"Lin Mo, you've brought me a hell of a mess this time. What, do you think I'm old and easy to push around? Always dumping trouble on this old man. Do you even realize how heavy this guy is? Thank God Jack was there to help; otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to move him."
Viktor's grumbling voice came from the other end of the communicator, his usually calm and steady tone carrying a rare hint of fatigue.
Lin Mo gave an embarrassed chuckle, clearly feeling a little guilty.
"That's my bad, Uncle Viktor. I'm sorry to bother you so late. Jack probably already filled you in on the situation, right? Also, how's he doing now? I gave him a super high dose of combat anesthetics—enough to knock out an elephant. He didn't wake up midway, did he?"
Viktor raised his voice, clearly annoyed.
"You've got a lot of nerve, saying that! Don't you know too much anesthesia can numb someone's respiratory system? If he didn't have a secondary heart, the drug might've stopped his pulse entirely!"
"I didn't have a choice," Lin Mo said innocently. "I had to trick whoever's pulling the strings behind him. He's definitely carrying some sort of signal receiver and biometric monitor. If I didn't use a bit of trickery, they'd never buy it. He's a poor bastard, after all. If I can save him, I should at least try."
Viktor let out a heavy sigh, his tone darkening.
"I get it, kid. But have you thought about what you'll do when he wakes up? His mind's completely fried right now. Don't be naïve and think your Uncle Viktor can cure cyberpsychosis."
"I know," Lin Mo replied calmly. "I'm just asking you to do me a favor. Remove all the monitoring gear from his body and patch up his wounds. Also, I asked Big Jack to give you enough sedatives to keep him under for a few days."
"I'll get someone from the Moxes to come pick him up from your clinic in a few days and hand him over to professionals."
Lin Mo had full faith in Viktor's expertise when it came to implants and cyberware, but curing cyberpsychosis was another matter entirely—definitely a job for specialists.
…
The black-and-gold vehicle blended into Night City's inky darkness, its headlights cutting through the gloom like twin blades.
North Oak, shrouded in the quiet of night, looked especially serene. The roads were empty, not a single car in sight.
The Delamain cab tore through the streets like a lone panther in the dark, reaching breakneck speeds on the empty roads. Inside sat a teenage boy anxious to get home, staring out the window at the night scenery.
In the past, North Oak had been nothing but an undeveloped rocky hill, crammed with shantytowns for the homeless and buried in heaps of trash.
Back then, no one dared venture near, afraid they'd reek of garbage for days if they did.
But things had changed. After extensive development and reconstruction, the area had transformed into a luxury residential district. Greenery per square meter was the highest in the city, and the security system was top-tier.
Now, people didn't dare wander in for fear of being mistaken for thieves or robbers by the patrol drones hovering over North Oak's skies.
The Delamain cab climbed halfway up the hill, and after one more turn, a cluster of villas appeared in the distance through the window.
Scattered points of light—his home.
Lin Mo stared blankly at the glittering lights of Night City, his thoughts drifting with the expansive view and the monochrome of the night.
Running into that poor soul—a company test subject—had been completely unexpected.
Nothing about the incident had been mentioned in the simulator's recorded scenarios. If it had, today's rating wouldn't have been "Time Management Master" but something combat-related.
He had already reviewed everything using the simulator's headband.
What he found was that tonight's sequence of actions only diverged from the simulator's suggested scenario in one small way—the time he returned home.
According to the simulator, it read:
["Realizing the hour was getting late, you and Jack ended the conversation early and made it home before dark."]
Reality?
He and Jack had chatted enthusiastically until 10 PM.
By his usual scheduling standards, that was already quite late.
"Just a difference of one or two hours, and the events changed so drastically…" Lin Mo sighed, thoughtful.
"Fate truly is the most unpredictable thing of all."
Getting attacked by that brute had been a freak accident within a freak accident—there wasn't much to say about it.
As for which corporation was behind it, Lin Mo couldn't guess. There were just too many possibilities. Pretty much any company involved in cyberware R&D could be connected.
To get to the bottom of it, they'd have to wait until the brute woke up.
