Chapter 42 - 40: How Companies Harm Ignorant Young Girls

The first issue to address was housing.

In 2076, urbanization had reached an extreme and irreversible level, and the cost of city land had skyrocketed.

It’s no exaggeration to say that 99% of the population couldn’t afford to buy a house, those with a bit of money were renters, and many were homeless on the streets.

To ensure operational stability and enhance employee loyalty, companies provided corporate apartments to their employees—

which was a decent perk, but once you left the company, you had to clear out; so, essentially, the employees didn’t own their homes.

Lille wasn’t a company employee, so he had to accept this rule and rent an apartment.

In Night City, the vast majority of livable real estate was owned by Ye’s Company, so he had to rent from Ye’s Company this time.

V faced the same issue; his old rundown apartment had been vacated long ago, and now he had to rent again.

Considering the poor condition of that old apartment, it was expected that he would need to rent something new.

Both were lying on the couch at the old Wei clinic, wearing Super Dream, and browsing through immersive housing options.

Super Dream was a device that, with the help of a brain-computer interface, delivered a true panoramic VR experience.

It first used the recorder’s prosthetics to gather real-life sensory data and consolidate it into a chip, which, when inserted into the Super Dream Device, converted the data into sympathetic signals that were sent to the viewer’s nerves.

A real-life VR experience that could even let a person feel the emotions of the recorder.

For this reason, some people became addicted to Super Dream, more addicted with more stimulating content—like watching the last moments of a cyberpsychosis patient before being taken down by the Terrorist Mobile Team, a top-tier sensory feast.

However, this immersive experience often genuinely altered the neural state, which could severely trigger cyberpsychosis.

But house hunting was much gentler, and Lille didn’t feel any emotions at all.

This made him start to wonder—whether he could learn something from some of the more stimulating Super Dreams.

The feeling was quite novel to him; as a street kid, besides using Super Dream to watch some thrilling films, it was his first time spending money on a Super Dream of this nature.

V spoke up, "Have you spotted any apartments that caught your eye?"

The two were now together in an apartment, square-shaped with the bed embedded in the wall; through the large glass wall, one could see the nightscape of Night City.

The room had a living room, a storage room, a bathroom, a wardrobe on the right wall from the entrance, and a workspace on the left.

This was the apartment in Super Skyscraper H-10, also V’s first apartment in the game.

V walked to the window: "Not to hide it from you, I’ve always wanted a place like this since before, look at this view—

From high above, Night City is just beautifully limitless; all the filth disappears from view, leaving only the shining high-rises and skyscrapers.

It’s like the entire city is left with just the dreams of the young, hanging in the night sky like stars, lighting up the city."

Lille also walked to the window—

"Yeah, when you’re up high, the dirt at the bottom doesn’t relate to you anymore."

He understood V’s longing; young people at the bottom always dreamt of one day looking down upon the world.

But his reflection was completely different from V’s—because he had once looked down on such a thriving city from an even higher vantage, and then... the city was flattened in flames.

Coming back to his senses, Lille said, "This place is nice, although personally, I prefer the duplex in the Valley Region, but this location is close to old Wei and there’s a subway station downstairs, making it convenient to get to Arasaka Academy."

V gave Lille a sidelong glance, "So you can’t have a bit of what... romantic thinking? Sister is showing you houses, and all you think about is proximity to the hospital?"

Lille spread his hands, "What else? Healthcare, education, transportation... these are what you look for when house hunting."

"Moron! You buy a house to feel comfortable; are you out of your mind?"

This time, Lille didn’t retort.

"Let’s settle here then, the rent is quite appropriate too, 2500 euros a month, but... we should still check the place out in person."

"That’s fantastic, we’ll be neighbors then."

V took off his Super Dream and stretched lazily. As he looked towards Lille, he suddenly paused—

"You... were you reading while house-hunting?"

Lille shook the book in his hand, "The Implantable Prosthetics History (2024 Edition)": "Yes, unfortunately, I couldn’t find the electronic version, it’s from old Wei’s private collection.

Let’s go, besides settling the housing, I also need to go to Arasaka Academy, and speaking of which, we need to change our vehicle..."

"Taxi! It’s on me," V gestured grandly, "I’ve already called Delamain!"

"Taking a cab for just a two-step walk?"

The H10 Skyscraper was only a few hundred meters away!

Lille started to worry that this foolish girl might spend the remaining four hundred some thousand euros in one go.

But on second thought, he had already spent over three hundred thousand himself.

.....

It turned out that on-site inspections were crucial.

The rent was 2500, however, basic furniture required an extra 100 euros, and the basic food service was another 100 euros, equivalent to eating compressed biscuits every meal.

To eat like a human, at the very least, you’d need the second-tier service, which cost 130 euros.

If you didn’t choose a food service package, you could also pay 10 euros per meal, a sucker’s choice.

V still generously chose the top-tier, luxury package for 580 euros, and got Lille the luxury package as well.

Then there was the internet fee of 120 euros per month, and utilities costs of 400 euros (additional usage was extra).

Apart from these basic items, there were additional security measures like infrared sensors and pressure sensors that cost another 2000 euros a month...

And some miscellaneous items like washing machine fees weren’t listed, but when all was tallied up, each person had to pay 4000 euros a month to rent!

After sorting out the contract, V’s enthusiasm significantly waned, from bubbling excitement at the beginning to a blank expression when they walked out the door.

In the end, nothing in the "home" was actually his.

Lille exclaimed in amazement, "I need to write a book, titled ’How Companies Crush the Dreams of Naive Girls’."

V cursed furiously, "I don’t know where the company gets this superpower, the kind that turns everything good into something disgusting and uncomfortable!"

It was supposed to be the moment when he earned his first bucket of gold, lived in his preferred location and floor in the apartment, owning his own little home.

Why did it turn out this way? When two joys overlapped, they were supposed to bring even more joy...

But why didn’t V feel any sense of belonging to this "home"?

Policy change in the apartment made everything feel just bothersome for V.

Computer, rented; bed, rented; sofa, rented; wardrobe, rented—even that washing machine was rented, and using it required a fee!

"Welcome to use the vending machine, highly recommend today’s new product Pink Crepes..."

Just then, Lille also got a can of cola from the vending machine in the house, which even had a mayoral campaign advertisement on it:

Vote for Perares!

Lille said while holding a burger, "Wow, amazing, a vending machine right at home, plus advertisements..."

"Fuck it, I’m buying my own house!"

"Hey hey, sis!" Lille grabbed V who was about to leave the house, "Can you even afford it?"

"I have over four hundred thousand!"

"And then what? Dump it all into a mortgage and slowly pay it off? No wait, you don’t think the bank would lend to you, do you?

Come on, look at this place, it’s spacious and bright, and you can see the scenery outside. Honestly, it’s really not too bad..."

Truth be told, V’s discontent mainly stemmed from her inflated expectations.

After all, she had suddenly earned hundreds of thousands and felt like she was on top of the world, only to find that her dream home was just like this, nowhere near worth hundreds of thousands.

But there was still more to reality—half a million wasn’t much, it could disappear in an instant...

V paused, then suddenly said dejectedly, "When can a person ever afford their own house?"

As Lille pulled on V, he shrugged, "Given our income, we might start by eliminating the 20-30 million people in the world who need housing, we can start with Poland..."

V’s eyes widened, "You sound a bit extreme!"

Lille pulled hard to hold back this unruly ox, and then they heard the news broadcast on the TV at the door:

"A fire has occurred in the area, please stay indoors and wait for NCPD to handle the situation before going outside..."

Then he saw V’s face quickly turn pale.

Ah, the ideals and realities...