"Can I get another order of this Minotaur dish?" David pointed to the top item on the menu—the most expensive one.
Kitagawa Hiroshi coughed lightly and lowered his voice.
"The target's arrived. Get your head in the game, kid."
David flinched, quickly laid the menu flat on the table, and steadied his gaze. The hint of panic in his eyes was replaced with composure.
Without a word, he scanned the room, and finally caught sight of the gray-haired middle-aged man. A wave of inexplicable tension washed over him.
Even though Kitagawa had confidently told him earlier that tonight's mission was strictly observation—highly unlikely to involve any combat—there was always a chance something could go wrong. Nothing was ever certain.
"You nervous, kid?" Kitagawa asked with a soft chuckle.
"I'm not. I've always known this day would come."
David took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and gradually calmed his nerves.
The respect Lin Mo showed him, the intense training under Kitagawa, and the generous salary… all of it pointed to one conclusion: whatever the studio did, it sure wasn't normal "garbage disposal."
Missions like this one—tailing a target like some covert agent—were things he had already anticipated.
In fact, before they came to the restaurant tonight, Kitagawa had given him the option to back out.
"If you're scared, you can sit this one out. Go home and get some rest."
After all, David wasn't the main character tonight. He was just a rookie—barely a month into training. Kitagawa had brought him along for experience. In other words: an internship.
Seeing David still wide-eyed and green, Kitagawa sighed again. He glanced at the target seated at a window-side table on the first floor—no signs of abnormal behavior for now.
He turned back to David and said quietly, "Look, kid. I'll admit it—you've got talent. More than most I've seen. But truth be told? You're not ready. Not yet. If you want to walk away from this one, there's still time."
David froze, surprised by the words.
He hadn't expected that. Up until now, every post-school training session had felt like torture—Kitagawa coming across as nothing short of a sadistic drill sergeant.
But now, the man was offering him a way out. A chance to quit.
David fell silent.
He'd never been involved in the edgerunner world. He didn't know how it all worked. But he'd watched enough braindance episodes to know the kind of people who lived in this city.
Cyberpunks. Edgerunners. Mercs.
Lin Mo had never said it outright, but David had guessed it—whatever the studio did, it probably wasn't far from mercenary work.
And as for whether he wanted to become an edgerunner himself… David wasn't sure. Especially when he had a mother who never wanted him to get hurt.
Now he stood at a crossroads.
One: bail now. Skip the mission, go home, and steer clear of the studio's core business from here on. Once training ended, he'd just be a glorified rent-a-cop. Lin Mo wouldn't care—his paycheck was pocket change to the guy.
Two: stick it out. Even if he didn't accomplish much tonight, at least it would show commitment. When training ended, he could become a key player at the studio. Maybe even a full-fledged cyberpunk.
He didn't have long to decide.
As David sat there, frozen in uncertainty, Lin Mo's words echoed in his mind:
"Do you want to live for yourself—or for others?"
Right… what was there to hesitate about?
Screw it. Let's go.
He was living for himself—not anyone else. Lin Mo believed in his potential. Kitagawa was impressed by his talent.
It was time he figured out what kind of person he wanted to be—what kind of future he wanted to fight for. He was sixteen now. No more excuses.
Why force himself into a life he didn't want?
He remembered the beatings during training. The small victories that showed he was improving. The pride of taking his mom out to dinner...
David Martinez's eyes grew clear and focused. Looking at the man across from him, he spoke with a calm, determined tone, full of youthful resolve:
"I'm not running."
Kitagawa smiled, genuinely pleased. He brought his hands together in a soft, soundless clap—an unspoken sign of approval.
"Kid—no… maybe it's time I stop calling you that."
"David, I can tell you this: you won't regret what you decided today."
Then, to David's surprise, Kitagawa called over a waiter and ordered another premium steak set, along with a fresh salad.
He also bought a few takeout boxes.
"The target's already here," David whispered, puzzled. "Didn't you say no more food?"
Kitagawa smirked and leaned in with a lowered voice.
"This might be the last meal of your life. You think I'd have the heart to say no?"
David's eyes widened in shock. "Wait, what—?!"
"I'm messing with you," Kitagawa chuckled. "Come on, what are you gonna do—tell me he's a middle-aged guy in a white suit with a hot date? What else can you observe, huh?"
David stole another glance at the target, thought hard for a moment, and squeezed out an awkward line:
"He's got white hair… and looks really rich?"
"Why don't you tell me if he's got a dick too while you're at it?" Kitagawa laughed, half annoyed.
Seeing David's innocent expression, Kitagawa sighed and tapped his own ear.
"Listen, David. You've got talent, sure—but some things you can't pick up on talent alone. You need this."
"A… cyberware implant?" David guessed.
"Bingo. Audio enhancers. It's the only way we can eavesdrop on what the target's saying." Kitagawa explained, "Lucky for you, ever since I started working for Lin, I've saved enough to upgrade to the latest model. I can share what I hear directly with you. Now come on, let's set up our private channel. Sasha?"
Sasha?
David looked around, confused. Who the hell was Kitagawa talking to?
But the next second, a prompt popped up on his neural HUD: Incoming request to access your comm channel.
He saw Kitagawa nod at him from across the table.
David accepted the request.
"Hello, David. It's a pleasure working with you for the first time."
A crisp, elegant female voice echoed in his neural link. From the sound of it, she was a gentle, older-sister type.
"Though this is our first time speaking, I hope you don't mind me asking you a question: Lin Mo… he's your classmate, right?"
"…Yeah, he's my classmate. And my boss," David answered after thinking about it.
"In that case… does he have a girlfriend?"
David: ...
Huh?!
-
-
-
-
MY CYBERPUNK 2077 SIMULATOR
🧠💻 MY CYBERPUNK 2077 SIMULATOR 💻🧠
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📢 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!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🛑 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
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔗 Patreon: www.patreon.com/c/MrMagnus👤 Patreon Name: SrMagnus🐦 X / Twitter: https://x.com/SrMagnusBook
⚠️ Power Stones determine which novel gets priority!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━