Chapter 53: Hacker Request

Beset by heavy thoughts.

Lin Yue provided the target details to Maine's crew, but kept the complex background to himself.

Cyberpunk crews typically operated without knowing the full picture—who to take out, what data to acquire, and which corporation was footing the bill were all unnecessary information.

The fixer was only responsible for giving them the mission objective and the constraints.

This highlighted the advantage of holding a dual identity. It allowed Lin Yue to spot flaws in Maine's plans despite the opaque nature of mercenary intelligence, enabling him to make adjustments that increased the mission's success rate while avoiding unnecessary risks.

Maine's initial rough draft of the plan was: stake out the club in Dogtown until Aye arrived, tail him the entire way to Pacifica, and have Lin Yue snipe him; simultaneously, the rest of the team would head to Aye's successor's location to take control, thereby reducing the risk during the execution phase.

At this, Lin Yue posed the soul-searching question: "How do you know which route he'll take to drive there?"

Everyone fell silent. Maine scratched his head in thought, "I guess he has to drive, so we'll just have Lin Yue follow and perform a vehicular sniper shot."

Dorio shook her head, "If his car has any level of ballistic plating, or countermeasures against optical tracking—if we fail to take him out, we're going to be in deep trouble... My advice is to split into two groups!"

Pilar chimed in casually, "Just blow this bastard away outside Dogtown, then go tie up the other Animals gang member... why overcomplicate things."

Lin Yue nodded inwardly, finding it entirely in line with his impression of this team.

He remembered how this crew handled Faraday's job of stealing route data: it was a typical case of leaping to a solution on a whim without any corresponding contingency plans, forcing Rebecca to play the role of an innocent, helpless lolly to buy a bit of time.

The crucial part was that it hadn't even bought enough time, and had caused a massive commotion to boot.

"Assholes, can you take this seriously?!" Dorio snapped.

Lin Yue continued, "And... regarding tracking the route data, let's find a netrunner after this gig is over. I told you that during the Maelstrom job, Maine. If you don't want the crew's original netrunner back, then find a new one who can get things done."

Maine let out a sigh, "I'll look into it after this job wraps up."

Lin Yue shook his head, feeling somewhat helpless.

Dorio had already started consciously asking for Lin Yue's input before accepting jobs. Lin Yue always prepared multiple contingency plans for any gig, factoring in even the lowest-probability events and proposing corresponding solutions.

"Lin Yue, how do you think we should formulate it then?"

Dorio was still somewhat unaccustomed to it. Ever since she first met the young man, she had called him Mr. Lin, and only changed it after Lin Yue repeatedly told her not to address him that way.

Yet, subconsciously, Dorio felt that this mysterious former NUSA Barghest soldier seemed to hold immense authority—at the very least, he was someone who could sway the fixer, Rin.

Lin Yue pushed a datachip onto the hood of the car. "If we don't have a netrunner, we'll just have to do it ourselves. This is a tracking chip. Find a way to plant it inside Aye's car. I've hired a remote-support netrunner from Night City to jam their systems for just over three minutes. Once the chip is inside the vehicle, everything else will fall into place."

Lin Yue tapped his temple. "Once the data is analyzed, we'll pinpoint this guy's permanent hangout, and then I'll handle the hit. All of you will go secure Aye's successor—we'll execute both tasks simultaneously."

Pilar stared blankly for a moment before bursting into loud laughter. "One of these days, this kid is going to sell us out completely, and we'll probably even help him count the cash!"

---

"Sasha! Are you seriously determined to go to a shithole like Dogtown? Please, that's not just some casual little video game level you can breeze through!"

"It's crawling with the absolute dregs of Night City! Snap out of it!"

Stella Ramos had no idea how else to persuade her younger sister.

Yes, she had always known that her sister ran with a bunch of mercenaries in Night City.

Ever since she was little, her sister possessed a sharp mind, strong self-control, and rarely showed emotional fluctuations. Sometimes Stella wondered if she had absorbed all of Sasha's capacity for emotion, including when their mother lay on her hospital bed and eventually passed away, at which point Sasha had simply stared blankly.

Though the younger girl had indeed been quite fond of clinging to their mother.

Sasha sat cross-legged on the sofa. This apartment was rented using the wages Stella earned from her grueling jobs and the money Sasha made taking gigs with her crew.

Leaving her sister to live here alone should have made her feel happy.

"I just don't think taking netrunning gigs in the city center pays well enough."

Sasha seemed entirely unresponsive to her sister's concern.

Stella, whose chest heaved with frustration, looked at the slender shoulders of her sister sitting on the couch and ultimately softened her stance.

"Hey! Listen to me, if we want to survive in this city, safety is paramount. You don't have to force yourself. In fact... you don't need to worry about Mom's case; I'll handle it first."

Sasha shook her head. "You mean, become a cop for the NCPD? I honestly don't think the NCPD is going to investigate something like that."

"Right, right, right... Aside from mercenaries like you who think freedom means committing crimes every single day, I suppose not a single person can lift a finger for Mom's death, is that it?"

As expected, their conversations always ended unpleasantly.

Stella could barely remember the last time her sister had pressed her cheek against hers for a selfie.

"And that dark-skinned, gorilla-like leader of yours—do you even know what you're doing? Doing too many dirty jobs like this in Night City is going to get you killed! With a brain as smart as yours, why don't you—"

Sasha cut her sister off.

"Please, Stella, I really need to earn a lot of money. At the very least, we can't stay in this city forever... Joining some puppet organization like the NCPD that looks the other way at everything... won't uncover anything either."

She didn't dare mention that this time she intended to enter Dogtown alone; Maine had actually opposed her coming.

"Besides, I no longer think there's any point dwelling on Mom's departure... At least I've let it go, big sis."

Stella sighed, cupping Sasha's face as the younger girl rested her chin on her knees.

"Really?"

Sasha nodded, "I promise you."

Just as Stella was about to speak, Sasha bounced up happily, "Dogtown! I've never been to Dogtown before. Rebecca said they're working with a new fixer on a fresh gig. Even though the process sounds a bit thrilling and dangerous, the payout is huge!"

"Oh right! I need to call Rebecca and ask what's going on."

Stella's hands, lingering in mid-air, slowly lowered.

Sasha was like a bird yearning for freedom; neither Night City nor herself could ever truly cage her.

"Sasha, promise me you'll keep yourself safe, okay? It doesn't matter if we earn a little less, we have to—"

"Be cautious, cautious, and more cautious! I know, sis." Sasha finished the familiar warning on behalf of her sister.

Stella picked up a pile of dirty laundry from the sofa, shook her head helplessly, and walked into the laundry room, giving the piece of junk that constantly swallowed money a kick with her foot. Meanwhile, her sister rummaged through the wardrobe behind her for her other netrunning suits.

"You won't be satisfied until you stir up a disaster."

A tiny heart icon flickered across Sasha's holo-glasses. "No way—love you, sis!"

*(Illustrations of Sasha and her sister can be found below~)*