nonchalantly.

"..." Nix (silence is the Cambridge of tonight),

"Forget it, I won't bullshit with you kid. I know the way ahead, watch me finish this quickly."

"Fine," Lin Yi clearly didn't want to give him the opportunity to show off.

"Oh my god, you kid, would it kill you to let me show off?" Nix said, exasperated.

"Buddy, don't do this. You told me it was finishing touches, but we've been 'finishing touches' for nearly a week. This, this isn't right, is it?" Lin Yi questioned.

Nix was suddenly hit where it hurt: "Ahem, um, it's just that I haven't come to NetWatch to fish for things in a long time. I'm rusty, um, can you show some understanding for an aging netrunner?"

Some might be curious, wasn't Nix very aloof before? Why is he like an old urchin now and even a bit sycophantic?

This has to be asked of our well-connected lady, Rogue. Some time ago, when Nix was free, he casually asked Rogue about it.

Good lord, the head of a former core project at Kang Tao (the specific project is definitely unknown to outsiders), the "Ghost" that rose suddenly in Night City.

The first one, Nix thought was okay, but the second title made Nix take it seriously.

"Ghost," the jobs this guy takes are fine, clean, and efficient without dragging things out.

However, this name is related to another matter: NetWatch, four net-special ops teams, pursuing "Ghost" alone, the engagement took no more than 3 minutes, and all of them were crashed.

Damn, even if you brought Bartmoss here, it wouldn't be this outrageous.

The two of them fiddled around in the NetWatch database afterwards and finally got it done.

After finishing this, Lin Yi exited Cyberspace, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief regarding his real identity.