How to bring a cyberpsycho back to sanity? Lin Mo had no formal training in that area.
But that didn't mean he didn't know what to do.
Anyone who'd played the game and followed the storylines would know that cyberpsychosis had countless triggers, with no definitive or universal cause.
Lin Mo understood that one person's strength was limited. That's why he chose to let professionals handle professional matters.
One way to bring a cyberpsycho back was to contact MaxTac—they had their own methods of rehabilitation, since many of their officers were former cyberpsychos themselves.
The second method?
Seek out the fixer who studied this kind of thing in the game—
Regina Jones, active in the Watson District.
In the game, nearly every side mission involving cyberpsychosis was connected to her.
Each one required the player to spare the target's life if possible. With all that in mind, this fixer woman might as well have had "Cyberpsycho Shelter" written across her forehead.
Since arriving in this world, Lin Mo had only interacted with Wakako and Faraday. He hadn't met any of the other fixers yet.
But now was a good opportunity to get acquainted with this particular one.
He was sure that a cyberpsycho delivered right to her doorstep would definitely pique her interest.
In the game, this fixer had an unusually kind and upright personality—a rarity in Night City's pit of moral decay.
She was just… a bit stingy.
"After tonight, it's probably time I kept a low profile. I've caused enough of a stir. Guess I should just go to school like a good kid for the next few days."
Lin Mo yawned, feeling a bit tired.
To stay awake, he opened his chat feed, hoping to scroll through some electronics chatter and shake off the drowsiness.
After finishing the commission yesterday, he hadn't seen Maine and Sasha again. They had agreed to wait until things cooled down before meeting up again.
After all, the commotion they caused hadn't exactly been subtle.
Maine had messaged him, saying they shouldn't meet at the Afterlife anymore. If they needed to link up, they had a backup safehouse in Santo Domingo—just head to the warehouse there.
As for Sasha, Lin Mo still wasn't sure what she was up to.
Early that morning, out of concern for his crew, he messaged Sasha to check in on her status.
Trauma Team's services were top-notch, and the expenses had already been charged to his account. With the kind of wounds Sasha had, she should've been healed up overnight.
But her reply had been:
["Physically fine, just dealing with some personal matters. Please don't bother me, little boss."]
And as if to prevent him from worrying, she sent another follow-up:
["Of course, I won't go off doing dangerous things alone anymore. It's a shame we didn't manage to expose that blackmail, but I'm not going to obsess over it. So please, little boss, don't worry about me."]
Lin Mo had stared blankly at that message as it popped up on his data panel.
But since their crew was still in its early stages and there weren't any urgent tasks, he let Sasha handle her personal business.
Still, he couldn't help but grumble to himself—
Why the hell did he have yet another nickname, "little boss"?
It made him sound like one of those disposable minibosses in a game just waiting to get farmed!
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🧠💻 MY CYBERPUNK 2077 SIMULATOR 💻🧠
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📢 SYSTEM ONLINE! 📢
My Cyberpunk 2077 Simulator has 100+ chapters ahead available on Patreon! 💾🔥
Enter Night City with a simulator, a system, and the kind of advantage most mercs would kill for.
But this is still Night City.
And in a world ruled by corpos, bullets, chrome, gangs, and cyberpsychos, even a cheat-like power doesn't guarantee survival.
⚙️ Level up.
🔫 Fight harder.
🌃 Stay alive.
💀 Or get swallowed by the city.
Read ahead now before the public readers catch up!
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🛑 ALSO AVAILABLE ON PATREON:
🌃 Cyberpunk: Dogtown Legend
🔥 Cyberpunk: The Relentless
👩👦 Cyberpunk: Lucy Adopted Me and I Got a System
🤖 My Girlfriend's a Cyberpsycho—Who Knew?
🛡️ Star Wars: The Rise of Mandalore
🌌 Star Wars: Relics of the Past
🏰 Game of Thrones: Secrets Beneath the Dreadfort
⚡ The Rebirth of Harry Potter
🌹 R18: Reincarnated in Her World
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