Chapter 15: Unredeemed
What's changed in the new era? Night City's street efficiency deserves special recognition.
Two bodies cleared in under an hour. Stripped clean in under a day. Canned and on shelves in under a week.
That's Night City efficiency. No backwater city comes close. Good meat left sitting on the street drawing maggots — as any Night City pragmatist would tell you, perfectly good flesh wasted on vermin is a genuine tragedy.
Vito came home to find David still awake on the couch, staring at nothing.
"What? Night City kids don't need sleep?"
David pushed back. "I'm not a kid anymore, Vito."
"Right, sorry. Night City adults don't need sleep?"
David went quiet. He wasn't in the mood to play along.
Vito lit a cigarette, found an empty mini Coke can to use as an ashtray.
Cough cough cough cough!
David caught the smoke and started hacking.
Vito looked at David, looked at the cigarette, stubbed it out.
"Is your lung cyberware malfunctioning?"
"I don't have lung cyberware. It's fine, Vito, keep smoking. I'll open a window."
Vito relit it. Drew a long drag, exhaled slowly, settled back into the couch.
"Having one after drinks. God, that's good. David, how do you put up with Night City's smell without lung cyberware?"
David handed Vito a mini Coke.
"Grew up here. Used to it."
Vito shook his head.
"Get that sorted when you have the money. Night City doesn't hand out poverty prizes — your lungs are probably already taking damage."
David nodded, then asked:
"Vito. Do you think I can actually get my mother out of Night City?"
Vito flicked ash into the can.
"Of course you can. You've got the ability. Give it a few years. You'll get there."
"But I..."
"Don't second-guess yourself. I heard tonight from a friend — Arasaka Academy is one of Night City's top institutions. Your grades were solid. You dropped out, but your ability could take you all the way to the top of Arasaka Tower someday."
"Mom used to say the same thing. But..."
"Don't rush me, David. Let me finish. But someday you're going to find out that corporations eat people whole and don't leave the bones. Get inside Arasaka and everyone around you will be the most talented person somebody else ever knew. Go further and you're sharing an office floor with people they call geniuses. At that point, moving up isn't about talent anymore."
"Then what is it about?"
"Ruthlessness. Becoming a company dog, wagging your tail for the Arasaka family, baring your teeth at everyone else, chewing on their bones. And then you realize — compared to all of that, punching your way up Arasaka Tower would actually have been easier."
David sat with that and quietly started wondering whether living that life would drive him insane.
Vito kept going.
"Corporations build endless slum districts, then recruit kids out of those same slums and train them to be corporate soldiers. The kids who go in don't hate the corporation. They think they won the lottery. Look around, David. The corps and the elites want to build a new feudal order with money — driving history straight into reverse. Some of them would turn Night City into a slave society. Make the people at the bottom into livestock."
"Johnny Silverhand was a gonk who nuked the city center. But he did what he spent years saying he'd do. He pushed back against the corps. So, David — when you don't have the power, keep your eyes close and your goals small. But when the day comes that you're different, you have to think about this city too. With great power comes great responsibility."
David stared at him. Vito had shifted into something that felt like the legend of Johnny Silverhand himself, radical enough to be disorienting. David was about to ask more when he realized Vito had fallen asleep on the couch mid-thought.
David laughed quietly.
"Right. Tomorrow then. I haven't even said what I wanted to say yet."
The next morning David was woken by a call from the Arasaka Academy principal. He knew what it was about. He waved his hand across the display, hung up, and sank back into sleep.
An hour later he was woken again. Maine's number. David sat up immediately and took it.
"Maine. Time to work?"
"Yes, David. I've sent you an address. Come meet the rest of the team first, then we'll talk about the job."
"Got it. On my way."
David got dressed and pulled on his mother's jacket. He walked out of his room to find Vito eating pizza on the couch.
"Want a slice?"
"I'm good. I figured you'd sleep in — you drank a lot last night."
Vito rubbed his head.
"Yeah, still not great."
"There's something I..."
"There's something I..."
Both at the same time. Vito waved David forward.
"I'm not in a rush. You first."
"About what you said last night. Can you tell me the part you didn't get to?"
Vito thought back.
"That was just drunk man talking. You know how it goes — someone corners you and suddenly you have a lot of opinions. Don't read too much into it."
"I want to hear the rest."
"Next time I drink that much."
"Fine. Vito. What were you going to say?"
"Your mother knows you didn't go to school."
"WHAT!"
Vito took a pull from his Coke.
"Gloria called me this morning asking if you were home. Apparently your principal called her. Said they want to give you a scholarship. Said the fight with Katsuo has been forgiven. They want you back."
"But why didn't Mom call me directly?"
"Because after I took the call I told her: when something sweet falls out of the sky, check for the hook underneath. Your grades have been good for a while. They made you pay full compensation for the system damage without a single eddie knocked off. Now you punch a classmate from a connected family and suddenly your luck turns? That's not Night City. That doesn't happen here."
"What did Mom say?"
"She thought about it and agreed something was off. We figured it's probably connected to the Sandevistan. So we agreed. You don't need to go back."
David smiled properly for the first time all morning.
"That's a relief. Thanks, Vito."
"Don't thank me. Stay safe out there. I heard a bit about Maine from Gloria too. He's not a bad person. You can genuinely learn with that crew. Gloria should be home in about a week. Go pick her up when it's time. I'm going to find a place and some work over the next few days. Living costs in Night City are something else."
"You don't have to find a place, Vito. You can just..."
"Staying a while longer would have been fine. But going forward I'm going to be dealing with a lot of armed people. Staying here would make things complicated for you."