Martinez’s family had a quiet morning.

As a budget-strapped household, their vehicle was the most common one in Saint Domingo, a Galena G240— 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 couldn’t manage without a car. Without a car, you wouldn’t 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 software—

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... aren’t we out of money?" David, bored, looked out the window, still thinking about the exciting episode of Black Superdream he watched last night.

"That’s because my salary hasn’t been paid yet! Of course, we don’t have a stash of idle cash lying around— and stop shaking your leg!"

At that, David stopped shaking his leg and let out a long sigh.

He wasn’t old, but he spoke with an air of maturity— one wouldn’t know not to mistake him for a middle-aged man, fifty years old, drowning in mortgage debt and unemployed.

"Actually... I’ve 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 don’t fit in at school, not to mention you’re totally unaware, right?

As poor people, we’ll never be taken seriously. No matter how hard I study, I can’t become like them.

And I don’t want to be like them."

At this point, David’s mind was full of the trio he saw that day—

The street chase, the hail of bullets— it would probably be much more thrilling than the child’s 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?"

Gloria’s voice had a subtle change, and David glanced over listlessly. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"I work my ass off just so that you... But now... Do you think I’ve been doing nothing all this time?"

"...Mom?"

David saw tears swirling in his mom’s eyes.

"You’re so smart, so talented, so I’ve been working hard to nurture you.

If you don’t want to study anymore, what am I supposed to do?"

Gloria was trying to hold back her emotions, tears streaming down her face.

David wasn’t a fool. He didn’t 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 didn’t know what those expectations were, he wanted to respond to them.

"I shouldn’t have spoken." David looked forward at cars just as ordinary as theirs, merging into the flow of traffic.

He just didn’t know how to respond to those expectations— to study?

Perhaps his mom was just dreaming.

"Sorry, don’t cry."

"I know how they treat you." Gloria wiped away her tears, "Because I’ve 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 Gloria’s 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 car— 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 Chariot—

Then he raised his left hand, which transformed into a cannon—

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, turn— 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 family’s 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 lap— but it would be trashed soon, Lille didn’t dare to embrace it for long.

He directly linked his neural interface to the ICE port to bridge an intrusion— this was his first time attempting to hack military-grade ICE, and a frontal hack at that.

"I’m starting to hack into his system, I’m sending the enemy’s visuals to you."

The road network equipment had long captured James’ 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, what’s 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!