Martinezâs family had a quiet morning.
As a budget-strapped household, their vehicle was the most common one in Saint Domingo, a Galena G240â a car with abysmal performance.
Driving on the overpass felt like a shudder every three seconds, and it lacked any interior decoration to speak of; its only advantage was being cheap.
In Night City, one couldnât manage without a car. Without a car, you wouldnât be able to work, take the kids to kindergarten, or escape when gang warfare broke out.
David, in the passenger seat, shook his leg: "Mom, do we still have money to upgrade to the official system? Why not just use the pirated software the doctor gave us?"
"No way!"
Gloria, the mother, rejected the idea unequivocally.
As someone who worked in a gray area, she knew the ins and outs of pirated softwareâ
Offering software that works the same as the official version for cheap? Were hackers running a charity?
Of course not. You could be targeted at any moment.
"But... arenât we out of money?" David, bored, looked out the window, still thinking about the exciting episode of Black Superdream he watched last night.
"Thatâs because my salary hasnât been paid yet! Of course, we donât have a stash of idle cash lying aroundâ and stop shaking your leg!"
At that, David stopped shaking his leg and let out a long sigh.
He wasnât old, but he spoke with an air of maturityâ one wouldnât know not to mistake him for a middle-aged man, fifty years old, drowning in mortgage debt and unemployed.
"Actually... Iâve been thinking, maybe I could drop out of school and look for a job or something."
"What are you talking about!?"
"Mom... You know, we can hardly afford the system upgrade, and I donât fit in at school, not to mention youâre totally unaware, right?
As poor people, weâll never be taken seriously. No matter how hard I study, I canât become like them.
And I donât want to be like them."
At this point, Davidâs mind was full of the trio he saw that dayâ
The street chase, the hail of bulletsâ it would probably be much more thrilling than the childâs play of Black Superdream he had been watching.
Blazing freely through the streets seemed more suited for someone poor like him.
The car fell silent for a few seconds.
"... Then, why do I work so hard?"
Gloriaâs voice had a subtle change, and David glanced over listlessly.
"I work my ass off just so that you... But now... Do you think Iâve been doing nothing all this time?"
"...Mom?"
David saw tears swirling in his momâs eyes.
"Youâre so smart, so talented, so Iâve been working hard to nurture you.
If you donât want to study anymore, what am I supposed to do?"
Gloria was trying to hold back her emotions, tears streaming down her face.
David wasnât a fool. He didnât know what his mom did for a living, but he could hear the grievance in her voice.
Not just grievance, but also expectations, expectations that were suffocating him.
Even though he didnât know what those expectations were, he wanted to respond to them.
"I shouldnât have spoken." David looked forward at cars just as ordinary as theirs, merging into the flow of traffic.
He just didnât know how to respond to those expectationsâ to study?
Perhaps his mom was just dreaming.
"Sorry, donât cry."
"I know how they treat you." Gloria wiped away her tears, "Because Iâve been through the same, we have to prove ourselves to them!
I want you to become an elite and climb to the top of Arasaka Tower!
I know you have the talent, you can definitely do it!"
Speaking of her son, a light seemed to appear in Gloriaâs eyes.
But this light made David feel somewhat unworthy.
"Easy for you to say..."
David was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly noticed a carâ no, a line of cars, coming the wrong way!
A shirtless man stood on one of the vehicles, gazing into the distance as if atop a Chariotâ
Then he raised his left hand, which transformed into a cannonâ
Boom!
A massive explosion flipped the car in front of Gloria, spinning it around and toppling several others!
One of the cars even flew up completely due to the blast, standing vertical and hurtling their way!
"Mom! Turn quickly, turnâ Mom!"
The next second, machine gun fire strung together in a line viciously sliced the car in half, and a hunk of the wreckage crashed forcefully onto the Martinez familyâs vehicle.
The world spun instantly!
-------------
Inside the car, Lille was monitoring the road network data while connecting to a one-time ICE terminal provided by Kantao.
This device looked just like a black box, fitting perfectly in his lapâ but it would be trashed soon, Lille didnât dare to embrace it for long.
He directly linked his neural interface to the ICE port to bridge an intrusionâ this was his first time attempting to hack military-grade ICE, and a frontal hack at that.
"Iâm starting to hack into his system, Iâm sending the enemyâs visuals to you."
The road network equipment had long captured Jamesâ route; this guy was making no attempt to hide.
By now, his previously shattered torso had been regenerated, apparently fitted with a more formidable skin armor.
With his appearance, he looked as if he was surrounded not by a bunch of ramshackle Six Street Gang vehicles, but tanks filled with military technology.
V spat in disgust, "Damn it, whatâs that asshole think he is? Looking down on us?"
Lille yelled out, "Jack, prepare for interception!"
At that moment, V and Jack were in the bed of the pickup truck, Jack aiming a Defender machine gun forward, intently waiting for the enemy to enter firing range!
Boom!
But what greeted them was a car completely flipped over; the whole vehicle stood on end, smashing towards them!