Chapter 11: The First Lesson in the City of Night [Reset Chapter]
“Do you understand the situation now?!” Lin Yue shouted loudly.
Mann’s mind snapped into clarity; he immediately realized this was a trap.
“Dorio! The Wraith Dogs want to take us all out together!”
Separated by just a thin wall, their voices were crystal clear to each other.
The bullets from Lin Yue’s handgun had no effect on the bulletproof drone. He quickly retreated, lifting his sniper rifle and pulling the trigger amid the intense gunfire.
The incredibly penetrating Cat’s Claw rounds swiftly brought down the drone, igniting a burst of flames.
“Well done!” Mann chuckled approvingly, praising Lin Yue for eliminating the troublesome drone. Then he frantically called for his teammates to retreat over the comms.
Lin Yue thought, Damn you!
“Wraith Dog idiot, your boss sold you out. What do you think about that?” Lin Yue pressed his lips tightly but didn’t answer Mann. His heart rate surged.
He hurriedly stowed his weapon and bolted in the opposite direction without looking back.
By now, it wasn’t a question of whether to stay with Mann’s squad; he barely had a chance to survive himself.
What’s going on?
[Calling: Mr. Hans]
[No answer]
In the darkness, Lin Yue’s eyes flashed repeatedly with the red call indicator. He pieced together all the facts in his mind: Hansen had commissioned a middleman in Dogtown to investigate the situation, and Lin Yue was tasked with intercepting the cyberpunks looking into Dogtown’s shipments…
Where had things gone wrong?
Wait!
The question Hansen asked with a smile thundered in Lin Yue’s mind: “Do you know her?”
Is it Sasha? Lin Yue was confident there were no cracks in his cover, so why was Hansen so certain he knew the squad?
His heart plummeted to the bottom. Although he didn’t know why the military-tech hacker had taken out Hamster, one thing was undeniable:
This was a corporate dirty game. He was bait. Once the bait was in the water, the big fish and small fish would scramble fiercely, a life-and-death struggle—and in the end, the company’s waters would be muddied as well.
No one answered on the other end. Lin Yue finally understood that phrase.
In Night City, trust never exists.
---
His arrogance, his belief that he understood Mr. Hans well—even seeing himself as a “player” equal in status to Hans.
Many mercenaries had died at the hands of middlemen in Night City.
This was a brutal reality.
“Damn it, playing me?”
Lin Yue glanced back at the club burdened with heavy thoughts. The green laser beam shooting into the sky made him want to throw his gun in Hansen’s face and pull out his own pistol to fire a few shots.
But reason always prevailed in Lin Yue’s mind. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, pushing himself to keep running.
He knew that if he stopped now, the worst outcome awaited him.
From the beginning until now, he had been so focused on augmenting his stats that he forgot this world ran on darkness. Human nature was unpredictable by any power.
Forget the rewards—survival was paramount.
Lin Yue believed he had done all he could for Mann’s squad.
Unconsciously, several others began sprinting in the same direction from afar.
Lin Yue laughed bitterly. Personal heroism might prevail in resistance, but only when one’s abilities were strong enough.
Now, holding back hadn’t awakened them; it was the Wraith Dogs who had sobered them up.
All idiots!
Lin Yue ignored them and quickly vaulted over a floor of a Dogtown building, sliding down an iron support nearby.
His target was the place where the Voodoo gang often gathered on the right side of Dogtown, atop a hill—an area that connected to other parts of Dogtown. The gang would be thrown into chaos by the Wraith Dogs nearby. Lin Yue aimed to use the chaos to escape and lie low.
Meanwhile, Mann and his team were also sprinting in retreat, abandoning their vehicles out of desperation. The Dogtown highway was swarming with Wraith Dogs.
“What did Sasha say?” Dorio asked grimly.
Rebecca turned, firing to disable a drone for a moment before turning back to run. “Mann, what about the middleman?”
Mann shook his head. “No contact. That kid was used as a bullet shield by the Wraith Dogs. Sasha said Military-Tech is clashing with Arasaka—”
“Most likely they’re trying to take down our entire line.”
“The data is fake. Arasaka’s hackers are trying to seize it. No one is allowed to touch it.”
Pilar shouted, “Drone’s on me! Damn it! I told you tinkering with my new research inside was the right move!”
“Shut up, you idiot!” Rebecca fired, blocking the drone for him, cursing her cheap big brother.
Rebecca also noticed the young man sliding down from the unfinished building in the distance, his mood unusual.
Although she didn’t know how that guy could call out her name, this time, everyone had fallen into a trap. Mann hadn’t expected that this job would drag in the Night City power players—the corporations.
---
The middleman had said at the time: a client wanted to mess with Dogtown, just to annoy them, and they paid well. So everyone took the job.
After all, it would keep them fed for six months. Who wouldn’t want that?
“Ahem, this is Colonel Kurt Hansen.”
The ubiquitous broadcast devices around Dogtown crackled to life, Hansen’s voice echoing in every corner.
“Dogtown is our home, the only place we have. We need weapons to arm ourselves and resist oppression!”
“But now, damned Military-Tech and Arasaka want us to lay down our arms and obey them!”
“There will be no compromise here…”
“People of Dogtown, take up arms and eliminate these scum who invade our sanctuary!”
“I, Kurt Hansen, swear to protect every resident’s rights! Let those corporate prostitutes go to hell!”
“I will expose the company’s true face to all of Night City!”
A masterstroke of misdirection.
Lin Yue understood Hansen’s game now!
In short, Dogtown’s interests had been damaged, and the blame was pinned squarely on the companies’ heads, provoking them to fight.
Lin Yue had never understood why Dogtown was left untouched in Night City.
Even New America and Night City’s official powers refrained from commenting.
Logically, Night City’s Military-Tech, Arasaka, Kang Tao… any of them could confront Dogtown directly. New America even had the power to unite Military-Tech and raze this private city to the ground!
But that never happened. The real-world version of “the clam and the snipe” was unfolding.
Whichever company moved first, there would always be someone watching for weaknesses and profits behind the scenes.
When two parties fight, the third reaps the rewards; whoever strikes first suffers losses.
Moreover, the companies had to keep their distance from this plague. Hansen hoped the corporations would fight each other, while he watched from the sidelines.
Not to mention Hansen’s backing—the Cuban “pharmaceutical” conglomerate: every time a cigar was lit in Havana, someone in the world would die. (A euphemism; readers are encouraged to consider this background calmly.)
This was why Hansen lived comfortably in Night City. Lin Yue suddenly understood.
Lin Yue’s clearest understanding of this world was limited to the years 2076 to 2077, primarily through a few legendary stories. How the world would unfold, and whether it would follow his knowledge, remained unknown.
The lessons of Night City were unbearable, pulling the confused Lin Yue fully awake.